Thursday

On Thursday I drove up North to pick up a headboard for Becca's bed. It wouldn't be right to drive all that way and not meet up with my Northland friend Shawn. We stopped by a scrapbook store that neither of us had been to yet. Then we had a yummy Mexican lunch. After lunch I introduced Bethany to Pop Rings (insert evil laugh). Then off to the expanded Florilegium for some fibericious eye-candy. Mother Nature was polite enough to wait until I made my treck home before she started to dump the rain. Here are a couple photos of Shawn with Bethany, Becca and me, and Becca proudly showing off her green/blue tongue from her Pop Ring.

LOOK

LOOK!!!

I made something!

It is a canvas for Bridget's room.

It felt good to create something and I think it is pretty darn cute! Also, I didn't buy one single thing to make this.

The saying (in case it is not readable) says: Spread your wings and let the fairy in you fly.

Smile people!

Just thinking.










That was the spot I left for all the smart ass comments.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store. Generally when I'm out I look at people. I say hello to strangers and give friendly smiles. No big deal right? Well, I am discovering that maybe it is.

Monday, I was getting out of the van and heading into the store. A lady was walking past about the same time. I smiled and said hi. She stopped and looked at me. She smiled and proceeded to say how nice that it was that I did that. Really? It was like I paid for her groceries. We walked into the store together and we agreed that it was nice to see the sun out. Then she touched my arm, said thanks, and went about her shopping.

A few weeks ago, I past an elderly man in an aisle of a store. I said hi as we passed. Next thing I know the man came beside me (he was walking the other direction) and said that was so kind of me to acknowledge him. Really?

Both times, it made me feel good, but also sad. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I'm Miss Sunshine, far from it. But is it so rare to give a polite smile and hello in passing? I didn't think so, but I'm testing it now. People really don't acknowledge each other. I guess everybody is in a big rush all the time. I'm not sure why, but you might try it. It isn't time consuming to look up and smile. You never know--it just might make somebody's day a little brighter.

The good and the bad

The Good:
It is suppose to be nice temperature today.
I only have to take one kid to school.
A book I have been waiting 4 months for is finally available at the library.
I have internet and printing abilities on one computer now.
American Idol is on tonight.
I found an affordable, new picket fence headboard for Becca finally.

The Bad:
It is tax day and we owe.... AGAIN.
I have printing ability, but I'm out of ink.
The nice temps are going to come along with a lot of wind.
We missed Desperate Housewives and it didn't record.
The above headboard is in North KC and is out of my comfy driving perimeter.

A celebration for Kameron

Today we celebrated Kameron's 4th birthday at a Flip Zone. That is a fun place, the kids have so much fun there!


I need to get outside and take more photos. I did a terrible job with the camera today. I took so many blurry photos. Just awful. I forgot that the zoom lens needs a little bit more stability. I hate when I do stupid things like that!

A night out

Yesterday, we went to visit my gramma. She was happy to see the girls and it was a nice visit. It had been way too long since we had been there. Then we had lunch with my mom. The girls like to eat at Applebee's, so that is what we had. We got home, and Schaun who had been home alone all day wanted to go out. He practically had to drag us out the door, but off we went.

We almost went to the Great Mall to walk around, but just trying to park didn't go smooth, so we drove away. We made a stop at Barnes & Noble where the girls got to pick out a couple books. In the move I realized what a problem I have with books. I like to buy them and keep them forever. During the packing I gave a ton away and while unpacking I realized I still had too many. So I just made a donation to the library. Needless to say, I did not get any.

We stopped and had dinner at Mimi's. I have never been there. It was a cute place and the food was alright. The kids meals were really good as they came with huge slices of fruit like honeydew, pineapple, orange, and cantaloupe. The best part was dessert though. This kids meal comes with a "dirt cup". The girls were a little hesitant about it because it was so dirt like, but once we convinced them that we would not actually feed them dirt and it was chocolate, they were all over it. We all laughed and had a fun night.

