coconutnoodlemonkey

Hubby Always Said I Can't Measure

2011-02-11T08:54:00.000-05:00

He says I think things are bigger than they really are.

I'm beginning to think he is right.

I got my Le Creuset baking dishes from CSN last week. They got here super fast. Like 3 days after I ordered them. Considering that it was free shipping, I expected they would be sent the slowest way possible on the back of a sloth or something, so three days was super exciting.

I tore into the big box like a kid on Christmas day. Inside I found a LOT of packing material and two little baking dishes. Huh? I stood there scratching my head about how they seemed to be half the size I was expecting when the Hubby came over and schooled me (again) in measurement. The measurements I had even typed into my first post about them, 10.5' x 7' baking dish and bonus 7' x 5' dish. He pointed to a framed picture on my bookshelf and said "Honey, what size is this picture?" I replied "5' x 7'". He held up my small 7' x 5' dish next to the picture and then turned it sideways while cocking one eyebrow as if to say "Really? You somehow expected this to be larger?" Yes, yes I did.

So now I don't know what I'm going to bake for my family of five in these little dishes,
but they sure are pretty.

More Than a Few Inches of Snow

2011-02-02T13:38:00.000-05:00

Another item checked off my "Living in the snow bucket list".

My first foot or more of snow in one night.

This morning we woke up to this.

Guess I'm not taking the dogs out for a walk that way. Maybe out the garage?

Or maybe not. That snow is taller than my dogs.

My upstairs window had accumulated a little snow too.

Somewhere under there is our front steps and walkway.

After we dug out the driveway, this is the pile we had.

And there's our front porch again.

View from the porch after we unburied it.

The Things I Will Do For Cookware

2011-01-29T11:14:00.000-05:00

Remember CSN? Those folks with over 200 stores? Even one dedicated to swingsets?

They've asked me to work with them again. Last time I gave away bunny coffee mugs,

but this time I think I'm going to do a review. I'm taking my time browsing this time,

but so far I'm really leaning towards this 10.5' x 7' baking dish and bonus 7' x 5' dish.

As I've mentioned before I have a fetish for Le Creuset cookware, so an opportunity to add a piece of their stoneware to my kitchen is kind of a no brainer. I still really want the frying pan, but it's still a little spendy. I'm thinking that the smaller dish might be perfect for a half batch of my enchiladas, and I can't wait to try it out. Stay tuned for the review and enchilada recipe.

Cats With Thumbs

2011-01-21T14:14:00.000-05:00

I've been promising my children that we'd get new kittens for a while now.

I've been looking and there just haven't been that many kittens on craigslist.
The ones that there were, either didn't have pictures or just didn't pull at my heart strings.

Then last week I saw an ad for these cuties.

They are sisters and they have thumbs.

We went to go look at them after the kids got home from school.
On the way there, I told my oldest that the cats had six toes,
and she said "Really??" in the most hopeful excited voice you can imagine.
She started ranting about how Jenny The Bloggess recently got a cat with 6 toes also.
Of course I already knew this, because hello,
I've been reading The Bloggess way longer than she has.
Right then, the deal was sealed, we were getting us some cats with thumbs.

When my hubby got home from a work trip the next day, he was slightly ticked that once again,
I obtained new animals for our household when he was out of town.
He really looked at me sideways when I told him they had bonus toes.
He may have said something about them being mutants.
Whatever.
We think they're awesome.

Winter Wonderland

2011-01-20T06:54:00.002-05:00

This week, one of Mama Kat's writing prompts was a photo journal entry
about what winter looks like in my town.

This is my first REAL winter. The first one where I've experienced cold
and the first where I've experienced snow.

Winter in Southern California is palm trees and rain.
Maybe some ice on your windshield here and there.
If you want to take the kids sledding, you load them up in the car
and drive at least an hour to the nearest ski resort.

Winter in Arizona is like summer in Arizona, except not 120 degrees.
It's sunshine and flip flops. It's 80 degree days.
If you want to take the kids sledding, you load them up in the car
and drive three hours to the nearest place with enough elevation to get snow.

To say that winter in Michigan is different is like saying that
Jerry Falwell and Boy George are different.

It's a WHOLE new world over here.

It's icicles.

It's "Hey, that's the one bush that's still green, buried under a foot of snow."

Because seriously, all the other bushes look like this.

I know this isn't exactly what winter looks like in my TOWN,
but I'm still awed by the simple things right in front of me.

And since I'm terrified of driving in the snow, I haven't been getting out a whole lot.

Who Are YOU?

2011-01-14T13:18:00.000-05:00

Everyone else is doing it, and by "IT" I don't mean drugs or sex.

It's this whole De-Lurking day thing.

See? It even came with a flasher guy!

This thing says that I have 22 followers.

Exactly FOUR of you comment on any kind of regular basis.

A special Shout Out to:

Alisha

Beth

Brookah

Lena

Soooo. Today is the day that YOU tell me something about you.

1) Do you have a blog or twitter that I should be following?

2) What is your excuse for not regularly commenting on my awesomeness?

Am I just not that awesome?

Is it that you come read my blog like some kind of train wreck you just can't walk away from?

3) What is your favorite thing about my blog?

4) Is there something you wish I'd blog more about? Or less?

Or something really annoying that I do that drives you nuts?

5) I fear that I use the word "So" too much. Please discuss.

Shoveling Snow is Good For the Soul Amongst Other Things

2011-01-13T08:27:00.002-05:00

I ALWAYS said that snow was nice to visit, but I wouldn't want to live in it,
I didn't want to have to drive in it, or have to shovel it out of my driveway.

Ahem.

Famous Last Words.

Here I am, living what should be my own personal nightmare, and you know what? I kinda like it. My husband wants to buy a $500 snow thrower, and I'm thinking "We don't need to waste our money on that, just give me my shovel and go away". I know it sounds totally bizarre, but I came to this realization while my mom was here visiting. (Yeah, that's a whole other story).

I thought it would be nice to have her come and visit. To see where we live. To see that we can still be family even though I moved 2000 miles away. That I hadn't abandoned her. Seven days might have been a little ambitious considering our not too distant blow up. We managed not to fight, but we also avoided speaking about anything of substance.
There was A LOT of tongue biting.

When it snowed, I had to go outside and shovel, and for the first time in DAYS, I had peace. It was just me and my shovel, methodically removing the snow from the walks and the driveway. I found myself lapsing into this meditative state where my mind was void of worry, I was just moving, just shoveling, without thinking. It was the quietest my mind has been in ages.

Maybe this too will get old. Maybe the newness will wear off and it will just become work like so many other household chores, but for now, I'm enjoying my private time with my snow shovel.

I also think that my rear might be residing a little higher than it was before all this physical labor. Bonus!!

Tomorrow

2011-01-12T15:45:00.000-05:00

I'm in a funk. I don't want to do anything.

To be honest, "anything" might be too strong of a word...

I want to bake and eat sweet things, but that isn't entirely productive.

I have a ton of work I should be doing. Hello end of the year bookkeeping and IRS related chores. Ick. I don't want to and I've got until the end of the month to get those 1099's out, right? It's only the 12th. I can put it off a few more days.

I should be working on some handmade projects for friends that I promised in a facebook post.

I could be taking down my Christmas tree and decorations.

Instead I think I'll go take a nap. I'm good at avoiding.

In 2011 I will either do something really smart or something really stupid. Maybe both.

2011-01-04T07:40:00.002-05:00

I'm usually not one for resolutions, and I don't know if I'd call this a resolution. It might be more of a midlife crisis or a mental breakdown, maybe. All I know is that I'm tired of continuing to do what I've always done, and being unhappy with what I get.

Mainly I'm tired of the roller coaster ride that is my husbands career. He works and then he doesn't work. When he's not working there is no guarantee when the next work is going to be. Some years he makes a lot of money, some years, not so much. It's really hard to manage a household when you have no idea how much money you will have or when you are going to have it. I'm pretty sure I'm on the fast track for an ulcer or a padded room. I'm the one that worries about how the bills are going to get paid. He enjoys his off time playing video games.

So in 2011 I'm going to do something different. I've talked about this before, but I've always put it off because of the amount of time and effort involved. It's time for me to go back to school. This freaks me out for an untold number of reasons, starting with it's been 10 years since I've set foot on a college campus and ending with the 5-6 years it will take me to finish my chosen degree (going full time).

When I think about the benefits though, like how in 5 years I will be able to consistently make as much money as the hubby has made in his best years, it seems like a no brainer. When I think about the fact that in 5 years I will have the first 2 of my 3 children also trying to obtain a college education and having the money to cover that for them, I feel in control.

So first things first, I've ordered my transcripts, since I have no idea where the copies I have are located. When they arrive, I will meet with a counselor at the college to plan out my next 5 years. Since it's going to be too late for this semester, I won't be able to put this plan fully in motion until the Fall. I don't think I want to jump back into college in the Summer.

In the meantime, I'm also considering doing something totally ridiculous, The Warrior Dash. Not that this event is in itself ridiculous, but ME participating in it is ridiculous. For those of you that know me in real life, you will understand what a silly endeavor this is.

For those of you that don't, let me break it down for you:

First, my mantra is "I don't run unless zombies are chasing me".
Second, I am the antithesis of athletic, like I trip over air and fall UP stairs (ok to be honest, I've fallen down them too, but that is much easier to do).
Third, I DON'T like being dirty.

Why this event appeals to me, I don't know. Probably something to do with the mental breakdown I'm having. I think I'm looking to have control over something. Either way, it should make for an interesting year.

Apologies

2011-01-03T07:53:00.001-05:00

With all the craziness in December a few things got put off until the new year.

Obviously regular blogging on my part was one of them. I'm not going to declare that "I'm Back!!" or anything that dramatic. Those of you that have followed me for awhile know that I don't blog on any kind of regular time table. I apologize however if your December was in any way less grand because of not being able to read my blog. Somehow I doubt this, but I'll put it out there anyway.

The other thing that got put off was the shipment of naughty bunny mugs. As soon as the giveaway ended, I ordered them from CSN which shipped them promptly to my house. The only problem being that they shipped the FOUR mugs I ordered in one box. Apparently they come from their maker in sets of 4. Since I had ordered this many, I got four, in their original 4 pack box. That's fantastic, because that left me having to find coffee mug shaped boxes, suitable for mailing, in the busiest shipping month of the year. So sorry to my winners, I decided to put off this task until the new year. Tops on my list this week is to find boxes and get these in the mail.

My tree, and all my other Christmas decorations are still up, and I have no immediate plans to take them down. The amount of work involved hurts my head. I really don't understand how some people decorate for EVERY holiday to this extent. Most other holidays are acknowledged in this house by a different hand towel in the guest bath. Yeah, I know, I got all out. Then there are the gung ho people that take it all down the day after Christmas. You know who you are, (ahem, cough, Kim, cough). Really, how do they do it? I was still nursing a headache from only having about 4 hours sleep Christmas Eve.

Of course, next year, this won't be a problem. On Christmas morning, when the hubby and I finally dragged ourselves out of bed, after hours of the kids coming in and trying to extricate us from our slumber, we decided that we'd had enough of staying up until the last of the kiddos FINALLY fell asleep so Santa could come, only to be woken four hours later by those same children who somehow require a third less sleep on Christmas.

No, we aren't going to stop believing in Santa. What we are going to do is wake the kids up right after he comes. Yup, next year as soon as the kids are asleep and Santa comes, we are going to wake them all up, (the hubby wants to do this with a bull horn) and drag them all downstairs for present opening. Then they can either stay up and play with their toys or go back to sleep, but we will be able to go back to sleep and not have to worry about being woken up at 6 am by impatient kids.

2010 Wrap Up

2011-01-02T13:44:00.004-05:00

The month of December was insane. First my mom visiting, then my mother in law. After I was done with house guests it was a mad rush to finish Christmas shopping, mail off gifts that were getting shipped, and prepare for the big day. On December 23rd, it occurred to me that the family might want something fancier than Hamburger Helper for dinner on Christmas day.
I called Honeybaked and was still able to procure a ham, and on Christmas Eve I set out to grocery shop for all the dinner accompaniments.

Christmas itself was great. The hubby had been hinting around at the fact that he had broken our tradition of just buying for the kids and had actually got me something, so I purchased a couple of gifts for him. I got him some new cologne and DJ Hero2. He liked them a lot.

All month long I had been fishing for hints since I'm not good at suspense or waiting for things. While his mom was here visiting I made her a cheesecake. As I was getting out my hand mixer
to make it, I asked him "OOooh, Is my present a stand mixer?". He said "No". I made a sad face. My mother in law says "You mean one of those Kitchen Aid things? You need one of those.
I'll buy you one for Christmas." Now this ends up being a gift for her too, since she is moving here, and I know is hoping there are a lot more cakes and cheesecakes in her future,
not that I'm going to complain though.

So it turns out that this WAS what he was planning on getting me, but had not actually gone shopping for. Now that his mom said she was going to buy me one, he had to come up with something else to get me since there were two presents from me under the tree.
SEE why we usually don't do buy for each other. It gets so damn complicated.
On Christmas Eve, while I was wrapping gifts and grocery shopping,

the hubby took the 3 girls to the mall to shop for a present for me.

Before they left I dropped a couple of hints as to what I might like.

I mentioned that I always liked Willow Tree figurines.

Hubby said "What in the heck is that???"

My oldest said "I know dad, don't worry."

I ended up with a Willow Tree figurine from my hubby and each of my girls.

Perfect!

The hubby also was responsible for picking up the stand mixer from his mom.

She and I had gone shopping for it before she left, but the store was out of them,

so she had left the money so we could get it when they got more in.

Hubby went to Kohl's though, and ended up getting me a MUCH better one

for the same amount of money as the regular one she and I were looking at.

It isn't pretty red, but it has all metal parts so it will hopefully last forever and ever,

plus it has a larger capacity and stronger motor too.

Even though I knew I was getting it. Even though he didn't wrap it.

He wouldn't let me open the box until Christmas day.

So after presents were opened, I broke this puppy out and set out to make a Red Velvet cake for

Christmas dessert. To say it was a miserable failure would be an understatement.

It's been a long time since I've made a cake from scratch, and I learned that Red Velvet is tricky. I ended up throwing the first one out and making a second one the day after Christmas.

It was edible, but still not what I'd call good. I guess I'll just have to do a lot more practicing.

Darn.

The last two weeks of December were consumed with house hunting for my mother in law.

We looked at the good, the bad, the ugly, the smelly, the quirky, the lost in the 70's,

and the ones that only a match could improve.

We ended up finding a little cottage on a creek built in 1905 that spoke to her. It's kitchen consists of one wall of rotting cabinets and a sink. The single bathroom is the size of most half baths in houses nowadays, and has a shower so narrow that I really have to wonder if super models lived here. I can't imagine any normal sized person being able to turn around and soap their butt in this thing. In addition to that, there are parts of the roof that leak and parts of the floor that have rotted away. It's a really good thing that her sons and I are slightly handy. It is going to be a LOT of work, but I think it will be super cute once it's done. You can expect a lot of home remodel blogging starting around the beginning of February.

House Guests

2010-12-10T07:52:00.000-05:00

On Monday I picked the winners of my Bunny Mug giveaway. Since I only had three comments, it wasn't too hard to figure out who my winners were. In case you were looking for a big announcement, that would be reason #1 why there wasn't one. I ordered the mugs, and emailed the winners for their addresses. Now as soon as the mugs show up, which looks to be sometime between Monday and Thursday of next week, I will send them out.

Other than that, I've had house guests. My mom to be exact. She's been here since Monday and leaves next Monday. Then on Wednesday, my mother in law comes.

Right before receiving house guests, I was able to get my tree up and decorate my mantel.

I got new stockings for the older two last year after Christmas at Target.

They didn't have the little one's initial.

Plus, hers is pink, and has monkeys, she's kind of attached to it.

There used to be this company called Christmas Around the World.

They sold awesome Christmas stuff using the home party plan (like Tupperware)

Then they wen't bankrupt.

I was sad.

These gingerbread houses are the last thing I got from them.

I was so excited this year that I finally had a mantel again

and could use my "JOY" stocking hangers.

I opened the box they were in to discover that a snow globe had not survived the move.

Other contents of the tote were ruined, the stocking hangers were attempting to rust.

They were able to be saved, but I did have to put new felt under the J.

These hurricanes usually have candles in them.

I took the candles out and filled them with little wooden ornaments my mom had given me

from when I was a kid.

That's about the extent of the decorating around here. New lights were purchased for the outside of the house, but since they haven't been put up yet and the hubby only has one day off this week, I don't think they are getting done this year.

My First Snow

2010-12-03T19:53:00.001-05:00

We finally got snow here a few days ago.
I was too busy selling out for fornicating bunny mugs posting giveaways to blog about it.

My first snow was beautiful.

At first.

Then I had to drive in it.

Tiffany had a violin lesson. A lesson that normally is about 30 min from the house. Hubby warned me to leave early, give myself plenty of time, leave plenty of room between me and the car in front of me, and not to wait until the last minute to brake.

I left to take her a full hour before we needed to be there. The roads had been plowed or salted or something because the roads were just wet. The drive was not as treacherous as the hubby had made it out to be. It took 45 minutes. I drove slow. I left room. I braked slowly and carefully. We got there in one piece, with 15 minutes to spare.

Forty five minutes later when we left it was a WHOLE different story. All those roads that had been merely wet had turned to ice, and apparently everyone is leaving work (near violin lessons) and heading home (to my neighborhood) around 5 pm. Go figure.

The TWO hour drive home was the scariest two hours I have ever spent in my whole life.
It was two hours spent clutching my steering wheel, pointing my car in the general direction I wanted to go, and praying.

There was sliding.
There was not going anywhere even though the gas pedal was being pushed.
There was an annoying pulsation that is the traction control.
It didn't seem to help much other than to remind me that
MY TIRES WERE NOT IN CONTACT WITH THE ROAD,
causing me to panic even more.

I really wished I had painted "I'm new here and have never driven in the snow before" on the back window of my car. People were entirely too close to me for their own good.

When I finally made it home, I told my husband that for the rest of the winter I'm only going out right after the roads have been cleared, quickly running my errands, and then I'm coming straight home. If I can't get it done in a 2 hour window, it's not getting done until spring.

Everyone Loves Free Stuff

2010-11-30T18:56:00.004-05:00

The wonderful folks over at CSN stores recently contacted me about doing a giveaway on my blog. They have over 200 different stores selling everything from tv tables to bathroom sinks.

I really got excited about getting some free cookware from their cookware site, but the Le Creuset skillet I was hoping for costs a little more than the $35 they are going to give me.

So, you my loyal readers luck out.
I'll be spending the $35 on six of my second favorite item on their site, this bunny mug.

I'm keeping one for myself, and giving the other five away.

To enter all you need to do is leave a comment and make sure that you leave your email if I am not going to be able to find it in 2 clicks or less.

I'm also giving an extra entry to anyone who leaves a comment
AND was following me before this post went live.

If for some reason the bunny mug is going to be inappropriate for your workplace, feel free to peruse any of CSN's other 200 stores and tell me what you'd rather have as long as it costs the same or less than the bunny mug.

Winners will be picked at random on December 7th.

************ Contest Is Closed *****************************

I'm Kind Of A Big Deal

2010-11-29T17:53:00.001-05:00

You know when bloggers write about the bad PR pitches they receive?

I always thought, I'll know when I'm a big deal blogger when I get bad PR pitches too.

So a few days ago I get this email,

asking ME if I'd be interested in doing a review/giveaway.

Unlike some of the offers I've heard other bloggers laugh at, this seemed well written (enough),

and didn't ask me to whore myself out while getting nothing in return.

Of course, they didn't address me by name,

but they didn't screw up my name either, so I'll call that even.

I checked out their website with minimal expectations and immediately saw that they carry a brand of cookware that I've lusted over for years, but this is what happened when I considered buying a piece of it once.

Me (to hubby): "While I was out shopping today I saw this awesome skillet,

I almost bought it, but thought I should run it by you."

Hubby: "Why?"

Me: " It was $70"

Him: "It's a good thing you didn't buy it then,

I would have had to hit you upside the head with it."

Me: "That would have hurt. It was cast iron."

I emailed them back and said "Sure, I'd love to receive two of these skillets.

One for me and one to giveaway to one of my 19 many followers."

I don't know for sure if this is how it works, but it sure as heck is how I want it to work,

so I decided to put it out there. The worst they could say is no, right?

I'm pretty sure at some point they will figure out that I am not, in fact, the big deal they thought I was, and rescind their offer to give me free stuff. In the meantime I'll dream, and maybe if each of you goes and finds a few friends to come follow me before they come to check me out further, we'll actually get these frying pans.

Hint Hint.

After replying to them with my wishes, I went back to close the window to their online store,

but got distracted by a coffee mug with what appeared to be rabbits on it,

doing that thing that rabbits are famous for.

I clicked on it, and what would you know, it was a coffee mug, with rabbits, making rabbits.

In. Multiple. Positions.

Like I'm pretty sure it was the bunny Kama Sutra on a coffee mug.

BUT THEN, once I was actually looking at the mug with the fornicating rabbits on it,

it suggested that people that liked that item also viewed....

the coffee mug with the bears,

or the one with the penguins,

or elephants,

all of them in the throes of passion.

Well except maybe the bears,

they kinda looked like they were trying to bite each other's faces off.

Then I was pissed at myself for not looking a little longer before agreeing to write sponsored content for a frying pan when I could have had the bunny porn mug! I've decided that if they turn me down for the skillet, telling me that a blog with only nineteen followers isn't worthy of a $70 skillet, I'm going to ask again for the mug.

It's only $5.99.

6 Days

2010-11-17T08:44:00.001-05:00

Six days ago my youngest came home from school and passed out on the couch.
I knew without looking at her that she was sick.
A mom knows.

My hubby came home that night and kept complaining that it was too cold
in the 70 degree house.
He was sick too.
This was going to be fun.

Five days ago my hubby insisted he needed to go to the doctor.
I told him he was wasting his time and a copay.
He still wanted to go.
Okey Dokey.

I called and made him an appointment.
Because I'm the mom and know who the doctor is.
As I expected the doctor told him to take Alka Selzer Plus and plenty of fluids
and to return Monday if he wasn't better.
I saved a copay on the kid.

My hubby always tells me I'm not a doctor,
but I've taken my kids to the doctor enough times to know when the symptoms are going to warrant the trip and be worth the chance we pick up something more fun.

