Sarandipity

Just a Reminder That I've Moved!

2008-03-13T14:18:00.001-04:00

I'm having a great time over on wordpress now. Come on over and see me sometime! Oh, and don't forget to update your blog roll and readers!

My New Blog

What's Been Going On In My Life Lately

2008-02-12T10:42:00.000-05:00

Ok, So I posted before that things in my life are changing and I'm hoping it's for the better.

Last week was my final week of babysitting. I am both happy and sad about this change. I'm happy in that I'll finally be able to get my life back on track in terms of doing my own thing, cleaning when I want, etc. I'm sad because I will miss both Baby Girl and the money it brought in. But, now that I'll have my time back during Bugs nap, I'll be able to post on my blog more, be a part of my online baby boards that I have been sadly neglecting since well before Christmas, reconnect with online friends and I can get my cleaning schedule back on track.

I'm hoping that with the lack of babysitting, I can also get myself back on a decent eating habit. After I started babysitting, my eating habits went down the drain. I haven't been the best person to count on for eating breakfast, just ask my mom, yet I always make sure Bug has something to eat first thing in the morning, generally a bowl of cereal or a piece of fruit. While I was baby sitting, I'd have to shower and do most of my cleaning first thing (vacuuming, sweeping, general straightening, cleaning the cat and dog pans, etc) because it was all stuff that needed to be done before the day could begin. This left little time for me to sit down and have a healthy breakfast with Bug. I would normally put a cup of tea in the microwave and would either forget that it was in there long after the beep or be seen scarfing it down quickly right as Baby Girl arrived. I usually get hungry around 10am or so if I don't eat first thing and since I didn't want to eat in front of Baby Girl because she'd want what I was eating (I didn't want to share...lol), I just didn't eat. Also, I wasn't always the best at eating with the kids at lunch. I'd stay with them and supervise them, but at the same time I'd be finishing laundry or trying to check my email. I often wouldn't eat until well after Bug went down for his nap...usually around 2pm...I'm hoping that since I don't have to clean first thing anymore, I can sit down and enjoy a relaxed and hot meal with my son. And, I know I can sit down and eat lunch with him since there is no need to rush to get other things done fast before the quietness had to envelope my house.

The other thing I'm hoping for is for less stress. I am starting to think that watching Baby Girl was messing with my stress level and my health, as well as my diet. I started stressing over if I'd picked up all the little toys Bug was playing with and put them out of reach. Did I clean everything I needed too? Was Baby Girl going to be exceptionally whiny today? Was she going to give me attitude when I told her no? Was she going to eat? Was she going to finally drink her milk? Was she going to nap well? I fully believe that my parenting style and Baby Girls' parents parenting style were completely different. There are things that I just had to accept that never would have flown with Bug. Anyway, I'm not entirely convinced that my stress level has anything to do with, but I'm waiting to see if A) my stomach pains that I've been experiencing each month go away and B) I get pregnant. Darling Hubby and I have been sorta trying since last July, but it's been a no go. I'm sure fate has reasons for us not getting pregnant yet. I'll be sad if we don't have a second child, but I'm just enjoying Bug right now.

I'm hoping things will get better for me and Darling Hubby in the relationship department, too. Lately, like I said, I've just been feeling stressed out with keeping up appearances, so to speak, and how my day goes that I just feel burnt out at the end of the day. Fingers crossed that now that I'm getting back on my own schedule, I'll get better about being a snuggler.

As for the 2nd income, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I've been doing some writing for Associated Content, which my friend Annie over at Fried PorkChop told me about. They pay you for writing articles for them. So far I've been paid for 3 of the 4 articles I've written. Maybe now that I'll have a bit more computer time I'll be able to come up with some article topics, as well as blog topics.

And since so much has changed in my life I figured I'd make one more big change. I'm moving. Now don't start to worry, I'm not going to physically move from my house (I like it here), I'm moving my blog. I decided a while ago that I wasn't going to participate in the big bloggy move that my friend Megan was a part of, but when I checked out her new blog it made me think that a change could be good for me, too.

So, after some consideration, I'm moving to wordpress. After checking out their site I decided it would be easier to use then Blogger, although I have nothing against Blogger. I think I just need easier in my life.

Come check me out at my new digs - http://sarandipity9702.wordpress.com/ It's still a work in progress, so pardon the dust until I can get everything sorted out and cleaned up. Don't forget to update your blogroll, if I'm part of it, and your blog reader.

Blast From The Past - Bug's Birth Story

2008-02-11T14:50:00.000-05:00

So after posting my previous post about Bug's 3rd birthday, I got to thinking about his birth story. I remembered typing it up and posting in on my old LiveJournal, so I headed over there and dug it out of the archives. So, for those of you who never had the joy of hearing how Bug came into the world, here you go!

Originally posted on Live Journal, February 11, 2005 @ 2:17PM. It has been edited for spelling and names have been changed.

Well, Bug is finally here after one heck of a ride. If anyone wants to know how things went during delivery, here's the birth story (I actually have a moment to type it...he's sleeping in his swing after eating...yeah!)

Well, on Saturday January 29th, I woke up at 1am with minor contractions. They weren't too painful and were about 10 minutes apart or so. That lasted all morning. I ended up watching TV all morning in bed until around 6am when Darling Hubby finally got up. He had asked me on Friday to cut his hair so, while I was in early labor, I'm cutting his hair...lol We thought that labor would progress faster so we got up and milled around the house. By 6pm things had started to move along a little better. I was timing contractions all day long and they were finally consistently about 3-6 minutes apart. I called the doctor and she said that I could come in and get checked.

At the hospital, they checked me and I was only about a 2. They admitted me since I was so overdue and hooked me up to all these different machines and IV's. I could have slugged the nurse that put in my IV. She tried in 4 different places on my hands and arms until she found a place where she wasn't hurting me. A couple places actually started to bleed all over the place - the bed and the floor...that wasn't fun. I had so many wires and hoses coming out of me that it wasn't funny. There was the contraction monitor, Bug's heartbeat monitor, my IV with the tubes for the Pitocin, Glucose solution, and Penicillin (for the group B strep).

My friend Rachelle from back home arrived around 8 (I was talking to her on the phone before I went to the hospital and I was supposed to call her once they admitted me.) Her boyfriend told her just to come up because more than likely, he would be born within the next day or so. I was actually trying to call her on her cell when she was walking in the door.

They kept checking me and I was dilating pretty slowly, despite the pitocin. They broke my water, which wasn't clear...meaning that Bug had already had his first bowel movement. There was a risk that if he inhaled or swallowed some of the amniotic fluid that he could get pneumonia or have other breathing problems.

Around midnight, the contractions were coming closer together and were getting pretty painful. I was near tears most of the time and squeezing both Darling Hubby's and Rachelle's hands. I was actually afraid that I would hurt them. I ended up begging for the epidural. They made Darling Hubby and Shell leave the room - probably because if he heard the doctor say "oops" he probably would have decked him. The anesthesiologist who came in to do the job had no sense of humor and didn't make me feel all that comfortable. He actually scared me because he poked me in the back with a pen to mark my spine. I jumped and he was like "it was only a pen...you need to hold still." He never warned me...Can't be prepared for something if I don't know someone is going to stick me with something. Anyway, I felt much better after the epidural was put in. The only downside was that I couldn't get out of bed and walk around, much less go to the bathroom. They had to insert a catheter...luckily I couldn't feel it. So add to the previous list of wires, the epidural in my back, the catheter, and 3 cardiac monitors - to make sure that I was handling the epidural without heart problems. They also hooked me up to a blood pressure cuff that was programmed to check my pressure every 15 minutes. It was hard to get sleep when your arm is squeezed every 15 minutes. Plus, when they changed my positions (I couldn't move on my own) if they put me on the side with the cuff, it would register that my pressure was high causing a monitor to beep, annoyingly, until a nurse came in and turned it off...they had to keep doing that.

I was also starting to get really hot so they were giving me wet cloths to wipe my face with and the nurse even turned down the heat. Poor Darling Hubby and Shell were freezing. Rachelle had on 4 layers of clothing, plus she had one of the blankets from my bed.

By morning, I was starting to feel the contractions again because the epidural was starting to wear off. They kept changing my positions to see if they could get the pain to go away, but it wasn't working. They were going to give me more meds in my epidural, but there was an emergency c-section that required the anesthesiologist and all the nurses. Someone was having triplets...ouch!

Ok, so

Well, after the whole triplet chaos, they came in and gave me some more medication, but that was really all they could give me because after a few times, the medication would become toxic. It helped for about an hour and started to wear off again. My doctor came in and checked me...I was up to 7cm. They decided to up my pitocin and insert a monitor to see exactly how strong my contractions were...yet one more wire...I was actually begging them before they started all this for the c-section because I couldn't take it anymore. The doctor said they couldn't do that without a good medical reason. So I had another 1/2 hour-45 minutes of pain. It turns out that my contractions just weren't strong enough to keep me progressing and with the fact that Bug had already had his first bowel movement, it was necessary to get him out sooner rather the later.

They got me all set to go into the OR. Darling Hubby was given scrubs to change into. We called my parents just to let them know that I was going into surgery, in case something happened. I was pretty scared at the aspect of being gutted like a fish, but it was for the best. The new anesthesiologist was great and actually had a sense of humor. He made me numb from my chest down so I couldn't feel a thing. They wheeled me into the OR and moved me onto the operating table. I still had the cardiac monitors, the blood pressure cuff, the epidural, the catheter, the IV, and now these inflatable air casts that would breath to keep the blood flowing in my legs. I was shivering uncontrollably because at this point I was so cold and scared. They put this big plastic pillow across my arms and started blowing warm air through it. They covered it with a towel and it kept me nice and warm. I still felt bad for Darling Hubby once he got in there because he was only wearing thin little scrubs and it was pretty cold in the room.

They checked to make sure that I was completely numb. I guess they were pinching me pretty hard with some instrument. I could feel them rubbing my belly down with the orange liquid. I didn't feel them cut me open, but I could feel a ton of pressure as they were digging around in there. It was like a great weight was lifted out of me when they pulled Bug out. Darling Hubby got a couple pictures, but the doctor was in the way so you really can't tell where his head is and whatnot. Normally they show the mom the baby over the screen, but since there was the problem with the meconium, they whisked him off to the corner to check him and make sure his airways were clear. I, of course, started to cry the instant he started to cry. I was just happy that he was breathing and crying. It was another 45 mintues until they got me sewed back up. Darling Hubby snapped a couple of pictures of Bug after they cleaned him up. He did well on his apgar scores with and 8 and a 9.

He was born at exactly 12:12pm on January 30, 2005, weighing in at a whopping 9lbs 13oz, 21 inches long. He's doing great, except for the breastfeeding, but he's eating formula like mad and gaining weight. He lost a pound before being released from the hospital, but as of Monday the 7th, he was back up to 9lbs 11oz.

Well, I had better get going. Bug's going to wake up soon for his feeding and I'm sure he's going to be hungry. Later

Better Late Than Never Birthday Post

2008-02-11T14:35:00.000-05:00

Ok, so this post is only nearly 2 weeks overdue, but hey, life keeps getting in the way of my blogging time. I think from now on things will get better in that department (and a lot of departments in my life), but first, here's my birthday boy, who turned 3 on January 30th!

The little girl, Baby Girl, that I babysat (I'm no longer watching her) and her parents bought Bug this little Lightning McQueen remote controlled race car. Bug loves it. It runs around in a backwards circle and when you push the button on the remote control (very 3 year old friendly) it goes forward. He zoomed it all over the house that day (except when it freaked out Baby Girl,) and for days after. He also got the book Philadelphia Chickens by Sandra Boynton. If you've never heard of Sandra Boynton or her books, you should go check them out! Bug's newest song addiction is the Belly Button Song. We also have the Belly Button Book which is where the song came from. Needless to say, it's stuck in my head right now...

For dinner, I made Bug's favorite meal...Spaghetti with homemade sauce. Here he was being goofy for the camera. Typical 3 year old...

After dinner we broke out the present. He was so excited to open it.

He got the DC Super Friends Green Lantern on a motorized scooter thingy...

He really wanted Daddy to open it...and fast...like the Flash!

Here is Green Lantern running around...veeerrrryyy slllloooowwwlllyy, I might add... around our living room with Bug in ~~hot~~ cold pursuit.

The only problem with the above toy is that it's very hard for a 3 year old to affix the Green Lantern to the scooter. I'm always being asked to help with it, which gets a little tedious when you've got your hands occupied with something else. Then, it gets placed on the floor to slowly run amok into the corners of the room until Mommy tells Bug to move him...But, at least he's happy and Green Lantern can now hang with his other super friends, Batman, Superman, and Flash, in the superhero bin under the TV.

All in all, I think his actual birthday was a good one. I can't believe that my baby is 3 now. He's come a long way from that little (I say little even though he was nearly 10lbs) baby that needed me to do everything for him to a head strong 3 year old who only wants me to do some things for him. I'm sad to see my little baby go, but I'm glad he's becoming self-sufficient and can do things for himself, tell me what he wants and needs and is just all around joy to be around.

We had a mini party for him on Sunday, the 3rd with just my parents. I'll post pics of that later on when I get the chance. That was when we had cake and ice cream, so fear not, I have pics of him blowing out the candles.

So Much To Do...So Little Time!

2008-02-01T10:48:00.000-05:00

So, my mom and dad are coming up for a little "mini party" for Bug's 3rd birthday on Sunday. We are just having lunch and cake and ice cream...Nothing fancy. I decided that this year might be too much for him if we invited family and friends so we are keeping it small...super small. My mom and dad missed out on Bug's first 2 birthday parties so that's the reason I invited just them. Plus, they never come to visit so I figured if I could get them out of the house for a day it would be good for them. Let's hope they don't disappoint. I think Bug is looking forward to their visit.

I have a ton of stuff to accomplish before they arrive. You know, I have this thing where I have to clean pretty well before family comes to visit, esp my mom since she's a clean person...you could eat off her kitchen floor. I wouldn't recommend that in my house. My floor is clean and swept daily (and spot cleaned when those sticky spots start showing up), but not always mopped clean... Anyway, I'm a list maker so I figured I'd make a list of all the things I have to do here for all the public to see (and maybe hold me accountable) and that way I might be more apt to get it all done before they arrive Sunday morning, provided the temperature won't drop below 40 and it's not icing or snowing...

I'll update this post and cross things off as I get them done.

~~Bake Bug's birthday cake~~
Bug helped me with that this morning...it's currently cooling.
~~Decorate Bug's birthday cake~~
Clean the kitchen (~~Empty dish drainer~~, wash dishes, empty dish drainer again, wipe down counters)
~~Clean the bathrooms.~~ I even cleaned the tub...even though mom won't check there...at least I don't think she will!
~~Sweep and mop the bathrooms, kitchen, living room and dining room floors.~~
~~Vacuum the rugs in the office, living room and Bug's room.~~ Although I'm sure I'll do this again Sunday morning.
~~Finish putting away all the dried laundry.~~
~~Sweep the front porch.~~
Clean out the cat and dog pans.
Make my bed. gasp!
Dust
Straighten up all the toys and put them away.

OK, let's see how much I can get done before Darling Hubby gets home. Provided it's not icy outside we plan to go out in search of a big boy mattress for Bug (A local Mom and Pop store is having a mattress sale so we'll go check them out) and then to Friendly's for a birthday treat. Bug LOVES Friendly's and he's got a coupon for a free kids meal. Then, I get up tomorrow and start tackling all the stuff I didn't get done today...on top of grocery shopping...ugg!

Food For Friday 2/4-2/8 & 2/11-2/15

2008-02-01T10:30:00.000-05:00

OK, it's time for another edition of Food For Friday. I'm feeling rather disorganized with my menu this time around, although I've actually started prepping for it Thursday...and I'm not disorganized...really...it just feels that way.

Sunday 2/3 - My parents are coming for a visit for Bug's b-day. I'm making Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu. I made this last week and Darling Hubby just LOVED IT!! It's definitely something that's going in the recipe box!

Monday - Craft night - Sadaf's turn to cook. I will probably make Hamburger Helper before I leave.
Tuesday - Breakfast for Dinner - Bacon/sausage/SPAM and eggs with toast or maybe French Toast.
Wednesday - Pizza
Thursday - Game Night - Turkey Burgers and Homemade Fries
Friday - BBQ Spare Ribs, mashed potatoes and veggies

Monday - Craft Night - Rose's turn to cook. I'll probably make burgers/dogs and fries before I leave.
Tuesday - Rotisserie chicken breast, stuffing and veggies
Wednesday - Stuffed pork chops, rice-a-roni, and veggies
Thursday - Crockpot Beef Stew - Nothing says Happy Valentines Day like a beef stew! lol
Friday - Tacos

A Quirky Meme

2008-01-31T19:19:00.000-05:00

My friend Annie over at Fried PorkChop has bestowed me (amongst other things that I will get to later) with the great task of a meme...well, here goes...

The directions:
(1) Link to the person that tagged you.
(2) Post the rules on your blog.
(3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
(4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
(5) Let each random person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

(ONE) I once collected TY Beanie Babies...yes, I'll admit it...I was a beanie baby junkie...I was a member of their beanie board and stalked it on occasion. It was like a drug high (although I've never actually been high on drugs, so I really wouldn't know what feels like, but I can assume) when I came across some new ones in the store that I didn't have in my collection. I HAD THEM ALL for a while. Slowly that phase in my life petered out. I've boxed some of the ones that I really liked and put them away. I've sold a few and donated some. I've moved on to collecting Eeyores...although I haven't felt the need to buy EVERY SINGLE ONE I SEE in a while.

(TWO) I DVR my soaps so I can watch them later. I only watch All My Children and One Life to Live, but AMC falls right when I put Bug down for his nap so I'll watch OLTL and then go back and watch AMC. I need to know what's happening in Pine Valley and Llanview.

(THREE) Like Annie, I sometimes I wish I could go back and do some of my high school career over again. I wouldn't be as serious as I was all the time. I wouldn't always have my nose in a book or be teachers pet (come on, I really liked being the teachers pet). I think the one thing I wouldn't change would be my time spent in band. I really think that helped define me. My memories in band are the what remind me I was happy in HS.

(FOUR) I hate to be late to meetings or appointments so I'm always at least 10-15 minutes early. When I was in high school I'd always arrive to marching band practice at least 30 minutes early. I'm a clock watcher, too. If things aren't on time by my watch it drives me crazy.

(FIVE) I sometimes count my steps when I'm walking. I always count my steps when I'm going up or down the stairs, esp in the dark so I know where I am and I don't fall. I sometimes count to help me fall asleep.

(SIX) I hate when my grocery list isn't neat. If too many things have been written in badly (i.e. the handwriting is bad) or things have been crossed off, I have to rewrite the whole thing. I like pages to be neat and tidy.

Ok, there we have it...six random things no one should really know about me! lol Here are the people I'm tagging... Shannon, Corey, Stacie, Lori, Meghan and Keara

Goin' Old School Rocks

2008-01-26T12:58:00.000-05:00

Thursday night was game night in our abode and it was one of the most fun game nights I've had in a long time. Despite not being completely up to snuff on how the rules worked, having switched gears completely, I did really well. My friend Bernie was a big help by printing out the entire list of spells I can cast, including a spell list for my daily spells, as well as a list of what creatures I can summon. We just have a few more lists to work out and I'll be home free.

Honestly, I have to say, being a magic wielding Druid really kicks mechanical butt...literally! Up to the midway point in the game I was pretty useless. The spells I had chosen weren't really things that could help us (being I'm a Druid, I need nature and we were, unfortunately, underground) so I was feeling quite useless, aside from being the note taker for the night. We finally got into a spot where my skills were useful. I can shape change into small, medium and large creatures that I'm familiar with. We ended up coming across some metal cables strung haphazardly about this passageway and they sent me in the form of a hawk, swooping down the tunnel. In passing, I brushed up against one of the cables and was in for a great surprise. Not only was I sticking fast where I touched it, but I had volts of electricity coursing through my feathery body. Thankfully our GM didn't feel the need to taser me for the real effect.

Cue the entrance of the giant mechanical spider...Have I mentioned in this blog before that I really hate spiders?

By the middle of the battle, our resident flying pixie, Tink (Bernie) was also caught in the mechanical spiders web and since the other party members were rather useless at freeing us from it's venomous bites and electric webs without getting caught themselves, it was up to me. For my last shape change of the day, I transformed into a large, hulking brown bear. My struggling against the webbing attracted the spider to my location where I proceeded to beat the living crap out of it. I was really impressed with myself. After its mechanical failure and demise, I was able to tear myself from the webbing, which was still sticky, but no longer electrified. I should say that I did take quite a beating from the webbing and the spiders bites and my hit points were nearing the zero mark rapidly when the battle subsided. Thankfully, our resident Cleric (Darling Hubby, otherwise known in the game as Skrewdat (simply because he couldn't use the name he'd used for his last character creation...the GM said, "no" and DH said, "Screw that!")) was able to heal me up and fast, before our next battle ensued...but I wasn't a part of that one. That was all Tink and some talking doors.

Oh, I should mention that Darling Hubby had a good night, too. He took out 4 ghouls in one swipe with a turn undead spell. It was pretty cool. They were there and suddenly, they were piles of dust on the floor.

Gotta love Old School!

100th Post = 100 Random Things About Me!

2008-01-23T14:04:00.000-05:00

Huzzah! It's my 100th post! I can't believe I've actually had 100 different things to talk about. Well, in honoring the blogging world tradition of posting a list of 100 things, I'm posting a list of 100 things about me...they are in no particular order and some are VERY random. Happy reading!

