Forgotten Blog

It is what it is

2012-01-30T10:28:00.000-07:00

and the audience LOVES it!

The kids did an awesome job. My Darly did her part so well that our Pastor couldn't recognize her until she did her line that she told him about. I cannot wait until I can get some good pictures to show you. For now, I'll post this one...

Darly is in orange. She plays Magyar...in the Disney cartoon this character is only referred to as "The Archer" Her character is ruthless and she plays it really well. Everyone keeps telling her how well she is doing and she never breaks character.

Costume Parade - FAIL!

2012-01-17T10:21:00.001-07:00

Well the director didn't like what we had for the costume parade. She was really upset that we hadn't followed her color scheme ideas... ummm kinda hard to do when you are relying on donations of fabric and clothing. She was also upset that the robes we had did not go to the floor... ummm safety issue as the kids have to climb the stairs to get on the stage and dance.
So now we are scrambling to finish up the projects we still needed to finish before and then add to and change the ones the director didn't like.
Oh and sometime I've got to figure out how to paint 22 t-shirts that I won't have until Friday.

Costume Parade

2012-01-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

Today is the costume parade for Mulan (Darly's current play). A costume parade is a chance for the directors and kids to see what our hard working costume committee has come up with for them to wear. We don't have all the costumes in place yet, but I'm fairly confident that we'll get that done today as we have a lot of outfits that aren't assigned yet.
Then we'll need to finish making the costumes. We are all kicking ourselves for waiting until after the holiday to start sewing, but honestly we didn't want to have to do this at all! I foresee a sweat shop of sorts going on in my sewing room this week. ugh!
I will say that I'm extremely pleased with what the other gals have come up with for our show. One mom was tasked with outfitting our Huns and she did an awesome job! Another mom was given the Mushu Dancers and I loved what she did, even though she's very nervous about it. I hope that she's there to see the kids' reactions to her hard work.
I found out last night that YAY we don't have to come up with another 20 some-odd helmets for the kids. One mom really doesn't want to dye her daughter's hair (I don't blame her one bit!) and was hoping for some head wear to hide the fact that she has red hair. The director is okay with covering her hair with a cloth though.

Well I should shake a leg and a kid to get the ball rolling today. I've got to run and get more fabric because I wasn't paying attention when I cut out one of the robes last night and now I don't have enough to make the robe...argh!

Oh Snow!

2012-01-11T14:42:00.002-07:00

We have yet another snowy day here. (ah there the trash truck has finally arrived! I thought they might try to wait until tomorrow like they do for all holidays even though when we hired them they said they wouldn't do that.)
The weather folks all predicted 2-4 inches. It has been snowing on and off since 5am. I'm pretty sure that anyone can tell you that adds up to way more than just 4 inches!
I've gone out to shovel 3 times, trying to get it cleared off enough that our very tiny bit of sun could melt off any new snow. At 2pm I thought I had it conquered, but now at 2:40 more snow is falling. So it looks as if I'm going to have to shovel again and then sweep the remaining snow off so that the sun can do it's job.

Sigh!

Failure to communicate...

2012-01-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not a fan of cell phones. I find cell phone users to be rude, annoying and I really hate when they almost kill me with their very poor driving skills while talking on their phones. I hate that now days you can't go through your life without owning one of the blasted devices.

So I do own one, but I hardly ever use it.
I had to turn texting off because I had some silly teenager who had the wrong number texting me constantly...and even though I never read her texts I was still getting charged.
I had to set up a system for my ring tones so that the phone rings one way for people I actually want to talk to and another way for folks I don't know, because even though my phone is on the Do Not Call list, it still receives SEVERAL phone calls from folks who want to sell me something...usually to refinance my mortgage.
My car has bluetooth in it, but I shut that off because every time I got a call on my cell phone the bluetooth would kick in and scare the carp out of me and Darly. Then we would have to figure out how to either answer or reject the call all the while trying to NOT get into an accident. I figured that it was much better for me and everyone else on the roads if I not try to take a call while driving. There was also some system check feature where the car would call to somewhere (I have no idea where) to give them a report on how it was doing. I shut that off too, because it loved to do it while I was on the interstate. ummm SO NOT helpful!
I don't have the voice mail set up on the cell phone because I don't want to have to pay to hear my messages (yeah, I'm that cheap!) So folks I actually want to hear from can call my house and leave a message there...or better yet email me...you can do that from your phone too. :p

And that leads me to today's rant. Emailing from your phone. It seems that just about everyone I know uses their cell phone to check and respond to their email. Today I sent an email (from my computer) asking a very important two part question. "Do I do this, or that?" The return answer from her cell phone was "YES"... so I wrote her back that I didn't understand her response because I asked a two part question. I just got notification that she returned my email with a proper answer. Sigh!

So if you ever wonder why you don't have my cell phone number...read above. And if you do have my cell phone number you have been given the rules for it's proper usage...please don't make me reject your call. ;)

Silly hubby

2012-01-03T23:54:00.003-07:00

Dear Renee
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above...-James 1:17

Hare today. Gone tomorrow. Another year gone by. Happy Birthday!

Here's hoping your birthday brings you laughter, a light heart, and love. Happy Birthday!

It's your birthday but don't be depressed...10 years from now this will seem young! Happy Birthday!

They say that age is all in your mind. The trick is keeping it from creeping down into your body!-Anonymous

To misquote Martin Luther: It is your birthday. What does this mean?You should celebrate, eat cake ... (and thank the Lord for a year of blessing).

May you have a very Happy Birthday!!!Love, hubby

better get sewing

2011-12-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

I need to sew about 6 or so costumes for Mulan. Yet, instead of getting that done already, I've been doing everything BUT sewing.

I have this sort of mental issue about worrying that I'll mess it up...so I haven't even cut the fabric yet. It's an easy pattern...they're just costumes(so they don't have to be perfect) but they do have to be put together well as the kids seem to wear them out from wiggling in them. Honestly, I'm too used to my kid taking care of her things that it shocked me the first time I had to fix a costume because the kid had wiggled too much back stage. argh!

So, sigh! Time to go get dressed and start sewing. Wish me luck!

Zazzle fizzles out

2011-12-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

Since my last contact with the folks at Zazzle I haven't heard anything at all.

So much for their supposed commitment to my satisfaction! :p

Humm I wonder if my friend does mugs? I should go check.

struggles with ordering fun

2011-12-14T12:17:00.001-07:00

recently a "blogebrity" decided to get the production team that helped with her latest book some really cute coffee mugs. And of course everyone else wanted them to, so she set up where we could order our own mugs.

The mugs had on one side

Trust me, I'm a Prefessional

the other side said

Leave Blank

The prefessional typo was a joke on the team as they had goofed the cover of her book and had to go back and place a sticker over the typo... I totally never bothered to lift the sticker on my book until she said to!

The leave blank was a typical thing that we see on cake wrecks all the time where the bakers will put the instructions on the cakes.

However, when I placed my order I received an email...

Thank you for your order

Your absolute satisfaction is our first priority. Our Quality Assurance team carefully reviews each order, and has discovered an issue with the design of one or more of your products:

Title: Trust Me, I'm A Prefessional (Green)

Design Issue:
--- The design of your product is missing text or image in the template field. Please feel free to re-order your personalized design in the given template fields on the product page. If you wish to have the template field blank, please be sure to delete the field in our design tools while customizing your product.

I sent them a response back...

My order was canceled and you sent this message "The design of your product is missing text or image in the template field. "
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN???
I would like the item that I ordered and I don't mind waiting for it...this is for me, not a gift.

I then tried to place my order again (as they have not removed the mug) and it was canceled with an email stating that the image didn't meet with their content policy. I also got this response to my customer service request.

The reply:

Our system indicates that your order was cancelled by our Content Management Team, at which time a notification was automatically sent to the email address associated with your order. This message contained an explanation of any content restrictions, design failures or other criteria which factored into the cancellation of your order. It also includes instructions on how to re-order any items which have already been approved by our Content Management Team.

My reply to that:

~~The problem is that you are apparently filling orders for this item for some folks but not others.~~ I found out later that everyone's order got canceled. The "image" in question is just text that was provided by the designer from real mistakes on cakes.

Please check the item (link provided to them) and explain to me how the image doesn't meet with your content policy. (I provided a link to their content policy page) I'm totally confused as to how "Trust Me, I'm A Prefessional" and "Leave Blank" violate any of your content policy.

Thank you for your time. I realize that this is a busy time of year.

I've deleted the info on what company we are dealing with here in hopes that the matter can be resolved and I'll get my mug. However, if they still want to be a pain about it, I'll be happy to tell you who it is. I wonder if they have that system where they get notified when people mention them online???

Honestly, I feel that what is really going on here is that they were running a sale on mugs that day and were bombarded by fans of the blog wanting these mugs. The company might have gotten confused by the Leave Blank joke and just flagged it. But instead of checking with the designer about the content they just flagged it as unacceptable and canceled orders. :(

UPDATE: First the blogebrity contacted them and learned that 1) they canceled ALL the orders for the mug because the "Leave Blank" part confused them. She talked to the content review folks who were supposed to figure everything out. 2) If we emailed the company we could get a code so that we could still get the discount that was running when we first placed or orders.

So I emailed. I included the two order numbers that were canceled. However, customer service and content review must not speak to each other because customer service was shocked that someone else was telling me what to do about their website...and that while I had been advised to contact content review they showed no record of that happening. SIGH!

Honestly this isn't worth it to me anymore. Sure the mug was cute, but it was awfully expensive even with the discount...especially when we get tons of free mugs all the time.

By the way Zazzle.com I won't ever be ordering or trying to order from you again.

Amazing Race birthday party

2011-12-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Darly attended this birthday party (described below) I volunteered to be a driver. I'll add in my notes about how it turned out in slanty type. ;o)

Dear Driver volunteers,

First off, thank you so much for helping us make Friend's 16th birthday a fun a memorable one. We are so much in your debt for doing this for us. I wanted to give you all a rundown of the events we have scheduled and what you each will be responsible for. Before I do, I also wanted to mention that we are still short by one video camera I believe. If you happen to have an extra that would be great.

Now the rules of the game. Each team will be given an "official" rules sheet that will explain to them how to play the game and how to act. I won't go over those in this e-mail, but I do want to emphasize that you are not a "team" member on the team. Think of yourselves as the local host and referee for your contestants. You will be judging them on completion of challenges and will be holding all the clues. When you feel they have completed the task correctly give them the next clue. Some of the clues will be on smartphones via e-mail, some will be paper. All Route Info's and Detours will be electronic on the phones. All Road Blocks will be Paper. They will all be numbered so you know when to give them. You will also be responsible for maintaining the teams smartphone. That phone will be the only one the team can use to gather information about finding each challenge. Don't let them see clues ahead of time and collect the phone any time it's not being used for directions by the teams. Your final duty, I know a lot to do right, will be to video tape the challenges. We're not really expecting a complete filming of the entire challenge. Just video what you can and what looks fun. While the team is traveling between challenges you should allow the team to video themselves in the car. We want to get lots of fun footage of the teams as they compete in the challenge. The end result will be a video memory of the day made in the style of an actual TV show and each contestant will get a copy on DVD. But not until after Christmas... LOL! Actually figuring out when and where the correct clues to give was pretty confusing. There was one location clue that was on paper (given by "Phil") given after the correct task was performed and as it was the only location clue given this way it cause some great confusion...see later on!

Schedule of events:

The "game" will start at 2:00pm in the parking lot of High School. I think you all know where it is, but if you need directions let me know. We'd like the drivers to be there early to set up the cars in the right spot and add team colors. Speaking of team colors. It would be great if each driver could where a shirt that matches the teams color so they can spot you easily. Greg will be driving the Red team. Rob will be driving the Blue team. Rene will be driving the Yellow team. John will be driving the Green team. Joanna will be driving the Black team. The teams will be given the rules of the game and allowed some time to "get to know each other." Once we are ready, they will race across the parking lot to their drivers where you will give them the first route info clue (Route Info #1). Then it's game on! Not that it matters but NO ONE was wearing team colors and that didn't end up being how the drivers were set up as "Phil" had to drive a couple of legs of the game too.

