November 30, 2004
Just tidbits
Mostly what we get out of Daniel is "da da" and a whole lot of babbling. Sometimes we think we hear a familiar word, while other times we're just making it up as we go along. Yesterday when I picked him up from school, his teacher said that he was playing blocks and Gabby, one of his classmates, kept taking his blocks. Frustrated, Daniel finally grabbed the block back and clearly told her "NO". I was pretty surprised he'd say that. We've never heard that at home before, but his teacher said she heard him very clearly state to the little girl "no". heh.
His latest stunt is climbing (of course). He squirms and struggles with it, but he manages to get up on our king sized bed now. Let's just say that changes the relaxing quality of our bedroom now, that's for sure. I'm just certain that one of these days, he's going to misjudge the sides and go ass over tea kettle. I had to chase him out of our bedroom this morning. Drivin' me crazy getting into things while I was trying to get ready. Today at work during our staff meeting, we talked of joys in our lives and all I could think of was his smiling little face when he's happy. He doesn't care if he's touching things he shouldn't, he doesn't think ahead that he might fall, all he wants to do is explore everything in his world and who am I to not let him?! =)
Still no Payday game and still no new bedding. I'm going to paint Daniel's closet while Doug is teaching his lab tonight and hopefully clean up his room so we can move stuff in tomorrow. I went to Kid to Kid yesterday hoping to find Daniel a coat. What they had there was not what I was looking for and they were mostly priced at 15.99, so we decided to wait and see what else we could find. On the way home, I stopped at Mervyn's so I could buy the black top that I passed up last week (now on sale), while there I checked for jackets and found Daniel a cute little three-in-one on sale 50% off for 17.99. Go figure that!
I guess I didn't mention my little shopping spree last Wednesday did I? I've been putting off and putting off buying some Fall/Winter clothes for months. I just wasn't fitting into what my normal size was (took care of that by losing ten pounds. Woot!) and plus I just wasn't seeing anything that I liked. Last Wednesday, I stopped into Mervyn's (never had been before) to look for a Christmas sweater to wear on Thanksgiving and walked out of there with six complete outfits and new shoes! Let's just say I called home first to take back my statement of "just looking for a sweater". lol. Oh well, I really needed new clothes and it feels great having choices again.
Doug just left and kids are picking fights already. Oh the joys!
November 29, 2004
Sneak peek!
We finished painting Daniel's room tonight! Not bad. We're getting faster. We started Saturday morning (or was it Friday night?), oh well, we're done, that's what matters now. It is a smaller room with only one closet. We did the walls in bleached denim and trim is white. I did forget to buy "good" white paint, so all we had available tonight to paint with was flat white for ceilings. We'll see how it wears, I wouldn't be surprised if it needs painting again soon.
I still have all the painting supplies scattered everywhere in the room, so no real pictures yet, but here's a little preview of the color:
It may appear greyish on your monitor like it does on mine, but it's actually blue, a faded blue. I'll also post pictures this week of the material I bought for curtains. Even when we put the room together, it's not totally going to be done because he'll have his little chair that he's not getting until Christmas, a desk from Grandma and Pa John and the blinds and curtains that will get put up when they are finished! I'm so glad to have something accomplished this week!
COME ON NEW BEDDING, I'M READY FOR YOU!!!!!!
November 28, 2004
Can't wait!
Wooot!! Our new bedding shipped today! I feel like lately all we've done is spend, spend, spend! Oh wait, that IS what we've done lately! Ha.
I'm still waiting for news on that payday game to be shipped. I paid the person directly after the auction closed, a few days later, they emailed, thanked us for payment and asked for our address explaining that the address did not come through with the payment. We didn't get confirmation that they would ship it right away or anything...when dealing with e**Bay, what's the rule of thumb for shipping items. One week? Two weeks? A month?
Putting sugar cookies in the oven now for a snack and trying to muster up the energy to paint!
Charge it!!!!!!!!
Another big shopping day, well not big as in expensive, just big because I ran around with my one year old everywhere...alone! I picked out some material for curtains for Daniel's room. I didn't go with the denim I initially thought would look good. The color is a little darker than what we expected and I felt that the room needed a brighter lift, not more darkness, so I went with lighter colors in a striped pattern. I'll post pictures of that later. I think it's cute, I hope Doug likes it. Doug's Mom has offered to sew curtains for us!
