Bloggie McBlogger

The Wasp

2011-06-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

There was a wasp in Thing One's room today.... And I'm a HUGE wuss when it comes to flying, stinging insects.

First I was just afraid because it was a wasp. I was stung several times by a single yellow jacket last summer. It wasn't an event I wanted to relive. Before I went to attack I was planning on donning long sleeves, long pants and sneakers. Do you think I did though? Of course not.

I stood at the door with the swatter in hand read to attack.... Or to run and slam the door shut. One time the wasp flew in my direction, and I hit it with the swatter. After that, I was afraid because while I *did* hit it with the swatter, I didn't kill it. I just (I'm sure) ticked it off. Then I couldn't find it. Heh, at one point I screamed loud enough to wake the dead because I saw a shadow behind me that I thought was the wasp. It wasn't. I'm just a chicken.

Finally I saw it. It had crawled up on the window over Thing One's bed. It went under the top part of the blinds, and I couldn't get to it. I knew that it was baiting me, and waiting for me to walk far enough into the room so it could sting me. I'm no dummy though. I wasn't walking in there! Instead I threw things at it... And the glass window that's over the bed. The custom window that's already been replaced once in the past 12 months... I'm no dummy. I wasn't going near that wasp! Ha!

When I ran out of things to throw (I thought about throwing the hard plastic back scrubber, but at least had the sense not to do so) I went and got a fishing pole we had downstairs, and I got the wasp spray. (Why do we have a fishing pole and wasp spray downstairs? Wouldn't you like to know? Okay... Thing One won it in fishing tournament a few weeks ago. Thing Two won one too. The spray was outside.) I stood as close to the door as possible -good thing the door is right across from the window, and pushed the pole up under the blinds. The wasp peeked out. He peered at me. He was planning his attack. "Just a little closer, sucker!" I could hear him saying... Or so I thought. But "not-uh" was my answer! I poked a little more, and, it finally came out. It was then that I realized that I must've broken it's wings when I hit it. And of course I felt bad. Not bad enough to stop going after it though!

I couldn't get a good shot with the swatter, so (after moving Thing One's bed out from the wall) I sprayed it with the poison. The wasp shook a little, waved it's arms and legs in an effort to try to get the foam off of it, lost it's grip on the blind string, fell, hit the window ledge on it's way down, landed on the floor, shook some more and died. I felt bad again. :-(

I went to work cleaning the spray foam poison off Thing One's window. When I was done, I picked up the paper on which the wasp had fallen. (Thank goodness for not cleaning under his bed often enough!) I started examining it when Thing One came in the room. We both looked at the wasp together, and then Thing One jumped and yelled "It's still alive" when the wasp's leg moved. I told him no, it was dead. It was moving only because I was messing it with (with the wipe). We went back to examining it, and it started moving MORE. I told Thing One to get out of his room.

He went running, and I put the wasp on the paper on the floor. I covered it with the wipe and smacked it with the hard plastic back scrubber. I picked up the wipe, and it was still alive. Covered it again, smacked a few times, check it, and it was STILL alive. Went through the process again, and it was STILL ALIVE!! Finally I put in in the toilet, but didn't flush it. (I didn't want to waste the water, but *I'M* certainly not going to be the one to use the potty with a wasp in there!) I'm over my not wanting to waste water, and getting ready to flush it now. Hoping that there won't be a surprise waiting under the lid for me. ACK!

Sharing a giveaway

2011-06-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

I have a love of crazy socks. I hate white socks, but LOVE anything else. The funkier the pattern, the better! Of course I had to carry that love of socks over onto my little dress up doll, Thing Two.

However, with Thing Two, it's not just socks. No. Since she's my dress up doll (and that's why I had to have a daughter -so I could "decorate" her) I take it further with tights. Unfortunately, for her little hands, tights are hard to get up and down, and sometimes result in potty accidents. :-( They were also a pain in the rear end (not literally -I don't think) with diapers. But they just look so darn cute!

Then we stumbled into Jacquelynnies leggies. We (Thing Two and I both) LOVE them. They're basically a pair of BabyLegs, but with feet attached to them. Yes, call them leg warmers with feet. Yes, call them thigh highs. Yes, call them "really long socks." It doesn't matter what you call them -they're awesome! You have the look of tights, but the convenience of leg warmers -with a matching foot attached, so you don't have to have a mix-matched sock-with-leg-warmers look. And for those of you who know me, know just how anal I am when it comes to things matching.

I LOVE these things. (That's one of the reasons you see them advertised down my sidebar.)
I love them so much, that today as I was putting shorter socks and undies in Thing Two's drawer, I took out not one, not three, not five pairs of leggies, but TWENTY-FOUR. Yes, that's right. 24. I think I have a problem... This count didn't even include the mismatched ones, or the ones that didn't make it to her drawer yet. :-P

And, okay. Some of them were traditional leg warmers, yes. But they're only used as arm warmers so that Thing Two has matching arms and legs. I told you, I'm anal. (And some were like these chickey leg warmers that *I* sometimes swipe and wear on my arms. :-) too cute! )

And no, they're not just for the cooler months. They're still great in the summer for cool mornings or nights. They're easy to take off when in the heat of the day, and they're easy to throw in a pocketbook or in the bottom of the stroller for chilly nights. -I love leggies!

Thing Two is getting a bit too tall now for them to have the complete look of tights, but they're still awesome as over-the-knee socks.... Or sometimes slouch socks.... When it gets too warm for them, but she doesn't want to take them off, she pushes them down. Sooooo cute!

Need Coffee Please is hosting a giveaway for these awesome leggies. (Just click the Need Coffee link.) It ends on Friday, June 3rd, and it has LOW entries, and there are lots of ways to gain bonus entries. If you enter, you could very easily snag a $15 dollar credit towards anything in Jacquelynnies on Etsy. You could apply that towards your own leggies, regular leg warmers WITHOUT feet (especially if you want matching arms and legs!), necklaces, hooded towels or whatever else is in the store. Fun, fun. :-)

If you win let me know! Good luck!

What are schools thinking??

2011-04-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

Just a little mini-rant here...

My kids have "Oven baked ham with pineapple sauce" for school lunch today. They both love ham. (Really, who doesn't?!) They're both buying their "Oven baked ham with pineapple sauce;" the slice of ham that comes with globs of gooey, supposed-to-be-but-not-really-sure-what-it-is pineapple sauce plopped on top of it.

And the mystery sauce isn't my problem. My problem is this:

How are they supposed to cut and eat the slice of ham?

Even if my Pre-Kindergartner or my first grader could successfully wield a knife to cut their food, knives are not allowed in school. Heck! I don't even know if they have actual forks anymore. I think that they're all "Sporks" now. I don't remember seeing any forks when I've been there. (Not that I was looking for them though.)

I'm sure that by now everyone's heard about the grade schooler who was expelled for his mother packing a plastic knife in his lunch bag. (Yes, school officials acted quickly on that one. They successfully disarmed the disgruntle 4th grader before he jumped up on the table, and yelled at his chicken patty, "I'll bleed you, M-effer!" And you thought suburban America was boring! (No, this child was not actually planning on doing that. He was actually just trying to eat his food. And no, this (surprisingly enough) didn't happen at our school.)

It's just, yanno, if you want these kids to eat their food, you want them to eat all of their food, well, just how do you supposed they're supposed to do that if you -quite literally don't give them the tools to do so? And then chastise them when they pick up their whole ham steak with their hands and eat it that way because they A.) Can't cut it, and B.) Can't pick it up with their spork.

Anyone else see anything wrong with this picture, or am I just moving on to PMS?

ACK! Two weeks!

2011-04-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

I'm a Marcher for Babies. I do the March of Dimes March for Babies walk every year for the past few years. This will be my fourth year marching. I love it! It's great exercise, I meet great people, and I get to raise funds and awareness for a very important cause. I'll march for babies for as long as I'm able to do so.
Unfortunately, I realized today that the walk is just over two weeks away. I'm sooooo out of shape! It's a five mile walk, but it's along the river bank, over the bridge that goes over the river (they actually close down the bridge to traffic for the morning, and it's one of the major bridges into one of the major cities on the East Coast). Then it's back over the bridge, back to the ball field (where we start) and then home. It's a quick, neat, fun walk. But I'm out of shape!
I walked from my house, three blocks to the kiddo's school, from the school another 7 blocks to the post office, and then another 4 blocks from the Post Office home. Later on that night I walked the three blocks from school back home again. My legs and feet hurt at the end of the night. Oh no! I'm usually in much better shape by the time the walk comes around, as it's usually about three weeks later in the year. (It seems everything is out of whack on the calendar this year!) I really hope that I make it for the whole MOD walk!
Even if I don't finish (which I've never not done -even the one year in the 90 degree weather with my jeans and heeled shoes, and pulling the kiddos in the wagon behind me) I'll have already raised funds and awareness. That's the most important part. It doesn't matter if I finish or not -well, it does to me personally, but not so much as far as fundraising goes.
I just hope I make it!!!

Hey there!

2011-04-12T17:15:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to stop in and say a quick "Hello!" I know that my three followers have missed me TERRIBLY! Lots and lots of exciting stuff has been going on over here. Unfortunately, none of it has been good. Bah! We'll get through it and get over it though. And if not, I'll stick my dragonfly friends on the problem! :-D It's finally warming up here. I'm so glad. I truly abhor the cold. It was almost 80 degrees here yesterday, and I still had the fire going. Needless to say, the hubs wasn't too pleased with that (as he came inside in his muscle shirt, sweat pouring down his face. Poor guy!) Today saw lots of heavy downpours. And that's okay because what do April showers bring? May flowers! Thing 2 is having a BALL asking me this, and shouting the answer EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. She thinks it's wonderful. She, however, does NOT get the part when I ask, "And what do Mayflowers bring? Pilgrims!!" In time. In time.

Happy Birthday

2011-02-12T16:28:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday, Dad. I know that you're looking down on us (and laughing your backside off) all the time. I see you in the rays of sunshine. I hear you in the soft breezes. I feel you all around me, and I miss you every single day.

I love you.

Mumbo Jumbo...

2011-01-27T16:18:00.001-08:00

So, remember all that mumbo jumbo about "winter's only redeeming quality is the snow" yesterday? Well, after shoveling my 12.5 inches of it from the walk, from the street to get my car out, from the bottom of the driveway after I moved the car into it, and the plow trucks (my hubby one of them) plowed me back in and from of course, the front steps and front walk (which the kids were sledding down) I'm done with the fluffy stuff!

The kids had a ball sledding down the steps. I know. You think I'm crazy for letting not just my kids, but the neighbors' kids as well sled down my steps, don't you? Well, I promise they were safe. There well more than enough snow to cover my three steps, front walk, the step down, the bottom part of the walk and the outside walk way. They had so much fun, and I was able to shovel.... And shovel.... And shovel.... Of course, I took a few turns sledding too. I had forgotten how much fun it is!

HOWEVER, after sledding on it for a few hours, 12.5 inches of snow packs down to about four inches.... And it's near impossible to get up. I've been inside for an hour and a half now, and my limbs are REALLY starting to turn to jello. Truthfully, it's getting difficult to type this. :-P

And we're supposed to get more tomorrow.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

And the weather is...

2011-01-26T19:50:00.000-08:00

Snow! We've got MORE snow... I know I shouldn't complain. Snow is winter's only redeeming quality. I hate the cold. I hate the gray. I hate the dark. I LOVE the snow -even if everyone else is well beyond tired of it.