First stop is Family Sports Center at the corner of Arapahoe and Peoria. Remember, you can't just drive to the spot. You must wait until the team gives you directions to get there. If they are WAY off and you know they are obviously headed the wrong way, you can intervene and give gentle guidance to get them back, but for the most part we want the teams to work at the directions. At family sports, one team member will be required to climb the rock wall inside. You will be given four tickets in your packet to cover the cost of the "ride" at FSC. When you arrive in the parking lot and park, you will give your team the "Detour" clue (Detour #1). That will inform them to choose one team member. Once they have chosen, you can give that team member the "Road Bock" clue (Road Block #1). That will explain the challenge and any penalties involved. In this task, if they attempt the task but cannot reach the top of the wall, they can come back down and will be assessed a 5 minute penalty. If any team cannot attempt or complete a task at all, they should be given a 15 minute time penalty. But we figure each team will at least try them and the tasks are not that difficult. All of the team members should stay together, so the other two members should go in with you and observe and cheer on. Once the contestant has completed the task you will show the team the next route info (Route Info #2). First Google maps lead everyone who used it out of the way. Yes we got there eventually, but there was a much shorter route. One team (the one with the birthday girl in it) knew how to get there without using Google maps and beat us all there by a huge margin. Sadly FSC had only one person running the game so the teams all had to wait in order of arrival to do the challenge. This part of the game would have been much better if FSC had more staff on the game. :( This challenge would have been PERFECT for Darly to do, but alas she didn't get chosen for it. If we had all the teams climbing at the same time and Darly was our climber we could have easily have jumped into the lead here. However, because we had to wait to climb the race pretty much stayed in the same order with hardly any changes.

After FSC, the team will be directed to go to Willow Creek Park. It's easily found on google maps. At the park, there will be a marked area. After you park, give the team the Road Block clue for this challenge (Road Block #2). The area will have a start line and a one rope circle for each team. The object will be to take a colored "rock" and throw the rock from the start line to circle. You will have your rock with you from the beginning and it will need to come with you when you finish. The distance will be far enough that it can't be done by one person. Each team member will get one throw and the next team member will start from the spot where the last throw stopped. Rolling counts. For example: John starts at the line and throws the rock, Jane goes to where the rock stopped and throws it from there, Judy goes to the spot where that toss stopped and throws it from there. The last throw will need to land inside the ring. We decided that at least half of the rock must be inside the ring that is marked with their color. If they don't make it inside the ring by the time all three team members have thrown, they will need to start over. When the team does finally get the rock in the ring, you will give them the next route info (Route Info #3). I never noticed any starting line, but this task was super easy...I was expecting the distance to be much longer, but the organizers were worried about time.

This clue will direct them to Rob and Amy's house. It's actually only about half a mile from the park, but don't give that away let them figure that out. Once you park, give them the Detour clue (Detour #2). They will need to choose one team member to do this challenge. Once they have chosen the team member give them the Road Block (Road Block #3). Also, we assume there will be more than one team arriving, but only one team can attempt the challenge at a time. So there will be a sign up sheet at the door. The team cannot go in or sign up until they have been given their road block clue so they will need to pick the person first. The first team to arrive will go right in. After that the teams will need to sign up on the list and will have to wait until their turn. Only one team will be allowed inside at a time. The task is simple. There will be 2 cups, one with sprite and one with plain club soda. Each cup will be guarded by a guard. The person doing the challenge will be allowed to ask one guard one question to determine which cup is sweet and which is the "poison". Team members not competing cannot help at all. The trick is that one guard always lies and one always tells the truth. This is a classic riddle which has a simple solution. Once they team member has asked the question, they must choose one of the cups and drink the contents completely. The cannot receive their next clue until the contents of the cup are completely finished. This might be tough for someone who has never tasted straight soda water. IF the team member chooses the "poison" cup they will be given a 5 minute penalty upon leaving the house. The entire team must leave so that the next team can start, but they will not be given the next route info until the 5 minutes is finished. Once the challenge is complete, give the team the next route info (Route Info #4). It was here that most teams figured out what the second Theme of the party was...have you figured it out yet? Oh I guess I should tell you that the clues that the kids got had titles that gave them a hit to the second theme.

The team will now be headed to Civic Green Park. This park is located just behind the library. It's also easy to find on google maps. Drive to the park and park where the team members tell you to. There is Flower statue in the Southeast corner of the park. They will need to figure out that they have to start there. the flower is pictured on the route info clue. ~~You will have a video loaded on your phone. The team will need to watch the video in order to figure out the starting point.~~ Once you have parked, give them the Road block clue (Road Block #4). While they are reading it, ~~get the video ready to be watched. Let them watch the video and figure out where to start.~~ Once they have made it to the flower you will give them the paper that has the pictures of the stones on it. They should be able to follow the path shown on the video and will see the stones in a specific order. You will have another sheet that shows the correct order of the stones. When they finish the route, they will need to return to you at the flower and tell you the order they saw the stones. IF they do not give you the correct order, you will tell them "no." Nothing else. They will have to start over and follow the video again until they get the order correct. Once they have the correct order, they will move to the pavillion area of the parke where they will need to chase and "capture" one of the little kids dressed as mice. Capturing simply means touching or grabbing. All three team members will be allowed to chase, but they only need to capture one mouse. The mouse will direct the team to take them to the climbing ball (also pictured on the route clue). At the ball one team member will be required to climb to the top of the ball and retrieve one orange flag. Once they give you the orange flag, you can give them the next route info (Route Info #5). The video wouldn't load because it was too big, so instead the teams had to wait in order of arrival and a mouse would run the route...it was up to the teams to figure out that they needed to mark the order of their stones. If they didn't get the route right or didn't mark the stones, they had to go back up to the waiting point to start over. Our team had to start over so they lost their slight lead in order here. I think they dropped from 3rd to 4th here.

Now the team will be headed to John and Christy's house. It's not too far away, but again, the team will need to direct you. Once you park at the house, give the team the detour clue (Detour #3). The team will be picking 2 members to compete. Once they have chosen, give them the road block clue (Road Block #5). Similar to the other house, there will be a sign up sheet. The first two teams can proceed, the rest will need to sign up and wait their turn, unless there is no team in front of them. The task here will be to make truffles. There will be a demonstration video in the kitchen to watch and follow. The team will need to make a total of 6 truffles. One for each team member, one for the driver :), one for a mouse, and one for the birthday girl! They can eat theirs right away, so can you. But the 2 extras will need to be brought with them in paper cups and in a box. That box MUST be with you when you get to the pitstop. Your job as the judge will be to approve the rolled truffles before they can be refrigerated and decorated. You will also need to approve the box to be sure it is packaged correctly, there will be an example at the house. The teams will need to make the chocolate ganache, but they don't have to wait for it to chill completely. After they finish the ganache step they will put the bowl in the refrigerator. There will be a pre made batch of ganache that they will be allowed to take out and use to scope the truffles. The two members will scope 6 truffle centers from the pre made mix. they will need to roll the 6 centers into a good ball like the video shows. You will judge if the balls are acceptable. They don't need to be perfect, but they need to be close. Not falling apart or smashed or melted, etc. This is tricky because their hands will be warm. (The trick is to cool your hands with cold water, but don't give that away unless they have been struggling for a very long time.) Once they have rolled the centers to your judgment, they will chill them in the refrigerator for 5 minutes. You should be able to use a time your teams smartphone. After the five minutes has passed, they can retrieve them from the refrigerator. Now all three team members will participate. They will be allowed to coat their truffles with which ever topping they choose and you can tell them which you prefer. The two for the box will need to match the example exactly. If they don't match the two in the box, they will not be accepted. Don't tell the teams that they need to match because we want them to figure that part out. If the team does not match the example exactly, you will tell them they did not complete the truffles correctly. They will need to make two more and match the box. Once they have finished all 6 truffles and the box matches correctly, you can give them the next route info (Route Info #6). this challenge was again first in first out. Due to time running out and it was getting cold outside waiting they started allowing more teams inside at a time which lead to the later teams knowing what needed to be done, but as there wasn't anyway to pass each other up, it wasn't a big deal. I got a toffee covered truffle! YUM!

Now the teams are headed to the mall. Park near the Food Court. The entire next challenge will take place in the food court area. Once you park, give them the next Detour (Detour #4). They will need to pick one team member. Once they have picked, give that team member the road block (Road Block #6). This task is complicated, but not impossible. Before you enter the mall you will need to explain something very important. The mall does not allow scavenger hunts. We have to be careful not to be disruptive in any way. So the team members will need to be calm and quiet at all times. You'll have to really stress this. When you enter the food court, chose a table and sit with your entire team. Tell them to stay with you until the challenge is complete. Only the one team member completing the task will be allowed to walk around the court. No one should run at all. Please be sure they are calm and quiet so we don't ruin it for the remaining team. You will need to give the selected member the sheet of paper with the letters on it. They will be directed to decode the clue by putting the letters in the correct order. To do this, they will start at one spot in the food court and walk counter clockwise. Each letter is a picture taken from the signs in the food court. As they walk the food court, they will see each letter in order. They will need to figure that out, so don't give that away. Once they return to where they started, they should have the entire code word. In this case, they will need to start at Ben and Jerry's, but they will not be told that, don't give that away. Once they have the code, the one team member will walk to the fountain in the center of the of the mall (just down the escalator) and will present the code to "Phil" or me. I will verify that the code is correct and if so, I will hand them the next Route info. If the code is not correct, I will tell them and also explain that they can get help from one team member to try the second time. If they receive the route info, they can continue to the next challenge. This was a challenge where teams could move ahead! But because time was running out, "Phil" wasn't there by the time we got to this point. So each team in order would just wait for the next team to arrive and the drivers took over for "Phil"... this is where we got the confusion about the location clues. There was also some confusion about where the location clue was leading folks.

This route info will send them to Greg and Terri's house. Once you park, show the team the detour (Detour #5). Once they choose the team member, give them the road block (Road Block #7). The team member will need to enter the house and search a pile of stuffed animals for a small tan bear with their team colors. Two teams can compete at the same time. Once they find the bear and present it to Terri, they will now have to defeat an enemy playing a Playstation game called gladiator. It's a simple game that should be easy to complete. After they have won the game, best 2 of three competitions, they can receive the final route info (Route Info #8). This route info will direct them to the pitstop. This task was first in first out. The only way to move ahead was to skip it...which one team did. Note: the previous step where there was confusion about this location clue. The team that skipped thought (because of similar addresses) that they were going to the pitstop already...and in the end they went straight there.

The pitstop is at Willow Creek #3 clubhouse. Remember, you are still not allowed to take them there, they must direct you. The Club house is back near the park where the rock toss was done. The clubhouse will be the pitstop. Please send me a text telling me when you are on your way to the pit stop so that we can prepare for their arrival. When you arrive, please video tape the arrival and me welcoming your team to the pitstop. That's all, now the party starts!!! because the one team skipped the previous location they incurred a 15 minute penalty...however, it took the other team (the one I was driving for) 20 minutes to get there...so our team was last to arrive. :( I think I was the only one who cared though as the kids were just having fun.

One last thing. Please keep me apprised of your progress throughout the race. We'll be monitoring the progress and time. We need to know if we are going to be too long and if we need to cut some events out. If that happens, I will inform all parents via text message which event to skip. It might get harry if that happens, but we'll try to make it smooth. I need to know when each team starts and completes a challenge. AS the team is preping (maybe just before you leave the car) please send me a text to let me know which challenge you are starting. Then when they have completed it and are looking for the next stop, let me know again by text that you have finished. That will allow us to gauge how long we are taking and if we are running long. Unfortunately I being technically challenged, I wasn't able to keep in touch with "Phil" to let him know our location. When we were on our way to the Mall he called to let me know that I would need to look for the previous team for our clue...I learned there that I had to wait for the next team to give them the clue.

