The Birth Order of Children:

Your Clothes:
1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.
3rd baby: Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.

Preparing for the Birth:
1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously.
2nd baby: You don't bother because you remember that last time,
breathing didn't do a thing.
3rd baby: You ask for an epidural in your eighth month.

The Layette:
1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes, color-coordinate them, and fold them neatly in the baby's little bureau.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean and discard only the ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?

Worries:
1st baby: At the first sign of distress--a whimper, a frown--you pick up the baby.
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your three-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swing.

Pacifier:
1st baby: If the pacifier falls on the floor, you put it away until you can go home and wash and boil it.
2nd baby: When the pacifier falls on the floor, you squirt it off with some juice from the baby's bottle.
3rd baby: You wipe it off on your shirt and pop it back in.

Diapering:
1st baby: You change your baby's diapers every hour, whether they need it or not.
2nd baby: You change their diaper every two to three hours, if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change their diaper before others start to
complain about the smell or you see it sagging to their knees.

Activities:
1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics, Baby Swing,and Baby Story Hour.
2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.
3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaner.

Going Out:
1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with a sitter, you call home five times.
2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number where you can be reached.
3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.

At Home:
1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of everyday watching to be sure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.

Swallowing Coins:
1st child: When first child swallows a coin, you rush the child to the hospital and demand x-rays.
2nd child: When second child swallows a coin, you carefully watch for the coin to pass.
3rd child: When third child swallows a coin you deduct it from his allowance!!

A Change in Plans

Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. I'm telling you in advance, so don't act surprised. Since Ms. Stewart won't be coming, I've made a few small changes:

Our sidewalk will not be lined with homemade, paper bag luminaries. After a trial run, it was decided that no matter how cleverly done, rows of flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect.

The dining table will not be covered with expensive linens, fancy china or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and everyone will get a fork. Since this IS Thanksgiving, we will refrain from using the plastic Peter Rabbit plate and the Santa napkins from last Christmas.

Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration hand-crafted from the finest construction paper. The artist assures me it is a turkey.

We will be dining fashionably late. The children will entertain you while you wait. I'm sure they will be happy to share every choice comment I have made regarding Thanksgiving, pilgrims and the turkey hotline. Please remember that most of these comments were made at 5:00 AM upon discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds. As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play a recording of tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I don't own a recording of tribal drumming, or that tribal drumming sounds suspiciously like a frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them. They are lying.

We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional method. We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement. When the smoke alarm sounds, please gather around the table and sit where you like. In the spirit of harmony, we will ask the children to sit at a separate table. In a separate room. Next door.

Now I know you have all seen pictures of one person carving a turkey in front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers. This will not be happening at our dinner. For safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private ceremony. I stress "private" meaning: Do not, under any circumstances, enter the kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children to check on my progress. I have an electric knife. The turkey is unarmed. It stands to reason that I will eventually win. When I do, we will eat.

Before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice between 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with whipped cream and small fingerprints. You will still have a choice: take it or leave it.

Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. She probably won't come next year either.

I am thankful.

(Source: "Today's Woman" magazine, Barbara A Tyler)

Busy Schedule

We've got a lot going on here it seems. Last night my girls started their gymnastics classes. Every Tuesday evening they'll be doing that.



Wednesday evenings are kid's choir practice for the Christmas program at our church. When that is over, they are having kids' praise team practice for our church's children's program, which of course my daughters want to be a part of. That will be Wednesday evenings too.

Starting the week after Thanksgiving, Upward Cheerleading practices begin for Thursday evenings! I will, once again, be coaching a squad. This time my younger daughter's team. (Now to find something to do with my son while the girls and I are at practices since guru is at school Thursday evenings.) Their games are on Saturday mornings starting in January.

I will also be having adult praise team practice every other Thursday evening. I will go straight from Cheer practice, to praise team practice the weeks I'm singing.

Currently Sunday evenings are adult choir practice for the Christmas program.

This coming Monday I will have to be at the church for "meet the coach" night for Upward. I'll be passing out my girls' uniforms and materials for the season and meeting all their parents. What fun! (Not really.)



So that is pretty much what's going on for me. Keeping busy!

The Weekend

My girlies and I had a nice day out yesterday. We don't get spend too much "just girl" time anymore. We left their daddy and baby brother at home to watch football and we went out together.