Then the fever and lethargy spawned a nice cough.

The weekend came and my facebook status read
"My house sounds like the seal exhibit at the zoo".
One of my friends commented "dead sardines all over the place?"
I have funny friends.

By Monday the fevers were better, but the coughs were worse.
My husband did not return to the doctor.
I thought he must be feeling better.
Apparently he was just enjoying being miserable too much.

I finally took my little one to the doctor yesterday, she got an inhaler and antibiotics,
since after 5 days she still had a low grade fever.
Hubby couldn't get in yesterday so he goes back today and I'm sure he'll get the same thing.

It's a good thing too.
Because it's kinda sad that my 9 year old is handling being sick better than her daddy.
And I haven't gotten anything done that I wanted to do in a week.

Random Musings On Being A Grown Up

2010-11-11T08:38:00.000-05:00

My drivers license says I've been a adult two times over, but so far I suck at being a grown up.

I still shop in the juniors section, because I refuse to wear the jeans that cover my belly button,
and there is no in between. It's either the juniors section or the grandma section.
WTF? Where is the hip 30 something year old section?

I've been drinking coffee for 20 something years, if you consider a grande white mocha a coffee.
I know it's more like a hot chocolate with a little coffee thrown in.
I didn't own or know how to operate a coffee maker until 2 years ago.
My coffee to creamer ratio is 2:1.

I have a collection of about 50 shot glasses but my wine glasses are plastic.
Up until recently my favorite wine was Boone's Farm Sangria.
Lately I've been trying different wines (with corked bottles) and enjoying them.
Hoping Santa brings me real glass wine glasses.

My favorite time of day is nap time and I get cranky if I don't get one.

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be when I "grow up".
Right now am leaning towards artist.
I wouldn't have to worry about that whole starving part, because my hubby works.

The Irony Is Not Lost On Me

2010-11-09T10:07:00.001-05:00

So almost a month (gasp) ago I told you guys all about my entryway and why I live in constant fear that someone will come to my door and see the mess and clutter. I vowed to do something about it. I was a girl on a mission. I had all these fabulous ideas in my head and I was going to tackle that entryway.

Yeah. About that.

A lack of money, procrastination, and other life obligations kinda got in the way of that.

I did pick up some scrapbook paper and Mod Podge to spruce up the shoe thingie. The actual Mod Podging has not commenced however.

The dog crate problem was partially solved, at least in my head anyway, when I found this article on how to hide a dog crate. Amazing what searching Google for "how to hide a dog crate" will find you. The remaining problem is for me to A) get the table, and B) figure out how to keep the dogs from being able to reach the fabric. They kinda like to pull any fabric they can snag with their claws into their crate and shred it. This might not work well if I have something pretty sitting on top of the table. So there is some sort of crate retrofit in order if this is going to work. Once again it just takes money.

The one issue I did manage to solve was what to do with all the hats, gloves, etc. that were overflowing in a too small plastic tote on top of the shoe thing.

Yes, my friends, that is an over the door shoe rack holding all the hats, gloves, and scarves. It is not, but is remarkably similar to, the over the door shoe rack some of you might remember me ranting about way back in December of 2008. Now just so you know, THAT shoe rack was given to me in December of 2005 and even though I had no use for it, I held on to it (because it was a gift and hoping I'd find something I could use it for). I finally gave up and put it in a garage sale this past January so I would have less to move to Michigan, and now, just as I lamented about in this post, as soon as I got rid of it, I needed it. Grr.

This past weekend I went to the store and spent $12.99 on this over the door shoe rack. I came home and put it on the door. I put all the hats and what not in it. I proudly showed the hubby what I had done.

Hubby: "What is that?"
Me: "That would be my mad home organizational skillz"
Hubby: "And what EXACTLY did you USE to achieve this organization?"
Me: "an over the door shoe rack?"
Hubby: "A what???"
Me: "An over the door shoe rack"
Hubby: "You'd better not let your mom see that"
Me: "I know"

Homemade Christmas

2010-11-07T20:25:00.000-05:00

As I've been exercising my creative muscles this past month, the kids have wanted to play too. Every time I pull out the craft supplies, they are right there saying "Can I make something?". That gave me an idea. They are old enough now, 14, 12, and 9 to really start thinking about Christmas in terms of giving rather than receiving. So I told them that this year, I want them to make presents for each other, grandmas, and mom and dad. I gave them a week to plan what they want to make and took them shopping at the craft store this weekend. They came up with some really good ideas. It will be interesting to see how they turn out. I won't post any pics until the gifts are given, but look for them in a future post.

Bunch of Ingrates

2010-11-06T20:29:00.000-04:00

Again I found inspiration over at Tip Junkie.

A few days ago Laurie posted 20 Thanksgiving Crafts To Make. I loved the concept behind crafts 1 - 4, to decorate for Thanksgiving with something that would cause the kids, and the hubby and I, to think about what we are grateful for. Sometimes I think we all get so caught up wanting things we don't have (and don't need) that we forget to take stock of our blessings.

A trip to JoAnn's last night and a trip to the Salvation Army store this morning
yielded the items needed to make my board.

I worked on it for hours. Mostly because the chipboard letters were on the smallish
side and I wanted to Mod Podge them with fall scrapbook paper.
Tracing and cutting out all the letters took forever.

I finally finished it and invited the kids to come write what they were thankful for.

Tiffany is thankful for her family, shelter, and bananas.

Kimberly is thankful for mommy and daddy's love & yummy muffins.

Aimee is thankful for all the wonderful people that I love and all the love we share.

They drew some interesting pictures too.

After I took this picture the hubby came over and added that he was thankful for whoopie cushions and added to the art fest with a drawing of a dude wearing sunglasses.

I think they are missing the point.

Or they are mocking me.

Either way I'm really proud of my board.

Halloween Craftiness

2010-10-31T13:33:00.000-04:00

Today is Halloween and this past week I had the chance to use my creativity to make some treats for Tiffany's classroom and decorations for my front porch.

I was so excited that Tiffany's class was having a Halloween party, she was getting to wear her costume at school, and the whole school was having a costume parade. After living in Arizona for the last six years, where every holiday was either completely ignored by the school (like Halloween) or rendered completely non offensive (like the winter party and winter concert that didn't have any holiday songs or references to the fact that anybody might celebrate anything in the upcoming weeks of December), it was nice to be in a place where the kids can just have fun being kids and enjoy dressing up and eating candy. I decided that to celebrate, I needed to make awesome treats for her class party. The fact that I could make awesome treats was special too. Arizona only allowed store bought treats to be brought to school, BOO. I decided I really wanted to learn to play with chocolate, so I went to Michael's, bought candy melts, sticks, sprinkles, and lollipop bags, then hit up the store for some marshmallows, and made these.

They came out great. I was a little surprised by the thickness of the candy melts. I had envisioned drizzling the orange across the white, but there was no drizzling going on. I took a break and Google'd chocolate covered marshmallows and Wilton candy melts and found that most people recommended a dip and spin along the edge of the bowl to remove the excess technique. Realizing that drizzling wasn't going to be an option, I gave up trying that and just did some white with sprinkles, some orange with sprinkles, and some white and then dipped partially in orange. They came out amazing and her class loved them.

Then, while surfing in blog land last week I came across a super easy craft using milk jugs, and I forgot where I found it, so unfortunately can't link to it, but since that person mentioned seeing the craft on Family Fun, I know it's not an original. The whole craft only cost me 29 cents since I had the rest of the materials already in my stash and only had to buy one piece of green felt.. I used 3 milk jugs, one strand of orange lights, three pipe cleaners, a sharpie marker, and one piece of green felt, and this is what I came up with.

Pretty cute huh?

Tiffany made the albino spider while I was busy making these

so he needed to be in the picture too.

Have a Happy Halloween!!

Not A Prude

2010-10-28T22:51:00.000-04:00

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm not a prude.

I know how to have a good time, but this....

SERIOUSLY.DISTURBS.ME.

Those are not the costumes I was considering for myself this year.

Those are the TWEEN costumes my TWELVE YEAR OLD had to choose from this year.

Really??? Thank you so much for including those SEE THROUGH TIGHTS with that ADULT costume that isn't more than a freaking TUBE TOP!! That so makes this more appropriate for my child that is just barely beginning to notice boys. Way to tell her that slutting it up is the way to get their attention.

OH. And they wanted $35 - $40 for that crap!

Break my wallet and turn my kid into a hooker at the same time.

I refused. We ended up with this, a Geisha costume.

CRAP!

My twelve year old is dressing as a hooker for Halloween!

OH WELL, at least she's going to be a COVERED UP hooker.

(yes, I know, Geisha weren't really hookers, the Orian were the hookers)

Oh yeah, and this covered up costume... $14.99.

Sweet!

But next year, I'm boycotting store bought costumes.

Like it or not, my kids and I will all be dressing like this next Halloween.

I'm just disappointed that I didn't find all these great homemade costume ideas from

Disney's Family Fun until after I had wasted two days driving all over town

trying to find prude costumes for my kids.

Giving credit where credit is due

2010-10-27T05:42:00.003-04:00

After writing yesterday's post, I realized that I may have exaggerated ever so slightly about the fact that my husband claims he can build stuff and yet has only ever built me a mantel. The mantel was part of a complete living room remodel. I've got some pictures, but you're going to have to use your imagination for some of this story. Unfortunately I wasn't so good about capturing this whole process on film.

This is what we started with. A cute little house that we rented for three years before we purchased. See those two floor to ceiling windows in the front. Yeah, I hated them. My couch backed up to them so I could never open the blinds without showing the neighborhood the back of my couch. Plus they were drafty. For three years I said, "If this were my house, I'd take those windows out and put in one (dual paned) window that doesn't go all the way to the floor"

Three days after we closed escrow on the house, the neighbors were invited over, beer was purchased and within a few hours those windows were gone, and in their place was a beautiful eight foot wide by four foot high dual paned window set inside brand new framing.

Now we needed to put up new drywall, texture, and paint,

but we couldn't do that to just this wall,

it wouldn't match with all the others in the room if we did.

The entire room and adjoining hallway were re-textured and painted.

By my hubby.

We said goodbye to the 1970's style popcorn ceiling too, courtesy of my hubby.

Then he brought the room into a more modern age by installing recessed lighting,

a ceiling fan, and crown moulding. You can kinda see part of the fan and one

recessed light in the picture above.

He had never done stucco before, so he called a friend that had, and the outside got finished too.

Here's a picture I took before the final color coat of stucco went on.

Somehow I never got a picture of the end result.

I found this picture from the following Halloween where you can see just a smidge of

the decorative moulding and ledge that the hubby built around the new window.

Then there was that mantel that I referred to yesterday.

Here is it's before picture.

This was the crappiest mantel ever, and another thing that I had said for three years

I would fix if it were my house. It was made out of 4 x 4's for the pieces that surround the

brick and then sitting on top of that were two warped 1 x 4's. Anything I tried to set on top

would tip over either because of the warped condition of the boards or the gap between

them that ran the length of the mantel.

Utterly useless.

I personally got to use a sledgehammer and a crowbar to remove this.

Oh my was that fun.

I sketched out what I wanted the mantel to look like and my hubby built it for me.

It was perfect and looked just like my sketch.

Do you think I got a picture of it?

Sort of?

Here is a picture from the following Christmas. You can see a corner of it.

The last step in the remodel was ripping out the old grey carpet and installing laminate

flooring in the whole house. As soon as the hubby did that, we decided to sell the house

and move to Arizona. I never got any pictures of the laminate floors.

Thinking about all this reminds me of how much more fun it is to live in an old house.

I like to build stuff.

And break stuff with sledgehammers.

I need another old house.

And some wood.

And a new saw for the hubby.

Squirrel

2010-10-26T10:36:00.000-04:00

Maybe it's the changing of the leaves, or the fact that I can tell that each day has less daylight than the one before, but I've never been so aware that winter was coming. Our work pretty much comes to a dead stop in winter. This is the time of year I need to prepare for several lean months. I stock the freezer. I try to put aside enough money in the bank to pay the bills for at least three months. I don't spend money on anything that isn't a necessity. I feel a bit like a squirrel trying to hoard nuts.

Now it just figures that this would be the time I would be inspired to create things too. While everything is dying around me, I want to make things. I want to pretty up my foyer, I want to re-finish my dining room table, I want to build stuff. Oh my goodness how I want to build stuff. Yesterday Jen over at Let's Make It Ours wrote this about how she needs to learn how to use power tools so that she could build all these awesome creations byAna at Ana-White.com. Now I want to learn how to use power tools too!

It seems like Ana and I have a lot of the same taste in furniture. The expensive Pottery Barn type stuff that I have lusted after for years but would never buy, because I just can't justify spending $600 - $1000 on a cabinet to collect all the crap in my entry way. But I want it, oh how I want it. I've even spent hours looking online for something similarly awesome without the Pottery Barn price tag. No luck. Until yesterday.

See there's Ana with the cabinet I've been lusting after for years, that she MADE herself, and tells me and YOU how to make here. So I'm all gung ho to go buy some wood and start making a cabinet, but crap, just like Jen, I need to learn to use power tools, oh and theres that little thing about not spending any money that isn't absolutely necessary. I do, however, have a husband that is pretty handy and knows how to build stuff. That's what he tells me anyway. We've been married for fifteen years and I can't tell you how many times I've looked at a table or bookshelf that I've wanted and he's told me he could build it cheaper. Except he never does and I end up buying some POS bookshelf made out of particle board at Walmart. Well he did build me a new mantel once, and it was awesome, but that's it.

So today I called him out on it. I said, "For fifteen years you've told me you can build stuff and I've been dreaming of a cabinet like this for almost that long. You MUST build me this cabinet. Oh, and teach me how to use the power tools because there's about 15 more things on Ana's site that I want to build too."

He smiled at me (because I'm so adorable when I'm being demanding), then he told me that he didn't think that saws and I were a good combination. Remember last week when I told you about the ladder rule. Yeah, that totally extends to anything I could maim myself with. He may have said something to the effect of "I've seen you walk". So what if I trip over air, I insisted that if he taught me how to use the the power tools properly I could be safe and retain all my appendages. Finally, he relented and told me he would help me build my cabinet.. Only, in order to do this, he'd need a new saw since his was stolen years ago.

So I can start building stuff as soon as I can find extra money to buy wood and a new saw.

head.desk

When a piece is missing

2010-10-24T19:33:00.000-04:00

My hubby just returned from a two week trip. Originally he was only going to be gone for one. I spent the first week being rather productive. I did some blogging. A quiet house is so conducive to blogging. Plus I gave myself a project to complete so I wouldn't have time to be miserable. My project, finish unpacking the boxes in my room. Yeah, I know, we've been in this house since July, but since the hubby and I are the only ones to ever see my room, it's always the last to be cleaned, unpacked, etc. This time however it's taken even longer than usual. The first day I tried to tackle my room I discovered the problem. The closet was all jacked up. There were boxes shoved in it and the clothes were all mixed up, shirts, pants, hubby's stuff, my stuff. I had to clean out and organize the closet before I could do the room. By the end of the week it was done. The room was beautiful and ready for my hubby to be home to enjoy it.

The weekend approached and I was giddy with anticipation, but then he called and asked me if I thought he should stay another week. I wanted nothing in the world more than to have him home, but if he stayed, there would be work. Work would mean a paycheck we wouldn't have otherwise. Paychecks mean we can eat and pay bills and stupid stuff like that. He wanted to come home too. He hates Los Angeles, with it's smog, traffic, and rude people. We both decided to do the smart thing and have him stay another week. To say it was a painful decision would be an understatement. This is when I started crumbling.
That second week he was gone he missed so much.

Our oldest went to Homecoming and he wasn't here too see how beautiful she was.

We had some rain and wind which made our scarecrows fall down.
I didn't have the requisite muscles to make them stand up again.

So they stayed like this, looking like zombie scarecrows.

I think the worst though was missing his birthday. Other than a Facebook wall filled with birthday wishes, his special day passed like any other. He got up, went to work, and returned to his brother's house to sleep on an air mattress. Happy Birthday indeed. So I was determined to do something special for him in honor of his birthday upon his return. I decided I needed to bake him a cake. There's just one small problem. His favorite cake, German Chocolate, and I'm allergic to coconut. As much as it's his day and all, this is cake we are talking about. I can't make it and then not be able to eat it. He got birthday cupcakes instead. Half had German Chocolate frosting and half had Cream Cheese frosting. Compromise people. It's all about the compromise.

Today he got up and made the scarecrows upright again.

Just when I had gotten used to having zombie scarecrows.

My Singing Dryer

2010-10-18T12:43:00.000-04:00

When we moved to Michigan we brought all of our appliances. Our side by side fridge that's been with us for 7 years and 3 states and has only needed to be fixed once, then our freezer that we bought about 4 years ago in Arizona which of course decided to stop working when we got here, and our washer and electric dryer. Of course the new house has a gas hook up for the dryer. Don't get me wrong. I'm really happy that it has a gas hook up. I much prefer a gas dryer to an electric one. (I prefer gas stoves too, but couldn't get that lucky apparently.) So of course I had to go out and buy a new one, and when I got to the store I kept being drawn to this one.

It was on sale even. $669 the plain old style one was like $500. I wanted it. So I took this picture, sent it to the hubby and said "Can I? Please????". While I waited for his response, I tracked down a sales person and pumped her for information. I need the stats. Tell me why, other than the fact that it's all new fangled looking, I should get this one over the old school one. Please tell me how to convince my husband that we need to have THIS one and not any other one. Well for starters she told me, it's even cheaper than $669. She pulls out her calculator and after making some calculations tells me that it will in fact be only $600 at the register. Well, that's awesome, what else. So she goes on to tell me that it is more energy efficient, and that it's smart, like it will stop when it senses the clothes are dry, or will keep going even when the time has run out if the clothes are still wet. And, if you don't come unload it right away, it will intermittently tumble the clothes to keep them from getting all wrinkly. Now I REALLY REALLY want it, and am prepared to beg, when the hubby texts back and says "If that's the one you want.". Well that was easy.

A few days later it was delivered, and a few days after that the hubby finally got it hooked up. By then there was a mountain of laundry that needed to be done. When we dried our first load in it we discovered it sings!. It wasn't cool enough with it's energy efficiency and what not, they had to make it even cooler, every little thing that it does is accompanied by a charming little tune. Turn it on, you get a tune. Select a cycle, you get a tune. When it's done, no annoying buzzer here, you get a jaunty tune. If you don't come unload it right away, not only is it intermittently tumbling the clothes to keep them from getting wrinkly, but it reminds you that it is still not unloaded with a little tune. Of course I love it.

Except for today when I discovered that the sensor thingie doesn't work too well when there is just one comforter in there. It keeps playing it's little tune and each time I go to unload it, the comforter is NOT DRY. I wouldn't call it wet, but it's damp for sure. I'm sure there is probably some fix for this, some kind of just one comforter setting on the thing. It's so smart otherwise, I can't imagine it being dumb about drying comforters. It's probably operator error. I should probably read the manual. Except I don't know where it is.

Someday I'll get my freezer fixed too, but it's been on hold since I blew my extra money on the singing dryer.

This is so cool

2010-10-14T20:43:00.000-04:00

Some of you may have witnessed this phenomenon before,

but this is my first time.

I'm awestruck by the variety of colors.

I expected the yellows and oranges, but was taken completely by surprise

by the fiery reds, the pinks, and even purples.

Just beautiful

Sorry If This Makes You Dizzy

2010-10-12T19:22:00.000-04:00

I apologize in advance if this post makes your head spin. My train of thought sometimes derails, takes side trips, and switches tracks before arriving at a station which may or may not be the intended destination. Hopefully you can make it to the end, but if not, I hope you find something awesome when your train of thought jumps tracks.

As those of you who regularly read my blog are painfully aware,

I have not been blogging regularly in quite some time.

This post isn't about excuses BTW.

You all know why it's a miracle that I blog AT ALL.

The thing is though, that when I'm not blogging, I'm also not reading blogs.

I'm not checking in to see what everyone else that I follow is posting.

I'm not getting inspired to write more or do crafty things that I see on some of my favorite blogs.

And I need that. I get so caught up sometimes in my ridiculously busy schedule that I put myself at the bottom of my list. At the end of the day, there isn't any time left for me, what I like to do, the things that make me happy.

So the past week, while I've been checking in and blogging, I've also been catching up with some of my favorite blogs and finding new ones that are absolutely amazing.

Ready? Here comes the part that's going to make you dizzy.

This is what I did yesterday. All day, while the kids were at school.

I was checking out the blogs I follow and I saw a post on Tip Junkie about a Coffee Table repair. Now I don't have a coffee table in need of repair, but the info might come in handy some day. Like if I saw a totally awesome coffee table on the side of the road for free because it needed repair. If that ever happened I would totally know what to do, so I hop over there to read it. Down at the bottom of the page there were some links to more articles on Second Hand Furniture Repair, and the one about file cabinet makeovers caught my eye. I actually just found the mother load of old file cabinets at the Habitat For Humanity Restore, and since I need more file cabinets, both at home and at my new office (yeah, the business now has a real office, more about that later), I really needed to know how to make file cabinets pretty, because sitting in an office with a bunch of banged up, dull gray file cabinets staring at me all day is surely a one way ticket to loony town.

I look at each makeover one by one and when I get to number six it takes me to this makeover by Sew Woodsy, she used Mod Podge to do hers and mentions Mod Podge Rocks and when you follow the link it takes you to a post about the filing cabinet makeover featured on Tip Junkie #3.

We've kinda gone full circle here.

Dizzy yet?
Computer freaking out because you have 10 tabs open?
You might want to close a few. We aren't done yet.

Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, Mod Podge. So at this point I'm like "Whaa? There's a WHOLE blog dedicated to Mod Podge??? Really?? That's so Awesome!! I love me some Mod Podge". So I start poking around over there and get lost in ideas. She doesn't just have stuff about crafting and Mod Podge either, she has stuff about FOOD. Sweet food. Cake type food. My favorite kind of food. She's even doing a giveaway of the book Cake Pops by Bakerella. Which, if you hurry right over there before midnight EST you can totally still enter BTW, and no, writing a post about hers isn't required for entry, all you have to do is leave a comment. So of course I had to go check out Bakerella, and from there I found Cakespy, with not only recipes for yummy goodness but also the most adorable artwork featuring cupcakes. OMG. Yeah, and I'm so totally ordering THESE for my Christmas cards this year from her site.

Need a bucket yet?