We started the race just a bit after 2pm and arrived at the clubhouse a bit after 6pm. I was so very tired! At the clubhouse the second theme movie was playing, the kids had dinner, & cake. They also played a few games that the parents had never heard of. The parents chatted. It was very loud and crazy. Darly had a lot of fun but doesn't want ANYTHING like this for her birthday...she wants a nice quiet Tea Party. YAY! :D

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-11-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Thankful for the buffer zone!

2011-11-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spent a lovely Thanksgiving with my Brother and my Sister in law's family...SANE people. It was nice. And I got to thinking that when you grow up in a situation you don't really realize how messed up things are until you're able to experience what normal really is.

I mean I always felt resentment as a teenager when my mom had to work on Thanksgiving and she would have me prepare the Thanksgiving dinner, she would come home and make the gravy and then take credit for making the entire meal when our other relatives came over. Yes, I'm sure they all knew that my mom couldn't have possibly really have made the meal since they knew she was at work...It just really irked me that I did all the work and here she was taking the credit for it.

So when I went to Florida to visit mom, I went in knowing that she wanted to have a big dinner...and I knew that she can't really do all the heavy work anymore because of her COPD. So really I would make the dinner, and I knew that she would try to take all the credit for the meal. What I didn't know going in was that 1) mom doesn't have a dishwasher in this house (doesn't matter much as she would NEVER use it if she had it...it uses too much water that she can't afford to pay for!)
2)my step-dad does most of the dishes because my mom can't, he hates using the scrubby...so most of the dishes that we needed for the meal needed to be washed BEFORE I could cook anything with them. :p
3)mom wanted to use her good china for the meal! To that I put my foot down. Here it was bad enough that I was having to wash all the cooking dishes, there was NO WAY I was washing all the china. In fact I managed to have dinner on Christmas print foam plates. :D Not the greatest, but I didn't have to wash them. Honestly I think my sister in law was relieved because other than her boys trying to poke holes in their plates, she didn't have to worry about them ruining the dishes.

I do have to say that Mom did try to make as much of the dinner as she could. She made the beans almost entirely by herself, I just cut the onion and bacon. She bought a pre-cooked ham that I just had to lift into the pan and make the glaze for it. And she helped put the onions (that I chopped), flour, cheese and seasonings into the Mac & Cheese while I did the stirring.

However, she got after me for turning the heat up on the cheese sauce (to get it done faster) because it might lump up. I shot back at her that I've been making this very cheese sauce for 20 some odd years and I have NEVER had it turn out lumpy!

She also got after me for rinsing off the dishes before I washed them, because I was wasting water. At that I almost went into my purse and tossed money at her.

She made snide remarks at me for taking a few minutes to check my email and see how my family was doing.

She made comments about weight frequently (note the menu above!) She said my dog was overweight, she said her dog was overweight, she implied that my sister in law was overweight (she totally isn't and looks great!)

Yesterday after dinner I chatted with my sister in law about it...her mother also mentioned a few things too. Yes we know that my mom has a very low self image and her comments are her way of making herself feel better by putting everyone else down. I just wish that she could find a way to do it that wasn't so hurtful.

I've always felt that her separation from her mother and sister were the best thing for her in that she didn't have to subject herself to their continued bashing of her. However, now I wonder if perhaps her living in her self pity over the situation is just making things worse. She doesn't seem to have ever gotten over things. She won't let it go.

Before I went on this trip, I had considered trying to fly mom out here for Christmas. But after spending just over one day with her, I don't want her here. I can't be around her, she just brings me down.

Funny, while I was there she asked me to get her something for Christmas...a rather expensive knick-knack. I think she feels that if I were to get this for her, it wouldn't be such a burden because when she dies I would get the present back...however, I don't want this knick knack. And I had already planned to get her something she needs for Christmas instead.

I think I'm going to stick with my original plan and not worry that she's disappointed.

And I'm going to thank God for our rather large buffer zone!

My "vacation"

2011-11-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

18-Nov	6:30 AM	wake up – shower, make coffee, check email, wake child
18-Nov	8:00 AM	leave for airport
18-Nov	9:00 AM	arrive at airport – head straight for security. Small delay due to concealed creamer.
18-Nov	9:20 AM	arrive at gate – check with gate agent about moving seats. She didn't think she could, but turns out she was able to do it just fine.
18-Nov	10:00 AM	board plane
18-Nov	10:30 AM	plane leaves for Florida – bought lunch on the plane for the first time…so not worth $9!
18-Nov	3:45 PM	arrive in Florida – Brother meets us at the gate. SIL goes shopping with other SIL, we get car.
18-Nov	4:15 PM	leave airport – head to Brother’s hotel. I watch nephews while Brother does some work.
18-Nov	6:15 PM	go to restaurant
18-Nov	7:30 PM	Grandma arrives – she was totally surprised to see us all there. Mission accomplished!
18-Nov	10:30 PM	leave restaurant – I’m not really sure what time it was when we left, we were outside chatting.
19-Nov	12ish	arrive at Mom's – had to drive SIL & nephews to hotel room first and Mom’s about an hour away.
19-Nov	1:30 AM	go to bed – Mom had to catch up!
19-Nov	6:23 AM	wake up – I was surprised as Mom warned me that her dog might wake me at 4am. Thanks for letting me sleep in Casey! Mom had me set up her Christmas Village (btw: I hate Christmas Villages!), pack vacuum cleaner for me to take back with me, and help cook dinner.
19-Nov	5:00 PM	call from SIL that they are an hour away. Okay because we didn’t really expect them at 5.
19-Nov	6:20 PM	Brother & Family arrive, right when we expected them.
19-Nov	9:30 PM	or so, Brother & Family head to Cousin's house..so glad that I didn’t go with them.
19-Nov	10:30 PM	head to bed to try to make up some sleep.
20-Nov	1:00 AM	wake up…so much for making up sleep!
20-Nov	3:00 AM	wake up… REALLY???
20-Nov	4:20 AM	wake up… OYE! Prepare for Zombie day!
20-Nov	5:15 AM	should have left for airport…Mom not ready yet
20-Nov	5:20 AM	actually left for airport…sigh!
20-Nov	6:25 AM	arrive at airport… This trip should not have taken this long, but Mom was driving slow to save gas.
20-Nov	7:00 AM	arrive at gate… luckily check in and security went very fast. I don’t know how I zipped through check in so fast…lady let me cut in line!
20-Nov	7:15 AM	board plane – in Economy Plus for this trip… nice!
20-Nov	7:45 AM	plane leaves for Colorado - But they didn’t have the breakfast menu and were low on snacks too! I just had coffee.
20-Nov	9:30 AM	arrive in Colorado – 20 minutes early! SIL’s dad is there to pick her up, I had to get the vacuum cleaner and lug it to passenger pick-up
20-Nov	10:00 AM	arrive at passenger pick-up … note husband & daughter are about ½ way through Church service…so I read.
20-Nov	11:30 AM	Husband & daughter arrive to pick me up – we head to “lunch” at Mimi’s Café. YUM!

ACKness!

2011-11-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

So we're finally to the week that I'll travel to Florida for my Grandmother's birthday celebration. so much to do, so much to do!!!

I am doing laundry today so that I can plan out my trip wardrobe and see what bag I need to pack for my trip. I'm pretty sure at this point that I won't be needing to use any of our rolling carry on bags...I won't have that much stuff to take. Hopefully my mother doesn't plan for me to take a bunch of stuff home with me like she did for my last trip. Oye!

I went grocery shopping yesterday to buy food for DH & Darly to eat while I'm gone. That was kinda weird as the one night Darly has rehearsal so she'll be eating dinner there and DH will have to fend for himself for dinner. I didn't buy him anything special, but there will be his choice of left-overs, 2 frozen meals, 1 pantry meal or just going out for dinner. I'm betting he has toast with peanut butter and honey on it instead. @@

I'll be staying at my Mom's house. But we get there pretty late in the evening which means no time to shop for my morning coffee. So I've bought some powdered creamer to pack and take with me because my mom thinks my use of creamer is wrong. sigh! I hope the TSA doesn't give me a hard time about taking it with me. Perhaps taking liquid creamer would have been easier if I just packed it with my shampoo? We'll see. Worst case I have to toss it, but I hope they let me mail it back home instead if I can't take it with me.

Mom is planning a big family dinner for the full day that I'll be there. She wants to serve all the family favorites. She can't cook the family favorites anymore so guess who gets to do that? Oh well, I guess it is a small price to pay for free room and board, eh? I'm just hoping that there will be vegetables.

I advised DH of Darly's schedule for while I'm gone... they're not coming with me by the way because Darly had rehearsals for her show. Then I find out today that one of the days the location has changed. Luckily DH has been to both locations plenty of times. I'll advise him of it again, it is written down on the calendar and Darly knows where the rehearsals are. I HOPE that they get it right when I'm not here. I've also wrote down the start times with a 15 min buffer window as DH doesn't share my sense of timeliness and prefers to plan to be there with just enough time to be 5 min late. It has taken me years to get over this and as I have he seems to have let up on this and lean more toward being on time.

There won't be internet service at my Mom's house. So I'll only have Mobil Web on my phone. Luckily that gets me email and Facebook, but it means I won't be able to do any work. :( Luckily again the weekends are pretty easy going and I have my co-workers to help me out too...I will probably come home with nothing much to do. Hummm I should find out about getting my other counters to help with the computer bookkeeping at Church too. ??? It couldn't hurt to ask.

Weather is going to be interesting for this trip. When I leave it will be nice here and I won't need a coat. When I get there it looks to be HOT! I could pack and wear shorts, but I won't subject the poor citizens of FL to that much whiteness. And then when I return it is supposed to be downright COLD out. So I've asked Darly to make sure that my coat is in the car when they pick me up. I plan to leave it in the car before I go, but knowing DH he'll put it away for me. nice guy!

When I return I have the joys of getting ready for Thanksgiving and Jury Duty. I won't find out until the day before if I actually have to report...and I won't find out until I report how long the trial is supposed to be. I would HOPE that we don't have to sit over Thanksgiving for this...but who knows. I also hope that if I'm chosen for the jury that the trial is interesting.

Ode of Funky Teenager!

2011-11-02T22:45:00.000-06:00

Scrooge is now over and we need to clean the costumes. Dry Cleaning on some of the items would seem like the logical choice, but we don't have the budget for that. So I've tried other ways to get rid of the smell...

My first attempt was to spray the pits of the stronger smelling items with Frebreeze and then hang them outside in the sun. That worked well for about 75% of what I had...however, some of these items really STINK!

So next I tried tossing them in the dryer with that Dryelle stuff. Didn't phase it. perhaps I put too many items in the bag at a time? I don't know.

Looking on line I've found some more tricks...like first turning the garments inside out and then hitting them harder with the Frebreeze than I did the first time.
Another idea was to try rubbing alcohol or vinegar.
and another idea is to try the Dryelle again but only one garment at a time.

oh and I'll try washing some of the items with water anyway, because they don't seem as if they're as delicate as some of the other moms first thought.

Wish me luck.

oh and Darly & I are seriously considering handing out trial sized sticks of deodorant for the next show. I wonder if some of the kids don't bother...and should!

Grocery shopping rant

2011-10-28T12:12:00.000-06:00

k you've been warned that this will be ranty. twice now. ;o)

Darly found a shopping bag that I'm not using so that brought on this post.

I started collecting reusable grocery bags back when we were in Korea...WOW has it REALLY been that long??? anyway, I've managed to get quite the collection. I have some that are small and pretty much just two rectangles of fabric sewn together with some handles, a few that are those square bottomed made out of some sort of plasticky recycled stuff, a few canvas bags and one really nice insulated bag.

