So, I just found something out and I thought I would share it with you. Today.....is the last day of April. Really, seriously it is. If you are like me and you think April 1st was just last week, it wasn't. It was a whole 29 days ago. So.....that means tomorrow is May. First. Obviously, if I put my sister Kristy's and my sister-in-law Heather's birthday cards in the mail today (look, who are we kidding, I probably won't get them there today before the mail man comes) chances are they are not going to get them tomorrow. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS. I mean HAPPY BIRTHDAY Y'ALL! (dang it, I hate it when I do that)(forget to say y'all) OK, at this point, the only reason I am still typing is not because I actually have anything to say. It is because I am avoiding cleaning my kitchen. Ummmmm.....soooooo.......whatchalldoin'?
You know what really irritates me? When I go to the grocery store and spend a good 5 minutes picking out apples that are bruise free, then I go to check out and the clerk just carelessly drops the apples on the counter or throws them over to the bagger. I wanna say, "Ummm, HELLO! Have you never eaten an apple before in your life?" Is there some secret code that binds all grocery store clerks to apple abuse or something?
Addison is now sporting a lovely black (more like a light purplish) eye and a bruised cheek. She was on her changing table yesterday and I opened the drawer below her to get an outfit out for her to wear. She, being at the age where she can't hold still for more than 1/8th of a second, flipped right off the changing table and landed in the open drawer. Thankfully that saved her head from any further damage. Unfortunately her face caught the side of the drawer on her way in.
Addy has also learned a great trick of sliding down the car seat thing that goes across the chest and she takes her arms completely out of the straps. I turn around and regularly find her just sitting in her car seat with no shoulder straps. And she gives me this big cute smile that says, "Hey mom! Look what I can do!"
The blossoms on a flowering pear tree smell like poop. I have 3 of them planted by my driveway. It took me a whole 2 days to figure out where that horrid smell was coming from. Zac is actually the one who figured it out.
My kids spent the night at my mom's house on Friday night. What did Steve and I do? We ate at an old persons restaurant (Steve is over 40, so he fit in just fine) because we didn't want to have to wait for a table at another one. Then we went to Home Depot to pick out lights for our new house. It was actually kind of fun. Is that sad?
Steve told me the other day that he is not attached to our new house. He doesn't want to get attached, just in case we can't sell this one. Can I just tell you how much that pissed me off? Lemetellyousomething. I AM attached. That is my freakin' house and I am moving into it and that is where I am going to spend the rest of my days (may they be long). And he has to be lying. He says he's not, but I don't see how he isn't. He is there ALL DAY EVERYDAY. If you could go to my new house, you would be attached to it. We could never build another house in another place like that because there is no other place like that. There is a huge horse ranch behind us, gorgeous view in every direction, open space with no houses on one side, walking trail on the other that leads down to a duck pond. Sorry! Like I said, that's MY house. I am gonna raise my kids there, my grandchildren are going to come visit me there, and I am going to die there (may that be many, many decades from now) and be buried in a hole in the backyard. He's not attached? Sorry honey, we are a package deal at this point, me and that house.
Steve has this ability to back up a vehicle that is just.....he's really good at it. He pretty much wrote the book on parallel parking. He can honestly drive better backward than forward, and he is an excellent forward driver. He can back into any space, anywhere, expertly. The other day, I needed air in my tires and he needed air in his big work trailer tires. So we drove to the gas station together. He backed his big old trailer into this little tiny narrow space. He seriously had maybe an inch on either side before he hit something. He just backed that puppy right into that little space effortlessly, on the first try. I don't know why.....but there is something about..... watching him back things up like that.....sigh.....that I find rather.....appealing.....Sorry. That's probably more than you needed/wanted to know.
We are Fox News Channel types around our house. However we do make a nightly exception when we switch over to CNN to get our daily dose of Beck. Farrah, this one's for you:
As previously stated on this blog, I belong to The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. In other words, I am a Mormon. There has been an awful lot of talk about Mormons on the news lately. I was watching a Dr. Phil the other day and the topic was on the whole polygamy thing goin' on down in Texas. The good Doctor kept referring to them as the "Mormon Cult". After a few minutes of it, I really wanted to go and shake the heck out of my TV. Those people have nothing to do, or no affiliation with the Mormon church. So I got this e-mail from my sister-in-law this morning. I thought it was funny, so I thought I would share it with you, just to clear up any misconceptions.
For those of you who have been watching the news and may have wondered..
Some Mormon women sing...
Some Mormon women dance...
Some Mormon women write scary stories...
Some Mormon women have lots of money and really great hair...