I did buy this cart cover today at Babies*R*us. I've seen the comments in my earlier entry about these things basically being a waste of time or what not and that's fine, everyone has their opinion about them. For me, I would not be caught dead putting my mouth on the cart handles nor the straps, so I don't want Daniel to either. Whether he squirms or not, this thing will aid in protecting him from crappy shit from other people. I'm not paranoid about it nor am I freaked out about it. I just think the whole grocery cart cover thing is a great idea. If I could have found someone to sew one for me, I would have gladly done that instead!
I've got roast in the slow cooker, must go put veggies on. Big plans tonight...painting and wrapping, we'll see which I get done! Hope everyone had a great holiday, I sure did!
November 27, 2004
Happy Saturday
I started painting Daniel's room last night! Finally! Doug got most of the christmas lights put up yesterday afternoon. He also got a bit of shopping done and I cleaned up the house (although you wouldn't know it now). Pretty productive day. I've got all the kid's gifts sorted, ready to wrap. All of Daniel's is wrapped and stored away for now. We're thinking of putting up the tree this weekend, but I'm not sure I can handle two big projects such as tree and painting, we'll see.
Now that I ordered our bedding, I really need to pick out paint colors for our bedroom. More decisions I'm not good at!
Doug's Mom is coming later today to do a little babysitting for us so we can shop. We may try to sneak in supper at a steak house. Depends on how much time she has today. We only have a short list for the kids left and other people in the family have not been good about providing lists this year. Figures too, the one year I'm all prepared with a list, no one seems interested.
In other news, the boy child slept in until 7:30 today! Woot. Sadly I was up before him though. I'm not sure what woke me up so early, but I didn't bother trying to go back to sleep. Maybe I'll get some painting done. Ooops, reminds me I did NOT take before shots of this room. Oh damn it.
November 26, 2004
Go figure
Daniel actually ate a freakin' french fry from McDonald's. My jaw dropped open when I saw him eat it. We've been trying to get this boy to eat table food for months and of all things, he picks a junky french fry to munch on. Obviously I only gave him three small fries and he won't be getting any for meals, it just shocked the crap out of me. So now I've given him some breadsticks and cheese to try. He's having fun dipping it, but so far I haven't seen any big bites.
We went today to get the bedding I we want, but the store was low on stock, so we decided to go ahead and order it online. It's free shipping anyway so might as well. We also took all the kids with us to get groceries. What fun. Ha ha. Daniel is actually pretty funny. I don't let him sit in the carts at the store (ick!), so we always push him around in his stroller. He's quiet as a mouse until he sees or hears another kid. Today he heard another kid across a few isles yelling and screaming...what's he do? Yells right back. Then laughs. He thinks it's funny. A couple of young kids were running up and down the isle and Daniel was cracking right up. Sure makes the future look joyful with him eh? lol
We're almost done shopping for the kids. We've tallied everything up, counted presents and made small lists of what else to get and we're FINISHED! Doug's step mom's side of the family all decided this year, we'd just submit a list of stores we all like and everyone would get each other a $10 gift card. It'll cost us a total of $60 bucks. So that was easy! I think they wanted to include the parents as well, but I'd need to confirm that. Doesn't seem thoughtful enough for parents, but I don't know yet anyway. We'll see.
I also teased Doug that we still have some more room for a little more shopping for Daniel if we're going to even him out with the other kiddos! I had left a few really wanted gifts for Daniel off our list assuming we could farm those out to parents, but Doug's dad this year doesn't want lists. He's already shopped. Doh. And that's fine that's he's done that, it's just I really wanted Daniel to get a ball, a ride on toy, dishes/tools, table/chairs, grocery cart cover, musical book...etc. ha ha, that's a list right there isn't it? Seriously, I'm thinking we might be able to get a grocery cart cover. I think Doug has a $10 gift card we could use on it (those suckers are $40 bucks!). Or maybe at least a big ball, although Doug's Mom could probably get him that! It's so hard to just stop buying, but I think we've done good this year. I want to say we cut each of their budgets by at least fifty bucks, we also got them fewer items to open because some of the stuff just costs more when you're shopping for kids their ages.
Doug's out putting the lights up on the house. I should get off my ass and help him!
What's on your kiddo's wish list from Santa this year?
November 25, 2004
Old Maid haircut
Okay, seeing as I actually had to get "dressed" today for dinner out, I thought I'd try to get a few shots of the hair do.
First off, please remember that I am still trying to work with it. It's barely a week old. I'm no longer feeling naked with it, but I'm still not on board with it either.