I like to do laundry. I enjoy seeing the dirty, smell clothes go into the washer and come out smelling clean and fresh. I like hanging them out on the clothesline in the backyard in the summer and on drying racks in the winter. I like folding up those clean dry clothes and putting them away. It feels good to see the whole process through from start to finish.
On the other hand. I hate the act of washing dishes. I like the end result of having clean dishes and clear counters, but I hate actually washing and scrubbing.
I love chocolate, especially homemade hot chocolate in the winter.
Christmas is my favorite holiday...and not because of the presents.
Cats are my favorite animals.
I own 1 cat, 3 dogs and a tank full of tropical fish.
I enjoy cooking and eating.
I love to sleep.
I'm not a morning person.
I enjoy doing crafts (scrapbooking, quilting, crocheting and knitting)
I hate being cold
I have a blanket obsession...see 11
I watch too much tv. It's gotten worse since we had the DVR installed.
I really should listen to more music.
I love taking pictures.
I have a 14G hard drive on my computer that just for pictures. It has 10G full already.
I love to type and write things out by hand. I like my handwriting most days.
I love to read and have a whole bookshelf of books that have yet to be cracked.
I'm a good listener.
I can't stand following politics. Even the thought of it makes me go crazy.
I love sitting in front of the fireplace soaking up the warmth.
I'm scared of lighting matches, the ones in the little books. I can manage just fine if they are the stick matches. I'm afraid of burning my fingers.
Curling up under a nice warm blanket with a hot beverage and a good book is one of my favorite ways to pass the time
I don't drink coffee (yuck!) Tea for me, please.
I like to have a clean house, but sometimes hate the process to get there.
I never make my bed in the morning...it only gets made if I change the sheets.
I like getting mail in the hopes that something good will be waiting for me. I love getting packages...even if they are just little free samples of things I've requested online.
I'm nosy. I need to know what's going on outside my house if I see police, firetrucks, or ambulances.
I hate when people come around knocking on my door trying to preach their way of religion on me. Honestly, if I wanted religion, I'd find it myself.
I don't have a problem with religion...I can talk with others about their religion...I just hate when others feel the need to push their religion on me, trying to convert me.
I'm a gamer. Yep, I play Dungeons and Dragons.
I talk with my hands when I tell a story, even if I'm on the phone.
I believe in ghosts and enjoy a good spooky story during Halloween.
I've had my own paranormal experience.
I love watching Ghost Hunters on SciFi.
I really enjoy it when it's nap time in my house. I really can use the quiet time to myself to craft, blog or watch tv.
My favorite cartoon character is Eeyore.
I love the color purple.
My favorite movies are Elizabethtown, LOTR, Pirates of the Caribbean (1-3), Dirty Dancing & Serendipity.
I like my hair. It's long and straight and easy to manage.
I never blow dry my hair. I let it air dry.
I like to cut my hair once every couple years and donate it to Locks of Love to make wigs for kids who suffer from medical hair loss.
My favorite books are Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel and the Harry Potter series.
I hate drinking plain water. I prefer juice (cranberry, grapefruit and orange)
I'm sometimes bad about calling friends back. I usually think that I'll find a better time to call them back and I never do...
I used to bite my nails until I got engaged and my friend Shannon took me to get my nails done in acrylics. After that I try not to chew them off anymore. I've been successful at keeping them long.
I'm not looking forward to potty training Bug.
I once starved myself for a boy (not Darling Hubby). Lost 10 lbs in a week. It was a stupid thing to do.
I have 2 older brothers. One is 20 years older than me, the other 18 years older.
I gave away my oldest brothers wife during their wedding. I was 9 months old. The minister asked, "Who gives this woman?" and I answered in my loud wee voice, "ME!"
I was a Girl Scout from the age of 6-12.
I've sold so many magazine subscriptions and cookies, it's not even funny.
I've been to Girl Scout camp (Camp Amahami) on many occasions.
My parents built me a tree house when I was away at Girl Scout camp one year.
I played flute from 5th grade through 12th grade.
I started marching band when I was in 6th grade.
I never memorized the music that first year so I faked it in parades.
I learned the alto saxophone in 10th grade so I could join jazz band. I played flute in jazz band, too.
I taught myself the trumpet in 12th grade because we needed extra trumpets in marching band for our performance in The Disney Magic Music Days in Disney World.
Our band director said I was the loudest trumpet.
Darling Hubby chaperoned that Disney Trip. Keep in mind I was 17 and he was 25.
On school band trips, I've only ever roomed with C Shell. We always managed to get a room to ourselves. We weren't good at sharing with others.
I've been to band camp.
I was on Honor Roll in school.
I was a member of the Honor Society.
I graduated 4th in my class.
I never really felt close to many people in my graduating class. Most of those who I was friends with have fallen off the face of the planet.
I never went on my senior trip.
This year is my 10 year reunion...I'm scared!
I've never broken a bone (knock on wood)
I've fallen both up and down stairs.
I've had stitches and staples.
I was bitten in the face by my own dog (German shepherd) when I was 3 - resulting in the aforementioned stitches.
I've had a c-section. Hence the staples.
I hate calling doctor offices to schedule appointments.
I hate spiders.
Most of the stuff filling up our attic belongs to me. My mom saved everything.
I use canvas bags when I go grocery shopping.
I wear glasses and have since I was 6. I had contacts in high school, but they were to high maintenance for me.
When I have computer access, I check my emails a zillion times a day.
I'm dreading doing taxes this year.
I can't always bring myself to eat leftovers.
I like to paint miniatures, but don't always have time for it. Especially with all my other hobbies.
I like collecting sets of dice. See reason in # 31.
I CAN'T STAND Dora or Diego. I refuse to let Bug play with anything Dora or Diego or watch them on tv.
I go through spurts where I want to organize and purge. The problem is, I don't always have something to sort through when the urge hits me.
I love going to garage sales. I like looking at other peoples things.
I love finding a good book at a garage sale or library book sale. It makes me happy.
I've only hosted a garage sale twice in my life. They were both a pain in the butt.
The person I chat with online most often is Bernie. I'm chatting with him now about # 31.
The place I do the most thinking is when I'm in the shower.
I don't sing in the shower.
I enjoy taking long hot bubble baths. I like sinking down under the suds and reading a good book.
I don't mind changing diapers.
I've been a member of a small baby board since I was pregnant with Bug. I've met 2 of the members.
I'm also a member of a larger baby board. I've met several of the members of that group.
The farthest West I've been is Chicago, IL.
The farthest South I've been is the Bahamas (my honeymoon aboard a Disney Cruise Ship)
I'd like to take another cruise or go back to Disney World.
I'd love to visit Ireland and Scotland someday.

Whew! I made it!. There you have it, folks. That's 100 things about moi! Ah ha ha ha ha! [insert thunder and lightening here] Ok, I've been watching too much Sesame Street with Bug. I hope you made it to the end, but I'll understand if you don't...

It's Been Ruff, Ruff, Ruff

2008-01-23T12:08:00.000-05:00

It's been a rough couple weeks in the Sarandipity household. It started out like this...Last Monday Baby Girl was dropped off and she had a head cold. Nothing major, just a little bit of a stuffy nose and the occasional sneeze. I'm not too concerned about Bug being around head colds, cause, come on...he's gonna have a zillion of them when he starts school. Best to get some of the minor bugs out of the way now. By early Wednesday morning, Bug woke up crying and saying his nose hurt. And it was no wonder his nose hurt...he had enough snot in there to sink a battleship...and I'm not talking one of the little plastic ones from the Milton Bradley game. He eventually went back to sleep and seemed ok come morning; Still stuffy, but nothing we couldn't handle. By Thursday around 2am, the cough had set in. In the morning, I get a call from Baby Girl's Mommy. Apparently, Baby Girl is having some trouble breathing and the earliest doctor appointment she could schedule wasn't until 1:45. She hated to ask me to watch her being that Baby Girl obviously wasn't feeling well, but she had a meeting that had already been blown off once and Baby Girl's Daddy was out of town. I agreed to watch her and made sure I kept her and Bug separated to make sure nothing else was exchanged between them. She ended up taking an early nap and ate most of her normal lunch and was in good spirits, despite the breathing difficulty, when her mom picked her up around 1. Turns out she had an ear infection and just a bad chest cold. They gave her antibiotics and a nebulizer (which went over like a ton of bricks) and by Saturday she was acting like her old self again.

Saturday at our house the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs decided that it didn't want to remain hanging where it was and fell completely off the wall, landing on the dogs in the dog bed below it...No one was hurt. Sunday morning, Bug decided that it was "I'm not going to listen to Daddy" day and went downstairs alone. Daddy told him to stop, but Bug pulled his "bye" routine and started rushing down the stairs. In his hurry, he tripped on the last 2 stairs and fell face first into the side of the plastic dog bed. For the record, the dog bed is a plastic storage container without the lid and a hole cut in the side. I was still in bed and heard a thud, some crying, Daddy going down and coming back up the stairs and telling Bug to sit on the toilet so he could check him out. I go running in there not knowing what to expect. Turns out he busted the inside of his mouth open pretty good. There was lots of blood, but thankfully it stopped pretty quickly. No loose teeth that I could determine. He has a slight bruise (very faint yellow) on the right side of his mouth and the scrapes are getting better. The inside of his mouth looks better too, although he won't let me get a really good look. In a way, I'm glad the baby gate wasn't at the bottom of the stairs that day and that the dog bed stays there. If it the gate was there, he probably would have bounced off that, too before landing in the dog bed. And, without the dog bed, it would have been a face plant on the hardwood floor...who knows what kind of damage that could do from that height....I shudder to think...

So fast forward to last night. After dinner I helped Darling Hubby upgrade the power supply and the video card for the computer. Then my stomach started hurting. Don't worry, it wasn't the nauseous feeling, but more of a pressure, like gas but worse. I've had this feeling before on several occasions and it seems I just can't pin point when or why its going to happen. For a while we thought it might be a lactose intolerance, but even if I don't eat cheese or milk, it still seemed to happen. I seem to think it may be a menstrual thing, but sometimes it happens around that time and sometimes not. It's very annoying. Last night was a very bad episode. My stomach hurt all night long, no matter what I did. I took Tums, drank water, drank hot tea, tried all different positions in bed and eventually took an Excedrin around 5:45 this morning. That seemed to help, as it has in the past. I think I jinxed myself by talking to my friend Fried PorkChop about this issue last night. She has a similar tummy problem...It's frustrating for both of us, to say the least.

Then, this morning around 9, I get a call from Baby Girl's Daddy. Apparently Baby Girl has a case of the "Return of the Last Meal Eaten," so she's not here today. In a way, I'm glad because I'm very tired from not getting a lot of sleep last night. I just hope that we keep all the sickness away from me. I'm actually getting tired of disinfecting everything. My house is one big ad for Lysol.

Anyway...I'm knocking on wood for good health.

And, on a good note, I finished Bug's 2nd (larger) sweater as well a the one I made for Baby Girl. I've started working on the one Fried PorkChop has requested for her son Buckwheat. I finished the front panel this morning...only the back panel, 2 sleeves and a pocket to go.

Oh, since my friends Fried PorkChop and T-Bone got new banners for their blogs, I thought I'd redo mine as well. I made it myself. I'm pretty proud of it...if I do say so myself...

Food For Friday 1/21-1/25 & 1/28-2/1

2008-01-18T12:50:00.000-05:00

So I'm having the worst time getting this weeks menu sorted out. My newest Kraft Magazine arrived in the mail the other day and there are a ton of recipes that I want to try, but the every looming questions are, are they going to be easy, will my family (and myself) like them and when do I have the time to actually make them...Here's what I've come up with so far.

Monday - Burgers and fries
Tuesday - Mustard Crusted London Broil in the crock pot
Wednesday - Shipwreck Dinner
Thursday - Game Night
Friday - Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

Monday - Craft Night - My turn to cook - Chili
Tuesday - Cheesy Manicotti
Wednesday - Bug's 3rd Birthday dinner - Spaghetti with homemade sauce
Thursday - One Pan Pork Dinner
Friday - Almond Chicken Dijon served with rice or pasta and broccoli

Now to sort out the grocery list....and then off to retrieve Bug from upstairs. He's refusing to nap today, although it's obvious (to Mommy at any rate) that he needs it since he was up several times in the night coughing Publish Postthanks to this lovely cold he managed to get from Baby Girl...I hope it's a short lived cold...

Feelin' Crafty

2008-01-14T16:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Monday and I was feelin' crafty.

It's been several weeks since I completed the quilt (I'll eventually take pictures) that I was working on with my friend Rose and now I'm moving on to bigger and badder things...well, not really bigger and it's actually much easier. I'm crocheting. Yep...that's what I'm doing. I recently broke out my crochet hooks and balls of yarn in the hopes of making a cool scarf and hat for myself...not that I need another scarf or hat, but hey. I rather do something constructive with my hands while I'm plopped on the couch practicing all manners of silence while Baby Girl naps in the next room. This is much better than noshing on potato chips and chocolate.

So the scarf and hat didn't pan out. I just wasn't happy with the pattern I had nor the color yarn I was using so I decided to attempt one of the few patterns I had and make Bug a sweater. I figured it would be fun to make as well as functional. Now the pattern I used was one from an I Taught Myself to Crochet book that I swear got all it's patterns from the 1970's. But I figured I could always modify it if I wasn't happy with it...So, after about 3-4 days of steadily working on it, here is the end result.

Showing off the kangaroo pocket.

And a bonus shot of him being goofy...

Bug loves it. He wants to wear it all the time, even before I had it totally finished. He has even started attempting to put it on himself. He had to wear it over his footie pajamas the other day...too cute.

Since I've been bitten by the craft bug and want to share the wealth of my craftiness (and since Darling Hubby has practically forbidden me to make another blanket), I've made a sweater for Baby Girl. It's pink with purple stripes and a pocket. I still have to put the buttons on the neckline (I didn't have the right needle last night) and it will be done. I think it looks very nice and I hope she likes it, too. I'm going to give it to her as a going away type present. She's going to be moving to an actual daycare after the first week of February when she turns 18 months.

Oh, and since Bug's first sweater was a little on the snug side (I made the middle size (2-3T)) I'm making him a slightly bigger one in blue and green (he picked the colors). Today he actually told me he wanted me to make him pants...I may have to come up with a way to make him some pants...we'll see...lol That would be totally crafty...crocheted pants!

I think once I'm done with all this crochet craftiness it will be back on to learning how to knit. Then I will make my scarf! Only, I probably won't need it by the time I get good enough to produce something worthwhile...lol

Goin' Old School

2008-01-10T11:33:00.000-05:00

So every other Thursday a group of friends get together at my domicile and we role-play. If you are new to visiting my blog, you will know I'm not talking about dressing up like our characters and swinging foam swords around (although I have swung a foam sword around at a picnic once), I'm talking just sitting around a table rolling dice and saying we are doing things. Tonight we are going old school. I'm talking dusting off the Dungeons and Dragons core books (Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide and Monster Manual) and creating Elves and Dwarves and Pixies.

I've been sitting around for the past 2 days trying to come up with the perfect character for me...I've finally decided that I'm a magic weilding Elven Druid. I've never played a magic user before, only Scout/Thief type characters. Darling Hubby felt it was time for a change of pace for me. Although, I think I'm going to stick with my favorite weapon, the bow. I like being the ranged attacker. I guess that will probably never change.

With help from my friend Bernie I think we've created a decent character for tonights initial game. Now I have to take time to equip her with all sorts of goodies like armor, weaponry, cool magic items, supplies and a faithful animal companion. Since we are starting off at 8th level I have 27,000 gold pieces to play with. What's an Elven Girl to buy? Maybe a cool cloak or some nifty magical jewelry...I can't wait to go old school. Who knows what adventures we will have after dinner.

Part Deux of the Christmas Update

2008-01-08T19:11:00.000-05:00

When we arrived at my parents house it was late and I figured Bug would be wrapped around my leg like he gets when he gets "scared" or shy. I was really amazed when he went running right into my parents kitchen and right up to my mom to show her his new Hess Truck. That really melted my mom's heart. Anyway, like I'd said before, Bug refused to sleep in the playpen as we'd planned for him to do so it made for a LONG night of him sleeping between Darling Hubby and I in a full size bed...It doesn't help that I'm a spreader and sleep in the middle of the bed and that Bug likes to sprawl out, too. He's definitely my son in that regard. On top of it, he kept waking up and crying. I think the night light was too bright for him (he's used to it being dim in his bedroom) and he was in a strange room with all sorts of weird shadows everywhere...despite the fact that he was laying between Mommy and Daddy.

After a restless night, we woke up around 8 on Christmas Eve for some breakfast. My mom made pancakes, which Bug enjoyed very much. A little later we sat down in the living room to open presents. As a combination Christmas/Anniversary gift we got my parents a couple old movies on VHS (yes...although it is REALLY DIFFICULT to find movies on VHS, it can be done.) and a 2008 calendar that I made on Shutterfly with pictures of Bug throughout the year. We got money, a Flue Renew log for our fireplace, some craft type books and the best thing of all....a can of SPAM in a SPAM keeper. lol I had been talking with my mom a few days before Christmas that I hadn't had SPAM in a long time mainly because Darling Hubby isn't a huge fan and it would go bad if I left it in the fridge. So, mom gave me a SPAM keeper so my SPAM won't go bad.

Bug got a Thomas the Train toy that when you pull back on the car on the bed in the back it runs across the floor and the best toy...a bowling set. He's been asking for a bowling set for ever. He kept flipping through the K-Mart flyer pointing to all the bowling games. He even tries to set up wooden blocks and bowl them over with a beach ball...Now, he has an official bowling set.

We had a nice quiet lunch with my parents with a delicious ham and all the fixing. Bug ate his fill. So did the rest of us. We didn't want to get home too late so during the early afternoon we headed for home. And arrived around 6. We lugged all our loot inside and started making preparations for Santa's arrival before putting Bug to bed. When I checked the mail I found a package for Bug with lots of glitter on it. It was his Magic Key to let Santa in through the front door. Then we made sure we hung it outside the front door and left out cookies and homemade hot chocolate mix (with a note telling Santa the milk is in the fridge and to go ahead and use the microwave). We want Santa to warm up, not drink cold milk. We read The Night Before Christmas before snuggling Bug in his bed for the night.

By morning, Santa had come, left presents under the tree, a thank you note to Bug for the nice warm hot chocolate and a reminder to keep his Magic Key safe until next year. We started opening presents. Bug got a DC Super Friends Batman, Superman and Flash as well as the Batmobile. He also got a couple books, too. So far, the Super heroes have been a big hit. Darling Hubby got a Nalgene water bottle for his iced tea that he takes to work, Call to Arms 4 for the DS, and a collection of Sherlock Holmes movies on DVD. I got 2 books (You Slay Me by Katie MacAlister (read my review of it here) and Su mmer Pleasures by Nora Roberts) and a pair of warm fuzzy pajamas.

No one opens Christmas presents faster than the Flash!

Max supervising the opening of Superman

What is in this big box?Playing with all his new toys

After that we had brunch. Guess what Mommy cooked...yep, you guessed it. My SPAM. I love me some SPAM fried crispy (like my bacon) and served with a sunny side up egg and toast. I love to dip it in the runny yellow goodness. Mmm! Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how Christmas turned out overall. Despite the zoo at the beginning, it was nice to have a quiet Christmas on Christmas day with my own little family. I hope things work out as well for next Christmas.

Finally A Christmas Update...

2008-01-06T13:26:00.000-05:00

Nothing like a week after New Year's Day Christmas update...Let's just say, I've been busy and haven't had or felt like having much in the way of computer time. Darling Hubby was on vacation from Christmas 'til New Years and with the cold spell we've had all I really wanted to do was curl up in front of the fire. Plus I was feeling a little down in the dumps, but all that is past now.

Anyway, Christmas was the same as always...a total ZOO! Darling Hubby's brother and family were planning to come in to NY from New Mexico (we haven't seen them since June) and despite their visit, I was adamant that we were going to be home so Bug could have a proper Christmas eve, complete with leaving cookies out for Santa before going to bed, so we crammed a lot of Christmas into 2 days. Sunday before Christmas, we drove down to Darling Hubby's Grandfather's house. With the family growing exponentially the house seems to get smaller and smaller with each visit. Try dealing with too many cooks in the kitchen and then fitting 21 people into a small room for dinner...It's no easy task, let me tell you, and lots of toes get stepped on and people get annoyed...but hey, it's family...they are bound to be annoying, right.

Bug had a good time playing with his second cousin, Brynne. Here they are "napping" under the throw rugs. They're just weird.

After some QT with Grandpa and the various Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and whatnot, we ventured to our little hometown to spend a little time at DH's sister house with her, her 3 kids and his dad (who napped for much of the time we were there since he drove most of the trip from NM) before heading over to DH's mom's house for dinner and presents. Bug had a good time rough housing with his younger cousin, who is a little bruiser...lol He can hold his own with an older brother and sister, that's for sure.

After that, it was on to DH's mom's house. We dined on Grilled Cheese sandwiches and I have to say, it was the best possible meal to have on Christmas...Don't ask me why. Then it was time to "Bring on the Zoo!" When there are 6 small kids (ages 18months to 10 years) and 8 adults all attempting to open gifts at the same time, the noise in nearly unbearable and it's amazing that something doesn't get thrown out accidentally, broken, or opened and taken home by the wrong person. I just think we need to come up with a better way for everyone to go about the whole opening process. Right now someone hands out presents and one person may get 4 gifts before another gets any. To make matters worse, poor Bug kept getting toys that he couldn't play with right away because of space and mess factor and he was very upset about that...and the fact that none of his cousins would let him share in their new toy fun...Plus, I don't even know what people thought of the gifts that we gave because we didn't see if they opened them or not. I like to see the reaction people have to our presents because we do put some amount of thought into what we are buying...I'm digressing...Anyway, we came away with (for Bug) A couple play-doh kits with tons of molds and accessories, footie PJ's, tons of Matchbox cars and little Tonka trucks, and a firehouse Matchbox play set, The Wiggles Getting Strong DVD, a book and a box set of Curious George cartoons and other movies from Scholastic. I got a 7 quart crock pot, 2 crockpot books, an Eeyore sweater, a shirt with a cardinal on it. Darling Hubby got sheets for the bed, a hooded sweatshirt, and The Fantastic Four dvd. I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting...but you get the idea...we needed our big huge Santa bag to bring all the loot home in.

Here is a picture of the whole family after dinner has been eaten and the presents unwrapped.

Since we didn't get started with presents until nearly 8pm it was quite late when we left and despite Bug being obviously tired and only taking a 20 min nap in the car he didn't fall asleep on the way to my parents house like we'd hope. And, upon arrival, wouldn't sleep in the playpen like we'd planned...But that's all for part 2 of the update which will have to come later...So until then....

Food For Friday 1/7-1/11 & 1/14-1/18

2008-01-04T16:52:00.000-05:00

So it's time for another installment of my Food for Friday. Umm..yeah, so I missed last week's menu because of the holidays and boy, was that ever a mistake. I honestly had no clue what I was going to be cooking until a few hours and sometimes mere minutes until Darling Hubby walked in. I blame it on all those Christmas cookies and candy. They totally messed with my mind. Anyway...I really want to write about the zillion things that have happened since Christmas, but that will have to wait. I need to get a menu planned so we don't go over budget this shopping trip. Gotta make sure I have the money to cover the $370 vet visit when the credit card bill comes due...

