Thursday, June 26, 2008

Uhm. Can you translate that to english PLEASE!

OHMIGOSH!

I am baby sitting my two year old niece today - she is an absolute doll! Her mom is in the final stages of her pregnancy and finds it hard to bring Tubby to her doctor appointments. As I am on the way to the doctors office, it just makes sense for her to drop off my niece and go on alone.

And I love it. Except for one thing.

She talks. And talks. And TALKS. and after that? She talks some more. And I do not unsderstand a word of it!!

This morning she was so excited, over joyed, and telling me a story with hand gestures and giggle. I wished so badly that toddlers came with closed captioning - I wanted to know what was so darn exciting!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Sa-Wheeeeeet!

I am now the proud mother of a Kindergarten Graduate :o)




It should be pretty obvious that I have blurred and down right erased parts of this paper for "security" reasons! It should also be pretty obvious that by the time my youngest son gets through Kindergarten I will have used up every last bit of my computer memory storing and processing photos of the boys!

Budgets aren't enough anymore!

So. Yay! My brother, his girlfriend of like six years, and their two year old daughter were just evicted from the place they were renting. Seems, due to a workplace injury and no steady money coming in, they were unable to pay their rent - although - to be honest, the way the economy is going, if I had to pay rent, instead of my mortgage payment, I might be int he same boat.

On average, people who are renting are paying 300 to 500 dollars MORE a month than Hubs and I are on our mortgage payment. Hubs has an excellent job, awesome hours, even better benefits, and very a competitive wage. I thank my lucky stars each payday when we make our mortgage payment that we bought our home when we did. So many people I know are in need of foreclosure help, and these are good people, people with jobs, and budgets and everything, but gas, food, clothing, rent - it's all going up up up, and there seems to be no sign of it stopping.

Hubs workplace, in fact, just had a meeting last week to discuss a cost of living wage increase! How bad is the economy if wage is increasing to deal with it? Don't get me wrong,
I am happy that he will get the increase, it will sure help out, but it sure is a scary sign of the times, isn't it?

New Worries

Well, the dishes are done, the floors have been swept washed and vacuumed. I even cleaned up the bathroom - including scrubbing the toilet! (go me!) But a new worry has appeared. It's raining. It's been raining most of the day. That means that Smokey the Dog will get very very muddy when I put her in the back yard while the inlaws are over.

Why not let her stay in you ask? Simple, she sees a new person - and to her "new" means she has not seen them in five whole minutes - and she pees. It's never ever a lot of pee, a drop here, a drip there. It's not like we will need inflatable boats to navigate a river of pee, but each spot must be wiped and then sanitized with Lysol - truly? A five second job. BUT. I don't want to be cleaning puddles of pee and yelling DOWN SMOKEY all night.

Please, don't get the wrong idea about Smokey, at home, with just the five of us, she is an exceptionally well behaved dog. Sit and stay are more mastered. She will stay even if we leave a trail of raw bacon around the room! She won't leave her "stay" until the person who told her to stay has removed the command. She knows a tonne of other commands and obeys them all - when it is just us. She is a very good dog, she just has not been socialized, and thats OUR fault.

When I think of it, I should let her out tonight, I should yell DOWN SMOKEY and wipe up pee, becuase she needs to be socialized, and the sooner, the better!

Computer Addictions

I think I am addicted!

i have so much to do right now, but where am I? Thats right, I'm sitting in front of the computer - again!

Stuperman is ensconced on a chair watching An Indiana Jones movie, but instead of taking advantage of him being occupied to get some things done, here I am, typing away!

Tonight hubs folks will be coming over to help celebrate Stupermans fourth Birthday - Stupe will be having two parties this year - if you can call them parties - this first one will be all about the cake and the coffee. Kids laughing and the adults talking. There will be no gifts.

His next party will be on Friday, his actual day of birth, and that is when the gifts will be given. the reasoning for two parties is that we will be going to my fathers home to have Stupes birthday - Stepmomma cannot travel comfortably since the broken arm incident.

before Hubs folks come over I have floors to wash and vacuum, I need to do the dishes and clean the clutter off the counter tops ( Its amazing how much cleaner the kitchen looks without the clutter!!) My mother in law is a known neat freak, and therefore I try my best to have a tidy, if not clean home when she comes over. At least I don't have to paint the exterior shutters or wash the sidewalks off!

Well. I promised myself I would tackle my to-do list as soon as I finished this cup of java, and my mug is empty so i guess I better go!

Sigh

Monday, June 23, 2008

The downside

So we got an alarm system a few weeks back - and I am shocked at how much safer I feel, not just when we leave the house, but at night when I am in bed!

The downside? In the morning the alarm must be disarmed - Before the dog goes out to take care of her business!

On Saturday I was in bed, sleeping, when I woke up to a fast BEEP BEEP noise. It took me a minute to realize it was the 30 second count down to the alarm going off. I jumped out of bed and struggled with my housecoat - I sleep Sans Clothing, and raced to the front door, only to have the alarm go off with me about five feet away. Let me tell you this - that alarm is LOUD!

I entered int he disarm code and was already back in the bedroom when a womans voice came out of the wall " Alarm Tech - Is Everything OK?"