Also, night before last, I took Daniel to W*almart to pick up the Harry P*otter movie for the kids and this girl working electronics had the nerve to ask me if Daniel was my "grandbaby". Can you freakin' imagine that? I was completely horrified! Bitch! I came home and promptly told Doug the stupid haircut was to blame. Gah!
Anyway, here it is....
Slightly different angle.
Back. I like the flip up, however, it never wants to stay nice and perky (sorta like my boobs LOL!). I may need to find new hair product that will hold it.
Anyway, keep your giggling to yerselves. My hair grew out most of this year, so it was down past my shoulders so to me, this was a lot to get cut off. I was hoping I could grow my hair out, problem was it just wouldn't do anything and I always looked messy. Sigh, oh well, the great thing about hair is it does continually grow!
Happy Thanksgiving
I hope you all had a great time today with family and friends. We had a long day, but overall it was a good time. I've always enjoyed large family meals regardless of the Holiday. We were pretty happy with the kid's behavior. All four of them were good. I'm surprised that Daniel was as calm as he was. We ran him around all day between two places for visiting. He was up way past bedtime and he did real well. He's not even real bad getting into things. He just sits and plays and runs around a bit being busy.
In today's flyer's, I finally found some bedding that I love. We've been looking pretty hard for a week or so and I hadn't seen anything that jumped out at me. I've seen a lot of good sales and it figures the bedding I pick out is 200.00. I assume it's on sale. Yikes. Oh well, I really think it has a lot of great colors in it that I can choose paint color from and accessories would be easy! It's in the Lin*ens 'n Thi*ngs flyer. It's called Hampton Court on page 11. I'd post the link to the webpage, but their page was sucking tonight. I hate slow loading pieces of shit. Anyway, I think it's great. Doug is hoping they'll mail out one of those 40% off deal coupons tomorrow, but I think those coupons come from Bed, B*ath and B*eyond. Doug says they come from both, so we'll see. There is at least a 20% off coupon on the back of the flyer. Joy!
I'm going to scoot out and get me some more pumpkin cheesecake pie! Can I just say YUM?!
November 23, 2004
Picture fun
Well as I suspected, last night was a long night with Daniel. It was almost 4 a.m. when he finally stayed down to sleep. He got up just as we were settling in to go to bed and he was up the entire night. It was actually kind of odd. He'd stand up in his crib holding on to the rails, he'd yell out. I'd stand up, he'd lay himself down, wait to be covered up. He'd even turn his own music on if I didn't. I'd get back in bed, not thirty seconds later, he'd do the exact same thing. Repeat that a few hundred times. I changed him once, snuggled him a few times, nothing seemed to work. He just wasn't feeling well. No fever or anything thankfully.
Today at work I got an email from Doug just telling me about how Daniel's been all day (he does this when he's home with Daniel because he knows I miss him). Well knowing it was such a rough night, Doug actually sent me a little link to the pictures he put up of Daniel showing me that he was actually smiling some today. The baby wasn't totally miserable! He was actually having a blast feeding Dexter his cheerios. I thought that was so thoughtful of Doug to do, I actually sent the link around to all the staff at work telling them why I'm so grateful to have such a thoughtful husband!
After I got home today, Doug showed me a few of the pictures that he got after and I just had to share the one of Daniel dancing his little heart out! I've been trying and trying to catch him doing this on camera, but haven't had the kind of luck Doug did today. Check this out:
Isn't that funny? He just bounces and boogies to his jukebox music! Well we're gearing up to watch Harry Potter's new movie that was released today. Of course we've already seen it, but we'll all such great fans, we just need to watch it again!
November 22, 2004
More bidding
Okay, I started bidding on a "used" item tonight. I actually emailed the person to get more information on the condition of said item. This person has a good score with many sales and many positive comments, so I am trusting them to their word when they say it's barely been used and has been kept up out of "harm's way". Plus it is in a non-smoking household. Auction ends tonight, so please keep your fingers crossed for me that I WIN and also while you're hoping, please hope it doesn't get to my max bid LOL! I think my husband will shoot me!
Useless title
It's been cold and rainy here off and on for the past week or so. Daniel finally caught a bit of a cold. His nose is like a faucet and he's cranky. This will be the first time he's been sick since last February. I shouldn't have bragged about it the other day. Bah! At least he's done school until next week! I am hoping it turns into nothing more than a cold.