Monday - Vegetable Minestrone - I'm cooking for craft night this week
Tuesday - Breakfast for dinner - probably French Toast or SPAM and eggs
Wednesday - Oven Fried chicken fingers and fries with honey mustard
Thursday - Game night - Dinner to be determined later
Friday - Tacos

Monday - Craft Night - Rose cooks
Tuesday - Rotisserie Chicken with veggies and mashed potatoes
Wednesday - Homemade Chicken Pot Pie
Thursday -CrockPot Pot Roast with carrots and potatoes
Friday - Homemade pizza

OK, I promised Bug he could play on PBS.org, but I really want to search the web for crochet patterns for a sweater...I'll be a good mommy and let him play for a little while before Darling Hubby gets home and wants his burgers and fries...

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-22T18:45:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Darling Hubby, Bug and I will be heading out to visit family tomorrow and I'm trying to get some last minute things done before hitting the hay tonight...like bake those cookies for Santa and dye my hair...I hope everyone has safe travels, enjoys spending time with their ~~tolerated~~ loved ones, and gets what they asked for from good ol' Saint Nick!

Oh, here's a quick quiz to tide you over until I return with a barrage of pictures from our holiday.

You Should Have a Blue Christmas Tree

For you, the holidays represent a time of calm, understanding, and peace.

You avoid family fights, and you don't get too stressed out - even when things are crazy!

You like to make Christmas about making everyone's life a little bit better.

You don't get caught up in greed or commercialism. You're too sincere for that.

Your blue tree would look great with: Lots of silver tinsel

You should spend Christmas Eve watching: It's a Wonderful Life

What you should bake for Santa: Chocolate chip cookies

What Color Christmas Tree Should You Have?

Sounds about right, 'cept I don't watch It's a Wonderful life and I'm making chocolate peanut butter chip cookies for Santa. Mmmmm....yummy!

A Doozy of a Giveaway!

2007-12-17T12:33:00.000-05:00

What girl wouldn't want something sparkling and shiny peaking out of her stocking on Christmas morning? Well, if you head on over to Bloggy Giveaways, Shannon is giving away a doozy of a Christmas present to one lucky person. In association with Helzberg Diamonds you could be the winner of a Radiant Cut Green Amethyst Pendant. What do you have to do to enter? Well, head on over to the Helzberg Diamonds site and poke around. See something that catches your eye? Then pop in to visit Shannon at Bloggy Giveaways and leave a comment telling her what you liked. She'll enter your name to win the pendant. Spread the word in your own blog, too. It's that simple!

You know what? On second thought...don't do any of that stuff. You'll mess up my chances to win!

Holiday Hoopla!

2007-12-16T11:50:00.000-05:00

I wasn't specifically tagged by anyone for this, but since Christmas is my favorite holiday, I thought I'd join in the fun.

Rules
1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas

2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word (which, for you bloggy newbies, is meme)

3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.

4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

Let the randomness begin!

1. My parents planted a pine tree in the front of my house when I was born. Every year we'd hang lights on that tree to help Rudolph find his way to my house. I could reach the top of it at one point. Now it's so tall I can't see the top of it when looking out the front door anymore.

2. One of my greatest Christmas memories was watching the Santa Bear cartoon on Christmas Eve before going to bed. I decided that I really wanted a stuffed Santa Bear that year and so I left a note with the hot chocolate (Santa needed something to warm him up) and cookies asking Santa if he had an extra one would he leave it for me. The next morning there was a Santa Bear under the tree with a note from Santa saying he found an extra on in the sleight. I very much believed in Santa that year.

3. My mom used to tell me that if there was something I wanted for Christmas and she bought it, we had to leave it for Santa's elves to come pick up so he could bring it for me on Christmas Eve. One year she bought me a brown teddy bear and we left it out on the dryer in the back room for the elves to come pick up. A little while later I checked on the dryer and the bear was gone. I really thought elves picked it up. Turns out, mom tossed it into the dryer hoping I wouldn't check for it.

4. My parents would only set up the Christmas tree the week before Christmas and take it down the week after. Now I set up my tree the day after Thanksgiving and leave it up until New Years.

5. I'm looking forward to those handmade ornaments Bug will bring home from school. I still have most of the ornaments I made in school, even thought they are not on my tree.

6. When I got married my mom gave me the big box of Christmas ornaments that we had collected over the years. I'm talking those old glass balls, and bags of tinsel, strings of lights (those big bulbed ones and the little ones, too). I finally went through it all last year and tossed a bunch of stuff that was broken or I just wouldn't (or shouldn't because it was a fire hazard) use. I still feel guilty about that. I did keep a few things like the glass Christmas tree topper my parents had for years, but never used...

7. I love getting Christmas cards in the mail every year and string them above my mantel with a string tied between 2 wall sconces and mini clothes pins from my baby shower.

8. I mail out as many cards as possible, but if I'll see you before Christmas, prepare to have a hand delivered card. I'm kind of a cheapskate.

9. On of my favorite Christmas presents was when I was 3 years old. I got a Fisher Price Little People House. I played with that thing for hours. Now I've recently passed it down, along with my Farm and Merry-go-round to Bug. I hope he enjoys the hours of fun I had with that house.

10. I grew up with a wood burning fireplace, but my parents always said it was difficult for Santa to get out of the fireplace since it basically locked from the outside. We used to leave our front door unlocked so Santa could get in easier. We lived out in the country where there was no one around and Dad locked the door as soon as Mom had me in bed, but still. Since we, too, have a fireplace that latches from the outside and don't want to teach that leaving our door unlocked is ok, we created a Magic Key to leave for Santa. We are going to give it to Bug this year and every year we will put it outside by the front door so Santa can let himself in.

11. My favorite holiday treat is Hot Chocolate. I recently found an awesome recipe for Hot Chocolate that I modified for my taste. I'm thinking a cup sounds mighty good with lunch on this cold snowy day.

12. I hate coming up with a list of things that I want for Christmas, even though it makes it easier on those who want to buy for me. I always feel greedy by asking for things that I normally wouldn't buy for myself. And Darling Hubby is so hard to buy for. I don't like to buy things from his list because I feel like I didn't put any effort or thought into it. I always feel like I have to top the gift from last year...but I know that's just silly and I really don't try to do that anymore. I've never been able to top the $300 Lego Star Destroyer I bought him in 2003.

I'm tagging Annie and Shell, since they are blogger newbies and need to have a bit of Hoopla to really get them initiated to the blogging world.

The Dreaded 8 Things Meme!

2007-12-16T11:11:00.000-05:00

My friend Lori over at Fairytales and Margarita's tagged me to do the 8 things meme...so here goes. I really hate trying to come up with a certain number of things. It always makes me brain hurt! So, fear not, there will be things left blank!

Oh, and I don't know why there are only 7 things on the 8 things meme...maybe 7 got hungry...you know, 7 ate 9...I always did have a punny sense of humor.

8 Things I Am Passionate About

My family
crafts (scrapbooking, crocheting, quilting, etc)
reading
tv
writing
photography
food
role-playing

8 Things I Want To Do Before I Die

Watch Logan grow up, get married and have a family of his own.
See the pyramids in Egypt
Visit the Titanic wreckage (although I know this will never happen)
Meet Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Jensen Ackels or Jared Padalecki...any one of the 4 would do.
Travel out west
Write a novel
Learn to drive
Win the lottery (which would be a miracle since I don't play!)

8 Things I Say Often

Get your finger out of your nose
Get that out of your mouth
I love you
Sweet dreams
Get down from there
You can play the computer when mommy is finished
Turn the tv off
Oh, for the love of Pete

8 Books I Have Read Recently

Honest Illusions by Nora Roberts
All the Harry Potter books (1-7 in order from start to finish)
Bogeyman by Gayle Wilson
Grave Intent by Deborah LeBlanc
Copy Cat by Erica Spindler
Revenant by Carolyn Haines
Boo Humbug by Rene Gutteridge
The MacGregor Brides by Nora Roberts

8 Songs I Could Listen To Over And Over

Wizards in Winter by TSO
Carol of the Bells
Weird Al's I'll Sue Ya (mainly because Bug ALWAYS wants to listen to this in the car)
Any of the songs on the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks

OK, I really need to start expanding my music selections...

8 Things That Attract Me To My Best Friends

Honesty
Sense of Humor
Dedication
How much we have in common
Support
Caring
Willingness to listen

8 People Who Should Totally Do This Meme

Wow, I was able to come up with more things than I thought I would. Those of you I tagged better get crackin'! I want to see those answers! Oh, and even if I didn't tag you and you want to join in on the fun, feel free!

Bug's First Snow Fun of 2007

2007-12-14T21:01:00.000-05:00

We had our first big snow of the year recently and after much shoveling and snow blowing, Bug and I headed out for some fun. The weather was nice with blue skies and decently warm temps. Our goal was to create a masterpiece Snowman.

We bundled up in our warm clothes and headed out. As we were getting dressed, Bug said, "This is so exciting." The first thing Bug does is run right into the snow where he gets "stuck."

With some help out from mommy, we go about building our snowman. Well, I should say I built a snowman. Bug had much more fun wading through the knee-deep (to him anyway) snow than actually helping. He was keeping our dog Max highly entertained by throwing snow at him. Max loves that.

When I completed my snow boy, as he turned out to be only 3 feet tall, I grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures of Bug with him. At first, he had to say ''hi snowman'' to him.

Then he tossed some snow at him. Then he gave him a hug.

Overall, it was a great day outside in the white goodness. Bug had a good time and slept very well for his nap. Coming inside was a fight, but I promised he could go back out tomorrow with daddy. More snow is coming Saturday night into Sunday so there will be many more days to play.

Oh, we read the book The Snow Family at nap time. If you've never read it, you should. It's one of my winter favorites. We may have to go out and build snow parents for our snow boy, or at least a snow dog he can romp with. Who knows What Snowmen Do at Night. Guess we'll know in the morning.

And one of my favorite quotes (and Bug’s too) from The Snow Family:

"... and a kiss on every carrot nose…just like that."

Food For Friday - 12/10-12/21

2007-12-07T16:40:00.000-05:00

Going shopping tonight. Here's my menu for the next 2 weeks.

Monday - Craft Night - Rose is cooking
Tuesday - Cabbage Rolls
Wednesday - Tuna Mac Wiggle
Thursday - Game night - dinner to be determined later
Friday - Stuffed Shells with salad

Monday - Craft Night -Sadaf is cooking
Tuesday - Tacos
Wednesday - Pork Roast in Crockpot with veggies and potatoes
Thursday - Chicken Paprika
Friday - Cordon Blue and Fries

Christmas Update

2007-12-06T15:30:00.000-05:00

So Christmas is coming along nicely. Most of the presents have been bought and wrapped. The Christmas card picture has been taken and has been sent to be printed and most of the cards have been addressed. I'm just waiting for the photos to arrive so I can mail them out. I still need to buy a couple more things for Darling Hubby's stocking and I should be all set. Now I just need to figure out what to buy...any ideas? I still need to buy something for my Secret Santa gift for my little baby board. I've got some ideas. I just need to make them become a reality.

Today Bug got a letter in the mall from Santa. I believe it came from Grandma R. I'll have to show it to Bug when he wakes up from his nap. Speaking of naps, he actually went down pretty easily today, Maybe we are getting back on track. I don't want to jinx myself. I'm sure having just said that, tomorrow will be a nap day from hell for both kids.

OK, I must have just jinxed myself. I think I hear Bug waking up from his nap. Its been about an hour, so I can’t complain, Plus it's almost time for Baby Girl to wake up for her bottle before she needs home.

Oh, here's the picture I promised of the Santa's magic key for Bug. I blurred out the personalization on the top part. What do you think?

Mommy Has Left The Building!

2007-12-06T11:30:00.000-05:00

Have you ever just wanted to change your name? I'm not talking about changing your birth name your parents saddled you with, I'm talking about the name you are given the day a new life enters your world... "mommy." I can't even count the number of times I've heard, "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mooommmy!" in the past day and a half...(I'm sure Rachelle, if you are reading this, you can relate) and it's not like Bug even wants anything. I think he's just trying to get on my nerves...grrr!

You know, I really ~~can't~~ shouldn't complain. I do really love that he calls me mommy now and that he has really picked up on talking. I remember that I was pretty upset until about six months ago when he first started saying mommy. Until then I was Baba, Bobo or pretty much just "hey you." Now he talks up a storm and repeats everything (better watch what you say) but sometimes I think he just talks and talks just to hear his own voice.

Anyone else out there in blogland feel the same way?

Testing out the Toy, Part II

2007-12-03T15:56:00.000-05:00

All is quiet in my house now. Bug is finally sleeping. It’s almost time for Baby Girl to wake up. But for now I have a quiet few minutes. Does anyone else feel like this week should nearly be over already instead of just beginning? It is most definitely a Monday, but it feels like it should be Thursday.

We did get some nasty weather last night, but it wasn't so bad that things had to close. Just a few delays. I did have one heck of a time trying to clear ice from the front walk. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t get the ice to go away.

I ended up just putting down salt in the hope it would start melting some. Darling Hubby said it was freezing rain this morning on his way to work, so it may gave been refreezing as I was working. Who knows?

Oh, so I finished the magic key we will leave out for Santa. It came out very nicely. I really hope Bug appreciates it when he is older. I'll post a couple pictures of it later on when I get the chance.

Well it is nearly time to wake Baby Girl. I’d also better get my things ready to take with me for craft night. It's my turn to cook. Don't want to forget the spaghetti or the sauce. I'm hoping to finish my quilt tonight. If I do, I'll post some pictures of it tomorrow.

A New Toy and Some Random Thoughts

2007-12-02T22:41:00.000-05:00

I'm currently sitting on my Couch testing out new toy. Now don't think perverted thoughts. Saturday Darling Hubby bought me a Fly Fusion pen, It cost a decent amount, but it will be useful for my role-playing game and for my blog as well. I can now write on special notebook paper and upload my thoughts directly to the computer without having to type them all again. Now I can blog while in my warm living room and not worry about waking up Baby Girl. So far, it seems to work.

Today Darling Hubby and I watched “Hogfather” that we recorded last week. It was a movie about how Death becomes the Hogfather (aka Santa), It was a really good movie. After that I worked on making the Magic key we will be leaving out for Santa on Christmas Eve. I painted a wooden door knob fob, like one you would find in a hotel (a do not disturb sign, so to speak) and will attach a key (an ornament key painted gold with yellow gemstones on it so it looks magical) to it later, We plan to "mail" it to Bug, like Santa mailed it to him and give it to him Christmas Eve. It’s something that we can use every year and then give to him later when he has a family of his own. Yes, we have a fireplace, but it’s one that locks from the outside so we though that this would work out rather than trying to explain how Santa gets out of our wood stove.

After that Darling hubby set our oven on fire. Nothing serious, just-a small fire. Apparently, when I baked my pumpkin Cheesecake the other day butter spilled out of it and mingled with the other pan drippings in the bottom out of my oven and were ignited by the heat element, We know the smoke detector works and I'm thankful we didn't have to use the fire extinguisher. A little splash of water did the trick, At least our pizza didn't taste funny and the house doesn't small bad. The dogs have determined that they very much dislike the smoke alarm and Bug could really care less. He didn't even leave the computer to come see what was going on.

I'm waiting to see what the Weather brings for tomorrow. The great Northeast is expecting a snowstorm. We are only supposed to get 3 or so inches of snow, but we may be getting some freezing rain, sleet and ice. Travel may be pretty treacherous in the morning. Depending on if the college is open or closed, that will tell if I'll be watching Baby Girl. I just hope the evening travel is better. I want to go to craft night and finish my quilt.

Well, I'm going to finish this up and upload it. Hopefully my new toy is worth the money we paid for it.

**************

And just a note…the Fly Pen worked pretty well. It has a little trouble with reading some of my letters, but now I know what to work on and I’ll be blogging and recording notes for our game easily in no time!

Very Belated Thanksgiving Report

2007-11-26T17:00:00.000-05:00

Wow, it seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve actually blogged a decent post aside from menus. I haven’t had much in the way of computer time recently with Darling Hubby being off from work for the week and it being Thanksgiving and all. Plus, it doesn’t help that Baby Girl naps in my computer room and I can’t be in there (how I wish I had a laptop that could connect to the internet from any room in the house…Anyone want to buy me one?) I’m finally getting myself back on track after having my schedule thrown off for several days. Today was the first time I’ve vacuumed my rugs since Tuesday morning, and with 3 dogs, a cat, a kid and a husband, you know it was in dire need of a good vacuuming. Hairballs and crumbs were everywhere.

We had a good Thanksgiving. (Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, by the way) Better than we’ve had in the past, in my opinion. Thursday morning we got up, got all spiffied up, snapped our Christmas card picture and headed down to my parents’ house 2.5 hours away. We enjoyed a delicious turkey dinner with my mom and dad, talking about this and that and listening to Bug sing his ABC’s in between handfuls of peas, carrots and cranberry sauce. It was a nice quiet dinner and I could actually hear myself chew it was so quiet. I was very thankful for that quiet meal. Holiday get-togethers usually give me a headache they are so loud. After some more chatting, playing around with pots and pans and Grandma and some pie and jello for dessert, we bundled back up against the wind and headed to DH’s grandpas’ house.

Generally, we have lunch with DH’s family first and head over to my parents’ house, but we did things a little different this year just for a change of pace. Anyway, we went to Grandpa’s house and had a quick (and again quiet) meal, just the 4 of us. It was nice to spend some alone time with Grandpa. Usually when everyone else is there we can barely talk to one another, so again, I was thankful for the quiet time we spent together this year. He’s getting on in years and has several health problems so who knows how much time we’ll have left to spend with him. Overall, I was thankful that we got to spend some nice quiet time with family. I do feel bad that we didn’t get to see all the aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, but if you read my prior post about my state of mind you know that I was really stressing this get together because of all the noise, plus it really makes Bug act out because the other children as terrible influences. It really is a zoo and I’m glad we managed to avoid it this year. Some how I don’t think we’ll be as lucky come Christmas. I was also thankful that Bug was a good boy for the whole trip. He hardly had any meltdowns while we were out and about, despite the fact that he only had a 10 minute nap in the car. Bedtime was another story, but at least he was good the rest of the day.

I cooked a turkey for the three of us Friday and we put up our Christmas decorations Friday and Saturday. The outside lights are up and finally working properly, after 2 nights out in the cold checking bulbs, forays to three stores looking for replacement bulbs that would fit and not blow out the second you plugged them in and finally the purchase of 2 new strands of lights. The Christmas tree is in a new place in the living room and looks good, as always. Now if I could get Bug to leave a couple of the ornaments that he’s obsessed with alone we’d be in business. Baby Girl on the other hand hasn’t touched it. Go figure. On another happy note, we are pretty much done with Christmas shopping. We bought only one gift per person and a few extra for each other and for Bug from Santa. I feel like we are being stingy, but with a limited budget we had to go easy, so one present a person. At least I didn’t have to go out on Black Friday. That was a relief. I don’t think I could handle the crazy crowds. I hate going to the stores anytime between Black Friday and Christmas even if it’s for something other than Christmas shopping. Too many crazy people, if you ask me!

Oh I don't think I could write a post without a complaint, so here it is. Gotta be good at something...LOL. A family member on DH"s side of the family has a son who's a year or so older than Bug and a son a year or so younger and we've been swapping clothing back and forth since Bug was a baby. Hey, it saves on having to buy a ton of clothes every year and I'm not one to say no to hand-me-downs. This time I brought down two diaper boxes full of clothes that Bug has out grown for her youngest boy in return for a big garbage bag of clothes her older son outgrew. Everything in my boxes was clean and folded. I didn't send anything down that was super stained or that I wouldn't let Bug go out in public in. When I opened the bag of clothes they smelled of old cigarette smoke (which isn't unusual since DH's dad lived there for a while and was a smoker) and many of the clothes were stained...very badly. I always wash the clothes before I put them away, but as I was attempting to get the dinginess and the stains out, I felt disgusted, almost dirty. I started to feel like I shouldn't bother and that I should just box the clothes and return them in the next swap. I'm not talking the occasional stain here...No grass on a pant leg or ketchup stains on a sleeve. I'm talking all over stains. I mean, the stains were so set in, I was sure nothing would work and I was right. And as the clothes were going through the wash cycle, I peeked inside and was sickened by how dirty the water was. I know that wash water gets dingy and turns gray, but this was nasty brown water, like when I wash the dogs bedding. I had to give them a second rinse just to make myself feel better. Granted many of the pants and some of the shirts and sweatshirts were stain free or mostly stain free, but still…I mean…how would you feel opening a bag of clothes to find what I found? Would you say anything? I mean she is family and we’ve been friends for a long time but I’m just not pleased about getting a bag full of stained and filthy clothes. She has three kids, a husband and several animals, but that doesn’t mean the clothes can’t be clean. I do Bug’s laundry once every week in addition to everything else I do around here, and hardly anything of his is stained as bad as this stuff is. I’m not ashamed to let him out of the house in my clothes. I don’t even want to let him go out to play in these clothes. I feel like people would look at me like I’m a lousy mother allowing my child to wear stained and dirty looking (even though they are now clean) clothes. I know kids get dirty and stain their clothes, but come on! Am I being petty? Am I thinking too much about what others will think than about what’s reality? I know that kids get dirty, but would you share your stained up and dirty clothes with someone else? Ugg…it still gets my goat thinking about it.

OK, rant over! LOL

I'd better go get busy around the house and do something productive. I'm gonna try to be better about posting...really, I am....lol

Food for Friday - 11/26-11/30 & 12/3-12/7

2007-11-23T22:46:00.000-05:00

Ok, here's a late rendition of my food for Friday. I haven't had much time to post lately with Darling Hubby being off from work this week and all our traveling for the holiday. We still plan to shop tomorrow so here's my menu.

Monday - Craft night - Sadaf's turn to cook - dinner to be determined later
Tuesday - Cabbage rolls with ground beef and rice
Wednesday - Rotisserie Chicken Breast with potatoes and fresh carrots
Thursday - Game night - Dinner to be determined later
Friday - Homemade pizza

Monday - Craft night my turn to cook - Spaghetti
Tuesday - Oven-fried Chicken Fingers and Fries
Wednesday - Sloppy joes - Bernie style
Thursday - French Toast
Friday - Barber's Chicken Cordon Blue and fries

My State of Mind

2007-11-15T11:40:00.000-05:00

Have you ever felt like the world is out to get you?...that nothing goes right no matter what you do?...that you just feel angry all the time? That's how I've been feeling lately. I feel like I am going to loose it. Bug drives me nuts and Darling Hubby drives me nuts. It seems I'm going nuts.

Yesterday could have been the straw that broke the camels back..thankfully, it wasn't. I haven't had a decent nights sleep in a long time and if you know me, I NEED my sleep. I'm cranky and grumpy...which seems to be my constant mood lately. Anyway, I was awakened in the night by Bug's coughing and after that, I had trouble going back to sleep because my stomach was bothering me (which it does most of the time...) After DH left for work I conked back out and either Bug was very quiet or I was just dead to the world...This spells DISASTER! I was finally awoken from my slumber by a great crash and Bug saying, "All done." This can't be good. I just think about the fact that we rearranged his room the night before and I'm sure he's found an all new thing to get into.

