Tuesday, July 28, 2009

ARGH!

Today I started off with a doctor's appointment for Darly on the agenda. I figured after the doctor we could swing by Walmart and pick up some of the 18 gallon plastic tubs they had on sale. Then I kept adding onto my list of errands to run.

When Darly woke up...she wasn't coughing anymore! An hour later and she still isn't coughing! Ummm she has been coughing since July 10th and now isn't anymore! So I called the doctor's office and canceled the appointment.

Then while Darly was cleaning her room she starts coughing again. (JUST SHOOT ME NOW!) But it seemed that it was just the dust because she's been fine since.

So I had a revised list of errans to run...

Petsmart: to get rabbit food
GNC: to buy Papaya tables for me & the rabbits
Home Depot: to buy a new breaker for Darly's bedroom. I also wanted to get some new switches & outlets and also some drop cloths (don't ask! I like shopping there!)
Walmart: to buy the tubs mentioned before.
Bank: deposit checks I've been hanging onto way too long

So we finally get moving...
Petsmart: I find just what I'm looking for with no problems, we visit the very pretty kitties for adoption and leave with just Rabbit food! SCORE!

GNC: Hummm where is GNC?!?!? I thought it was right next to the Ihop. Apparently not EVER! I just looked it up and it's next to the Safeway. UGH! DOWN A POINT!

Home Depot: I find the breaker & switches, but there's an empty spot on the shelf for the outlets. There is a note that says have an associate help me. So I flag one down...literaly! He comes over, then goes to look it up on the computer. They have 88, but they can't sell any until after they do the reset. So the dept manager says I can have the child resistant outlets for the same price! Wow that was a about a dollar & a half savings! But I didn't need child proof...oh well. Then I went for the drop cloth. I was going to get a large one and cut it into two. BUT the smaller one was $10 and the larger one was $29! Hummm I bought two smaller ones.

Walmart: We found our tubs. Then I wanted to look at camping gear and Darly wanted to look at the new G-Force toys. So we split up. I finished in camping gear (picked up two different sleeping pads to try out) and then I went through the Home improvement section and found switches and outlets for much less than Home Depot...so I grabbed those and headed for toys. Well it seems that Darly had finished in toys and went looking for me. Luckily when she didn't find me in camping she came back to toys.

Then we had lunch at Good Times Burgers...YUM!

The first bank went well...except, no lolly pops.

Then the second bank... no lollypops there. I asked about doing online statements and we set that up.

Then I decided to go buy the car dealership to look at new Explorers. They had two. But the sales lady wanted to sell me one from their other showroom. weird! Also I have a car that qualifies for the Cash for Clunkers program...for that they just give me the money and my car goes to the scrap yard since they want it off the road...but the dealership insisted on checking my car out for a possible trade-in. Ummm hello? My car is worth about $1K...maybe if I'm lucky. the clunkers program gives me $4K. I WANT THE $4K!!! Can you say NO BRAINER? ugh

Well the dingdongs at the dealership made me late getting home and I missed meeting up with someone who was coming by...we were off about 10 min. UGH! I feel terrible. I called and emailed my appologies.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Campin!

OKchick asked where I've been all week. LOL! Sorry I didn't post it earlier, but we went camping.

My homeschool group schedules a yearly camping trip and this past week was it. This year we went up to Golden Gate Canyon State Park! We stayed in a cabin this time. It was beautiful up there! And luckily everyone who went loved it too so it looks like we'll be going back for next year. YAY!

I got us a cabin for this trip because Darly was balking at the thought of freezing our tails off in a tent again. And last year we got rained out. This year it looks as if we could have gotten a tent site, but I'm glad we had the cabin too. The link I put up there is of the website describing the cabins. The picture show is of either the cabin we stayed in or the one right next to it...I kinda think it's our cabin because the next shot is the yurt that was next to us.

I invited our friends to come and share the cabin with us and that turned out to be perfect as most of the rest of our group had gone home a day before we did. It also worked out well for us because it gave Darly someone to play with for the entire trip (except for when Darly got mad at her for beating her at Chess...Darly isn't a good looser!)

Before we left for our trip, Darly had ordered her next American Girl doll and unfortunately it was scheduled to be delivered on Monday...the day we were going to go camping. I had looked online and saw the package was listed as "out for delivery" which at my house can mean anytime from 6am to 6pm. So I asked the only neighbor I could find to keep an eye out for the package but I didn't feel too good about him seeing as he doesn't know me very well.

So then I went to fill up the car with gas and was waiting for my friend to meet up with us. While we were waiting at a nearby shopping center we saw the UPS truck heading toward my house... So we decided that since my friend wasn't there yet we would zip home to see if the package had come yet. It hadn't so we went back to the shopping center to meet up with friend...disappointed.