Doug has Justin out to his End of Year party for Cross Country. He missed the pasta dinner, so Doug thought it'd be a good idea to take him. They are all just meeting at Chili's to eat. Our car is in the shop getting looked at (damn engine lights!). At minimum even if nothing is wrong, it's costing us 140.00 just to have the engine and brakes examined. Yikes. Oh well, the car is getting old, it's paid for and it pays in the end to keep up with maintenance.
I've been out bidded on both auctions now that I was participating in. I did check out that Auction Sniper and I'll use it when the prices seem to be in the range for what I'm willing to pay. For something that used to retail for 14.99, I'm just not willing at this point to pay double that plus shipping. It's hard to not get obsessed with just winning the damn auction. I wonder how often someone bids on their own items just to get the price up? I get annoyed at things like that. I'd like to assume e**Bay tracks that some how. Ha. If I could just buy the damn item online somewhere, that's what I'd do, but it's own website doesn't even sell their products. Ghrrr.
Oh well. On a lighter note, one more day of work for me this week, then I'm off until Monday! Woot! Looking forward to visiting and eating with Doug's family this Thanksgiving. Yum. Well I'm going to run and do some wrapping while I have a chance! Daniel keeps getting into his Christmas toys. We have them covered up in our bedroom and he's determined to start playing already! If he gets at one more thing, I'm just not going to have the heart to take it away. Poor sick fellow!
November 21, 2004
Sunday shopping
Okay I officially hate bidding on things. I should have just bought the item outright even if it was used. Oh well. I'm still high bidder on two er...one (f'n e*Bay) that are brand new in the box, so let's hope I atleast score one of them!!
I went to work today for a few hours. It's really the only weekend day a year that we're asked to come in for a few hours, so that's not so bad. After I got home, Doug took a nap. Poor guy, Daniel does it to him almost every morning. Up at the crack of dawn. The few days that Daniel slept in until 7:30, were days Doug was up with Cody at 6:50. I don't know how he does it. When I lived back home and got up with the kids for school, let's just say I drove them a lot!!
After Doug got up, I talked him into loading up the van for a quick shopping trip. Ha ha. I really wanted to get some new bedding. I'm anxious to pick a color for our room. A few different places had some bed in the bags on sale, but we didn't like any of the choices, so I'll keep looking. I can't remember if I mentioned it or not (I think I did), Doug's Mom is giving us some matching bedroom furniture for our room, so I'm really excited about finally making our room look nice. I really didn't think that would be happening for a couple of years yet, so this puts the pressure on for fixing things up!!
While we were out though, we made a quick trip to Toys**Rus and Tar**get and finished Christmas shopping for Daniel! Doug and I still have our eye on a couple of Little Tikes things though. I spotted a cute table and chairs set and he spotted an art desk he liked. It's so hard to stop buying for little ones. Everything is so damn cute! I do recommend (if you all don't already), jump on Amazon when you get an idea of what to buy and read some parent reviews. I ended up taking one toy back in exchange for another one just because of the reviews being better for toy #2. It's worth it to see how well other parents liked the toy!
Well Doug's ready for bed. We didn't get to sleep until late last night. Seems with the holiday quickly approaching, when my head hits the pillow, my mind (and my mouth) starts racing. I'm just so excited this year for Christmas. I can't stop talking about our list! It's silly, but oh well!!
November 20, 2004
Making a list
We had a sitter today. We got some Christmas shopping done for the kiddos and ate at our favorite place, cheesecake factory. YUM again as usual. I told Doug I'd be content with a gift card and a coupon for babysitting from the parents this year. God I love that place!
We really ran out of time today though. I feel overwhelmed with our incomplete list. I am excited this year though. I'm anxious for Daniel to experience Christmas and I think it's great that we'll have company over Christmas morning again this year!
I placed my first bid on e**Bay tonight. I'm such a loser. While shopping around this week, I discovered that something I have really wanted to buy at some point is no longer being sold. GAH! After the bidding is over, I'll tell you all what it is. I'll probably lose, but I'm hoping I'll win it.
Today we bought this chair for Daniel for Christmas.
It's so cute and little, we totally fell in love with it. Tell me that isn't going to look great in his room! Practically the same wall color (I hope). I can't wait to see him sitting in that watching his videos! God I have GOT to get working on his room soon. I just keep putting it off and putting it off.
I work tomorrow for a few hours. Maybe when I get home I'll paint...or wrap gifts...hmmm what to do, what to do...