First we went to lunch at Logan's (the girls' choice). Then we went to see Chicken Little. It was very cute. The girls really enjoyed it! Me too.

Then we did a little shopping. My daughters are both very much girly girls. They love shopping and shoes and make-up. Everything girly.

When we came home, I started a big pot of chili. It turned out REALLY good, if I do say so myself. We all ended up eating 2 bowls a piece! Yummy!

Then today was church. I didn't get to go to the service today though, since it was my week in the infant room. We could have gone to first service, but that makes for a really long day for the kiddos, especially the baby.

This afternoon, I had practice for our Christmas program at church. Then we met my dad at a McDonald's playplace for dinner.

Now it is home for some Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy.

It's been a pretty good weekend!

Trick Or Treat!

Well we all had a good time trick or treating last night. None of the adults dressed up, even though guru's friend, "A" was supposed to dress up as a woman. I even had my camera ready for such an event, but alas, he backed out. Guess he had a bad day at work or whatever blah blah blah, excuses, excuses!

But the kids did their thing for a while around the neighborhood, scoring tons of great candy! (Yes we went with them). Then we went back to their house and just hung out for a while. The kids played, the guys played and the ladies talked. When the guys finally joined us, we had a very in depth conversation about poop. Yes, poop. We talked about how there are little particles of poop on your toothbrush and the process in which it goes through to get there. To be honest, it was actually a quite humorous conversation, regardless of how it sounds. Maybe we were just on sugar highs or something so it just seemed funny at the time. But it doesn't matter now, the point is there were a lot of laughs and fun!

Here are some pics of my kiddos. The baby was once again Tigger but the girls changed their minds about their costumes for last night and went as a cheerleader and a unicorn (we already had both costumes)...




I can never get the little man to look AT the camera! Oh well!

Fall Festival

Well we made it this year to the Fall Festival. The friend that I was supposed to go with backed out cause her daughter was sick. I ended up meeting another friend of mine whose mom is a member of the church putting on the festival. We met at her mom's house and drove out together (caravan style, too many people for one vehicle).

My girls both ended up wearing the same costumes they wore last year. Which is good, cause Halloween costumes are too dang expensive to just be used once! I usually try to buy them big so they can wear them 2 years (I'm cheap like that!) Actually my younger daughter was going to be a cheerleader but at the last minute changed her mind and wanted to dress up as the cow again. That little cow costume is in its 4th year! My oldest wore it two years in a row and my younger daughter is wearing it for the second year. Of course the baby had to have a new costume this year since he couldn't fit his little lion costume from last year that was a size 6/9 mo. So he went from a lion to a tiger, or tigger to be exact. Do I see a bear in his Halloween future? Oh my!

We had a good time. Here are some pics for ya:








(My little snotty-nosed boy!)

Trying Again

Since it didn't work out last year, I'm going to attempt it again tomorrow night to take my kids to the Fall Festival at this church. The good part is, they can still go trick or treating because the festival is on a different night than trick or treat this year. Guru and I have been invited to take them trick or treating with some friends of ours from our church. They have 2 daughters that my girls play well with, so it should be a lot of fun.

On top of those two fun-filled events we will also be attending a "Harvest Hoe-Down" at our own church. Lots of games, prizes, and candy. We should be all Halloweened out by next week!

I've been keeping busy the last few days with appointments (2 dentist appts in the past 2 days: one for me, one for my middle daughter) grocery shopping, being at the hospital with my grandparents (yeah, my grandfather is back in, may be able to go home tomorrow) along with the usual household chores.

My oldest had some extra homework last night due to her being absent from school Monday because of the evil mushroom pizza! I think she's all caught up though. And we're all feeling much better.

I was reminded AGAIN at the dentist that I need to have my wisdom teeth removed. I am SO not looking forward to that,(I've never been under anesthesia before, so that makes me a bit nervous!) but I know it needs done. They are trying to come in and there is not room in my mouth for them and they're beginning to shift my other teeth. That really sucks. I really didn't want to have to wear braces again. Three and a half years in them was enough. Maybe once I get the wisdom teeth out, I'll be able to shift them back with my retainer. [fingers crossed].

Well, that's about all I gots for now! Peace out!

My weekend

Friday started out terribly for me. I won't go into detail about Friday morning, but it just sucked. We were going to go to the Pumpkin Show Friday afternoon, but that didn't work out because of the rain.