Anyway.
After going off on that little side trip I went back to Mod Podge Rocks and finished exploring. I came across this Fall Canvas Craft Tutorial from My Blessed Life and after cruising her site for awhile came across her foyer makeover which is something else I really do need. Right now, this is what you see when you walk in my front door.

Hello doggie jail.
Hello Kibbles and Bits that the doggies spill out of their bowl onto the floor.

And then, if you turn to your right, you'll see this...

That would be the dreaded Flat Surface that collects crap, on the top of an attempt at shoe organization, next to a yet to be hung piece of art. In fact it's a framed collection of Picasso sketches I picked up at IKEA. Oh how I love that store. I have wanted these sketches forever, but they've always been out of my budget. This piece was a bargain at only $50 for the 5 sketches mounted and framed. The cheapest I have ever seen them was $10 each and that was unframed.

Here is a closer picture, except I accidentally cut off the owl. Ooops.

If you turn again you will see the front of the shoe organizer/junk collecting flat surface

Yuck. Isn't it.

First we've got the prison gray walls that I can't do much about since
A) This is a rental
B) Hubby hates painting
C) this particular area has cathedral ceilings which would require a really big ladder
(that we don't have) to reach the top of if I were to do it myself and finally
D) Hubby doesn't allow me to get on ladders.
Now before any of you go getting all feminist rights and
"OMG, he doesn't "ALLOW" her on a ladder",
just know it's for my own safety, I'm ok with it.
Those who know me in real life are busting up right now.
I trip over air.
I have no business being on a ladder.

Second, my shoe organizer. Made by Closet Maid, purchased at Target.
Now sure I would have loved to have a real piece of furniture to store the shoes in my entry way,
but that wasn't in my budget either and the shoes were out of control.

Third, the flat surface. Somewhere under that pile is a plastic storage tote that houses all the gloves and hats, but it's been buried under sweatshirts, shin guards,
and Halloween decorations that fell off our front windows.

Last, the dog kennel completes the stark jail house theme that's going on
and sweeping up Kibbles and Bits everyday is getting OLD.

Now I'm on a mission.

I can't do anything with the gray background,
but that doesn't mean I can't liven it up with colorful accent pieces.
That shoe organizer. It's going to get a Mod Podge makeover.
The flat surface is going to get accessorized to deter the flat surface dump.
Something better than a plastic storage tote is going to be devised for the hats and gloves.
The walls need stuff, but maybe not the Picasso piece.
It may be a little monochromatic for the space I now have pictured.
Maybe it should go over the door?
The dog kennel is going to be modified somehow to both make it pretty,
and keep the Kibbles and Bits inside.

Of course, I don't have any of the stuff I need for this project yet,
so it's time to start hitting up garage sales and thrift stores.

I'll keep you posted.

Fall

2010-10-11T09:24:00.000-04:00

The kids started school a month ago. New schools in a new town. Great schools. Schools that my kids love. This was one of my biggest fears. We'd move all this way and the kids would hate it. But they don't. They like it here, they really do. Not that they don't miss their friends in Arizona, but they aren't miserable every day, pining over what was left behind. Instead they are tackling each day with a smile on their face, looking forward to all the new and different things they can do here.

Aimee joined the swim team and started the year with a bunch of new friends. Kimberly is going to a real middle school, with lockers, changing classes, electives, and even having to dress for PE. Most of the kids Tiffany already knew from the neighborhood are in her class, plus she met some new ones.

Fall in Michigan has brought trees changing colors, and leaves to rake.

Surprisingly Kimberly LOVES yard work.

Give the kid a rake and she's in seventh heaven.

I hope the novelty doesn't wear off.

This is only the first tree to change.

The kids made scarecrows at our town's Harvest Festival

and decorated our yard with them.

A few nights ago, we got BOO'd.

The doorbell rang, and when we answered the door,

we found this adorable little guy attached to a bag of candy.

The instructions say:

1. Eat the CANDY!!!!

2. Make a copy of this picture to boo another neighbor

3. Leave a bag of candy and the copied piece of paper at their doorstep.

Remember to be sneaky.

4. Put the picture of the ghost in your window so everyone can see.

The kids thought this was the coolest thing ever.

I just hope that everyone enjoys winter just as much.

Summertime and Slimy Things

2010-10-10T09:44:00.001-04:00

When we first arrived in Michigan this past June,

we stayed with our friend Alex.

Alex has fourteen acres of property.

And one pond.

In that pond were many different forms of life.

Algae, fish, leaches (eww),

and these...

That's a tadpole.

In a jar.

And here he is, swimming up to say hi.

We didn't let the kids keep the tadpoles in jars for very long.

They could look at them for an hour or so

and then had to return them to the pond.

Before long,

they weren't bringing tadpoles up to the house in jars any more.

They were bringing FROGS.

Big frogs.

No jars.

These were returned to the pond much more promptly.

Science Experiment Gone Wrong

2010-10-09T09:22:00.001-04:00

I believe that it's good for kids to learn things by doing them,

rather than reading about them in a book.

So when Kimberly brought home a science project where she was supposed to grow a plant,

I should have been excited right?

Yeah. Not so much.

Not because it's not a cool idea.

In concept.

It's the fact that I have a habit of killing anything that uses photosynthesis

that I have ever tried to cultivate indoors.

I only have about a 50% success rate with things I try to grow outdoors.

Asking me to keep a plant alive in my house is akin to asking an alligator to babysit a chicken.

It's just not going to end well.

My daughter's grade depends on me not killing this plant.

It's not fair. To her mostly. But also to me.

You don't know what kind of stress I've been under because of this.

To make matters worse. It wasn't just one plant to keep alive.

It was two.

She was supposed to start the two of them growing,

then do something to one of them, to see how it changed how the plant grew.

The caveat being, whatever she did was supposed to be something that might naturally occur in nature.

So Kimberly went out in the yard, dug up some worms, and put them in with plant A.

That little thing there at the bottom. A clipping of a plant that grows in our front yard.

Not the bean plant she is supposed to be growing. Not worms.

She's good at following directions. Can you tell?

This is plant B. No Worms.

So everything was going just fine. Both plants were growing.

Plant A seemed to be growing slightly faster than Plant B, but nothing drastic.

I was actually beginning to wonder if the worms were going to make a significant enough

difference to count as a valid experiment.

They were getting equal amounts of sun sitting in my kitchen window.

Overlooking my sink.

The very sink where I was standing a few nights ago,

trying to drain the grease off the meatloaf I made for dinner,

without dumping the meatloaf in the sink.

While running VERY hot water so the grease wouldn't clog my pipes.

When I lost the grip on the loaf pan, the hot glass burning my hand.

When I jerked my hand away from the burning, I knocked Plant B into the sink.

Into the grease.

Into the hot water.

Somehow, miraculously, none of the potting material ended up in the meatloaf.

I scooped it up and placed it all back in it's cup.

Placed the cup back in the windowsill.

The next morning, Plant B looked like this.

Ooops.

Apparently meatloaf grease and scalding hot water aren't conducive to the growing process.

Who knew?

Also, I probably just earned my daughter an F on her experiment, because I'm pretty sure getting doused with meatloaf grease and scalding hot water are not something that would occur in nature.

On the bright side. I didn't completely kill it.

Those are new leaves growing there at the top.

Road Trip Part 2

2010-10-08T09:49:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's pictures were the ones I had taken of our road trip to Michigan. There is another side to the story though. We also gave a camera to the kids to document the trip. Here are some of the highlights according to them.

We stopped at Mc Donald's every morning.

See.

Because we had to have these.

Well Jay didn't, because he doesn't like coffee, he had a stash of Red Bull in the cooler in the back of the Suburban, but the rest of us wanted our caffeine in an ice blended caramel and whip cream topped form.

The dogs spent each day laying on the seat in between Kimberly and Tiffany. They falsely believed that the girls' Snuggies were for them and there were quite a few child vs. dog fights while they tried to work this out.

I don't remember seeing this, but the kids found a tire graveyard somewhere along the way.

Midway through Day 2, the Snuggie became a makeshift wall. Kimberly was fed up with being stuck in a car all day with everyone.

Aimee passed the time waving at all the big rig drivers we passed and seeing if they would wave back. There are quite a few pictures like this one of one of the other kids trying to document this process. What we ended up with was a lot of pictures of tractors where you can't make out the driver, let alone if he's waving or not.

No road trip would be complete without a truck with an eagle/flag mural on it's back windows.

And finally, Welcome to PURE Michigan, not just Michigan, but PURE Michigan.

Notice in the lower right hand corner.

That's me, rubbing my temples.

Road Trips and New Places

2010-10-07T09:12:00.007-04:00

It seems like just yesterday we were preparing to move to Michigan and had the whole summer ahead of us. Now I find that it's suddenly fall and I haven't blogged in months. Of course we've been busy living life during that time, but I felt I should at least give you the highlights in pictures.

We drove across country from Arizona to Michigan at the beginning of June. We being me, my husband, our three daughters, three dogs, and two cats. Originally we planned to make the trip in four days. Driving with that many beings in a vehicle was so much fun (insert sarcasm here), that we decided to drive a little longer (like 6 hours a day) after the first day, so that we could get to Michigan in only three days. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Have you ever heard that things are bigger in Texas? Well if this cow (bull?) is any indication, that might be true. He was however a little camera shy and started walking the other way when I tried to get his picture.

Sticking with the big in Texas theme, this cross was huge.

Then of course there are your oddities on the road. I think this guy needs a few more bumper stickers. What do you think? He's got a little patch of window there on the right he still may be able to see out of.

Texas doesn't have a monopoly on big things though. The world's largest rocking chair is in Missouri.

Nice custom tail lights.

St Louis Arch. We didn't stop.

By the time we got to Illinois and came across another giant cross, I was beginning to think that Texas didn't have a lock on all things large.

And Finally, we made it to Michigan.

Let's Be Friends

2010-07-27T08:46:00.003-04:00

Nine year olds are mean. This is not something I just realized, but something that I am reminded of again now that we finally moved into our own house in Michigan.

We got here about two months ago and for the first month were staying at our business partner's house. He had 14 acres of property so there weren't exactly kids right next door to play with. The kids amused themselves catching frogs in the pond and things were peaceful. With the kids anyway. My husband and our business partner bickered like a married couple. They are good friends, but being that close was straining the friendship. It didn't help that our business partner had a new girlfriend that was moving in around the same time and felt like we were infringing on her turf. We had to find our own place and get out. We'd been looking and looking at houses and a lot of what we looked at was smaller than we were used to. In Arizona nothing is older than 10 years. In Michigan there are 200 year old houses everywhere. I love old houses and the charm and character they possess, but 200 years ago people didn't have ginormous sectional couches or mansion sized California King bedroom sets. Apparently they didn't have enough clothes to warrant a closet in every bedroom either. If you can call an 8x8 space a bedroom. Most of what we looked at would require us to buy all new furniture. So when we found a place to rent that was newer construction, enough square feet for us, and in a neighborhood with excellent schools, we jumped on it. Even though the previous tenants had changed the locks so the property manager couldn't let us in to see the inside. Yup, that's right, we signed a one year lease on a house we hadn't even seen the inside of. Crazy, I know, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The gamble paid off though, because the house is really nice. All our furniture fits. There are a few quirky things I don't like, but they are minor, I can live with them. The timing was perfect. The day we signed our lease was the last day of AYSO soccer sign ups for the area. We were able to get Tiffany signed up for soccer, which made her very happy. Even though the registration deadline had passed for summer school, since it hadn't started yet, and they still had space in the class, I was able to get Aimee signed up to take the first half of the World History class they take here in 9th grade, but Arizona doesn't take until 10th. So she will only have to use one of her electives to make up the other half this year.

Once we started moving in we learned that there were a ton of kids in the neighborhood our kids ages. On one side of us, a girl Aimee's age with a couple of younger brothers Kimberly and Tiff's ages. On the other side, they have a boy Aimee's age, and a girl Tiffany's age. The next house down from them another girl Aimee's age, one a year older than Kimberly, and a boy or two around Tiff's age. There are a ton more, but I'm not sure exactly where they originate in the neighborhood.

The thing is, the nine year old next door, and her other friends from the neighborhood have all been friends since infancy. They've lived in this neighborhood their entire lives and their moms were all pregnant at the same time. That would be a hard group to break into at any age, but there's something about 9 year olds. They aren't "little" kids any more. This year in 4th grade, school will get harder for them as their teachers try to prepare them for middle school. This is the age that cliques start to form and you aren't automatically friends just because you are the same age. Nine year olds are starting to develop a sense of themselves as individuals, and their self esteem is largely based on how much "cooler" they think they are than their peers. They aren't afraid to cut down their friends to make themselves feel superior.

It breaks my heart when Tiff comes home crying because they were mean to her. They let her play and then they ditch her. Or she asks if she can join and they refuse her. I can't go complain to the other parents, because Tiff isn't going to gain any respect with these kids by having a mom that tattles on them. All I can do is try to teach Tiffany that she doesn't have to put up with their BS. She doesn't have to play with them, just because they live in the neighborhood. Two nights ago she came in crying. The kids had ditched her and she was heartbroken. My husband came unglued and told her she couldn't play with them any more. Yesterday, the whole incident and her father's edict were forgotten, and she wanted to go play with them again.

I need a minion

2010-04-28T00:32:00.005-04:00

I've always made lists. It's a coping mechanism I taught myself at an early age to deal with my ADD. Even though I didn't know that I had ADD until a few years ago, I knew I suffered from CRS (can't remember shit), so I made lists. Then in 2001 I was in a car accident that scrambled my brain a little and wiped out my short term memory, and I really needed my lists. Before the days of Blackberrys I had a day planner. I'd write down all my appointments and refer to it daily. It had a leather cover and I lovingly called it my Bible. If it were not for that day planner, I probably wouldn't have made it through college. Whenever I had something particularly important to remember, I would enlist the help of friends to give me a call to remind me to look at my day planner. Now I set my Blackberry to remind me. If I lost my phone I would be so dead.

We move in 32 days. I have so much to do, I have multiple lists. I made a big calendar of the six weeks leading up to the move on a poster board. I needed to be able to visually see where the openings were in my schedule with one look. There is a lot going on in the remaining 4 weeks. Forgetting the move for a moment, there is the stuff of normal life that usually keeps my days quite full. There are dentist appointments, doctor appointments, therapist appointments, orthodontist appointments. There is endless laundry to do and weeds that seem to grow back as soon as I pull them up. Then there are the things I have committed to doing such as the American Cancer Society Relay For Life, the school PTA carnival, and chaperoning my 3rd grader's school field trip. Once you add in the move, there is the trip to Disneyland with our cousins from California we are making because we don't know when we will be anywhere near California again, a going away party, and garage sales that need done. The car needs new tires, an oil change, and hopefully a DVD player installed. Have you noticed that I haven't even mentioned packing yet? Somehow I have to fit that in between all that other stuff. And I do mean "I", as in there is only one open weekend left on my big calendar and the hubby might show up at home a week before the move and the kids are in school all day every other day. Oh, and just for the record, we still haven't found a house in Michigan.

So I have lists.

A list of things we need to get/take to the Relay For Life

A list of things that need done to the car to make it roadworthy

A list of things we need to pack for Disneyland

A list of things I need to make sure don't get packed and go with me on the road trip to Michigan

A list of things I need to fix so I get my deposit back

A list of things we may need before we have a new home and therefore need to be on the ass end of the moving truck in case we need to access them while it's in storage

A list of what is not getting moved and getting sold in a garage sale

A list of the hotels we are staying on our road trip along with the touristy stops we are making along the way

Each day I make a to do list for that day. Each day I feel that things get added to my list faster than I can check them off. I need a minion to help me get this all done.

Faith Part 2

2010-04-19T00:25:00.003-04:00

Once again I find myself needing to let go of worry and have faith that everything will work out in it's own time. I've been very stressed lately. The much anticipated move to Michigan is rapidly approaching. The moving truck comes in 42 days. In 43 days I set out on a cross country adventure with three kids as well as dogs and cats in tow. The insanity that is trying to drive small humans and pets cross country is going to be lessened by the fact that we are taking a little longer route so we can visit friends all across the country along the way.

Little by little things are coming together. I've got movers booked. I've got friends that volunteered to help. I've planned the road trip and know everywhere we are going to stay along the way. I'm making appointments to get new tires on the car and a DVD player installed for the trip. The last remaining detail is where the movers will be delivering our belongings and where exactly the endpoint of our cross country journey will be. The huge boulder in this path is that we are looking for a house to rent in a small town where there are precious few rentals.

So here is the part where I need to have faith. I went out there in March and the hubby and I looked at a lot of houses in a lot of towns much like the town we live in now, a suburb with mostly tract homes. What we decided is what we really wanted was a house like the one where we were staying. A house on a large lot (13 acres) in a small town. We want to give our kids room to roam and the ability to have things they've never had, like the ability to have big dogs and Kimberly wants to raise chickens. We can't do that in a tract home in the suburbs. We want our kids to have the experience of living out in the country in a small town with small schools where the teachers have the opportunity to build a relationship with each student. We decided which small town had all the things we wanted.

For the last month we have looked and looked in this town for a house for us. So far it isn't there. I'm getting worried. I'm losing sleep. So now it's time to let go and let the solution work itself out. Our perfect house is there somewhere. The one with the porch I can put a rocking chair on and the pond that the hubby can stock with fish. The one where Kimberly can have her chickens and I can plant a garden. It will have a big laundry room where I can sort and fold all the clothes without bumping into things. It will have all the room we need for our family and our enormous home office. It will have room for the piano the kids want me to get so they can take lessons. I know it is there and I just have to have faith that it will find us.

Clearing out the clutter

2010-01-15T09:48:00.002-05:00

In my ongoing project of cleaning out the clutter in my life, I cleaned out the list of 60 something blogs I was following and trimmed it down to less than 30. I pretty much went down the list and if there was anyone I couldn't identify by their blog title, I figured that meant that I wasn't reading them enough so they were out. I started following a bunch of people last year during the SITS spring fling and while I had all the good intentions of keeping up with them, it just didn't happen. The list in my reader was so long, it took me a long time to go through and find the blogs I wanted to read. I was also following one blog about coupons and while I love me some coupons, she posted like 10 times a day so it was taking over and pushing everyone else far down the list. I think that this also might have something to do with the reason why I've avoided opening Blogger in the last few months, so I felt it was time for a change. If any of you that were cut are actual readers of my blog, please let me know. I'm all about support, so I'll be happy to follow you back.

Today I've got a lot of work to do and when that is finished I have hopes to get my Christmas tree taken down and work on cleaning up my house. My hubby has been in Hawaii all week visiting his parents and comes home Monday. I'd like to surprise him with a clean, Christmas tree free house when he returns.

My people

2010-01-14T22:29:00.003-05:00

Ever watched the show Hoarders and thought OMG, how do those people live like that? Or OMG that's so gross? I watch that show and think OMG I'm one major traumatic life event from being like that. Now don't get me wrong, my house is no where near what's on that show. I'm in no danger of being evicted or losing my kids, I don't have vermin, and there aren't piles of stuff as tall as me in my house. In my garage it's another story. I mainly have a clutter and organization problem, but I do have an unhealthy attachment to stuff.

I once had a therapist tell me that clutter in your home is an outward expression of clutter in your mind. I can see that. I know that both stress me out. I'd love to live in a home where everything was tidy and just so, where there was a place for everything and everything was in it's place, but I have major problems with putting things away when I'm done with them, and having more things than I have places. My garage is the catch all for this stuff.

Now I know I don't NEED all the stuff. I can tell you that there is stuff out there that has not been unpacked since we moved from California five and a half years ago, but every time I sort through the boxes I find reasons that I can't let it go. Either I'm worried that I'll need it as soon as I don't have it anymore, or I feel it's worth too much to just sell in a garage sale or give to goodwill.

With our move to Michigan just four months away, again I'm faced with thinning out my possessions to make them easier to move over 2000 miles. Last week the hubby and I went through the garage and had a garage sale. We didn't get through all the stuff in the garage, mainly because there wasn't enough room to work, but we did get through quite a bit. I managed to sort about 12 tote buckets for the garage sale and whatever was left after the sale went to goodwill. I gave one trash bag full of clothes and toys to my friend, and I have a box of stuff to put on ebay. That was supposed to be my project for this week, but I haven't gotten to it yet. Ok, so I have a procrastination problem too.

I'm totally stressing about the enormity of this move and have set a goal of sorting and getting rid of stuff every week to make it go more smoothly. So far this week, I've done zippo towards this goal. I suppose I know what I need to do this weekend.

My Name is

2010-01-14T10:21:00.006-05:00

I've been reading Mama Kat's blog for over a year now. I've had every good intention of using her writing prompts to become a more frequent inhabitant of bloggy land. Finally today I am using one of her prompts, a day late of course, shut up, I know I totally suck.

The prompt that inspired me to finally write is this:

What’s in YOUR name? What does it mean? Why was it given to you? etc..

My name is Lorna. That's LoRna by the way. I have to watch out for the Arial font because it makes my name look like Lorna. Yeah, notice how the r and the n run together to look like an m. My name is NOT Loma. Thanks. At work I have to wear a name tag. They get them engraved and they use the Arial font. I can't tell you how many name tags I have ~~thrown out the window~~ lost so I could get a new one of the temporary name tags with the labels made on the p-touch machine that are in ALL CAPS. I have explained to the management that I don't like being called Loma, and won't wear one of the engraved name tags until they make me one in all caps, or a different font or something because I don't like being called Loma all the time. Every time a new order of name tags comes in, there is a new one for me, Lorna.I give up.

Have you figured out that I'm not terribly fond of my name yet? Oh, but I'm just getting started. Let me count the ways.

Let's start with the fact that it means NOTHING. It is a made up name for a character in a book, Lorna Doone, published in 1869. Some baby name books will tell you that it is a form of Lorne, Lauren, or Laura and means laurel plant, but it's not. It's a made up name for a character in a book. In 1951 this book was made into a movie, but more about that later.

According to the Grade Your Parents app on facebook, my parents, or really just my mom, because my dad had nothing to do with it, got an A- for originality. Nineteen percent of children born that year had a rarer name than me, and my name peaked in popularity in 1942. My mother was 2 when this name was most popular.