Sunny Days

A year ago, that is what we had. Sunny days. The girls were wearing short sleeves and shorts. How long can this Winter go on? I heard a rumor that it may hit the 70's next week. I'll believe it when I feel it.







This week I gave two massages. Wow, that is a record for about the past year, lol. I also received a massage too, it was fantastic! (Thanks Dolly!) It was an uneventful week. I have made progress in the scrap room and might actually get to use it next week. Today we are going to visit my gramma and tomorrow is my nephew's 4th birthday party. So you bet there will be new photos soon!










Other things coming up and looking forward to are:
-the girls dance recital
-Bridget's Kindergarten graduation
-my birthday
-Schaun's birthday
-Becca's birthday (which is on Mother's Day, so her party will be on May 4th)
-the birth of twin nephews (hopefully on their own birthday and not somebody else's since they will have to share that day already)
-going to Deanna Rose
-the end of the school year
-getting decorations on my walls (I'm not decisive)
-scrapbooking again
-getting a pet bird (looking into African Grey's)
-Schaun grilling and smoking food on weekends
-sunshine

Shaggy no more

The girls got much needed, over due hair cuts yesterday. I've been putting it off because they both have picture days at school this month. Bridget just wants to be Rapunzel and have long flowing hair. This may never happen though. Her hair grows SO slow. The length of her hair is it without any major cutting, just regular trims. Becca said she wanted to have her hair short "off her neck, but not like Daddy's". So, I let Laura cut it a little bit. It really does look cute on her. Bridget is such a poser. She now wants to always be holding some sort of prop when I take her picture.

Week in Review

Last weekend I started to hang all these big flowers that I bought at Hobby Lobby in Becca's room. It is turning out cute! I need to paint a shelf and frame a couple things, then she will be all set. Bridget is being VERY patient with me and her room. Just this week I took a couple boxes of stuff out of there that had no reason for bing there in the first place. I made a big difference in her floor space. Other exciting things, I got our master closet all organized and am trying to get the family to use hampers. (We are experts at throwing clothes on the floors.) The scrap room is not coming along. I feel guilty when I go there because everything else is not perfectly right yet. I get distracted easily too, so a lot of just a little here and there gets taken care of.

I had conferences with both of Bridget's teachers this week. Her morning class is the true Montessori class. Mrs. Paris just loves having Bridget. She is a great student on a social and educational level. Bridget and one other boy are the oldest kids in the room. Bridget takes the job of helping the younger children very serious. Mrs. Paris said that she just knows that if she and her assistant are tied up, that Bridget is always watching and just steps up and helps. She is the example of the room. We are just busting with pride for this kid.

Her afternoon class is Kindergarten. The year started out as a huge challenge for Bridget. They don't get to choose their work in this class, it is more structured, stricter and more challenging than the mornings. She struggled with the concept of learning, but now she is soaring. She would get frustrated when presented with something foreign and now she is curious and always whats to know more. Her reading and writing are very good. She has always been more drawn to numbers over letters. So her math skills are really good. Mrs. Crawford feels that she is more than prepared for next year, the transition to public school and first grade should not be difficult. I hope not. Bridget is sad (as am I ) that she has to leave this school, but she is also excited about the new school.

Other news, the gerbils have names finally. I told Becca that she must decide on names today. She has been given LOTS of choices. She agreed to Jinx and Lucky. Freddy is doing great. He really seems to like being held. We have learned that he expects treats though when you hold him. Better not show up without some fruit or veggies in hand.

I still look around for the cat and I miss her. The joy the girls are getting from the new pets makes up for the loss I feel though.

Schaun traded in his car this week. It was a great car for us. It needed very few repairs over the years, but it was almost at 100K miles, so out with the old. He now has a Mercury Mountaineer. It looks nice and maybe one day soon I'll get a ride in it. lol.

I apologize for the lack of photos. I'll get back into photographer mode here soon.