Friday night, while guru went to the church to set up for the concert, the kids and I went over to a friend's house to use up the rest of our apples by baking pies. We used her Pampered Chef apple peeler, corer, slicer and made 2 pies and one crisp. I love this thing:

So much fun! That was the only good part of the weekend. The girls had fun playing (when they weren't arguing. Her daughter and mine are just like sisters when they get together! Sometimes that's good, other times, not so much.) Then we ate some hot apple pie a la mode. YUMMY! And watched The Wedding Date.

Then we did our nails and finally headed home around 1:00 a.m. We got home at the same time guru did, so he was able to help me carry everything inside.

Then we had a bout of food poisoning going on in our house. The family ordered some Domino's pizza to have while watching the Ohio State game on Saturday.

One of the pizza's was half mushroom. I was the only one who ate the mushroom pizza. Guru wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. By the concert Saturday night, I was feeling quite ill. I spent quite a bit of time in the restroom barfing. So NOT fun times!

I ended up leaving early and taking the baby home with me and putting him to bed (since it was past his bedtime anyway), and barfing some more. Then I fell asleep and woke up Sunday morning. I felt a little better, but not great. I ended up not even trying to go to church.

Last night, my oldest daughter ate the last piece of mushroom pizza and woke up early this morning puking. Great! It had to be the mushrooms! Won't be getting that again any time....ever!

Hope everyone else had a better weekend than I did!

Weird!

Something happened in our home last night that is really weird to us. Some time during the night, our gold fish, who the girls named Shannon Dorothy...don't ask me why, committed suicide.

This past summer, our church had a small carnival and the girls won 6 goldfish! Within a few days, all but one of the fish had died. But that one little sucker was determined to live. It stayed with us for months.

Skip to this morning. I went downstairs to the kitchen to make my 3rd grader's lunch and was going to feed the fish. I looked at the tank as I walked toward it and thought it was time to change the water again, as it was cloudy. Upon further inspection, I noticed, the fish was NOT in the tank! What they hay?!!!!

I started wondering if the fish had died and guru noticed this morning and "fished" it out of the tank with the net and flushed it. I would ask him when he got out of the shower. But why, I thought, didn't he just dump the entire contents of the tank, water, dead fish and all down the toilet? Whatever. I continued on and packed the lunch.

I heard guru upstairs and knew he was out of the shower. I went to the bottom of the stairs and called up to him "what happened to the fish?"

He looked down the stairs at me and replied "what do you mean? What happened?"

I asked, in disbelief that he didn't know, "did you flush it?"

He looked at me seriously and said "I didn't do anything to the fish"

Me: "seriously?"

Him: "I'm serious"

Me: "it's not in the tank."

Him: "are you serious?"

I started walking back toward the kitchen again and something caught my eye. There, under the table, was a dry, dead goldfish.

"What the....? How in the world....? How did the fish get under the table?"

We figure it must have jumped out of the tank and landed on the floor and wiggled it's way under the table until it died. There was no water on the counter by the tank, so it must have happened sometime in the night, and the water had time to evaporate.

I suppose it was tired of living all alone in the tank and just decided to end it all. Couldn't take the loneliness.

We did not, however, have the Rudy Huxtable, ceremonious goldfish funeral where the entire family got dressed up and stood around the toilet remembering all the good times we had the fish and listing all the things we liked about it. Instead, guru got a paper towel (he wanted me to do it, but I told him it was more of a job for daddy) scooped it up and tossed it in the commode. Flush.

We are once again petless.

Mommy/Baby Time

I just love my mornings with my boy! While both of my girls are in school, I get to spend some one on one time with the baby boy. I just love it! He wakes up around 7:00 every morning and by around 9:00, he is starting to get sleepy again. He will usually just let me hold him, while he sucks on his "sleepy finger" and we just look at each other. He usually doesn't actually go to sleep until somewhere between 11:00 and 12:00 but I think he just enjoys his time with mommy without his big sisters around. He gets all my attention.

He will offer me his finger and laugh. I will sing to him and hug and kiss on him and tickle him. I just want to eat him up! I love his little giggles! Then my younger daughter gets home from Kindergarten at noon and he is usually asleep then. So I can spend a little time with just her until he wakes up.