Doug said we could put up the tree if we wanted to. I think I'll wait though. I just feel like we have too much on our plates right now. Doesn't everyone right now though? Dying of thirst right now....must get me a Mike's. Night.
November 17, 2004
Bye bye bottles!
Well I'm still feelin' pretty crappy about my hair today, so I'm not posting any pictures yet. It's been raining all day so any style I did put into it this morning didn't last long anyway. It just feels too short this time. Oh well, there are worse things in life than stupid hair. Right? Right!
So Daniel is officially weaned from the bottle. Not bad, 16 months. After his birthday, we found a cup that he'd drink from. After that we just took one bottle away at a time. He was only drinking 3 a day; morning, afternoon and before bed. His afternoon one went first, then a couple of weeks later his morning bottle went away. I really took my time on purpose with his before bed bottle because it's our snuggle time. After his bath, he lays on the couch with a pillow beside me to drink his bottle while we watch a bit of tv together. When he's done, we say goodnight to everyone in the house, brush his teeth, then he goes to bed. I was worried if I took his bottle, he wouldn't want to snuggle.
I decided to give him a cup of milk tonight instead of his bottle and he accepted it no problem. He tried a couple of times to scoot down off the couch, but I just kept readjusting his position and in the end he finished a whole cup of milk and went to bed just like always. Phew! I'm proud of my boy.
November 16, 2004
Yummy goodness
Okay laugh at me if you want to, but I'm officially in love with Homemade Gourmet products so far. I've made corn chowder, carrot cake (YUM), meatloaf and brownie pie and all of it was a big hit. Co-workers had themselves some of the carrot cake and even one of the gals that normally isn't a fan of carrot cake LOVED it. I know I'll shop regularly from them, so I'm actually tempted to either host a party or look into selling the stuff myself. I figure between girls at work and family in Denton, I could sell a fair bit of stuff. I'm just not sure how worthwhile it would even be to sell it. Looks like a lot of upfront expenses, so I'm not sure if I'll even bother. I'm just excited about the stuff.
I got my hair chopped off today. I had been growing it out since about February. I really thought I could handle long hair again, but I'm afraid I just can't. I feel like such a freak now with short hair. It's back to the way it was in our family picture linked over on my side bar under "About Me". I bought a new curling iron tonight so maybe tomorrow if I get it styled, I'll post a picture so you all can laugh at me. Truth be told, shorter hair is just plain easier. By the time I got to work each day, my hair looked like shit. Never stayed looking brushed or styled and certainly did NOT have a professional appearance at all. My hair has spent a lot of time up in a clip lately. Not good. Oh well hair always grows, so we'll see. Maybe I'll attempt it again some other time. For now I feel old and motherly with my short do.
Justin came home from school today with news that his principal died during surgery after a bad car wreck! How awful is that?!
Also, in news from back home...bad snow storm hit taking out power for a good chunk of Nova Scotia on Saturday. Some were a couple of days getting power back. My mother damn near froze to death and is still fighting even with heat now to get warm. My Uncle and his brother (or friend?) were caught out in it while hunting on Saturday back on the fire roads (hours in). Turns out their truck got stuck so my Uncle headed out walking to get help while the other guy (74yrs) headed back to camp to wait. My Uncle got stuck in the snow (yes literally). Search and Rescue found him yesterday afternoon...alive thankfully, but he's in pretty bad shape. I wouldn't be surprised to hear from Mom that he'll lose a foot or hand or something. Can you imagine being stuck for two days out in the cold? I'm surprised he survived. Having the temps be what they were is probably what kept him alive. Any colder and he probably wouldn't be that lucky. The other guy was hospitalized as well for his bad heart. I sure don't miss that kind of weather!
November 12, 2004
More shopping fun!
It was a good week at work for a change. The bazaar is a lot of fun and I love going to craft shows even if I don't buy anything. However, I did buy!
Homemade Gourmet stuff. Those dips are just things that you'd never think I'd eat, but I'm tellin' ya, YUM folks! I'd be tempted to sell this stuff myself!
This jar was being sold by one of our senior groups that normally sew items to sell (blankets, baby clothes, pot holders, quilts etc...always a variety). It caught my eye because it was different and cute. My co-worker and I were looking at all three of the jars there...well when we discovered what they were selling them for, it was a done deal. I took one home, she took the other two. You can't beat a quarter! I'm picturing some dried flowers for Daniel's room.
There was another lady set up there to sell all her hand sewn items. Adorable stuff! Part of her booth was two large racks of doll clothes. Our nieces have American Girl dolls, so we bought them each a Christmas dress for their dolls. I hope they like them. I thought they were cute.