THAT freaked me out! I mean, I knew that they are supposed to call and stuff, but I figured if the alarm was deactivated they assumed things were OK, not so, Not only did I have to tell her everything was OK, but she asked for my name and password too - the password? I blanked out for a second, and for the life of me could not recall it. I mumbled something the first time, and luckily by the time she asked again, for me to clarify it, I remembered!

It was not the best way to wake up, know what I mean?

Thursday, June 19, 2008

It's Just Easier

I love my laptop, please understand that, but I think it would have been easier in the long run to have gone with a Dell.

I want two things for my laptop, both of which seem pretty simple and easy to understand to me : I want more memory and I want an external hard drive to store my photos on.

So I went to Future shop, where I bought this laptop, pointed out THE EXACT SAME laptop I have and said : I want more memory. This is the laptop I have. How do I do that and how much will it cost.

DUR. I can only assume that real words did not fall from my lips, that the sales dude hear me speaking in tongues becuase he was absolutely flummoxed by my question.

See, this is the "easier"part. With a Dell I could have called them, told them who I am and said "I want some more dell memory. How do I do that and how much will it cost"

And you know what? I bet they would not only answer me, but they would do it FOR ME.

Hubs computer is quite crappy. I want to get him a new one, he is content with what he has. Eventually, he will change his mind and I will steer him towards a dell. I LIKE easy things.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

R.I.P Morning Naps

Since April, when I stopped babysitting Drama Girl, I have been coaxing the boys back to bed int he morning so that I can catch a few more minutes of sleep. Originally, we had planned on getting a tv wall mount for our bedroom TV, but there is no problems, that I can see, with where we have it now, on top of a highboy dresser.

Soon though, the boys will not be watching movies in my bedroom in the morning while I sleep.

The reason? School is almost out. Just five more school days.

This saddens me. A lot.

A LOT.

Maybe I misunderstood...

...But i thought that we were entering into a recession?

Yet, there are tonnes of jobs available here! Every where I look people are hiring. If I wanted a job tomorrow I could co out and take my pick - and this is with me not being int he work force for TEN years!

I had assumed that during a recession there weer very few jobs available, and that was one of the reasons there WAS a recession. Just from doing a quick search online I can see that it is pretty much the same in the States as it is here. That you can get jobs in Chicago just as quickly as here.

Here is a great example, I live in a small town, just over 5000 people, I can get a job working for the town, the pizza place, the flower place, the dollar store, the video rental store, all three gas stations and three of the four restaurants we have. There are also openings at the two coffee shops and the Knotty Monk - which I think is a bar/lounge/restaurant place, but I have never been in it so I don't know.

So? Have I misunderstood, isn't job availability part of a recession??!

Things I Wonder

There are tonnes of things that I wonder about, but never get around to researching. Here are the top five of this week:

  • I wonder if I should have poked air holes in the jar that we had the caterpillars in. I think they are OK, as three have cocooned, but I wonder non the less.
  • I wonder why it took us so long to transfer the caterpillars so they all cocooned in the same place? Now I have two sets of chrysalises to watch over.
  • I wonder if a colon cleanser would help me get back to "regular"? I'm so very tired of this no go no go no go GOT TO GO!
  • I wonder if I will remember to take the sunscreen out of Parker's back pack. the stuff we have at home is, I think, expired. The stuff in P's back pack I KNOW is still good.
  • I wonder if I am depressed. If I should finally make that appointment. I'm sure that it is not normal for me to be fine for days and then suddenly be overcome with The Blahs.
What are you wondering this week?

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Speaking of Water....

For some reason the faucets are leaking in the master bedroom bathroom. We hardly ever use that sink. Actually we hardly ever use that bathroom - except for showers!

So I am a bit confised as to why the faucets are leaking. And sad too, becuase I know I will have to get on hubs case about fixing them. its probably just a seal, as the house is only seven years old, and the faucets are original to the house.

We had a power outage last week , and again yesterday, and at the time of yesterdays outage hubs STILL had not gotten around to re setting all the alarms and clocks in the house!

Anyone else have a husband like this?

A VERY Important day

I need to bring your attention to a very important thing. Today, June 17th, 2008 is the very fist day it is hot enough to drag out the pool.

[insert celebratory Ohhhs and Awws here. I will wait.]

Done? Good. This is awesome! we have had the crappiest spring EVER, if it isn't windier than hell, its cold, or worse raining! It was getting to the point that I was daydreaming about St. John villa rentals while watching the weather network for Storm Warnings.

Stuperman has been in the pool NON-STOP since we washed it and filled it! He is loving it! I'm a little sad that he chose now, ten minutes before the eldest gets home, to get out of the pool, but school will be out in six more days and hopefully the awesome weather will continue. If it does,, I see a summer full of watery fun ahead!

EDIT: the eldest is home and has convinced stuperman to get back in the water!

Monday, June 16, 2008

FYI

Just wanted you to know that it is six thirty nine in the morning and I am awake.

As in out of bed, drinking coffee, had my breakfast about to go play my Facebook scratch and win tickets - awake.