As I toss on my robe I push open his door and hurdle the waist high baby gate. I've failed to place my glasses on my nose and therefore can't see completely clearly. What presents itself is this:

I see Bug, dressed in blue car PJ's with what I at first glance assume is powder ("No big deal," I think, "powder comes out easily")....that is, until he politely hands me the empty jar of Seudocream (diaper rash ointment from Ireland) saying, "Here you go, Mommy." I am very quickly annoyed and he's quickly ushered into the bathroom where I try in vain to remove the white cream from him...he was coated up to his elbows and had some on his face and hair...This stuff is a great solution to diaper rash as it stays on the bum very nicely...that was the problem with it being on hands and face...it doesn't come off easily. Thankfully after several scrub downs with baby wash and warm water, it came off...Next was to get him out of the soiled jammies and survey the damage done to the room.

Without glasses on, it looked pretty grim. I could just see white everywhere. After stowing Bug in his bed and telling him to stay put (and removing the very smeared top blanket (fleece) on the bed) grabbed my glasses and a wet cloth to try to clean up. It was everywhere...all over the rocking chair (which thankfully isn't fabric), all over the changing table, on the side of the dresser, the bottom of a book, all over an old pair of slippers, all over the fleece blanket in his bed, his blankie and his jammies.

I got him dressed, tossed the soiled fabrics into his laundry basket and ushered him down the stairs. After parking Bug in the chair at the table and giving him a bowl of cereal I attempted to tackle the job of getting white zinc oxide cream out of everything. After tossing the slippers in the trash (they were getting small anyway and I didn't want to mess with them) wiping up everything with paper towels as best I could, I sprayed everything with a liberal coating of spray & wash. Hey, it says it works great on grease and grass so I figured if it would help break up the greasiness of the cream, why not. I rubbed it in a little and then poured on some water, followed by a good scrub with Dawn dish washing liquid. I figure if they can use it on ducks in oil spills, it should be safe to use on a fleece blanket. After that, everything got tossed into the washer with warm water and washed...twice...just to be safe. Thankfully, it all came out and you can't even tell it was ever there.

The book on the other hand is still up in the air whether it is a lost cause or not. At first glance, I saw that there was a little cream on the bottom of the pages and the sides, like he was flipping through reading it with dirty fingers...this was far from the case. Two whole sets of pages where lovingly fingerpainted with white goodness and stuck together. I wiped off what I could with paper towels and then, after DH's suggestion, used a spackle knife to scrape the pages clear of the rest of the mess. The pages are mostly dry now and they are see-through...They still feel a little on the slimy side and I'm not sure what I'm going to do. On the brightside...it smells ok...

So as punishment, Bug was without his favorite TV shows and his favorite computer games for the day. I don't know if he truely understood the punishment, but everytime he asked for one of those things, I reminded him about what he did that morning, explaining that what he did was bad. He knew Mommy was mad and he did apologize, only after I told him he had to...

So this set my mood for the day. I was on edge all day. The littlest things set me off. Don't get me started on our dog Max who barks at the drop of a hat and is very needy so he's right next to you following you around all day. I can't take a step without kicking him or put my feet down from the couch/chair without stepping on him. Needless to say, his clingy behavior got old VERY QUICKLY. Poor DH came home and after dinner he was planning to go to the local game store for a bit. We made it through dinner and afterwards he said something benign, but I just snapped, told him to drop it, that I wished everyone would just leave me alone and told him to just go to the store. He left without another word. Of course, I cried after wards.

I don't know what it is. It seems lately the littlest things set me off. I have such a quick temper it's not even funny anymore. I think I'm feeling overworked, under appreciated, and stressed. I'm stressed because of the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. I'm stressed about all the noise that I have to deal with when the families get together, which is often like visiting the zoo on giveaway day. Everyone is there and it's loud. I'm stressed about the fact that we are low on funds and the number of presents that we have to purchase. I'm stressed because we ordered a bunch of presents online this past weekend and when the package arrived...it wasn't our order. Now we have to have those items shipped back and the order redone. I just want to get everything done BEFORE Thanksgiving. I hate shopping after Black Friday. I'm stressed because I have No. Bloody. Clue. what to get DH for Christmas.

I'm feeling over worked because it seems that I'm constantly doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, babysitting, etc. I know I have free time each day during naptime to do what I want, which generally consists of reading or watching tv since I need something quiet to do since Baby Girl is such a light sleeper. Sometimes I want to sew, but can't because my sewing machine is in the room where she sleeps. I can't bake because even the slightest clanging pots and pans and the opening and closing of the fridge wake her through the walls. I just feel like my free time really isn't mine because I'm so limited.

I feel under appreciated sometimes because I do things around the house and no one seems to notice. The carpets are always vacuumed and the floors swept, the cat and dog pans are cleaned, the laundry is washed, hung, dried, folded and put away, Bug's toys are picked up, dinner is cooked, all the bills paid, the checkbook balanced and the finances and meals planned. I clean the bathrooms and bedrooms as necessary, gather the garbage, empty Bug's diaper pail, walk 3 dogs all on top of caring for 2 small kids. And sometimes I even do a bunch of they yard work outside. It's when I fail to do something that I get, not necessarily criticized verbally, but I can see the disappointment from DH in the way he acts. Our kitchen counter is a catchall for papers and I'm not always good about keeping it cleared and he gets annoyed when there is no counter space left to use. If I don't do the dishes and they pile up I can tell he get annoyed. It would be different if we had a dishwasher that actually functioned, but since the one that came with the house barely kept itself clean on wash cycles, we took it out and never replaced it. We needed the space it was in for the garbage can/returnable bottles and never had the money to buy a new one. Honestly, I'd just rather spend time with Bug and DH than be stuck in the kitchen doing dishes. It feels like all I ever do is clean anymore and no one appreciates that. I try to be good about saying thank you when DH does something like empty the dish drainer (which is his job). I just feel like I never get any thanks at all. I'm sure that's not the case and that Dh enjoys coming home to a clean house and a home cooked meal and is thankful that I do it all, but sometimes I just feel like no one notices.

So after getting in a small fight this morning when DH woke me up at 6 (which I really wish he wouldn't do) I had a good cry about how I was feeling. He told me he's felt the same way at his job and that you just have to keep doing what you are doing and get through. I'm still feeling like the world is out to get me, but I'm feeling a little better...at least I think can get through today and maybe tomorrow.

Food For Friday - November 12-16 & 19-23

2007-11-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

Here's the menu I came up with for the next 2 weeks. Things are gonna be kind of hit or miss in terms of dinners at home with several get-togethers plans with friends for craft and game nights and the Thanksgiving holiday with family. Hopefully I can keep myself under my grocery shopping budget this month since I have a lot of the meat I need in the freezer downstairs. That way I can do a little Christmas shopping without feeling like I'm going to break the bank.

Monday - (craft night, my turn to cook) Chicken Caesar Wraps
Tuesday - Beef Tacos
Wednesday - Teriyaki Chicken Salad
Thursday - Game Night - dinner to be determined later
Friday - Homemade Cordon Bleu, veggies and potatoes

Monday - Craft night - Dinner with Bernie and Rose
Tuesday - Hamburgers and fries
Wednesday - Pork Chops, rice and veggies
Thursday - Happy Thanksgiving! - Dinner with the families
Friday - Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce

Tuesday's Random Thoughts

2007-11-05T16:23:00.000-05:00

I have many weird things floating around in my brain right now. I figured I'd write a random thoughts post.

Today was so chilly outside when I walked the dogs that I could see my breath.
They are calling for snow for Friday.
I was glad that I raked all the leaves from the backyard Sunday when I heard they were calling for snow on Friday, but after last night's rain shower my backyard looks like it did before I raked it...sigh
I'm ready to start listening to Christmas music and decorating.
I have the urge to organize and toss things, but I really have nothing to organize and discard...I guess that's a good thing.
I'm dreading figuring out our taxes for 2007 since I basically have had a home business babysitting this year. I have a feeling I'm going to get raped by the government. sigh...nothing ever changes
Bug has decided he's going to become a vocalist for Cirque de Soleil. His act consists of standing on the arm of the futon like it's a balance beam, swinging from the cat tree and singing Weird Al's song I'll Sue Ya and the ABC song. He needs to come up with a cool dismount for his grand finale.
I'm tired of snot. At least Bug now knows how to let me blow his nose instead of me sitting on him to use the booger sucker.
I hate the hiccups.

Oh, and I have to share this conversation that I had with Bug yesterday. Here's the backstory. It was laundry day (darks) around our house and Bug has become my designated helper. He has to help put the clothes hangers in the shirts so I can hang them to dry on the rack. He has to hand me each piece of clothing from the basket so I can drape it over the rungs of the little rack. If you are wondering, I hardly use the dryer except for sheets and things that I can't hang inside. I do hang things outside during the spring/summer when I can. Anyway, Bug's also very good at carrying small piles of dry clothes into my room to put on my bed for folding. This was our conversation while he was handing me Darling Hubby's boxers and shirts.

Me: Hand me the next one, please.
Bug: Here you go, Mommy.
Me: Thank you.
Bug: You're welcome (it actually came out like "webcomb" since he has a stuffy nose.) Here you go, Mommy.
Me: Thank you.
Bug: You're welcome. Here you go, Mommy.
Me: Ok, hold on, this shirt is inside out and I need to fix it before hanging it up.
One second wait
Bug: Here you go, Mommy.
Me: Hold on a second.
One second wait
Bug: Here you go, Mommy.
Me: Thank you, Bug. You are a good helper.
Bug: You're welcome...Here you go...

Either he's very literal when I said hang on a second or he's really gung ho about hanging up laundry. Either way, it was a cute conversation.

Well, those are my random thoughts for today. It was actually kinda fun and it made me feel good to get them out of my brain. I'm thinking maybe I should do this every week.

Turn Your Clocks Back, I'm a Winner!

2007-11-03T19:19:00.000-04:00

Ok, my title may be a little misleading. I really just wanted to tell you 2 things.

First, tonight is the end of Daylight Saving Time. Don't forget to set your clocks back 1 hour tonight before going to bed. Can I just say that I really hate this time of the year? I hate that I lose an hour of my very precious sleep all because the congress feels the need to mess with my clocks...I also hate that it falls on a Sunday which is my day to get up with Bug to let Darling Hubby sleep in...now I'll be up super early...but I digress.

The other thing I wanted to say is that I am a winner! I entered several of the giveaways in the It's Fall Ya'll Giveaway contest sponsored by Shannon at Rocks in the Dryer/Bloggy Giveaways and I won one. I'm in shock! I was sure that I wouldn't be chosen. I guess all the time I spent entering wasn't for nothing. Sarah over at Short Stop was giving away 4 books and I am the recipient of one, The Dangerous Book for Boys. I can't wait for it to arrive. Thanks, Sarah!!!

A Superman Halloween

2007-11-02T21:30:00.000-04:00

Halloween has come and gone. I'm happy it's past and sad all at the same time. Is that even possible? I'm sad to see all the all the scary decorations come down (except those creepy spiders. They just freak me out! I'm glad to see them go) , the creative costumes the people come up with be put away and I'll very much miss all that candy. Ok, I still have some candy left so I'm not going to be missing it anytime soon...I've got Christmas candy to look forward too. It's not like I haven't had enough candy over the past month (just ask my Darling Hubby about the 2 HUGE bags of candy we bought wholesale...just ask him how much was left Halloween night..Ok, you don't have to go pester him...I'll tell you. Of the 2 HUGE bags, there was less than 1/2 of 1 bag left. Yep..I have no will power when it comes to candy. I saw a picture on someone's blog this morning (I wish I could give credit where credit is due, but I can't seem to remember where I saw said photo. I've been entering all those wonderful Fall Y'all giveaways and it was one one of those 650 blogs) that had a whole handful of candy wrappers next to their computer...that was me weeks before Halloween...That's one reason I'm happy Halloween is overThe other is that I'm simply looking forward to Christmas which is only 54 days away!!! I'm so excited for the decorations and the music. I so need to get on the Christmas shopping ball. I love to be pretty much done by Thanksgiving. At least we've got Bug's shopping done.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic....what I wanted to do is share some of our Halloween pictures. Click the pics for bigger images.

Last Sunday one of the local malls held a Halloween party. We dressed Bug up in his Superman costume and took him down there. They had pumpkin decorating and cookie frosting. There was a dice game where the kids would toss 2 large foam "dice" with pictures of Finding Nemo characters taped to it. If you got 2 matching pictures you won a prize. Bug had some fun painting (he loves to paint) and the cookie was a big hit later when it was getting close to lunch time and we were doing some Christmas shopping in the bargain room of the video store. (Best place to shop...you never know what great finds you'll stumble over.) He did have a great time tossing the dice around. If you've read any of my prior posts you'll know that Darling Hubby and I are gamers and Bug loves to play with our dice, so this game was right up his alley. The most comical part of the day was during the dice rolling game when he dropped the 2nd die and instead of picking up up and attempting to throw it again he basically cherry bombed it across the room. Too funny!

Later that night we carved our jack-o-lantern. Let's say that Bug was less than thrilled to stick his hand inside the hollow pumpkin once he found out that it was wet and goopy in there. He sat off in the wings watching Daddy do all the work. I think that Daddy did a great job on it. He freehanded the outline of the skull onto the pumpkin. I couldn't have done it at all without it looking like a cartoon straight out of Bugs Bunny.

Here is the finished product.

On Halloween we once again donned the Superman costume and headed over to the public library where they were having trick or treating in the children's room. While I picked out a couple new kids books to read, Bug trick or treated from the nice librarians. He got a whole page of stickers and even a coupon for a free ice cream cone. After that we went to the "Malloween" celebration at the big mall across town. The stores were handing out candy and they have a costume contest at the end of the evening. We only did the trick or treating this year. He didn't get too much candy, but got a decent score, and most of it is stuff that he can eat- lollipops, tootsie rolls and chocolate bars. After that, it was up, up and away home (Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Superbug!) where we had a healthy dinner of mac and cheese with veggies and hot dogs and then played a rousing game of catch while waiting for the few trick or treaters to make their presences known by setting off Max, our alarm dog.

Oh, and here is my favorite picture of the night.Me and My Superman!

So, I have next Halloween to look forward too (as well as this Christmas). I think that we may get together with some friends of ours next year and create themed costumes and go trick or treating together. I think it would be fun.

Off to watch my all time favorite movie. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl...Savvy?

Fall Ya'll Giveaway!

2007-10-31T10:42:00.000-04:00

If you haven't already, head on over to Bloggy Giveaways and check out the Fall Ya'll Bloggy Givaway! There is a list of over 500 people who are just giving things away! All you have to do is visit their blog and leave a comment.

Go! Hurry! You have until Friday, in most cases, to enter! Oh, and make sure you have gone to the bathroom and have a drink before you start. I'm sure you'll be at your computer for a while!

A Wiggly Contest!

2007-10-27T13:50:00.001-04:00

I stumbled across this contest this morning from 5 minutes for Mom. They are giving away 5 new Getting Strong DVD's, the newest release by the Wiggles. I couldn't pass this up, especially since we just saw them in concert on Tuesday. If your kids are Wiggles fans, go here to enter. Drawing will be held November 2nd.

She's My Hero

2007-10-26T20:32:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine from one of my online baby boards (whose daughter and Bug share the same birthday) recently participated in the 3-day Breast Cancer Walk in Atlanta, GA. She works for CNN and did a little video diary of her journey.

Jessica is a wonderful woman (and Mama) who, despite having broken her ankle in January (during a terrible sledding incident) and having a metal plate and 10 screws installed, was able to support the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, along with 25oo other men and women by walking 60 miles in 3 days. She has, thankfully, not been personally affected by cancer, but was courageous enough to get out there on a rebuilt ankle while 15 weeks pregnant and make a difference in the lives of others. She truly is a superhero. I can only hope to be like her one day.

Click here to watch her story. Don't forget to read the article she wrote at the bottom. It's a touching story.

Food For Friday

2007-10-26T14:59:00.000-04:00

So this week I'm having recipe block. I don't want to keep using the same recipes I have been using. I want to try a few new ones, but I can't find anything that's really appealing to my tummy today. (I guess I should do this on an empty stomach!) Nothing is jumping out from the grocery store flyer either....Anyway, here goes!

Monday - Hamburger Helper
Tuesday - Bourbon Chicken with Rice served with broccoli
Wednesday - Mini Octopus Mac Wiggle - A variant on my tuna mac wiggle, but with a hot dog octopus. (based on this recipe) Something Bug should enjoy, plus it's Halloween-ish and a very quick dinner so we can hit the mall for some Trick or Treating fun!
Thursday - Game Night - dinner to be determined later
Friday - Homemade pizza in less than 30 minutes

Monday - Barbers Chicken Cordon Bleu or Sweet Italian Sausages with fries (Darling Hubby's choice)
Tuesday - Turkey Chili
Wednesday - Easy Pleasing Meatloaf (made with ground turkey) - served with mixed veggies and scalloped potatoes
Thursday - Beef Stew
Friday - left overs or Sloppy Joes (Bernie Style)

Ok, so that's what I've been able to come up with after scouring the Kraft website and my recipe box...Sounds like a decent 2 weeks to me!

It's Wiggle Time!!!

2007-10-25T20:25:00.000-04:00

As a perk from Darling Hubby's place of work, they have a few seats at the local sporting arena that they will give away via lottery for those that put in for them. Darling Hubby put in for Wiggles tickets and by luck of the lottery gods, Tuesday night Bug went to his first ever concert, The Wiggles Racing to the Rainbow Show.

At first, he was a little unsure of what was going on and why we were at such a big place with so many other people. It was so cute how he handed his ticket to the ticket lady so she could scan it as we entered the arena. So sweet. When we found our seats, each one had a little package neatly placed in the center of the chair. Inside was a paper wiggles photo frame with crayons for coloring. Bug had a lot of fun scribbling away on his photo frame. Hey, it kept him occupied before the show actually started and I can toss it in the scrapbook, too.

(I want to apologize for the lack of quality of my photos this time around. I was unsure of the camera policy for the show (the venue website said the rule was generally no digital cameras, but the tickets only said no audio/video recording) and I didn't want to take my expensive camera and risk having to leave it in the car in the parking garage so I dug up my old first digital camera and smuggled it in inside my purse.)

While we were sorta patiently waiting for the show to start, Bug noticed many other kids his age, all happily munching away on bags of popcorn and, of course, had to have his own bag. When the show started he sat happily nibbling on delicious buttery kernel after buttery kernel. He still didn't know what to make of the whole stage scene until the Wiggles came out and started singing and dancing songs that he knew. That's when he got excited. When they played one of his all time favorite songs, "Hot Potato," he happily did all the motions and sang along with them.

He was really impressed by the version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" they did half way in when they had all the parents turn on their cell phones to use as starlight. (We, unfortunately, left our cell phone home so Bug was unable to participate in the fun, but he was content just to watch.) They had a disco ball projecting "stars" all over the arena and there was even a moon. Bug loves Twinkle Twinkle (it's generally the only lullaby he will allow me to sing at night) and the display was really awe inspiring to a 2.5 year old.

One part of the show really made us all laugh, but I didn't get any decent pictures. They had 3 ducks come out (one of which was Captain Feathersword dressed as a duck). The Captain Feathersword duck was cock-a-doodle-doo'ing instead of quacking and Anthony (blue) was trying to prove that it was Captain Feathersword and not a duck and he made the Captain do all sorts of silly walks and Anthony spelled out Quack while walking funny and made the Captain spell cock-a-doodle-doo while doing the same walk. Course, he didn't spell it very well...which made it all the funnier, and all anyone on stage (including the Wiggly Dancers) was laugh at all the silliness. It was obvious it wasn't something that was rehearsed. You really had to see it as my description just isn't doing it justice.

Here are some pictures of the rest of the Wiggles show.

Dancing with the Wiggly Dancers at the start of the show.
There was one Wiggly Dancer that was cracking me up. He had this funny head move that he did ALL. THE. TIME. It was his signature move and it was so funny. Made my night. He's the blurry dancer between Sam (yellow) and Murray (red).

Dancing in front of the Murray balloon that was having issues standing up and staying up. It fell on Jeff (purple) and Captain Feathersword several times before standing upright.

Performing "Hot Potato" with Henry the Octopus, Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the Dog.

Murray testing his guitar out by playing Stairway to Heaven.
(a little something for all the adults in the room)

There was only one minor mishap during the show. The young boy behind me ended up getting sick about 30 minutes before the end of the show. His mom said that she thinks he gagged himself on a piece of popcorn which made him throw up. Lovely! She did a decent job of diverting the flow of puke, but unluckily a little got on the back of my shirt. It wasn't the end of the world (what was I going to do, get mad at her or her kid?) We had talked at the start of the show and her husband took her oldest son to confirmation so she had the 3 youngest all alone. I felt bad for her being alone with 3 kids and one of them sick. They ended up staying through the rest of the show and after she gave me a couple baby wipes and I used some hand sanitizer, I was all well and good and enjoyed the remainder of the show. I'm not sure if I would have stayed through the end of the show had Bug been the one to throw up. I think I would have gone home right away. What would you have done?

Anyway, overall, the show was a success. Darling Hubby and I were worried how Bug was going to be with all the people, noise, and waiting at the beginning, but he did great. I was very proud of him.

Oh, and the first thing he said to me when I walked into his bedroom Wednesday morning:

"Wiggles were fun, Mommy!"

I guess they made a good impression on him, too.

Craftiness Fun And An Update

2007-10-22T12:00:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I've post anything other than posts about food or blog contests. It's sad really. I have all sorts of ideas for things I want to blog about, family, friends, random thoughts in my brain, but I never seem to have the time to actually sit down and flesh them out. I've been known to "compose" entire blog entries in my brain (generally in the shower where I have free time to think) and they never make it to the computer, either because I've forgotten what I'd "written" about or it was just past when I could have posted it. But, I digress.

I wanted to post about the art activity that Bug and I did last week on Wednesday. It was his first day of fingerpainting. Yep, Mommy let him fingerpaint...although I dreaded the mess that could be made. He had fun, but he was hesitant. Was Mommy really going to let me make a mess? Yep, I did. After putting Bug in an old t-shirt I wasn't concerned about getting dirty (yeah, it was white...lol), laying down a protective layer of newspaper on my kitchen floor and taping together some computer paper to make one big sheet (I don't have any big painting paper so I had to make due) we opened the brand spankin' new case of fingerpaints, which came complete with fingertip brushes, a paint roller with interchangeable heads and a paintbrush.