I know hundreds of Mormon women. They do all kinds of different things and live all different kinds of lives.
This woman served as a leader in the Mormon church.
She recently spoke to teenage girls worldwide. She encouraged them to stand up to peer pressure, strengthen their families and serve others.
None of the Mormon women I know look like this...
None of them are marrying off their teenage daughters and-- although some may joke about wanting a sister-wife (preferably one who is really fat & ugly, does bathrooms and changes diapers)--none of them really want to share their husband with anyone.
Furthermore...
Some Mormon guys can throw a ball...
Some Mormon guys yell at the ball...
Some Mormon guys make scary movies...
Some Mormon guys have a lot of money and really great hair...
I know hundreds of Mormon guys. They do all kinds of different things and live all kinds of different lives.
This is one of the leaders of the Mormon church.
Last Sunday he spoke about honoring women, especially mothers, and gave advice to husbands and children about how to treat the women in their lives.
None of the Mormon men I know look like this...
The Mormon men I know are honest and hard-working. They don't cheat, smoke, drink or gamble. And TRUST ME....the last thing any of them want is another wife.
So that was the end of the e-mail, but I just couldn't leave out my most favorite famous Mormon:
And speaking of Mormon women who write scary stories, I just found out from my friend Megan that this movie is coming out on my birthday! You can just tell who each person is playing just by looking at them. I am so excited.
Anyway, I am not trying to make light of a serious situation. I really feel sorry for the women and children of that polygamist compound. My heart goes out to them. Especially the children who have been so brainwashed and have no knowledge of the outside world. I hope that things can work out for them so that they can have somewhat normal lives.
I was going to put some interesting facts about the Mormon church (that actually isn't the name of our church, that is a nickname given to us by people outside of our church) but I have 2 little girls who have been patiently waiting for me to get off the computer so I won't. If you want to know more about the beliefs of our church you can click here.
I did find some interesting facts about our church's humanitarian efforts. Click here to read them.
I'm so excited (and I just can't hide it). I just got home from picking the kids up from school. I opened my mailbox and there was great news in there. When I was trying to find out about registering Aubrey for Kindergarten next year in the school in our new neighborhood, I found out that they have a Spanish program. It is only available for one Kindergarten class. You have to fill out an application to get accepted. I your child is accepted they will remain in the same class for the entire K-6 grades. For 1/2 the day their class is in English. The other 1/2 of the day is completely in Spanish. The teacher doesn't speak in English to them at all. By the time they leave the program in 6th grade they are fluent Spanish speakers. We just got the letter of acceptance in the mail today. So our little Aubrey will be speaking Spanish. And it will be her responsibility to teach it to the rest of the family. Do you think that is too big of a burden to put on a 5 year old? Ole!
So apparently an entire week passed me by without my knowing it. I just went to send out an e-mail reminding my book club that we are meeting this Wednesday, when they actually met last Wednesday. I was really busy with a lot of stuff. Thank you Alicia and Farrah for missing me. As for everyone else...... I know that deep down inside......you missed me too. You were just too broken up to say anything about it. Don't cry. I'm back.
Current song stuck in my head, and it has been a whole week since I heard it on American Idol:
SHUT IT UP!
Speaking of American Idol and Mariah Carey, I couldn't help but notice when she was performing her hair was blowing so nicely in the wind. I have never seen any one's hair blow on AI. And even after it was over, when she was standing there talking to Ryan her hair was still blowing. And I couldn't help but wonder if when she is walking down the street, if she has people walking in front of her with fans. I mean she is the diva of all divas. When was the last time you saw her hair hold still?
My mom had some gummy bears at her house and I just couldn't resist having a few. It took me back. Way back to 4th grade at Reinhardt Elementary. When gummy bears were all the rage. I really hate it when people say "all the rage" but I just couldn't think of any other way to word it. So much for creative writing. I remember when they first came out and we would lick the back and stick them on our shirts. Whenever I eat gummy bears I remember riding in the back of Michelle Calvo's truck (they had a top on, what do you call those things?) with a bunch of our friends on our way to a BA football game to hear her brother perform in the band. We had a big honkin' bag of gummy bears with us.
Addison is sick. Again. Croup, bronchiolitis, and an ear infection. I get to fight with her every 4 hours while trying to give her a breathing treatment.
We had an open house Saturday. We had several people come through, but no bites. My mom said I need to let everyone know that our house is for sale so if they know someone looking for a house, they can tell them about ours. So ok, everyone, my house is up for sale. I know that most of you reading this know SOMEONE who lives here. So get on the ball and find someone to buy my house! SIGH! What have you been doing, just sittin' around?