When I first started on this adventure the grocery store used to pay me to bring my own bags. They don't do that any longer. They SAID they were gonna start charging folks for using plastic or paper...they haven't done that either. So now the only real advantage to using my own bags is that I like them and they hold more stuff than those flimsy plastic bags.

Grocery store baggers are still idiots. I KNOW that they are supposed to receive training on how to bag groceries...like don't put cans on top of the eggs and such. But they don't seem to remember how to do that. It has gotten so that I will shop for the right check out lane so I get a bagger with a brain and I don't get smushed bread. If I can't do that, I usually spend a few minutes in the parking lot rebagging my groceries.

I had to take a marker to my insulated bag and write COLD on it so that my cold items go in that bag (btw: I organize my shopping cart so that similar items reach the bagger in groups.) Yet I can't tell you how many times I get my cereal bagged in the cold items bag! It doesn't help.

The two really small bags should be for light things like bread, chips or eggs...but no. They like to load those up with canned food. I now have to retire one of my bags as it is falling apart.

And then I put all my bags into the largest bag. The idea is that they should use the bags inside that bag first and then if I go that far use the outer bag. But the baggers like to empty the big bag and use it first...then when they finish my order figure out how to contain all my extra bags. I bring my own produce bags too so this can be quite messy. sigh!

oh and I frequently have to remind the baggers that I have to carry these bags once I get them home. It seems they get some sort of sick pleasure in trying to load my entire order into one bag...that's probably why they go for my big carrying bag. Of course this will backfire with them putting very little in the bags too.

snow and laziness

2011-10-26T13:27:00.000-06:00

Despite what some national news reporters are saying, my area is enjoying it's second snow storm of the season...we got our first snow back on Oct 8th. sigh

you all know of my snow allergy. So far today I've been able to stay inside as the only place the snow is sticking to the pavement is where my driveway is hollow underneath it. I should go out and shovel that part so that it will melt while the sun has a chance to get at it. hummm that might provide exercise.

But alas there's the laziness I mentioned. This kind of weather makes me lazy. I want to just eat fattening foods and snuggle with a good book.

This snow is supposed to all be gone by the weekend...just in time for folks to come see Scrooge!

Grandma's Birthday

2011-10-17T09:50:00.001-06:00

My grandmother turns 90 this year in December. She has two daughters, my mother and my aunt of course. My mother stopped speaking to her mother and sister years ago over many years of wrongs on both sides and I don't see that ever getting cleared up. Honestly it's my opinion that it is best for things to remain this way.

That said all the grand kids decided that we would like to take grandma out to a nice restaurant for her birthday. There's a few problems with this... two of us live in another state... one of us is about to be unavailable for a long time... and we're all very very busy.

Ideally it would be nice to take grandma out ON her birthday in December. But the one who won't be available for a long time leaves at the end of November. (sorry to be so cryptic here) So it would seem that we need to do this in November... but then one of my cousins is going to another state for most of the month.

So what to do? I suggest that we do this in two parts... those of us available in Nov can do it then and those of us available in Dec can do it then!

Now I have one weekend in November completely free of planned activities, that didn't work for the others. I have one weekend that is all planned, but I can have hubby take over for me that weekend and make it work. That seemed to work for at least 3 of the 6.

To make that work...
Darly has auditions and confirmation retreat on that weekend. So hubby would have to take her to the audition scheduled before the confirmation retreat and deal with the possible call back.
However, I found out that the retreat might get moved...easier for hubby I guess.

Now I'm just waiting for the 3 to tell me if I should buy my flight... tick tick tick

Don't Ask updated

2011-10-17T09:35:00.000-06:00

Hubby went back to the doctor on the 11th for a follow up appointment. He was able to see his regular doctor who found that they had forgotten to send his x-ray from the 8th to the radiologist...which meant there was NO official diagnosis of pneumonia. :p Doc was pretty sure that he had it though. She felt that the anti-biotic prescribed was stronger than she would have given him...but I don't care. I would much rather "nuke" the pneumonia than start low and work our way up to the big guns.

Hubby went back to work on the 11th to an ice cold office (they hadn't switched on the heat yet) so he came home feeling worse from trying to keep warm all day. The doc said his lungs sounded much better though (even though she hadn't heard them on Saturday.)

On Friday hubby had to start working out side for a few days and that seemed to be a set back as he was cold and tired each day...but now he seems much better. I forget when he goes back to see the doctor, but he does have another follow up. And of course if I feel that he didn't kick this when he finishes up this round of antibiotics we'll go back for some more.

Just bothersome that I feel as if I have to be the real doctor here and we're just using the paid doctor to get the medication we need. :(

don't ask!

2011-10-08T20:01:00.001-06:00

so after years of putting up with my co-leader for Girl Scouts' snide remarks she finally resigned yesterday, during our meeting...with a few more jabs at my expense. She claims that her girls want more badges and activities and SHE can't be leading all the meetings with them. I know this, I do a load of the meetings too...unfortunately they all tend to be the general upkeep of the troop type. Registration, Ceremonies, Cookie Training. Because my child isn't thrilled with being at the meetings any longer (her BFF quit) I've decided to resign also. Being a leader is tiring and my only help without complaints was BFF's mom.

Then we had the costume parade today. Unfortunately, I had planned to get a lot of things done this morning before the parade instead of finishing them last night...unfortunately because........

This morning hubby wakes up with symptoms of pneumonia. He's been sick for a few days and doing fairly well (still going to work) but this morning after a rough night he felt dizzy and had some other signs that we needed to take him to see the doctor.

(note: we were both pretty skeptical about taking him to the doc because the last time he got pneumonia we took him to the ER, they ran tests and didn't find pneumonia. Took him to the doc, confirmed diagnosis from ER and said he could fly. Got to Michigan and was in the ER 2 days later near death with full blown double pneumonia!)

So I rearrange my schedule to fit hubby in. Luckily, I had loaded the car Friday night with as many of the costumes as I could fit into it and I was able to drop them off when I took the girls (we had 2 extra with us this morning) to rehearsal. My original plan was to take the second load when I returned for the parade. But instead of finishing the labels on clothes and hangars, I was only able to reload the car...

Then I took hubby to the urgent care. No appointment necessary... but that means waiting about 15 min in the waiting area, then about 20 min in an exam room, and then another 15 min for the x-ray and another 10 or so for the doc to say that it looks like it could be pneumonia, here's a scrip and come back in a few days. The good news is that since hubby has a history of pneumonia the doc wasn't as lax as they were last time. He went ahead and started treating him for pneumonia even though he doesn't have a confirmation of the diagnosis.

Well there went my chance at getting lunch!

Since the rehearsal location is right across the street from the doc office, I drove the second load of costumes off at the rehearsal and then took hubby home. When I got back the costumes were pretty much ready for the parade.

The parade went FAIRLY well... I could have done without a few of the kids who didn't follow directions. none of the boys seemed to be able to locate their ties or tuck in their shirts! But otherwise not too bad. We managed to do some alterations right there and get out by 2:15 or so. YAY

Then I picked up hubby's scrip and finally got some food! Hubby still feels the same though, but I figure we're gonna need a bit more drugs before he feels any better. sigh! I just hope that we caught this early enough to avoid another trip to the ER.

Oh all the costumes are still in my car and will stay there until after Church tomorrow! That is IF I make it to Church. The doc said if Hubby started feeling worse to take him to the ER.

SUNDAY UPDATE: Hubby says he feels 10 times better! YAY! Hopefully this works. I'll take Darly to Church and see how he feels later.

WHAT??!?!?!???

2011-09-30T17:40:00.001-06:00

So today I sent an email out with the following...

All children should have either Jazz shoes or BalletSlippers. Children’s sizes of these canbe found at Payless Shoes and larger sizes can be found at the Dance supplystores here in the Our Area. Becausedancing shoes are not sized the same as street shoes I would advise trying theseon in person before purchase.

All girls are asked to wear either a white or light coloredcamisole or tank top with form fitting (non-denim) shorts. This is to be worn under all costumes to facilitatecostume changes with modesty in the dressing rooms. With the exception of a few girls (notedbelow for your child) girls will be able to wear whatever stockings or socksthey are most comfortable with.

~~~~~~~~~~~~I hear back...
Rene,
I am a little confused you asked that all children should have either jazz shoes or ballet slippers. Then in the last paragraph you said girls will be able to wear whatever stockings or socks. Can the girls wear either ballet slippers or socks? Can you please clarify? Thank you.

~~~~~~~~~I write back...
or shoes they can wear either Jazz shoes or ballet slippers... for leg wear they can wear stockings, tights or socks. They do NOT want to wear socks without shoes on the stage as it is just painted plywood and prone to ripping up clothing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm still curious to know what in the first email suggested that the girls could wear just socks??? I would like to hear your thoughts cuz I need to hear something different.

ARGH!!!!

2011-09-22T09:38:00.002-06:00

I recently bought Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel http://www.walmart.com/ip/Scrubbing-Bubbles-Fresh-Clean-Gel-Discs-Toilet-Cleaning-Gel-6-ct/11045773 for our bathrooms. I had tried them out before and was happy with the results.
I cleaned the master bathroom and put a "dose" of the gel in our toilet. I left the applicator with the remaining uses on the shelf in the bathroom.
Last night I went to speak to my husband as he was getting ready for bed and he mentions that he can't get that "thing" on the shelf to stop smelling. I rush in there to find the applicator sitting on the shelf with gel oozing out of it.
Much high pitched talking ensues as I try to clean up the mess DH has made and I try to comprehend why on earth he would squeeze out what appeared to be the entire contents of the applicator but was actually just one dose. I kept asking why he didn't ask me. I asked "Didn't your mother teach you to not mess with things if you don't know what you're doing?"
*sigh!* See the problem is that DH is very sensitive to smells...so much so that if he doesn't like the way something smells...well he doesn't think too properly.
He says he thought the applicator was a rather ugly air freshener that I had left open and he was trying to close it...he didn't realize that the smell he was smelling was coming from the toilet, not the applicator.

I suppose that I shouldn't have left the applicator where he could see it, but it didn't occur to me that this would be a problem. And the very sad part of all of this is that I had planned to use these in all 3 of our bathrooms which will make the entire house smell (note: I find the fragrance to be very NICE!).
I guess I better hurry and get the other two bathrooms cleaned and put the gel in them so he gets blasted with the smell. LOL!

forgive me while I rant

2011-08-26T00:27:00.000-06:00

I needed a place to get a few things that are bothering me off my chest. This may seem random.

I set up a book club for my daughter through our homeschooling group. The book is rated for kids 12 and up. One of the moms signed up her 14y/o AND her 6y/o!!!! At first I wanted to just wait and hope that mom would catch a clue that the book is not appropriate for a 6y/o...but this particular mom doesn't catch much...except for more kids. (sorry, that was rather catty of me)

another topic...
good news: the folks in charge didn't bend the rules for her. the bad news: she TRIED to get them to bend the rules for her! Well I guess part of it is that she always gives her princess whatever princess wants. So when princess changed her mind and even after saying no she didn't want it, she now wants it...really bad. So momma tried to get the rules bent so princess could have it.
Just hope momma doesn't throw a fit about it.

mad at myself for not working on sewing my dress sooner. I've been nervous about messing it up, so I've been putting it off. now I only have 4 days to get it finished. and one of those days isn't a full day as I have to be gone for a huge chunk of it. sigh The good news is that I've cut the material all out and sewed part of the lining...and that went quickly. however, for the outer layer I need to make french seams...for the first time ever. YIKES!

also mad at myself that I only lost 7 of the 15 pounds that I wanted to lose by next Wednesday. Course if I lose 1/2 a pound I'll make half way. LOL! if I could just pick where that half a pound comes off that would be great. The good news is that I can see a tiny bit of results...and I can hide what I'm still not happy about.

oh here's something to be grumbling about... how can one be expected to order things online if the sizes don't match what's in the store??? I ordered a product the exact same size as what I bought in the store, but the online version is too big! what gives? Luckily this place has awesome customer service and an exchange should be fine. fingers crossed that this one fits.

to be continued....