Did you ever notice how winter, and all of it's bleakness just sneaks up on us. Let's start from August, shall we?

August is still hot and wonderful. The days are slowly getting shorter, but sunblock still abounds.
September comes, and school starts. The days are a bit shorter, and we fall back in to familiar routines. Shorts are traded in for light jackets, and everywhere you look are fantastic colors of red, yellow orange, brown and maroon. September into October are such a sight to be seen!
October comes, and brings with it more colors, fun costumes and decorations, and a few cold snaps. The days are even shorter still, but that just means that all of the fun of Halloween is even closer.
There's a business to November that even the kidlets feel. There's a charge to the air. Everyone is busy planning, baking, shopping, making. A house here and a house there will start to put up Christmas lights, and the excitement builds.
December brings with it cold, Arctic blasts and days with shortened light. BUT it also brings twinkling of Christmas lights on almost every street. It brings rosy cheeks and excited faces. It has rushing here and rushing there. And even though the daylight is getting sparse, it doesn't matter because of all of the wonderful, beautiful, exciting Christmas lights!
In January, Christmas is done and over, and New Year's is over. It's just cold. And dark. And dreary. And cold.
We're in the throws of winter, and no one noticed it creeping up. Everything else kept it's arrival hidden until it was too late. (Not that it could be stopped.) The colors are gone. The lights are gone. The SUN is gone. It's just cold. And dark. And dreary. And cold.
Then something magical happens. It snows. The snow coats the world in an amazing blanket of clean, shimmering white, and when the light hits it, it casts millions of glittering rainbows everywhere. Everything is bright, and fresh, and new again.
And then the kids romp through the snow. And the plow trucks come through. And the salt trucks come through and dump their precious, ice melting commodity on the roads and the walks, and anything within 8 feet of the edge of their trucks. And the cars splash the slush up on what's left of the clean, white, rainbow-casting snow. And the world turns brown, and gray and dirty and cold.
And when the snow finally does melt, everything is still covered in salt, so everything is gray. It's the same color gray as the winter sky. The dirty streets blend in with the cold, dark sky. The salty cars blend in with the dirty, salty streets. Everything looks the same, and it's all blah.
And then there's that little bit of magic again. It snows again, and the world is fresh and new again.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Thing One!

2010-11-22T06:15:00.000-08:00

Happy 7th Birthday, Thing One!

So I missed blogging on your birthday yesterday (big surprise there), but your birthday was perfectly wonderful anyway.

You've been an absolute joy in our lives since before you were even born. You're smart, funny, caring, and you shine at whatever you do.

You want to be an Art teacher or an architect, and I know that you'll more than succeed at whatever it is that you try to do. You've already shown us that much.

We love you more and more with each passing day. Without you our lives would be incomplete.

Happy 7th Birthday, Thing One. May this be your best year yet!

Quick one. Enter this contest!

2010-09-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

Howdie!

So I'm back from the land of the lost. What did you do without reading my crazy ramblings for the whole summer? I know. I hear you. You did the same as what you normally would have done. That's okay. :-)
Well, things are going better then they were. I knew that once I emerged from my dragonfly larva shell everything would be different, and ya know what? I was right. Things are very different now, and it's a good -great thing. Sure, things are still difficult, but anything worthwhile is difficult. If everything was easy, life would be boring.
......Speaking of, I have to get back to work, but before I go I wanted to let you know of this great giveaway going on over at Twig & Thistle. Are you ready for it??? Here it is:
One lucky winner will win a Silhouette digital cutting tool! ACK! Can you believe it?! Personally, I've wanted one of these things for a LONG time -well, this one, or another brand who we won't mention. I've wanted one since before the Cricut was a big name. ACK!!

Just go over here to Twig & Thistle. Show some love over on their great blog. (And it really is awesome! I'm LOVING the pumpkin place cards from today's blog. I think I might do this for Thanksgiving... Not that we have too many people here, but still.) Follow the directions at the bottom of the blog post. You have up to three chances for three entries. (For a total of three entries, not nine.) But enter soon because this giveaway closes tonight!!

Good luck!!

Dragonflies

2010-06-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

Dragonflies are pretty nifty. The spend the first part of their lives swimming underwater. They're pretty vicious predators too. They'll eat mosquito larva, baby fish and sometimes even tadpoles.
When they get to be bigger larva, they're kinda ugly/scary looking. They're brownish gray in color, have these long, skinny arms, big googly eyes and what looks like a pincher on their tail. They're certainly not anything with which I'd like to do battle.

Then, when they're old enough, they pull themselves out of the water onto a rock, branch or other sturdy thing, and they shed their ugly, scary, brown-gray bodies to reveal an amazingly beautiful creature. They're usually green, blue or other bright colors. But even the "plain" brown ones have an amazing daring, yet graceful beauty to them. It's amazing to think that something that started out so plain, so rough can turn into something so different.

But at the same time, you have to wonder: does it hurt when the dragonfly is shedding it's skin? How hard must it be to crack your shell open wide and pull yourself out of it? Just think about how hard it is to get out of a wetsuit, and then multiply that by a thousand.
Also, once the dragonfly leaves it's underwater life, it can't go back. It trades the water currents for air currents. Both of which are amazing, but both are very different lives.

I was lucky enough the other day to see a dragonfly as it was emerging from it's shell of an old life. I watched as it sat on the rock and dried it's wings. It was a pretty surreal picture to see the beautiful green dragonfly with glistening wings sitting on the empty shell of the "ugly" creature that it had just previously been.

Then I started thinking of myself. I've been having a really hard time of things lately, and I just haven't been able to make them anything but worse. I went down to the river, actually, to clear my mind; to let the currents wash away all of the bad. And that's when I saw it, and that's when it hit me.

No, change isn't ever easy. Change doesn't always happen intentionally. It sometimes is just a process which you go through, and you don't know how or why, and while it seems destructive, it's all a part of the growth process. Do you really think that the dragonfly larva knows why it's crawling out of the water, cracking it's skin open and crawling out of it? No. It just knows that something inside of it says, "Do this..." and it acts without thinking. It just does.
Anyway, I know that I was placed at the right place at the right time. This transformation of the dragonfly is something which I was meant to see. It was much like my life at the moment. It was hard and full of chaos, but when I finally emerge, people won't see me as the same person that I was before. I'll trade my old ways for new ways (water for wind). The new roads ahead of me will be will sometimes be dangerous (as were the old ones), and I'll find new foe, but I'll be safe(er) from the old ones, but they'll be amazing and exciting nonetheless.
Once my wings dry and I take flight, I'll be an amazing sight to see.
All thanks to the growth that happens in chaos.

Lightning Bugs

2010-06-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

Tonight was a beautiful night. I'm so glad too because I took Things One and Two out to several different stores, and they were HORRIBLE! I was quite relieved to be home, and to throw them into Daddy's care. And they were more than happy to go into his care, as he had promised to take them in the pool tonight.
When it was time to get out of the pool it was just starting to get dark, and the lightning bugs were just starting to come out. First it was a twinkle here and a twinkle there (and a Thing Two telling me that she had to go TINKLE), but then suddenly the whole back yard was filled with what seemed to be hundreds, no thousands, no MILLIONS of lightning bugs. It was AMAZING!
By this point in time, Thing One had gotten out of the pool. Thing Two still had not yet made it inside because she was too busy trying (and succeeding) to catch lightning bugs. They were maybe even just as excited about all of the twinkling in the yard as I was. I think that the Hubbs thinks that I'm more than just a little crazy now because I was sooo amazed and excited by all of the lightning bugs in the yard. However, it was just one of those times that made me extra thankful for being able to see, and thankful for all of the amazing gifts from God, because, too see these beautiful, amazing specks of light sitting and flitting through my backyard, well, it was an amazing gift. It's one that I hope that I don't soon forget, as I doubt that I'll see a lightning bug fest like that again.
It was also a gift that made me think of (feel) my Dad. I don't know if it's because it's getting to be July almost or no... Things like that make me think of him though. They make me feel (him) a little closer to him. Things like rainbows, warm breezes though the woods, millions of lightning bugs in the backyard, deer running through my neighborhood (I live in Suburbia. There are very few woods left here, so it's an unusual thing to see them here.), things like that. (These are not to be confused with things that make me THINK of him.)
It was such an amazing and fun thing to see. I wish that I would have had it on video. I can only hope that it foreshadows all of the wonderfully amazing things to come this summer.

jogging

2010-05-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

So I've found a new love of jogging. I don't -can't go very far, and perhaps I'm not the most graceful jogger on the planet, but I really LOVE it. (And I saw someone jogging the other day, and just thought, "I KNOW I look better when I'm jogging than does that person." And this was a person who jogs several miles a day.) However, when I jog, I jog barefoot. Yes, you read right BAREFOOT, as in, wearing no shoes.
I hate shoes. I do. I really, really do. I was born barefoot, and I'll die barefoot. I've been walking barefoot for as long as I can remember. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty clumsy in shoes. I just can't feel the ground underneath of me, and well, I trip over things that aren't there. Besides, there are so many positive things to being barefoot, it's amazing more people aren't barefooted.
So anyway, I jog barefooted. People laugh at me, and they think that I'm crazy. Of course, they think that I'm crazy (for a number of reasons) because I just WALK around town barefooted. Sure, I carry my shoes for when I need to go inside a building, but when I'm outside, they're in my hand.
The problem with jogging barefooted is that I need just perfect conditions. It's got to be early morning or late afternoon so that the ground isn't too hot. It can't be too cold outside because, well, it's just too cold to be barefoot. It can't be the fall because when those pesky acorns fall and break, YOWSA! Do they ever hurt! So this basically leaves me only spring and summer.

A few months ago my friend showed me an ad for these cool shoes. (She's one of the ones who thinks I'm crazy for my barefootedness.) They're called Vibram's. They about the closest you get to being barefoot without actually being barefoot. From the instant I read the magazine ad I was in love! These shoes promise to be the answer to my jogging prayers. And, when compared with other sports shoes, they're pretty inexpensive. (Only 80 bucks on the website.) I can't wait until things calm down enough so that I can go get myself a pair. Hopefully it'll happen before the acorns fall!

And thanks so much Trainer Momma for making other people aware of the fact that I'm not the only one who jogs barefoot. There's a whole movement out there leaning towards this. Perhaps it's not the BIGGEST movement, but I'm not the only "crazy" person out there doing this.... Of course, if I get a pair of Vibram's, then I guess I won't be running barefoot anymore, will I?

Happy....

2010-05-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Thing Two!!

You came into our lives as an expected surprise, and in the four years you've been around, things have been even more exciting than ever before. We love you more and more with each passing day.... Even if you try to send me to the insane asylum and daddy to the hospital because you've caused his blood pressure to rise too high. :-)

Your firey Independence is amazing, and when you're old enough, it will launch you to the stars!

I love you. Happy Birthday!

Strawberry Shortcake

2010-05-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

Not what you think it is....

The other night Thing One was singing the jump rope song:

"Strawberry shortcake, cream on top....

How many boyfriends do you got?"

Perhaps I'm just a little too anal (okay, I KNOW I am), but this song just really bothered me for several reasons.

1.) He's a BOY.

I don't have a problem with him singing. I don't have a problem with him singing a jump rope song. I don't have a problem with him singing a jump rope song about Strawberry Shortcake, which, in this song, is the actual dessert. I have a problem with the boyfriends line.

