Sunday, March 30, 2008

Long time, no post

First, I met Mrs. Chicken at the church playground on Thursday. I felt completely lame just going up to her and asking if she was who I thought she was but she was super nice :) The Poo is adorable and her and Lizzie are a LOT alike.

Second, no posts recently due to illness. About 8:30 Thursday night, I was in the dining room and C came in. He was crying and trying to tel me something. All of a sudden he coughed and I shoved him toward the trash can where he threw up :( He was up a couple more times during the night and has had diahrra (sp?) since then.

Friday afternoon, Lizzie got up from her nap crying and sobbing. She kept telling me that her ear itched so I would scratch it and she would be ok for a few minutes. Then she would start crying again. Finally she said it hurt and I gave her some Tylenol. When my dad got home from work (like 30 minutes after she got up), I took her to the doctor and found out that she had an ear infection in both ears. No other indication that anything was wrong. So now she is on meds for that and while still a bit grumpy (toss up whether that is just Lizzie being Lizzie or if the ear is bothering her) she seems to be feeling much better.

Finally, I was able to get my photo tagging software backed up and I was able to reformat my computer! When I bought my laptop, it was right before Vista came out so I got a free upgrade. I waited until over the summer to install it and regretted it from the get go. Backing up is such a pain in the rear though that I hadn't done anything about it. Finally, it got to the point that it was grinding to a halt and just wouldn't work right and I HAD to get it done. I got everything backed up and put XP back on last night. Dh spent a lot of time getting me new drivers and getting all my programs back up and running. Now, as soon as I figure out how to get my tagged files back on the computer, with tags (they are still on my EHD, where I store them but the tags are gone), I'll be completely done. And it is a good thing :)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

the fashion battle

I bit the bullet and took Lizzie to Walmart today and bought her some dresses. I literally had to hold her down and stuff her into her pants to get her out of the house this am and I don't want to mess with it.

We got two wrap style (although it is all sewed together so no coming undone) dress in pink and green and two collared one with "ruffles for dancing" in pink and purple. They were $5 a piece and I picked up some clearance "tall socks" and capri tights to hold her over until it gets a little warmer.

Also, Missy mentioned that her daughter will only wear leggings that look good under her skirt. They actually had outfits out there that were dresses with leggings to match. Lizzie tried on a couple but I didn't like how they fit. The leggings were either too big in the waist or too short and the dresses were WAY too short to wear without. The dresses she got are nice and long. They come down nearly to her ankles and have a t-shirt top. That way she can wear them all summer and then next winter too with heavy tights. Can't ask for much more for $20 :)

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Book worthy?

Yesterday I posted about the never ending laundry that I did (final count, 8 loads of laundry done and put away over the course of the day) This guy commented on the entry telling me that he is writiing a book about mother's and daughters and would I like to be included in it. This is interesting to me because I can't, for the life of me, figure out what I would have posted that would be any kind of book worthy. Maybe in 30 or 40 years when Lizzie is rich and famous she could include some of my stuff in a book about her life but nothing jumps out at me just now. I went to the website and looked at his "getting started" questions and none of them apply. I need to email the guy and find out what struck his fancy about my blog.

Monday, March 24, 2008

2 year old fashions

Lizzie went through a thing awhile back where all she wanted to wear was pink and purple, which was hard because more of her clothes are hand-me-downs from C so very boyish. She finally got over that and started just wearing whatever. Then we bought her a clearance dress and she has decided that she wanted to wear it all the time. It was only one dress and I was able to put her off most of the time. Then my MIL came back from Mexico and brought her another dress so now she is really pushing. Then on Sunday, the Easter Bunny brought her a FANCY Easter dress that we are going to have pictures done in soon. So now she wants to wear a dress every single day! I'm seriously considering buying her about 6 little t-shirt style dresses and some tights and just letting her go to town.

On Saturday, she wanted to wear a dress and the only one clean was the light purple with the tank top sleeves. It was cold on Saturday so I told her that she could wear a t shirt under it. She wasn't having that and needed to wear her sweater that grandma got her from the covered bridge festival. It is knitted in light pink and dark purple and has puffy clouds and animals all over it. We couldn't find her tights so she decided to put on bright pink pants with white snowflakes on them. Over all that mess (as if it wasn't bad enough on it's own) she put her black "leather" motorcycle with the zippers and things on and topped it all off with a blue and orange jester hat.