Birth of a Dream

2011-07-15T22:58:00.000-06:00

Recently a friend of mine posted some pictures on Facebook of her 4th of July celebration...it included her family and neighbors spending the day at a pond near their house. And that triggered something in me... a longing to be near water.

Actually I wanted to spend the 4th on some form of water, but alas there is no Gulf of Colorado so a trip to the beach was out. And all the beaches we do (fresh water) were going to be way over packed. If we had a beach it would have been packed too. But this private pond thing... Hey! That's an idea!

Well, how do you get your own private pond? Well first you need some land. So I started looking for a place to stay near here on a lake... which got me on the path of looking for a cabin to rent on a lake.

And I found one! It was really nice too. http://mooselake-lodge.com/woolly-house-cabin-rental-on-lake/ Now one might think that hubby would be rolling his eyes at me on this idea...but he actually was very much in favor of it! He allowed me to get more info. But the problem with this cabin was that it was booked until mid September. And hubby couldn't get away then. SIGH!

So that led to thinking that in order to get a cabin to stay in, we might ought to just buy one. So I started researching that...and guess what...I found one of those too...actually quite a few but most of them were too big for us.

That was a problem with the rental cabins too, most of them were too big. One cabin wasn't huge, but it had been set up to sleep 10 people! Um we don't need something that big.

So I found a cabin that was nice and small... I was looking at first at two bedroom cabins, but ended up finding and falling in love with a little one bedroom cabin. It's so cute! Now I can't be sure, but it appears that the one bedroom is actually the entire length of the cabin and therefore might be large enough that we can fit two beds in there... a full size for me & hubby and a twin for Darly. And while that might not be ideal, for a vacation it works. (note: hubby is not rolling his eyes!)

Then my mind turns to furnishing this place... (yeah, I'm that crazy!) And I start thinking about what we have in our house that we aren't using. We have a couch in the basement that Darly keeps piling her toys on. We have a coffee table that right now is covered in plants in the kitchen. We have a kitchen table in my sewing room that I use for cutting fabric on, but hubby is gonna make me a new cutting table that is the right size, so this one won't be needed there. We have beds in the guest room and sewing room that aren't getting used cuz no one visits us. All that we'll need is chairs for the kitchen table...one garage sale or trip to a thrift store and we're all set! (note: hubby is still not rolling his eyes.)

Then came the question of how do we go about affording a second home...a vacation home? And I got to thinking that we wouldn't possibly be able to go to the cabin all the time, so there would be a lot of time where it would just sit empty... and loads of people like to rent cabins, evidenced by the lack of availability of that rental cabin we found. Why not rent the cabin? Hey! This is sounding awesome. Rental rates in that area are higher than most hotels charge (okay, I've never stayed at anything above a 3 star that I paid for!) And that rate even with paying someone to manage the place for us, more than covers the mortgage...maybe a bit of profit? and if no profit, if it just pays for itself then it's totally worth it. And the bonus of a rental management company... they make sure the pipes don't freeze in the winter! YAY (hubby is still for this!)

oh, the cabin I want isn't actually on a lake or pond. There is a creek though...and maybe we could build a pond like my friend's neighbors did? maybe. (*hubby rolls eyes*)

So I get this all figured out and I'm ready to make the appointment to see the place and drive up there, when Yahoo News puts out this story about how housing prices are expected to continue to fall and will probably be 20% lower in the next two year. TWO YEARS! :( That means we'll be waiting on this dream...and I'll be checking the website to see if this cabin remains available... but even if it doesn't there are others. oh well, I can wait...I think. :D

House Rules Revisited sigh

2011-07-07T15:24:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm quite aware that the way I run my house isn't the same as everyone else. (God makes us all different, our parents raise us all different...so we are all different.) I have a plan and it works for us...most of the time.

I feel very blessed that my loving husband was well trained by his parents and isn't a slob who leaves his dirty clothes all over the place. He also doesn't leave dirty dishes all over...or even leave the toilet seat up! I am hoping and praying that Darly will be equally blessed when she finds her soul mate.

Some rules we have around here are:
There are TWO acceptable locations for dirty clothing. 1) a clothing hamper (locations in each bathroom and in the child's bedroom) or 2) the laundry room. Clothing left in any other location will result in severe nagging and or the clothing not being washed.

If YOU are the one to use up the last of an item that needs to be replaced, YOU must write that item on the grocery list. You cannot tell the MOM that you are out of said item. She has too much to do to remember that you ran out of said item. (that reminds MOM that she should post a separate list for items that we don't buy at the grocery store.) If you don't put the item on the shopping list, don't expect for it to magically replace itself...unless YOU would like to make a trip to the store for it.

If YOU take something out, return it to it's original location...and DON'T expect the MOM to know where it is that you left it. MOM has a great memory, but she isn't psychic!

The reason we are revisiting the rules today is because of a conversation that began last night. When hubby returned home from work last night he noticed that Darly was doing laundry and asked if I had washed jeans. When I informed him that I wasn't doing laundry and that yes he still had plenty of time to get his jeans in the wash, he let me know that he wanted a certain pair of his jeans washed. I let him know that I would not be washing jeans that evening.
So today I decided that I should probably go ahead and wash our clothes as hubby had that pair of jeans he wanted washed. I collected the hampers and proceeded to start the wash...I always do the whites first as they tend to have the most items that need air drying and the heat from the dryer tends to speed this process along. However, upon sorting the clothing I realized that hubby's jeans were NOT in the hamper. Hummm? Where are hubby's jeans?
So I call him...he answers on the first ring. I ask where his jeans that he wanted washed are. and he informs me that they are hanging in the closet...along with all the CLEAN laundry! I question the thinking of hanging up the dirty jeans that he wanted washed. He explains that he didn't know when I would be doing the wash. Um I just don't get it!
Then he asks if I'm also washing towels. uh yeah, I don't save up for a special wash day for each item...if it's in the hampers, it gets washed. Taking that as a yes, he asks if I can go and get two towels out of a cardboard box in the garage and wash them also. He isn't sure which box. Wash day should NOT be a scavenger hunt! Oye! I shouldn't have called and just let the jeans wait until genius remembered to put them in the hamper...it isn't as if that's his only pair of jeans.

The other two rules I posted are just there for your amusement today...no one in the house has broken them recently, so there's no humorous story to go with them.

it pays to whine!

2011-06-25T16:23:00.000-06:00

recent advertisements for a company that provides Cable services (they provide internet & phone services as well) in our area are trying to make folks who subscribe to the land line phone provider nervous because they're switching names (being bought out or some kind of merge). I wasn't nervous about the switch, but it did get me thinking that it was time to look at my bill.

See we have the phone/internet bill set up for auto-pay. So I never look at it...it just gets paid. I looked at the bill and it seemed to me that the rate I'm paying was higher...and I had signed up for a Price for Life package. So I went online and checked out the current rates for my internet & phone package. Turns out that I'm paying more for my deal than what they normally charge folks for the exact same service! So I got in an online chat session and asked what was up. Turns out that my bill is not any higher than I remember...I just hadn't payed it any attention. However, I was correct in that I'm paying more than what other customers are paying for the same service.

And they have a deal where I can upgrade my internet and phone service and pay LESS than I'm currently paying...even after the 5 year introductory rate price. Wow! I can have faster internet, more phone services and pay $10 less than I'm currently paying...AND at the end of the 5 years I still won't be paying what I am now??? um YEAH sign me up!

So I did! :D

And as for the advertisement that caused all of this. The cable company is saying that our phone company will be taking away our choices since they're switching to the new company. Ummm isn't this the same thing as when they switched from being AT&T to Comcast to Xfinity???

Access Denied!

2011-06-03T19:07:00.000-06:00

I'm having with drawl today folks. Due to site maintenance my Facebook account won't let me in!!! Horrors!

I can get into everything else on my computer...a start. Darly can get to her Facebook... grumble! But my account won't let me in!!!

ARGH!!!

Dinner?

2011-05-26T23:24:00.000-06:00

So Darly & I went to see a play this evening and afterward we needed to eat...

Me: So what would you like for dinner?
Darly: I don't know... something crunchy?
Me: What's that? Popcorn?
Darly: ummm no.
Me: Tacos?
Darly: ummm no.
Me: what???
Darly: I think I want that pizza at the mall.
Me: umm that's not crunch...and I think the mall is closed.
Darly: well what do you want?
Me: anything
Darly: okay I'll eat just about anything too.
Me: okay how about Wendy's?
Darly: no
Me: Subway
Darly: no
Me: oooh! I know... how about those little pizzas at the grocery store...in about 20 min we'll have pizza AND crunchy.
Darly: no

I suggested a few other things and she said no to them all...so
Me: FINE! We can just go home

After passing all food possibilities and are walking distance from home...
Darly: What about Quiznos?
Me: NO! We are going home!

We get home and I make myself a bagel. Darly pouts on the couch.
Me: are you going to eat something or just starve because you're mad at me?
Darly: Starve.
Me: okay fine!

about an hour later...
Darly: Okay, you win. I'll go eat
Me: I didn't realize it was a contest.

well no wonder! - Rant!

2011-05-11T11:50:00.000-06:00

Today a friend of mine posted on Facebook a rant about this article http://www.wfsb.com/news/27846498/detail.html?source=hart

Basically some kids had a contest to see who could ask a girl to the prom in the most creative way and the boy who won is now banned from going to the prom because he trespassed and vandalized the school to do it.

The reason I'm ranting is that my friend and her friends don't seem to think what the boy did was trespassing (one said because our tax dollars pay for the school therefore making it our property) or vandalism because the letters were just taped to the building.

Um this is why our country is such a mess folks...if we don't all agree on the laws that we agreed upon then we have a problem.

I'm a bit torn about if the punishment fits the crime. I mean typically if you vandalize something, they make you clean it up and do some community service...and if you trespass you usually get a fine and more community service. However, I can see the school's perspective that if the parents didn't bother to teach their child that putting words up on a building you don't own is called vandalism then perhaps keeping the child from the activity they are vandalizing over is the right thing to do.

I think that I may have to show this to my child and see if I've raised her up right. I sure hope so.

Money for nuthin - FARCE!

2011-05-03T12:46:00.001-06:00

sigh! I re-learned that nothing in life is free. I should have known better...but alas I got sucked in.

recently a friend of mine posted a link on her facebook for free air line tickets. I knew better, but I need air line tickets, so I clicked on the link...and happily gave them my contact info so I could get the free tickets they said I had won.

Then on the next page I learned the horrible truth! It was a page that told me to get the "free" tickets I had to sign up for some more great offers. you know the ones... "Try Netflix!" "Bookclub of the month!" "check our lower insurance rates!" blah blah blah.

I immediately closed the window but of course it was too late...they already had my email address. And soon enough the spam started hitting the fan. UGH!

Since I also foolishly gave them my real address, I'm sure I'll start getting junk mail galore too. Time to renew my subscriptions in the "Don't send me junk mail!" lists.

*hangs head in shame and leaves the room* http://www.ecocycle.org/junkmail/index.cfm

Happy Resurrection Day!

2011-04-23T09:29:00.002-06:00

The beginning of the end?

2011-04-11T08:34:00.001-06:00

Could this really be it? I think I've been waiting for this time of my life since I was 13 and first got my cycle.

Auntie Flo has never been my friend. I can barely remember the "excitement" about becoming a woman when I was a tweenager because when Auntie first came to visit I was like "WHAT THE??? Who in their right mind thinks this is a good thing? OYE!" (note: I've tried to put a better spin on things for Darly.) But honestly, what is good about this?