I'm bothered because he was singing it to Thing Two, and I DON'T want to think about her having boyfriends yet -innocent song or not.

2.) It's stuck in my head. UGH! I just can't get rid of it. And when I finally do get it out of my head I see my strawberries in my refridgerator or on the front steps, or I see the Angel Food Cake in the kitchen, and the song is right back again, and lastly

3.) "How many boyfriends do you GOT?"

I know that my grammer isn't the best. I know that my writing skills (skilz) suck, but this line is like nails across the chalk board to me. UGH! Sure, "How many boyfriends do you HAVE?" doesn't rhyme, but it sure sounds a whole lot better to me. ACK!

Then take into consideration that I get this song stuck in my head all the time now, and I have the "do you got" part stuck as well.... Well, it's no wonder that my head is killing me today. It's certainly not because it's bright and sunny, and my regular and sun glasses are different perscriptions, and I've been switching back and forth all day. Nothing at all to do with that....

When do you eat?

2010-05-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

When do you eat?

I eat when I'm hungry. (Duh.)

I eat when I'm bored.

I eat when I'm angry.

I eat when I'm sad.

I eat when I'm out with friends.

I eat when I'm full.

I eat when something is oh so yummy.

I eat and eat and eat when I'm craving something, and I don't know what it is, but eat everything in the house trying to figure out what it is.

I love to eat.

I've been lucky that it doesn't show entirely TOO much. However, I'm on my 5th year of being 28, and I know that my metabolism is all too soon to hit a brick wall. And (I'm hoping) that soon I won't have to be chasing around Thing Two as often as I need to do so now. After all, she is going to be a big four year old next week. I'm sure that once I can sit and (eat) catch my breath more that the calories won't be falling off as they normally do.

Even with summer just about here, I'm still shoving food into my mouth like it's going out of style. And unfortunately, it's NOT good food. Like today I had a nice cup of whipped, low fat yogurt for lunch. But I still wanted something, so I reached for the nachos and jar salsa. I was good though, and I poured a small amount of salsa into a bowl instead of just taking the whole bag and jar with me to veg out on the couch. Unfortunately, I didn't put the chips in a bowl, but brought the whole bag with me instead, so once my salsa was gone, I was still munching on the chips.

I blame this on watching whatever show I was watching. Had I not been so into the show, I would have noticed that I was waaaay over eating. Of course, I'm not serious, but it was nice to watch TV was was not either A.) Kid's shows, or B.) Husband's shows. And while it was nice to watch some "Mommy" TV, my belly really aches now.

And I did not clean. And I did not finish doing my "homework" for my meeting tonight. And I did not jog, and I did not shower yet. (I was planning on doing that after cleaning and jogging.) Now it's time to get the kiddos (almost), and the only thing I've accomplished is eating. -And that was NOT on the TO DO list, but still satisfying in an entirely different way.

Tomorrow will have to be filled with lots more water, lots more exercise, lots more cleaning and lots less eating when I'm not hungry. I don't care how much I love food!

And yes, of course, I'll be getting a shower after I publish this!

Cheating??? No way!

2010-05-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

The kids really love butterflies -even Cool Dude, Thing One. They love to chase them. They love to ask questions about them. They love to watch them if they're lucky enough to catch them. They also love caterpillars, because well, all furry (or not so furry) turn into butterflies.

I thought that it would be super awesome to get them one of these caterpillar-to-butterfly kits that I hear about so often. How cool of a mom would I be to them then?! But let's not forget that I'm also a totally CHEAP mom, and I wasn't about to spend $19.99 (plus S&H) for the kit and then another $3.00 S&H for the worms themselves for a grand total of about, oh, lets say $30.00. (Don't forget that the kit itself is bigger and would cost more for postage.)

And before you think that I'm horrible because I couldn't bring myself to spend only $30 on my kiddos happiness, I want you to know that 1.) I wanted them for the CLASSROOMS, not for the house. Thus, I'd be spending SIXTY dollars... on things that may or may not even make it to butterflies, and 2.) I didn't have them when I was growing up, and I (for the most part) turned out just fine. Besides, I'M the one who wants them for the kids -not the kids themselves.

So what's a mom to do?

I'll tell you what THIS mom did. She went out, found herself a Gypsy Moth cocoon, pulled it out of the tree, and stuck it in a big 'ole (empty) cheese ball canister. Insect Lore, eat your heart out! It cost me a bit of sunburn (which I'm sure actually happened when we were out in the canoe -especially since the worms were in the shade), a bit of energy (which after my BLT w/ C for lunch I needed to burn off anyway), and my big plastic bottle that the kids use for lightning bugs. (Guess we'll have to eat more cheese balls.)

Again I say, Insect Lore, eat your heart out.

We brought it into school today. Thing Two was sooo excited to show his teachers and all of his classmates. Thing Two, on the other hand, had a full blown temper tantrum, actually it was more of an after effect of her heart breaking because she wanted caterpillars in her class too. And if you could have just seen her poor heart broken face you would have cried as well. She perked up a little when I told her we'd get one for her to bring into her class for Wednesday. She completely perked up when she remembered that we have a mini ant farm that she could bring in. (DON'T buy the mini ant farm from Target's dollar spot. The holes are too big for the ants, and they escape. Unfortunately, I found this out too late... *grrrr*)

So tomorrow we go on the hunt for another Gypsy Moth caterpillar cocoon. This might prove to be a bit difficult since from what I'm reading, they're not supposed to be out until June. Let's hope we find some more early risers!

Ugh! I just realized that we're going to have to eat A LOT of cheese balls tonight and tomorrow night! ACK! My belly hurts already!

Spring is here!

2010-04-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

Spring is my favorite season. Well, that's a lie.

I LOVE Summer and the heat that comes with it. I love catching lightning bugs and butterflies with the kids. I love to be able to run through the sprinklers, go swimming in the back yard, or go to the beach on a whim. I even love the awe inspiring electrical storms that happen so frequently during the summer.

I love the Fall. I love looking at all of the beautiful colors that greet your eyes with every turn. I love the smell of crunchy leaves. I love picking apples and pumpkins. And even though I feel bad when carving pumpkins, I love eating pumpkin seeds that I've cooked myself. (I had originally typed "made myself," but even though I've made two little humans, I cannot make pumpkin seeds. ;-) )

I'm not too crazy about winter, it's cold and it's too short days. I do, however, love the snow. I love to play in the snow. I love to look at all the teeny tiny rainbows on the surface of the snow. It's beautiful. It makes the cold, short days bearable.

But Spring. Oh how I love Spring! The days get longer. The weather gets warmer. The flowers pop up everywhere. Baby animals are everywhere. Everything comes back to life in Spring. Things smell clean and fresh. It's as if all of the March Winds and April Showers blow and wash away all of the old, dead yukkiness of the previous year. It's a testament that, yes, life will go on.

Today, in a tribute to Spring, I pulled out my camera and my macro lens. I haven't used my macro in forever. I hand shoot, and, unfortunately, I don't stay very still, so my pictures aren't usually focused where I wanted them to be focused. I did get one or two good shots today. One in particular I LOVE. It's a picture of tulip buds.

And in the mean time my neighbors and anyone else driving down the street all now think that I'm crazy since I was crawling around on the ground, under the trees, in the mulch. The had no clue what I was doing. My neighbors three doors down, I think, think that I was sneaking around taking pictures of them out front of their house. They moved to the side of their house shortly after seeing me. I should go talk to them later, and let them know what I was doing! ;-)

Hope your enjoying spring where ever you are!

If you view this one full size, they're a really cool and pretty spiderweb on the bottom of the daffodil. It's glistening in the sunlight. Very pretty.... Even if you don't like spiders. :-)

Pretty maids all in a row.

My dirty hyacinths. The hubby and I were pulling out Virginia Creepers from the beds yesterday.

This one looks a lot better when it's viewed full sized. It's my favorite.

St. Patrick's Day (Religion involved)

2010-03-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Know what really bothers me about this holiday? (Yes, LOTS of things bother me.) The fact that most St. Patrick's Day decorations, clothing, foods, ect have FOUR LEAF CLOVERS
on them. Now you're confused, aren't you? Go ahead and ask why that bothers me. I'll tell ya why...

If you know anything about the history that surrounds good, ole St. Pat's Day, then you know that the miracle of St. Patrick's Day is that Saint Patrick picked up a shamrock (three leaves), had the Lord bless it, and chased the serpents out of Ireland with it. The shamrock represents the Holy Trinity (The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit). There is no fourth being to be represented, so why do they use four leaf clovers on so many things?

And yes, I realize that they also use leprechauns (which are supposed to be mean, greedy and sometimes downright evil) and rainbows and pots of gold too, but that doesn't bother me as much as the shamrock/four leaf clover part... And I also know it's all about what sells, as every event is commercialized now, but I'm just as annoyed/angered by this as I am about devout atheists celebrating Christmas and even more so, EASTER. HELLO? Anyone else see the irony in this?

Christmas, whatever. Christmas is so over commercialized now I know some Jewish people who even celebrate it. (And they celebrate Hanukkah. Lucky ducks!) But EASTER?! Easter is the basis of all Christianity. It is the miracle of Jesus rising from the dead that is being celebrated on Easter. And if you say that you don't believe in God, in Jesus, in any of that stuff WHY are you celebrating it??

It's just to help to drive me insane, isn't it? Yup. That's what I thought...

Back to School!

2010-03-01T06:03:00.000-08:00

The kiddlets are back in school today after a FOUR day weekend. WHY did they have a four day weekend, you ask. Well, it was because of the HUGE "Snowicane" we had... Or rather, DIDN'T have...
Our 3rd or 4th snow storm of the season left us with a whopping 2 inches in our yard. I could still see the tops of the grass. To say that I was disappointed is the understatement of the century. I love snow storms, and besides, they mean work for the hubster. :-)
Anyway, school was closed. Kids were home. Kids were nuts. Time FLEW by though. I couldn't believe that it's Monday already when my alarm was sounding this morning. Even after a four day weekend, Monday's seem to come too soon, and too EARLY.
So over our four day weekend, I had some great blogs working out in my head. However, since I stayed up until 2 AM watching..... I don't remember what, I'm awfully sleep deprived. My brain isn't working, and I don't have a clue what those blogs were about. (Right now I'd just be happy to remember what was so interesting that I stayed up until 2 AM watching it....)
Whatever... Maybe it'll come back to me as I'm working today. Time to make the doughnuts, er, rather bows today. My quota is a full 30 of them -completely finished. We'll see how that goes.
I'd rather take a nap...

Happy Valentine's Day... a little late!

2010-02-19T10:35:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is, although very commercial, very cute. It's fun. It's a nice excuse to get a box of chocolates. :-) Goodness knows I'm a chocoholic! DH did well this year, and got me a box of Ghiradelli chocolates. Yum!

It's also cute because of the kidlets and their Valentines. I remember being in grade school, and trading cards. I could give the boy on whom I had a secret crush a valentine, and he'd never know that I had a crush on him because everyone else got one too. Sounds weird, but it was just the fact that I could express my "love" to him without him knowing it that was great.