So how did she come up with such an odd name you ask? I think the doctor slipped her something special in her epidural. Up until the point she was in labor my name was going to be Jennifer. Now, had she named me Jennifer she would have gotten an F for originality, Jennifer was one of the most popular names the year I was born. I always had several Jennifer's in each of my classes at school, and still know more Jennifer's than I can count. I'm kinda grateful that she didn't name me Jennifer. Want to see something funny, yell out "Hey Jennifer!" in a crowd of 30 something year olds and see how many turn around. Yell out Lorna in a crowd, and unless it's a bunch of 70 year olds you will probably strike out. I can count on one hand how many other Lorna's I have ever met (4), and all of them were significantly older than me.

Since my name is so unusual, most people I've met have never heard it (unless they are in their 70's). Seriously if they qualify for a senior discount, all I need to say is "like Lorna Doone" when I get that inevitable quizzical look upon introduction and they are all "OH, Ok". Everyone else, still confused. People call me Loren or Lorena a lot. I've pretty much given up and learned to answer to anything starting with L. I always have to spell my name out so it doesn't get butchered, and to make this even more fun, I married a man with a last name that requires spelling out also. Hello my name is L-O-R-N-A _-_-_-_-_. Yeah, tons of fun.

When I named my kids I took particular care to give them common enough names that people would understand them but also not so popular that they would end up being the Jennifer's of their generation. Of course this was helped by the fact that at the point I had kids, most people were going out of their way to name their kids the most unusual things they could, adding extra letters and phonetic spelling to already unusual names. Of course I hadn't given proper thought to the whole spelling out thing with my oldest when I named her Aimee, not Amy, but realized this blunder after making calls for doctor's appointments and what not. Aimee, A-I-M-E-E _-_-_-_-_. Yup, doomed my kid to a lifetime of spelling out her first and last name. At least until she gets married. At least she doesn't get called Annie or something else because they've never heard of her name. Even if they spell it Amy, at least she will be called the right thing.

I would have thought that my mom would have given this kind of thought into naming me considering the fact that she changed her own name when she moved away from home. Left her old name and identity behind and started fresh in a new city with a new name. Of course this was easier to do when you weren't required to have a birth certificate to prove you were who you said you were and when children were born at home on the farm and their birth certificate doesn't even have the right date on it because nobody got around to making the trek into town to report their arrival for days after their birth. But for whatever reason, my mom remembered a movie from when she was 12 and decided that Lorna would be the perfect name for her one and only child, I blame the drugs.

I've often tried to think of what I would change my name to if I had the opportunity to reinvent myself. If I ever went into witness protection or something, what would I want to be called, and surprisingly, as much as I HATE my name, I can't think of anything that seems to fit me better. So I guess I'm Lorna, like it or not, forever.

P.S. spell check hates my name too

Christmas 2009

2010-01-10T18:21:00.005-05:00

Remember last year when I wrote this post. Well I did. At least most of it. I forgot the part about the wine. Mostly I remembered that I could save myself a lot of money by getting the kids these

Seriously. Have you ever seen a happier child. All for a $15 backwards robe contraption.

I also enlisted the help of my oldest who no longer believes in Santa to keep the magic alive for the two younger ones. Have you heard about Zhu Zhu Pets. They are little fake hamsters that come with all the balls, cars, and tunnels to play in like the living kind without the smell and the poop. Really pretty awesome. Except everyone else thought they were awesome too and they couldn't be found anywhere. The littlest one saw me looking at them selling for over twice their retail value on eBay and said "Zhu Zhu Pets. I want those." I told her she might be waiting for awhile because mommy couldn't find them anywhere. To that she said "Santa will bring me

some, and if he doesn't, I'll know he isn't real". So when I saw that Walmart was going to be selling them, one per person, starting at 7 am a couple days before Christmas, I made the oldest get out of bed and go down there with me at 5 am to get in line. Turns out Walmart hadn't advertised this sale very well because there weren't a ton of people there. We bought our two and then rushed over to the next closest Walmart and got two more. We then ran all over town trying to find their toys. Good times. The end result was worth it though when they opened them Christmas morning.

The middle one swears that next year she will catch me putting the presents under the tree. If she only knew how close she came this year. It was after 11 and I was sure they were asleep. I brought all the gifts in and put them under the tree. I had JUST turned off the lights in the front room when she appeared at the top of the stairs rubbing her sleepy eyes. I told her she'd better get back to sleep or Santa wouldn't come. She turned around and went back in her room. If the lights had still been on she would have seen everything. I've got maybe one more year with her. She will be a good helper though once she knows. She doesn't believe in the tooth fairy anymore but has made up elaborate stories about what the teeth do in "Toothland" after the tooth fairy takes them for the youngest one. She's so believable my youngest writes notes to the tooth fairy asking if her teeth are having fun on the roller coasters they ride on Tuesdays, LOL.

I want

2010-01-10T18:07:00.002-05:00

I want my own office. I swear my next home will have one. It might be a closet, but it's going to be my little closet, soundproofed if possible. Two months ago I swore I would try to come back and blog again soon, and you know what, it didn't happen. I've got all kinds of excuses as to why it didn't happen, but mainly it's the lack of privacy. Not that I blog about anything sensational or anything, just that I need a little peace and quiet to be able to think and properly form sentences. Already in the first 5 sentences I've been interrupted. See? How am I supposed to keep a train of thought. Right now my desk is in between the kids' desk and my husband's desk. Usually he's playing music on his computer, one of the kids is playing Webkinz on their computer and the other two are fighting over the Wii in the room next door. I was an only child. Raised in a home with two people. I can't think with that many noises bombarding my brain and fighting for attention. With that said, I'm going to attempt right now to write about some of the things going on in my life until I get interrupted so many times I run away screaming.

I really shouldn't be doing this, but....

2009-11-06T10:02:00.003-05:00

Anyone remember that business that the hubby and I started last year in Michigan? I don't remember if I blogged about it, and honestly, right now, I don't have time to re-read all my old posts to see if I did. Anyway... the exciting news is all of a sudden (and I mean that in the nobody knew we existed one day and the next day our phone was ringing off the hook kinda way) we started actually conducting business. What this means is the rest of my life got turned on it's head when this new 40 hour a week job fell in my lap. You see, I am the magic behind the scenes that makes sure that people pay us, that we pay the people who are expecting money from us, and that everything is legal. I already had a pretty tightly packed schedule with the job at the restaurant, parenting three kids, and being VP of their school PTA. So some stuff, ok a lot of stuff, has been being ignored while I try to figure it all out. One of those being this blog. And really seriously, I shouldn't be here blogging right now. I should be getting my kids ready for school, but I missed you my dear readers, all 17 of you.

So for now, I have this little snippet:

Conversation I had this morning with my daughter as I was trying to wake the kids without actually going upstairs to do it.

Me (yelling, but in a cheerful morning voice) : Little people, it's time to get up, time to get out of bed

Her (in a I'm faking being offended voice) : I'm not a little person

Me : Well not in the midget kinda way, but in the you aren't a fully grown human kinda way

Her : Okay, but I'm still not little

Me : Would you rather I told you to get your BIG butt out of bed?

Her : That would be kinda funny

Have a great Friday all, and I'll try to come back soon

And in other news

2009-08-25T11:03:00.007-04:00

A couple of months ago my dog Max was finally successful in his attempts to lose his doggie virginity. After several failed attempts, he finally figured out where to put it, (not in her ear, not on her hip, not in her face), and ended up doing this....

Tiffany said they looked like Catdog. Anyone remember that show?
It was hysterical, because, she was right, they totally did.

So like a month went by and my little Roxy doggie did not seem to be making any womanly changes so I pretty much figured that Max hadn't been successful in his attempts to create an heir.

I went to Hawaii for 9 days to help my family, and when I returned, I found that my little doggie looked like this....

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what she looked like 9 days prior, well, let's just say she was about half that size.

So a little math was done with the help of that picture I took of them when they looked like Catdog, and it was determined that she would be having puppies this week.

Mind you, I never had dogs growing up, and certainly never had one have puppies so this was all new to me. Have you gotten a whelping box? Have you done this? Have you done that? Don't let her to this? Make sure she does that? OK, Ok, my head is spinning. So a week and a half ago I got busy building a whelping box. It was made out of cardboard because I'm currently pretty poor and I have an abundance of cardboard boxes left over from all the moving we did this year. I was all proud of myself for getting it done early since I tend to be a bit of a procrastinator. It totally had one removeable side so I could close them in or access them as needed.

The kids were all impressed with mom's mad cardboard carpentry skills.

So I'm thinking I have another week when last Tuesday Aimee calls me when she gets home from school and tells me "Roxy had her puppies!!" Wha?? That wasn't supposed to happen for another week! She tells me there are four and they all seem to be doing good. There was a black one, a tan one, a brown one, and a brown and white one. Aww.

Then. Like two hours later. After I had picked up Kimberly and Tiffany from school, Tiffany comes to me and says "Mom, now there are TWO tan ones. I just saw the other one come out of Roxy's BUTT." Holy cow. Five puppies were in my little doggie. FIVE. And they all lived. Everyone had told me that there was a good chance with it being her first litter that one or more would die. But they didn't. I have five of the most freakingly adorable puppies I have ever seen.

Can you see them all? The brown and white one is under her ear.

Here's a picture I took of just the puppies while momma took a potty break.

This one is my fave. One of the tan ones was totally laying on it's back to nurse.

Torture

2009-08-23T17:35:00.003-04:00

Today is my first day off in a week. I had plans for today. They involved me and a big body of water in my backyard spending some quality time together. I got up at eight a.m. and went outside to admire the beauty that is my swimming pool. There were some leaves and dirt in it from the storm we had the other night so I set to work cleaning it. I noticed a strange smell kinda reminiscent of pond water and a few little spots of algae starting to grow. Ruh Roh. When is the last time hubby tested the pool water? Before I went to Hawaii like six weeks ago?? Is there any chlorine in the floaty thingie? Nope?? What time does Leslie's open?? Not until ten!!!

Ten a.m. finally arrived and I took my pool water sample to Leslie's. Which is a pool supply place for anyone that doesn't have this particular chain in their state. A helpful but stillness challenged guy named Mike tested my water. It made me a bit uneasy watching him as he rocked back and forth and seemed to be doing some kind of intricately choreographed dance with my water sample. Really I think Mike is in the wrong line of work. Exotic dancer maybe would be more up his alley the way he was moving and grooving while adding drops of this here and inserting a test strip there.

His conclusion was that I needed thirty five dollars worth of chemicals and crap in addition to the small stockpile of chemicals and crap I already had at home. And the kicker? I can't swim in it for two days!!! Two days!!. Asking if I could swim in it today and start putting the chemicals in it after actually got Mike to stand motionless for half a second while giving me a disgusted look. "I wouldn't recommend that, it's not safe" he said. Fuckstockings!

Plans for the day ruined I returned home with the chemicals and a sheet of instructions that Mike had printed for me, where he carefully highlighted all the parts that say add this crap, wait 12 hours, add more crap, wait another 12 hours, add even more crap, wait another 12 hours, and then you can swim. He used a sharpie to cross out all the other stuff that I'm sure included the location of the magic wand that would make my pool swimable today.

First step, backwash the pool filter. Have you ever back washed a pool filter? This is similar to making the vacuum blow and not suck and forgetting to take the dirty bag out first, only with water. Lots and lots of water. Where does this water go you ask? All over the flipping yard! Unless you are my husband. He likes to direct the hose over our back wall and into the church parking lot behind us. However, today being Sunday, and church being in full swing, I was afraid someone might notice the bright blue hose spewing dirty pool filter water all over their parking lot.

So with my backyard resembling a swamp, or a rice field maybe, it was on to the next step. Add some algae killer stuff. The kids commented on the beauty of the blue crystals as I sprinkled them into the pool. Pretty and functional, that's my kind of product! That was followed by some shock. A nifty name for a crap load of chlorine, I think. Boring, unpretty, white powder. Then, nothing, until 11 p.m. tonight when more shock goes in. So all afternoon I've been looking at my pool, which looks deceptively clean and sparkly but which is either still a pond in disguise or has enough chemicals to eat your skin off, I'm not sure.

Back to School

2009-08-10T14:45:00.004-04:00

Today my kids started school.
My oldest... officially a high schooler.
My little two.. sixth and third grade.

It really seems like we just did this. Hard to believe it was a year ago already.

They say time flies when you are having fun, but I think time just flies. Every year that goes by seems to go by at a rate exponentially faster than the one before. I remember with my first I couldn't wait for her to reach the next milestone that "What to Expect the First Year" told me she would. With the second, I eagerly awaited the next step in hopes that the screaming would stop (if only I knew she would be 9 before she could effectively use her words). With the youngest, I had finally learned to stop looking forward, and just enjoy NOW. I relished every moment of what she was doing right now, without being in a hurry for what would come next. Of course right now she is going through that inquisitive phase where she asks a bazillion questions a day, and well frankly, I wouldn't mind THAT being over.

Today my littlest one got up at the same time as her big sister the high schooler. The high school starts two hours earlier than the elementary school. Meaning that my little one was up, dressed and ready to go THREE hours before school was going to start. So for three hours I endured her endless questions about everything from lunch, to when the puppies are going to be born. She asked about a hundred times when we were going to leave for school. She asked about her birthday that is still weeks away and why mommy likes coffee so much. She asked and asked and asked, and finally I smiled thinking that today, for the first time in two and a half months, for 6 whole hours, she'd have someone else at which to direct her questions.

Homeward Bound

2009-07-27T13:23:00.004-04:00

Today is my last day here in Hawaii. Most people would expect that I would be sad about going home, but it hasn't been beaches and mai tai's. The only water my feet have touched is in the shower, and I'm losing my tan from spending my days inside the hospital. It's been a rough nine days. Not only have I cooked and cleaned more than I ever do in my own home, it's been emotionally draining to be the only one thinking rationally in a house full of people grieving over a sick family member. My mother in law is a wreck. My sister in law is emotionally vacant. I worry about how they will cope when I'm gone. I've suggested they find some kind of therapy or support group so that they get the emotional support that they need when I'm gone. I hope they do, because they will need it, but I'm not holding my breath. I love them because they are my husband's family, but I miss my own kids and my own bed. It will be so good to be home.

Once I get home I need to get busy getting everything ready for school to start. There are backpacks and crayons to buy, doctor's appointments to attend, prescriptions to fill. Not to mention the meetings with the PTA to get everything ready to go the first week of school. I've got a lot to do over the next two weeks to get my house in order to start school. I still can't believe that summer is almost over. It feels like we haven't done anything.

Right where I need to be

2009-07-24T12:46:00.003-04:00

Again with the writer's block. Blech.

It's been almost two months since I've posted. I just haven't felt like I had anything to say. Overall our summer has been pretty uneventful. Mostly I'm happy about that, but it does keep me from having fodder for my blog.

The kids start school in two weeks. I wonder where my summer went. Sure we've been to some movies and I'm rocking a pretty good tan, but I still feel like we haven't done anything. Our summers used to be busy with swimming lessons and other activities. The past two summers we've spent them mostly at home doing nothing. Not to knock doing nothing. It's good to relax sometimes, but I feel rather unproductive.

For the past five days I've been in Hawaii. Not for a vacation, but to help my mother in law since my father in law is sick in the hospital. A week ago he almost died. The doctors told MIL that she needed to call her kids. It was bad. My husband was conflicted, he wanted to be here to comfort his mom, but he also needed to do some work to provide for our family. I suggested that I could come in his place. And just like that my plans for the next couple of weeks changed drastically. Immediately I was packing and getting on a plane, putting my entire life on hold for 10 days to come out here and do whatever I can. The night I arrived I looked up into the night sky and saw the big dipper. So close and so bright I felt like I could touch it. In that moment I knew, I was right where I needed to be. The big dipper has always been my personal compass. Any time I've been at any kind of crossroads in my life, and wanted reassurance that I was on the right path, if I saw the big dipper in the sky things always turned out okay. This may seem silly to you reading this, being as how the big dipper is pretty easy to recognize in the night sky, but I can tell you, there are times when you can't. Whether it is a matter of the tilt of the earth, or clouds, or whatever, there are just times that it is not there to see. And it's not as if I go looking for it either. I just happen to see it while thinking about other things. Like this time, when I looked up to the sky it was just there, the only thing I could see in the patch of sky I could see between the houses and the trees that obscured my view. So for the last five days I haven't worried about all the things at home that need to get done, or the money I spent to fly out here, or anything other than helping my MIL. All those things will work themselves out, because I am needed here, so this is where I am.

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you...

2009-06-03T01:29:00.002-04:00

This past weekend the hubby went out of town and my mom took my younger two giving me the rare opportunity to spend some quality time and talk with my teenager. It's not often that I can really talk to her. Whether it's my hubby chiming in finishing my sentences with what he thinks I'm trying to say, or her little sisters being nosey, it's hard to finish a thought, let alone a whole conversation.

We spent all day Sunday together. We had lunch, saw a movie, and went out to dinner. At lunch, we talked and I learned some amazing things. I started off by telling her that I was completely clueless about how to relate to her new teenager self. That I couldn't decide between punishing her for failing two classes or rewarding her for being so responsible around the house. I told her that I felt I was out of touch with what she liked and disliked, but that I realized that the punishments we were using such as taking her phone away, really didn't seem to bother her and therefore weren't motivation to do better. I asked her what kinds of privileges or possessions she wanted and would be upset if they were taken away as punishment. She shrugged and said I don't know.

We continued to talk and little by little the picture became clearer. What I figured out is she really doesn't like her sisters. I mean she loves them, they are her sisters after all, but they annoy the crap out of her. Even though my middle one is only 2 1/2 years younger than her, there is a huge gap between what she wants to do and what they want to do. Everything she said seemed to center on the same theme, "All they want to watch on TV is baby shows" "They're so annoying" "They always come in my room and get into my stuff". When I asked her if she would be motivated to do better in school if I offered her $100 for a straight A report card, she shrugged and said "Not really", but after a pause she followed it up with "If you gave me $100 for each report card with straight A's, I'd save it so I could go to Hawaii and visit grandma (hubby's mom) for a week without my sisters."

So now I'm able to formulate a plan.

First, I need to give her more opportunities to do stuff without her sisters, like offering to drop her and her friends off at the movie or at the mall for a few hours. This is going to be a struggle for me. Up until this point, if they haven't been in my sight, they were always in the care of some other adult I trusted or at school. Yeah I'm ~~a little~~ a lot overprotective. I just think I would DIE if something ever happened to my kids that I could have prevented if I was watching them. So just the thought of letting her go off on her own and not knowing her exact location for a couple of hours makes me literally nauseous. Do they make lojack for teenagers?

Second, we need to give her more control over her room and her ability to keep her sisters out of it. Now this one is going to be harder for my husband. I have no problem with her shutting her door or even locking it. He on the other hand hates it when the kids shut their doors, and comes unglued if one of them locks it. He sees no need for it, but then again, he grew up in a house with no doorknobs (I won't even begin to get into that). I told him he's going to have to let up on the door locking thing, because I think THAT would be a privilege she would work hard to keep.

Third, we are considering getting her a TV and DVR for her room so she can watch the shows that she wants to watch without her sisters interrupting her or bugging her to put on a "baby" show. Screw up at school and it's back to preschool TV with your sisters.

Finally... that trip to Hawaii... I think if she brings home straight A report cards, we can put $100 in a savings account each time towards her ticket. Maybe by next summer I'll be over my fear of letting her out of my sight enough to deal with the thought of letting her navigate the airport and get on a plane by herself.

Snap 2 Twitter FAIL

2009-05-29T18:33:00.004-04:00

Snap 2 Twitter is a pretty cool app I downloaded on my blackberry. It allows you to take a pic with your phone and then tweet about it and upload all in one step.

Except.

I just was on twitter seeing what the pic tweet I just sent looked like(Kimberly's little stuffed dog on the pony wall with a creepy note). Followed the little mini url to my pic. It totally worked, pretty cool, but then WHOA!!! There is a pic on there that looks like cleavage or ass cheek or something. No wonder I've had so many new twitter followers this week! They think I'm some porn twitterer or something.

And the picture. Yeah, totally my knee. Took it by accident. So totally not porn. Totally didn't mean to post it.

The problem is the minute you snap a pic it goes to this Snap 2 Twitter app. Gives you the option to "save and tweet" or "save only". You have to hit save only in order to go back and delete the accidental knee pics. Apparently I hit save and tweet by accident.

Don't bother going to look for it now, I deleted it.

How to parent a teenager

2009-05-29T17:51:00.004-04:00

If you are looking for an answer you are not going to find it here. Look me up in 10 years and maybe I'll have a clue. Right now what I have is a girl who just turned 13 and not a freaking clue of what to do with her. I'm swimming in self doubt and totally scared that I'm screwing up royally.

She is still screwing up in school. Despite my best efforts, grounding, taking away all her cool stuff, lectures on why she doesn't want to end up a drop out, etc., she still managed to fail two of her classes last quarter.

I really don't get it. She's really smart so it's not a matter of the subject matter being too hard. Plus she's really super responsible about other stuff. She cleans her room, does her chores, helps with her sisters. Why can't she do her homework too? I have a really hard time punishing her because 98% of the time she is an angel. She's just doesn't give a crap about her grades. I don't get it.

I don't know what more to do to motivate her. Last summer I started paying her for babysitting her sisters. She gets paid per hour whatever her GPA is. I explained that if she got straight A's that would be worth a bonus dollar for a total of $5. Right now she's earning a whopping $2.33. I tried explaining to her that this is just like life, the better you do in school, the more money you can make. One quarter this year she had a 3.o, but now we are back down to 2 and change.

I asked her to write an essay on the importance of education citing at least 6 statistics. What I got back was an essay on why she "thinks" the high school she wants to go to is superior to the one she is going to attend. She totally didn't read the explanation of the rankings she was citing and got it completely ass backwards.

I get that this last quarter has been an emotional roller coaster for her. First we have to move, and end up in a different high school boundary than where we started, then we try to keep her in that high school by applying for two different programs that would allow her to stay (she doesn't get accepted to either), followed by not making the cheerleading squad at the one she is going to attend. I totally understand how craptastic that is for a 13 year old.

HOWEVER. We now live in a nicer neighborhood. The high school she is being "forced" to attend turns out more college bound kids than the other one. It's students consistently score higher on the state standardized tests. I'm totally not brokenhearted about her having to go there. She doesn't care at all about any of that though, she just cares that all her friends are going to the other school. And in true 13 year old drama queen form, she is POSITIVE she will NOT be able to make ANY new friends at the new school.