Welcome to the family

So we let the girls adopt some rodents. They are cute though. Bridget really, really, really wanted a guinea pig. I tried to talk her into a hamster, but she knew what she wanted. Becca told me she wanted some mice. I said NO WAY! I just spent the last 5 1/2 years trying to catch or kill mice, we are not adopting any. I showed her the gerbils and she loved them. The guinea pig has been named Freddy and the gerbils are still nameless. Any name we suggest to her she just rejects because it wasn't her idea. My only real concern is that we don't know if the gerbils are the same sex or not.

Life goes on

Okay, I'm dealing with the cat sadness. I told the girls and they initially didn't seem to care. Which was a relief that I didn't have to deal with them crying (like when the school pet died at Bridget's school), but it also made me sad, that it seems, I am the only one that IS sad. A while back we told them that some day when the cat was not with us, they could get other pets--guinea pigs and hamsters and such little creatures. That is all they centered on. Later, Becca had three major full fledged crying break downs over little things. This is not normal for her. Bridget sat and told me that she would miss the cat and maybe she would come back. I told her she wasn't coming back and then she seemed more sad.


Now the rest of the family is all anxious to run out and get little creatures. So I am the only one mourning the cat here.

In other news, Becca has decided that she can actually dress herself. I knew that she could but didn't press the issue. She is the baby you know. I don't have anybody else to dress. The first couple days she matched everything really nicely. Yesterday she got a little silly and thought she looked so beautiful. She had the yellow striped shirt with the multi-colored heart pattern pants with the Dora sun hat and to complete the outfit--ruby red, glitter slippers. I've seen crazier from Bridget, so I know she can kick it up still, but it was cute.

Also this week I lost my debit card. I have never done such a stupid thing before. The Bank very kindly didn't make a big deal about it. Then my Adobe program (where all my photos are stored) just wouldn't open. It gave me an error that said the license stopped working and the program will not run. Thankfully this is Schaun's area. It took him a few minutes but he fixed me all back up and my photos are all safe. (They are backed up, but loading them again would suck).

Thank you to all my family and friends that kept me in your thoughts and prayers. I really appreciate it.

Sad

We will miss you.

OK

As I sit here trying to type thru my tears, I know what I must do. This might be the hardest decision and thing I've had to do so far in my life.

To my family and friends that feel so inclined, I could use some prayers for peace in my decision and some extra strength to get thru this.

Ice

Not frozen water.
My cat. Her name is Ice (for those that don't already know that).
She is old.
18 years to be precise.
Old.

For some time now, she has had litter box issues. Sometimes she will use it and sometimes not. I did find that when she chooses not to use it she will use the little puppy potty training pads right next to the stupid box that she is ignoring. So it is unpleasant, but under control. She does have some weird issues. You cannot leave a towel on the bathroom floor and I cannot have any sort of bathmats. Those are magnets for her to wet on them.

She doesn't look very good. What is to be expected from a 18 year old cat though.
She wants to eat all the time and I have been feeding her 3-4 times a day now, but she is not gaining or loosing weight.

These are not good things health wise I know. BUT she doesn't seem to be in pain or have any other signs of sickness.

Today I caught her trying to wet on my brand spankin new dining room (aka playroom) area rug. I caught her and sent her packing to the proper place. This is a new problem.

I have internal conflict. I know she is not the cute, playful kitty she once was. She sneezes on you sometimes and it is yucky. She has bathroom issues. She tries to steal every bite of food from your plate. I also don't want my house ruined and smelly.

Can I justify the inevitable end sooner rather than later?
I sensibly feel that I should, but.........
I just don't know if I really can.

Off to get some tissues now.

A fence story

I thought moving to a house without a fenced yard would be a huge big deal. So far, it has not been that much of an issue (except for not being able to keep the neighbor's puppy out). The dogs are doing an amazing job of staying where they should be. I think I have only had to redirect them one time in the past month.

I do want the yard fenced though. We only need about 33 feet to finish it. I am shocked at the price of 33 feet of fence. So far I have received two bids--$700 and $650! Really? Those prices do include a gate also, but still. That just seems high to me.