Thing One and Thing Two were very excited about Valentine's Day this year. And I have to say, I was excited for them! I bought super cool (by my standards) Valentines last year for them to give out this year. I got them on an after season clearance sale for about fifty cents a box. Yay me! Thing one had cool leggo sticker puzzle cards, and Thing Two had cute 3-D cards. (The ones that are wavy plastic on top. When you hold them one way you see one thing, and if you hold them the other, you see something else.) Both were very cool. Each kiddo was going to get a lollipop taped to their card. (In MY day's it would have been a lollipop taped to their ENVELOPE. When did Valentine's stop coming with envelopes? What a PIA.)

Well, theeen I found that Chuck E. Cheese had FREE printable Valentines online. The side of the Valentine was a coupon for five FREE tokens. How fun would that be for the kids, I thought. My kids go NUTS over CEC.

Unfortunately, I later realized that the coupon was only good with a food purchase. DRAT! They were already printed and cut. They were going out anyway. They could sit in other parents homes like the Wendy's or Friendly's coupons that we get.

But THHHEEEENNN I found a cute tutorial on making heart shaped lollipops out of mini candy canes. Actually, I found this shortly after Christmas, stocked up on mini candy canes, and forgot about them. Well, that is, until one box fell face down on the floor, and almost off of the candy canes inside broke. And then I forgot again until another box fell and broke. That's when I decided to move the boxes off the sewing table. :-P

So the night before the big Valentine's Day party I, with house guests, remembered to make my lollipops. After all, how hard could they be, right? Five minutes in a 300 degree oven, insert lollipop stick, pinch closed, cool, wrap. Easy as pie.... Well, I'm not very good at cooking pie... Ask my family who, ever so nicely, attempted to eat my Shoo Fly pie that I made for Thanksgiving last year. That's a mistake I won't make again. Same with these lollipops.

Really, they're a very simple idea. Bake until they just start to melt. This is supposed to take around five minutes. Well, it didn't. First batch, not six minutes either. So up I went to read the kids a QUICK story. Came back down, and they were a meltly, unrecognizable mess on the tray. Good thing I still had six boxes of good candy canes!

Next batch went in the oven. Next batch still was not melted at five minutes or six minutes. At approx six minutes and 22 seconds, they were a melty mess, but still resembled candy cane hearts. They were going to preschoolers and kindergartners, so they were good enough for me!

Time to put the sticks in place. Well, that was a whole other ball game. The tutorial mentioned to be careful because the pan would still be HOT, but failed to say, "Hey, Stupid! You just melted hard candy. While it's still pliable, it's going to be scorching hot!" I found this out the hard way. I also realized that the candy cools down VERY fast. Too fast, as a matter of fact, to get all of my lollipop sticks situated, so I had to put them back in the oven to remelt them, and hope that I didn't OVER melt them.

Batch number three was in the oven, and D asked me if I had any good ones yet. She saw the yukky mess of the first batch. I gave her a curt "NO," but didn't mean it snippy towards her, but just because I was frustrated in general. She laughed, and told me that she was only joking when she asked. Her laughing lightened me for a few. A laugh with D will always do this. :-)

I finally started putting the lollipop sticks in the oven as I was melting the candy. It saved a few precious seconds, and seemed to work better. The lollipops started working and looking better, and as I said, they were going to 3/4/5/6 year olds who wouldn't/couldn't appreciate all the time and effort I was putting into them anyway.

Then came time for wrapping them. This is where I found out just how fragile they are! As I told D, be careful how hard you put them down. Be careful of how you even look at them because if you look at them wrong they'll break! Let's just hope that some of the school kids got ones that weren't broken. Too bad if they didn't. At least the teachers got to see them before the kids got to them.

They looked cuter when they were all wrapped up, but the whole ordeal was just very stressful to me. If I had to do it again, I would have about five more boxes of candy canes, and I'd start making them before 8:30-9 PM the night before they're due. But I think that next year I'll just buy the red heart lollipops again. :-P

Posting Pictures

2010-02-11T18:49:00.001-08:00

Can anyone PUH-LEASE tell me how I can post pictures in the middle of my blog? Thanks so much!!

Uh oh! We need a tooth pillow!

2010-02-11T18:20:00.001-08:00

What do you do when your first born looses his first tooth, and you don't yet have a tooth pillow? Do you:

A.) Run to the store (the day after a blizzard) and hope that they have tooth pillows there?

B.) Go to Etsy, find the closest makers of tooth pillows there, and drive an hour to get one (the day after a blizzard)?

C.) Tell them to forget about a tooth pillow, just put the tooth under the pillow? No, I don't care how much you wanted a tooth pillow, just put the dang tooth under the pillow!

D.) Say you've been bad, and the Tooth Fairy isn't going to come tonight anyway? or

E.) Search your house to see what kind of craft/sewing materials you have on hand.

I thought about "C", but went with option "E" instead.

Thing One lost his first tooth today. I didn't think it would come out for another week or so. He came to me this morning, and told me that he was playing with it, and look what happened! (He broke the front part of the tooth loose, so it was only holding on with the back.) I still thought it would be there for a while.

As he was eating his PopTart (yeah, great breakfast, I know...) he told me that he was chewing with his front tooth. I told him that he's supposed to only BITE with his front teeth, and if he's having a problem with that then to break apart his PopTart. He asked me to do it for him because apparently (I'm so much better at it), he was breaking the pieces too large, and if he made them smaller he got filling all over his hands.

As I was breaking it apart, he started shouting, "MOM! LOOK!" He spit out his tooth in his hand, and triumphantly held it up for me to see. No blood. No mess. No pain. No crying. He was so proud!

Thing Two, on the other hand, was not so proud. She looked at his tooth, at his mouth, and back at his tooth and turned a shade of green/gray. I thought she was going to pass out! She exclaimed that she DID NOT like it, and she wanted it back in his mouth. I told her that a new BIG tooth was growing there, and that's why the little one fell out. I told her that she could see the new tooth coming up where the other one was. (It was actually just part of his gum that was whitish where the tooth was attached just moments before.) She was happy with that, and her normal color returned to her face. THANK GOODNESS!

So instead of getting worrying about a tooth pillow then, I did some work, played on FaceBook, played with the kids, talked on the phone, went outside and played in the snow, played on FaceBook some more, talked on the phone more, had dinner, read some blogs, played with the kids, and then I realized that it was time for bed. And Thing One was adamant about NOT going to bed without a tooth pillow.

So I searched my house for acceptable materials for a tooth pillow. Actually, several times during the day I looked for fabric that I had purchased to use as a nap mat cover last year, but never made the cover. It's some kind of blue Hulk material. Blue is Thing One's favorite color. Perfect! Use blue Hulk material, a piece of white felt, and some stuffing. Uh oh. No stuffing... Doesn't matter anyway, I can't find the blue material...

I DID find, however, black felt, white felt, and red felt. You know what colors they are, don't you? PIRATE!! So I made a pirate tooth pillow.

Step one - Draw a rough skull outline on a piece of paper.

Step 2 - pin rough skull skull shape to white felt. Cut out skull shape. (I have two here because I was going to make the pillow just the skull. I wasn't going to put it on an actual pillow.)

Step three - Cut out eye shape and eye patch shape from black felt. Using scraps, cut four (or so) strips for the space between the teeth, a strip for the eye patch strap, and a rounded upside down heart for the nose.

Step four - Cut a boat shape, and a tail shape from red felt.

(Assemble pieces on white skull cut out several times to see if they fit properly. Cut smaller to fix if they do not. :-P )

Step five - Using coordinating thread, stitch on face pieces. I used a straight stitch. One stitch up/down for the teeth (in the middle of the strip of felt), Out line of the patch, patch strap, eye, and nose. Stitch along the top edge of your skull to stitch on the red bandanna. Don't stitch on your "knot" yet. (I made this mistake.)

DON'T FORGET TO BACK STITCH!!

DON'T stitch the top of your eye patch closed. This will be where your tooth/reward goes.

Step six - Stitch your skull face onto your black felt. Which, in my directions, I have omitted as a step b/c I wasn't going to do this... So let's back up a minute....

Step SIX - Cut a two pieces of black felt just bigger than your skull.

Step SEVEN - Stitch your skull face onto your black felt. I used black thread on the white skull because I like the contrasting look. You can use white if you'd like.

Step eight - Stitch your knot/tail onto your bandanna and your front of your pillow. Make sure you stitch down the tails as well. I didn't do this, and I'm afraid Thing Two might pull it off.

Step nine - Lay your front and back pieces of felt together, wrong sides facing. (I wanted a rough edge. It's a pirate skull after all.) Stitch around right side, top, and left side. Leave the bottom open for stuffing.

Step ten - Using Polyfill (which I didn't have. Luckily I had some batting.) or other stuffing material you have on hand, stuff that baby good!

Step eleven - Stitch the bottom of your pillow closed. When your tension gets all messed up on your final stitches, yell and and bang stuff because you're so close to being done, and now your machine is messing up.

Step twelve - Decide that you don't care to unstitch the messy, loopy stitches that came from your bobbin. You're just going to cut them off and sew over them. It's black thread on black felt on your son's tooth pillow. No one's going to notice.

Step thirteen - (I had to make this one up because I don't want to end on Thirteen!) Squish your pillow to flatten out the inside filling. (Okay, I didn't really make this up. I really did this. It made the pillow look nicer to have the filling a little more even.)

Step fourteen - Give to the toothless one, place tooth inside, place under pillow and hope the Tooth Fairy remembers!

I made this in about an hour. The ONLY reason it took so long is because I didn't have a plan for it, and I kept changing things up. Now that I know what I'm doing, it should only take about 30 minutes. I might go to the store Tuesday and get more felt to make one for Thing Two... Not that she's anywhere near loosing her teeth, but I'd rather not be so pressed for time next time!

99 leggies...

2010-02-08T18:12:00.000-08:00

*singing*
"99 pairs of leggies are done. 99 pairs all done. If one of those pairs should happen to sell, 98 pairs of leggies all done..."

Yup. Finally getting around to the bulk of it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna succeed at this. *I* have to do it. No one else is going to do it for me. No one else is going to make me succeed, and no one is going to hold me back. I hold my future success (or lack thereof) in my hands.

Not so much a blog, but some positive reinforcement to myself...

I have a "vendor fair" next month. I was up in the air about it for a little while, and then spoke about it with a friend. She jumped right on it, and I was amazed. Although, her fire for it was contagious, and soon I was VERY excited about attending. It was a nice feeling to be excited about this business again. I've been down in the dumps about it for about 2 weeks now. You see, I've found that another person has finally come up the the same idea as I have come up with in regard to the leggies. They've also decided to market their leggies. I've been very sad, mad, whatever because I didn't follow through with the patent process, and now he was this new person with *my* idea, and they were (selling them for a lot more) getting all kinds of exposure -everywhere.

They're not going to hold me down though. There are all kinds of different manufacturers of the same products. Most of them all do well. Look at Baby Legs leg warmers, and look at all of the work-at-home-mammas who make them, and make a nice living off of them.

I can do this. I BELIEVE in this. I BELIEVE in MYSELF (most times). I'm out of my slump. I'm going to get all of my inventory back on track, and I'm going to kick patootie at the vendor fair.

Thanks *M* for helping to get me back on track! <3

Today's proclamation....

2010-01-21T09:05:00.000-08:00

Be it hereby resolved that I will have a productive day today. I will get much accomplished in little time. I will get my laundry not only washed and dried, but folded and put away too. I will run my dishwasher, and then I will put the dishes away within less than an hour of them being finished. I will get my bathroom cleaned. I will get the Christmas presents put away. I will start dinner early, so that we may eat no later than 5:30. I will get my packages ready to go before the kids are to be picked up from school. I will be on time to get the kids from school.