Doug's Mom is coming down tomorrow to see Cody's last soccer game, so I called her tonight to invite her down to the Bazaar in the morning. I'm going to meet her there tomorrow at 10 a.m.. Gosh someone hold me down!!! I can't wait to put up our darn tree now!
Earlier tonight the boys were out in the kitchen playing with Daniel. It was the funniest thing, the poor child was cracking up. I went out to see what they were doing and believe it or not, the kids were sliding a cheese string back and forth between them with Daniel running around as monkey in the middle and he was cracking up. They must have had near hysterics for close to thirty minutes. It was pretty funny!
November 11, 2004
Love this time of year
Our Holiday Bazaar kicked off today! What fun. I bought our pugs some homemade treats! Yum! Also picked up some spice/soup packets from Homemade Gourmet. Anyone try any of their stuff before? They had some samples mixed up there and it was very yummy. I bought four packets of stuff to try. Great thing is the gal in our area delivers for free, I see some new meals in our future!
Poor Doug was home with all the kiddos today. He's out with Justin running some errands. He practically tried to run out of the house when I got home. I guess that says something about the day ha ha. I gotta go figure out what's for supper now. I'm sorry, but that has to be the worst part of the day (aside from actually getting up of course), picking out what to eat. bah. I guess I better get started.
Oh and Happy (50th *cough*) Birthday Mom!
November 10, 2004
Too tired to be creative
I made three dozen chocolate macaroons for the bake sale tomorrow. I also tried a recipe for coconut macaroons. They "taste" okay, but my chocolate didn't drizzle as it should have, so I don't think they look good enough to sell. I also find them a bit on the chewy side and I don't think the ones in the store are like that, so I'll keep looking for a half decent recipe to try. If the chocolate macaroons sell quickly, I might make some more to take in on Friday. I have a co-worker already lined up to buy what I bring in tomorrow, so I'll probably end up bringing more in regardless.
Daniel had a pretty shy day today. When I took him to class, I kind of had to guide him into the room and as soon as he realized he was inside, he immediately turned facing the wall and just stood there for a minute with his head against the wall until his little friend Abby came over. Once he realized his friends were there, he was pretty happy. This little Abby is a real cutie, last week she did a little hop, skip and clap she was so excited to see Daniel come in. All I could do was laugh. It was pretty cute.
Daniel will be 16 months old next week! Gosh almost a year and half old! We're still waiting for him to start talking. He has a lot of sounds that he'll try when he's in the mood. I guess I'm waiting for the little words like dog, hi, bye, drink, ball, mommy, car etc. I'm waiting for the pointing and asking "what's dat?" and I'm desperately waiting for him to be hungry for real food!! He actually opened his mouth tonight more than once and let me put spaghetti in. Mind you he spit it right back out, but he continued to open for it even after that. Progress I guess. =)
November 09, 2004
Macaroons
Hey, anyone have a good recipe for Coconut Macaroons? I have a good one for chocolate macaroons, but how about those ones that Perkusi loves...dipped in chocolate that the store sells? Any thoughts? I've looked online, but the recipes vary too much and it's hard to pick because I don't think I've ever had just the coconut macaroons.
November 08, 2004
Frustrated
Anyone with kids KNOWS about fundraisers! Anyone with kids who are in a sport or group or what have you definitely KNOWS about fundraisers. Nothing is more frustrating to me as when the fundraiser some how gets screwed up and you have people waiting for their item especially co-workers.
No one has given me a hard time or anything, but this particular fundraiser was given back to students weeks ago and we still haven't got our cards yet. I've called and emailed the teacher just to be ignored. I have made numerous calls to the office including the principal. I get promises of call backs and promises that they'll certainly make this right! I finally called again today, flat out told them I'm extremely frustrated with this and that I had been waiting for a call back for over a week and a half. The secretary is extremely apologetic and embarrassed. We arranged to have me fax over my list of discount cards we ordered and they'd send them home with Cody (they have extra cards there). Well guess who's fax machine was down all afternoon? Nope, not ours. Theirs. GHRRRRRRR.
It's just so embarrassing to have to re-ask you co-workers what they ordered. I was stupid and forgot to keep my copy of what we ordered. Lesson learned? You could say that.