He was hesitant to get his hands dirty and mainly used one finger to spread the paint around.

He did eventually get more than just one finger dirty.

I brought out the roller brush and squirted some new paint on the paper and he rolled it around making lots of multicolored streaks and rainbows. The paint started to get sticky so it was time to clean up. He didn't really want to, but he did want to wash his hands. And apparently, this fingerpaint will stain skin for a short amount of time. It took nearly all day for the paint to wear off his hands. At least he didn't get any on his face. lol

So Thursday night we had 2 full cords of firewood delivered. I had to stack some of it Friday before it began to rain. I ended up hurting my back and I'm still in pain (it's now Monday). Our next door neighbor, Scott, came over Saturday afternoon to give Darling Hubby and I a hand stacking it. Bug was a big help. He had so much fun bringing small pieces inside and putting them on the pile. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of him being a big helper. To bad this helpful streak won't last forever.

Sunday, we ended up needing to purchase a new television for our living room. Our other one went on the fritz and the remote wasn't working. Now before you say something like, " Why didn't you change the batteries or get a new remote?" let me tell you that we did all those things and more. The remote had been quirky for a little over a month, only working when it really wanted to. It had been dismantled and we attempted a repair with no luck. We tried all kinds of new batteries and even new remotes. We had an old universal remote, but that failed to run any of our electronic devices so that one ended up in the trash. The new one we bought only worked for the DVD player and VCR...still not what we were looking for. Turns out that the sensor for the remote on the TV itself ceased to function. Now, we aren't lazy and can get up off our duffs to change the channel (or just run it through the VCR on those lazy days), the problem is that we use the closed captioning so the volume doesn't need to be cranked to maximum and we can only control the CC with the remote...stupid...therefore, we needed a remote that functioned and a TV that could receive a signal. Therefore it was, in essence, a necessity to purchase a new TV. In turn, Bug and Baby Girl got a fun new toy...the box the TV came in. I cut out a couple windows and a door and they had fun coloring it and crawling in and out of it. I have pictures, but I don't want to post pics of Baby Girl without permission and I'm being lazy today and don't feel like uploading them from my camera....

So, that's what we've been up to lately. Off to get the kiddlets some lunch and then it's naptime for everyone, which equals quiet time for me! Woohoo!

Food For Friday

2007-10-12T12:27:00.000-04:00

It's Friday and I'm scanning the grocery store flyer and coming up with this weeks menu. I think for these two weeks we'll do good ol' family favorites and comfort food.

Monday - Hamburger/Tuna Helper
Tuesday - Tacos
Wednesday - Oven Baked Chicken Fingers and Fries (This one is a recipe box keeper)
Thursday - Game Night. Dinner to be determined later.
Friday - Pepperoni Pizza

Monday - Velveeta Easy Chicken Primavera
Tuesday - Spaghetti and Meatballs (with homemade sauce and meatballs)
Wednesday - Tuna Mac Wiggle - If you've never made this, it's easy and yummy, and kid friendly. If you want the concoction, just ask.
Thursday - Rotisserie Chicken
Friday - Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

Bloggy Giveaways for This Week - Updated!

2007-10-09T11:04:00.001-04:00

I will continue to add giveaways to this post, so check back throughout the week for more fun and interesting contests!

If you get a free moment, go check out 5 minutes for mom and enter their drawing for Kukunest bedding. They have some pretty cool bedding sets and if you enter, you could be the lucky winner of a set of your choice. I'd love the Intergalactic set for Bug.

Also, check out their giveaway for the book Queen of the Castle. It looks like a must for all stay at home moms. It even has chocolate recipes.

ETA on 10/11: Here's some more great giveaways you must check out. Head on over to Bloggy Giveaways and enter the Chocolate Cake Club drawing. No, you aren't going to get any actual cake, but check out all the fun kids and adult things that the Chocolate Cake Club has for sale. The winner gets a $25 gift certificate. Comments open until 10/15.

Also, go over to the Warm Biscuit giveaway (do you see a trend here?) to enter for your chance to win a $50 gift certificate to spend at the Warm Biscuit Bedding Company. Comments open until 10/14.

ETA on 10/12: Here's one more great giveaway from Bloggy Giveaways. Check out the Colour Me Family giveaway then head on over to the Colour Me Family website and design your own address labels (Christmas or Everyday) with your own family front and center. Two winners will be chosen to win a set of 60 lables (a $19.99 value). Comments open until 10/16.

5 Minutes for Mom is holding a contest and giving away a Tonka Truck! How could you resist that? Just go here and leave a comment about how Tonka trucks have affected your life. Comments open until 10/20.

Food for Friday

2007-09-28T12:15:00.000-04:00

It's been 2 weeks so here is another edition of Food for Friday. I'm already hungry thinking about the coming weeks menus...maybe I should go eat lunch.

Monday - Cheesy Volcano Meatball Subs (I'm making them for my weekly hobby night as it's my turn to cook.)
Tuesday - Bacon, Cheese and Potato Chowder (didn't get to make this one yet)
Wednesday - Oven-Fried Chicken Fingers and Fries (didn't get to make this one yet)
Thursday - Game Night - Dinner to be determined later
Friday - Hamburger Helper (I'll be at a wedding rehearsal/dinner so I won't be home so dinner will be up to Darling Hubby)

Monday - Weeknight Lasagna Toss (didn't get to make this one either)
Tuesday - Turkey Burgers and Tater Tots
Wednesday - Spaghetti and Meatballs
Thursday - Ham with mashed potatoes and mixed veggies
Friday - Pot Roast or Beef Stew (depending on what meat is cheapest at the grocery store)

Oh, and of the recipes I made during the last 2 weeks, the ones that were hits in our household were the meatloaf, the meatballs (obviously, since I'm repeating this week) and the Rosemary Chicken. Those will all make it to the recipe box.

Siggy

2007-09-28T10:20:00.001-04:00

I decided to add a signature to my blog. Something new...and I figured it out all by myself. (pats herself on the back.) Off to do my laundry and a grocery list for tomorrow.

Wild, Weird, and Wacky Wednesday - Update Edition

2007-09-26T11:25:00.000-04:00

It's been such a long time since I posted a non giveaway related post and since Bug and Baby Girl are playing relatively nicely with the circular saw and drill (don't worry, they are just toys! No need to call CPS!) I figured I'd sit down and type up some stuff and share some pictures. It's been a while since I did a Wild, Weird and Wacky Wednesday post, too.

Things in my life are going well. Last Friday Darling Hubby, Bug and I went to the local apple orchard and picked several pounds of fresh apples. It was so super hot (nothing like a nice fall apple picking day) so we didn't stay too long, basically just picked our apples and headed home, so I didn't get too many good pictures. Oh well...Now I have 2 huge bags of apples sitting on my kitchen floor just waiting for me to make them into pies, crisps or just to munch. I hope we eat them all before they start to spoil. I do have to say Bug is in heaven. He's eaten an apple for breakfast for the past week. It will keep him regular and keep the dr away, too.

Tuesday, Darling Hubby had a root canal for the tooth that he broke last month. He said it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't pleasant either. At least that portion of the process is over. We ended up having to pay $580 out of pocket because the insurance company took their time getting back to the dentist office about the request they submitted regarding what would be covered. So, after DH had the root canal, the dentist office called saying that they insurance would cover the whole root canal so the money we paid out will go toward the core build-up and crown at the next few appts. Hopefully we won't have to spend anymore out of pocket. Fingers crossed.

Here are just a few pictures I've taken recently of Bug. He so enjoys playing Daddy's Nintendo DS. The only thing is that he can't play Puzzle Quest. He managed to delete both mine and DH's characters...we were like level 30! Now we have to start all over again.

And Bug also decided that we still needed to paint our porch (which we'd finished last month.) Here he is with a paint brush and a watering can. He was having a grand ol' time "painting" the window frames with invisible paint from the watering can.

He was even jumping up trying to reach higher up and saying "I reach, Mommy." It was too cute to watch.

I hope you've enjoyed this rendition of Wild, Weird, and Wacky Wednesday. Off to feed the kiddos lunch before they waste away to nothing! lol

More Giveaway Goodness

2007-09-25T08:39:00.000-04:00

Ok, how can you not enter this giveaway? 5 Minutes for Mom is giving away a pink Dyson vacuum. Yep, you read that right...a pink Dyson vacuum. And, even better, Dyson has decided to donate the whole retail price to the Breast Cancer Research Fund! That's $400! So, head on over to this post and leave a comment. Maybe you can be the lucky winner of that scrumptious pink vacuum! Winner to be chosen October 1!

Another great giveaway by 5 Minutes for Mom is an external hard drive. Never worry about losing all those precious pictures and mommy files during your next computer crash. I would die if I lost all my pics! Go here and check out the giveaway for a Western Digital Passport Portable Hard Drive! Click here to comment for your chance to be one of 3 winners! Winners to be drawn October 5th

(Oh, and just as a side note, I've been having trouble with the 5 Minutes for Mom Dyson blog post during loading. It totally bogs down my computer because it has a ton to load, so just be prepared to wait a wee bit...but it will totally be worth it if you win!)

Oh, and there's one more giveaway! Over at Bloggy Giveaways, Shannon is giving away a set of 2 burp cloths or a mini quilt from Peas and Carrots, a mom owned online store. Go here and enter for your chance to be the winner of burp cloths or a mini quilt. Comments open until 9/29 so hurry!

Yet Another Giveaway!

2007-09-20T08:45:00.000-04:00

I must be on a giveaway binge lately. Here's another one that I really hope I win! Fingers and tose crossed! Go on over to Bloggy Giveaways and check out the Arte Bebe giveaway. Then head on over to Arte Bebe and check out all the fun things they offer, from kids clothing and shoes, to fun stuffed animals to things for grown-ups. My favorites are the Junglie and Truffle animals (~~I must have one~~ Bug would love one) and the alpaca blanket. Don't forget to hop on back to Bloggy Giveaways and post a comment. Open until 9/24.

Jewelry Giveaway

2007-09-19T11:56:00.001-04:00

Head on over to Bloggy Giveaways and check out the Bella Grano Jewelry give away. The winner will receive a $12 gift certificate. The owner of Bella Grano is a stay at home mom of 2 boys and make lots of beautiful jewelry. Just check out her earrings (the deep purple pinwheels and shades of purple are my favorite (and only $7 each!)), necklaces and rings. Then comment on Bloggy Giveaways for your chance to win! Ends 9/23.

Web Monikers

2007-09-17T11:35:00.001-04:00

OK, so it's official. Both my husband and son's names shall no longer appear on this blog. My son will be referred to as Bug (as this is what I call him most of the time anyway) and my husband will now be Darling Hubby (or DH on a lazy blogging day). I will still be Sara. I like my name. :D

Thanks again to Corey for lighting the fire under my butt about protecting the innocent from Chester Molester.

Food For Friday

2007-09-14T10:51:00.000-04:00

I know that many bloggers whom I read follow the Menu Plan Monday sponsored by Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie. Unfortunately, I could never jump on that bandwagon. Why you may ask? Well...I don't do my shopping and planning at the beginning of the week like most. I plan out my meals on Friday. Having grown up always going grocery shopping on Saturdays, that's what I've always planned for. Sometimes we go Friday and sometimes Sunday, but it's always on a weekend...so, I can't plan out my menu on Monday...Therefore, I'm going to try to start my own thing. Food For Friday. I'm going to plan out my menu and post it here. This week, many of my recipes are coming from Kraft Food & Family Magazine that I got in the mail the other day. If you don't already get Kraft Food & Family Magazine or even their emailing of recipes, go here and sign up. You won't be sorry! Oh, and since we got shopping once every 2 weeks, I make a menu for 2 weeks.

Monday - Homemade French Bread Pizza
Tuesday - Rosemary Roasted Chicken & Potoates
Wednesday - Glazed Stuffed Pork Chops (Although I'm not going to stuff them) with roasted potatoes and mixed veggies
Thursday - Game Night - dinner to be determined at a later date
Friday - Bacon, Cheese & Potato Chowder served with artisan bread

Monday - Hamburger/Tuna Helper/or Mac-N-Cheese
Tuesday - Cheesy Volcano Meatball subs
Wednesday - Oven-Fried Chicken Fingers and Fries
Thursday - Easy Pleasing Meatloaf with smashed potatoes and veggies
Friday - Weeknight Lasagna Toss

Now...off to figure out how much of everything I'm going to need and see what I already have.

Bloggy Giveaways

2007-09-14T09:11:00.000-04:00

Go on over to Bloggy Giveaways and check out the Ciao Bella giveaway. They have some yummy products at their site - www.cioabellabody.com so go check them out and leave a comment with your favorite product. Comments close today so HURRY!

Next up is a give away featuring Loop de Lou's personalized stationary. Go check out their site (and have lots of fun personalizing your cards, etc to see how the design would best fit you. Then, hop on over to comment on this post with your favorite items for your chance to win! Hurry, ends Saturday the 15th.

Oh, and for my friends with girls, go check out this giveaway for a $50 gift certificate to Madie Jane's. Ends Monday the 17th.

Technical Difficulties

2007-09-13T21:52:00.000-04:00

I just want to apologize to those who use Google Reader or any other subscription program for reading blogs if you were subjected to an additional viewing of my Vacation to Vermont post. I was having some issues with pictures not showing up and accidentally removed and posted it again so it may have shown back up as unread in your reader. I humbly apologize...oh, and the pictures should now be fixed, too.

Yummy Smelling Goodness

2007-09-13T12:03:00.000-04:00

I stumbled onto a fun contest this morning at Heather's Brain. She's giving away a Home & Garden Party Pack with your choice of candles. Go check it out and enter. We all know we can all use more yummy smelling candles in our houses, right?

Our Vacation to Vermont

2007-09-12T15:24:00.000-04:00

Warning! This is very long so make sure you've had a potty break, refilled your drink, gotten a snack and have a few minutes without interruption...

<--Just so you know, that's me with a dime-store Indian.

So we had a pretty good time on our vacation. We left early Friday afternoon after getting into a minor fight about something so trivial. I hoped it wasn't going to ruin our trip. We had directions printed and a pretty decent map of Vermont and despite the printed directions, we got inevitably lost (and it wasn't because I can't read a map...I can't, but that wasn't the reason.) So, we made it there in about 3 hours including a stop at the Vermont Country Store. The hotel (Econo-Lodge in White River Junction) was a decent place. They had an indoor pool and a hot tub. The rooms were clean and didn't smell of smoke like many non-smoking hotel rooms I've been in. Bug immediately liked jumping on the beds. He would have his own queen size bed for 2 nights.

After getting checked in and settled, we decided to get something to eat. We debated for a while on having something delivered and when we asked Bug he said he wanted fries which only means one thing...McDonalds. There was one down the road so we headed off. We got about half way there and the car started making a very terrible noise. Darling Hubby pulled over and we had a flat tire. We ran over a bolt (complete with washer). Easy fix, right? Nope. Darling Hubby got the car jacked up and the lug nuts off (we were missing 2, by the way) and the darn tire just would not come off for anything. Long story short, after an hour of kicking it, tugging on it, hitting it with the tire iron, a quick walk to the service station just back up the street (who couldn't send anyone for at least 45 mins) and 2 nice passer-byers later, the wheel came free and the donut (yes, our car only has a donut) was on and we made our way to the McDonalds. Then it was back to the service station to drop off the tire so it could be repaired first thing in the morning. Sigh...some vacation this it starting out to be...At least it didn't completely set the tone for things to come.

We had a tough time getting Bug to go to sleep that first night. He was so wound up from being some place new that he just couldn't settle down. Plus all he wanted to do was jump on the beds and watch baseball. He finally settled down in his own big bed around 10 and we all crashed after that to be well rested during the night. That would have happened had the bed Darling Hubby and I chose been comfortable. There was a severe dip in the center (and no, I was not sleeping in the middle all night) that was causing us to lean and sleep funny. Needless to say, Bug was the only one who got a decent nights sleep.

In the morning we showered and got ready to go. We went down to breakfast where we dined on cheerios, danishes, and orange juice. We met a very nice family with a couple kids one was almost 2 and the other looked to be about 4. We talked briefly (well, the little ones talked) before everyone set about their business. Our first mission was to get the tire from the service station. They had patched it and it only cost us $10. Not bad...then it was to the Toyota dealership (oh, and I should note, White River Junction is mainly comprised of Car dealers, hotels, and gas stations.) so we could get replacement lug nuts. In total, it only cost us a little over an hours worth of hassle and $15. Then it was back to the hotel to put on the new tire and clean up. While Darling Hubby was fixing the car, he found 3 more lug nuts that were loose on the car. We are beginning to think that the dealership did a shoddy job of putting them back on after the last tire rotation...

Then, it was off on our day of fun. Our first stop was to the Quechee Gorge. It's nothing spectacular. It's a gorge. Just a mountain with a river running through. They say it's like the Grand Canyon...except it's smaller and has trees. It was pretty anyway and a long way down from the bridge we were standing on.

After that we went to Scotland by the Yard, a little store that sells all sorts of Celtic items. It was a cute little store that had a lot of great stuff, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to spend $150 on a sweater...even if it would keep us warm in -800 degree weather. After that we went looking for the scrapbooking store I wanted to visit, but we couldn't find it anywhere...oh well...less money I'd spend, right. Then we went to the Quechee Gorge Village. Bug enjoyed eating all the cheese in the Cabot Cheese Store as well as pushing the buttons to start the model trains in the toy museum, riding the train (and pretending to be the conductor) that went around the property and playing video games with daddy. They had some beautiful stuff in the antiques and craft sections. There were lots of old things that I would have loved to have bought, but just couldn't bring myself to pay the asking price. It's funny, we saw an old Schoenhut child's piano that they were asking $125 for. We picked up the same thing (in better condition) at a garage sale this summer for Bug for $20. There was a lot of beautiful things in the Danforth Pewter store and the Glassblowers Studio, but they were really pricey, and I just couldn't pay that much for something that would possibly get broken.

After a filling lunch at the Farmers Diner, we went over to Vermont Country Iron (the Blacksmiths shop). We were hoping they would be forging things, but with the heat, I can't blame the guy for not. We met the owner, Rich Franklin, who is a very nice man. We were looking for something that we could use as a door stop for one of our doors in our house and not seeing anything that would fit the bill in the shop, he's hand-forging us something to our own design. It should take a couple weeks to make and then he'll ship it out to us. I can't wait to get it. I'll post a picture of it when it arrives.

After leaving the village, we made a quick stop at this kids clothing and toy store (I figured there had to be something Bug could play with there since he hadn't been able to touch much) We found out upon entering, that Muddy Duck Kids was going out of business and we talked with the owners for a little while. They were very nice people. Bug liked playing with their wiener dog, Gypsy. And to make things better, they were selling the clothing for 75% off and everything else 50% off. Of course none of the clothing would fit Bug, but we ended up with a cool Melissa and Doug picture frame, a book, and a bag of rocks (it's what Bug picked out) for $18. After that, it was another quick stop at McDonalds for dinner and then a quick swim in the hotel pool where we met up again with our friends from breakfast whom I learned were named Braden (older) and Malachi (younger). The three had lots of fun wading in the 1' deep water and pouring water over unsuspecting mommies. (Unfortunately, I don't have pictures as we didn't want to take my camera down to the pool and risk it getting damaged or stolen). Back in the hotel, Bug had a bath and then we all curled up and watched Shrek 3 which we purchased from the hotel for our in room movie. We'd heard lots of bad things about it, but Darling Hubby and I actually enjoyed it.

Our final day there began rain and before we left White River Junction we took another trip to the village and another tour through the antiques place, the Glassblowing Studio and the pewter store before having another round of tasty Cabot cheese and heading home. We stopped for lunch at Burger King in Rutland and then went to Bennington Potters in Bennington, VT. The store front was cool. There was this moose statue wearing galoshes and it was through the glass. They had lots of cool things inside, too. Of course, I never want to purchase anything at full price so you could find me browsing the shelves of "seconds" (things that are not aesthetically perfect) where I found a cool mixing bowl with pour spout in blue agate and a set of mugs in green for discounted prices. After leaving Bennington, we headed home to our dogs who had been cared for by our wonderful neighbors. I'm so glad we had a good vacation. It was fun to get away from the things at home and do something different, but, I'm happy to be home.

New Look!

2007-09-05T19:52:00.001-04:00

I had a few extra minutes and thought I'd change my header and colors. What do you think? I took that picture of the flower when we were at the park yesterday. It's very fall-ish.

What Have I Been Up To Lately?

2007-09-05T10:45:00.000-04:00

So it's been a week since I last posted. Wow, I'm a slacker when it comes to blogging all of a sudden, but I have reasons, really, I do! Anyway, things have been good...things have been bad. The good is, my dad is doing well. No more heart episodes and I guess he's decided against the open heart surgery. Just keep those fingers crossed and prayers coming that nothing else happens that will make him need the surgery.

Another good thing is Darling Hubby and I finished the backyard. Woot! I don't remember if I said here or not, but we decided to tear out part of the driveway - there was a section just off the driveway, between the driveway and the lawn, really, where there was enough room for a picnic table, but since we didn't have or want a picnic table it really only served as a place for Bug's slide and he was always scraping his knees up on it when he fell down. Plus, it really cut down on the side of our yard...hardly any grass at all.

We also decided to take out an unused flower garden along the fence (we also installed bamboo privacy fence to hide ourselves from the neighbors...lol) and put in a patio. It looks great. Now if we can only get grass to grow where the driveway part was, we'll be in business. I think we'll be using it for the first time tomorrow when our game group gets together to roll up new characters for a new campaign and grill some burgers and dogs.

The bad news is that Saturday while we were working in the backyard I had my camera outside taking pictures of Bug who was being a very cute helper. I put my camera up on the roof of the car out of Bug's reach and away from the dust from the dirt we were moving. We went inside for lunch and I must not have grabbed my camera. I realized that it was missing Sunday morning when I went to upload the pictures of Bug helping so I could edit them to share. I searched all over and we came to the conclusion that either someone had the balls to walk up our driveway during the time we were inside for lunch and take my camera off the car or Darling Hubby didn't see it when we went to Home Depot for the first of many trips that weekend and it fell off the car. I hope it was the latter. If I can't have it, I'd rather it be smashed to smithereens in the street so no one could use it. Since we are going on vacation this weekend I wanted my camera and I was devastated (and Darling Hubby was pissed and thankfully wasn't yelling at me for being a stupid idiot cause he knew I felt bad enough already.) On top of losing the camera itself, I lost my 128Mb SD memory card and a set of 4 rechargeable batteries. Monday we ended up going all over in search of a replacement camera. Since I was already familiar with where all the buttons where on my old one, I knew I wanted the same type camera. I ended up getting the Canon Powershot S3 IS, which is the next step up from the one I had. I wanted the S5, but Darling Hubby put his foot down on that one since it was more expensive and I wasn't about to argue...he was letting me get a new camera. I ended up paying more for it in Target than I would have on Amazon, but I wanted to get it sooner rather than not have it for the weekend. I'm sure Darling Hubby is going to ask me a zillion time where it is so I can keep track of it.