I have checked out the DIY fence building and it doesn't seem THAT hard. You might soon find me outside with a shovel and nails.

A little thing to ponder on

My new neighbors have a puppy and a fenced yard.
We have 2 mature dogs and a not complete fenced yard.

Why is their fenced in puppy always out running the neighborhood or in my yard jumping on my old dog?

There is just something wrong about this.

Disney Princess Wishes on Ice

Wow!
Wow!
Wow!

This show was phenomenal! It was worth every penny! The costumes were great! The sound was good. The skaters were fantastic! I just loved it! Oh! The girls were excited about it too. I didn't tell them what we were doing until we pulled up in front of the building this morning. There were a lot of little girls dressed in Princess attire. Bridget noticed right away and asked why there were all the girls dressed up in the streets. They were SO EXCITED when I told them what we were there for.

We had really good seats--4 rows from the ice. Very fun! My favorite was the Sleeping Beauty part. The dragon was so cool and it was a real fire breathing dragon! They actually lit the ice on fire. I was super impressed!

Becca and Bridget can't decide on their favorite part. Since we have been home all they have done in act out the show over and over. I guess they really did like it. Bridget did love it all but she is all about Tinker Bell. Tink was sort of the host of the show. She would come out and sprinkle pixie dust around between Princesses. It rained bubbles during the Ariel scene and that was a huge hit with the entire audience. (I took a lot of photos, but it is hard to take great photos of people ice skating.)

It was such a fun day!

A living commercial

So maybe Bridget watches too much tv--maybe. Very often she informs me of the benefits of things she has seen on commercials. Space Bags and The Organizer purse are her favorites. She has explained the benefits of these to me in detail many times. Tonight she told me that she needs some Reeses Puffs cereal because when you eat them "amazing things happen to you". When she says these things it just cracks me up. Just thinking about the sincerity she has when she informs me of these things always makes me laugh.

A happy 6th birthday party

Some didn't think that I should have attempted to have a party with the chaotic state my new house was in on Friday, but it turned out just fine. We worked hard Saturday and Sunday morning and it turned out just fine. Bridget would have liked more decorations, but she loved her Tinkerbell theme. We ordered the cake from Hen House and it was very cute and I thought it tasted really good. Bridget wanted chocolate cake, and I know not everybody wants that, but it was her party. She received lots of really nice gifts. Thank you to everybody!


(I don't know what the deal is with blogger eating all my photos!)

Blog Challenge

I've just won $50,000. The catch is that it must be spent in 2 days.


I'm sure this would not be a problem.

1. I'm paying somebody to fence my yard.
2. I'm paying somebody to build us a new deck and patio.
3. We will take a first class trip to Disney World and stay in the Cinderella Castle.
4. Schaun and I would take a romantic vacation to Hawaii. So I would have to pay Stacy for a whole bunch of child care on top of the trip cost.

I wonder how much I've spent now?

5. A family trip to Europe would be fun.
Other random things:
I'd like a new Mac laptop and desktop with a big giant monitor.
New wardrobes for the family.
A horse :-)

I told you that wouldn't be a problem.

Week in Review

Dirty
Stressed
Tired
Angry
Bruised
Sore
Dirty
Frustrated
Nervous
Disappointed

But I am also thankful. I need to thank my mom for help in cleaning, moving my cabinet, breakables and helping with the girls. I cannot thank my neighbors (well, previous neighbors) Diane and Rod enough. I'm sure they are sick of seeing me at their door now! They let me put some of my embarrassing amount of trash with theirs. They entertained my kids and fed them.They helped fixed things. They sent their kid to my new house to fix a problem. They are just helpful and understanding. I will miss having you next door!

Lost tooth

A couple weeks ago I reported that Bridget lost her first tooth. I have failed to post a photo of her new gap. So here she is.