I am so glad to be able to be at home with my kiddos and give them individual time! I really wish I could of had this kind of time with my girlies when they were babies. But, alas, I had to work full time.

Well, the girl's home, so I gotta go love on her for a bit. Then take them up to visit guru on his lunch break!

Blue Booties!

Some of you may remember my blogger friend that I went to high school with, Sweetiepie! I got an email from her the other day letting me know that she had her baby! Another BOY! He was born 10/11, weighing 6 pounds 14 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. Congratulations Sweetiepie and Fatdaddy (who, btw, is SO not fat)!!

Yesterday, my Sunday school class threw a baby shower for one of our members. She is due in December. (However, she is measuring 4 weeks further along than she is and usually goes on bedrest at the end of her pregnancies.) This will be number 4 for her, but it is her first boy. So we wanted to do something special for her and help her get a head start on some boy things.

Our class leader's father does woodworking, and made her a cradle from scratch! And her mother made the bedding for it. It was really beautiful and she, of course, cried. She was so suprised and happy and said it matched her baby funiture exactly! How cool is that?!

We all got her some baby bath items and some blue outfits. We had some fruit, danishes and orange juice to snack on. It was really nice. Very relaxed and comfortable (since our class is pretty small and close-knit: 5 of us!). I am so happy to be a part of such a great group of friends, and it's always a good time catching up with what's going on with each of them every week and learning to be the mothers God wants us to be.

Play Date

Today, while my hubby went to the Buckeye game, the girls and I had a play date. We had lunch at McDonalds and headed up to the Lynd Fruit Farm for some Fall fun!


Here are a few pics from that:



There were 4 moms and 6 girls. Two of the moms took their girls in the giant corn maze. Since the mom I invited had a 2 and half year old, she opted not to go through the corn maze because of how big it was (took the others at least 2 hours to complete). I stayed with her even though my daughters were disappointed not to be able to do the maze. I had to explain to them that it would have been rude for us to go with the others through the maze and leave behind the people we invited. My oldest was still pretty upset about it, but she got over it, as you can see from the above pictures.

They played for quite a while in the corn pit. That was a lot of fun with a big slide into the pit. I felt bad for the youngest girl. She has a very similar problem to what my youngest daughter had at that age...she has no bum! So her pants kept falling down and showing her "plumber's crack" and she kept getting corn down her pants. Poor kid. That couldn't have been comfortable!

We also went on a hay ride. The girls really liked that. And finally, after hooking back up with the ones that went through the maze, we went and picked a ton of apples. I don't bake, but it looks like I'm going to have to bake an apple pie or apple crisp or, maybe both! We'll see how that turns out :).

Cloning Questions

-If you cloned Henry IV, would he be Henry V or Henry IV, Jr. or wait, Henry IV, part II?

-If Michael Jackson is cloned, is it against the law for him to play with himself as a child?

-Would there be a market for genetic "factory seconds" and "irregulars"?

-Could they clone Al Gore, or would he have to be grafted?

-Is it possible to make a clone of Kate Moss and then attach the two together to make a regular-sized person? Sure, she'd have two heads, but that would still be way more normal.

-Would it work if I binged and my clone purged?

-Would it be ethical to dig up the remains of our founding fathers, create clones from the bone cells, and place them in a theme park called Colonial Williamsburg?

Lolo needs...

I stole this from Jemmers, who stole it from someone else, who stole it from someone else. You go to google, type in "your name needs" (only you actually fill in your name there) and list the top five things you need. Here are mine...

1. Lolo needs new parks, but also needs help with existing ones.

2. Lolo needs a date, Yes she does.

3. Lolo needs support to rebuild her life. (It actually said "his" life, but I changed it.)

4. Lolo needs to reset recognizers before they can be started again.

5. Lolo needs a land use plan in distinct language, not fluid. OPG language, not
written by OPG but by the citizens.

Ok, mine were pretty boring. Lets see what kind of results you all get.

Dine Out For America

Check out this site. Let me know if you plan to participate.




In my area, at least, Olive Garden and O'Charley's are both donating 100% of profits. And OG has their all you can eat pasta bowl for $7.95 special going on right now. At O'C's, kids eat free on Wednesdays. Those are my suggestions in case you care, but there are tons of other restaraunts participating, so check them out!