My children's dresser drawers are stuffed and overflowing and it is making me crazy. The problemo? Winter clothes mixed with spring clothes. Why? Why don't I just put away all the winter clothes, you ask. Because our weather varies a little from day today. You know it's like 78 degrees one day, the next it is 48 and snowing. Lovely.
I have all these plants and flowers at my house now, 'cause you know, I was trying to be all fancy pants at my open house. Well, there is a reason why I never have had plants or flowers before. It makes me crazy to have to go around and water them all every day. And it has only been 2 days. I am a firm believer in taking care of the living things that have come forth from my womb, and only those things. I wonder how long the flowers will last.....(don't worry, if I happen to be watching your kids, I make an exception)
I did consider getting a dog yesterday. When Addison eats at my house, there is disaster all over the floor beneath her. When she eats at my mothers house, the floor beneath her is spotlessly clean. Why? Because Bean-O (my brothers dog) stands at attention right next to the high chair when she is eating. I don't even think the food has a chance to hit the floor. That would be nice, to always have a clean kitchen floor. The only problem is that eventually Addison will outgrow the whole food on the floor thing, and then we will be stuck with this.....dog. And in case you missed it a minute ago, I have this belief about caring for things not of my womb. Not exactly a belief, per say, but really, just an inability on my part. I feel like I am doing pretty good to feed and love and nourish and bathe the 4 living creatures I HAVE to feed and love and nourish. Why throw something more into the mix?
You know a while back when I thought I broke my toe? Well that finally healed but the side of my foot right under my pinkie toe hurt really bad, so I started thinking I might have broken some little bone that connects my toe to my foot. It still hurts really bad. In fact, I woke up just this morning thinking, dang, my foot really hurts. Well, let me tell ya, if I thought it hurt then, oh was I in for a treat. I have a daughter who oft times wakes up in a less than pleasant mood. This morning was no different. She woke up and decided that she really needed to go to the bathroom right then. Well, unfortunately for her, her little sister had just woken up and was already using their bathroom. The first sister decided that the second sister was taking far too much time, so she was trying to shove her off the toilet before the second sister was finished. I heard the commotion and went to see what the problem was this time. Well, at this very moment my house is SPOTLESSLY CLEAN. A phenomenon that doesn't occur very often. In fact this might be the first time. Anyhoo, I wanted it to stay that way, but I soon realized if I didn't do something and do it quick we were going to have a pee problem. Because sister #2 was about to get pushed off the toilet in the middle of doing her business and sister #1 was doing the potty dance in between shoves. So I took sister #1 by the shoulders and started guiding her to another bathroom. She threw an even bigger fit. We only have 4 bathrooms in this house, but you would have thought I was trying to force her out back under a bush or something. Well, in the struggle her foot caught my previously damaged pinkie toe and pulled it away from my foot. YOUCH! I think I might have cried. It hurt so bad. And it still hurts. And it is all blue and purple again. And my foot really hurts. I was not very happy.
Sorry to leave the music on for so long. I only planned on having it up for one day and one day only but today kind of got away from me.
Am I the only one who was disappointed with The Office last night. I just didn't think it was that funny. I think they need to keep the office in the office. I don't know, I guess it just felt a little forced to me. You give those writers a little time off and everything just goes to heck.
As for my poll. The correct answer is 24 hours.
I have a horrible sinus infection. Although I am a thousand times better today than I was yesterday (thank goodness for antibiotics). I went to the doctor and I thought you would be happy to know that the receptionist only had white eyeshadow on her entire eye this time. No scary triangles. I wanted to reach across the counter and give her a hug.
I went on a field trip with Emily's class today.
I took Emily to the mall tonight to find a dress for her to wear to her baptism. Do I need to go into details, or can I just remind you of our last shopping trip? It only took us 2 hours to find a dress that was modest and baptism appropriate and that we both agreed on.
We went to a mall that is really close to our house. I really don't like that mall and I only go there if I have to and only to go to certain stores there. I wasn't planning on going to that mall, I was going to go to a different one, but Emily insisted she wanted a white dress and I knew that there were 2 different stores in this mall close to our house that would have all white dresses. So we went there. And I remembered why we are moving. Talk about Friday Night Freak Show.
I was able to talk her out of the all white dress. Score! One point for me.
No misspellings found. Score! Two points for me.
Now on to Flashback Friday. This is a picture of Emily and Zac a few years ago. Zac would die if he knew I was showing it to you.