I am left confused with how to proceed. On one hand I want to spoil her with fun stuff this summer to cheer her up since I know in her 13 year old mind she thinks her world is ending, on the other hand I want to ground her for the whole summer for getting two F's, and bottom line, I have no idea if EITHER strategy will improve anything.

I had my chance..

2009-05-29T15:47:00.002-04:00

and didn't take it.

What you ask?

My kids are going to a new school next year. This whole moving thing has thrust us into the boundaries of a different school and despite my best efforts the kids will not be able to stay at their old school. Budget crisis' suck, but that's a whole other post.

Leaving our previous school prematurely ended my term as PTA Vice President. I could have gone to the new school and pretended I didn't know what a PTA was. I could have laid low, bought my catalog crap and cookie dough, and left the work to some other sucker. But NOOO.

The day after school ended I went to the new school with the kids withdrawal paperwork from the other school and got them all signed up. She took me and the kids on a tour of the school and I got a little giddy about all the cool things they have at this school as opposed to the old one. It's a technology math/science concept school and beyond awesome. As I was preparing to leave, I heard myself say "so how do I get in touch with your PTA?".

I wasn't planning on asking about the PTA. Where those words came from, I have absolutely no clue. The very nice office lady took this opportunity to tell me that the newly elected PTA was short a few officers, a VP, treasurer, and secretary to be exact. Yeah, they're just short 3/5ths of their board. They NEED my help. And so it starts again.

I don't know why I can't just run away from the PTA. I've spent eleventy billion hours this last year alone doing PTA stuff. I should be a little burnt out on it by now. It's not like I have an excess of time on my hands as is evidenced by my lack of blogging for the last month. I have other things I like to do with my time and PTA cuts into that, but I still can't seem to walk away.

It's like Stockholm Syndrome, even when I have the chance to leave, I don't because I identify with my captors. I feel bad for them. They NEED me. So I have a meeting next week to meet with their two members and compare notes. To tell them all about what I know that works and to find out what they are planning. I'll probably end up involved.

The fact is, I like being on the PTA. I like the Principal knowing me by name. I like not having to show my ID when I pull my kids out for a doctor's appointment because the staff knows exactly who I am. I like it when the teachers take the extra bit of time to listen to my concerns because I'm the one that hooks them up with money for field trips. I like that my kids know that I value them and their education enough to give my time to get involved. I like the fact that they, and all the other kids, get to have cool things like Holiday Shops and Carnivals that I put together.

I'm pretty sure if I don't do it, nobody will. The fact that this board only has two out of five members just goes to show that not many people want to devote their time to a job that only pays in kid's smiles. This has been my experience with every school my kids have ever been to. The same eight people show up to every meeting and the other thousand parents take the attitude that someone else will do it. I want my kids to have the things that the PTA provides, and I'm willing to work to make sure they have it.

Tattoo

2009-05-29T14:45:00.004-04:00

A long long time ago, on my first wedding anniversary, my husband and I celebrated by going to get tattoos. He chose a baby blue hammer head shark on his shoulder and I got a gecko on my leg. I teased him mercilessly about his cute little baby blue shark. It really wasn't very manly, and it was small. Like cover it up with a quarter kinda small. I liked my gecko but the artist had messed up one of it's feet so it had this whole "one of these things is not like the others" think going on with it's feet. Lesson #1 of getting a tattoo, check around and find a good artist, just don't walk into the first shop you see in Hollywood that doesn't have a wait. Lesson #2 a good shop will have a wait if you don't have an appointment.

Several years later we were at a party for our friend Mike's 30th birthday. Mike was a little drunk and said "Hey I think I want to get a tattoo". Of course we were all kinda shocked especially since Mike always hassled his wife over her tattoos that she had gotten before they had met. She was sure he'd sober up a little and back out, but figured if he got one he'd have to stop complaining about hers. So off we went in the middle of the night to get Mike a tattoo. He ended up going through with it and my hubby came home with his little baby blue hammer head shark covered up with a big very manly black shark.

Fast forward to my 30th birthday. We were in Vegas, such a perfect place to celebrate, and I wanted a tattoo for my birthday. I wanted to get something on my lower back but didn't know what. We ended up at Ironhorse Tattoo which came highly recommended and of course there was a huge wait since we hadn't made an appointment. We waited and waited and the whole time I was looking at all the pictures I still couldn't figure out what I wanted. Hours later when it was finally my turn I decided that before getting another tattoo I wanted to get my gecko fixed. So I did. Here is the end result.

Notice the matching feet. Ya. Good stuff. A good tattoo artist makes all the difference.

In the years that followed my hubby has added two more tattoos. One on his forearm and one on his calf. I still have not gotten my lower back done. At this point I really don't want the "tramp stamp" as it's a little overdone. A couple of years ago I decided what I wanted was stars. I saw a couple of different star tattoos and really liked them. I also saw a couple of tattoos that went down the side of the ribs and really liked that too. What I really want to do now and have been decided on for about a year is a trail of stars that goes down my right side, around my back, and ends on my left hip. It's a pretty big piece and talking my hubby into it has been a challenge. He's not that into lots of tattoos on girls. Especially his girl.

Now I don't want a bunch of dark black stars all over me. Don't want to end up looking like a leopard when I'm 80. I'm going for subtle. I'm thinking white and just the outlines of the stars. It's going to be cool. I like the idea of having a huge tattoo that nobody will know is there unless I decide to show them. I think it's kinda funny that most people who meet me think I'm very conservative when I am in fact pretty crazy. Even with the tattoo on my leg, most people don't notice it because they aren't looking for or expecting to find a tattoo on me. I've almost got the hubby talked into it. We got some star stencils and I'm going to get a white eyeliner pencil so we can draw it on and he can see my vision. I think he will see that it won't be that shocking even though it will be pretty big. Then I can finally go do it. I'm pretty excited.

This and That

2009-04-28T11:42:00.003-04:00

A lot has happened since I last posted.

Here is the rundown.

We moved. Yes again. For those of you that don't know, we were forced to move out of the house we had been renting back in January because it was getting foreclosed on. We looked and looked and couldn't find anything that we liked. Well we found a couple but we were turned down. Each one we liked had several applications. All the others were dumps. Finally we found one that was only month to month (because it too was getting foreclosed on too). That gave us time to find the one we just moved into a week ago. On the hottest day of the year so far. Yeah, that was fun. So for the last week I've been playing, "Which box did that get packed in?" and trying to get unpacked and organized. Little by little it's coming together.

I've had to shop and buy some things for the house. It never fails, the little things you need to make a house livable, how the things that worked in the last house don't work here. Like the basket that I keep all the medications in. I keep all the meds in the cabinet above the microwave. Out of reach of little hands. Well the basket that I kept them in for the last 5 years, the one that worked in the last 4 houses we lived in, didn't fit in this cabinet. So I had to get several smaller baskets to hold the meds.

Then there is the guest bath. I've always wanted a guest bath with a pedestal sink, and I finally have one. Of course I haven't had a guest bath in the last couple of houses, so I had to figure out how to decorate that room. On a budget. Not having a cabinet in the bathroom makes storage more interesting too. I had some silver candle holders in there that my aunt gave me for Christmas several years ago that really didn't match anything in any of my other rooms. I decided to use them, get some white towels, and go with a clean spa like theme for the room. I found a spare toilet paper roll storage container in chrome, as well as an artificial calla lily arrangement in a silver colored pot. I picked up a chrome wire basket to hold the extra towels. Somewhere around here I swear I have a white bathroom rug, but I have no idea what box it's in. If I don't find it by next weekend, I'll probably go buy another one. (then I will find it, LOL) All that's left is to find something to hang on the walls. As soon as it's done I'll post some pics.

I finally got a new phone. After the insurance sent me two more Frankenstein phones, my husband finally got them to agree to send me a BRAND NEW PHONE. The catch, they don't make the pink ones anymore. They still have them in the store, but the insurance does not have any. They tell the hubby they will send the silver phone and maybe the store will trade it for a pink one. Ya, the store said no deal since it wasn't from their inventory they couldn't swap it. So he made yet another call to the insurance, and after they tried to extort another $50 deductible from him, he finally got them to pay for a brand new pink phone for me. Wow, it's only been like 3 weeks now. I tell you one thing. I'm not keeping my phone in my back pocket any more.

Close but no cigar

2009-04-18T01:37:00.002-04:00

Here is the latest offering by the Verizon insurance people.

As you can see, they at least got the right screen on this one, but it still has the wrong navigation buttons. Of course it's too late to call now, but I'm making the hubby call first thing tomorrow. I bet you he gets me a brand new phone, not any more of this refurbished crap. He's good at things like that.

F#&king Frakenstein Fone Friday

2009-04-17T12:38:00.003-04:00

Monday morning my phone took a dive into the toilet. Brilliant, I know. It's KARMA biting me in the ass for laughing at my husband for fumbling his brand new Blackberry Storm into a sink full of water. I called him "Fumbles" for days. That will teach me.

So of course the hubby was in no particular hurry to call the insurance to get me a new phone. He did turn on his old Curve for me to use and he finally called the insurance on Tuesday. Wednesday my new phone shows up. I haven't even touched it yet and he's already on the phone bitching about the trackball not working right. Fabulous.

He gives me the phone and tells me he will go to the Verizon store the following morning to get it swapped out for me. I finally get to try and use it and I immediately see what the deal is. The trackball works only about one out of every three times you push it.

So yesterday I had to work, so I left without my phone so he could take it to the store. I get home from work and he tells me that, of course, the trackball didn't act up at all in the store. Figures. He did however get the insurance to agree to send me out a different phone. It should come today.

SO last night I'm looking at my phone, and something just doesn't look right. I look up on Verizon's site and find this picture. This is what my phone is supposed to look like. This is what the one that went swimming in the potty looked like.

The phone the insurance sent me looks like this.

Notice something wrong??

It looks like they took pieces from this Blackberry

and mixed it up with a pink one.

No wonder it doesn't work right. F#&king Frankenstein Fone.

Random

2009-04-17T00:54:00.002-04:00

I don't have the time or energy to write a long post tonight.

Here are some completely random things that are on my mind.

Tomorrow we get the keys to our new (rental) house.

I haven't packed anything.

Unless you count the fact that I only unpacked half the stuff we moved out of the last house.

In that case you could say I'm half packed.

Or half baked.

I have been feeling yucky all day.

Like I'm getting sick.

I don't have time to be sick, since I am:
Moving this weekend.
Working a crapload next week.

So I keep telling myself I'm not getting sick.

And I should go to bed early tonight.

But I need to take a bath before I go to bed.

I wore flip flops all day.

My feet feel dirty.

I can't sleep when my feet feel dirty.

Is it summer yet?

2009-04-16T00:38:00.005-04:00

This happens every year. The day when the kids (or namely just the kid, you know, the ADD kid) just give up for the year. Classwork gets blown off and homework is a nightmare. It's like they know that it's ALMOST summer, so it should be goofing off time, right?

Yesterday I get an email from the teacher. "Kimberly refused to do ANYTHING today, I'm sending all the work home [for you to deal with]." Fabulous. Because I had soooo much extra time in MY evening to deal with homework PLUS three assignments she didn't get done in class.

Yesterday after school we had a meeting to review Kimberly's 504 plan. It went well. We made a couple of changes, took out some stuff that was outdated, and looked at what would need to be done differently for 6th grade. They start switching classes in 6th grade, so things are going to get interesting. Some things were rephrased, much to my delight, since I was a little miffed that the previous teacher's label of "disruptive" had remained in one section. All in all a good meeting, but because of it we had an hour and a half less time for homework and stuff that should have been finished in class.

Needless to say we weren't able to get it all done, so it carried over to today. When I picked the kids up from school Kimberly was rambling on and on about some video assignment she had to do. Now I have to admit I wasn't completly listening. For one thing, I have ADD too, and for another, Kimberly loves to talk. I swear she talks just to hear herself talk. Really. Like she will read the makes and models of all the cars we pass on the road. So I kinda tune her out sometimes. So I'm all whatever, she has some kind of report, it will probably be due in a couple of weeks and we will have some time to work on it. I tell her that we don't have a working video camera and I'm thinking to myself maybe some kinda powerpoint presentation will suffice.

We get home and I tell her to start on her homework, that she has a lot to do, because she has to get the rest of the assignments done tonight too. She asks "so you want me to do tonight's homework first, then work on the assignments from yesterday?" I tell her yes. She goes off to her room. An hour later I go to check on her thinking that she should be done by now and I need to prod her to get to work on the other stuff.

I find her sitting on her bed watching tv. I ask her where her homework is and she pulls her assignment sheet out of her backpack. Wanna take a wild guess what it said?? "Read for 20 minutes. Timeline - didn't do in class. 10 events in her life. She wants to do a video instead of writing." So not only has she wasted an hour doing nothing, we have last night's assignments PLUS now a timeline video thing that I don't have a video camera to do.

So I tell her "guess what? since you spent an hour goofing off AND this timeline thing could have been done in class to begin with, I'm not going out of my way to help you do a powerpoint on it, you are just going to write it." I'm such a mean mommy. For Kimberly writing is the most difficult thing on the planet. Not that she isn't incredibly creative, it just requires the kind of sustained attention that she is so terribly lacking in. So it's in her 504 that she can do alternative assignments that don't require as much writing.

Now it's time to play "let's make a deal". Kimberly loves to try and bargain. Someday she's going to make a great lawyer or snake oil salesman. After 15 minutes of her trying to bargain, now I'm getting frustrated. "YOU AREN'T GOING TO CHANGE MY MIND CHILD, NOW GET TO WORK, YOU ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME TO GET THIS DONE".

Finally she sits down to work. On one of the assignments from yesterday. Answering 3 questions about a chapter in a book they are reading in class. Five minutes later she's whining about how she can't answer the questions because she didn't read the chapter, because she was still working on one of the other assignments that she didn't get done yesterday. ARE.YOU.FREAKING.KIDDING.ME??

I tell her to go work on the timeline and I start thinking of how to solve this little dilema.
I search online for the answers.
No luck.
Maybe the library that is 3 minutes from my house has the book.
Nope.
Call Barnes & Noble.
They have it.
Hold it for me, I'm on my way.

Forty five minutes later I'm back with the book. She's finished the timeline and showered. She reads the chapter. She answers the questions. It's 10:15 and she finally goes to bed. Bedtime is supposed to be 8:30. Tomorrow she will be tired. When she's tired she has bad days at school. So her inability to get her work done yesterday is going to snowball and ruin our whole week.

I just want it to be summer. No more school. No more homework. I'm done too.

The cure for what ails you is candy.

2009-04-13T22:49:00.004-04:00

I have this thing about taking the kids to the doctor. I pretty much try to avoid doing it as much as possible. Not that I don't believe in modern medicine, but I also believe in my mother's intuition and the knowledge I have gained by the umpteen thousand trips to the doctor I have already made with my children. Sometimes it's better to just wait it out.

My husband however thinks that they need to go every time they sniffle. "That's why we have insurance" he says. He's gone a lot though, so usually I let things ride. If they have a cold, they get tylenol, fluids, and rest. Why should I go pay a $20 co-pay to have the doctor tell me that. And why would I want to risk exposing them to something even yuckier while we are there. Like the time Kimberly thought she had scurvy, and I thought it might be strep. I took her to the doctor to find out it was just a plain old ordinary sore throat and you know what happened? She picked up pink eye from some other kid in the waiting room.

Last week Tiff had a little bump on the underside of her tongue. She showed it to me and I pretty much ignored it. It looked like she had just irritated it, and besides, things in your mouth usually heal pretty quickly. I figured it would go away on it's own in a few days. Then a couple of days later she showed it to her dad. He flipped out. "We need to get her into the doctor today." "what do you mean she showed it to you days ago and you ignored it?" So the next morning I'm sitting with her in the doctor's office. The diagnosis - blocked salivary gland. The prescription - sour candy. Yup. Candy. So like she would have been cured come Sunday anyway, without the trip to the doctor? So we go to CVS buy every kind of sour candy they sell and I take her to school. I write a note to her teacher saying "yes the doctor really did say she needed to eat this candy" and go about the rest of my day.

Then Saturday right after the carnival, my mom notices that the topside of Tiff's tongue is looking odd. Starts saying stuff like Scarlet Fever and my hubby is eating it up. That night he went out to run some errands and while he was gone she starts complaining that her mouth hurts and shows me that she has several canker sore looking things inside her lip. Crap. Urgent care here we come. He comes home, we eat dinner, I tell him about the latest developments in her mouth and he says call the quack doctor back. Because of course this has to be some case of the doctor misdiagnosing her the first time, even though the candy totally made the bump go away. It couldn't possibly be that she caught some other thing while we were there. So after dinner it's off to urgent care.

Now one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my entire life is a Pediatric urgent care that is open every night and all weekend long, because you know your kid never gets sick during regular business hours. It's always at 5 pm on Friday, or 9 pm Saturday like this was. Even all the regular urgent cares were already closed. It was a bit of a drive but way better than the emergency room which would have been the only other option. There wasn't even anyone else in the waiting room when we got there.

We see the doctor and he says it's a virus. Very common in kids but usually seen in ones a little smaller than my 7 year old. Of course she sucks her thumb so I totally get how she's getting things that little kids that can't keep their hands out of their mouths get. Being that it's a virus there is nothing to do but wait it out.

My husband totally doesn't get that antibiotics don't work on viruses. If they have a cold, he thinks they should get a prescription. No matter what is wrong, if you don't have to go to the pharmacy when you are done at the doctor's office, the doctor is a quack. In the car on the way home after trying to explain to him why this doctor did not give her any medicine I thought that I should just start asking the doctors to give me a prescription for something harmless that I could go to the pharmacy and fill because as long as I came home with that amber bottle, my husband would be satisfied and wouldn't even notice if it was filled with vitamins.

This morning he tells me he wants me to her back to the pediatrician. "Why?" I ask. "To get a second opinion" is his reply. Really, how about to waste a third $20co-pay and maybe get yet another nasty germ. No.Thank.You. He wasn't too pleased with my answer and we pretty much didn't talk all morning, but I didn't take her to the doctor either, so I guess I won that one.

Why do I do this to myself?

2009-04-13T22:05:00.003-04:00

I have issues with saying no. Either that or I'm way overcompensating for my own childhood. My mom worked all the time when I was a kid. Every day I came home from school to an empty house. She had no choice. She was a single mom and if she didn't work, I wouldn't have a house to come home to, or condo as it was. She was never on the PTA, I never played soccer, or took gymnastics. I always wanted a playhouse, a dog, and to learn to do cartwheels, but those things required a yard.

So I have this compulsion to do all of them now. My kids have a yard and two dogs. They had the playhouse and the little tykes slide tube climby thing before they outgrew them. They've done dance, gymnastics, guitar, swim, children's theatre, girl scouts, soccer, you name it. And as if that's not enough, I'm the freakin VP of their school PTA too.

My absence from bloggy land is explained by the event that I organized last Saturday. Our school had it's first school carnival in 3 years. And it was awesome of course. Sure there were some bugs that needed working out. We ran out of prizes halfway through causing me to have to make a mad run to the party store and throw toys in my cart like I was on a game show. We ran out of cotton candy and the dunk tank broke on the second dunk. Considering that I had absolutely no clue how many people were going to show up and no previous experience with a carnival at this school, I think it turned out pretty good. The kids had fun and that's what it's all about. Of course I spent every waking hour for the last two weeks working on it. I'm glad it's over, but part of me is thinking maybe we should have a fall carnival too. I didn't get any cotton candy.

Easter

2009-04-06T01:17:00.002-04:00

**Due to the fact that my router decided to stop sending signal to my computer the other night when I was in the middle of writing this, it sat in my drafts for a couple of days. **

I figured I needed to balance the negativity of the last post with something positive about Easter.

I like Easter, but since I'm not very religious, it isn't about celebrating Jesus' resurection for me, it's all about the candy, coloring eggs, and the Easter Bunny. Totally commercial and sugar laden.

Easter is the time that my very favorite candy comes out, PEEPS. Now I know that you are going to say, "Oh, but they have peeps for every holiday now, pumpkins for Halloween, trees for Christmas, hearts for Valentine's Day..." and to that I say no way. Peeps are for Easter and Easter is for peeps. I will not eat a peep that is shaped like anything other than a bunny or a chick. And I'm a purist when it comes to my colors too. No friggen green or blue bunnies, OK?? Pink and yellow only. **Eww yuck, I was at Target today and they had orange and red bunnies and chichs too. RED like bloody bunnies and chicks. That's just wrong.**

Easter is also the time that I get to get all artsy with egg dye. I'm particular about dye too. It has to be the kind that needs vinegar. The others don't make colors as vibrant. I'm all about leaving them in there forever and making the colors REALLY dark, or making rainbows on them by carefully dipping them in all the colors starting with yellow on the whole thing and then dipping each end until I have a complete rainbow.

OOOh, and don't forget chocolate bunnies. Now I'm not big on chocolate any other time of the year, but at Easter I have to have the biggest chocolate bunny they make, Bunny Big Ears. Maybe this is why I don't eat much chocolate the rest of the year, I get my fill on Easter. I'm in love with Bunny Big Ears for very sentimental reasons. Even after I was too old for Easter Egg hunts and baskets full of candy and goodies, my dad always got me a Bunny Big Ears on Easter. In the years since he passed away I have always bought myself one. You would think that maybe my hubby would catch on and surprise me with one, but just like the hearts at Valentine's he just doesn't notice that kind of stuff.

My kids, even though they are 12 (almost 13), 10, and 7, wake up Easter morning and want to hunt for eggs. Of course this might be partially due to the fact that I've been known to put spare change in plastic eggs.

I'm also super excited that we are gong to do an Easter egg hunt with my friend Maria again this year. Last year's egg hunt was super fun.

**Check out the latest!! Mom calls yesterday morning before I left for work. Tells me that her brother is going to be in town this week and is leaving Saturday. Due to that she's decided to do Easter dinner on Friday night. The Friday night that I.HAVE.TO.WORK!!! since I took off Sunday because I expected the invite to be for EASTER Sunday, not the Friday before. Can you hear me ROFLMAO??? Yup, LIFE IS GOOD!

Holidays

2009-04-04T00:53:00.004-04:00

I have a love hate relationship with holidays. I love them for the candy, presents, and cute decorations, but I hate being required to go to dinner at my moms for every one. Sometimes I just wish that we didn't have holidays at all, or that I lived on a different continent than my mom when they come around.

Yeah, it's that bad.