Ok, so I don't know if this qualifies for an actual post or not, but it's the best I can do. Sorry for being such a slacker lately!

Who's Rotten?

You take your eyes off 'em for one second....



At this point, he'd had all the blankets out of the basket and had put some back in. I just refolded all of those blankets a couple of days ago because he'd done the same thing! GRRRRRR! Have I ever mentioned how I hate doing the same things over and over again? Cause I do. I don't mean stuff everyone has to do every day like brush my teeth, take a shower, load the dishwasher. I mean clean up the same messes over and over cause your kids go behind you and undo what you just did. I hate that!!



But then they look at me like this and I can't stay mad!

Tag

I was tagged by Jemmers!!

THE RULES:
1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five people to do the same.

"Especially at my kids."

Ok, so I don't always blog in complete sentences, I see! I was talking about how I wanted to stop yelling so much. I'm a yeller. I don't like it, but my mom was a yeller, I'm a yeller, and my girls (especially the oldest) are yellers. I'm glad I did this, cause I had forgotten about that post and it was a nice little reminder that I need to keep working on this bad habbit!

5 people I tag:

1. If
2. you
3. wanna
4. go
5. forit!

Desperate For Desperate

Housewives that is! I can't wait! Season premiere is tonight! Yeah!! I have been SO looking forward to this! Here is what's going on in tonight's episode. Gonna be a great season!!



And we can't forget about the OTHER hot Jesse...


(Jesse Metcalfe)

The Big Reveal

1. I cannot drive the speed limit. Ever!-True. I must always go at least 5 mph over!
2. I can't carry a tune in a bucket.-False. I can carry a tune if the bucket's big enough.
3. I worked at a bank for 4 years.-True.
4. I used to sell Avon.-True. Not very successfully, I always spent any $ I earned on discounted products for myself.
5. I love to cook!-Big Fat False!

6. I was in 4 musicals in high school.-True. 2 Freshman year, 2 Sophmore year (and some plays too).
7. I once sent an email to my boss that was meant for a co-worker and it made me look bad.-True, unfortunately! That was at the bank.
8. I am extremely computer savvy.-False. If a button doesn't do what it's supposed to, I'm lost!
9. I have a child in 2nd grade.-False. I have a 3rd grader and a kindergartener (and a 1 year old).
10. I only have one piercing in each ear.-True.

11. I have 2 daughters and 1 son-True
12. I am 5'5" tall.-True.
13. I'm not a natural blonde.-Like False, duh!
14. I have a tattoo.-False, though I've considered getting an ichthus on my ankle (but I HATE needles!)
15. I like being a "minivan mom".-True, indeed.

16. I wear glasses/contacts.-True. Can't see without 'em!
17. I'm a great dancer.-False. I gots no rhythm.
18. I played varsity tennis in high school.-True. Ok, so we didn't have the best team if I played varsity, but I did get my letter.
19. I don't shave my legs in the winter.-False. (chica chica wah wah!)
20. I love staying up late and hate waking up early!-SoTrue!


(Ichthus)


(Pic of me from my 10th grade yearbook at tennis practice)

Latest Celeb Crush

Gotta be Jesse Spencer (Dr. Robert Chase) of House, M.D. I had not seen any of the movies he had been in. Well, actually, I think I started watching Uptown Girls, but it was kinda boring, so I didn't finish it.

What a cutie patootie bootie!



(HOT! HOT! HOT!)

And that accent...just yummy!

Interesting fact about him: He has 2 brothers and 1 sister, all of whom are medical doctors, as well as their father, and he....well....plays one on t.v.

Just for Fun!

Here's a little quiz for you (about me). I've done similar things before, I think, but it's fun anyway. Leave your answers in the comments and make your own True of False quiz on your own blog...if you wish to play along. To make it quicker, you can just leave the #'s of those you think are false. Have fun!

1. I cannot drive the speed limit. Ever!
2. I can't carry a tune in a bucket.
3. I worked at a bank for 4 years.
4. I used to sell Avon.
5. I love to cook!

6. I was in 4 musicals in high school.
7. I once sent an email to my boss that was meant for a co-worker and it made me look bad.
8. I am extremely computer savvy.
9. I have a child in 2nd grade.
10. I only have one piercing in each ear.

11. I have 2 daughters and 1 son
12. I am 5'5" tall.
13. I'm not a natural blonde.
14. I have a tattoo.
15. I like being a "minivan mom".