I told her she was 2, she could pull it off and off we went to the store. My mom asked me how I would feel about that outfit if she wanted to wear it in 12 or 14 years, in a school picture. I told her that I would think that she was old enough to pick her own clothes, she would look unique and different and at least her skin would be covered and she wouldn't look tramp-y and whorish like most girls I see. The only problem I would have would be if she were trying to use the EXACT same clothes :)

The laundry pile of DOOM!!

Good Lord, it seems like all I did was laundry today!! Lizzie had a little bit of diarrhea last night which caused her to poop in her bed. I don't change sheets in the middle of the night so I took her to the bathroom and then had her get in my bed. A couple of hours later, she ended up peeing in my bed. I was irritated (it was only 7 am and my last day to sleep in before spring break is over) but tried to make the best of it, because my sheets really did need changed. While I was trying to strip the beds, she got mad that I wouldn't go with her to the bathroom and while she was straining during her temper tantrum, managed to poop on the floor. :( Got her settled in the bathroom and cleaned up the floor and got Evan up to sit with her while I finished with the sheets. Finally got the sheets started washing, then ran around getting my grocery list together. By the time we all got dressed, got the first loads of sheets in the dryer and the second in the washer, she had gone 2 or 4 more times so we decided that she would stay home with Daddy and C and I would hit the store.

We went to Meijer and I found a swimsuit (finally, I take forever to find new suits because I'm so picky, and fat) and I finally found a pair of workout pants that I liked and weren't crazy expensive. Then we hit the half priced Easter candy and finally got down to shopping. Even though I forgot 3 or 4 things (despite having a list), it wasn't too bad. Then we went to Target because it is the only place I could find the hair gel I like. I had 3 things on my list, couldn't find any of them and still managed to spend $10. We had to hit the Easter clearance there too and C got a stuff Darth Vader for half price. Since I got him that, I had to get Lizzie something and ended up picking out a stuffed Pooh Bear. We also picked up some eggs for our playgroups egg hunt next weekend (yay for doing things after the holiday so we can get clearance items. I'm fairly certain I saw Missy but she was missing a kid and she looks taller in her picture so I wasn't sure enough to talk to her. I'm lame like that :)

We came home, got everything put away(and laundry transferred around) and went to the library to return a boat load of books and pick up a few more. Then we picked up my brother and went bowling. He likes to go and C has a good time so we try to arrange a time during school breaks. We had planned to go and have lunch and then Lizzie and I were going to head home while the boys bowled. We walked in and Lizzie said "Can I go bowling, please!?" I told her no, I didn't think so and she said "but please, I NEED to go bowling and wear bowling shoes" It turned out the smallest size shoe they had fit her perfectly so I gave in :) We ate and the "kids" bowled and then we hit the meat store (Old Time Meat and Deli) for hamburger and then took Dave home and came home. I made the beds, told Lizzie she had to take a rest, even if she didn't sleep and did some more laundry. Then C asked me to help him play "Super Paper Mario" for the Wii so we did that for a bit.

Then I made a meatloaf, did some more laundry and got ready to go to playgroup. Lizzie did nap so we left as soon as she woke up, right after I put the meatloaf in the oven. We played at the church and came home with dinner almost done. I did another load of laundry and we ate then the kids went and played at Nonni's while I cleaned the kitchen and made a peanut butter pie. Then it was finally time for bed so we did that, and I put the LAST load of laundry in the washer. Now, I'm watching trashy tv and getting ready to do some tagging ACDSee, waiting for my pie to be done and then getting ready to head for bed myself :)

Saturday, March 22, 2008

A Good Friday

We started out the day by going on a "homeschool" tour of the library. Funny thing about that, at least 3 (possibly more since I don't know the other kids) of the kids at the tour are in public school. I wasn't terribly impressed with it because she started out with a full on story time, which took almost 45 minutes. Followed by a quick 15 minute, "these are fiction books, these are non fiction, these are magazines, etc" tour and we went to lunch. C requested Ruby Tuesday's so we went there. When we were done with that, I had to run a couple of errands then we were going to go home and play in the yard. By the time we got those 2 things done, it had started to rain just a little bit so we decided to go somewhere indoors. C requested FCC, which I fortunately remembered was closed because of the holiday BEFORE I drove out there. We ended up going to McDonald's where there were a few kids to play with. The kids weren't having the best time because some of the kids weren't playing so well. By then, it had quit raining so we came home and did play in the yard.