Spoke with Mom today, the test results for my Aunt showed no cancer in her leg. The tendons were just discolored from the tumor. The surgeon thought it was also cancer, so she ducked that flying bullet! They are going to keep an eye on the growth on her lung for now and if it changes shape, they'll operate right away. For now she's still recovering from major surgery and the future looks okay. Phew. Well I got hungry beasts in this house to feed and probably more piss to wipe off the toilet seat ha ha! Oh and yes I've tried the "follow them around and clean it up themselves" routine. Problem is I can't be everywhere, they are hard to catch. I've even offered to pay the sibling who catches the other and tells, but oy, that was a can of worms I tell ya. Plus when they do clean the bathroom, they just don't do it well enough, not like I'd clean so that usually causes more frustration then what it's worth. It's a guest room and I don't think any of you would like to sit down on a kid's toilet seat that they've cleaned themselves! =)
Oh how cute. Daniel was playing his music for about five minutes while I was blogging this, I turned to peek at him and he was grinning from ear to ear and bouncin' to the tunes all to himself. I love it when they dance at this age!
November 07, 2004
YUM
We went to eat at Cheesecake Factory today. Might I add a YUM!! After we ate, we headed towards home to do some Christmas shopping when we discovered Doug left his credit card at the restaurant. We called and were told we needed to claim the card in person with picture ID. Ufff. All the way back (45 min. drive each way). There blows most of our shopping time.
Oh well, we got a few things that I won't mention here because now and then the kids see my blog on the computer and snoopy minds can't help theirselves! We have decided to cut back some this year on what we spend. There just shouldn't be any reason to go in debt for Christmas, ya know? I mean a little balance carry over is probably okay and expected, but we're in hopes this year to not go overboard. We'll see though, it's still early in the season. ha ha
I need to come up with something to bake for Daniel's school bazaar this week. My turn in day is Friday, so I at least have a few days. Maybe chocolate macaroons? They are EASY EASY EASY. Last year I baked three different things, not going to this year though. What would you want to buy at a bake sale?
Glad it's Sunday for once
Usually I hate Sundays. Sundays lead to Mondays, Mondays are the beginning of another long week. We're anxiously awaiting the arrival of Doug's mother. She's going to babysit today for us so we can go run around kid free. I'm excited. Daniel has been a real going concern today. I swear he hasn't rested once this morning and what makes today even more frustrating to me so far is that I've cleaned up the same damn shit as I did yesterday. Is it too much to ask that after breakfast, the placemats all get put back? What about tooth paste and brushes? Will it break their hands to just open the damn drawer and drop them in? How about that piss on the toilet seat? Heaven forbid they wipe it up! Ghrr.
Oh well, I got an hour before his Mom arrives, so I guess I'll just sit for a bit. Oh wait... ha ha, I can't do that, I have Mt. Everest growing in the laundry room again. What the hell is up with kids and laundry anyway? Sarah dirties two complete outfits a day plus he PJ's at night. No matter how many times I tell her she can re-wear things that she doesn't get dirty at least ONCE, I still end up finding everything in the laundry. By the time it's all heaped with dirty, wet towels etc, the damn clothes are dirty. Today Doug had a bit of a freak out when he realized he left a big wad of money and reimbursable receipts in his pants pockets and I was doing laundry. I heard him in the laundry room moaning and groaning. I came out to see what was up, he was yanking out clothes with all these wet tidbits of paper all strewn about the clean laundry...Yikes. Well it turns out, nothing was Doug's in there, my oldest decided to leave all his garbage in his pockets. Grand, not only do I have laundry to do, now I get to re-wash crap. Sigh.
I wish I had other news to share, but I don't. It's been an uneventful week. Well uneventful here in our little four walls. My family back home in NS aren't doing so well. My mom's sister, Brenda, had a very large growth on her backside. They did a couple of biopsies and an MRI to discover that it was cancer. They operated last weekend to remove it. The surgery went well, the tumor didn't break, thankfully. Sad news was they discovered the cancer has spread all down her leg now as well. We're waiting on test results for that problem still. It's a rapid growing cancer. After they did the biopsy, the growth doubled it's size in less than two weeks. Her outcome doesn't look good. We all know what this cancer is like. Sadly she recently adopted her two young grandchildren and has a ten year old still at home. Not good. Count your blessings people. This sort of thing sneaks up on the best of us before you even know what hit you!