So when I started noticing some signs of peri-menopause, I was THRILLED! I couldn't be more happy about entering this time of my life. I was ready to start singing

But then things started going back to how they were before! What was going on??? and then I figured it out...seems that lovely Darly was sharing her hormones with me. oh boy!

Luckily that only lasted a few months and it seems I'm back on track for menopause again. w00t! Although there are some symptoms that I'm having that I would rather do without.

One thing is that I don't want go through menopause on hormone replacement therapy. My mom and mother in law both used HRT and did okay, but I think that I'm pretty well informed about the pros and cons and it just doesn't seem to me that HRT is the way to go for me. So I've been looking into products like Estroven.

Estroven® products are herbal supplements made with all-natural ingredients to provide natural menopause symptom relief. Black cohosh plus soy isoflavones are combined with essential nutrients like calcium, folic acid, and B-vitamins. These work naturally in the body to help reduce hot flashes, night sweats, and other menopausal symptoms. Hundreds of thousands of women trust Estroven® products every year, and pharmacists recommend them 3 to 1 over other brands of menopause supplements.†

Estroven has different menopause formulas to help combat symptoms, so I'll be grabbing the one that looks right for me. I'm also going to make more of an effort to get to the gym (swimsuit season is coming up fast!) so that should help too.

I'm also liking Estroven on Facebook so I can keep up to date on savings. Just looking at their wall I'm learning all kinds of great stuff. :D

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Estroven and received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.

I don't blog enough

2011-04-04T11:42:00.000-06:00

sigh...it seems that my life as a product reviewer is over. I don't blog enough, I don't have enough of a following. Oh well, it was a nice gig while it lasted. I got to try out some really neat things. I hope that if you tried any that you liked them. The new thing seems to be twitter and I just refuse to do that seeing as I already spend way too much time on Facebook. (see I can't even give it proper respect by capitalizing the name :p )

I'll try to post my longer notes over here so that those of you few loyal folks who still follow me here can know what's going on. My shorter entries will be on Facebook. If I think it's important I may cross post.

Bummer, I was really looking forward to trying out that new thingamagig.

Yes, My Grown Homeschooled Children Are Odd — And Yours Will Be Too!

2011-04-02T11:27:00.000-06:00

Yes, My Grown Homeschooled Children Are Odd — And Yours Will Be Too!

Ya gotta be kidding me! Really?

2011-04-01T00:32:00.000-06:00

So after all this time...after all the hard work DH has done getting MIL's house ready...oh wait, I should show you.

When the house was originally put on the market we had a lot of showings, but it just wouldn't sell. One of the main comments we kept getting was that the buyers wanted the kitchen already redone. I don't really understand why someone would want to buy someone else's idea of perfect, except that it seems they don't want to spend the money to do it themselves. Hummm don't they realize that we up the price of the house when we have to add improvements? I guess not.

Here's the before...

And here's the after...

DH put in the tile himself and we paid to have the granite put in. So after many hours of hard work the house was put back on the market and had 7 showings for it's first weekend out. Everyone LOVED the new kitchen. (okay?) and on Monday our realtor called to ask hubby a question from one of the folks who came to see the house...

The want to know if he would accept an offer with a contingency... They need to sell their house first...And (get this) they haven't even put their house on the market yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When DH told me this my reaction was ____NO! and he didn't even get upset with me about the expletive...apparently his reaction was very similar.

Ya gotta be kidding me... after all this time and all this work they expect us to take their offer and just wait for their house to sell??? Yeah RIGHT! I don't think so pal! you want the house, you sell yours first...then you go find a house. Unless of course you want to pay the mortgage on our house while we wait. :p

oh and what's with all these folks 1 leaving all the lights turned on in the house when they come to see it and 2 using the bathrooms??? They've used up all the toilet paper in one of the bathrooms and hubby has had to clean the toilet...cuz who knows who might get turned off from someone coloring in there. ewwe!

Hubby always makes the plan bigger

2011-03-25T09:53:00.000-06:00

After YEARS of sewing little hobby projects, I've decided that I'm finally ready to be a bit more dedicated to it... I think it was trying to cut some fabric for my latest project

with scissors that were already toast that did it for me. Don't worry, I'm not gonna start sewing my own clothes...well unless I can't find what I'm looking for! :D

Luckily I had gotten some coupons for a local sewing place and was able to purchase new sewing scissors...GOOD ones for half price. YAY! I love a good deal. I also looked for one of these.
At first I looked for it at the same store that I bought my scissors...they had one online (that I can't find now, perhaps because when I looked yesterday it was out of stock?) but when we were at the store they were completely out of them. So I decided to try my local Wally World. I knew it was a long shot, but totally worth a try...right?

YES! So worth a try! Not only did I find it, they had it for $2 less than the sewing place!!! :D *happy dance!*
The only problem I now had was that the table that I'm currently using to cut fabric on is 30"x40" and the board is of course 36"x60" (the size of the largest yard of fabric you can get).

So I think I should just have hubby make me a cubby hole shelf to make up the difference in size and I'll just put the extra 6 inches in width to the back so I don't put any weight on it. :D I drew up the plans...

When I showed them to hubby, he balked at my idea. He didn't like that it is a book shelf but since the middle shelf could be one piece it would require that the back of the shelf a sturdier piece of wood so it can support the middle shelf. He tried to talk me into just a regular book shelf...but I didn't want that. So after learning why I wanted the shelf to look like this he suggests just building me a new table!

As it turns out we have the materials to just build a new table...he could even make the legs on one side be storage shelves for me. And it wouldn't take that much more work. So now instead of getting a new shelf, I'm getting a new table...one day. I told him I wanted it for Mother's day. I wonder if I'll really get it by then. LOL!

Different shoes

2011-03-24T12:38:00.000-06:00

Today I ordered new jazz shoes for Darly. She needs these for her dance class and they're a royal pain to get.

If you buy them locally they cost more, but at least you know they fit. But if you order them online you can find ones that are much cheaper. They're a knock-off brand but considering how quickly she's going to outgrow or go through them it's worth it...IF I get the right size!

See these shoes don't run the same size as street shoes...the manufacturers tell you this. (then why not change the number on the shoe??? ah to keep us confused and make most of your money on the restocking charges when we are forced to return them!) GREAT

So I found Darly some shoes a few months ago and ordered them without checking her current shoes that we inherited from a friend (BTW: Thanks friend! those shoes came at just the right time for us! They've been a life saver!) back to the story... so I'm online and find the shoes and order based on her current street shoe size and the website's recommendations on how much larger to order...only to get the shoes and find out that they are the EXACT same size as the shoes we already had that are tight! ARGH! The bad part they charged a $15 restocking fee. phoey!

So I didn't return them. I found someone in her class with smaller feet! I'm selling them at a discount, but it's way less than the $15 restocking fee. So we're all happy-ish.

Then I found these shoes today that I've just ordered. All the reviews are glowing and I've ordered the right size...maybe a tiny bit bigger? Hopefully they last the rest of the year, and even more hopefully I can then sell them to someone with feet smaller than BIGFOO... er Darly.

Slowcooker!!!

2011-03-23T12:50:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in my first Shoe post...I found a deal on a crock pot that I was looking for online! So I placed my order...got my confirmation and waited.

Then the day that I was to get my slow cooker I get an email from Fedex that they BROKE my slow cooker right here in my very own city! They were less than an hour from my house in bad traffic and they BROKE my slow cooker! ARGH!

And then I hear nothing! *chirp chirp!*

So I email the company...they assure me that yes I will be getting a new slow cooker as soon as possible.

And they thanked me for my patience too. LOL I thought that was quite ironic since I wasn't being very patient about it, however they could have thwarted my impatience by simply emaiing me when they were notified that the slow cooker was broken...AND if they had sent out the new slow cooker as soon as they knew the other one was broken...but alas...I had to make contact.

Finally Fedex tells me my replacement slow cooker is on it's way. Of course the day it is due to arrive, I have a bazillion things planned, but I didn't want to miss the delivery...so I canceled those plans (no trip to the gym) and waited.

Fedex finally shows up at around noon! and my slow cooker arrived in one piece...of course it was in a box large enough to ship a PERSON! It's here and it looks fine...I've yet to clean and use it though...wish me luck!

Internet Safety

2011-03-16T13:03:00.039-06:00

Darly is fast approaching the age where most social networks will allow her to have an account legally. I know I'm a really mean mom for not allowing her to have an account early like so many folks that I know. But then I see this article and feel justified in sticking to my guns.

So since Darly is almost old enough, I want to make sure she's smart enough.

She seems to be. My niece who is too young for an account and has one anyway recently posted this meme...
1. Who knows you best?
The message reads:
Can you do this? My middle name __________, my age ___, my favorite soda _______, my birthday ___/___/___, whose the love of my life ______, my best friend _____, my favorite color ______, my eye color _______, my hair color ______ my favorite food ________ and my mom's name __________. Put this as your status and see who knows you best.

Note: I copied this from this Yahoo Article on Biggest Facebook Security Threats I showed Darly the post and she rolled her eyes and was able to tell me why it's a bad idea. I told my niece that she should pull it down, and niece said it wouldn't hurt anything because no one she knows would know all that info. I told her that I knew all that info but I'm smart enough to not post it. When I tried to go now to copy it from her wall I wasn't able to find it...so either she pulled it, or her parents did. Whew!

A friend of mine set up a class on Internet Safety that we attended today. The guy heading up the class has many different social network accounts and poses as young children to catch pedophiles. He catches a lot, but there are a whole lot more that he can't catch.

He started off the class showing the kids just how easy it is for a predator to find kids. Then he showed the kids how he catches them.

He gave tips on the dos and don'ts of internet safety...one huge tip was to not be online friends with anyone you haven't met. (I guess that should knock out most of my blog readers!) But it so totally makes a ton of good sense.

I guess the best part of the class was that Darly took it all very seriously. She even reconsidered if she really needs to have a Facebook account. I'll let her have an account, but I'll be keeping a close eye on it...and of course her first friend will be me. I'll make sure her account is totally closed and I'll be a mean mom at every turn.

:( shoes

2011-03-13T23:19:00.000-06:00

I have this one pair of shoes that I like to wear to Church. They're black and very basic, but they go with everything and they are so comfortable.

If you know one thing about me, it is that I am NOT a slave to fashion! I don't care how in something is, if it isn't comfortable, then I ain't buying it...I learned my lesson a long time ago with the 2 hour shoes. (btw: I tried to pawn the 2 hour shoes off on Darly cuz she's my size now, and even she wouldn't go for them!)

So my very comfortable shoes are of course now showing their age and are in need of replacement. And of course they stopped making this shoe "eons" ago...so I've been searching for something close. I figured first I would try with the same brand of shoes. I have no idea where I bought these shoes, so I look them up by brand online. They're Mushrooms btw.

I find the Mushroom shoes website. They don't sell the shoes there. You have to go to one of three retailers for them...One of the 3 I've never heard of. The other two are Famous Footwear & Mervyn's. And of course neither of them really carry the shoes either.

More Googling and I find that Kmart actually carries the brand, but of course not my shoe. Bummer! And when looking at what they do carry, the ones I might try...not my size! Double Bummer! My size only comes in barf or sandals.

I then started shopping around for other comfy shoes...I'm still looking.

In other news: I got an email that Darly had put something she wanted on my ebay watch list and the auction was almost over. Instead of bidding on that I bought myself a slow cooker. :p

Wrong Mommy

2011-03-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

has this ever happened to you? You are in a location and some small child who is focused on other things (toys, animals at the zoo, etc...) grabs your leg and finally looks up in total shock because YOU are NOT their parent.

I've had this happened more times than I can remember. It doesn't seem to matter what you say to the poor child...they are just horrified at the mistake. The latest time I was shopping at some place with a friend and while looking at some items a mom with her 3 very young ones came near to look in the same section. I did notice that one child was rather close to me but chose to not say anything...I probably should have though because next she hugged my leg and looked up to ask me a question. Her real mom was only 2 feet away with the other kids. But I kinda felt bad having to say to the child "sorry honey, wrong mommy."