I'm REALLY hoping that the two youngest boys stay asleep though, so I can go back to bed.

(we forgot to reset The eldest boy's alarm clock after a power outage and I stupidly suggested hubs just wake me when he gets up for work and I would wake up the boy.)

I miss my bed. I miss my pillow.

WAHHHHH

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Public Service Announcement

When you travel health insurance is really important. REALLY IMPORTANT. I cannot stress that enough. Actually, I can, I could just type RALLY IMPORTANT over and over and over again, but I won't because that would be annoying. You will just have to agree with me, RIGHT NOW that travel insurance is REALLY IMPORTANT.

And now I will tell you why it is so VERY, VERY important.

My in laws travel a lot. They also have a LOT of health issues. last winter my Father in law had this skin rash thing. It covered his whole body and was extremely painful. becuase they had travel insurance he was able to go to a US doctor (we are in Canada, keep that in mind) and get a prescription for the rash.

Without travel insurance, the cost of the doctors visit and the medication would have been horrible, mostly becuase of all his other pre-existing health problems. he had to have six different tests before getting the green light on the prescription - all for a painful skin rash.

I might point out that they were a 27 hour drive from home and there is no way he would have been able to handle a car ride in the condition he was in.

So. just to reiterate, travel insurance is a MUST. Even if you think nothing will go wrong!

But. I forgot!

When you buy a computer you can do all sorts of things to it to improve it.

Just like.... when you get lipo, you are improving you.

Following me?

I need a memory upgrade. I'm tired of forgetting everything. I'm tired of writing lists and making notes on my hands! And, while I'm getting my memory upgrade I think I would like to install a spell check and grammar check program! I wonder if they have climate control programs? I would love to be able to regulate my own temperatures! ( I mean, computers COME with fans, why can't I have just one??!)

its not very fair if you think about it, all this time and energy and money goes into making bigger (and smaller) faster, more powerful, BETTER computers, I demand they stop and figure out how to make me better! A new and improved BPR if you will.

I can see the headlines now. "Scientists create BPR model 2.0(and the world rejoices)"

Ahh. A good day that would be indeed! A day for the history books!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Gifts that are NOT toys!

My three boys have way way way too many toys, and it is our fault. Birthdays, Christmas, we get them toys toys toys and more toys! But, we are making a conscious effort to change this habit. For example, one of the gifts Logan (3) will be opening on his fourth birthday (End of June) is a personalised T-Shirt.



It's a start!

I remember when we got our first born his first personalised gift. When we were still int he hospital going through the millions of bits of papers that you have to deal with after having a baby, there was a packet of coupons for things like diapers, formula, breast pads, and one for a personalised Birth Story Book.

We kept and used the birth story coupon and Parker, who has realized that reading is not the most evil thing in the world in the last months, has begun taking an interest in it - it's about time , he is almost nine! About a week ago he brought it upstairs and read it to his brothers - who, naturally, got upset that they did not have their own book!

personalized gifts are a good idea becuase everyone wants a piece of themselves, and kids are especially interested in things like that!

For my younger two? Maybe I will pick them up some stickers with their names on!

Monday, June 09, 2008

Sweet Sweet Success

Remember this post? You should its only two days old! And right below this one! (LOLz) Well, as the title says, I have had absolute success with my search for Smallville Season Seven, and it was in a place I would have never thought to look!

I used Twitter to ask where to find it, and Laci from Long Slow Beautiful Dance had the answer almost immediately!

September ninth! She found the answer on Amazon. If you thought that Amazon was all "Oh look at me, I'm Amazon books" then you would be wrong, kinda like me!

But, it makes sense (now that I know) that I should have gone to a retail site not a TV show homepage to find out when I can BUY something! DUH!

Oh well, I know it now, thanks to Amazon and Laci and although I hate the thought of waiting until September to start watching, at least now I know when to start looking!

So. September ninth. Mark it on your calendar. Remember it. I know I will!!

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Searching for a TV show's "season"

A few years ago, must be about four now, we started watching Smallville season one when it came on a local TV station. By the middle of the first season it became a family tradition to sit together on the couch with juice and popcorn watching our show.

In fact, one of the reasons I fought to be released the first day Logan was born was that the next day "our" show was on!

I know the internet can be used to find all types of things; Celebrity baby names, a list of best diet pills, movie trailers, news, everything! But I haven't the foggiest idea where to even begin searching for what I want.

Season Seven of Smallville. It's done, or almost done, its run on the American stations, so soon it should be in stores. I want to find a release date for the season 7 box set. Do you know where I would look for that?

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Waiting for Noms

Waiting for this too cool :
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So I can add these to it:
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So I can stir and coat and sneak a bite:
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And put in the fridge till it sets:
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is really, really hard.

The end.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

*gag*

Is there anything worse than dog puke?

No, no there is not. I have dealt with kids who have ick coming out top and bottom at the same time, and thats still more pleasurable than following a puking dog around the house trying to get her outside.

And then? The whole head shake thing? GUH ROoooS! thank god she was already on the deck for that one, its easier to spray off the deck than wash the floors inside, thats for sure!

I hope she is done, now, I'm not sure how much more I can take...although.. Hubs will be home from work soon....