So this is what I am thinkin' about this Thursday:
You hear that? Does that sound make you as excited as it makes me? I must admit, I never used to watch The Office. Ever. Never ever. But then my dear sister Kristy started doing these posts with clips from the show on her blog. They amused me. So I started showing them to Steve. And they amused him too. So we just started this season watching it. Then the writers went on strike. Which might have been disastrous for some Office fans out there. But being that we had 3 whole seasons to catch up on, we were just find and dandy around here. We have watched them all now, except for one disc which is always checked out from the video store when we go. Huhhhh. One of these days. Anyhoo. Yesterday, I bought something I have never bought before and I was so excited. I bought a ringtone for my phone. It is The Office theme song. I get so happy whenever I hear it that I wanted to be able to hear it all the time. I keep calling myself from my home phone just so I can hear it. Anyhoo. Did I already say that? Tonight is the big night. The dinner party. Are you excited?
So I must say I thought my sister was a little crazy when she did her Christmas post. The one where she bought presents for all her Office friends. But I completely get it now. 'Cause they're my friends now too. And I love them. The characters on this show are so well developed. Everything about them is just so well done. I love them. Did I already say that? If I had to go out and find a job, I would want to work at Dunder Mifflin Scranton. And I would want to sit at a desk with Dwight and Jim.
I was listening to Aubrey's sweet little voice the other night when I was putting her in bed. She has a cute little way of pronouncing her R's. As I was listening to her talk, I realized I had done a disservice to my children by not teaching them how to speak properly. So I decided to do a little something about it. The ensuing conversation went a little something like this:
All of my lipstick and chapstick looks like this. All of it. Overnight my sweet little baby has turned into an absolute holy terror. She is constantly into everything. CONSTANTLY. EVERYTHING. It is making me crazy. CRAZY. She just goes from one disaster to another. She pulls everything out of every drawer, cabinet, trash can, anything she can get her hands on. As soon as I finish cleaning up one mess, I turn around to find another. CONSTANTLY. I had just finished frosting a cake last night, threw the frosting container in the kitchen trash, walked into the other room for less than 2 minutes, when I heard the kids calling for me to come see what Addison was doing. Here, see for yourself:
This is a man who needed a break. Aside from running his own business and being the sole breadwinner in our house, he is also the general contractor for our new house. Which means he is always going 24/7. When he isn't at work or at the new house, he is at home typing up bids or researching products and trying to schedule work on the new house. The battry (I didn't misspell it, it's an inside joke)(well OK, I did misspell it, but I meant to) on his cell phone, which starts out fully charged in the morning, usually needs to be recharged by lunch. So when his birthday came around on Saturday, I decided to kidnap him and take him away for a little short rest. After working all day on the new house, I picked him up and took him to a nice hotel where we had in room massages (is that cheating that I got a massage on his birthday?) and room service dinner waiting. It was a very nice break. Happy 41st (I just had to throw that one in) Birthday honey!
Emily was asking Steve what year he graduated from high school. He told her and then she wanted to know what year she would graduate. That is easy to figure out because she was born in 2000. So I said she will graduate in 20-18. That's how I said it, twenty eighteen. But then I started to wonder, is that how people will say it? Or will they say 2,018? 'Cause when you watch movies that are set in the future they always say the year as 20-18 but when we say the year now we way 2,008. I like saying it 20-18. It sounds better than 2,018, don't you think? I think we should start a date reference revolution. If we all start saying the year as twenty-o- eight maybe it will catch on. OK, twenty-o-eight doesn't sound good. Let's wait until 2010 and then start saying twenty ten. I will remind you when it gets closer.
Steve came home from working really late one night. I had stayed up waiting for him to get home. It was after midnight. I had been watching a recording on my DVR and it just ended when he came home. So the TV went to the channel it had been on before I started watching it, which was a sports channel. I muted it because Steve and I were talking. Then we stopped talking and started watching TV. We were both so tired that it took us about 10 minutes to realize that we were just laying in bed, watching silent women's tennis.
We just found out last week that Miley Cyrus (AKA Hannah Montana)(get with the program people) will be performing in a nearby city on the 4th of July this year. My friend and I were both online trying to buy tickets as soon as they went on sale. An hour later, we realized that it just wasn't going to happen. But Steve wouldn't give up, he kept trying for at least an hour after. I was sad, but he was even more sad than me. He was really excited to surprise the girls. I guess we could still go if we want to pay a gazillion dollars for tickets on eBay or something. What is it about a little girl singing that creates such a frenzy?