Oh, and Darling Hubby said that since I was getting a new toy, he had to have one, too. He ended up getting a Nintendo DS (in black) with 2 games. He's already logged a good amount of time playing it (and I'll admit, I play it too during nap time when Darling Hubby's not home.)

Bug is really into it, too. He likes to play with the pictochat feature and try to help daddy when he's playing P uzzle Quest. I took these pictures while we were outside on the new patio, Monday afternoon. Bug is just such a cutie! Isn't he just the sweetest thing, too, leaning on Daddy like that?

Yesterday Darling Hubby decided to come with us to the park. I was going to take Bug on Sunday, but was in such a funk over my camera that I didn't want to go. So, now having a new camera I got to take lots of pictures of Bug doing all his favorite things (swing, slide, climb and teeter totter. Daddy is really excited because he's planning to install a tire swing in our backyard for Bug since we don't have room for a big swingset. We just have to get a tire (which will hopefully be tomorrow) and it's go. I'm sure Bug will be excited once he figures out what we are doing. Don't worry, I'll post pictures here. :D

So, all in all, things are going well. I'm happy that we got the patio and yard done. I'm mad at myself for losing my camera, but I'm happy that I got a new one. I'm looking forward to taking lots of pictures this weekend in Vermont. I hope it's a good anniversary. I'm glad I got to take some pictures of Bug having fun at the park. It always makes me happy when he's happy.

I "Heart" Your Heart

2007-08-29T12:09:00.001-04:00

So we've been really busy lately. It seems like Darling Hubby and I have aways been doing something. Then something happens to make me slow down and think. My mom called me yesterday day afternoon to tell me that my dad had just been released from Wilson Hospital in Binghamton after having what they are calling a coronary episode. I guess it wasn't a true heart attack, but he was having chest pain caused by a clogged artery. It started Sunday when after having pain most of the afternoon, she rushed him to the ER in our small town shortly after midnight. They kept him there, monitoring him and ended up transferring him to Wilson Hospital in Binghamton sometime on Monday. There they did the surgery with the balloon where they inflate the artery to clear it (I'm not all up on my medical terminology so I don't know what this is called.) There was some complication with that as his BP bottomed out, but they got him stabilized. He's home now resting and is taking his medications as prescribed. I'm sure my mom is watching him like a mother hen and that he's not allowed to do much of anything aside from sit in bed or in the living room.

He really does over do it outside so this has probably been a long time coming. He cuts his own firewood, grows his own garden, mows the grass, installs fencing...things that a nearly 69 year old man probably shouldn't be doing.

Here's a picture of my dad taken on Father's Day this year. He's on the phone with my brother Victor.

I love my dad dearly even though we haven't been super close since I was little and tagged along everywhere behind him, needing to be just like him. Things like digging potatoes, hauling firewood, driving the tractor, going fishing and I even had to soak me feet like he did after a hard days work. I was such a tom-boy. So, if you are the praying type please send some prayers his way, or even just some positive thoughts.

I know that my dad will never read this (they don't have internet) but I just want to say, "Dad, I love you and I "heart" your heart. Please take care of it."

The Campaign Ends...

2007-08-23T08:32:00.001-04:00

Many of you may know and many may not. I'm a gamer. Yup, I play a Dungeons and Dragons type campaign called Rothnoran. The world of Rothnoran was created by a friend, Sean and is based on DnD. It's a world filled with magic weilding Vizards, croca-toads, and jerky loving Diregons. I started playing a character, Dalara, shortly after I found out I was pregnant with Bug in 2004. It was supposed to be a one shot deal. I was only playing because I was at the game session where Darling Hubby was playing. Dalara was supposed to later become an NPC (Non Player Character for those non-gamers) or possibly be eaten by The Beast that she was spared from (she was the soul survivor of the Greenbrass Massacre which The Beast caused...Poor, poor Doru! *tear*. (game joke...)) I played that night and had fun. That was the last time I played for a while. Dalara slipped into the realm of NPC-dom and I figured she's be never seen again. Shortly after Bug was born Sean decided that since he had such a large interest in the game (12+ people is a lot to deal with at one gaming table) he would break the campaign into 2 groups, Red and Blue. Sean wanted me to play so it was decided that the Red session would be held at my house so that Bug could still be cared for and we wouldn't have to have a sitter. I was cool with that. Bug "gamed" with us right from the start. Here he is at 2 months old with Mommy at the game table and 6 months with Dave who played Erem until his son Aiden was born in July 2006. I think because of our gaming Bug has a dice obsession (just like Mommy). He's an awesome dice roller and mostly rolls "six" according to him...lol

Oh, and I am the only girl currently in our whole group. In away it's been fun being the only girl player (one of the guys plays a girl character) and it's also been hard. I've been the brunt of many sexually oriented jokes both about me and Dalara. I take it all in stride and even give as good as I get some nights. I will never, however, forget the "horse show with my black stallion." Don't ask...really...

Two years later, the campaign is coming to an end. Tonight is our last session. It's a combined group session, the blue group and the red are merging together for the finale. I'm looking forward to it as I want to know how the whole thing is going to end, I'm sad because I've spent so much over the last 2 years playing and I really enjoy it but at the same time, I'm dreading having 12 people in my house all night.

I'm not sure what we are going to play after this campaign ends. Will the world of Rothnoran survive? Will we save the kingdom? Who knows if Dalara will even remain alive at the end. I'll be sad if she or any of the other player characters bite the dust, but they are only fictional characters. However, having "been" her for the past 2 years, I've kinda become fond of her. She's part of me so to speak. Is that totally silly to say? Yeah, it is, but it's true. However, I won't have to take an entire year off from gaming if she dies...I'm not that die-hard of a player (another inside game joke.)

I've also been the red group note taker. Since Sean's game is so detailed, we needed a way to keep track of what happened when and since I love to write, I was automatically designated as note taker. My notes are so in depth I've practically written a book. And that's kinda what I want to do. I'd love to turn the game notes into a book, depending on how well it ends tonight, which with Sean running the show, the ending will be awesome. I have most of the notes typed so it would just be a matter of expanding on them and getting corrections for Sean. We'll see where that leads. Maybe one day I'll have my name published. That would be fun.

Fingers crossed that I'm on a roll tonight and roll lots of natural 20's!

Let the battle commence!

Made in China

2007-08-21T12:30:00.000-04:00

A few days ago I read a blog post from my friend Amanda about her Boycotting Chinese Made Products. I've checked out all the recalls and know that Bug doesn't own any of the contaminated toys. Amanda's post made me think about what toys currently in my home are Chinese made. I've come to the conclusion that practically everything I own has been made in China. Scary! If I decided to remove all the Chinese toys from Bug's collection he'd be a very sad (and toy-less) little boy.

Just a few of Bug's toys that are made in China:
1. Little People (we have a ton of these)
2. Peek-a-blocks and the Incrediblock (we have a ton of these, too)
3. Little Tikes Heavy Hauler trucks
4. Plastic Play food
5. Assorted Play Tools (we have a ton of these)
6. Vtech Musical Phone
7. Disney Store Winnie The Pooh
8. Hasbro Spider-man Figurines
9. Mr. Potato-head (we have several parts kits for this)
10. Ball Mania Inflatable Ball Pit
11. Weebles
12. Parents brand Bee Bop Band Drum set (this is a favorite toy)
13. Thomas the Tank Engine toys (we have several of these)

Toys I've noted that are NOT made in China:
1. Fisher Price sorting blocks (Mexico)
2. Toy airplane (Made in USA - Was given to me when I was 5)
3. Little Tikes desk (USA)
4. Matchbox car (Malaysia(

Honestly, I think it's terrible that we have to outsource so much of the production of items we buy just because we want lower prices. There are thousands of people right here in the US who would love to have a job to support their family and they would be doing a great service to children and adults everywhere, but because we want those cheap prices for shoddily made toys laced with lead and who else knows what, we go to other countries where their standards just don't meet ours. When are people going to wizen up and realize that we are only hurting ourselves?

One More Thing!

2007-08-20T16:12:00.000-04:00

So right after I posted about the possible final episode of our Assessment Saga Darling Hubby sent me a link to a list of the assessed values of the homes on our street. In perusing the list, I notice that of the single family homes ours is listed as the 2nd largest. Cool, we have a big house on the block. Then I look at the one that is listed at 2600 sq feet and notice it has 6 bedrooms and is only valued at $85,100...Ummm...That can't be right...Can it? Seriously? Are my eyes playing mean and nasty tricks on me. Nope. It's right. The state owned house right next door to us which houses mentally and physically challenged (just to be PC) is valued at just over half of our value. Shouldn't that lower our value. Obviously that house must not look as nice as our house. It's gotta be a piece of crap, right. Nope. It's a beautiful brick 2 story with a relatively well kept yard. So obviously, the state doesn't have to pay taxes to itself, that would be stupid, so they lower the value of the house. I just don't get it...

I guess the good thing is that our house is bigger than the couple right across the street (directly next to the annoying parking lot) and they are both assessed at the highest value. Granted the one has a manicured front yard with trees and flowers while the other is just a single story brick house. They kinda put our house to shame.

The Last of the Assessment BS???

2007-08-20T14:53:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I really do think that someone out there has it in for me. I don't know who I've wronged or how I went about it, but I must have pissed off someone somewhere down the line. Maybe it's that sign I have hanging on my front door telling the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons that we didn't appreciate their visits. Betcha that was it....

Anyway, today was the final meeting for the Assessment Board of Review. They did lower our assessment, but not to where we wanted it, nor did they reduce it to the value of the homes in our area that are nearly the same as our house. At least it dropped to $150,000 from $164,000. Now to figure out how to pay the taxes on it....There is one more step that we can take in an attempt to get it lowered more, but chances are that won't happen (getting it lowered). I talked to the Commissioner today and he said that the board is very fair in their review (that's what he thinks) so even if we go through the next step it may just be a waste of time. Once I get the final assessment notice in a couple days I have 10 days in which to file a Small Claims Review. I'm going to talk to Darling Hubby about it. Chances are we will just forgo this and let the city win. Either that or we are moving... and I'm not really in the mood to move...I like this house...we've put a lot of effort into making it home.

As for some good news (I have to have a little, don't I...I mean I do deserve something good once in a while) we've made the house look a wee bit nicer...it still isn't worth $150,000 but what can you do. Darling Hubby and I have worked hard to fix up the porch (new paint, clean windows, new floor) and we even painted the exterior side door, windows and frames along with 2 sections of the foundation. We also put up a bamboo privacy fence in our backyard. It makes it much nicer now. I'll have to take some pictures when I get the chance. We are attempting to put in a patio in the backyard, too, and are tearing out some of the blacktop driveway that would better serve us as grass. Our yard is a big mess now, but I'm sure it will look great when we are done. Maybe then we can get $150,000 for it. Yeah...right!

Oh, and I'm feeling a bit better. This cold seems to be on the way out. Thankfully Bug didn't get hit with it as hard as I did. He got the cough but his was more productive from the start and he didn't cough at night (woot) and his stuffy nose wasn't terrible. Darling Hubby managed to live with us sickies for several days and made it out unscathed. That's something good, right?

Sick, Sick, Sick!

2007-08-15T10:15:00.001-04:00

I hate summer colds! I want to ~~die~~ curl up into a little ball and go back to bed, but alas, I can't, not with 2 kids to care for. My throat is sore, I'm stuffy and runny nosed at the same time. I'm coughing and sneezing and with every cough and sneeze my throat hurts ten times worse than before. I can barely talk. Darling Hubby called and said I sounded wonderful.

This lovely summer cold is courtesy of the little girl I babysit. She had it first and just like any daycare situation, it's been passed on. I just hope that Bug and Darling Hubby don't come down with it. It's really no fun!...off to make more hot tea to help soothe my poor destroyed throat.

An Awesome Give-Away!

2007-08-08T11:19:00.000-04:00

5 Minutes for Mom is giving away a flat-pannel tv from Best Buy. So get on over and comment on 5 Minutes for Mom (the page is loading slow for me because of all the comments) and enter for your chance to be the proud owner of a new tv.

I know that I could sure use some good after all the bad that's been happeneing to me! lol Fingers crossed!

Oh, Yeah! There's Still More Assessment BS!!

2007-08-08T10:36:00.000-04:00

It just doesn't end, does it? You would think that someone out there would have at least one intelligent bone in their body when working for the government...nope...just doesn't happen.

So in my prior Assessment post, I wrote about how the Assessment office didn't have our paperwork and they had to talk with Mike (who was on vacation) to see what was going on. They were supposed to call me this week. We'll it's Wednesday and I still haven't received a call, so, I picked up the phone and gave them a ring. Here's what I learned during this call.

They still didn't have my paperwork...I even spoke with Mike who came to my house. He said that at the next meeting (Aug 20th) to fix any mistakes made, he was going to present out property, and based on his discussion with Mr. McDonald, the Commissioner, was going to request a reduction from 164,000 to 150,000 since nothing was filed. I out right told him that was bull crap as I have a certified mail receipt stating the paperwork was accepted and obviously there was some sort of paperwork filed because there would have been no reason for them to even come look at the house. Also, I told him that 150,00 wasn't fair as the houses around us have all been lowed to around 125-130,000 and the houses are pretty close in design. As far as the paperwork goes, it turns out that some lame brain secretary who doesn't know how to read filed our paperwork under TAX instead of TWE for our last name. And, it was entered into the computer wrong, too. Luckily, Mike found it so we at least have that on our side. Fingers crossed that it doesn't get misplaced again. Grr!

I did bring up that we asked on the paperwork for 130,000 and that when Mike was at our house, he thought that was a fair value. So, he said he was going to discuss everything with Mr. McDonald again and see if he can get it lowered even more. So apparently, he has to look at the houses in the neighborhood again to see how our house is compared to them. Hopefully, he will see that it really is only worth about 130,000. If not, I know know what's going to happen... I don't know if we can afford the taxes and still make ends meet with all our other bills and needs... And the government wonders why they can't get people to move into the city. Everything is ass deep in BS.

God, I hate the government! Will this ever end?

Does Someone Out There Hate Us?

2007-07-31T17:16:00.000-04:00

So Darling Hubby got home from the dentist in a none to happy mood. He needs a lot of work aside from repairing the broken tooth, which we knew going in. Our insurance will only cover $2000 worth of work a year and if we have everything done the office said will need to be done, we'll still owe them nearly $3000. Sigh We can't afford that right now. I told him to only focus on getting the broken tooth repaired right now and we'll take it from there when we get the money. It looks like he'll need a root canal and a crown put in. I don't much know what it entails, but it sounds like it's gonna suck, hardcore! Oh, and they want to repair or replace wisdom teeth instead of pulling them...wtf? Why charge us $615 dollars per tooth to replace when you can yank the darn things for cheaper...No wonder people don't go to the dr or dentist when they should. Who can afford the darn prices they charge...and why does insurance only cover like 10% of commonly performed procedures? Can someone explain insurances to me...

Anyway, I'm talking with my friends who seem to know how to get some typing jobs for decent pay that will pull in some extra cash under the table (shhh!) and that I can do during naptime. Lets hope that pans out. Keep those fingers crossed!

Just When Things Were Looking Up

2007-07-30T22:24:00.000-04:00

Ok, just when I thought things were starting to look a wee bit better today, the crap hit the fan. Around 2pm I get a call from Darling Hubby asking if he was still paying for his dental insurance on his pay stub. Apparently, he was eating pretzels at work and cracked a tooth that had a filling in it already. It wasn't super painful, but something that should be taken care of ASAP. So, I checked on the insurance website to find a dentist and he found one that he can get in with. Then, he decided to come home early. He walked in the house and said "If it wasn't him, it would be funny..." Apparently, a car in front of him on the way home kicked up a stone and cracked the windshield...Great! Just what we need! At least we have full glass on the insurance which will cover it. At least Darling Hubby has a dentist appointment tomorrow at 1:15 (they called and moved it up so he could get in quicker so it didn't become painful or anything. Fingers crossed that nothing else major goes wrong...At least the month is almost over. September can't come fast enough.

Something To Look Forward To

2007-07-30T10:58:00.000-04:00

So despite my prior post about all the Assessment BS, Darling Hubby and I have something fun to look forward to this September. We are going on a mini VACATION! Woohoo! We haven't been on vacation since last June when we went to Chicago to meet up with some of my fellow January mommies and their babies. Right now, we just need to get away from everything and have some fun. Our 5th anniversary is the 7th and we will be leaving that afternoon on a nice drive through Vermont up to White River Junction and the Quechee Gorge Village. There are some nice things to see and do up there. There's a train ride and carousel and a Toy Museum, a Cabot Creamery, Danforth Pewter, Ottauquechee Valley Winery, a Glassblowing Studio, a blacksmith, Scotland By the Yard, even a Scrapbookers Workshoppe is in the area (Darling Hubby probably won't appreciate me going to a scrapbooking store on vacation, though. lol). I'm so excited to go. Bug is coming with us and I'm sure he'll love the train ride and carousel. We've already made our hotel reservations. Now the countdown begins! Yahoo!

More Assessment BS!

2007-07-30T08:41:00.000-04:00

So July 1st was the deadline for when we'd hear something back about our assessment and if things were changed...well, that came and went and we still didn't receive anything in the mail. I just figured that since they had to go back over ours a second time we might have to wait a little longer. The weeks came and went and here I sit, July 30th and still don't have anything in my hands. So, I get on the phone and call the Assessors Office to find out what's going on. I spoke with a very nice man (damn that I didn't get his name!) who nicely told me they didn't have any paperwork for my address....Um...What? Did you really just say you didn't have my paperwork? Then why did Mike call me to set up a time to check the number of bathrooms if there was no paperwork. Did he just decide that he needed to check my house out? No, I don't think so. I also am looking at the Certified Mail Receipt from the post office which was accepted and signed for on April 16th at 11:01 am. I really think there's some paperwork somewhere, don't ya think?

So anyway, I'm no more ahead than I was before. The guy on the phone said he would look at Mike's paperwork (Mike's on vacation...of course!) and see what he changed and look into it more and get back to me next week...I really hope it doesn't take that long, but it's a start, I guess. He did tell me that they will reconvene the Board of Review one more time before everything is finally finalized to fix any mistakes they made. Makes me wonder how many mistakes they make if they usually reconvene again anyway...

Seriously, I don't know that we can afford the mortgage payment if the assessment isn't lowered. Still keeping my fingers crossed that something good will come of this.

Five Questions Meme

2007-07-19T14:18:00.000-04:00

5 Questions Meme
This version of the meme goes:
1. Tell me a random fact about you, and
2. I will ask you five questions, and
3. You propagate the meme when you post your answers

Here are the 5 questions that my friend Shannon asked me.

1. Will you name another child after a comic book character?
I honestly want to. I've pretty much decided (and Darling Hubby seems to be onboard, too) that if we have another boy he will be named Alexander. It's a family name so we could say it was to honor our heritage, but we could call him Lex (as in Lex Luthor, who's full name is Alexander). I think Lex and Bug would be cute. I haven't come across any girl names from comic books that really pop out at me or that will work with our last name. We could always go with Jean (Jean Grey) and we'll have a good start on an X-Men clan. lol

2. What's your favorite character to roleplay?
I really have only ever played female rangers or scouts, preferably with a good bow skill. I'm a mean archer in our current game. I guess my characters have a tendency to reflect me because personally, I'd rather be out of the battle (the one firing from the sidelines) than right middle of the battle. I'm kind of a chicken. lol

3. Will you come out to the Berkshires to see us and meet Angela? :D
I'd love to. I just have to find the time (and since I don't drive, (that's a whole other story) Darling Hubby or someone has to come with me). We should plan a weekend or something. I'm sure Bug would love to have others to play with and I'd love to see you and Cassie again and meet Angela, Nate and Emma.

4. What's your favorite book to reread?
Since there are so many books out there left for me to read, I haven't really read many books over again. I have read the 6 Harry Potter books again (mainly just to refresh my memory for the 7th book) and I'd like to read the Clan of the Cave Bear series again.

5. What was your favorite cartoon as a child?
I didn't really have one particular TV series cartoon that I watched religiously. We didn't get many channels so I didn't have much of a variety. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Smurfs and Duck Tales. I mainly watched Disney movies on tape. I'd have to say that Beauty and the Beast is probably my favorite. It was actually the first movie I ever saw in a theater.

The Sound of Silence

2007-07-18T13:21:00.000-04:00

It's music to my ears! What more could a stressed out mom ask for. It's dreary and rainy today and that has kept the construction crew doing the sidewalks at bay. No cement trucks sitting stationary in reverse! Woot! Baby Girl and Bug are napping, the dogs are sleeping quietly in their box and I'm sitting around listening to All My Children and playing on the net. I'm almost in heaven!

Bug has been amazingly good today. He's pretty much been glued to Sesame Street or watching the new online videos on playhousedisney.com. We've only had a few meltdowns over little things. I've decided that I'm going to start the "I'm going to count to 5" routine. I'll tell Bug I'm going to count to 5 and give him 2 options. A) he can do what I asked or B) we can do it the hard way (a timeout or he doesn't get something he wanted). So far today it has worked. He refused to go upstairs for his nap and hid under the dining room table and I counted and ended up carrying him to his room and putting him straight to bed without his favorite stories. I haven't heard a peep out of him...knock on wood.

Baby Girl, on the otherhand, has been a handful. She's screamed for much of the morning, esp when I put her in the playpen so I could leave the room without her getting hurt. It's for her own safety, but she just doesn't understand that. She was pretty tired and she went right to sleep, too. Fingers crossed they sleep for a good long time!

Off to curl up on the couch to drool over a magazine full of yummy scrapbook embelishments that I can't afford and watch AMC.

Slipping Slowly Into Madness

2007-07-17T14:11:00.000-04:00

Today is just not my day. I feel like I should be laying in bed, staring at the ceiling and slipping slowly into madness. Oh, wait...I've already arrived in madness...I just need to be in bed staring at the ceiling...

Bug has been an awful, terrible, no good little brat most of the morning. I highly dislike saying that about my son, but lately he doesn't listen, he blatantly disobeys, and the tantrums are unbelievable. Yes, I know he's only 2.5, but come on. Cut Mommy a break for Pete's sake!