Since I was young, I remember my mom being a raving bitch for every single holiday. She gets up at the crack of dawn to start cooking and tries to get all Martha Stewart for a bunch of people who would be happy with a hot dog. There is the inevitable trip to the grocery store that I have to make to pick up the one item she forgot to purchase when she did her shopping for the event. Yup, even if it's just me and the kids coming, it's an event. Following that comes the bitch out for taking so long at the store, what did you do that it took so long and now everything is going to be overcooked by the time the whatever was missing the ingredient is done. Somehow she forgets that there is only ONE store open on major holidays and that everyone forgets one thing and they are all at that ONE store which is horribly understaffed because they gave everyone the day off because it's a HOLIDAY. Then there is the obligatory oohing and ahhing over the overly fancy food, because if you don't you are an ingrate, followed by the mandatory cleaning of the kitchen and washing up all the dishes because it would be just rude to make your hostess feed you and clean up after you too.

So here I am with Easter a week away, already having panic attacks about the upcoming event.

I thought about trying to weasel out of it, making other plans and telling my mom "Oh sorry, I didn't know you wanted to do something and so I made these plans", but I know she would see right through that one. If I was ordered to come over for dinner for a minor holiday like St. Patrick's Day, of course I should know without being ordered that I am required to be in attendance at Easter. So I'll keep my afternoon open and wait for my marching orders which I'm sure will arrive sometime next week.

Unless I could move to Australia before then.

I think I'm addicted to my job

2009-04-01T23:54:00.002-04:00

Really, seriously, I like it that much. I haven't blogged in a week because I've worked so much. And you know what else? Last week I averaged even more than my highest paying job ever. Now that I'm getting the hang of it more, I'm making even MORE money. When you have a hubby that hasn't worked since November, money is a really good thing. So I can't stop myself. Every time I have an opportunity to work, I do. It's crazy that I can go in for a few hours and walk out with a wad of cash. I still can't get over it.

I had to take today off because we were getting our taxes done. Yeah, I know, way to leave it to the last minute. In my defense, we didn't have the money to pay the tax guy, and since he kinda wants to get paid for his work too... it had to be left until now. Good news is we will be getting some back, even after sending a chunk to Michigan and paying the tax guy his rather hefty fee. Gotta love having to file federal plus three different states.

They gave me tomorrow off too. Two days off in a row. I was really tempted to try and pick up a shift or two, but I decided that since these were my first days off in 8 days, I should maybe take them and relax a little. Absense makes the heart grow fonder and all that stuff.

Tomorrow we get to go see the house we will be moving into in a couple of weeks. We've seen it once before, but that was before new carpet and paint. I took some pictures, but not enough. I have great pictures of the closets, but couldn't tell you what the rooms look like. It's got fabulous closets. I'm actually going to have my own linen closet in MY bathroom. For a packrat like me that is beyond awesome. Unfortunately the house was designed by someone who doesn't cook because it is lacking a pantry. Really? Like it didn't occur to this person that people might actually need to store FOOD somewhere in the house? So the hubby is going to have to build a pantry into one of the closets off the kitchen. We need to scope out the particulars of that little project. We also forgot to take a tape measure last time. Our couch is rediculously huge and we need to figure out how it's going to fit.

After that, one of my friends is taking me to lunch for my birthday. Yeah, my birthday that was over a month ago. The last time she offered I ended up picking up a shift and working instead. I swore I wouldn't flake on her again this time. I am kinda thinking about having her take me to the restaurant where I work though. I think I'm having withdrawls.

Hopefully I will have time to blog about something other than my fabulous job tomorrow too.

Faith

2009-03-25T23:16:00.003-04:00

I don't often talk politics or religion on my blog. They are two subjects with a high likelihood of pissing someone off, so I shy away. Tonight though, I'm inspired.

*and yet, this post sat in my drafts for over a week while I contemplated publishing it or not.

Here's the deal. I have faith, but not religion. My mom moved around a lot when she was growing up and every new town they lived in, she and her siblings got baptized at whatever local church there was. So since she was a Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, she decided to go the absolute opposite way raising me. I was never baptised anything and left to make my own decisions regarding what I wanted to believe and which church I wanted to join. I attended just about every kind of church as a child with my friends, and I came to some conclusions of my own. I decided that it didn't matter which religion it was, the end message was the same. Be good to your fellow person, treat others in a way you would like to be treated, don't lie, cheat, steal or murder. They might take a different road to get to that conclusion, or have differing claims about what the punishments would be for failing to abide by those values, but the in the end, I really felt that they were all saying the same thing. I have spent countless hours studying all kinds of different religions. I'm fascinated by all the rituals, customs, and beliefs that each one holds, but I can't pick one that I can honestly say I believe in completely. Even though I can't say I fit into any of the major world religions, I can say that I have faith.

I know G-d exists. I see it in my children's faces, in the sunsets and the stars, and I feel it deep in my heart. Even when things in my life seem to not be going right, I have faith that there is a reason even if it isn't apparent to me right then. For that reason, I also don't have regrets. By this I mean I don't regret any of the choices I have made in my life. I try to live my life in a way that I should never need to regret my actions towards others. Every single time I have ever thought back on various turning points in my life and wondered what if I had done ________ differently, I'm faced with the realization that I would have missed out on meeting some of the most amazing and influential people in my life as well as learning from those experiences to become the person I am today.

I also have faith that I will always have everything I need. Now I'm not talking about having everything I want. I want a flat screen TV and a hot tub, but I need food, clothes, and shelter for myself and my children. The last few months have been difficult with my husband being out of work. At times it seemed that those basic needs might not get met. Every time I would start to despair, I would close my eyes find peace in knowing that although I might not be able to see the way, my needs would be met. I may not be able to see how the electric bill is going to get paid next month, but I know it will. It's amazing how when you stop expecting the answers to come from a certain place, and just have faith, that different paths open up for you that you couldn't see before. Over these past few months our needs have been met in some very unexpected ways. For that I am forever grateful, and my faith is renewed once again.

Totally Awesome

2009-03-23T20:25:00.003-04:00

I've worked at a restaurant for over a year. After conquering my fear of dropping things, I finally moved up to serving food. I've been doing it for a few weeks now, and I'm pleased to report that there haven't been too many mishaps.

I've put a couple orders in under the wrong tables again, but luckily realized my mistakes before the food came out and was able to intervene and fix it. I've been working really hard on trying to not make those silly kinds of mistakes. Then last night I dropped a burger. It wasn't in front of the whole restaurant, but the sad thing is, it wasn't even my burger. I was trying to be helpful and run the food out for one of the other servers and didn't realize that the one burger wasn't on the tray very well. He said it was ok, but I still apologized profusely.

My first full week went super fabulous. Each day got progressively busier, and by Friday I was amazed at the number of tables I could juggle at one time. I've managed to take a couple of large parties, but none as large as that 18 I almost got my first night, and I'm not afraid of the 18 anymore. I'm really getting the hang of it.

Last week I worked a lot. That would explain why I haven't been blogging much the last few days. I kept picking up shifts and ended up working 40 hours. Several days I worked the lunch and dinner shifts. It was crazy, but so much fun. I came home each night with very tired tootsies, and one night even passed out at 9:30. Yesterday I had to be at work at 8 am for a meeting, then I worked the lunch shift, and after a short break, I worked the dinner shift too. I didn't get home until 9:30. Amazingly my feet did not hurt as much. I think they just needed to get accustomed to getting so much use.

When I got home last night and calculated how much money I made (tips plus hourly) I discovered that this job now qualifies as my second highest paying job EVER. Back in 2000-2001 I made a dollar more an hour at a 40 hour a week job that was an hour and a half commute, one way, wearing business suits and heels, and dealing with high stress and drama every day. So considering that this is 15 minutes from my house, I can wear jeans and comfy shoes, and even though there is some drama, I can easily avoid it, this job is WAY better. Add to that the fact that at that other job I couldn't just call someone else to cover for me at work if I was sick, or something fun came up that I wanted to do. In fact they preferred if I took my 2 week vacation in 1 and 2 day increments since nobody else could perform my job.

That is what makes this totally awesome. Times like this that my hubby is not working, I can work everyday and bring home decent money for my time. When he goes back to work, I can go back to working just a few mornings a week. In the summer when the kids are out of school, I can work a few nights a week so we can spend our days by the pool. If I want to go visit my hubby out of town, I can take a week off. If I fall in love with something at the store, I can work a couple extra shifts to make the money to buy it. How cool is that?

I think I may have found the perfect job for me. With all the self reflection I was doing several weeks ago, I think I've found my answer. Making this one change at work has made everything fall into place for me. I don't have to tie myself down to a set 9-5 Monday through Friday job in order to earn decent money and I can have a job that not only pays well, but that I enjoy too. I was always jealous of the fact that my husband had found a good paying career that he LOVED. One where he could get up every day and be excited to go to work. I've always said that the right job should be like that, not a chore you HAVE to do just because you NEED to pay your bills. It's taken me 19 years of working to find it, but I think I finally did.

How to ruin St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-18T00:14:00.003-04:00

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a year or more know that St. Patrick's Day is one of my most favorite holidays (after my birthday and Christmas because those involve presents). I am Irish after all. What a wonderful holiday to celebrate my heritage, eat one of my favorite foods (after lobster and cheesecake) corned beef and cabbage, and maybe ingest a green beverage or ten.

So you want to know how this St. Patrick's Day got ruined? My mom. My mom who's universe revolves around me, who lacks any friends of her own to invite over to her St. Patrick's Day dinner, tells me that I AM to come over for dinner tonight. Not an invite. Not, "hey would you like to have St. Patrick's Day dinner at my house?". Nope. These were her exact words. "Don't buy a corned beef brisket because I already got one". Oh. So with that I was EXPECTED for dinner at her house tonight. I've been dreading it since she dropped that little bomb a week ago.

SHE isn't even Irish. I got all my Irish from my DAD who was BORN.IN.IRELAND. I want to cook my own corned beef damn it!!! I want to have my own family tradition with MY kids. She already has laid claim to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. Can't I have freaking St. Patrick's Day??? Crap.

Then to make matters worse. She has to go and try to make some fancy corned beef recipe. Put a bunch of extra garbage in there like cloves and G-d knows what else and you know what it tasted like?? Brine. It was so freaking salty all I could taste was SALT and more SALT. Irish cooking is simple. You boil everything. And corned beef is one of those few things that isn't ruined when you boil it. The flavor from just peppercorns, the cabbage, and some onions is all it needs.

So next year, I'm buying my corned beef brisket in January and inviting all my friends over well in advance so if my mom tries this stunt again, I'll be ready with. "Oh sorry mom, you should have asked me first. I ALREADY have plans OF.MY.OWN."

The Name Game

2009-03-17T23:14:00.005-04:00

I am asked frequently what the difference is between ADD and ADHD. The short answer is nothing.

The long answer is:

The disorder currently labeled by the psychiatric community as ADHD has been called many things over the years.
1902 Defects in moral character
1934 Organically driven
1940 Minimal Brain Syndrome
1957 Hyperkinetic Impulse Disorder
1960 Minimal Brain Dysfunction (MBD)
1968 Hyperkinetic Reaction of Childhood (DSM II)
1980 Attention Deficit Disorder - ADD (DSM III) with-hyperactivity without-hyperactivity residual type
1987 Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Undifferentiated Attention Deficit Disorder (DSM III-R)
1994 Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (DSM IV)
Broken down into 3 categories ADHD, Combined Type ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive type ADHD, Predominantly Hyperactive Type

Many people like me grew up in the 80's and learned to call someone with these symptoms ADD. It's like if you have a friend named Bertha who decides she wants to be known as Brittney. Even though you know she wants to be called Brittney, she's always going to be Bertha to you. Now some of these changes are good. I'm sure glad they don't call it Minimal Brain Dysfunction anymore, but personally I think it went all down hill after the 1980 name.

I don't like the term ADHD mostly because I feel that it implies hyperactivity. My daughter and I are both technically ADHD predominantly inattentive type. We are not hyperactive. If I tell people that we are ADHD, the usual response is "but you aren't hyper at all". Just saying ADD is easier for the lay person to understand. It's also a lot shorter for me to say ADD and not ADHD predominantly inattentive type. I mean come on, I have ADD, I don't have the patience for wasted syllables.

I expect in another few years the psychological community will probably change the name again to further confuse people.

Rewards

2009-03-16T21:12:00.004-04:00

My friend Beth and I talked a couple of times today on the phone trying to brainstorm ways to help her with her son after she posted this. She's in the middle of trying to get a correct diagnosis for him and figure out how to manage his behavior. Different doctors have told her that he's a little ADHD, mildly Asperger's, and now ODD. Of course figuring out which one, or combination thereof will help considerably. Since so many of the symptoms overlap between them though, there were some strategies I was able to share with her, things that work for my daughter.

We got to talking about how punishments don't work with these kids. They just don't respond to taking their toys, tv's, video games, trading cards, privileges or allowance away. They definitely don't respond to spankings. The only thing that I have found that works with my daughter is rewards. Whether it is simply thanking her for doing what she was asked, acknowledging the fact that she controlled her behavior instead of melting down, or giving her a treat for her good behavior, she thrives on success.

I think these kids have so many situations in which they feel like failures, that punishing them just reinforces their feelings of not being good enough, and I think that's why they don't work. If you already feel like you are worthless, having your things taken away must just reinforce that belief. Can you imagine what this must feel like to the child? That they aren't worthy of having their toys, etc? On the other hand, they light up with the slightest success. They like to help. They love to be appreciated. They need to be told that they did something right.

S0metimes it's hard to notice the good that your child is doing when you are so frustrated with their misbehavior. It's hard to rearrange your own attitude to focus on the good instead of the bad. There are times where you have to focus on the bad. When your child is doing something destructive or hurtful to someone else, you have to step in to stop it. Other than that though, you need to look for the smallest of their successes.

With my daughter, we have rewards instead of punishments. Instead of "If you don't clean your room, I'm taking away your toys" it's "When you get your room clean, we can go to the park". I also choose words very carefully to try to foster that success. You notice I said "When you get your room clean" not "If you get your room clean". This gives her the subtle message that I know she can and will do it. In school she gets a sticker for every assignment she completes without goofing off. When she gets 10 stickers she gets to pick a candy from a jar. I reward her for good behavior with extra time to play on the computer or Wii, or getting to do something with just me (without her sisters). It doesn't have to be something expensive, she loves to bake cookies or watch a tv show alone with mom.

There were a couple of things that came up in our conversation about rewards. She and I both have tried elaborate reward/sticker chart systems in the past. Often they are hard to keep up and be consistent with, and if the parent doesn't keep up with it, the child gives up on it too. Also, Beth's son is 13 and my daughter is only 10. The little candy rewards my daughter loves may not entice her son to strive for good behavior. Baking cookies with mom might not be his idea of a good time. So my question is this, for those of you with older kids and especially boys, what kinds of rewards work for them? Has anyone developed a good reward system that isn't too difficult to keep up with?

Finally a swap I can participate in

2009-03-12T23:14:00.002-04:00

I am always seeing this swaps on other's blogs. I always want to join, but most of the time they are for crafty or sewing things. Not that I'm not crafty, but there are certain things I'm good at, and some of these, well... I would just be afraid of disappointing my partner. I saw a really cool apron swap a while back and even though I really wanted to join in the fun, I didn't think my partner would appreciate something made with my mediocre hand sewing skills since my machine is still broken. So imagine my excitement today when I found a swap on one of the new blogs I'm following since the SITS spring fling the other day.

Mommy Holly is hosting a bright and happy swap. You can check out all the details about it here mommy holly: bright and happy swap!!. This looks like so much fun. I'm so excited to find out who my partner will be and start finding stuff to send. I've really been needing something bright and happy in my life right now and it will be just as much fun to send something bright and happy too.

Glass Half Full

2009-03-11T23:06:00.002-04:00

There are times (trust me, there are a LOT of times) that I and start feeling sorry for myself and situations I am in. However, I think that it really doesn't make matters any better. I actually think that it's bad karma to sit around wallowing when there are others who are way less fortunate than I. Whether it's the state of my finances, situations at work, or the behavior of my children, I try my darnedest to always look on the bright side of things.

At work today, my first table was 4 young men. They were super polite and had these adorable almost Southern accents. When it came time to pay their bill, they wanted individual checks. This is a lot more work as I had to try and remember exactly which meal went with which drink. I managed to figure it out and gave them their checks. After they were gone and I went back to collect my tips, I found that they had each left me a dollar. Their total bill was over $56 and they left me $4. That's just about 7%, about half of what is considered a minimum tip. If I had screwed up something or somehow given them bad service I could have understood, but that wasn't the case. For a few hours it really bugged me. Then after work I was telling a friend about them, and she said that she had served them before too, and that was just how they tipped. Then she said, "but you almost don't mind because they are so polite, not like some of the jerks we have to deal with". And you know what? She's absolutely right. I think I would rather wait on guys like that all day long for $4 a pop, then deal with jerks for twice as much. Suddenly I was glad I had the pleasure of serving those guys today, and hope they come back with their sweet little accents and good manners.

Then there are things like this that my children do. Remember in the movie Meet the Fockers when they go to the Focker family residence and Dustin Hoffman says "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down."? I don't know why, but that line has stuck with me. It might have something to do with the fact that every day I come across things both brown and yellow that the kids have forgotten to flush. Sure it's gross, but every time they do it they probably save me a gallon of water. And then, when I go to do laundry and find something at the bottom of the hamper that I know they haven't worn or just wore for an hour, I don't have to be mad because I'm using the water that should have already been flushed.

See how it works?

So if you are having a bad day, remember, there is always SOMETHING to be grateful for, even if it is just someone's good manners or something your kids forgot to flush.

Room Clean Up Game

2009-03-11T13:11:00.003-04:00

When you have ADD sometimes you have to trick yourself into doing things you don't want to do. We have an overdeveloped sense of procrastination, so by the time we HAVE to do something, like clean our rooms, it's one step away from being condemned.

When I was a kid my mom would send me to my room and tell me that I couldn't come out until it was clean. Wow, thanks for the life sentence there mom.

Here is a little game I made up as a child to help trick myself into cleaning my room.

Write the numbers 1-10 in descending order on the left side of a sheet of paper.
10
9
8
You get the point right?

Then you play.
Start by picking up 10 things. It helps if you make this the 10 BIGGEST things also. Picking up 10 pieces of lint isn't going to make a big dent in it. When you are done put a big check mark next to the number.
Then pick up 9 things. You just got through picking up 10, so 9 is less work. You've done the worst of it. When you are done, put a big check mark next to the number.
Pick up 8 things....

By the time you get down to the bottom of the list, you have actually picked up 55 things. 55 is a big number. 10 is a little number.

If you have a child that struggles with cleaning their room (or if you struggle with cleaning/organizing) try this game to make it a little more fun.

Who says cats don't make great companions?

2009-03-11T00:26:00.004-04:00

You might remember a while back I posted about my cats here. Sadly my cat Gargamel passed away about a month ago. I had no idea when I wrote that post that I would only have a couple more months with the most amazing kitty ever. He was fine one day and the next day, not so good. I think he had a seizure and then it was all downhill from there. Within a week he had lost a significant amount of weight and when we took him to the vet, the vet said that he had a large mass in his belly. We brought him home for a few days so the kids could say goodbye, and then it was time to put him to sleep so he wouldn't suffer.

We got Gargamel when my oldest was three. He was so good about letting her carry him around. When my daughter or I got sick, he would stay on the bed with us until we were well again. At bedtime he would hop up in the bed wanting to be loved on. He would nudge my hand if I wasn't petting him enough. He had a knack for getting right between my head and the TV. I can't tell you how many times I told him he didn't make a very good window.

When he passed I was worried that I would be missing this nightly kitty love. Kasey has always been the loner kitty. Sure she'd let you pick her up and love on her and wouldn't run away, but she's never really initiated contact. And Mystery, well we see her every once and awhile, but she pretty much lives under my youngest daughter's bed. She used to come hop up on my bed and push Gargamel out of the way to get all the lovin, but since he got sick, I haven't seen her.

Imagine my surprise when Kasey started coming in at bedtime and getting in the way of me watching TV, nudging my hand, or my nose, if I didn't pet her. It always amazes me how intuitive cats really are, and how even though they may seem to be aloof and not care about their owners at all, they really do.

Custom Binder Winner

2009-03-11T00:11:00.002-04:00

Wow, what a fun day. All the contests and excitement. I hope I win some.

But now it's time to announce the winner of my giveaway!!

I'd like to congratulate Terry from Cherished Treasures for winning my Custom Binder Giveaway.

Email me with your mailing address and what you would like your binder to say on the front.

Giveaways Giveaways Giveaways

2009-03-10T19:02:00.002-04:00

Oh my goodness. What wonderful things are being given away over at
The Secret Is In The Sauce today. You must go check them out.

I've entered so many contests I'm having a hard time keeping them all straight. There's Cheesecake Factory, Outback, Target, Macy's... Too many to count.

Here are some of my faves:
Tattooed Minivan Mom is giving away a Starbucks Card
Susie's Homemade is giving away cookie dough balls that look yummy
2 under 2 is giving away Cheesecake
All In a Mom;s Life is giving away a Starbucks or Target gift card
Carma Sez is giving away a McDonalds gift card
Theres Always Room For One More is giving away a Chili's Gift Card
Janana Bee is giving away a Cheesecake Factory card
Aubsfamfive is giving away a COACH wristlet
Melanie is giving away the cutest cupcake magnets ever
7 clown circus is giving away a $10 Target gift card
I'm not your average soccer mom is giving away a $20 Target gift card
It really is all about me is giving away an Outback gift card
A Trucker Wife is giving away a Target gift card
Sweet Home Amy is giving away a Nantucket Tote
Jam Jar Boogie is giving away a beautiful apron
One Crazy Kat Lady is giving away a $50 Target Card
It's a Wonderful Life is giving away a $50 Macy's card
Snarky Much is giving away an AMC gift card
Stilettos and Diapers is giving away a Snuggie

And that is just a fraction of the giveaways. Go check out the full list here. And don't forget to enter my contest for an awesome recipe binder HERE.

Spring Fling

2009-03-09T15:14:00.013-04:00

The girls over at SITS are hosting a Spring Filing Tuesday. Everyone is encouraged to give something away on their blog, and SITS is hosting lots of awesome giveaways on their blog every hour as well. I wanted to participate in this, but until yesterday was at a loss about what to give away. The rules state that it can be anything new or used and doesn't have to be elaborate at all. Anything from a purse you don't use anymore to a batch of chocolate chip cookies. This doesn't help me much. Anything is just too many things to consider for someone with ADD. So for the last couple of weeks it's been on my mind.