As Queen of the land, this is what I say, and this is incontestable by all.

Sounds good, right? This was my plan from this morning. My computer froze up, and I never got around to posting it. Good thing too... I separated the laundry, did a load of laundry, loaded and ran the dishwasher, and took a nap..... A nice nap. A long nap. I deserved it. I went to bed at 12:30, and thing 2 was up at 4 AM to start the day. At 5:15 I brought her down to lay with Daddy on the couch so that the TV could babysit for a little while. Common! You would have done it too!

So now "Today's Proclamation" will be tomorrow's proclamation. It's a good plan, don't you think? Well begun is half done. I WILL get my stuff together! I will! .....Tomorrow.... :-)

Resolutions....

2010-01-12T17:16:00.001-08:00

So here it is, January 12th... The 12th day of January. The 12th day of the new year. On day 10 or 11, I had broken my resolution already. My resolution was to NOT make any resolutions this year. I never keep them anyway. Why build myself up for disappointment this year?

Well, I decided the other day that I was going to ditch that resolution, and make a new one. It was a good one too. It was one that didn't really seem to be too hard to keep -right? My resolution was to get my crap together... I didn't actually use the word crap. I actually resolved to get my $**t together.

Well, as I've already stated, today is day 12. I'm no closer to getting my STUFF together than I was 30 days ago. I have no more inspiration to get my STUFF together than I did 30 days ago. I look at it/think about it, and flop back down on the couch again. I'm just SO LAZY anymore.

I have no desire to do ANYTHING. Some days it's a challenge for me to brush my teeth during the course of the day. Don't get me wrong, I DO get it done, but my 3 year old has more excitement in brushing her teeth than do I....

And then I start thing about all the crap that I have to do like meetings, orders, inventory, new stock, letters, advertising, meetings. Don't even get me started on basic household chores like laundry, cleaning or dishes. Yup. You'll find me back on the couch. (Actually, you'll find me on the computer.)

Apparently, I've just been out of the workplace for too long. I don't know how to just tackle an obstacle anymore. I don't know how to just muddle through it -as much as I don't want to muddle through it, until it's done. I have no pressure to get it done, so it just doesn't get done.

Actually, I do have pressure to get it done. Better wording would have been, I don't have a boss with a pink slip in hand breathing down my back waiting for me to get it done. Now the pressure to get it done is the seemingly ever growing piles of dishes, laundry or toys. It's the meetings that grow closer and closer, for which I still have to do my leg work. It's the customers looking for new items. It's the orders that are waiting to be mailed out.

I just don't have the desire, the motivation, the.... whatever to do it. You wouldn't think that it would be that hard to finally put away the Christmas presents, would you? At least it's still less than a week past the Epiphany. I give myself until tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. Maybe tomorrow, lucky 13, will be the day that I finally get all "my crap" together.

But how many New Year's Resolutions are really kept anyway? I should have just stuck with the resolution to not make any resolutions.... There would have been no dissapointments in that....

Christmas time...

2009-11-30T07:35:00.000-08:00

It's the Christmas/Hanukkah season. Please consider donating a new, unwrapped toy to Toys for Tots. There are many places to drop off your donation including, but not limited to: many schools, Municipal buildings, many stores have collection bins by the exit doors, many fire departments or EMS buildings.

Times are tough for everyone, but some know that they have to choose between putting food on the table or buying presents for their kids. We know that the holidays aren't about presents, but tell that to a young child that has nothing to open on Christmas morning, or during Hanukkah.

Target, Walmart, Big Lots for starters have great toys for five or ten dollars. Five dollars is around the cost of a cup of coffee from Starbucks, coffee for a week from WaWa or 7-11, less than a pack of cigarettes (in this state), less than a value meal from a fast food joint.

Please consider donating a new toy today. Know that you'll not only be delighting a child who may otherwise be going without presents this year, but think of the relief that you'll be helping to bring to the parents or guardians. Not everyone is in a hard money situation because they make poor spending decisions. Some families have taken on the joyful burden of caring for other children. Some families are faced with unemployment of one or both of the parents. Some families are finding that rising energy costs are just too much for their paychecks that haven't seen a cost of living increase to match today's actual cost of living. And yes, perhaps some have made poor spending decisions. We've all made a purchase that we've later realized that perhaps we should not have made. Don't penalize the children for that though.

And yes, I proudly donate to Toys for Tots, and I have been doing so for years, so this isn't just something about which I'm preaching, it's something in which I actually participate, and no, I don't mean just one or two toys. Toys for Tots is MY "baby" if you will. I have been donating to the cause for about 8 years now.

I was very moved when a friend/co-worker told me that one year she swallowed her pride and accepted toys from Toys for Tots because if she didn't, he daughter would not have have any presents to open up. This was a proud, hardworking, single mother. At the time, her ex didn't have much to do with their daughter, save to build up her excitement for a visit with Daddy, only to let her down. I was amazed (and I don't know why) to find that she was as hard up as she was. She worked a full time job plus two part time jobs.

For this woman to accept help was amazing, and it moved me. It made me realize that one day any of us could be in unfavorable circumstances. One day it could be ME who could be not able to give my children gifts under the tree on Christmas morning. And while I know, and while I tell my children that Christmas is not about presents that doesn't matter when they know that all of their friends will have presents under the tree on Christmas morning. It doesn't matter when they go back to school and they hear all of their friends talking about their cool new gifts, and then they ask them what they got for Christmas.

Can you put yourself in their shoes and have to mutter back that you didn't get anything for Christmas? Can you imagine that feeling inside? Because if you can, then you know how heartbreaking it can be. If you can, then I know that you'll be moved to find an extra five dollars for a new toy for a child in need this holiday season.

Cleaning and Lists

2009-11-25T18:57:00.000-08:00

It's amazing what happens when I clean. I find stuff... Stuff that I didn't know was missing, and (if I'm lucky) stuff that's been sorely missed.
My little notebook in which I've been writing my blogs belongs in that second category. I've been lost without if for months now. Not only does it have my mindless ramblings, and late night warblings in it, but it's also home to all of my lists.
Yes, I'm a list maker. They help to calm me. I make all kinds of lists: Things I need from the grocery store, upcoming events in my life (like a calendar, but in list form), things that I have to do over the course of the day, things I'd do/buy if I ever hit the $1,000,000 lotto. Heck! Some days I'd even settle for the $1000 lotto! Anything. Everything. You name it, I'll make a list about it. Like here and here, and I guess that even this is a list too, isn't it? So you already know I like lists.
They help to calm me. they make me feel as if I've got some control over at least some of the things in this hectic, fly by the seat of my pants life that I live.
Perhaps a SCHEDULE more so than a LIST would help to calm me... But then again, isn't a schedule just a list of activities with times attached to them???
Enh, You say TA-mato;
I say TOE-mato.

My list says it's time for me to clean house now... Either that, or no one will have anywhere to have their turkey dinner tomorrow... :-P
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Don't forget to give thanks for EVERYTHING in life -big and small. And don't forget to GIVE, and give from your heart.
Much love <3
Happy Thanksgiving

Backed up blogs...

2009-09-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

So, I really do have new blogs to post. -Really, I do! You'd be quite proud of me. I've been keeping a little spiral bound notebook (bought in a back of 6 at Target during their back-to-school clearance sales last year) next to my bed. This way, when the Muse descends right before I fall asleep (as normally happens) I have my trusty notebook (think diary, but I'm too old for a diary -hahaha!) right there.

Unfortunately, even with all of this new found free time I have, I never seem to have time to transfer my ramblings over to the computer for your reading pleasure. And I KNOW how much you love to read my senseless ramblings. :-)

Sooooo.... I DO promise to get them on here.... Sometime.... Shortly.... Maybe....

I know. You miss me. You can't deal without the craziness that is me. I know. You'll have your dose of me soon enough. In the mean time, this will have to hold you over. Don't be too sad. It's okay. I'm still here, and I'm still just as nutty as ever. (More so lately!)

MUAH!

The little things in life

2009-08-14T09:24:00.000-07:00

So it's the little things in life that really make such a big difference. No, I'm not talking about my Thing 1 and Thing 2 being my little things that make a big difference. They make a HUGE difference. I'm talking about the little day-to-day things that you normally don't think about, but they make things in life so much easier.... And since I love making lists so much, I figured that I'd compile a list of those little, not so often thought about little things for which I'm thankful. Feel free to share your own lists as well. I like to hear about other people's little things. :-)

I'm thankful for (and don't forget, these are the SMALL THINGS in life, not things like God, family, friends, health, ect...)

Twist ties. You know, the little plastic coated wire thingies that you use to close bread bags and stuff. They come in boxes of garbage bags, but I don't use them for the garbage. I use them for so many other things though -even hair bow making!

That bread makers/slicers were smart enough to slice the bread in an EVEN number of slices. So much easier/better then having one slice left over when you use it to make sandwiches.

Self adhesive stamps. Do I really need to explain this one?

Sippy Cups because I was just fool enough to give Little Miss a regular cup, and she dunked her hands in it before spilling it. Luckily it was only water. Unluckily, I spilled the rest of it while cleaning up her mess!

Free samples tucked inside the mail. It's always nice to get a little treasure (and not a bill) in the mail.

When free samples in the mail come with COUPONS!

Thrift Store treasures, like my book I bought for 99 cents, and sold it yesterday for $20.50! :-D

Aluminum foil. I just can't get that plastic wrap to work for me!!

Having a pirate birthday party around Halloween. Woo Whoo! There is sooo much skull & cross bone stuff out for Halloween. I'm really lucking out this year!

Baby wipes. They great not just for cleaning up messy behinds. (EWW!) They're good for cleaning everything!

Debit Cards. They make it easier for me to track my money, and I'm not thinking that I dropped a 20 dollar bill on the ground all the time.

Clothes pins. They're great for clothes lines, of course, but also arts and crafts, letter holders, toast getter's (if stuck between two tongue depressors), and more!

And so much more of which I can't remember right now because I'm sitting down to blog. I've already told you that when I sit here to blog, I forget everything that was on my mind. Gotta love it!

Now, I want to hear yours! Let's remind everyone not to dwell on what seems to be like the huge, horrible things in life b/c life is made up of TONS of little things, little blessings, most of which are over looked all the time. The good, if noticed, certainly outweighs the bad!

Let's hear 'em!!

It's always playtime...

2009-08-01T11:48:00.001-07:00

The inventiveness of a child's mind never ceased to amaze me....
Right now as I write this, Cool Dude and Little Miss have two friends over. Since it's still too went to go outside and there's no T.V. they're using their minds, and playing an inside game. I'm not sure what the game is, but it seems to be some take on hide and seek.
One child goes int he other room and hides their eyes. The other kids then run to the corners of the rooms to hide. The seeker then asks if the others are ready, and if they say yes, the seeker shouts out numbers. The hiders then say yes or no I'm guessing that these numbers coordinate with the corners in the room.
If the seeker guesses the right number, they then must guess who is there. If they guess correctly, that person becomes the seeker. If they guess incorrectly, they hide again, and it starts all over again.
I guess you could say it's hide and seek meets Battleship. :-)

They also play another game called Silent Ball. It's basically catch (with a beach ball) but you cannot speak during game play. If you speak, you're out. If you drop the ball, you're out.
This is one of their favorite games to play together. I think it's because it's Miss M's game. Miss M is the oldest at 9 years old. The others kinda idolize her a bit because she's a "big kid." She like the game because she makes the rules.
They all have fun playing.... for a while... Then they start to bicker, and it's time for a new game.
They really like this new Battleship/hide and seek game they're playing though. Of course, it now reminds me of pool, "7 ball -corner pocket," but instead it's G-Force (Cool Dude's BFF) saying, "Number three?!"