Real mom looks over, smiles and holds out her arms for her baby to come running into. I smile at mom and walk away.

I think the funniest time this happened was at a Girl Scout meeting. Mom was with older kiddos and the youngest runs over to me, grabs my leg and hollers at me that she's ready to go home. I look down and tell her she's got the wrong mommy and she recoils in horror. poor kiddo. Luckily for her I wasn't a stranger. But it has happened several times with kids I don't know too.

Usually the only resemblance I have to real mommy is that I'm wearing the "mom uniform" jeans and shirt for the season. but at knee height I'm the right looking mommy. ;o) I wonder how long this will last?

Fiddler on the Roof Jr!

2011-03-07T12:55:00.001-07:00

Darly's next play! Come & see if you can! :D

Window crap continues

2011-02-17T11:06:00.001-07:00

today after waiting since December to get this window replacement finished I find that we are yet still tied up in this drama!

After installing the windows I called the city building department and had an inspector come out to finish up the project...only we couldn't because one of our windows was ordered wrong and didn't meet fire safety codes. Turns out when the guy ordered the window he forgot to mark that this window needed a special hinge on it so that it would open up all the way. And so the window that was installed in December only opened to 19 inches and needed to open to at least 20 to pass.

So we waited for a new window to be made. I was told this would take only a few weeks, but as you can see it took much longer as I was only called to make the appointment to install it last week.

The guy gets here and first off he never showed me the window before ripping out the "old" window. I didn't notice the new window didn't have the decorative grids that we ordered until he already had the window half installed. OYE! So I called up hubby, who isn't pleased at all...we paid extra for the grids.

I mentioned to the installer that the window should have had grids and he says "did the one I pulled out have grids?" I'm ready to smack him. Then he says "well it's always something!"

I've got an email into the sales guy...we'll see how long it takes to get this resolved.

taking Granite for granite

2011-02-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

so DH has been shopping for granite counter tops for MIL's house...as only granite will do for a kitchen makeover to sell the house for someone else. oye this still doesn't make any sense.

He called up and set two appointments to have someone give him an estimate for the counter tops. One was going to be at 2:30 and the other for 4pm. He went to work for half the day and then after lunch went over to MIL's house for the appointments. It took him a bit to get there due to traffic...and once he did get there the driveway was nice and high full of snow thanks to the snow plows.

Meanwhile back at the ~~ranch~~ er house, I get a call at about 1:20 telling me that contractor #1 can't make their appointment and will have to reschedule. I try really hard to get the message to DH, but he had already left work and had his work cell phone turned off (he doesn't carry his own cell).

DH gets the snow shoveled in time for the Realtor he's been working with to show up and they go in the house to get ready for the first contractor to show up. They wait and wait and he's a no show. So the Realtor who recommended this granite place calls them up...the guy is no longer with the company! But they can send someone else out at 5. So that's arranged and the Realtor & DH go over some paperwork. The Realtor also went back to her office for a few things but was back by 4pm...the second contractor was no there.

He didn't show up until about 5pm! So DH & the Realtor are with contractor #2 when...

Back at the ~~ranch~~ er house again, I get a call from contractor #1 (only I didn't realize that it was #1, I assumed it was #2 since #1 canceled)...only he tells me that he's outside the house and sees that there is another contractor there. I'm confused but tell him that DH did schedule a few contractors to come out so he could get a few bids. I tell him to go ahead and knock on the door since I don't have any way of contacting DH. The contractor doesn't want to do that...so he'll just wait outside.

DH ends up with two bids. For some odd reason even though DH gave everyone his work number, they insisted on calling here at the house after to send the bids and confirm that we got them. You can have granite done at the normal thickness or now they have a granite overlay that you can get that costs less. The one bid came in quite a bit less than the other one for thicker granite. ??? confused? so are we! We decided to go with the thicker/cheaper granite. However, I keep getting calls from the other guys (DH promises that he'll call them tomorrow and let them know they didn't get the job.)

We're hoping that these folks do a great job and that perhaps we'll use them again for our kitchen (although I still don't know that I want granite...I've never wanted it before!)

What are they thinking? - house selling woes

2011-02-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

Hey folks. Did you miss me? Sorry for neglecting you so badly. I was seriously considering giving this blog up entirely...but sigh, alas I cannot.

Darly and I had a great time doing CYT Cinderella, so much so that I've already committed to doing the next play Fiddler on the Roof...I even get to go to the production meeting. :D Now I just have to be a good girl and just listen. Pray for me on that one!

can I just say that I'm not a fan of whatever they're using on blogger here for posting. the formatting while I type is driving me up the wall!

First a PSA here... a reverse mortgage is NOT what you think it is...or at least it isn't what I thought it is. I thought that the reverse mortgage is the bank buying your house, paying you the equity and then when you die or move the house is theirs. That's how they advertise it. So when MIL got a reverse mortgage I was relieved that we wouldn't have to worry about selling her house.

WRONG!!!!

What a reverse mortgage REALLY is is just another loan. Yeah they finance the house for the entire amount that it is worth and give you the equity, but you still "own" the house and you still have to sell the thing. UGH!

So MIL has been in heaven for a year now and the house is still "ours" ugh. It seems that no matter what price we set the house at that buyers want the kitchen and basement to be redone and finished. Even when we had the price set at a ridiculously low price these folks wanted the kitchen redone. We just don't understand why a buyer would want to have someone else pick out the kitchen when they can do it themselves. But apparently that's what it is going to take to get this house sold.

Now Dh is interviewing kitchen counter top installers to get prices for a brand new kitchen counter. I DON'T EVEN HAVE MY KITCHEN REDONE!!!!!!!!!!! But we are paying to redo MIL's kitchen...so that we can sell it. This so totally stinks! Now my kitchen has to wait until her house sells because all our saved up money is going to fix her house for someone else!

I'm also hating getting comments when people look at the house about how the house doesn't work for them. They complain about things that the MLS clearly states...things their realtor should either be pointing out to the buyer or just not bothering to take them to if it won't work. Like the house has a REALLY small yard. I ~~used to~~ call it a postage stamp sized yard. The MLS also clearly states that the house has stained glass windows, the pictures for the listing show the windows with the stained glass...yet these people still come through the house and complain that the house has stained glass. I'm like DUH! ugh! I knew that this house was going to be hard to sell and I'm tired of this house.

Reasons I wouldn't buy MIL's house...
small yard - there's maybe 15 feet from the back door to the fence
on a road with heavy traffic - there's a high school down the street. honestly when my inlaws bought the house they had no way of knowing this as the school wasn't built yet.
tiny master bedroom closet - no idea what the architect was thinking there
crazy neighbors - the one side has two bachelors who collect and park junk cars in front of the house, the other the woman is just crazy - but most folks won't find that out until it's too late.

So wish us luck folks as we really do need to sell this house. DH is meeting with counter top folks this week and hopefully we can get that done quickly and sell!

a note to my body

2010-12-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Body:

You are much too old to still have zits! Zits are for teenagers, not for someone who is in her ...er... what anniversary of my 29th birthday is it this year? hummm well that's beside the point! The point is I am too old to still have zits!

So clear up!

Don't make me go all Proactive on you! Cuz I will! That Katy Perry says it works so it must work! And I'll get some and scrub til it's raw if I have to!

getting wrinkles and zits sucks! Big time!

The window installation

2010-12-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

I was gonna title that the window finale, but I'm not quite sure that it's all over yet.

Yesterday our long awaited windows came and were installed into my house. Of course that was not without more drama. (why can't anything ever go right???)

We were greeted right off the bat with yet another change to our widows due to our lovely city and their stupid building codes.

As you may remember from last time Window Drama we had to change our order to take out 6 double hung windows and put in 3 2 panel slider windows instead because our local building code requires us to have windows that allow very huge people to escape from our second story windows.

Well yesterday we learned that that same building code considers my main floor office a bedroom because "it has a closet"* and also requires that I replace the existing 2 double hung windows in the office with another 2 panel slider window...again for very large people to escape through the window, when the front door to the house is only 2 feet away.
*the office shares a closet with the foyer. the said closet has a door that opens to the foyer and another door that opens to the office.

So I first called up the city's building dept and begged that I be able to keep my double hung windows. The guy I spoke with was able to look up the permit and know exactly what I was talking about...but unfortunately the only way he was going to let me have my windows was for us to wall in the back side of the foyer/office closet. So I called up my hubby and he was livid! There was no way that he was going to close up the back of the closet just to keep the windows. Luckily the window company had built the window that we needed to keep to code. So they installed that. I was very bummed...at least the window isn't that bad looking.

When the building inspector comes I will very much voice my complaint that 1) there are 8 blooming smoke detectors in this house so there is NO CHANCE of anyone getting trapped by flames in any of the rooms. (okay, maybe if the furnace were to explode...but what are the chances of that happening???) 2) if they were trapped they would never consider jumping out a window from the 2nd story because they would surely die from the fall. I would rather get burned a bit running down the stairs than jump and break most of my bones and possibly my neck. 3) if they were truly that desperate to get out they wouldn't be at all concerned with breaking the window to get out...and these window frames pop out very easily. 4) my office, even though it has a closet would never in anyone's right mind be considered a bedroom...besides if you really needed a home with more bedrooms you would go buy one...not a 4 bedroom house.

I was just chatting with Darly and we mentioned that if she gets any more dolls that she'll need a bigger bedroom...I joked that we could take out the closets between her and the guest bedrooms and then she could have a super sized suite. She loved that idea, but I'm sure hubby won't go for it. However, we just gained a bedroom downstairs LOL!

Today the window guys are working on the outside of our windows...they'll then present us with the bill. stay tuned for that drama!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-12T15:26:00.002-07:00

Window Drama

2010-12-01T10:16:00.001-07:00

who knew that what we thought would be a simple thing back in October would in fact turn out to produce such headaches? oye!

We ordered the windows at the beginning of October but they weren't able to come measure for them until closer to the end of October.

But it took another two weeks for them to realize the first issue...my order had been sitting on hold because changes were made when they took the measurements. We finally got that taken care of and it would take about a month to make the windows.

Then I'm expecting a call any day now to tell me the windows are ready and set up the installation. but NO instead I get a call telling me that my city won't allow me to put in 7 of the windows that I want. AND to add to the stress, the guy didn't return my call! The following is copied from my facebook.

- STILL WAITING! I've called and left 3 messages for this guy. I called and emailed our sales rep (who did get back to me) and I called the main office. seems no one can find this bozo!
- well it is FINALLY resolved. and I'm grumbling.
- the problem: in bedroom windows the building code requires that the opening when you fully open a window to be at least 20w by 24h for escape during a fire.
- the crux: the windows we ordered are only 15 3/4 h.
  the window are all 2 & half stories up...there is NO WAY anyone would use those as a fire escape!
  we have 5 smoke detectors on that floor and 3 more in the house...there is NO WAY that we ...wouldn't have enough warning to get out through the front door with our animals too!
- the solution: I have to put sliding windows in 3 of the bedrooms and a casement in the other bedroom to meet the required code.
- why I'm grumbling: I hate slider & casement windows...that's why I ordered double hung windows! AND our window order was due at the end of this week...now we have to wait some more! My Christmas decorations are still not up yet.
- apparently we have to install windows for the next owner's escape.
  Now I'm still waiting for the window folks to send the addendum paperwork for ordering the sliders and casement window. I should email the guy or my order will get held up again. I DID ask if instead of holding up my entire order if they would install the windows as they are finished so that we could get our tax rebate. We'll see, the guy I spoke to seems to think that they can finish the new windows the same time as the rest of my order...which makes me wonder if they haven't even started my order yet. (can you see my eyes rolling?)
  The biggest pain in the butt about all of this is that for the installation we have to have the areas around our windows clear of everything...no curtains, no blinds, no furniture...you get the idea. Well it's Christmas time and I can't put up any of my decorations yet because I'm waiting on these bozos. Grumble!
  Hubby wants to cancel the entire order. LOL! He is just saying that cuz he is having buyers remorse and doesn't want to pay for them.
  