16. I wear glasses/contacts.
17. I'm a great dancer.
18. I played varsity tennis in high school.
19. I don't shave my legs in the winter.
20. I love staying up late and hate waking up early!

At The Convent

The nuns at the local convent had their daily announcement session. The mother superior walked out in front of the 100 nuns with a very serious frown on her face. She began to speak...

Mother Superior: There had been a sinful deed committed here yesterday.

99 nuns: Oh, no!
1 nun:Hee,hee,hee.

Mother Superior: Today I found a pair a men's underwear.

99 nuns: Oh, no!
1 nun: Hee, hee, hee.

Mother Superior: And I also found a condom.

99 nuns: Oh, no!
1 nun: Hee, hee, hee.

Mother Superior: And it has been used!

99 nuns: Oh, no!
1 nun: Hee, hee, hee.

Mother Superior: And there was a hole in it!

1 nun: Oh, No!
99 nuns: Hee, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee!...

Bad Blogger Etiquette

Ok, so I am getting a little tired of blogging. Here's why. At first, I was blogging just to do it. Then a few weeks ago, I was like "why do I do this, no one really reads it". So I start commenting on more blogs. Lots of them, to see if I could get more people to come check out my site. I realize I am kinda boring, but so are a lot of other people's blogs!

You know how many people came back and commented on mine? Maybe 2! I mean, come on people, at least a return "Hi" comment or something!

Now, I know what you're thinking...lots of people don't return comments. But here's the thing. I've seen those bloggers that I have made several comments on their blogs return comments to other bloggers who visit their site, but not mine.

Am I really so uninteresting that I don't even deserve a "hello, thanks for visiting my blog"? I guess so!

Good Weekend!

I found a new diaper bag. I looked many places over the last few days desperately searching for just the right one. I looked at Babies R Us (where I found one and bought, but couldn't decide if I wanted to keep), Big Lots, WalMart, Target, JC Penney's Outlet, among several others. My final stop was at Marshalls. I figured if I couldn't find anything there, I would just keep the one I got from BRU and get on with my life. I looked around and found a couple diaper bags, but no backpack ones like everyone suggested to me. So I thought, there's no reason I couldn't just get an actual backpack to use. So I headed over to the backpack area. I found this one:




It was only slightly more that I paid for the one from BRU and lots bigger. So I bought it and took the other one back. I've only used it for 2 days now, but am already loving it! I am so not good at making decisions. For goodness sakes, I have to lug this bag everywhere I go, I need to like it!

Saturday, of course, was the OSU Buckeye game with the hubby. You can read all about that here. It was a BLAST!!!!! Now, I am not the biggest football fan in the land, but I do like the Bucks! I have no choice really living here in Columbus (unless I WANT to be declared a traitor and be hunted like a wild animal...a wolverine perhaps?!!!). But if ever a great team existed that you were forced to root for, it would indeed be, the Ohio State Buckeyes!! Go Bucks!!! We had an awesome time!!! It was exciting from start to finish!!! Definitely want to go again sometime!! Maybe when we're old and rich (ha) we will purchase season tickets!

Today went fairly well also. It started early with praise team practice at 7:30. That was, of course, sucky! The guys running sound have even less of a clue of what they're doing than the worship leader! For second service, my mic was not even turned on AT ALL!! I tapped my finger on it to try to give them a clue that it wasn't on to no avail. They were back there lifting their hands as if to tell the team to sing louder. Here's a clue, buddy, turn the mic's on and maybe we'll sound louder!!!! Sometimes I just want to quit (again), it's not worth it. But I do enjoy the adult time I get while at practice, and I enjoy singing, and the friendships I'm building. I suppose as long as God can hear us, it doesn't really matter if the congregation can! So I'll stick it out for a while longer at least.

After church, we ate lunch with my dad at BW's (B-dubs). Very yummy! Their wings were excellent today. We don't go there often but have been wanting to go for a while, so we did.

That's pretty much it. May watch a movie we borrowed from the library later after getting the kids all in bed. Overall, a good weekend!

Any Suggestions?

I need a new diaper bag. I have been using the one I got free from the hospital for about a year now. (before that I was using a bigger one I'd received as a gift).