They're so creative! It makes me wish I still had the same creativity when it comes to stuff like that... But then, I was happy to play outside with a reed leaf and a magnifying glass. -No, I didn't start fires! I'd just write my name in all the leaves.
Guess I never was very good at making stuff up!
So funny to listen to these kids play though!

Happy Birthday Dh and Dino Boy!! (Yes, when I wrote this, it was your birthdays.)

Pet Peeves

2009-07-03T01:08:00.000-07:00

So, this is a topic that I think about very often. I have a lot of them, and most of them are pretty stupid, but they really annoy the heck out of me.

SOOOO, for your reading pleasure, in no particular order, here are some of my pet peeves. What are yours?

1.) When people walk down the wrong side of the hallway, bump into me, and give ME nasty looks -even though THEY'RE on the wrong side of the hall, and THEY bumped into ME. UGH!

2.) When people who have no kids try to tell you how to parent. Yes, I'm glad that you're a terrific babysitter, but babysitting is COMPLETELY different then parenting. Yes, it really is.

3.) When people on eBay send me messages asking me to leave them feedback. I HATE that. I leave my feedback in lumps, and when you email me demanding that I leave feedback for you is NOT going to make me do it any sooner. Besides, feedback is VOLUNTARY not MANDATORY.

4.) Having a really great coupon, and not being able to find stuff to use it on!

5.) The fact that my kids sleep in on days we have to be up early, and are up at the crack of dawn days we can sleep in.

6.) When the big kids at the playground hog the baby swings.

7.) When the big kids at the playground act like wild animals, and my kids think that they're cool, and try to copy what they're doing. IE -jumping off the top of the side of the slide!

8.) Missing puzzle pieces.

9.) White socks.

10.) When, instead of ASKING if they can come over and play, people just SEND their kids over to play.... As soon as I get home.... Before I've even walked in the door.

11.) Having to wait for Little Miss to take a nap, or DH to have five free minutes so that I can jump in the shower. (Of course, this is getting better now since I can take LM in the shower with me. -Thank goodness!)

12.) When the store is having a good sale, and on the first day of it they run out of product... and don't offer rain cheques.

13.) Washing my chapsticks.

14.) DRYING my chapsticks. (Not only does this ruin the chapstick, but ruins all of the clothes as well!)

15.) When DH doesn't answer his phone when I call.

16.) When DH doesn't answer his phone when I call again.

17.) When DH STILL doesn't answer his phone when I call AGAIN.

18.) Children whose soul intention in life is to be mean to my kids and make them miserable.

19.) Forgetting my list of Pet Peeves... Grrrr...

That's about all I can think of now. I know that the list was MUCH longer when I started this posting. Maybe I'll continue it tomorrow.

Feel free to add your own Pet Peeves!

Happy Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Old Navy Weekly! Coupon giveaway and leggie giveawa

2009-07-02T06:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Old Navy Weekly is set to update shortly. This means that a whole new round of coupons are going to be made available for your coupon hunting pleasure!
However, if coupon hunting is not your thing, but you're still hoping to get your hands on a good coupon, visit Christine over at From Dates to Diapers. Old Navy was nice enough to give her a few $65 off $100 coupons to give away. Visit her blog, read the simple directions on how to enter for your chance to win, and cross your fingers! (And while you're there, read some of her great blog and leave her some love!)
Also, I'm still hosting a Jacquelynnies leggies giveaway. Enter here for directions and your chance to win two free pairs of toddler leggies. And don't fret! If you don't win the leggies they're super inexpensive, so you can still buy lots of them!
I think that's about it for now. We're having another play date today. Only one extra kiddo today. It's going well so far. Sometimes I think that having 4 extra kiddos is easier then just one extra kiddo. It makes it so everyone always has someone to play with even if two are squabbling.... Lunch is a little more difficult to prepare, but we're a bit more relaxed overall when there are more kiddos.... Maybe I should open a daycare for the summer -ha! Just kidding!

NEWS BREAK

2009-06-29T10:19:00.001-07:00

In a strange turn of events today, I found the highly elusive floor to my laundry room! What an amazing feat! The laundry room floor has been missing for some time now. There have been search crews out by day and night, but the piles of dirty laundry have just been too much for these crews.
Today, however, was the turning point. It seems as if there really IS a light at the end of the tunnel.

Now to tackle the rest of the house. :-P

REAL GIVEAWAY FOR OLD NAVY WEEKLY POOL

2009-06-26T01:59:00.000-07:00

Okie-dokie... Gonna try the Old Navy Weekly site update pool/giveaway again.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd people to CORRECTLY guess the time and date of the ON weekly will win two (2) free pairs of toddler leggies from Jacquelynnies.

To enter, leave your guess as a comment on the blog titled "REAL GIVEAWAY FOR ON POOL." (This blog posting.)

You must guess the correct time and date of the next update. (Remember to put your time guess with your time zone! I wouldn't want someone in CA to guess 12 PM, and not win because the site updated at 3 PM (EST).

Feel free to share this giveaway with others.

Don't forget to watch ON weekly for your chance to grab an AWESOME coupon! (And if you find one of the BIG coupons, feel free to share it with me! ;-) JK!... Kinda... ;-) )

Please, no more then three entry guesses per person. Thanks!

Some more money savers for you, and our play date ;-)

2009-06-22T07:21:00.001-07:00

Cool Dude and Little Miss have their first Monday play-date of the summer. Now we've got four kiddos in the house. It's good. It's fun. They all play well together -for the most part! ;-) Can't really expect to have four kids together all day without someone getting upset for some reason. We wouldn't live in real life now, would we?
Right now, all four kids are happily playing with Play Doh. Wonder how long the peace/calm will last? Hopefully long enough for me to get out this little bloggie thingy today! :-)
Not much to share, but I got these two in my inbox yesterday. They're too good to NOT share.

(By the way, if they're in green, they're clickable links!)

Best Deals Magazines

If normally get any kinds of magazines you NEED to check this site out! They have AWESOME prices on magazine subscriptions normally, but each day they have a different magazine marked down to a super duper value.

Today (Monday 6/22) they have FAMILY FUN Magazine (one of my favorites) on sale for $4.89 for one year (10 issues). It's normally six dollars and some change (I think) through BDM. They also send out coupon codes for 18% off of their already low prices.

Use coupon code FATHER17 at check out, and receive another 17% off your entire purchase today! (I'll post another coupon code if I get one tomorrow.)

Tuesday 6/23 is ACCENT ON HOME & GARDEN Magazine for $4.29 for a year's subscription.

Wednesday 6/24 is EVERYDAY WITH RACHAEL RAY for $7.89

Thursday 6/25 is LIFE EXTENSION for $4.29

Friday 6/26 is BUDGET TRAVEL for $5.49

Saturday 6/27 is DOG WORLD for $9.49, and

Sunday 6/28 is MARTHA STEWART LIVING for $14.49

Coupon code FATHER17 (good for another 17% off your entire purchase) expires 11:59 EST Monday, June 22.

Magazine subscriptions vary from weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, ect. Check out the subscription details before ordering. (I know Family Fun is only 10 issues a year.)

NEXT...

RESTAURANT.COM

I know that I've had up a lot of posts about this lately, but I REALLY like the idea of this place! DH doesn't like it because they have minimum food purchase requirements, but hey, I got a few for a nice place a few towns over. We've wanted to try it for a while, and the minimum food requirement is only $35 dollars. I KNOW that we'll meet that without a problem. Even if it is "just a coupon" it's still a savings, and don't well all love saving money anyway?

Anyway, in case you missed the $25 dollar gift certificates for two dollars, don't fret! It's back again, but only for four days!

Choose as many $25 gift certificates as you'd like. Enter coupon code DISH, and hit "apply." (Make sure you hit "apply" or you may not get your savings!)

Coupon code DISH expires 11:59 PST on THURSDAY, JUNE 25!

(These made really great end of year teacher's gifts too!)

E.L.F.

E.L.F. stands for Eyes, Lips, Face. This site has all kinds of make-up needs from brushes, to eyeliner, to nail polish to bath gel. They're really expanding. They even have their own version of Minerals. I don't use much make-up, so I don't know how the Minerals compare, but I like their tools, eye shadows (kits), lip glosses and eye liners.

Most of their tools and a lot of their make-ups are a dollar. (This Wet N Wild, but better.) Use coupon code 5FOR5FREE at checkout, and get five DOLLAR ITEMS free (with a ten dollar purchase.) If you only put 10 dollar items in your cart, then this is a 50% off coupon.

Check out E.L.F. today, and see if you can't find something (some things) worth five dollars! ;-)

Think that's it for now. If I find/think of any more, I'll be sure to post them.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the Play Doh only last for about 30 minutes. They started dwindling off one-by-one after that. Cool Dude and Little Miss were the last ones to leave the Play-Doh table. They don't usually get to play with it, and they ask me for it all the time. They weren't going to be so fast to pass up the opportunity to play with it!

And I'm not sure how parents with more then two kiddos do it. I just got lunch together for four kiddos, and it must have taken me 15-20 minutes. And I only made PB&J sandwiches (for three of them). Perhaps it was the taking of the orders, finding out what kind of jelly, toasting the bread, then just the making of them. Then came the who wants what to drink, ect. I'm not sure why it was so difficult... Well, it wasn't THAT difficult, but it sure seemed to take longer then I'm used to lunch taking to make. :-) Maybe it's just because I'm finally seeing some BLUE SKY (which we haven't seen for DAYS), and I'm just jonesing to get back outside.

On that note, check out the links and the deals, then get yourselves outside too! (Weather permitting!)

:-D

Old Navy site update/leggies giveaway UPDATE

2009-06-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, so yesterday's failed attempt at a pool/giveaway was unplanned, unorganized, unadvertised (?), UNSUCCESSFUL and late. :-P

The idea came to me while visiting Deal Seeking Mom, and chatting with other ladies there about the Old Navy weekly page to update. ON weekly is a "coupon hunting" page on OldNavy.com. You have to search around the page, and click on certain things, and if you click the right items, or do the right things with those items, you're rewarded with a savings certificate. Certificates range from $75 off of a $100, $50 off of a $100 purchase, 15% off your entire purchase, 30% off your purchase, ect. There are some really great coupons (obviously), but they go REALLY fast. To be the first one on the site when it updates is a big deal, as then you have a better chance of finding the $75 off $100 coupon (and there are only a limited number of coupons).
Sooooooo.... The owner of Deal Seeking Mom has a giveaway on her site yesterday that she was able to give away 10 $50 of $100 purchase coupons. (Courtesy of ON.) To enter the drawing, you had to comment on her blog. You could enter as many times as you wanted. This became a chat forum as people waited for the ON site to update.
A few people suggested (I'm sure mainly as a joke) that someone should start a pool as to when ON would update their ON weekly site. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. The more I wanted to be the one to start it. Problem is, I didn't have anything to offer the winner of the pool. Certainly couldn't offer them an ON coupon or gift certificate. What do I have to offer??? LEGGIES!
I know that leggies aren't at all an ON gift certificate or coupon code, but they're something. And I know that they're a very specific size, but most people know SOMEONE who has someone of that size... Or they know someone who knows someone. Worse case scenario, sell them on eBay............
SOooooo......... If I can get myself together enough next time the ON site updates, I'll be offering this again. This is how it will work:

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd people to CORRECTLY guess the time and date of the ON weekly will win two (2) free pairs of leggies.