I sat at the picnic table and finished my book (I've had 20 pages to finish for 4 freaking days and couldn't manage to get through them) while the kids played. Just after I finished the book (FINALLY), C brought me a stump of a bush to show me the cool worms he found.

Not so quick backstory. When we rented this place, the previous tenants hadn't done anything to the yard for the entire time they lived here (except, possibly planting and cultivating a pot garden). The bushes were completely overgrown. They were 6 feet tall and a double row all the way around the back yard. Our landlords bought the place and while they were fixing up the inside, they let us come in and do what we wanted to the yard. That involved cutting all the bushes as low to the ground as we could get them. The first summer we were here, the yard was nearly unusable because of all the mosquitos and other bugs that stirred up. Every year since then, when we mow, we try to knock out a few more of the stumps and keep what is still there nearly at ground level. All but one on one side is gone and about half of the back ar gone. That means we can just mow any new growth and not have to worry about it.

Anyway, C managed to kick over one of the stumps that is left. That interested me so I went out to see if any others were loose. I started kicking at them and having a lot of luck knocking them out of the ground. After I knocked out a few, we decided to get some tools to help and see what all we could get out. We ended up pulling a bunch of them out, including some stubborn ones that required the encouragement of a crow bar. We now only have 4 stumps left along the back fence. 2 of them are loose and if someone stronger than me went out there and kicked the tar out of them for a few minutes, they would come out too. A third one is small but stubborn and wouldn't take much with an ax to get rid of it. That leaves 2 stumps that would need to be really ripped free! All that work left us sweaty and COVERED in mud. We all grabbed showers and took my mom and went to McDonalds to actually eat this time since I wasn't cooking. Plus, I had to pick DH up at work and there is one close to where he works so it only made sense. :) We ate and played and then went to bed. My back was killing me so I slept with a heating pad.

Today, the back is fine, but the back of my legs are on FIRE. I haven't worked those muscles that much in a long time. Hopefully they will feel better tomorrow since we are supposed to go skating. the Easter Bunny is on his way to our house as we speak. C is getting roller skates and Lizzie is getting a baby bed. Plus candy, of course :)

I'm off to do some Yoga so I don't get completely stiff overnight :)

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Monkeys and Chickens

I love this commercial. It makes me laugh every time. Now I have even more reason to laugh about it.



One day, it came on during lunch and Lizzie giggled at. A few minutes later, she wasn't eating anymore and I asked her if I could have one of her chicken nuggets. She looked at me and then at the nuggets and snatched them up, holding them above her head proceeded to leap off the couch and start running around the room yelling "Mommy wants my nugget, Mommy wants my nugget" I literally about fell out of my chair I was laughing so freaking hard.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Music part 2

I have an issue with this
On principal, I hate it. As woman who doesn't need a man to take care of me and the mother to a daughter who, if current personality is any indication certainly won't either, I find lines like "On behalf of every man looking out for every girl" to be highly offensive. As a mother to a son who is fairly sensitive I also take issue with the line "Boys, you can break You find out how much they can take Boys will be strong And boys soldier on" So I hate most of the lyrics and the intent behind the song. However, I actually really like the melody and it makes the song not only listenable but almost good. If the lyrics were less terrible, it would a darn good song that I would be willing to have on my MP3 player. As it is, it isn't :(

Now for the funny. As most of you know, I was raised with a non-religious background (in fact, I claimed to be atheist until I was in second grade and had a teacher tell me, after I asked her, that she believed in God because if there wasn't a God she wouldn't have her kids). However, at one point in my childhood, I decided that I wanted to go to church so my mom started taking me to the local Methodist church. While I was going there, I decided to join the choir. During my time in the choir we did a Christmas program and we were talking about the songs we were doing. The director told us that we would be singing "Joy to the World"