The one from the hospital is still in good shape, however, this past week sometime, I left a sippy cup of chocolate milk in it and left the whole bag in my van as I usually do (because I would forget it if I didn't do that). Well, somehow, the sippy got turned upside down in the bag and leaked all over everything that was in there. So, of course, now the bag reeks of sour chocolate milk!!! I cleaned it out with lysol disinfectant wipes and even sprayed some lysol in it and let it dry out. Well, now, it just smells like mountain fresh soured chocolate milk. So, to the dumpster with that bag. At least it was free!

Anybody have any good suggestions on where I can find a small-medium sized diaper bag or backpack that's well made but inexpensive? I checked wal-mart and will be checking Target and possibly Babies R Us today. Anywhere else I should look?

Tech Support for Etch-A-Sketch

Q: My Etch-A-Sketch has a distorted display. What should I do?
A: Pick it up and shake it.

Q: My Etch-A-Sketch has these funny little lines all over the screen.
A: Pick it up and shake it.

Q: How do I turn my Etch-A-Sketch off?
A: Pick it up and shake it. Set it down.

Q: My Etch-A-Sketch has lines that prevent me from doing my art project.
A: Pick it up and shake it.

Q: How do I delete a document from my Etch-A-Sketch?
A: Pick it up and shake it.

Q: How do I keep from losing my Etch-A-Sketch document?
A: Stop shaking it.

Sorry!

I gots nothin'!

Concerned

I just had an IM conversation with my dad. I am worried about him. It just doesn't seem like he knows some stuff that he needs to know and he doesn't want to take advise from a young whippersnapper! It is so frustrating!!

For example, he's been working apartment maintenance for 25 years. He is currently 49 years old, widowed, and at the top of his pay band. He just refinanced the house, that he and my mom bought over 8 years ago, not quite 2 years ago (just before my mom died). So now he is just over 1 and a half years into his 30 year mortgage.

He was talking about his day and the stresses of his job. I asked him why he doesn't just take a supervisor position and be able to get paid more. His excuse is that being a super is more stressful. From how he talks, I don't know how it could possibly be more stressful than his current postion. He makes it sound as though the boss has a cake job and he and the rest of the crew do all the dirty work.

Keep in mind that he is not in the best of health or physical condition. Read, he has diabetes and is at least 100 lbs overweight. I asked him if he thought he was still going to be able to do his job 10 years from now. I think he has a better chance now of getting another job than he will at 60 and most likely in worse condition than he is in now.

He said something about hoping to have his house paid off and working at McDonalds or something. Does he seriously think he's going to get his house paid off in 10 years?!! I reminded him that he still has over 28 years left on his mortgage. He was dumbfounded at where I came up with 28 years. He thinks that since he originally purchased the house 8 years ago, that he's already that far into his 30 years. He has no clue about any of this. My mom always took care of that kind of stuff.

Nevermind the fact that I worked in a bank for 4 years and learned a lot about mortgatges and that my hubby worked for banks for nearly 10 (some of that with an actual mortgage company!) But we're just kids! We couldn't possibly know more about something than he does.

So, be forewarned G, he'll probably say something to you about how I "attacked" him online or something. I want to make it perfectly clear, no matter how much he embelishes, that I was not attacking him, but was asking questions of him because I am truly concerned for him and his future. He has almost no retirement plan. He owes on his house til he's almost his own father's current age, asuming he doesn't refinance again at the end of his 7 year balloon, and we both know the kind of condition his father's in. And as far as I know, he still doesn't have his house insured to where it will be paid for if something happens to him (regardless of how it happens).

But, I can't bring it up with him anymore, because he is obviously not going to listen. But that will not keep me from being concerned about it.

First Day!

Ok, better late than never. I kept forgetting to bring my camera in to upload the pictures. So here you go...

My youngest daughter's first day of kindergarten was this past Monday. Here are a couple of pictures of her in front of her school:


[with big sister looking unamused in the background. She has done this a few times already, you know :)]





And her teacher:



She cried the first couple of days before getting on the bus to come home. The first day of school was her first time on a bus ever! So you can't blame her for being scared. Since she has a.m. Kindergarten, her sister doesn't ride the bus home with her. Fortunately, she has a friend from our neighborhood that she rides the bus home with. So she has been fine the last couple of days.

She does, however, get to ride to school in the mornings with her sister, so that makes it easier for her!