To enter, leave your guess as a comment on the blog titled "REAL GIVEAWAY FOR ON POOL." I'll link it up shortly. (Link now works.)

You must guess the correct time and date of the next update. (Remember to put your time guess with your time zone! I wouldn't want someone in CA to guess 12 PM, and not win because the site updated at 3 PM (EST).

Feel free to share this giveaway with others.

Don't forget to watch ON weekly for your chance to grab an AWESOME coupon! (And if you find one of the BIG coupons, feel free to share it with me! ;-) JK!... Kinda... ;-) )

Please, no more then three entry guesses per person. Thanks!

Old Navy Site update pool... Prize 2 pairs of Jacquelynnies leggies!

2009-06-19T08:05:00.000-07:00

If there is any way to find out the time and date of the ON (Old Navy) update, I'll offer the 1st, 2nd and 3rd CORRECT guessers 2 free pairs of leggies from http://www.jacquelynnies.weebly.com/.

Please someone let me know if there is a way to find out the time and date!

Send me a comment if there is.

If I find out how to do it, to enter, you would just send me your guess as a comment here.

Thanks!

Bloggie

More coupon codes for Restuarant.com

2009-06-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

If you missed the two dollars for a $25 gift certificate at Restuarant.com have no fear. Use the coupon code "DAD" at checkout, and get your $25 certificates for only four dollars. Not as good as the two dollar deal, but still pretty good! ;-D

Cleaning with OCD and ADD

2009-06-18T15:45:00.000-07:00

So I've decided that I have OCD and ADD. If you know me personally, I know that you're laughing right now. I know that the ADD is simple to see, but you might not agree with the OCD diagnosis. It's real and true though, my friend. All of the warning signs are there. Just watch me next time you see me. You'll be amazed.
I'm a real riot to be around sometimes. I can get so into and nit picky about something that's totally unrelated to the conversation at hand... But I'm paying total and complete attention to you... Somewhere. But really I am. ;-)
The FlyLady suggests that when you're cleaning to set a timer for 15 minutes. When the timer sounds, stop cleaning the room you're cleaning and go to the next room. This works so that you don't get bored with the current task at hand, and I guess it helps for the OCD person b/c then they try to hurry up and clean the next 15 minute task so that they can get back to the first one that they didn't finish.
This 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there doesn't work for me though. I get too frustrated with leaving too many projects undone. Once the time goes off I say to myself, "Okay, I can work on this for just another five minutes. Surely, five minutes won't hurt..."
The FlyLady does not work for me...
ALTHOUGH, she does say that when you have company coming over that you should be most concerned with cleaning (the mounds of laundry that are sitting on your furniture) that which is in the main line of vision of the front door: the foyer, under your couches that face the door, tables you see from the door, ect. It's true that first impressions last, and when your guest walks in, and sees how "clean" your house is they're less likely to notice the dirty sock that you missed under the chair.
So, I know HOW to clean (quickly AND thoroughly). I have my inspiration to clean.
My friend is my inspiration. She has two kids, a full time job, a husband with a full time (plus) job, she's active in her communities, and always has a clean house.
I walked in the other day, and she said something or another about the house being messy. I was there for 30-45 minutes, and I never did find the mess of which she spoke!
Anyway, we were there one night, and before we left I walked into the kitchen to get the kids coats. I saw that she had laid out on her table the breakfast bowls, cups and spoons for the next day. This really inspired me (that she was so "domestic"), and I would love to get my over crowded, over cluttered, super messy house clean.
So again, I know the know how. I have the inspiration... Now, if I could only find the motivation.... *sigh*

Restaurant.com gift certificates

2009-06-15T20:43:00.001-07:00

The coupon code PRESENT (for 80% off or $2 for a $25 dollar gift certificate) expires TONIGHT! (6/15/09)
I hope that you got yours in time!

Father's Day is coming!

2009-06-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

And I'm cheap, er, uh, frugal, remember??
Let's face it, leggies are hard to sell in the summer. Found this coupon code for an even BIGGER discount on restaurant.com on couponmom.com. Thought I'd share. Please share it with all of your friends!

80% off Restaurant.com Gift Certificates! Pay only $2 for a $25 certificate when you use code PRESENT Perfect for Father's Day Gifts!

Happy Almost Father's Day!
~Bloggie

Short, but moving prayer...

2009-06-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

A friend forwarded this to me. At first I was like, "Ugh. I've seen these a MILLION AND ONE times..." But I read it anyway, and it really moved me inside.
Just thought I'd share. :-)

Dear Lord, I thank You for this day,
I thank You for my being able to see and to hear this morning.
I'm blessed because You are
a forgiving God and
an understanding God.
You have done so much for me
and You keep on blessing me.
Forgive me this day for everything
I have done, said or thought
that was not pleasing to you.I ask now for Your forgiveness.
Please keep me safe
from all danger and harm.
Help me to start this day
with a new attitude and plenty of gratitude.
Let me make the best of each and every day
to clear my mind so that I can hear from You.
Please broaden my mind
that I can accept all things.

Let me not whine and whimper
over things I have no control over.And give me the best response
when I'm pushed beyond my limits.I know that when I can't pray,
You listen to my heart.
Continue to use me to do Your will.
Continue to bless me that I may be
a blessing to others.
Keep me strong that I may help the weak...
Keep me uplifted that I may have
words of encouragement for others.
I pray for those that are lost
and can't find their way.
I pray for those that are misjudged
and misunderstood.
I pray for those who don't know You intimately.

I pray for those that will delete this
without sharing it with others
I pray for those that don't believe.
But I thank You that I believe
that God changes people and
God changes things.

I pray for all my sisters and brothers.

For each and every family member
in their households.
I pray for peace, love and joy in their homes; that they are out of debt
and all their needs are met.
I pray that every eye that reads this
knows there is no problem, circumstance,
or situation greater than God.
Every battle is in Your hands for You to fight.

I pray that these words be received
into the hearts of every eye that sees it
in Jesus' name. Amen!

It's that time again.... again.

2009-06-12T21:25:00.000-07:00

(This is all over the place, and maybe a little hard to follow. It was written at 2 AM, and it's hard to cram two weeks of events (four years ago) into one blog posting. Not to mention that I was emotional while typing...)

Okay, so if you've ever read any of my other blogs, you know that around July I start to talk about my dad a lot. He passed away in July of 2005. Yes, we're working on our 4th anniversary.
Wow! I didn't even realize that it's been that long. I actually had to count out on my fingers to make sure that it was right. I mean, I know that 9 minus five is four, but it just didn't seem right. Wow!
So, four years, and I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. I've never dealt with my dad's passing. (For those of you who don't know, it happened rather suddenly. Well, if you want to call two weeks suddenly... suddenly enough.) I'm not sure when, if ever, I'll be able to deal with it. It's just something that's so big, so painful and so consuming I just don't know where to even start to deal with it. Sometimes, little bits and pieces will start to float to the surface of my brain, and then I'll have this HUGE, MESSY melt down, and it's pushed back to the furthest corners again. I'm just not ready -obviously.
In the two weeks before my dad passed, he was in the hospital. He had a "brain bleed." He had a ventilator, feeding tube, and a shunt in his (fore) head to relieve pressure that was building. I still hate the doctors. When they put the shunt in his head, they said that he was in a coma, and didn't know what was happening. I asked if they were going to give him some kind of anesthesia, and they said due to the coma, he didn't need it. I didn't believe that he was in a coma, as he would try to respond when I talked to him. He just wouldn't do stupid human tricks for the doctors. He never was one for stupid human tricks. ;-)
Anyway, they drilled a hole in his forehead, and put what looked like the tube part of a needle in it. And don't you know, that while they were drilling into his head, while he had NO SEDATION because he was in his "coma" his heart went all wonky. Heart attack? Yeah, probably. Of course, they wouldn't say that to us. Especially not after I was pushing for at least a local anesthesia for the process. I HATED his doctors.
Then, come to find out that the shunt could only stay in place for a few days (it was an external one) due to the risk of infection. What?! Most things were a blur in those few days, but I didn't and still don't remember them saying that. Turns out that they wound up taking that one out, and putting another on in his head on the other side. More shaving of the hair, more drilling, more bandages and tubes....
The day before he passed away, I prayed and prayed and prayed with a so strong faith that I didn't even know that I had. I prayed, and I actually felt a little better.
That night as we were going back home from the hospital, I saw a rainbow that was the most beautiful, vibrant rainbow that I've ever seen. It looked as if I could reach out the car window and actually touch it. It was like it was an actual tangible object, and not just light that's been split.
This rainbow felt to me as if it were the answer to my prayers. I was comforted by it. I still, however, talked to my BFF and asked her what a rainbow signifies in the Bible. She told me that it stands for God's promise. I knew this was an answer to my prayers, and I knew when I went back to the hospital the next day, even though when we left the night before he was starting to run a high fever, everything would be okay. I knew it in my brain, and I knew it in my heart.

The next day came, but we were greeted with bad news: The infection was getting worse, and they couldn't get it under control. After some time, the decision was made to take him off of all life sustaining machines. He had a living will that said that he didn't want to be on them anyway. We were already violating it by having him hooked up to so many things, but ya know, when it comes down to it, that's just such a hard decision to make -living will or not.
I will never forget his nurse that day. It was a man, and he had the most wonderful bedside manner of anyone I've ever met. I think that if you working in a ward such as ICU (or children's) then you had better have the BEST bedside manner ever. If not, you need not apply.
This nurse was so sweet. He was so understanding. He had so much compassion. He even let us bring Cool Dude (who was 20 months old) in to see him after all of the tubes and most of the wires were gone. I wish that I could thank him for those few hours he spent with us. I believe that he was an angel to help us along the beginning of our hard journey that day.
I wasn't in the room when my dad passed. I have a hard time forgiving myself for that. He wasn't alone. My fairy step mom was with him. She tells me that people usually wait for certain people to leave the room before they pass. It doesn't help relieve my guilt though. Nor does it help relieve any of the guilt that I feel because I feel that I'm the one who caused him to get sick.
You see, whenever anyone would come or go in the ICU, they would have to scrub up with antibacterial soap. There are germs everywhere, but staph, which is the infection that killed my dad, is apparently one of the most common. And it's quite common on your hands and under your nails.
My dad could only have the shunt in his head for so long due to risk of infection. When he still had it in, I would dab his sweaty brow with a tissue. I figured he had to be in enough pain and discomfort already, he surely wouldn't want sweat running down his face, or back on his head into is wound from his shunt. I'm afraid that I transferred staph from my hands to his head. I'm afraid that in trying too keep him comfortable I made him sick. In trying to keep him comfortable..... I killed him......

(See why I have a hard time dealing with it???)