Part of my madness stems from the fact that a long time ago, I promised my friend Shannon that I would be a bridesmaid in her wedding this October. Well, she's been super busy (and waited to the last possible minute to decide on the bridesmaid dresses) so she emailed me instead of calling me with the information about about ordering my dress. Well, either there was an aol issue or a yahoo issue and I never got the first email she sent. Then, Sunday the 15th I get an email that was dated the 11th saying that I had until Tuesday (today) to get my measurements and to call the dress shop in Poughkeepsie so my dress would be ready come October. Luckily, I have a friend who knows the proper way to take measurements so I had her do it last night. So while I was on the phone with the dress shop (a whole 5 mins max) Bug got a hold of Darling Hubby's hover craft, tore the rubber bottom off it, put a hole in it, and broke the styrofoam that was inside. In 5 mins!!! I could have strangled him! And when I put him in time out (he's been warned about messing with daddy's things), the tantrum just continued for nearly half an hour! He's at the "no" stage and tells me no when ever I tell him or ask him to do anything. I could just scream! I had to call Darling Hubby at work just to vent to someone or I thought I was going to explode!

And then to make things worse (I should say nicer), the city is installing new curbs and new sidewalks right in front of our house. This started last week. We haven't been able to pull into the driveway since the 7th and parking is horrible. We have to cross over precariously placed boards to get into our house. I'm just tired of that. Today they started pouring concrete for the sidewalks. (Yeah! I think they are getting close to being done...) For over an hour I heard the whirring of the cement mixer and it's back up beeper. Really, does it need to just sit there in reverse? Come on! To make things worse, Baby Girl hates the sound just as much as I do and has decided that the world revolves around her for her nap and she cried for much of the time. The truck finally left and she went to sleep. I'm praying that when (and if - it's state workers) they come back, she'll sleep through all the noise. Oh wait...they just came back...fingers crossed everyone! Thankfully, Bug went to sleep pretty well, despite all the noise.

I just hope that Bug is a good boy when he wakes up and when Daddy gets home. I really hate it when he acts this way. It makes me feel like I've failed him in some way as a Mommy...

Doctors Appointment

2007-07-14T15:37:00.000-04:00

So yesterday was my drs appt. Things went well. My doctor (Dr. Rachelle Brilliant) was really nice. She's young and a new doctor, but she was very thorough and had a great bedside manner. I was comfortable with her. She did the whole exam and asked the Resident to come in and look in my eyes too. They got this weird scope thing that gives them a better look in my eyes without dilating them. The Resident saw a dark partial ring around my retina in both eyes. The one in the left eye seemed broken up. Since he only does a couple eye exams a day he felt it would be best for me to see a specialist since he'd never seen that before, even with the funny scope he had. So, they are referring me to an ophthalmologist. Hopefully I'll get some answers then...whenever that appt is. I'm waiting for that call.

Oh, so I finally know what my blood pressure is (112/72) and my resting pulse rate is 84. That's good at least. I'll go in again probably some time next week to have blood drawn to check my cholesterol. I'm a little scared about that as I am not the most health conscious person. I try to eat healthy, but I do eat my share of fatty and junky foods. Hopefully that will be ok.

Oh, and my new glasses came in. We picked them up after the drs appt. I'm still getting used to them, but really since I've gotten them, the spot has decreased in frequency. I'm starting to wonder if my eyes were just compensating to much for the fact that my prescription was too strong (since my eyes improved (no more astigmatism)) and it was causing weird things...Oh, and good old Aunty Flo paid her visit yesterday morning too...I wonder if it could also be a hormonal thing, too. I'll keep you all posted on how things are going. Thanks for all the concern. Oh, and I'll post a picture of me in my new glasses when I get the chance to take one.

Seeing Spots Update

2007-07-11T12:04:00.000-04:00

Thanks for all your concern my friends. It makes my heart happy to know you all care. Anyway, I'm feeling better today. I'm no longer dizzy and just out of sorts like I was yesterday. I've been trying to drink more water today and eat, too. The spots in my eye are still there. I still only see them when I stand up or if I move my eyes really fast in one direction. I noticed last night that my left gland in my throat hurts a bit and my left ear was bothering me. Darling Hubby suggested that it may be a mild sinus infection or an ear infection that's putting pressure on my eye.

At any rate, I called a doctors office this morning and they've got me scheduled for a 2:45 appt on Friday. I was hoping for tomorrow, but they were booked solid and normally it takes a couple weeks to get new patients in and the lady on the line was very understanding so I took what I could get. Thankfully, the parents of the little girl I babysit for are very understanding and they are planning to pick her up early so I can go. Keep sending all the get better vibes. I think they are helping a bit as I am feeling better...just still really tired. I think when I get the kids down for their naps I may curl up on the couch to see if I can catch a few more zzzzz's.

Seeing Spots

2007-07-10T17:47:00.000-04:00

So, unfortunately, I'm still seeing that weird spot in my left eye. I don't know what it is. Darling Hubby seems to think it really is an ocular migraine like the eye dr said, but I want to know why it started all of a sudden and why it's not going away. There are so many causes that at this point any one of them could be feasible.

I felt like complete crap this morning and even called out sick for babysitting. I didn't have the energy to watch Bug , much less a 2nd one that wasn't mine. Poor Bug watched so much tv today. Darling Hubby ended up coming home early to give me a break and let me catch a few more winks (which was a futile attempt at best).

And to top it off, since I'm such a bad person, I don't have a regular physician. I know...insert I told you so's here! Up to this point in life I've been really healthy and didn't really see the need I guess. Now I am in the process of finding one and I don't think I will get in with anyone until Thursday (the one I called this afternoon was closing up because they didn't have power (bad storms last night) and she said she though they could get me in Thursday)...So, basically now, this is just a wait and see. I hope that I'm feeling better by tomorrow so I can at least babysit and care for Bug . Fingers crossed that it's nothing serious and all will be better in a few days.

New Glasses

2007-07-08T20:38:00.000-04:00

So I started seeing a weird spot in my field of vision in my left eye today. I'd never had it before and had no other symptoms of anything, but Darling Hubby was still concerned. We went to our eye place and they got in me pretty quickly. They checked me out from top to bottom (of my eyes, that is) and didn't find anything out of the ordinary. They even fully dilated my eyes (which sucks in bright sunlight!) to get a better look, but they found nothing. In fact, they said that my eyes have actually improved!!! I no longer have my astigmatism so they've lowered my prescription. Woot! I'm still seeing the weird spot in my vision occasionally this afternoon, but I'm beginning to think it's just because I'm super tired. Hopefully, it will just go away. Oh, the eye dr did have a theory. It could be an ocular migraine. Some people get weird vision followed by headaches, some people just get the headaches and some just get the vision thing. I have been getting headaches lately, but nothing an Excedrin won't fix. At any rate, I did need new glasses. I'm terrible about keeping up on my getting my eyes checked (it's been over 3 years since I got new glasses), mainly because we don't have an insurance that will cover it and for just me getting a compete eye exam, new everyday frames and lenses and new lenses in my old sunglass frames it cost me nearly $800.00. Darling Hubby was a wee bit annoyed, but not at me. He should get his done too, but since we just shelled out that amount on me, he'll probably wait.

So, in about 1-2 weeks, my new glasses should be ready. They only had one of my everyday lenses in stock so they had to order the other one. So, as soon as they are ready, I'll have a new picture to share with everyone. According to everyone, the new frames are an "odd shape," but they look nice on me. At least I think they do...My eyes were dilated and I was blind as a bat for the most part while choosing frames. Hopefully, they will look good later.

Wild, Weird & Wacky Wednesday - FRIDAY Edition

2007-07-06T14:12:00.001-04:00

So I haven't had much in the way of my usual computer time recently since the holiday and Darling Hubby being home, but for today, I'm back. I missed out on my usual Weird, Wild and Wacky Wednesday post with pictures so I thought I'd post the good ones I got while visiting family this past weekend.

I only got 4 decent pics...hey, I should go with Corey's Four for Friday idea.

Anyway, Sunday we went down to Darling Hubby's sister's house in Deposit, NY. His brother Chris, wife Mindy and their 2 kids, Mikalla and CJ, were driving in from NM to pick up their new truck (in NC) and then getting their trailer that we helped pack in the middle of June. That was when Max had his Dumb Dog Moment. Apparently, the engine on the truck blew before Mindy left PA, hence the need for a new, more powerful, truck and another trip to NY. Anyway, we just had a little get together as a family and celebrated Darling Hubby's and his Step-father's birthday's.

Bug had a blast playing with his cousins William and Alice. He really enjoyed playing with William's dump trucks and bucket loaders in the sand box and spent a good amount of time playing there by himself when everyone else was running around going nuts. Here is a picture of Bug filling up the bucket on this ride-on toy with grass he was pulling up from the yard.

He also enjoyed sitting in Uncle Chris' new truck. He actually said he wanted to go home with Uncle Chris when we told him we were leaving, mainly because he didn't want to get out of the truck. He even tried to put his seat belt on. At least he was thinking of safety! Guess we've got him trained.

And finally, here is my favorite picture that I took that day. Grandma wanted to get a picture of Bug while he was swinging, but he wasn't being very cooperative (hiding his face, scowling, you know, the typical toddler I don't want my picture taken routine). Daddy decided it would be funny to make faces at him to try to get him to smile and the little mimic that Bug has become (watch what you say, he's a parrot, too) decided to make faces right back. Silly boy!

So, there you have a it. A little late, but still as good. I hope you've enjoyed the Friday edition of Wild, Weird & Wacky Wednesday!

New Theme and Some Other Stuff

2007-07-03T19:05:00.001-04:00

I decided to change my theme today. I was getting a little tired of the yellow, red and green motif I had going. I decided on a nice pink and green theme. I'm not much of a "pink" girl. Purple is my favorite color, but I decided that the pink is good for a change.

I may or may not have time to post my usual Weird, Wild and Wacky Wednesday post tomorrow. It's Darling Hubby's birthday, yep, he's a 4th of July baby and with the holiday and stuff, I'm not sure how much computer time I'll have. We plan on having a bbq if the weather is nice. If not, we'll be cooking steak inside. The weather will determine if we go out to watch fireworks of just watch them on tv.

Oh, and Bug has started talking so much more this week. Just lately he's said words like "dragon" and has started stringing words together like "I watch it" (my tv junky) "I dance" and "I dancing." Today he told me his "sketti" was dancing at lunch and he's started asking for more (instead of using the sign) and telling me when he's stinky or when he needs his stool (brushing his teeth) He's also been singing a lot more. His current favorite songs are "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and the Wiggles "Fruit Salad." He also enjoys a good rendition of the Brushing song that I made up to the tune of the Badger song. I you aren't familiar with the Badger song...well...you don't know what you are missing out on...ok...I'm kidding...it's really annoying, but Bug loves it. He loves a lot of annoying things, but who am I to judge, I love him! lol

Oh, and I do have one annoyance going on this week. There is this company called Receivables Performance Management who keeps calling our house. Usually, I let the machine pick up, but lately I've taken to answer it just to stop the annoying ringing...they never leave a message anyway. The message starts by saying "please hold for an important call" and then I get some muzak. Most of the time the line disconnects, but this morning a woman answered asking for Agregi (no fist name was given, but I know it's Darling Hubby's name as they've called before with a recorded message asking for _____ Agregi)...who ever that is...anyway, I said to her that "you've called my number constantly and there is no one by the name Agregi living here." She got all defensive and said that "she's never called this number" and when I told her to stop calling and remove my number from her database she quickly hung up. Apparently, this is a 3rd party collection agency who harass people. I'm on the Do Not Call Registry and just filed 2 complaints with them against this company. I really wish they'd stop calling me. I don't know anyone named Agregi, but I wish he's pay his debt so they'd leave me the heck alone! Anyone else dealt with this companies harassment before? Anyway, they just called a little while ago...3rd time today....we'll see what happens with the Do Not Call thing. I may have to start getting nasty with them! lol

Well, its almost time for Bug's bedtime and he's pestering me to dance (in other words, watch Wiggles movies on YouTube) and to have some "Tockit" (chocolate milk).

Wild, Weird, and Wacky Wednesday - Water Edition

2007-06-27T15:24:00.000-04:00

It's so bloody hot here so after a quick lunch of left over "sketti" I filled Bug's pool with some cold water and we went out to dip our feet in. Ahh! Cool and refreshing. Here are some pictures that I took of Bug having fun.

Playing with the hose

Tiny wet footprint

Oops! Bug fell out of the pool!

Splash!!

Playing with a stick and a "helicopter" from the tree

Silly grin!

And here's one for Corey
THE END!

They Don't Call It A Rummage Sale Nothing!

2007-06-27T10:26:00.000-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, Darling Hubby, Bug and I went to a local church to help my friend Stacie and her mom sort donated items for their annual garage sale. They were trying to set up and had hardly any help. Plus, it was great to see Stacie again. I hadn't seen her since January or something like that. It's been a long time.

Bug was a very good boy. I was so proud of him. He played in the back of the room where all the kids toys were and didn't have any fits, except when we were getting ready to leave. He didn't want to sit in his carseat.

Darling Hubby and I attempted to organize the books while Stacie attempted to sort through all the clothes. They had so many books and clothing items it was hard to organize everything well. We kept saying to just put it out on the table and let people rummage through. Some people call them Rummage Sales, so it makes perfect sense. We were there for about 2 hours and we managed to get a slight dent in the books and Stacie made good progress sorting out all the yucky and nasty clothes that people donated.

Oh, and because we helped out, we got to fill a box with as much stuff as we could get in it for a low price. I managed to cram all of the following into a box:

15 books (both hardcover and paperback) - Mostly Nora Roberts books
A handful of boardbooks and kids books for Bug
A Craftsman toy handsaw
A Little Tykes hardhat
A Little People train with a giraffe, lion, train driver and a random firefighter
A wooden puzzle
A new Classic Pooh baby calendar (I'll save that for when the time comes or use it for a baby gift if any of my friends get pregnant)
A Pooh and Friends mug (great size for a big steamy cup of hot chocolate)
A canvas bag for groceries (I'm up to 4 now! yahoo!)
A silicone spatula
2 pairs of overalls, a pair of heavy insulated jeans (good for playing in the snow in winter), an Old Navy sweatshirt, and a t-shirt all for Bug
And best of all, I got a brand new pair of winter boots. They had never been worn and were still in the original box. They were almost $100 boots (I checked online).

The total for all this good stuff... $3. What a bargain! I want to send a big THANK YOU out to Stacie and her mom for letting Darling Hubby and I come in to give them a hand (and for the great deal). It was great to see you again Stacie. We need to keep in touch more. I hate it when life gets in the way of the things we really want to do. Good luck this weekend with the actual sale! I hope it goes well and you make lots of money for the church.

What's My Rating?

2007-06-25T14:53:00.000-04:00

Saw this on my friend Shannon's blog. The only "bad word" was dead...gasp, the horror of it all! Guess I shouldn't like the 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean movie. lol

Oh, and Bug still sucks his thumb! lol

Quiet But Fun Birthday

2007-06-23T16:44:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 27. *sigh* I feel old. No, not really. I'm still young at heart! lol. Mostly yesterday was just any other day. I haven't truly celebrated a birthday in a long time and even then it was just a small family and friends get together. Never more than like 6-10 people at best.

Yesterday I got up with Bug, we snuggled in my bed to watch some cartoons before breakfast (and to let Mommy catch a few more winks while Curious George and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was keeping him enthralled.) After that, it was downstairs for a nice breakfast of cheese omelets and for me to do some laundry. yeah! My mom called for a few minutes and we talked about this and that and then it was off to cut up some more firewood with my dad. They are retired and never stop working around the house.

As for me, I didn't really do anything productive (aside from the laundry) and curled up on the couch for much of the afternoon reading a book (during Bug's naptime.)

When Darling Hubby got home he gave me my present. A gift certificate for one "Afternoon Off" session at a local spa. I'm really looking forward to that. It will be nice to get a whole afternoon off to be pampered. Now I just need to find the time to get an afternoon off. I think all my weekends for a while are occupied now that summer is here. After that, we had a nice family dinner at my favorite restaurant, Friendly's. Later Darling Hubby and I curled up on the couch to watch the Series Finale of Stargate SG1 and the Season Finale of Stargate Atlantis. Yes, we are geeks.

Today I allowed my birthday to spill over and I got up early (gasp! On my day to sleep in of all days!). Darling Hubby was actually happy that I got up early. He said it's nice to see my face before 10am on Saturdays. I did a quick check of the newspaper online and planned out a route for garage sale hopping. I love going to garage sales. I got several kids books, a couple long sleeved shirts, a pair of jeans, a Little People amusement park set (complete with figures) and a new sippy cup all for Bug. For me I got a couple books, a little stuffed Eeyore and a silver heart necklace all for $7.70. Woot! I love a good deal. And then I went grocery shopping and bought enough food to make dinner every night for 2 whole weeks. And, I used the 3 canvas bags that I found at in the attic at my moms house last weekend that she wasn't using. And next time I use them at the store, I'll get 3 cents off for each bag! I'm going to the craft store tonight when Bug wakes up and Darling Hubby gets home to look for some scrapbooking stuff and I'm going to check to see if they have any more bags. I felt really good using them, although the cashier seemed a little put out by it cause it slowed down the bagger, but who cares! I'm doing my little bit to help save the environment!

Wild, Weird and Wacky Wednesday

2007-06-20T13:37:00.000-04:00

Ok, here are pictures taken of my Wild, Weird and Wacky family on Father's Day. Overload warning!

Daddy and Bug - Father's Day

Bug playing ball with Grandpa

Playing with the shrooms

Baby Derrick napping in his stroller

Bug playing with the sprinkler - love the tongue

Taking a break from the sprinkler to eat more strawberries

More playing in the sprinkler - Still with the tongue

Grandpa Pierce - He turns 77 tomorrow

My Dad - talking to my brother Victor

Nothing on the bed except teddy bears and doggies

He just loves rolling around in all the teddy bears and dogs my mom makes.
And my favorite picture from this bunch...
Up a tree at my mom and dads

So there you have it. That was our Father's Day spent with our wacky family.

Another Year Goes By

2007-06-18T14:51:00.000-04:00

On one of my baby boards they've started a thread showing our babies from the past years on Father's Day. Here is the progression of Bug.

Here is Bug June of 2005, about 5 months old. He's with his Great Grandpa Pierce who turned 75 that month.

This was Bug last year on our trip to Chicago (Father's Day weekend) to meet up with some of my fellow January 2005 Mommies.

This is Bug this year, perched in a tree at my parents house.

I'm kinda sad that my little boy has grown so much. He's such a big boy now, walking, talking, feeding himself, playing with his cousins. Honestly, I've loved watching him grow. He'll always be my baby, no matter what!

On My Birthday!

2007-06-18T12:45:00.000-04:00

ON THIS DAY
Go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (only the month and day). Choose and write down 3 events, 2 births and 1 holiday. Then tag 5 friends.

June 22nd

Events:

1633 - The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his scientific view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe.

1918 - Hammond circus train wreck kills 86 and injures 127 near Hammond, Indiana.

2002 - An earthquake in western Iran measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale kills more than 261 people.

Births:

1958 - Bruce Campbell, American actor (He's one of my favorite B movie actors!)
1964 - Dan Brown, American author

Holiday:

World Wide VW Beetle Day

Tag! You're it! Devon, Mandy, Shannon, Meghan, and Jen. Hopefully you girls haven't been tagged already!

1 Baa, 2 Baa, 3 Baa

2007-06-17T02:50:00.000-04:00

I hate it when I can't sleep. Here I sit, 2:50 am, in front of my computer, squinting at the screen because my glasses are sitting on my nightstand upstairs. All because I JUST CAN"T SLEEP. Thankfully, I can type without looking at my fingers. I hate it when I just can't fall asleep. I can get comfortable, I can lay there with my eyes closed for what feels like eternity, but I just can't seem to turn off my mind...and, I'm not even thinking of anything of importance. What is really annoying is that I've got that "I'm as lonely as I wanted to be" song stuck in my head from Curious George that Bug watched with Rachael last night. Oh, and the other reason I came downstairs was that I forgot to sign Darling Hubby's father's day card from me and the one from Bug (he'll have to "sign" that after he gets up. Well, I'd better try to get to sleep. Only 4 more hours until I have to get up and drive 2 hours to visit with Darling Hubby's family and then my mom and dad. Somehow, I'm not looking forward to the trip (the drive, not the seeing the family part.) I made a 15 hour car trip with Darling Hubby and an 18 month old Bug last June, but a 2 hour car trip just kills me. Off to toss and turn some more....maybe I'll count sheep.

Thursday Thirteen

2007-06-14T13:56:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I see some people coming up with lists of 13 things on Thursday. I like lists so I thought I'd jump on this bandwagon. I know, I know. I gotta stop getting on the bandwagon, but it's just so much fun! I wouldn't have this blog if I didn't! This may not happen every week as it's really hard to come up with 13 things, but when I do, look out! lol

Anyway, I thought today I'd write a list of 13 good things that have happend recently that have made me happy or smile or that I'm excited about in the coming future. In no particular order...

Bug is feeling better after his little bout of a tummy bug. He ate 2 helpings of Tuna Mac Wiggle for lunch and he's been drinking more, too. That alone makes mommy happy.
Bug cracked me up while he was eating his lunch. He was sucking air through the elbow noodle and I just couldn't help but laugh, which he found really funny and was laughing, too. He's so silly.
I was blessed enough to see Celtic Woman perform live here in Albany. If you don't know their music, it's beautiful, soulful and many are upbeat Irish tunes. You should really give it a try. I'm looking forward to getting their newest album. And, to top it all off, the tickets were free! Darling Hubby got them through work (one of the few perks) and my guest and I split parking so the whole concert only cost us $5!! Gotta love when that happens!
Tonight is my "game night." We are supposed to be playing our role playing game, Rothnoran, but our game master is out of town so the rest of us are getting together to play some board games and eat. I love getting together with friends for a good time and good food! And yes, I am a geek, I'm married to a geek and Bug is destined to be a geek. All is good!
My birthday is next Friday. I turn 27. I think Darling Hubby got me a gift certificate for a spa. I'm not sure, but I'm sure I'll enjoy anything just because he thought of it. But a little pampering wouldn't be a bad thing.
Oh, I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3 in the theater on Sunday. I really enjoyed it. I'd heard bad reviews of it and went in not expecting much. Overall, it was a funny movie. A little dark and some things didn't tie up well, but what can I say, I enjoy just watching Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom up on the big screen! Yummy!
While I was at the mall waiting for my movie show time, I bought myself a new pair of sneakers. The last pair I bought while I was pregnant with Bug and they were starting to show a little wear and tear. I also bought myself a new book and the Pirates 3 soundtrack.
I'm going to see my family this Sunday. We are going down for Father's Day. I haven't seen my parents since Easter. I'm just thinking about 3 years ago that day when I gave my dad a package that contained a little yellow bib that said "My Grandparents Love Me" to announce that I was pregnant with Bug. Sorry, no surprises this time around.
Oh, the sun is shining, the weather is warm and I got to sleep in this morning. Darling Hubby shut his alarm off and fell back to sleep for another hour and Bug didn't wake up until 7:30.
Nookie. 'Nuf said! lol
I've had nearly 2 hours of "mommy time" while Bug and Heather are napping. Fingers crossed that Heather will stay asleep for at least a while longer. She gets cranky when she wakes up too soon...it's not pretty. I love my "mommy time." It gives me time to play on the computer and not have to cater to anyone by myself. I can also watch my soaps in peace.
Oh, my nephew and his girlfriend found out that the baby they are expecting is a boy!!! Yeah for boys! She is due on October 26th (moved up from my dad's birthday on November 3rd.) I'm so excited for them!
And last but not least, I'm looking forward to having the entire week off (25th - 29th). It will be a week for just me and Bug to hang out and play. I'll miss Heather, but the break would be nice.