What should I give away??

True to my ADD fashion, I had an epiphany at the 11th hour. Well technically I guess I had about 12 hours to spare since I figured it out around noon, but you get my point. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to come up with something.

So here is what I came up with.

Now I'm not giving you my recipe book, but what I am going to give away is a binder, with a custom cover, a few of my favorite recipes, and a lot of empty sheet protectors.

What is this good for you ask?

Well let me tell you a little bit about my binder.

I'm a bit of a pack rat. I hold onto all kinds of things because I never know when I might need them.

Craft supplies for umpteen billion different craft projects - Check
Enough scrapbook supplies for an entire lifetime - Check
A tote box full of socks in case I decide to start crocheting beads on them again - Check
A tote full of patterned socks, buttons, and embroidery floss to make sock monkeys waiting for my sewing machine to be fixed - Check

One thing I don't hang onto, or have cluttering my house anymore, is magazines waiting for recipes to be pulled out of, or loose papers on which I have printed out recipes from the internet.

I keep lots of extra sheet protectors in my binder just waiting to be filled with that loose paper. Now if there is a recipe I want in a magazine, I don't have to hang onto the whole magazine waiting for that someday that never comes to tear it out and do something with it. I save myself the time and energy of writing them all on recipe cards, and can chuck the rest of the magazine into the recycling bin without a second thought. The recipes from the internet go right in there too. The sheet protectors also mean that my recipe for pie crust isn't covered with actual pie crust from Thanksgiving pie 1994.

I also used to be a Tupperware lady, which means that all my pantry items, flour, pancake mix, instant mashed potatoes, sugar, pasta, beans, etc. are neatly stored in Modular Mates. What does this have to do with the binder, you ask? Well for years I dealt with the issue of while the pancake mix was all fresh in my Modular Mates, I no longer had the instructions on what to do with it. Even though I'd cut them out, somebody would always see that cut out piece of cardboard as garbage. Or I'd fold it and put it into the container, which would mean spilling some of the contents onto the counter when I removed it. So now, thanks to the greatest home printer/scanner/copier ever made , I copy the instructions and put them in the binder.

My binder has made my life so much simpler and allowed me to get rid of a little bit of my pack rat tendencies. Now if I could only figure out how to make everything else fit in the binder.

So my gift to you (assuming you are the lucky winner) today, is your very own binder. No having to make a trip to Office Max to get a binder and sheet protectors. Just a couple of days for it to come in the mail, since I haven't figured out that teleportation thing yet. The Modular Mates and the copier you are on your own to get, but I would highly reccomend them.

How do I get to be the lucky winner, you ask?

Leave a comment telling me why you want to win my binder for one entry.
Follow my blog for a second entry, leave a second comment telling me you are following.

The lucky winner will be picked at random (using random.org, I have a feeling that site is going to get a lot of traffic today) Tuesday March 10th at 9 pm, Arizona time (which is MST all the time, no daylight savings bull puckey here).

Good luck everyone, and don't forget to check out all the awesome stuff over at SITS today!

Daylight Savings

2009-03-09T12:18:00.002-04:00

I never really got the point of Daylight Savings Time. I mean, i get the line they feed you about giving you more daylight to bring in the harvest, but come on REALLY??? How many of us are actually harvesting anything nowadays? Then there is the whole thing with stretching it out an extra couple of months to help save electricity. So what's next? Pretty soon they'll tell you that Daylight Savings Time is the new TIME, and then will they create a Daylight Daylight Savings Time.

All daylight savings time is, is a government sanctioned way to f*#k with people's heads.
"Oooh, let's give them an extra hour so their kids will stay up way past bedtime and be all jacked up because they can't fall asleep because the sun is still out."
Insert sound of people who make black out shades cheering.
"Then a few months later we will take that extra hour back so they can spend a week trying to get the kids all adjusted to normal time again.

It's all a complete waste of TIME. You wanna know how I know this? It's because I've been off the Daylight Savings treadmill for the last 5 years. If Arizona has one redeeming quality, something so awesome it makes up for dealing with 120 days in the summer, it is the lack of Daylight Savings Time. We just don't do it. Maybe it doesn't stay light here extra long in the summer, but it still stays hot (100 degrees at midnight kinda hot), so I really don't miss that extra hour of sun at all. So the only effect Daylight Savings Time has on me is having to remember what time everyone else is now. When it's DST, California is the same time as us and it's now 2 hours later in Texas where my best friend lives. Other than that, life goes on like normal, no clocks to change, no trying to get the kids adjusted to the new time, no being late for church Sunday morning (not that I go, but there are a LOT of people in Arizona that do), no having to remember what day you are supposed to switch the clocks and which way you are supposed to switch them.

So yesterday and today when I read everyone's blogs and facebook posts about f*#king Daylight Savings Time, I consider myself very lucky to live in Arizona.

Cornflakes taste like corn, duh

2009-03-09T00:09:00.006-04:00

A few weeks ago I had this conversation with my oldest daughter.

Aimee "Mom, don't we have any cereal?"
Me "Didn't your dad just buy some cornflakes?"
Aimee "Yeah, but they're gross"
Me "Why are they gross?"
Aimee "Because they taste like corn"
Me (after spitting coffee out my nose) "Um, yeah genius, that might be why they call them CORN flakes"

In other words, they weren't Frosted Flakes and therefore tasted like cereal and not sugar.
So for weeks they have been in the pantry and have become a joke around here. "Where is the lemonade mix?" "Behind the cornflakes that taste like corn". I've been trying to figure out what to do with them since it's painfully obvious that none of my kids, or my husband are going to eat the cornflakes that taste like corn.

Yesterday I remembered having a couple of recipes that called for cornflakes as an ingredient that I had learned to make back in either junior high or high school foods class. Amazingly they are a couple that I have already typed up and put into my recipe binder. One of them is for Christmas Holly Wreath Cookies, and since it's a little past Christmas, I didn't want to make those. The other one was for peanut butter bars. They came out just as yummy as I remembered. Here's the recipe.

1 1/2 cups of sugar
3/4 cups of corn syrup
2 cups of smooth peanut butter
7 cups of cornflakes

Melt the sugar and corn syrup. Add the peanut butter and stir until smooth. Remove from heat. Add cornflakes and mix it all up. Pour into a wax paper lined 13x9 baking pan. Smoosh them down (I wrap my oven mitt with the Glad cling wrap and then smoosh). Cool. Once they are cool, you can cut them into squares.

Let me just take this moment to mention that it's a really good idea to measure out all your ingredients BEFORE you start the sugar and corn syrup melting. When you are ready to throw in the peanut butter is not really a good time to discover you are about a quarter cup short. I went ahead and made them anyway, but in retrospect probably should have reduced the amount of cornflakes a tad. They came out a bit crumbly. Either that or I didn't smoosh them down enough.

Of course I also forgot that Tiffany is the weirdo kid that doesn't like peanut butter so she was a little disappointed come snack time, but the other two liked them, and I used up most of the cornflakes that taste like corn.

Spell Check

2009-03-06T20:47:00.007-05:00

I am completely paranoid that someone will think I'm stupid if I misspell things. Like this whole part of my self image is caught up in correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Not that I always use correct grammar and punctuation here in my blog, but here I try to write as I would speak to you, and that is not always in proper grammar. I sometimes worry that I use commas a little too liberally, but I want to be clear that wherever you find a comma in my writing is where I think the pause should be in the sentence. On occasion I leave commas out too, usually when I'm passionate about something and if I was speaking to you I wouldn't have stopped to breathe.

Which reminds me of a time, I think in junior high, when a friend (who will remain nameless) made a sign for her bedroom door that said "Stupid people shouldn't breath". I'm sure I made fun of her about at the time, which was mean, but it was kinda funny, and it kinda still is. Isn't it She who will remain nameless? It does prove my point though. One little letter can make the difference between you making a statement or making a funny.

Now that I'm done giggling, there's the whole topic whether or not to place a comma before the final item in a list. I was taught that it is necessary so that you can distinguish whether the items before and after the "and" go together. Otherwise you end up with "The restaurant serves several sandwiches including tuna salad, turkey, liverwurst and peanut butter". Is that three kinds of sandwiches or four? Now if you punctuate it this way "The restaurant serves several sandwiches including tuna salad, turkey, liverwurst, and peanut butter", it's clear that the liverwurst is not going to be sharing the cozy confines of two slices of bread with the peanut butter. Whew! Now I know there are many people who will still disagree with me, but I insist it makes way more sense my way.

I'm usually pretty accepting of other people's grammatical and spelling errors. One of my best friends was dyslexic and everything he wrote was phonetic with a dash of transposition mixed in. I didn't think he was stupid at all, in fact I knew that he was probably the most brilliant ever person I had ever met. Let's just say he WAS a rocket scientist. I learned how to read his writing and could always understand what he was trying to say. That taught me not to make assumptions based on people's writing.

There are a few things that still bug the crap out of me no matter how hard I try to just overlook them. The biggest one is the There, Their, and They're mix ups. I have a friend that ALWAYS mixes them up. It makes me absolutely nutty. I just want to fix them for her. The thing is, she's really smart too. I think it bugs me so much because I worry about how people reading it might think she's uneducated because of it, but yet I struggle with how to tell her that she's doing it wrong. People don't always respond to that kind of criticism well.

When we were first married, my husband really didn't like me correcting him when he was writing letters, but I did it anyway. You see, this is different than the situation with my friend because if people thought my husband was stupid (which he isn't) it had a direct impact on me. It took some explaining, but I was finally able to convince him that it wasn't a bad thing that I was correcting his mistakes. I just felt that as a married couple we should support each other in areas that we are weaker so that together we are stronger. There are things that he is way better than I will ever be, building things, fixing things, driving really big trucks, and there are things that I am better at, mainly the written word. He finally got over feeling like I was trying to prove I was smarter than him and now asks me to proofread almost everything he writes.

So I struggle with telling my friend about her There, Their, and They're mix ups. I don't want her to think that I feel that I am somehow superior because I know how to use them correctly.

And LOOK a Kitty!!!

I sometimes also get off topic and end up writing about something completely different than I had planned. ADD can be fun like that. It's a fun game of follow the train of thought.

You know what inspired this post?

Why I hit the little button that says create new post?

I forgot to spell check the last one.

I do this a lot.

And there is usually an error or two.

The most common ones are because I type really fast and my fingers don't always end up on the keys that they should. Occasionally it's because I don't remember, or care to waste brain power, figuring out if a word has a double letter. Sometimes I really don't have a clue how to spell something obscure and figure if I can get close the spell checker will be able to give me the proper suggestion. The spell checker has become a crutch, and yet I hobble around without it and hit publish post without using it more than fifty percent of the time. I found this ironic and decided it was worthy of a post. I now realize that post would have been really short, and you would have missed out on the amazing mental picture (or would it be mental taste) that is liverwurst and peanut butter. Not to mention the lesson in how to convince your husband that your criticism is really a good thing. Informative stuff tonight folks! I hope you enjoyed it.

Now it's time to spell check.

See...
I spelled punctuation puncutation
Proper accidentally got two p's
Liberally ended up with only one l
and I really did think that liverwurst was liverswurst
(but I don't eat the stuff, so how should I know?)
but they are all fixed now.

Crazy Week

2009-03-06T20:07:00.004-05:00

Wow. Since my last post things have been kinda nutty over here. I intended to make the Taco Soup on Wednesday, but I realized later that I was short one can of pinto beans and the can of diced tomatoes with green chiles. The tomatoes with green chiles really shocked me too, because I use those all the time to make salsa. I usually have several cans on hand, but with the hubby being out of work, the pantry is not as full as usual. Since I really like green chiles, I didn't want to make the soup without them. Therefore a trip to the store was needed.

Wednesday morning was my first official shift as a server. It went pretty well. Then the manager asked me if I could cover a shift that night. Being the helpful person I am, I said yes. In retrospect I should have said ~~no way in hell~~ no. I had barely two hours from the time I got off until I had to be back. I was in no mood to go to the store during this precious reprieve from work, so I came home and sat down instead. Of course then I didn't want to get back up, but I did. The evening shift did not go as well as the morning. Some really big parties came in and where did they decide to seat them? In my section of course. My first real day as a server and they put a party of 10 in my section. I do not even want to attempt this and ask another server to take them. He just got sat a party of 6 and doesn't want both, so I offer to take the 6 and he agrees. Just when I'm thinking that things are under control, they seat a party of 16 people in my section. Of course I flip out and tell the manager on duty that there is NO way I am ready for that. Mercifully she gets another server to take the 16, but I have to take 2 of her tables in trade. That's cool. I can handle that. Or not. So now I have her two, plus the other guy's one, plus a couple in my own section and that's when things went downhill rapidly. I was so frazzled that I put the wrong table number down on one party's order, so of course their food got delivered to the wrong table. There went that tip. By the time it was over I was so mentally and physically exhausted I just wanted to pass out. Thursday morning I worked again. I came in and found that they had created me a special little 3 table section where no big parties could possibly be seated. Yippee!! The manager that was on Thursday morning was the same one that had been on the night before. She told me that she wanted me to succeed and wanted me to have a section I could handle. Thursday was a good day.

After work Thursday, I finally had time to go to the store and get the missing Taco Soup ingredients. By the time I got home at 4:15 after picking the kids up from school, I didn't exactly have time to start the Taco Soup and have it ready for dinner. And I had to leave at 5 to go pick up my oldest from cheer practice and then go to a PTA meeting at 6. I decided I didn't want to waste gas driving her home and then going right back to the school, so I whipped up some red beans and rice, packed some for us to eat and was out the door again.

Today I finally got everything for Taco Soup in the crock pot. Actually I got everything in but the meat. I left the browning of the meat and depositing it into the crock pot up to the hubby since I was running out of time to take the kids to school. Lately he's been taking them to school most days, but I needed to make fliers for a PTA fundraiser that is next week, so I took them. He did the meat and got it into the crock pot.

I have to say it turned out pretty good. I did add some water since some of the comments on the recipe stated that it wasn't very soup like. I didn't put a packet of ranch in there because it sounded slightly odd and to be honest, I forgot it when I was at the store. Today my mom emailed me a link to this online cookbook because of it's crock pot recipes. Taco Soup was in there too but theirs called for just one can of everything and the one packet each of taco and ranch seasoning so I wondered if it would be under seasoned. I finally decided to try some of the soup even though nobody else seemed to be hungry yet and did think that it could use a little more taco flavor. I just added some more taco seasoning, so we will see if that kicks it up a bit. I also added a drop of ranch dressing to my bowl to see what the ranch would do to the flavor after I had several bites. I was totally cool with dumping half a bowl if I didn't like it, but not so adventurous with the whole batch. I have to say, I liked the flavor that it added and I will certainly put the ranch seasoning in next time.

New Friends

2009-03-03T20:45:00.003-05:00

Between yesterday and today I've read a whole bunch of blogs. Going to my favorite blogs and then checking out their faves or people that have commented on theirs, and then checking out their faves and comments. Does that make sense? So I've ended up on some that I'd have a hard time tracking my way back from, but I've found some real gems. Check out my blog list on the right to see the new friends. I removed a few from there too, because even though I'm still following them, they don't post that often. I didn't want the list to get too long that nobody would look at it. So check it out. I totally found a blog all about crock pot recipes. This lady is using her crock pot EVERY DAY for a year. Now you know how I LOVE my crock pot, but every day is a little too much crock potty goodness for me. But that only means that 365 crock pot recipes could last me like 3 years!!! I'm so excited. I found a recipe for Taco Soup on there that I'm totally trying tomorrow. Great thing is I have EVERYTHING already in my pantry. Including the pinto beans even though I don't recall where they came from. I'm quite sure that I didn't buy them, because I've been wondering what to do with them for awhile. Now I know. I just wish I had found it this morning because right now I need to go make something for my family to eat tonight.

Thank you

2009-03-02T21:14:00.001-05:00

A big thanks to Melanie for popping back over and fixing my hiding linky problem. You can see them now. See. They are orange. YAY! Why didn't I just email her a week ago when I first noticed this instead of staring at the code for hours trying to find what was doing it. It seriously took her 3 minutes.

What's for dinner?

2009-03-02T19:01:00.004-05:00

Almost every afternoon my Facebook status is set to wondering what to make for dinner. Today was no exception. Since nothing exciting was happening on Facebook, I decided to hop over here to see if any of my bloggy buddies had posted since I was here this morning. To my delight, Alexis had posted, and not just posted, but posted a recipe for Creamy Beef Fold Over Pie, which looks uber yummy and I'm totally trying tonight.

Unlike Redneck Mommy who posted this. I will not be trying that, anytime in this lifetime.

By the way, since my nifty blog re-design, all my links are showing up the same color as the regular text, so you have to mouse over them to find them. I don't like this so much, because if I've linked to someone, I want it to be kinda obvious for everyone's ease of use. I've tried to change it, but there seems to be some kind of font color override in the code because no matter what color I try to change the links to, they remain brown. So until I'm able to figure out this latest bit of html mystery, if ever you think that I should be linking to something, mouse around and I'm sure you will find it. For instance there are two links above.

Gotta Love Him

2009-03-01T23:38:00.003-05:00

All day today I've been mostly lounging and goofing around on the internet. A little Facebook, a lot of blogs. I've been here for hours reading my faves and finding new faves. So it isn't surprising that my hubby would like some attention. I'm in the bedroom with my trusty laptop. He's in the living room on the couch. He invites me to come watch a movie with him. It goes a little like this.

Him: Honey, want to come watch Descent with me?
Me: What's that?
Him: Some movie about girls that go underground and get chased by some creature.
Me: Um.... I think I'll take a big passeroo on that one good buddy
Him: Ok fine (in that it's most definitely not fine and you are going to hear about your blogger addiction from me later voice)
Me: Well sorry, but I'm not big into the whole creature chasing girls in rat tunnels genre of movies
Him: But the chicks are supposed to be hot

When I grow up Part 2

2009-03-01T17:58:00.007-05:00

Ok, wow. What a spirited comment from my good friend Beth in regards to my last post. Out of everything she knows about me (and she knows EVERYTHING) this post shocked her. SHOCKED with capital letters even. And trust me when I tell you, there are a few other things that she knows about me that I would have thought she would find slightly more shocking.

So in light of that, yes, let me clarify. In Junior High, when asked, I wanted to be a stay at home mom. In High School I hated all those personality test things that were supposed to tell us our perfect career, because I wanted to be a mom. When I went to College, I took child development courses because they would help me to be a better mom. In freshman English I got a D on an essay I wrote on gender issues because the feminist teacher didn't like my stance on stay at home parents.

Basically I wrote a paper stating that I felt the decline of our society was caused by the lack of parental supervision at home. That I felt that in most cases most families could get by on just one income so that one parent (I didn't specify which one, because I don't think it has to be the mom) could stay home, but it would mean not having matching Beemers in the driveway of their McMansion. Seriously, how many hours a week do you think parents are working a week to afford that kind of shit? And meanwhile their neglected kids were building bombs in the garage or wreak other havoc in their neighborhoods. So I feel that if you are willing to forgo the Beemer and the big house to stay home with your kids, our world will be a better place. I sure as shit know that if my kids built so much as a pup tent in my garage I would know about it. And if they were having trouble making friends and acting odd, I'd take them to a freaking therapist, every day if necessary, until they were well adjusted.

But I guess I'm drifting a little off topic. By now you get Beth's point. You understand why her world got turned on it's head when I said that I feel that something is missing.

Here's the thing. Being a stay at home mom is still looked down upon. Even though there are websites like this momsalarywizard that tells me that the work I do for my family is worth $124, 628 a year (that's more than my husband makes, hehe). Like I said in the last post, my husband gets it. He didn't always. When I was pregnant with our first and said I wanted to stay home with her he said "Until she goes to preschool right?" Of course by the time she went to preschool I had another baby at home and the same with my third. Over the years I have had a chance to impress upon him the fact that it isn't just when they are small that they need parental supervision and guidance. I think all it really took was asking him if he really wanted our kids to be doing the things he was doing as a teenager while his parents were at work. So when our youngest went off to Kindergarten, he was in no big hurry for me to re-join the workforce. Although he humors me when I talk about a career, he's just as happy if I stay home. He really thinks that the part time arrangement I have right now is perfect. I work only while the kids are in school, and even though I don't make a lot of money, it gives me a little spending cash and lets me get out of the house and talk to some grown ups. He realizes now the importance of me being home when the kids get home from school. The fact that he has a pathological fear of school busses helps too.

I think it boils down to how you define success. I look at some of the people I went to high school with and they have become doctors and lawyers. No doubt people would say that they are successful. People look up to them for the fortitude they had to endure all those years of schooling to earn those degrees. I feel that my status as a stay at home mom isn't as prestigious. For some reason I'm embarrassed to say that I'm JUST a mom, and I feel the need to find some kind of career that will earn me the respect that the doctors and lawyers are getting, but at the same time I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice the time I have with my kids to have a career like that. Not for all the money in the world. Certainly not for a Beemer and a McMansion. So maybe what I should be looking for is not which career I should choose, but how to be proud of the career I CHOSE. Maybe I should stop worrying about what everyone else thinks, and listen to my good friends who know how successful I am. Thanks Beth.

When I grow up...

2009-02-27T23:26:00.006-05:00

I am now qualified to serve people food. Today I passed the test that the restaurant gives to make sure you can sling food according to their standards. I'm still not graceful with the trays, but I didn't drop anything this week while I was training. We will see how it goes. I'm still not sure that this is the career path I really want to be on. I mean sure, if I keep doing it eventually I could become the manager, but is that really what I want to do?

I just turned 35 this week and I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up.

When I get on this kick, my husband tells me one of two things,

One, he tells me I don't have to work, and that being a mom to his kids and making sure they grow up to be productive members of society is a hard enough job. I know, he really is a prince, right? And for those of you who know him, and know that he can be an ASS sometimes, THIS is why I love him. Because when it comes to the really important stuff, he's good, he's really good.