I was completely psyched but I was a little confused about how exactly it was a Christmas song. Little did I know that there were two songs by the same name and the one I had grown up listening to wasn't exactly the one they were planning to sing

Monday, March 17, 2008

Music

What is it about music that allows us to remember it even without having heard it for years? I started thinking about this because I was ripping some old CDs a few weeks ago and now that I'm listening to the songs, I still know all the words, even though I haven't listened to them in 10 years, at least. Why is that?

I had something else to say about music (I thought about titling this "the good, the bad, the ugly" because I was going to talk about those things re: music but I don't remember what they are)

I'm hungry. We had a St Patrick's playgroup/dinner and unlike typical playgroup potlucks, not too many people showed up so the food was a little light.

I have an ADSR challenge that I need to do. The race has been crappy. Lots of stupid challenges that I will never use again so they are just a huge waste of my time. If I didn't have a partner that I like, I would just drop out of the race and be done with it. One challenge was at least half a page of journaling. I wrote a story on lined background paper and no pictures. The next challenge was 1/4 of journlaing with a large picture and some kind of blending mode. Then it was an interview with an inanimate object. Then it was a one partner challenge where you had to take your partner's layout and do exactly the opposite. The newest challenge involves lots of elements and only certain numbers of specific things. Generally, not my style and mostly a pain in the neck. I'm waiting on clarification on some questions (can my glitter alpha count as an alpha and bling?) so that I can get started. This is from the site that I made a snarky post about after last year's ADSR so I'm already irked about it.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

More tags

Jenna tagged me a second time so you all get to hear another 5 "interesting" facts about me :)

1. I enjoy swimming

2. I enjoy roller skating. My dad, who does not swim, taught me and my brother to skate and my mom, who does not skate, taught us to swim.

3. I broke more bones from Sept of 2006-March of 2007 than I had broken in the previous 10+ years. In Sept 06, C pulled the hostess stand at Chevy's over on my foot shattering the bones in my big toe (it still hurts BTW). In March of 07, I tripped over a bookcase and landed on a chair and broke my rib. That one doesn't hurt anymore.

4. I broke my ankle when I was 18 months old and my mom dropped me down the stairs before falling down behind me. I broke the same ankle again when I was 9 and was playing tackle football with the neighbor boys. My foot landed under both of us in a twisted position. I rode my bike 3/4 of a mile home with my newly broken ankle because I figured my dad would be mad if I called for a ride (I was right because when I did get home, he told me to quit whinging about it or go to bed. I went to bed until my mom got home and found my ankle had swollen to the size of a grapefruit and took me to the ER).

5. I played soccer in junior high and high school. I also reffed, played on an all girl team and was an assistant coach for my brother's team. There were times when I had several hours of soccer in a day between my teams practices and the kids team practices. I was in the best freaking shape of my life even if I wasn't particularly good at the game. I was good at getting in the way and "taking one for the team" so I got to play defense :) Sadly, C shows no interest in my sport but Lizzie is showing a bit of promise. She just needs to get older :)

I'm not tagging anyone. Pretty much everyone has been tagged and retagged so if you want to do it and you haven't been tagged, then do it and say I tagged you. Otherwise, enjoy learning new things about your friends and don't worry about it. :)

Friday, March 14, 2008

Good Day

We got our taxes back today. YAY! That means I was able to completely pay off my van and I sent the payment today so they should have it on Monday. Double, triple YAY! I also got a chunk of my student loan paid off. It would have been more but the IRS (per usual) screwed up and took a portion of the money to cover non-exsistant back child support. They do this every year and every year, about June, they figure out their mistake and send us the difference. When we get the "tax relief" rebate and that extra tax money back, I'll pay the rest of my student loan off which will be super YAY! In the mean time, I'm taking the money that was going to the van and putting half of it in a high interest savings account (I'm thinking either etrade or ING since they both have way higher interest than any local bank or credit union). The other half will go towards extra payments on my student loan until it is paid.