Ok, so there you go. My first Thursday Thirteen. I hope you've enjoyed reading it.

Wild, Weird and Wacky Wednesday

2007-06-13T18:30:00.000-04:00

OK, so many of my friends have come up with some weekly thing that they do to show off something or tell something about themselves. I've decided that I'm going to make a point to start showing off pics of my Wild, Weird, and Wacky boy and I'll do it on Wednesday. The pictures won't always be wild, weird or wacky, but I'm sure some of them will be.

Here goes!

The following pics were taken Saturday 6/9/07 at Darling Hubby's brother's old house (they recently moved to New Mexico and came back to get some stuff that they didn't take the first trip out.)

Sliding with Daddy

Watching Curious George with cousin Mikalla (and eating M&M's before lunch.)

On the trailer with Grandma, watching Mommy and Daddy try to rescue Max from the pond.

Playing t-ball with Grandpa

Darling Hubby riding in the bucket loader.

Bug and Daddy driving the loader while Uncle Charlie was on top of the horse trailer tying on kennel panels.

These were taken around the house the past few days.
My little soda hound.

Petting Cleo nicely.

Say Cheese Cleo!

Tugging on Cleo's ear (honestly, I'm surprised she sat there long enough for him to pet her the first time.)

Ok, so there ya have it. My first batch of pics of my goofballs (Bug and Darling Hubby) I hope you've enjoyed seeing my pics and we'll just see how long this lasts!

So Peeved Right Now!

2007-06-13T15:00:00.000-04:00

OK, so I'm not one to usually talk about or bash anyone's religion, but I'm just so annoyed right now. I'm literally so pissed that I'm shaking. I'm babysitting and everyone is napping...all is quiet...then I hear a knock at the door and Max goes ballistic! Of course Heather wakes up screaming...all because the Mormons have to spread their word! Gaah!! Honestly, if I wanted religion, I would go find it. Don't bring it to me. I'm not a religious person (I was raised Baptist, but don't practice at all) and I don't foist my views on others as I don't want them to do that to me. I do listen when others talk about their religion (talk about, not attempt to convert me) because I'm not opposed to them believing in what they believe in. I just don't like it when people go door to door trying to get me to join their church. If I wanted to belong, don't you think I would already. I don't, so please leave me alone! I can't keep a sign permanently taped to my front door telling all church visitors to take it elsewhere. Heather was so pissed that her nap was preempted that she literally screamed (I don't mean cry, I mean scream as in someone was stabbing her) for over 30 minutes (even with me holding her trying to comfort her) until she finally fell back to sleep.

All I'm asking is for the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses to leave me the hell alone!!! Is that really too much to ask?

Babywearing Giveaway!

2007-06-13T14:07:00.000-04:00

OK, since I entered another giveaway this week I figured I might as well enter another. Maybe I'll get super lucky. :D

This awesome giveaway is being held by Adventures in Babywearing and the winner will receive a $75 gift certificate for MamaKanga. Unfortunately Bug is currently too big to babywear anymore (and like Laura (one of my mommy friends who suggested this giveaway) I started babywearing later in his life) and I'm looking forward to wearing baby # 2 (whenever we get pregnant again). I think I'd like to try a hot sling or maybe a MT this time around.

If anyone else wants to enter this giveaway, just go to Adventures in Babywearing and follow the instructions.

The Joys of Climbers!

2007-06-12T12:11:00.000-04:00

So my mommy friend Megan (SortaCrunchy) passed along this little Father's Day Giveaway tidbit to parents of boys. It's being held by Jules at Everyday Mommy. I'm not one to usually enter blog contests, but since I didn't buy this book for Darling Hubby and I thought about it, I figured why not. Here goes!

When I first found out that we were expecting a boy I was elated and a tad bit scared. I didn't know what to do with a boy. I'd never played with many boy toys (aside from my brothers old Matchbox cars and farm set). I was scared that I wouldn't have much of a "boys" imagination. Little did I know that I wouldn't have to worry about that for a while. Bug was content playing with anything from balls to blocks to empty tissue boxes (which he himself emptied).

But the thing that Bug was most content to occupy his time with was climbing. I had a climber on my hands! My very own little monkey! If he weren't already named after Wolverine of the X-Men variety, he should have been named Matt (Matt Murdock aka Daredevil) or Curious George (who is his very favorite book/movie character)

From the time he could walk (around 11 months) he could climb. Nothing was safe, no matter how high.

Darling Hubby and I are gamers and geeks (role playing, board gaming, comic books) so there are dice bags filled with colorful little gems just waiting for little gamers in training. And, of course, Bug always (and still does) want them for his own. His one big "daredevil" moment that always pops into my head when asked how adventurous he is, is the time he scaled the storage boxes in the corner of our playroom/office just so he could get those dice. (see the pictures to prove it.)

He's now a tough little 2 year old and he's still dice obsessed and still loves to climb. And, to top it all off, he's smart. He knows what chair he has to move where to get a height advantage so he can get those other out of reach little delights he wants to get his paws on.

Oh, and here is one of my favorite climbing pictures. Don't worry, the background has been photoshopped, but he really was climbing up a short (3 foot) cliff face with daddy right behind him giving him a boost.

Despite how nervous he makes me with all his climbing, he can melt my heart with one smile, one laugh, one kiss, one hug, one "wuv wu," and when he calls me "Baa Eee" (He hasn't quite gotten Mommy out yet). I wouldn't trade my daredevil boy for the world!

It's Been A Long Few Days...

2007-06-11T13:37:00.000-04:00

This is just an update on how things have been going in my life recently.

Saturday morning we got up early and went down to Pennsylvania to see Darling Hubby's SIL and her 2 kids. They came back from New Mexico for a few days to load their horse trailer full of stuff to take with them, things that they couldn't take the first trip out. We mainly went to visit but helped load stuff (which was a complete and utter disaster.) It took forever. Bug didn't nap until late when he fell asleep on the futon that was left in the living room while all the cousins were watching The Wild. He slept for a while, but woke up cranky and only wanted Daddy who was filthy from moving stuff and trying to help them load kennel panels onto the top of the trailer to tie on since they wouldn't fit inside. We didn't leave until 7pm (3 hours later than I had wanted to leave) and it was a 3 hour drive. Plus we had our dog Max with us so we had to stop for a pee break for him and once cause Bug got car sick after eating dinner of a McDonald's Happy Meal. We think that was because he was watching a dvd and it was on really windy curvy roads. He was fine after that. We got home around 10 and I dunked him in the bath to get the insect repellent (there were tons of those big black flies everywhere, it was gross) and vomit off him before bed. Darling Hubby and I needed to take showers, too and I had to douse myself in aloe as I got a terrible sunburn and I wasn't even in the sun that much. Bug was asleep by 10:30, but was awake at 7 Sunday morning. He did play in his room quietly for a while before the rest of us got up.

One really funny thing while we were down there, our dog Max was out running in the woods with the older kids and he came back and tried to cut across the pond. He got part way out and panicked and got stuck just off shore and wouldn't come back.

We tried calling him and snagging his collar with a cane. I had to snag his legs with the cane to get him to come out.

"Now how are you planning on getting me out of here?"

He hates being in water for some reason and then when Darling Hubby was trying to get him out, he thought he was in trouble and refused to budge. Needless to say, Max got a bath Sunday morning. He was a yucky dog! lol

We got to go through some of the stuff that they were not taking with them (putting in an auction) and we got a couple small chairs and a little tykes desk and a booster seat for the car for when Bug's bigger. It just needed to be disinfected as it had been stored in the horse barn. Plus Darling Hubby's sister gave me 2 big boxes of clothes that her son has out grown. I washed them once, but they need to be washed again as they stink to high heaven of cigarette smoke. Yuck!

Sunday was a bit better. Bug seemed to be better, although he did have a couple very messy diapers. I got out of the house to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Despite the negative things people have said about it, I enjoyed it.

Today started off bad and I'm hoping it gets better. Bug didn't wake me up until around 8 and he was a poopy mess. I had to change the sheets on his bed as well as his clothes. Then, I brought him into bed with me so he could watch Curious George and he threw up all over himself. Needless to say, I called Baby Girl's parents and requested that I not watch her today. I'm also getting tomorrow off just to make sure he's feeling better. We aren't sure what he's got, but it sounds like what Baby Girl had last week, except with the throwing up. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that Bug gets better soon and that I don't get sick this week. Tomorrow I'm going to see Celtic Woman at the arena and I don't really want to miss it.

The Assessment Meeting

2007-06-08T20:57:00.000-04:00

So this morning we met with Mike from the Assessment office. He was basically there to check on the number of bathrooms and look at the foundation to make sure it wasn't crumbling. He did and while he was looking in the basement, I mentioned that the house had also been listed incorrectly as a 2 family when it was obviously only a 1 family. He said that he wasn't aware of that and when he looked at his sheet, yup, there it was. They never mentioned it to him! They only said check the bathrooms and foundation...The family listing was right up there in our complaint...whatever. I'm a little annoyed about that, but what can you do? Anyway, he said he'd make the change personally and as of noon today we should be correctly listed as a single family residence. Woohoo!

He did say that the Board of Assessment has already been through the B's (our street starts with B) so a decision has pretty much been rendered, but since we had complaints about how the house was listed, they will more than likely revisit our complaint and hopefully (fingers crossed) we will get a lower assessment by July 1st. I did come right out and ask him what he thought the value of our house was having seen the inside and he said that what we were asking as a value was very fair and that it was very likely the board would come down to just a smidge higher than what we were asking for.

So, hopefully come July 1st, I'll get some notification of what our new assessment is going to be. I'm hoping that it's right around the 130 we were claiming.

Oh, and for those of you who read this blog and are homeowners, you should check out what your assessment is EVERY YEAR and check out the values of the homes selling in your area to see if you are being assessed fairly. When your city changes your assessment, they have to notify you and you are allowed to contest it so it's in your best interest to do so!

Assessment Update

2007-06-06T14:30:00.000-04:00

I got a call this morning from Mike at the Assessors office and we've set up a time for him to come in and check to see how many bathrooms we really have. They have us listed as 2 fulls and we only have 1.5. It's a start for something. Hopefully he will address that the house is also listed as a 2 family when it really is a single family. Fingers crossed this takes us somewhere good. Maybe I'll know more after 9:30 on Friday.

Like a Log!

2007-05-31T16:41:00.001-04:00

Since summer is nearly upon us, thunderstorms will be a common occurance. Lots of booming thunder and flashes of lightning. Today was one of those storms. It rolled through around 3:45 with all the aforementioned stuff, plus high winds and golf ball size hail stones. Yep, hail. The funny thing...Bug slept through it all, even when I went in to his room to check that the rain wasn't coming in his open windows. Guess it's good to have a sound sleeper.

Here's a quick video I took from my front porch. Video

The Good, The Bad and The Profanity

2007-05-30T14:30:00.000-04:00

Today was yet another beautiful day. It's 80° out and sunny. I took the kids on a walk over to St. Rose for another quick visit. The Daytime Circulation Supervisor (my former department) is taking a new job at another college library so they were holding a luncheon in her honor today. It was a nice little send off. I'm really going to miss dropping in and seeing her this summer.

To be completely honest, when she was first hired on as the day supervisor, most everyone, including me, was apprehensive about her. She's from Denmark originally and we honestly didn't know what to expect from her. In the years following her arrival at the library, she grew on most everyone. She was kinda like a second mom to me as I could pretty much tell her anything and she would go out of her way to help when she could. I really felt bad leaving her when I stopped working and became a Stay at Home Mom. Like any family, we had our differences and butted heads on numerous occasions. Looking, back, I'm glad we did butt heads. I also learned a few things I never would have known had I not met her. I'm not talking swear words in Danish or things like that, but the fun stuff, like the naughty little "nisse" that would bring special treats to the student assistants who worked the desk.

I know she probably won't ever read this, but I wish her lots of luck in all her future endeavors. I hope she grows on the people of Skidmore College the way she did at St. Rose.

And now on to the rant portion of this post. As I was walking home with the kids, I came upon a group of 3 teens hanging out on a street corner (right where I was crossing) and as I approach them I hear such foul language spilling from their mouth I wanted to wash their mouths out with Dawn! My question is, why were these 3 teens, who were obviously school aged, hanging out on the corner at 1 in the afternoon? Why were they not in class? I checked the school calendar on the website and they have school until June 22nd! Everyone complains how bad the schools are here in the city and it really makes you think it has something to do with the kids not being in class. When I went to school you had to be there until the end bell even if you had study hall as your last period. There was no early dismissal. The biggest peeve I have is that they were spouting off all their profanity as I'm walking past with my 2 year old! At least have the courtesy to shut up for the 30 seconds I was near. It's not that hard. I don't want to hear "mother f'n" this and "sh*t" that. And to top it all off, they were dropping the n word like it was water. I'm not a racist so please don't take what I'm about to say the wrong way. I know that if a white person dropped the n word like these kids were, somewhere in the world a black person would have their panties in a bunch. But it's fine for a black person to say it to another black person. Why? And why in public? I never want to hear those words come out of Bug's mouth like that. Yes, I've been known to drop my fair share of swear words, but I don't do it in public. Come on people. Teach your kids to have respect for others! I only hope I can teach Bug this better than those teens were taught.

Ok, I'm off my soap box now. lol

I Swear They Must Get A Commission!

2007-05-26T15:25:00.002-04:00

We did our grocery shopping today and, as usual, we bought a lot of stuff. While we were checking out, we had a bagger. I swear that our grocery store baggers get commission on how many of their cheap, tear the second you put more than 3 small thing in them plastic bags. The bagger we had put our gallon milk containers each in a separate bag and then grabbed our apple juice containers that come with built in handles on the top for easy carrying and tried to put them in bags, too. I stopped her and said, "you don't have to put those in bags, they already have handles." You should have seen the look on her face. She looked utterly appalled that I said anything to her about the way she was doing her job. I just smiled and considered saying something about "let's save the environment here," but I didn't. I didn't even say anything to her as I reached passed her for the 6 packs of Pepsi and the case of root beer and just put them in the cart (and without those little orange "I paid for these items" stickers on them. OH NO!!) And, to top it off, she put hot food (I was getting something from the hot buffet for Bug to have for lunch since it was getting late and he was getting hungry (and pretending to chow down on the sales flyer, which was really cute)) right on top of my ice cream! Who the hell trained her? Cold stuff goes with cold and hot with hot! Most occasions I just want to bag myself or have Darling Hubby do it, but now the store has pretty much instituted the "you will have an incompetent bagger program," so they are usually there.

I'm considering going for those reusable canvas shopping bags. It would be so much more eco-friendly, I wouldn't have a ton and a half of plastic bags floating around my house and I probably wouldn't have to worry about the bags tearing while walking to the house from the car leaving my grapefruit rolling down the driveway. Granted, I do use those plastic bags for small garbage pail liners and for emptying the kitty box and things like that so they do get reused a little, but I feel I would be doing my part to save the environment if I stopped the store from handing them out like they were water. I swear, on a $150 shopping trip (minus the things that I prevented her from bagging, I must have had at least 15-20 bags each with like 2 things in them. It says "EZ10" on the bag for a reason!

So, if you have gone the route of putting a stop to piles of plastic shopping bags leaping from behind your toilet or sneaking their way out from under the kitchen sink, let me know what you've used and your recommendations. I'll appreciate it.

Assessment article

2007-05-23T13:34:00.000-04:00

So yesterday was the assessment appeal hearing. We didn't go because it seemed like a waste of time. We won't hear anything for a while anyway.

Here is an article from today's Times Union about the whole thing. Turns out, it was worse than Scott and I thought. Our assessment went up about 75% or so...some actually went up 95%. Ninty-five percent!!! That's just utterly rediculous, if you ask me. Keep your fingers crossed that thing will go down to a reasonable amount for everyone involved.

Life is a Soap Opera

2007-05-22T14:18:00.000-04:00

I currently live in a quiet little neighborhood in a big city and I've lived in a tiny little country (ok, hick) town and I've come to know there is drama all around.

I was talking to my new neighbor this morning as he was painting his fence and we were discussing all the crap that is going on with the whole assessment (see prior post) and we got on the topic of the lady that lives directly across the street from us. She is a nice enough lady, but apparently, she has a wicked drinking problem. From what the neighbor told me, she has been in rehab 3 times and despite that she is still on the bottle. Apparently, she hides beer throughout her home that even friends and family can't find when they attempt to clean it all out. She currently has no hot water or heat (ok, it's May and we don't need heat, but in any case, she doesn't have it) in her house and the electricity has been recently shut off. She hasn't paid taxes in 2 years on the property, either (so we are pretty sure she didn't fight the assessment issues.) At the end of last year there were several times when the cops were parked outside escorting a couple individuals from the property. I do know that there was a lot of yelling and the cops where there for a good long time. I thought it was a family member being removed, but I guess she was renting an area of her house to some lowlifes who where taking advantage of an elderly lady down the street. Now she is renting out her driveway to some motorcyclists. She has only recently gotten a job. I'm just wondering how long that will last until she gets drunk, forgets her schedule and blows off work, losing her job.

I know what you may be thinking and I already know that none of this is really any of my business but it's things like this that really make me glad that I stay in my house and keep to myself. I just feel so sorry for this woman. She has basically let herself get to this point. You have to want to make a difference in your life in order for rehab to work and obviously, she doesn't want to change her life. I know that many people see drinking as a disease, but you really do have to want to change in order for AA or rehab to do any good. People out there have tried to help her and it seems to do no good.

I guess where I'm going with this is that I just don't understand how good people can let themselves get to the point where they drink themselves into oblivion each day, they are jobless, they've already lost hot water/heat because they can't afford the oil, they've lost electricity and are in jeopardy of losing their home. I don't want to see her turned out of her home, but I would like to see her make some changes in her life for the better, but who am I to try to tell her how she needs to run her life. As the Boniva ad on the tv just said, "You only get one life." Why not make the best of it?

Gotta Love Getting Screwed

2007-05-18T13:17:00.000-04:00

So back at the beginning of the year, we got our new tax assessment from the city. The taxable value of our home went from $72,000 to $164,000. Needless to say, Darling Hubby and I were floored by this. There is no way in hell that our house is worth that much. Even if we wanted to sell it, we haven't put that much work into it, and there is no way that we could get that for it. We are still trying to figure out how the city goes about deciding how much houses are worth. As far as we can tell they look at the sell price of houses in the neighborhood and decide to pick and arbitrary amount. Of course, the house next door sold in October of 2006 for $125,000 but the city has it on the books that it sold for $188,000. I've got documentation from the neighbor showing this error. It looks like this clerical error is what caused our tax assessment to go through the roof. At least we hope that's the reason.

Yes, we are fighting it. The whole neighborhood has put in complaints to have our houses reassessed. What we want is for someone to actually come to the house and do a proper assessment instead of just driving by or picking a number out of thin air.

So I called the Office of Assessment this morning to find out when and where the meeting is being held. It's next Tuesday and since we've submitted a complaint, we are welcome to go. Here's the deal. They are scheduled for the hearing from 9am-1pm and then again from 6pm-8pm. The whole thing is first come first served and since the city has over 31,000 parcels of land with no idea of how many parcels have complained, there is no telling how long of a wait there will be and even if you will get to say your piece. To top it off, you won't get an answer that day. The board will listen to what you have to say, look at your paper work that was submitted and set it aside to look at on a later date. Seems kinda pointless to me.

We've decided that we aren't going to go through the hassle of waiting for nothing. We submitted everything that we could to prove our case and nothing that we say out loud will show anything different. Now it's a waiting game. I just don't think we can afford to pay more into our mortgage payment to be put into escrow to cover the tax increase. I hope to hear something by July...I'm hoping that somewhere out there, someone is looking out for us in our neighborhood and that we will be reassessed at a reasonable rate.

Worried

2007-05-17T10:11:00.000-04:00

I'm worried about my dog, Grace, this morning. She's been acting a little off since yesterday afternoon. She peed and then "peed" like 4 more times but came up empty. She ate fine yesterday and was drinking as far as I know. She was fine all night, and went to the bathroom no problem before bed. This morning she went fine and then when I fed her she didn't want to eat. She NEVER turns her nose up at food. She eats anything and everything. I've recently switched her to soft canned food as she's been loosing teeth (her teeth were bad when we got her and nothing helps). I checked the food and it's not part of the recalled food from March. Her nose is cold and wet so I don't know what's up with her.

I plan to keep an eye on her today. Maybe she's just having an off day and I'm overreacting about the peeing thing. I know the other day I kept feeling like I had to pee even when I went and I've had days where I'm not hungry. I just hope that nothing is seriously wrong. I don't think we can afford to have anymore medical bills for her. She's already cost us 3 grand with her broken leg in November.

What Makes Me Warm and Fuzzy Inside

2007-05-15T11:00:00.000-04:00

My friend Lori tagged me with "10 things that make me feel warm and fuzzy inside." Here they are!

1. Bug's laugh.

2. A cup of hot chocolate, a warm blanket, a good book, and a comfy spot on the couch.

3. Hearing "I Love You."

4. Showing off pictures I have taken.

5. Finishing a scrapbook or sewing project.

6. A cat curled up in my lap purring.

7. Getting an unexpected (or even expected) package or card in the mail.

8. Bug curling up in my lap while we read or watch tv.

9. Watching Bug play nice and interact with baby Heather (He's going to be a good big brother someday)

10. Knowing that I have great friends all over the world who are there for me!

OK, I know most of my friends have already been tagged with this so I'm not going to tag anyone specifically. If you read this and haven't done it already, then you've been tagged... :D