November 06, 2004
Saturday ramblings
Went to a soccer game 9 o'clock this morning. We lost 2-1. Depressing. I also got roped some how into collecting all the money for our team parents to get the coach a gift. I started this up last year because Sarah's team did it and Cody's team didn't seem to be doing anything. I guess when you speak up with things like that, you automatically get the job year after year. Oh well. I groan about it, but I guess in the end someone has to do it and it might as well be me.
Now that the election is over, it's time to start painting Daniel's room. I'm anxious to finish this room, but not anxious to get started. I need to clean the house today and tomorrow Doug and I are going out to eat and shop, so maybe Monday I'll get started. I actually found some really cute denim curtains at Pottery Barn Kids that would look great in Daniel's room. Costly though, so we'll see.
Anyone started Christmas shopping yet? I'm so ready for that too! I hope the family provides a detailed list this year and doesn't make the mistake of telling me the couples aren't buying for each other this year, then at the last minute change their mind and forget to tell me (ooo that was a rambling sentence eh?). Oh well, I'm nursing a head ache right now, so I'm going to go lay down. Here's a few shots:
Sleepy baby in the van with Daddy.
You can see the blur in this picture because he's actually dancing in this shot.
Just a close up of those beautiful brown eyes!
November 04, 2004
Chilly
We finally got a bit of a cold snap yesterday. After digging in Daniel's dresser, I realized he only has 1-2 long sleeve shirts that still fit him. I decided to go shopping after work. I went to the Kid to Kid store that I love so much and found some great stuff. I got 16 pieces of clothing for $50. Everything is in great condition and should last him most of the winter. He'll get some new clothes for Christmas of course, but he should be fine regardless now.
I found him some PJ's with the feet in them too. He hasn't worn those since he was little. He outgrew sleepers so quickly, I stopped buying them with the feet in. He looks so cute now walking around in his new PJ's.
Doug and I have noticed that Daniel is trying harder and harder each day to communicate to us. He recognizes now when his diaper is dirty. Doug said today both times he was dirty, he went up to him, yanked on his shirt, Doug got up to follow him and Daniel led him to bedroom to be changed both times. Other times if you smell something and ask him if he's stinky, he'll lift up his shirt as if to say "why yes I am". Whenever I change him, the first thing I do is lift up his shirt. He's been a real cutie lately. I hope this is a sign of an easy trainer! We'll see. It'll be awhile before I try that anyway!
I'd mention the election, but my hubby sums it all up just fine. All in all, it's pretty depressing, but as one of my co-workers said to me "if you don't like it here, leave." Yes she's conservative and yes she was being flippant, oh and yes she reads my blog. Go figure all of the above.
Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday. I'm looking forward to the weekend. I'll do some cleaning on Saturday. Joy. Doug's Mom will be down on Sunday to babysit so Doug and I can go out for some much needed alone time! Woot!! Also some other good news this morning when I stepped on the scales...Allow me to brag for a moment. I've lost between 8-10 lbs so far in the past couple of weeks (back on a version of low carbing), so I fit into pants today that I haven't been able to put on in at least three months. This means I can soooooooon go shopping for new fall clothes. Hurray!
November 02, 2004
Halloween pictures
I finally got around to uploading our trunk or treat pictures. Everyone came, decorated their trunks, dressed up and gave out candy to trunk or treaters. There was a pretty good turn out. I hear though it wasn't as good as last year, but I have no idea really. It was our first year going.
Our day began after getting in our costume. I feared he'd be fussy, but he was overjoyed at being outside, so all went well with dressing up. Here I am trying to hand him his pumpkin bucket.
Everyone there thought he was just the cutest! Here he is figuring out what to do.
Here he is standing beside a three year old that was dressed up like a Care Bear. They were darn near the same size.
He kept wanting to run away near the road. Here I am carrying an unhappy duck back to the parking area.
What ended our trunk or treating was someone dropping a little bag of goldfish in Daniel's bucket. Peeeeeek!
Plop!
I had to lug him back to our van after that. Crazy kid! I think all in all, it worked out well. We stayed for about an hour, then left for Cody's soccer game. Our tream got wiped during that game. yikes. Bad loss. Later that night when we got home, Doug took Cody out for a bit of trick or treating. He got a pumpkin bucket full of candy that he divided up to share with his older siblings. I'm glad they share. We didn't hand out candy long enough this year to get any old teenagers or at least none that I saw (Sarah and Justin sat out on the porch to hand out what candy we had left from the trunk or treating). However, I did see a Mom with a little boy looked to be about five maybe...no costume. I just don't get the whole trick or treating thing with no costume on. It's odd to me. Oh well.