Friend has internet on her phone so we checked the package while we had lunch...it still showed out for delivery, but they don't always update the tracking...so I zipped back home once more before we were going to head to camping. Still no package, but I found another neighbor, ....one I trusted more to ask to keep an eye out for the package. He was happy to do it. So I left for my trip confident that it was taken care of, but Darly was disappointed that she didn't have her doll yet.

We returned yesterday and found the doll sitting on my front porch! The UPS guy had left it behind my front porch railing...so it couldn't be seen from the road. In fact the only way to see it would have been to go on the porch and look for it where it was. The box wasn't labled so even if someone had come on the porch they wouldn't have known what was in it. So neither of my neighbors got the package for us, but it was safe and sound. Darly is happily playing with her new doll and all is well.

We drove up to the campground on Monday. It was a lovely drive with only one slow up due to road construction...or more like parking heavy equipment in the road and taking a break! But we were only held up about 10 min or so. We arrived at the campground and paid our fees then headed to the cabin. We got unpacked and had visitors before we were done as some of our friends had gotten there the day before. After getting our site set up we went to visit our friends at another site.

Lilly was her usual pain in the butt because there were other dogs around. I really need to find a way to get my dog better socialized as she is becoming a problem when we camp. Yesterday I was really annoyed when two teenagers brought their dogs to the site next to us...just to visit their friends and one family allowed their very well behaved dog to run around off leash (which isn't allowed in the campground!) I came out of the bathroom with Lilly to be face to face with this dog. Lilly went nuts but the other dog just kept on walking, probably thinking "IDIOT!" about Lilly.

The view from our cabin was amazing and the weather was perfect. Having beds to sleep in was nice and comfy...I've never slept so well on a camping trip. I need to find better mattresses for our next trip...which will be Aug 3rd.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

more hail and lady vs tree!

we had another hail storm the other day.  Luckily this one wasn't quite as bad as the first storm, I don't think that the roof is in any worse shape than it was before.  LOL!  However, damage to the garden continues...This bell pepper (I know it looks like an Aniheim, but it's a bell pepper!) got punched!Here's a pile of the hail after about 20 min of rain.  Looks like snow, huh?here's some flatten lettuce.  notice all the leaf litter on the ground.  UGH!  I don't think I'm allowed to have any produce this year.  Hello Farmer's Market!
AND NOW!  The Lady vs the Tree!The tree triesbut in the end the Lady is victorious!!!  YAY!  this will make nice fire wood!  ya!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

A pretty normal week

I realized yet again that I've been a bad blogger.  So here's the latest scoop...it's pretty boring...you've been warned. ;)

Monday morning I went over to the Church to help deposit the offering.  Normally they schedule 4 gals to do this.  Two to work on the computer and enter the offerings so that each person gets credit for what they give and two more to do the paperwork and write out the deposit ticket.  Well this Monday one of the gals forgot to show up.  This bothered the other gals and they were torn between calling the missing gal or just trying to do it without her.  We ended up opting without her and did just fine.  I offered to do the data entry part by myself, but the gal in charge didn't want to do it that way because it isn't how they do it.  However, we had plenty of times where I was doing the data entry on my own and did just fine.  Luckily with the holiday it was a very low offering and we got done very fast, even with just the 3 of us.

As I was leaving my car reminded me yet again that I needed to take it back to the Brakes place to see why it was still making noise when I stepped on the brakes.  So I took it over and of course on a Monday they couldn't see me right away...but he gave me an appointment at 3pm.  When I took it back at first the guy couldn't find the noise and when he took me with him to see if I could point it out, it wasn't being noisy.  But finally we did hear the noise and it turned out to NOT be my brakes.  It's the bushings, they're part of the car's suspension.  He took a look at them and said that while they are cracked that I could still get about another 10K miles out of them before they need to be replaced.  I reported this to DH and he finally says I should look into getting a new car.

I'm a bit in shock because I can't believe that I've finally "driven it into the ground" so I ask numerous times for him to clarify his position on this, but no he reassures me that it is finally time to look for a new car.  He even mentions that perhaps this time I can actually get a new car instead of a used car.  However as the week goes on he teases me that perhaps I should only get a used car because I don't keep my current car clean enough...and by the end of the week we are both teasing that I should keep my current car and force it to last another 5 years.  sigh!  He's actually kidding though and I can go look at cars...just no obivious drooling.

On Tuesday Darly got to go back to her gymnastics class.  They've been on summer break for the last two weeks.  I was happy to see that even with hardly any practice she wasn't that out of shape and could still do most everything that she could before.  That's about all we did on Tuesday.

I should mention that during week one of the summer break I looked on google to find a gym for me to go workout while Darly is in her gymnastic's class.  and there is one right near her gym with personal trainers and I could get a free session online.  So I signed up for it and they bugged me about coming in.