I was so angry for such a long time. Yeah, I know that's a common reaction. I was angry though because God sent me a sign that everything was going to be okay. He sent me a rainbow. He sent me the SIGN of His promise.... And then he reniged on his deal.
It's taken me a loong time to be able to look at rainbows again. It just hurt too much. I HATED rainbows.
Then one day a friend put it to me like this, maybe it was God's promise that my dad would be taken care of AFTER he died. After all, The Lord knows everything. He knows what we do not know, and what we do not understand. He knew that my dad was going to pass, and this was his sign to me that he would be taken care of eternally.
After some time, this helped me. I still couldn't look at rainbows though. They still hurt too much.
Then I had another friend put a different spin on rainbows for me, and I wish that I could remember just exactly what she said. It was something along the lines of how a rainbow is not actually there. It's the raindrops acting as a prism, and splitting up the white light. Well, what if while that white light is being split up, it's opening a window to heaven, and allowing my dad to look down on us, and check in on us.
She said it much better, and it made much more sense. It was much more beautiful when she said it.
It's one of the few things said to me after he's died that have actually made me feel better. (With the first rainbow explanation being another that made me feel better.)
Rainbows still hurt to look at, and I still cry when I see them. Now though, I'm crying because I feel that for those few moments, I have visual proof that my dad is looking down on me. And I cry because I know that all too soon, the rainbows, like my dad, will be gone.

Graduation

2009-06-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

Cool Dude graduated pre-school today. *sniff, sniff*
And maybe an even bigger event was the fact that I did NOT cry! I was sooo close to it, and figured that if I did, I'd look a fool, and my make up would run down my face. I wasn't about have that... Or maybe it was the INCREDIBLY RUDE woman who, regardless of what side of the cafeteria I was on, came and stood RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME while I was watching, or WHILE I WAS TAKING PICTURES!
Really? Are you serious? I try to be so courteous at things like this. I try to make sure I'm not walking in people's pictures. I try to make sure that I'm not in their line of vision -sometimes that's impossible to help though, but this lady??? Nope. She didn't care AT ALL. Look, I know that I can be selfish, but not like this lady was. She seemed to think that she was the only person in the room. I secretly wished that DH was up with me because I KNOW that he wouldn't have just been seething inside. He would have said something. I almost did, but I really didn't want to cause drama (and this is the kind of lady who would have turned it into a drama) at Cool Dude's graduation.
Rude lady aside, the graduation was one of the cutest things I've seen in a while. Cool Dude is soo well with all of his songs and poems. I really think that he was the best singer there. And really, I'm not just saying that because (he's the main one I was watching) I'm his mom. He was VERY loud -not something he gets from me. He knew all of the words. He knew all of the actions. He had me SOOO proud.
And I can't believe that he was just so little, and so completely dependent on me such a short while ago. He's gotten so big so fast. It's really amazing just how fast the time slips by without us ever noticing.
I also can't believe that Little Miss will be starting pre-school next year. *giggle, giggle, giggle* Gracious! Her teachers are in for QUITE a surprise with her! She's not the laid back, easy going sport that Cool Dude is. She's into EVERYTHING, and she DOES NOT take the word "No" lightly. Gracious! Are they in for a world of trouble. *giggle, giggle, giggle* -But I guess I really shouldn't laugh, should I? They can still choose to send her back home to me every day! ACK!
Of course, I'm finally realizing that she's hyperactive just as I am. Growing up, I wasn't allowed to have sugar, artificial flavorings or colors, chocolate or caffeine. Sounds like it would have made for a suckey time, but looking back now, I don't remember missing any of it too much. (I'm sure that I did then though.) I have a wonderful appreciation for fruits and veggies, and I LOVE things like dried fruit. You would think that I'd have better teeth now though... Maybe it's because once I got old enough, I more then made up for lost time.
So anyway, I'm noticing that with limiting Little Miss's diet, I don't bang my head against the wall with her as much. I'm hoping to cut out A LOT of stuff from her diet, but I'm going to need a lot of help from friends and family with that. I'm going to need them to understand that, no, she MAY NOT have that. No, not even one little piece. I don't care how bad she wants it. I don't care if you think it's okay if you spoil her. No. I don't care. I'm the one who's Mommy. I have final ruling on it. UGH! Why do some people feel the need to blatantly disrespect parental wishes??????!!!!
That's a whole other post for a whole other day. I've already been all over the board today. Welcome to the randomness that is my mind, and the chaos that is my life! ;-)
Congratulations on your graduation, Cool Dude!

Frugal or cheap?

2009-06-11T17:53:00.001-07:00

So, am I cheap?

I love the dollar store. I mean, I L-O-V-E the dollar store. Tonight I told one of my friends (who also loves the dollar store, though maybe not as much as me) that if it came down to my husband or the dollar store, it would be pretty close. Just kidding of course! ;-) But really, I do A LOT of shopping there.

Have you been to one lately? I mean, a good one.

Dollar Tree is my all time favorite. They have everything there. I mean EVVEERRYthing. They have your run of the mill candles, flat wear, brushes and whatnot's, but they also have frozen food -I mean some name brand stuff that I get in the Acme, they have flip flops, they have ARTS AND CRAFTS (cool stuff too!), fun toys. Heck, they even have lingerie, ovulation predictor tests, and pregnancy tests! I had to laugh the first time I saw the pregnancy tests. I wished (for a brief moment) that I was pregnant so that I could see if it actually was reliable. I joked about this with the girl who worked there, and she said that they actually came from the same place Walmart gets theirs. Who knew? (We do now.)

So anyway, I do A LOT of shopping there. Yes, I've bought their food. It's actually decent, and it's not old, leftover, frozen, unfrozen, refrozen, icky stuff like I was afraid it would be. Yes, I've bought their lingerie. I have a cute little cami/tap pant outfit that I have yet to wear. It's really cute though. Common... two bucks for a cute little number?? Even if it's disposable, I've spent more money on more ridiculous stuff before.
Yes, I've bought the party supplies. Who hasn't? I've bought the cheap toys. Lots of them are REALLY cute though. (And some even have a good mark up price on them!) I buy the arts and crafts items religiously. Really helps pass the time with two kids! And the coloring books, oh my word, the coloring books! I can't tell you how many we have from there. Shipping supplies -bubble mailers, address labels and return labels, packing tape, legal and letter envelopes, stationary. They have it all.

I LOVE the dollar store.

I also love thrift stores. I love to get a bargain there, plus, it's like treasure hunting for me. I love to find a NWT (new with tag for you not so eBay savvy readers) pair of Gap jeans for six bucks or less. I love to leave with bags of kids clothing (which will all be washed on hot water for the first time) for 70 bucks -most still new with tags. I love to get books for 50 cents. I love to find cross stitch packets -brand new again for a dollar, and then turn around and sell them for A LOT more then that on eBay. I love getting fabric remnants from there, and making dresses for Little Miss. I love tearing apart clothing from there, and up-cycling them into something new. I LOVE IT!

Another thing I love, and this is where DH called me super cheap tonight are the kids cups from restaurants. They're thick plastic ones, and they have these great lids. I take them home and use them until Little Miss chews them until the lids no longer fit on them.

We went out to dinner with friends tonight, and Cool Dude, his BFF, and Little Miss each got a kid's drink. Little Miss got two. On the way out, I asked my friend if she wanted the cup. This was as I was grabbing Little Miss' cup. She said no, and noticed I was taking the empty, and told me to take hers if I wanted it. I explained that they're really great b/c of the lids, and Little Miss chews all of the cups, so I have to throw them away. She kinda chuckled, and said that it was a good idea, but I wonder how cheap she really thinks I am????? I mean, they're not the cheap, hard plastic ones that when you bend them they crack. They're the softer ones; the more "high quality" of plastic restaurant cups, if you will.

DH called me cheap when he saw that I had four cups when we were leaving. (Little miss had two drinks.) He told me I was so cheap.

Whatever. Maybe I am. Or maybe I'm just frugal.

New view on blog reading...

2009-06-09T19:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm uber sensitive to lots of things. I cry when watching REMOTELY sad or happy movies. I want to donate all of my money (not that I have any) to different charities. I have to fight back the tears when I see other kids crying. (This was a hard task when two kids on the playground -one of whom is on of Cool Guy's BFF's got hurt the other day.) I cry when I watch Johnson & Johnson's commercials... And don't even get me started on the Chicken Soup books!

So can someone PLEASE tell me why I've found myself stuck reading tons and tons and tons of blogs of families of sick babies and kiddos. I'm so emotional all the time, and I'm reading these roller coaster rides of these AMAZING families. Really, I don't know how they do it. Reading these blogs make all of my problems sooo trivial. They remind me of just how lucky, and just how blessed we really are to not have to deal with the trials of some of the families... Families that have the amazing ability to push on, and families that have the most AMAZING FAITH ever.

I once read something or another about why the Lord allows suffering of His children. It was something along the lines of how it brings out the good in people, and how it draws us closer together, and closer to Him. These blogs are the workings of His miracles, as, through their pain and suffering, they are opening up the hearts of countless people. They're touching places in peoples hearts, and opening them up to the Lord without even knowing it. They're causing multitudes of people to pray -to speak to Him.

And, okay, sometimes when I think about it, I get angry that He should work that way -calling us to Him through someone else's suffering, that is. But I know that we do not understand His ways. I know that we CANNOT understand His ways. I know though, that it truly IS a MIRACLE how people DO connect, DO draw together, and DO call out to Him through these sufferings.

And the one who is at the heart of the suffering, the one who is suffering, well, it's just amazing to think that they are responsible for this miracle of, well, love from sooo many people. THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MIRACLE. So this "burden" of being sick that they bear, well, I'm sure that their parents would give it up for them in an instant, but really, they're at the center of a miracle. And to me, that's awe inspiring.

And maybe that's why I've been reading these blogs. Not because I like to cry my heart out for someone elses sufferings, but because I just want to be able to be that much closer to a miracle.

When the Muse decends

2009-06-09T19:13:00.000-07:00

Do you know where I find that I have the most inspiration? In the bathroom. Nice, eh? No, it's not while I'm using the "facilities." That would just be TOO GROSS to blog about, and quite frankly, I'm not THAT comfortable blogging to you guys about stuff like that.

It could be while I"m in the shower, brushing my teeth, or even in the ten seconds between when I close the door and Little Miss starts screaming as if I've just excommunicated her for life. (Yes, she IS quite the drama queen. I can't imagine WHERE she gets it!)

Yup. I'm inspired by my bathroom. Great. And by the time I get downstairs to the computer... Yup. You guessed it... My train of thought is derailed, and all of my wonderful blogging stories just washed down the drain with the toothpaste.

Inspired by the bathroom. Great...

Here I am

2009-05-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, here I am. I finally have a "Blog Spot." Now all I need in one of those wonderful contraptions out of Stephen King's Tommyknockers and I'm all set. You know about what I'm talking. The thingy that, oh... What's her name?? Bobbie? The lead character wears, and it reads her thoughts and prints them on paper. I've wanted one of those things FOR YEARS! I hear that they're pretty expensive in these parts though. Guess I'll have to move to Bangor, Maine, and trip over a spaceship out in the woods if I want one. ;-)

Really, I really need one of them. At any given moment (when I'm away from the computer) I have about a gazillion perfect blogging topics in my head. And of course when I sit here they've all gone somewhere else. I guess I forgot to put the corks in my ears again... (The ones that keep the thoughts from falling out.) *sigh*

Stay tuned... Hopefully I'll remember something worth writing and reading!