Plus, today is Pi day See Wil Wheaton of Star Trek and Stand By Me Fame for further explanation on today, the geekest of all holidays :)Only one person I wished "Happy Pi Day" to understood what I meant so I think I need smarter friends (and these were my smart friends :( )

Then tonight, we wanted to do something so I suggested hanging out at the library (side note, I'm way less irritated with them since I figured out work arounds for a lot of my major issues :) )for awhile. As we were leaving, there were tons of people dressed in Harry Potter gear. I forgot that tonight was "Wizard Rock" so we decided to stay and see Ginny and the Heartbreakers who were ok. They wanted people to dance, but over all they were too folky to do much but sway around a little bit. The other "group" was The Remus Lupins, which only ended up being one guy. He was better than the girls because, over all, his music was much more dance-able. However, we only stayed for a couple of songs because the kids were tired by then and it was way past bedtime.

Hanging with my peeps

The Trib is doing a "peep-orama" contest. These are some of my faves but you can see the rest at the website :)

Peep Wars

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Peep Show

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Harry Peeper

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Harry Peeper's mistake

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Buffy the Peep Slayer

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Tag, I'm it

In all the time I've had a blog, this is the first time I've been tagged to do one of these. Does it make me pathetic that I'm excited about this? Thanks Vegan Linda I have kind of a lame list, so just bear with me :)

1. I have an odd joint on the pinky of my left hand. If I hold my hand straight, I can force it not to bend right. Hard to explain, but I used to have a friend that I totally freaked out with it all the time.

2. Dh and I dated about 3 weeks before he moved in with me. It was exactly one year from our first date to our wedding day.

3. I'm watching Dexter right now and I have to say that I liked the concept of the vigilante cop but I'm not as impressed with the reality of the wack job that just hides behind his cop-ness. I am interested in the "bloody child" scenes he seems to be having so I will continue watching to see what is up with those.

4. I like to read mysteries and I have just started the final book in the Diane Mott Davidson series that I have been reading on and off since I was in high school.

5. I got invited to the "honor banquet" every year in high school, even though it was supposed to only be seniors, who were getting scholarships. I got invited the other 3 years because I'm a giant nerd (not news, I know) and had the most "book points" (we had to read various books and points were given out based on the difficulty of the book. We, for a while, could write tests on books that weren't on our list for points as well) because I read anything and everything all the time.

I'm tagging Jen, Central Il Living, Missy, Julie and Stacey

Rules:
Link to your tagger and post these rules.
Share 5 facts about yourself.
Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Mom's email fix - bad singer at a wedding

Dear Reader,
We've asked my future sister in law to sing at our wedding. As it is turns out, she can't carry a tune in a bucket and I regret my choice. The wedding is a month away, what should I do?

My take? First of all, who the heck asks someone to sing at ANY function without first hearing them sing. You wouldn't hire a photographer without having seen their work? The same applies to a singer. Serves you right for not "trying before you buy".

Second, people put WAY TOO MUCH emphasis on weddings. They are big parties. They aren't the end all and be all of your life. It seems like as soon as people get engaged, they lose their damn minds and start planning these HUGE, expensive to dos and then end up getting all upset when things don't go EXACTLY as planned. And seriously, when does everything go exactly the way you plan it? Something will always happen and you can either get stressed and pissed about it or you can laugh and enjoy your party and move on with your life. At our wedding, the best man was late enough that he missed the ceremony, the flower girl refused to walk down the aisle at the last minute and the minister presented us as Mr and Mrs "my last name" We laughed and went on because it WASN'T THAT BIG OF A DEAL.

In this case, the woman needs to get over it. She asked someone to sing, she needs to let the woman sing. People might cringe and wonder why she asked her to sing, but people will remember the wedding. She should know better for next time and then go about getting on with her life, instead of dwelling on the fact that she brought this on herself.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Dance, Monkeys

Somebody do something and entertain me. I'm so freaking bored. I've read all my blogs, all my email, all my sites, everything that I read online and I'm still an hour from bedtime. I'm going to watch some trashy TV but you know, trashy TV, not all that entertaining.