Wednesday we went to the park with our homeschooling friends and had a curriculum sale...kinda a yard sale for all our old school related stuff.  I managed to get rid of some of my old stuff!  YAY!  We took home one of Darly's friends for a few hours and that night we got to watch the International Space Station fly over our house...AND we saw a shooting star...this was Darly's first shooting star.  She was so happy.  Before she had been whining that she might never get to see one.  I tried to reassure her, but of course I don't know anything.  So when I saw the star I pointed it out, but she had already seen it.  Her friend either didn't see it at all or was unimpressed.  Hard to tell because this friend isn't impressed by much.  Later we met up with friend's mom at Dairy Queen for ice cream and friend went home.

Thursday we went shopping with some different friends and had fun visiting before Darly had to go to gymnastics.  While she was at the gym I decided I would try to figure out where this gym for me was at because I was having trouble locating it with google...the google stopped in the middle of the road and there are loads of office buildings around there.  So I walked by where the google map stopped.  I couldn't locate the gym!  No sign of it anywhere.  So instead I went for a walk.  It was a nice walk but one of the buildings near there is under construction so that wasn't the most comfortable place to walk past.

Friday morning Darly had an open gymnastics class...she loves these as they allow her to work on anything she wants to.  The "coach" is actually just an older student at a higher level.  And there aren't normally that many kids in the gym...so it can be like a private lesson.  Darly is still having trouble with her hand springs...she doesn't really spring her arms enough yet.  I've seen her do them perfectly before, but for some odd reason she just can't get them now. 

While Darly was at the gym, I went home and worked out on my eliptical trainer for 25 minutes.  While I was doing it I really didn't notice the time and just picked 25 min as a stopping time because I figured I needed the rest of the time I had while Darly was at the gym to get a shower and to get back over there...Darly frequently quits early because a full hour & a half by herself or nearly by herself is too much for her.  So now my plan is to workout while Darly is at the gym each time.  Hopefully I can start loosing the extra weight I've put on.

After her gym class we went to lunch at Panda Express.  I picked a dish that was low fat (mushroom chicken) and Darly had Kung Pau Chicken...she just eats the chicken & nuts out of it, so I had her zuccini.  But almost immediately Darly said she was tired, so we went home.  Later Darly said she had a headache, I figured she was dehydrated and told her to drink some water...she did and took a nap.  She said she was fine.  So we met up with friends to take advantage of a deal at Taco Bell.  Every time our baseball team scores 7 or more runs we can get 4 tacos for a dollar.
When we got there Darly says she isn't hungry.  So I try to see if perhaps she just wants something small like nachos and she says no with her hand over her mouth!  I have to tell her to run for the bathroom (kids!  why can't they figure out when they're gonna puke?!?!?!?)  After I place our order I go to check on her and yes, she did puke but she hadn't gotten there in enough time to aim very well.  :p  So I had to get some towels (no paper towels in this bathroom!) so I go back into the restaurant and get napkins then back to clean up her mess.  I didn't get everything, but if they expect better, they should have papertowles instead of a blower!
After the puking, Darly felt fine and ate her tacos with no problems.  So we think she must have just had some bad Panda Express.  Which reminds me that I need to let them know that!
We watched Wallace & Gromit in Curse of the Were-Rabbit with our friends.

Saturday we had a yard sale to help Darly earn her next American Girl doll.  Darly and her friend sold quite a bit of their old stuff and I got rid of some stuff too.  Not nearly all of the stuff I wanted too...a trip to Goodwill is in order, but enough for Darly to get her doll.  So we will soon have another doll in the house.  I reasoned with Dh that while it may seem like a lot of dolls for her to have (this will make her 4th) that it was better than her spending the same amount of money on a bunch of lesser priced toys and then having a bigger mess!  That seemed to be the most helpful for DH.  Now of course he's worried that he'll have to make more doll beds.  I think that he should. ;)  LOL!
Speaking of DH he called yesterday so I got to talk to him a bit.  While it is wonderful to hear his voice and talk to him, it seems that we have more meaningful conversations via email.  So when he calls there isn't much to say.  Oh well, it is still good to hear from him.

I found out from him that his siblings are planning to take MIL to live in Michigan.  I now feel like I should go talk to her and 1) see if she is having decent conversations yet and really knows what's going on...and 2) see if she really wants to go back to Michigan.  I know that she said she didn't want to ever go back there before, but perhaps because she knows that she needs so much help now she's willing to let her daughters help her now.  I feel really bad for not going to see her since she was first in the hospital, but I've always felt out of place.  DH's siblings don't feel as if I should be involved with this at all.  And Darly doesn't want to go see her (The last time Darly saw her in the hospital she was in pretty bad shape and that was for a surgery!  When I saw MIL after her stroke she looked worse so I can't imagine that Darly would want to see her like that.)  Of course I worry that MIL won't ever be in good enough shape that Darly will be comfortable around her.