I made the mistake of buying Emily clothes for her Birthday. And the Easter Bunny made the mistake of putting shoes in her Easter Basket (the Easter Bunny, as previously stated, is cheap. And since everyone needed new spring shoes anyway, they got them in their Easter baskets.) Well, since she wouldn't wear anything that I (or the Easter bunny) picked out we got to go return everything last week. Please just slit my wrists next time. Holy cow! The child is only eight. I told Steve he gets to take her shopping from now on. I was really mad because one of the dresses I bought her was the cutest dress ever. Seriously, if they had it in my size (and if my size were a couple of sizes smaller) I would wear it. (maybe that's the problem)
Look, I even found a picture of it so you can see. Only the one I bought her was deep purple. Tell me that wouldn't be cute this summer with a big head band and sandals. (it isn't as cute in the picture as it was in real life) (Aubrey liked it and she begged me to let her have it and I would have except it was 3 sizes too big) But no. She thought it was the most repulsive thing she had ever seen. So we had to go to several different stores to return everything. I told her, OK, we are taking this back. This is what it cost. You have to find something else that costs the same amount or less. Hours later, and while pulling out my hair and gnashing my teeth, I finally said, "WHATEVER! I DON'T CARE IF IT COSTS $10 MORE! LET'S JUST GET IT AND GET THE HECK OUT!" I honestly don't know what to do. It gets worse as she gets older. And it's not just that she doesn't want what I want her to get. It's that she doesn't like ANYTHING. She would get those shoes, except she doesn't like the one little tiny glitter heart on the side of it. And she would like those shoes if the red were a slightly different color. And she would get that dress if the flowers were this color instead of that. Just finding something that she actually LIKES, regardless of what I think of it or how much it costs, is nearly impossible. And the biggest trick is finding something, getting it home, and then having her wear it more than once before she decides she hates it and will never wear it again.
Anyway, I have more stuff to say, but it is almost 10:00 and I haven't taken a shower yet. Have a Happy Monday!
This is a picture of my brother Sam in my parents back yard in Dallas. It looks like he was probably playing outside in the water and I surprised him with the camera.
You hear it in the news everyday. Analysts debating weather or not we are headed for an economic depression. It's scary. I have been thinking about it for a while now. You can't help but think about it. But what I have been thinking all seems like a catch 22 to me.
Last month, Steve had a booth in the home show. He has had so many booths in so many home shows I can't even count them all. I used to go, way back when he first started. I quickly learned that they are very boring events, so I stopped going. Well, I decided that I hadn't been in years, and to show my support to my loving husband, I decided to go last month. Also I thought, "Hey! I am actually building a house. Maybe it will be more interesting to me now." WRONG. Ok, we did find the tile we want to use for the backsplash in our kitchen, but it is ridiculously expensive so we probably won't use it anyway. And we did talk to a man for a few minutes about a water softener (WOO HOO!). But other than that I just walked around looking at the crazy people spending their hard earned money on CRAP (I really hate that word so when I say it, which isn't very often, I really mean it). CRAP!
I am probably the cheapest person you will ever meet. And I just don't go shopping to go shopping. To me, a trip to the mall is more of a punishment than anything. I wait until we have no options left before I go grocery shopping. I never buy my kids toys except on their birthdays or Christmas, and I didn't buy them any toys for their last birthdays, just clothes.
So anyway, I am walking around the home show watching people and screaming at them in my head saying, "STOP! WHY ARE YOU BUYING THAT?! YOU DON'T NEED THAT!" I was thinking about how much consumer debt we have in our country. How many people are defaulting on their home loans. How many people declare bankruptcy each year. I wanted to tell those people to stop making it worse and go home and put their money in the bank or use it to pay off their credit card bills.
But then I started to think about what would happen if people stopped spending money. I know someone who always has to have the latest and greatest gadget. And everyday something comes out that is better than what was there before. So this person is always buying the new gadget, even though they have practically the same thing 10 times over. And I know for a fact that this person or their family cannot afford it. And I just want to smack this person upside the head and say, "STOP! You big dumb butt!"
But seriously, what would happen if people did stop? What if people didn't want to have all the latest and greatest? We would surely be thrown into a consumer driven depression then. Wouldn't we? I mean, that's the whole point of this new tax refund thing, right? To give people extra money to spend so that our economy will keep going.
But then if people keep spending money they don't have on things they don't need, doesn't that hurt our economy too? We need people to keep spending money to keep our economy going. So it just seems like we have this vicious cycle going on.
So then, I really don't know what the answer is. Do we want people to keep spending money on things of no worth, or do we want them to save it up and pay off their debt? I don't know. You tell me.