Or two, he tells me to just pick something already, because you see in the 16 years that I have known him I have wanted to be :
A. The owner of my very own pool hall
B. High school math teacher
C. Bartender
D. Nail technician
E. Hairstylist
F. Graphic Designer
G. Coffee shop owner
H. Scapbooking store owner
I. Preschool teacher
J. Pharmacist
K. Interior designer
L. Artist

And in those years the jobs I have held are:
A. Daycare worker
B. Parking lot attendant
C. Car Salesperson
D. Car Service Cashier
E. Customer Service Rep
F. Accounts payable clerk
G. Human resources administrator
H. Tupperware lady
I. Automotive billing clerk
J. Starbucks Barista
K. Major chain bookstore department lead
L. Restaurant hostess

You would think that maybe, just maybe, out of all these things I would find the one that I was really good at, the one that I could see myself getting up to go do every day for the rest of my life, but no. It's not like I didn't like any of them, I just got bored. I think it's because of my ADD, but I've rarely spent more than a year at any job I've ever had. I just wake up one day and feel like the job is sucking the life out of me and if I stay there any longer I will curl up and die, and then I formulate and exit strategy.

So here I am at 35, still wondering what to do with my life. Maybe I am just meant to be a mom. Not that I don't agree that being a mom is a job in and of itself. Not that I don't think that raising productive members of the next generation isn't just about the most important job out there. But I still feel like something is missing, that I cannot spend the rest of my life being defined as someone's mom.

My latest kick has been the pharmacist thing. The years of schooling are something that I just can't get my head around though. Not to mention the money. One of my friends suggested that I look into becoming a Pharmacy Technician. The school isn't as long or as expensive, and it would give me a chance to work in a Pharmacy and see if I even really liked it enough to want to go spend years learning how to do. And if I got lucky, the pharmacy might help pay for some of the tuition to actually become a Pharmacist. So I looked into Pharmacy Technician programs and gave up because they still cost a lot of money and the schools were not exactly close to my house. Last week I found out that the local community college has a program and it only costs $915. The catch, the next class doesn't start until May. So come May, if my ADD hasn't sent me off in a completely different direction by then, I'll go. I actually did put a reminder on my calendar for April to remind myself to sign up, just in case.

Chores

2009-02-22T00:01:00.003-05:00

I was just reading this post at Because I Said So about chores. I left a comment, but when it started to feel like I was leaving a small novel on her comment form, I decided that I should come back here to write out all my thoughts in their entirety.

The question she asked was "those of you with more than one child, how do you distribute chores among your children? Do your older children have more responsibilities or not? Do you make the older kids help out with younger ones? Do you feel that with age, come more responsibilities and more privileges or do you strive to treat all children exactly the same?"

My answer is a little of both. Whatever the chore, whether it's laundry, setting the table for dinner, doing dishes, or caring for the pets, each child has an age appropriate job to do.

At laundry time, my littlest one helps sort the clothes. As soon as your child knows their colors, they can help make piles of the colors. My oldest helps me with actually putting the soap in the washer and folding the clothes. My middle child helps put them away into the right closets.

At dinner time, the oldest pours milk for everyone. The middle one is responsible for laying napkins at everyone's place and helping take the plates to the table, the little one gets the silverware. When they were younger the little one did napkins, but now she's a little older and wanted to do a bigger job. We gave napkins back to the middle one and added the plates.

After dinner everyone is responsible for rinsing their dishes and loading them into the dishwasher, I put away the leftovers, the oldest washes up anything that doesn't go into the dishwasher, the little one wipes down the table, and the middle on unloads the dishwasher after it has been run.

When it comes to the pets, the oldest is in charge of making sure they all have food and water. Even though these are jobs the little ones could do, I can't count on them to do it on a regular enough basis to ensure the pets don't starve, so the oldest gets it. The younger two are responsible for picking up the dog poop in the back yard. I give them some latex gloves and a grocery bag. Lucky for them we have little dogs with little poops. We also have cats and I change the litter box.

You notice that on most of these lists, I include myself. I try to teach them that it is a team effort to make the house run smoothly and that includes me. It also cuts down on the amount of complaining they do about their chores. It's hard to complain about how hard you are being made to work when every time you are asked to do something everyone else is working too. I also don't pay the kids for doing these chores. I explain to them that nobody pays me to pick up my room, do the laundry, cook dinner... some things are just a part of life and you have to do them.

Now there are times that the younger ones are dragging butt about getting their rooms done and I don't have time to pick them up because I'm busy mopping, cleaning toilets, etc. and yet I really need them picked up so I can get in there with the vaccum. At those time I will ask my oldest to pick them up and I pay her $5 for each room for the favor. This keeps me from asking her too often.

Why I love my crockpot

2009-02-17T14:46:00.005-05:00

I know this isn't surprising to you, I've talked before about how great the crockpot is, but I've just learned to make yet another thing in it!! Refried beans. A frend of mine gave me a bag of pinto beans when she moved. I guess I should clarify, she didn't just give me a bag of beans as a going away present, she gave me most everything that was in her fridge and pantry because they would be too much of a hassle to move. Included in those items was a bag of beans. So I've been looking at this bag of beans wondering what the hell to do with them. I usually buy my refried beans in a can. Finally I decided that I had these beans, I should figure out what to do with them. A short internet search later and I had a recipe for vegetarian refried beans made in the crockpot. That one little bag made as much refried beans as comes in two of the big cans, AND they were way yummy. Oh, and cheap since the bag and all the ingredients cost less than one regular sized can. Since there was very little work either, I can't even complain that my time is worth money. I don't think I'll ever buy refried beans in a can again.

Crockpot Refried Beans

Ingredients:

3 cups dry pinto beans
9 cups water
1 onion, diced
1/2 jalapeno pepper, de-seeded and minced (I didn't have jalapenos sitting around, so I used a teaspoon of a chipotle seasoning I have)
3 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 1/2 Tbsp. of the pre-minced garlic in a jar)
1/2 tsp cumin
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Prep:

Some of the recipes I found said to soak the beans overnight, dump the water, and cook them in fresh water, others didn't. Since I'm lazy, I opted to skip that step. Both ways the cooking time was the same, so I didn't see the point. If you feel that you have to soak them, go right ahead.

Combine all ingredients in the crockpot, cover, and cook on high for 8 to 10 hours. If your beans are old, they are going to take longer. I ended up cooking mine on high for 7 hours and then on low for another 7 overnight while I slept since they weren't done before bedtime.

When they are done you will be able to mush them easily with a fork. Drain and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher. Add in as much of the reserved liquid as necessary to achive the desired consistency.

Some recipes suggested putting small quantities in the blender and using that to mash them. Since this would have created more dishes to wash, I opted against it. The beans were soft enough that it didn't take me long with the potato masher. But if you don't have a potato masher, or have a broken arm or something that would prevent you from using one, a blender will work too.

Valentine's Day

2009-02-16T16:01:00.004-05:00

Like Christmas, Valentine's Day is one of those days that my hubby and I mostly ignore. It falls at a time of the year that we are usually broke, and I'm not so into chocolates, flowers, cards, and especially lingerie.

Chocolate is not my favorite candy. I guess this makes me very un-girl like since chocolate is supposed to be like the best shit on earth for women. The problem with boxes of chocolate is this, I don't like any with creamy centers, or other odd stuff I can't identify. If they are filled with caramel they are good, all the others are nasty. When I was a kid I used to bite into them and if they were filled with yucky stuff, I would spit them out and put the other half, bite marks included, back in the box. My mom convinced me this was nasty and encouraged me to use a knife to cut them open to see what was inside. I would eat the caramel ones and leave the others, all cut in half, in the box. So it's just a giant waste to buy me a box of chocolates unless you like all the yucky ones and don't mind them all being cut in half. But then it's really a gift for you and not me then isn't it?

Flowers are also a giant waste. Sure they are pretty, but if you are going to spend fifty to a hundred bucks on me, well, I'd rather have something that won't be dead in a week. It just seems like an enormous waste of money to me. I would much prefer to have some new clothes or something for the house I can look at every day for years and remember that it was a gift.

Now cards are the ultimate waste of money three to five bucks for a piece of cardboard with some words and a picture. I NEVER buy cards. If I'm going to give someone a gift I'd much rather spend that extra few bucks on a nicer gift. I'm always the person shouting out "That's from me/us" at the party. Either that or the kids make a card. They make better cards than the stores anyway. If I'm getting a gift, I'd rather have a gift that I can enjoy, not a piece of cardboard that is going to end up in the trash with the flowers.

So that leaves lingerie. Lingerie sucks. It's uncomfortable and itchy, ridiculously expensive for what little there is of it, and well, you know I'm not going to be wearing it that long anyway, so really what is the point. I'm not going to enjoy one second of it, so it's really not a gift for me now is it?

The only thing I really like about Valentine's Day is the boxes of candy hearts. I heart those things. So do you think that my hubby thought that even though we are broke, he could maybe spend $1 to buy me a box? If he had, I would have been really surprised, but he didn't. So yesterday I hit up Target and got some for myself 50% off. For a dollar I got 8 packs. I'm happy. I also got some little stuffed animals for the girls. 50% off. They didn't mind getting them a day late. I think from now on, I'm going to celebrate all holidays a day late. Think of how much money I could save.

Clumsy girl learns to be a waitress

2009-02-16T15:06:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about how I was going to start serving food at the restaurant where I work. How I was scared shitless about dropping trays of food all over the customers. Yeah. So the manager has apparently decided that I need the short bus training and scheduled me to learn to take to go orders before doing the regular training. I spent Friday and Saturday night learning how to input orders into the computer and practicing my new found skills on the customers who called ahead orders. Everything was going fine until they decided, in all their infinite wisdom, that I should take food to tables too. Now I realize that when I start serving I'm going to have to take food to tables, but I also know that I'm not going to start off working Friday nights either. This particular Friday night they were super busy and not only was the restaurant filled to capacity, there were three times as many people working as I am used to during the day. There were bodies everywhere and it was impossible to walk anywhere without bumping into someone. It was like trying to do brain surgery in a clown car. So someone decides it will be a good idea to send me out to a table with a GIANT tray, filled not just with baskets of burgers, but plates of entrees, something that is served on a cast iron plate, and SOUP. SOUP!!! What were they thinking??? I managed to carry the tray to the table, but there were no empty tables nearby for me to set this monstrosity on. As I was trying to maneuver my way around the table so I wouldn't have to pass food over their BABY, I got my right foot stuck on a high chair at the next table over. I feel myself about to not only drop the tray, but fall on top of it myself. NOT GOOD. So I put my left foot in front of me to try to avoid falling. I am now standing frozen with my left foot crossed in front of my right, knees bent, but miraculously still holding the tray. It was like a game of twister gone horribly, horribly wrong. The lady with the baby says "Good save". At this point I'm feeling pretty proud that I managed to not drop the tray, and I'm pretty confident I can stand up and get my feet untwisted without dropping the tray, but I still have no clue how I'm going to get any of the food off of it. Just then the manager saw me posing awkwardly with the tray and came over to help. I held the tray and she took the food off. All I can say is this is going to be an interesting experience.

Facebook might be evil

2009-02-11T22:23:00.002-05:00

Remember my friend Facebook? Well Facebook is taking over my life. My hubby is calling me a Facebook whore. Between all the lame gifts and drinks everyone is sending me, I spend a lot of time on there just sending stuff back to everyone. The other day one of my friends sent me the never ending interview. Think of it as a meme that goes on literally FOR EVER. This is a problem for me. Although my ADD sometimes causes me to have the attention span of a gnat, I can also hyper focus. One of the ways I have learned to deal with the short attention span is to not stop anything before I'm finished, because I rarely will come back and finish. Now I get all anxious if I can't finish something. Consequently I spent ALL day on Sunday answering over 400 stupid questions and still never finished. On the plus side, in the last week I have reunited with lots of people from high school and even some from elementary school. Even though I could have gone the rest of my life without ever talking to some of these people again, it's kinda nice (in a creepy voyeuristic way) to see how their lives turned out.

I won!!!

2009-02-11T22:01:00.003-05:00

Thanks to those who commented on my new pretty blog. I've been so busy moving I totally forgot to announce that I won a contest at sassychicdesigns. She designed everything. Isn't it cute? Oh wait, you guys already told me it was. Thanks!!

So Far.... Not So Good

2009-02-01T16:09:00.002-05:00

So it's been almost a month since my last post. Good thing I didn't wish to be a better blogger, because then I'd be definitely failing. Here is an update on how I'm doing on my wishes.

1. My next house will have a place for my crafting - FAIL

We have officially moved. My new house not only doesn't have room for my crafting, it doesn't have room for me. Or my big ass bed, pool table, most of my pots and pans, linnens, or anything else. The only good thing about it, is it's only month to month, so we are still looking for the house that will have room for my crafting. It's a good thing, because if I had to stay in this house too long, I think I would lose my mind. I seriously think some motels have bigger kitchens than this place. I spent this morning rearranging the kitchen because when we unpacked, we put all the cups in a cupboard that you can't get to when the dishwasher is open.

2. I will get my Etsy shop set up and start selling my crafts - C

I did get the Etsy shop set up, but since I can't find the craft supplies, let alone craft anything in this crackerjack box, the actual selling of stuff is on hold until we move again.

3. I will make enough money to buy the things I want (mainly new furniture) without pulling from the regular budget - A+

Although I don't have room to buy any furniture for this house, I am making progress towards increasing my income. I have decided to try a different project on that work at home thing that I did for a whole 3 days last year, hoping that people ordering flowers will be slightly more intelligent than pre-paid cellular customers. No offense intended to anyone reading this that actually has a pre-paid cell phone, if you are able to read this blog you are obviously not one of the 20 or so people I helped (or attempted to) in those three days. In addition to that I'm actually going to start serving food at the restaurant where I work, instead of just parking people in booths. I'm kinda clumsy, ok I'm really clumsy, and I've been scared shitless of dropping trays of food and everyone laughing at me, but it's time to play with the big kids. It's been a year, and because of my ADD a year is about the longest I stay at any job. Since the economy sucks and there aren't too many jobs to be had, I figure that rather than look for something that isn't out there, I'll just do something else where I am. I'm still scared shitless that I will drop trays of food, but oh well.

4. I will take better care of my health - B

I did actually find a doctor, make an appointment, and see that doctor. Of course she referred me to an ENT and I haven't made that appointment yet. Why? Because I need to have my tonsils out and I don't have time for that right now.

I also finally made an appointment to see the denitist to deal with the tooth that has been bothering me for months. Of course since I had ignored it for so long, it required a root canal, and $300 that I didn't have.

5. I will do a better job of keeping in touch with friends who are spread all over the country - B+

Wow, Facebook, you are my friend. So if my friends are on Facebook, I'm now in touch. For the people not on Facebook, well, I haven't quite figured out what to do about them yet.

6. I will put money away so we can take a nice family vacation this year - C

Since the hubby is still not working, right now we can't afford our bills, let alone save for vacation, but hopefully my different job endeavors will make this one a reality.

7. Lose the pesky last 5 pounds - FAIL

I was all excited this morning. I found my scale. It's been lost for 2 weeks since we moved. I have been able to get into some pants that I have not been able to for a few years, so even without the scale, I thought I was doing well on this one. So I found the scale and put it in the bathroom, in front of the toilet, on the rug, since the bathroom is so small, it was either there or in front of the sink. I weighed myself and it said I had lost 8 pounds since I wrote that last month. I was all kinds of excited. Until the hubby came to me and said "I think the scale might be broken". Apparently putting it on the bathroom rug was making it weigh about 10 pounds less than reality. So instead of being down 8 pounds, I'm really up 2. I think I'll put it back on the rug.

So that's pretty much the update. I'm going to be super busy the next couple weeks learning to not drop trays of food, and ordering people flowers for Valentine's day, I'll try to drop by and write, but I'm not promising anything.

It's a New Year

2009-01-03T10:42:00.003-05:00

It's a new year and it's going to be great. We looked at that house yesterday and if all goes well will be moving in next week. I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do differently in 2009. Call them resolutions if you wish, but I'm just calling them wishes.

My wishes for 2009

1. My next home will have a place for my crafting.

2. I will get my Etsy shop set up, and start selling my crafts.

3. I will make enough money to buy the things I want (mainly new furniture) without pulling from the regular budget.

4. I will take better care of my health.

5. I will do a better job of keeping in touch with friends who are spread all over the country.

6. I will put money away so we can take a nice family vacation this year.

7. I will lose that pesky last five pounds.

Goodbye 2008

2008-12-31T11:50:00.003-05:00

It's New Year's Eve. Tomorrow will be the first day of 2009. Here's to hoping that it will be a better year for us. 2008 kinda blew chunks.

In this new year there are many changes coming. I know we will be moving, but where is still a question. The hubby is still holding out hope for Michigan and starting his business, but I have my reservations. The kids and I have friends here, and after four and a half years, are finally kinda settled here. The thought of starting over again in a new town scares the crap out of me.

The move date is quickly approaching, and so we need to make a decision. Right now the house we have been renting is in escrow and the new owner should take over mid January. If so, we can stay until the middle of March, but no longer. If for any reason the sale does not go through we will have to be out by the end of January.

I've been looking at other houses out here and yesterday found a really nice one. It has a lot of really awesome features that I really love. I like the built in desk in the kitchen where I could put the computer for the kids to use where they could be supervised. Plus it has a 5th bedroom that I have already claimed for an art studio. The room even has wood floors. No worries about glitter in the carpet.

This past year I've really been noticing that there is something missing in my life. I feel like my entire identity is tied to being a wife and a mom. I'm wondering who I am. I realize that the one thing I really miss is my art. Whether it is doing crafty Christmas decorations, sewing, scrapbooking, or painting, I find that even though I have all the supplies, I don't have a place. Starting a project means finishing it and cleaning it up before dinnertime, so most of the time I don't even start.

Thinking about possibly having a place to call my own, a place where I could have all my stuff in one place and not have to dig it out of the garage when I want to work on something, makes me giddy. I don't want to get too excited yet, it's a little early considering I've only seen pictures of this house, but I can't help it, and that makes me nervous. Even as I write this I worry that I may be jinxing it.

And then there's this blog. When I started it in January, I had some vague ideas of what I wanted it to be, but it too has evolved and changed over the last year, becoming things that I would have never imagined. I feel that it too is having an identity crisis. On one hand it's a mom blog, complete with stories and anecdotes about parenting, but on the other hand, it's becoming a crafting blog, as I find more and more other crafting blogs, and get inspired to bring out the long dormant artist in me.

So the question is this... Do you find my blog to be a little schizofrenic? Should I split my blog into two? Should one be more of me on parenting the ADD child, and the other for me the artist showcasing my projects? I'm putting a poll in my sidebar so you can vote.

One of these things is not like the others

2008-12-30T23:01:00.007-05:00

One of these things just isn't the same.

One of these things is not like the others.

Can you guess which one??

If you guessed the ice cream sandwich in the medicine cabinet, you would be correct. The ADD child took it from the freezer, then decided that she didn't want it right that moment, and thought that the medicine cabinet would be a great place to keep it until she did want it. THEN she forgot all about it.

Technically the cup with a penny rusting experiment next to it doesn't belong there either, so I guess I'll give credit for that one too.

ADD and Friends

2008-12-28T21:30:00.002-05:00

I actually wrote this about 4 months ago and it got lost in draft land. I would guess that I wasn't done, got interrupted, had every intention of finishing it later, and promptly forgot. So I give it to you now. Enjoy.

Today another parent asked me if my ADD child had trouble making friends. Of course she does. ADD and social awkwardness go hand in hand. That was an easy question to answer. She then asked me what I did to help her. Not so easy. Not that there aren't a bunch of things I do daily to try to help my daughter make (and keep) friends, just that it was hard to come up with them on the fly like that.

The summer before 1st grade we moved to Arizona, my daughter was diagnosed with ADD, and began taking medication. Her teacher expressed concern that she didn't play with the other kids and preferred to spend recess on her own hunting for bugs. Her teacher also wasn't too thrilled that she liked to bring the bugs to class after recess was over. I will never forget the day she came home and told me she had made a friend. I was thrilled. My joy was cut short by the words that followed. She said "she takes pills too, so we play together so we won't make anyone else sick". We had a long talk that night about ADD not being catchy, that her pills weren't like the kind you take when you are sick, and that they just helped her pay attention better.

One thing that has contributed to her trouble making friends is her lack of ability to read non verbal cues. Kids with ADD see the world very black and white. Concepts like sarcasm are hard for them to grasp. Why anyone would say the opposite of what they mean confuses her. She also isn't good at reading body language and frequently misses clues that the kids she is talking to are bored with what they she is telling them, or are getting annoyed by her actions. So we work on communication skills. How to say what you are feeling, how to express when you are annoyed, and how to tell how tell when others are annoyed with you.

Groups are another thing kids with ADD have trouble with. It's very hard for them to keep up with a conversation with more than one person at a time. It's total sensory overload. Either they shut down and the other kids think they are ignoring them or don't care, or they blurt out something at an inappropriate time. If the group is talking about tv shows, the ADD child may get lost in her own thoughts about her favorite episode of Sponge Bob. By the time she blurts out "wasn't it funny that time Sponge Bob did..... " the group has moved on to talking about the coolest new shoes at the mall. They don't realize that her Sponge Bob comment has to do with the tv discussion of 10 minutes ago, and she can't understand why they are all looking at her like she just landed from Mars. So I explain to her why this happens and try to practice listening skills.

When working or playing in a group she always tries to take over. She wants to pick the game, and make the rules. It's not that she is pushy or bossy, it's just that she needs structure so desperately that she will try to impose her own if none exists. Learning someone elses game or rules is too hard for her to process quickly enough to be able to participate. We talk about how everyone likes to have a turn being the leader and how she can play someone elses game if she takes the time to learn it. I coach her on how to feel confident enough to say "I didn't understand the rules, can you explain them to me again" rather than getting frustrated and walking away.

Even if they all agree to play a game everyone knows like tag or hide and seek problems can occur if the child leading plays differently from the way the ADD child learned the game. I can't tell you how many times my daughter has come to me accusing some other kid of cheating because they learned the game differently. Something as simple as counting to 10 instead of 20 can lead to total melt down. There aren't many kids who will repeatedly come back to play with a kid who constantly accuses them of cheating, so I explain to her that sometimes people learned different ways to play, they aren't cheating, and how to be flexible and play even if they only count to 10.

Coffee Coffee Coffee

2008-12-27T12:43:00.003-05:00

The Secret is in the Sauce is giving away this coffee maker.
I've been seeing the commercials for this thing and it's beyond awesome. Makes one cup at a time. No more stale coffee at the end of the day. It comes with these little single serve things of coffee or you can use your own coffee. My mom got one a month ago and she loves it. To find out more about it you can click here. Then go enter the contest.