Today is now Sunday and I've heard Darly coughing a few times.  I think that it might be best if we don't go to Church this morning so she can sleep more and hopefully get over this cough.  I'll have to go do the offering deposit tomorrow anyway. 
 

 

Monday, July 06, 2009

weekend update

Well what I had planned and what actually happened changed quite a bit, but we had a good time, so all's well that ends well...right?

I thought that we might hike (it's all of a mile) to downtown and check out the city festivities...maybe find a funnel cake & corndogs to much. Come back home, light up my firepit, cook hotdogs & smores over the fire and then watch the city's fireworks from our back porch.

What really happened is: Darly nixed the hiking downtown cuz she hates hiking and she doesn't like funnel cake (she's tried it just once!) So we didn't do that.

Then around 3pm or so it started raining! I grabbed my firepit and put it on the porch under the roof to keep the wood & pit dry. At about 4:30 or so I tried to light my firepit...still under the porch's roof, but pushed out so the wind would blow all the smoke away. The temperature was dropping, Darly & I were still in shorts and were getting cold...I was running low on matches (they're on the shopping list now) and the darned fire wouldn't light!!! It was too windy.

So we ditched the fire! and cooked our dinner inside... POUT! I was so looking forward to a charred hotdog. So I put mine under the broiler to try to crisp it up...no luck there either. pout!

so now...how to do smores? I grabbed one of my soybased candles (the one that smells like cookies) and we roasted our marshmallows over it's flame. I nuked my chocolate & graham crackers in the microwave...so my smore was nice and mushy! I then made another smore and had just a marshmallow too.

It had been raining constantly since 3pm, so I was worried that there wasn't going to be any fireworks... I even started channel surfing for a fireworks show on TV. But luckily the rain did stop at about 8pm, and the fireworks went off at around 9:20pm. We watched from my family room couch (sitting backwards!) in the nice warm dry house! :D

as soon as the show was over I watched TV, even though my neighbors were still shooting off illegal fireworks (you can buy them just over the state line -2 hours away) for a good 2 hours afterward. :p

Darly & I got to watch Turner & Hooch. She liked it, but I totally forgot that Hooch dies in the end...I told her before that he does get shot and almost dies...and then the darned dog dies! What is with all the dead dog movies & books? Can't any of these animals live a nice long life??? bah! Well she didn't even notice that he had died until I appologized for forgetting that he had died. I guess I shouldn't have mentioned it.

Sunday after Church we went to the library, the farmer's market and then home to wait for the insurance adjuster. I got a cuc, a zuc & a tomatoe at the farmer's market. YUM!

The insurance adjuster said that I should be getting a new roof! I hope they don't depreciate the roof too much. I would like to change the color of our shingles to match the house...they're currently grey and the house is brown. :p

I was talking to the neighbor about the roof and he mentioned that they had found a turtle in his front garden... we asked to see it and found out he had a Western Box Turtle...no idea how it got there as they don't roam our streets. LOL! and while checking our yard for spent fireworks I found instead crow feathers & a beak!!! I'm thinking that perhaps a coyote got this bird as cats normally leave more parts behind.

We finished off the day by watching The Next Foodnetwork Star. I'm glad they finally got rid of Katie... It looks like Jamica might be next.

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Saturday, July 04, 2009

new baby!


You didn't think that I seriously meant an infant did you? @@
Here's the latest addition to our household... now we can have two surfers on the internet...no waiting! :)
My only problem is that I am reluctant to stick a lot of the "junk" that we have on the desktop over on the laptop...I know it will happen eventually, but ya know...I wanna keep it pure for a while...
speaking of pure...ignore all the crud you can see in the background of those pictures!
The fun part of this was seeing all my neighbors' wireless connection names. :p My next door neighbors' son is just sick!!! I'm glad our computer has figured out how to connect to our connection by itself now and we don't have to see that anymore.
You may be asking why after all this time I finally got a laptop? well the answer is quite silly... I was thinking of going on a road trip this summer and wanted to get a dvd player for Darly. But then I got to thinking... "why get a dvd player for the car that just plays dvds?" I'm trying to rid our house of uni-taskers and seeing that we don't take a lot of road trips, having a dvd player that you can only use in the car didn't make any sense to me. So whalah! A laptop that also plays dvds. :D
You may be asking what DH thought of my purchase? Well before he left he was considering getting a laptop (for himself!) but decided against it when he learned that he had to bring one from work...he didn't want to carry two on the plane. So when I told him my plan he started giving me a shopping list of stuff to get for it!
Course now I have to wait for my turn on the laptop because it is Darly's favorite new toy. Me, being old and lazy, I actually prefer the desktop...which is where I'm typing this post.
Happy 4th of July to everyone in America! Be safe and have fun!