The only thing I haven't done that I could is my ADSR (digital scrap booking challenge) challenge for this week, which is LAME (do an "interview" with an inanimate object and do a page about it? Really? Can you say worthless waste of time?) so I have no desire to do it. I'll slap something together Saturday night because it doesn't have to be good, just done :)

Sunday, March 9, 2008

LOL Catz make me LOL

Humorous Pictures

Humorous Pictures

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Humorous Pictures

Humorous Pictures

The things they say

This is something my crunchier friends will appreciate. The kids have bunk beds in my room. A few months ago, C started asking about sleeping in his own room, which we were trying to figure out how to arrange, since we only have 2 bedrooms. A week or so into this process, he came to me and told me that he didn't really want his own room so nevermind. Ok, no biggie sometime in the next year or so, we are planning to move to a bigger house, where he will have his own room.

So then the other night, Lizzie was talking about something and the topic of seperate rooms came up. I asked her when she thought she would sleep in her own room and she said "uh, maybe May" (she will be three in May) and I told her that was ok. Then I asked C when he thought he would sleep in his own room and he said "when I'm 18". "18?"I replied, "Don't you think that is a little old to be sleeping in the same room as your mom" "well no, not really, but that is when I want my own room" :)

Friday, March 7, 2008

Movie and TV quotes answers

Since Dana posted her answers and reminded me, I'm posting the actual answers to the Movie and TV quote quiz I posted a while back.

1. Willy Wonka
2. Grease
3. Dirty Dancing

4.For the life of me, I can't remember what this movie is. Pathetic.

5. Lion King
6. Little Mermaid
7. Mrs. Doubtfire
8. Aladdin
9. Fried Green Tomatoes
10. The Grinch who Stole Christmas
11. Robin Hood: Men in Tights
12. Dogma
13. Veronica Mars
14. House
15. Gilmore Girls

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

It's official

Unoffical is stupid says I and Chambana and Leeanthro.

What is also official is that I am evil minded and I love it! Saturday morning, we took the kids to McDonald's for breakfast and it was FILLED with college kids. Everyone of them looked like they had been run over by a very large truck, repeatedly. Lizzie went running through the dining room laughing and giggling, which caused all the kids in the place to cower and hold their heads. I told my mom that I REALLY wanted to take her in the dining and deny her something she wanted. When Lizzie doesn't get what she wants, she screams like a siren and it makes my head hurt on a good day. I would have LMAO off seeing those college kids go through it but I decided it was mean to deny the baby something just for my amusement. It was really about being mean to her and not the college kids that I cared about. After all, they did it to themselves.

Monday, March 3, 2008

What do you miss by being a parent?

They had a segment on the radio asking people to call in and talk about the things they miss because they are parents. People called in with food issues (never getting to eat your own, having to cut someone else's, etc), time issues, social life issues, etc. I got to thinking about and I thought about all day and finally came up with something that I miss from being a parent. I miss 150lbs. While not thin, that is what I weighed when I got pregnant with C. It was over all a much healthier weight and I felt better and looked better at it. How much of that is simply time (don't they say something like we gain 10lbs a year, typically) and my being a lazy ass and how much is from having kids. Gaining the weight while pregnant certainly didn't help things but I think the other factors play a part too.

Other than that questionable thing, I don't miss anything by being a parent. I'm really a 3 year old in a much older body so I'm pretty happy doing things with my kids. I went to freaking Chuck E Cheese for my birthday for crying out loud! LOL We never did anything that we couldn't do with the kids before having kids so I don't miss anything there. A year ago, I would have said I missed sleep (because Lizzie never slept but she is doing SOOO much better now) and friends but both of those are none issues now. Lizzie sleeps pretty well most of the time and I've made some friends that I really enjoy hanging out with

So what, if anything, do you miss?

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Free movie start this weekend

http://www.gqti.com/freematinee.aspx

I saw the flyer today at McDonald's and they started this weekend. We are going to see Shrek tomorrow, despite having seen it once in the theaters and having the DVD. :) C wants to see several of them and Lizzie is really interested in seeing "The Water Force" (because, despite repeatedly telling her, she won't believe that it is "Water HORSE" lol) and "Bee Movie"