Catholic "Charities"

Okay, so we have gotten rid of everything in the house except for the stuff we promised to Catholic Charities. They told us last week that they would come pick up the 2 sofas and 2 loveseats that we had to give them. They did show up today. They gladly took one set of sofa and loveseat. They took my bedroom set. They took the 4 bags of clothes and shoes. They took the lamps. The second sofa and loveseat was not good enough for them. These people are not really a charity in my opinion. They said they might consider taking it if I gave them a $50 donation. Ummmmmm didn't I just make a donation? They only want things that are almost new so that they can sell them! They are not giving these to people that might need the stuff. If I had known this before I would have given it away on Sunday. Now I still have to deal with this. Crap! Charity-ha! What scammers!

UUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

That sums it up. That is how I feel.

I am frustrated.
I am annoyed.
I am not annoyed, that is too mild.
I am just angry.

You can't even imagine

So I left the old house last night about midnight.

Basically the garage and basement were full of LOTS of stuff.

There was just so so so much. Too much for me to deal with. So I posted my ad for a Garage Free Sale on Craig's list this morning. You wouldn't believe it! It was hilarious the amount of people that showed and loaded up. I had enough to fill a trailer and several pickup trucks. People just loaded and loaded and loaded. They took anything I would let them. There were so many trucks lining the street my neighbor came to see what was going on (since we moved out and all, lol). It is hard for me to give stuff away like this, but it was absolutely necessary. It feels so good to be rid of all of that.

Now things are controllable. Whew! Such a relief.

All functioning

Yippy! Everything is working now! Got the new dryer and laundry is in process. The fridge is cold and makes ice and gives me water on demand. Cable has been working since Schaun fixed it. Ahhhhh, now that feels good.

I have until next Saturday at noon to get my other pit cleaned out. Ugh! It is horrible the amount of stuff that is there. It is not just trash, but stuff somebody could use. Today I am having a garage free sale that I'm listing on Craig's list. I hope that people will come take some things. I have some place that calls me all the time coming on Tuesday for a pick-up and Catholic Charities is coming on Thursday to pick up some large things (sofa and loveseats).

Week in Review

Friday, this is when THIS week started. This was moving day. I was frantically packing up until the last minute, while Schaun's priority was getting the cable hooked up in the new house. So he was gone all morning. It was nice (for him) that evening when the cable was all set up, but the living room tv only worked for a few hours that day and then it went out. The cable company informed me that my tv had gone off-line and we would require a service call to fix it. They were so sorry for the inconvenience that they set the service appointment up for Tuesday. Great--no tv babysitter for me.

Saturday, was alright. I was very sore, but enjoying the house--even with all the boxes and chaos.

Sunday, the dryer was plugged in and promptly blew up. I didn't get that upset though, I'm still enjoying my new house so much. Much more important this day, Bridget lost her first tooth without any drama. I did take pictures, but I cannot locate my card reader right now.

Monday, got the girls to school in the nick of time. Had a meeting at the Scrapbook Page and I will be taking a break from teaching this quarter. Got my hair cut and colored--love that. Took the minimal amount of dirty laundry and washed it at my mom's house. Went and bought a new dryer that cannot be delivered until Saturday. Normally this would seem okay, but since the same place was delivering my new fridge on Tuesday, I thought maybe they could come together--nope, not a chance. Finally, get back to the house with a few articles of clean clothes and relax a bit.

Tuesday, big day--cable and fridge get set up. First the cable guy arrives and spends about 10 minutes here and has the cable working. Great! Next, the fridge gets here. It is big and perfect. Oh wait--the water line in the house doesn't fit into the fridge. The dude starts to tell me how to resolve this issue in some plumber language that I guess I should know since I bought a refrigerator right? well I don't. I nod at him like I knew what he said and sent him out the door. Shortly after he left, wishing I had a full functioning new fridge, the cable went out again. Ugh! I need to fix dinner though, no time for that now. It is like the house is rejecting us. It doesn't want the things we are trying to hook into it. I still love the house though. Just a little frustration setting in.

Wed., Becca woke in the middle of the night VERY upset. She fell asleep Tues evening about 5:30. She was zonked, I could not wake her to eat or potty. So the poor thing had an accident in bed. It wasn't terrible. She woke up a little wet, but managed to get to the bathroom to finish. She was still upset thought. And now I have potty sheets and clothes and no damn dryer! Grrrrrr! Oh well, I can wash them at least.

I get the girls to school and immediately head to Home Depot. The nice lady there knows me and knows something is wrong. I tell her about the water line issue and she calls the delivery company to find out what I need (because I could not even start to repeat what the dude already told me). She proceeds to get this guy on the phone who somehow knows what the problem is. She hands me the phone and tells me to get the info from the guy. Ummmm, okay, I'll play. I take the phone, he tells me the same plumber talk the other dude told me that I didn't understand the first time. I'm super frustrated now. I tell him to hold on. I tell her to go get somebody that understands plumber talk over to this phone. The issue was resolved after I had the entire Home Depot staff putting their heads together on this. The delivery people are now set up to return to my house and instill the water line on Friday.

Then I headed to the Time Warner office to return the stupid box. I get there and they switch it out for me. They don't even ask why I want to switch it. Great job there folks. Funny thing here. The girls were with me and their mascot is the Road Runner bird. There are also these commercials with the Road Runner for a car dealer place (I think) and it is BeepBeep.com. The girls see the big painted Road Runner on the wall and get all excited about seeing "Beep Beep dot Com". It was funny to me at least.

This is dance night. So after, I spent some time cleaning the old house and about 40 minutes taking out trash, 2 hours in the waiting area at the dance studio, we got back home about 7:30. Schaun hooked up the cable and it has been good since. Ahhhh, it is good to be watching tv in my new (still chaotic) house.


Thursday, today. I have located my card reader so maybe tomorrow I will get some photos on here. I finished painting the touch-up I needed in Becca's room today and assembled some shelving for the scraproom. Stayed home most of the day. Becca enjoyed being able to watch her shows during the day. It was almost normal. I (hesitantly)asked the girls if they liked our new house and thankfully they said they did. Tomorrow the fridge is suppose to get hooked into the water line and Saturday we get a dyer. I have never looked forward to doing a lot of laundry, but I am right now.

I'm so sore!

Thursday night I slept about 3 hours. I sat down to eat a sandwich about 2:30am and I fell asleep, sitting up on the sofa, with the plate and sandwich in my lap. I didn't plan on sleeping at all, but my body said otherwise. I got up and moving about 6:00 and packed more boxes non-stop until 11:15 when the moving company called and said they would not be to us until 1:00 (we had a window appointment set from 11:00 to 1:00). So then I took a break. We managed to fill that entire moving truck and we didn't bring out master bedroom set or the 2 sofa and 2 love seats we have. Sheesh we have alot of stuff! I will admit that A LOT of what was moved went to the scraproom, but hey, I gotta have it. And let me just say that again-- I HAVE A SCRAPROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YIPPY!!!!!!!!!

Now after a full night of sleep, I woke up and my legs are so sore! Yowzers! Guess I was running on adrenaline and didn't notice how hard I was working.

So right now, we have 2 houses in chaos. At least I get to live in the nice one now though. We have a few things that need to be done asap. Most important to me is getting the washer and dryer set up. We have to switch out a plug and get some hoses or something. We need a fence because walking dogs is not fun. The poor dogs are a little freaked out. They just walk around and whimper and cry (Belle more than Daisy).

Becca started to cry last night, she wanted to go back to the other house and sleep in her yellow room. Bridget realized that Becca's room is bigger and she was unhappy about that. This morning everything seems better though. Bridget slept on the sofa because we didn't get her bed set up, so she thought that was fun. Becca slept all night in her room. I think we were all a bit tired yesterday. So now to clean the old house and unpack and organize the new one.

As my sister pointed out, I forgot to say how great it was to sleep here. That was great, but even better was waking up here all refreshed!