  UPDATE: I got a call at about 12:30 from our sales guy. He said he needed to meet with me to go over the changes for our window order. Luckily he was nearby and offered to meet me at the house...I was at first panicked about trying to drive all the way to his showroom...ack!
  
  So he went over the changes with me and I signed all the necessary paperwork...AND they did reduce the price by the difference of ordering fewer windows. The sales guy asked me to call my hubby a few times to make sure he knew that the price had been reduced...so I believe that DH must have called him and chewed his ear off. LOL! and YES, I see from my email that DH did have a discussion with him about a reduced price. he he

my extra frig!

2010-11-26T09:47:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting an extra refrigerator forever. There are just so many times when it would be handy to have some extra room for food here. However, my hubby says NO! and probably with good reason. :(

See I have this tiny problem. I buy ~~things~~ food when ~~they're~~ it's on sale. I had to scratch out the things part cuz I'm really good at controlling my spending when it comes to just things. However if it is food and it's on sale...well WE NEED FOOD! But the reason this is a problem is there is usually some food on sale nearly every week...and I tend to fill up the freezer and keep buying more food...CUZ IT'S ON SALE! sigh! Hubby thinks that if he were to allow me to have an extra frig, I would fill it up to the brim and then forget about my stash...and continue buying.

and alas... he is probably right. sigh

However, when the holiday season approaches...I NEED the extra space that having an extra frig would give me. I mean you can't find anything in our frig when it is full of a turkey and all the trimmings.

BUT we live in Colorado. And in Colorado, most years it gets darned right cold around the holidays. Which means my garage is as cold as a walk in refrigerator! ding! ding! ding! ding! ding!

So in years past and this year too, I've used my garage to store all the extra food we have. And it is awesome! This year I used the garage to cool down my turkey brine quickly by setting the pot directly on the concrete. I don't think that the frig could have done that. I also am able to put our turkey in the garage while it sits in the brine. I could never fit it in the frig.

And this year, instead of filling up the frig with still warm food (and possibly spoiling the milk) I put all the left-overs in the garage! Hubby was so happy about this...as he doesn't like spoiled milk for his cereal.

I suggested that we put some shelves in the garage for me to put the food on...and hubby agreed! (course, who knows how long it will be before I can actually get my shelves.) but one day I will have shelves in the garage for extra food storage!

and now I've just come up with an idea for what to get hubby for Christmas! woot! He is getting shelves for the garage! he he

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

Today is prep day for Thanksgiving...usually where I pull out all my supplies and realize how much stuff I forgot to buy.

I've already started roasting the pumpkin and butternut squash. I found a great new trick for getting those seed cavities cleaned out...don't know why it has taken me this long! I grabbed my melon baller that I never use and it worked wonderfully! woot! Have to remember that for Halloween too. :D

Then I went to go make my turkey brine and realized that for all these years I've been making it with not nearly enough vegetable broth. I usually just grab 4 14oz cans and go with that...and the bird has always come out just fine...but this year I decided that I should attempt to make it right. Of course I didn't decide that until today so I only have 4 cans of veggie broth. So I decide that it can't really be that hard to make veggie broth...I've made chicken broth, should be close. But remember this is a house where 2/3 of the human inhabitants are picky eaters, so it doesn't pay to have many "normal" things on hand. sigh

Your typical veggie broth calls for things like onions (I had some frozen onions!), carrots (check), potatoes (oops, I forgot to add one of those, brb!) (check), greens (ummm will these brussel sprouts do?) (toss em in!), zucchini (ummm I have a bag of mixed veggies that have zucchini in it) (toss it in too!), and celery... well I don't have any celery. But I do have celery salt! so I put some of that in and let 'er rip! note: although the recipe calls for salt, I didn't add any cuz of the celery salt...I figured I can add some later...and there is salt in the brine.

I'm sure it will be just fine as the broth is for the Turkey's brine and I have about half of the broth I need...this is just flavorful filler. I suppose it is a very good thing that cooking is an art and not a science like baking is.

after this simmers for an hour, I'll add the rest of the ingredients for the brine and then let it cool. Hopefully I can get the bird swimming by this evening.

Here's the rest of my list of chores for today:

make dessert

make dessert for pot luck at Church tonight

make brine for Turkey & get turkey ready to brine

clean cooler to brine turkey in

make sure all dishes I need for tomorrow are clean (not hiding in the frig)

laundry - but okay if I put it off

mail bday gift for mom - but okay if I put it off

feed kittehs

clean kitchen countertops so I have room for all this

I guess that means I should get off the computer and get busy. I'm also going to ask Darly to see if she would like to help make dinner and learn how to do it.

We're having:

Turkey (of course!)

stuffing substitute -sauteed mushrooms (I'm the only one who will eat stuffing and I don't need it, so I'm subbing with something equally yummy but less fattening!)

Gravy (Darly won't touch this!)

Mashed Potatoes

Green Beans (steamed) (hubs will eat green beans but not gb casserole, Darly won't touch this!)

Corn

Yams (I won't eat the yams, so I'm having see below)

butternut squash (DH & Darly won't eat this!)

Rolls

Pumpkin Dessert - a family recipe that we like better than just pumpkin pie

I hope that you and yours all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with plenty to be thankful for. I feel so blessed to know you all.

Shameless plug!

2010-11-23T10:22:00.002-07:00

We signed up for and Darly prepared her audition. She was really excited and worked really hard... The song she chose to sing for the audition was Impossible!

and she got it! :D

Darly has an ensemble part in CYT’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella! Woo Hoo!

Of course this means that Darly & I are now busier than we ever imagined. The play will be at the end of Jan & early Feb. If you’re in the area, please come see it…these kids put on an awesome show!

Harry Potter #7!

2010-11-10T10:44:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I avoided the Harry Potter series when it first came out. I just didn't see what all the fuss was about so I didn't pick up any books until the first book came out as a movie and was aired on TV. So yeah, very late in the game. But one day we were at my MIL's house and the first movie came on and I got hooked.
I didn't even get to see the entire movie that day because we went home before it was over. So I quickly hopped onto my local library’s website and reserved a copy of the movie so I could finish watching it. And then I also checked out the second movie. It was during the second movie…checking out the deleted scenes that I realized that I was missing parts of the story and it was time to read the books. And so I started reading the books. And I loved the stories.
Soon I got to be a book snob and hated what they were doing to the stories when they turned them into movies. I guess the worst was in Goblet of Fire when they deleted major portions of the story (Dobby the house elf!) and put in stuff that wasn’t in the book (Harry’s flight scene where he is hanging off the roof of the school with the dragon in hot pursuit.) For the other movies I had to remind myself that the movie was not the same as the book. I still get upset with the liberties that the movies take.
However, I’ve been watching the trailers for the HP#7 part one movie and I have to say that for at least one scene that I’m happy with a change that has been made. I just grabbed my copy of the book and checked it to see how different they’ve made it…but yes, I’m still happy. I won’t spoil the scene for you here…Let’s just say that I’m looking forward to seeing the movie and I sure hope that any other changes make me just as happy.
Oh and one more thing…they sure are showing a lot of sneek previews for this movie…wondering what we’ll see when it’s all together.

I need to be at the gym.

2010-11-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

Here I sit, in my workout clothes...yet instead of going to the gym, I'm procrastinating by blogging. You know it must be bad if I'm blogging because I hardly ever blog anymore. sigh!

Going to the gym really isn't that bad. I like it once I get there. I can even do it solo. It is just getting me out the door that seems to be the problem.

I think a huge part of the problem is that with a few tiny exceptions I like how I look now. Sure it would be nicer if I fit into my old jeans better...but the newer jeans are all loose. kinda weird being between sizes there. I'm sure its that "value sizing" thing, where my larger sized jeans are really two or three sizes bigger than the old jeans.

Sigh, I don't want to go buy new smaller sized jeans which are really larger than the smaller sized jeans in my closet. Are you confused? lol

I've even considered taking in the larger sized jeans. Crazy huh?

Okay, okay...I'll go. Check the widget on my sidebar to see if I really went or not.

TC's Christmas list

2010-10-28T12:53:00.002-06:00

TC said...
Oh, this reminds me I should send you my list. :-D

- personalized return-address labels (I really love the square ones on The Stationary Studio)
- stamps, photostamps
- fondue set
- "The best day of someone else's life" - Kerry Reichs
- "Hungry Girl: 1-2-3" cookbook
- "Weight Watchers: Take-out tonight!" cookbook
- "Where Men Win Glory" - Krakauer
- Video-editing software
- "My Boys" Seasons 1, 2 and 3
- Gift cards: gas, barnes & noble, victoria's secret, noodles, sonic, qdoba, wal-mart, target, applebees
- neck pillow for flights
- Hoops 'n YoYo apron
- Long button-up sweater to wear over stuff
- good electric toothbrush
- Socks (not "funny" ones, but more work ones. Including some tall - knee high - ones. Not trouser socks, though.)
- tri-fold black wallet

Darly’s Christmas Wish list

2010-10-22T09:40:00.001-06:00

1. A Basket ball

2. Yankee candle Lip gloss (black cherry)

3. Elizabeth 18inch Doll with accessories (AG)

4. Felicity’s Accessories (AG)

5. Elizabeth’s tea lesson gown (AG)

6. Felicity’s Tea lesson gown (AG)

7. Felicity’s holiday gown (AG)

8. Felicity’s cardinal cloak (AG)

9. Elizabeth’s holiday gown (AG)

10. Felicity’s Riding outfit/habit (AG)

11. Felicity’s foal, Patriot (AG)

12. Elizabeth’s Riding outfit (AG)

13. Josafina’s books 3-6 (AG) note: I only linked one of the books here.

14. Snowflake ball gown for dolls+ Charm (AG)

15. Ski gear (AG)

16. Ski outfit + charm (AG)

17. Snowflake pajamas for dolls + charm (AG)

Gift cards and money are always gladly accepted :D

Please let me know if you're getting Darly any of this, so I know what I don't have to buy her. Honestly even though she said this was her last list, I know there's more. ugh! and NOPE, I'm not buying all of this. LOL, she can keep on dreaming.

Dannon Cups of Hope

2010-10-22T09:20:00.000-06:00

In case you’ve been living under a rock somewhere or something, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. There are some really simple things you can do to help out. First, check your “girls” on a regular basis. Ya wanna make sure you know what healthy is so you also know what’s different.

Another thing you can do is if you like Dannon Yogurt you can enter the codes under the lids to help support Cancer research.

Throughout September and October, a variety of Dannon products will help support the cause, not only by raising money, but also by increasing awareness for a disease that affects women and families at a staggering rate - with more than 290,000 women diagnosed every year. Dannon pledges to donate at least $500,000 dollars to the National Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation, but they hope to increase that donation to $1.5 million dollars this year.

Under the lid of specially-marked Dannon products you will find a unique code. With each code entered at www.cupsofhope.com by November 30, 10 cents will be donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. ® (NBCF). The money raised will go to the NBCF, to provide women free mammograms and support breast cancer research nationwide.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Dannon. In addition, I received a gift certificate and products to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Weekend update!

2010-10-21T22:03:00.000-06:00

In the tradition of many of my blogger friends, I've decided that I should do a weekend update. So that you can all see the fun that is the fefyfomanna house. LOL!

So our weekend began bright and early as Darly had a Girl Scout thing to go to, on the other side of town. Supposedly… See the info we received said that the even started at 9am but to please be there early to check in at 8:30AM! The location of the event was 45 min away. ARGH! So I inhaled my coffee and off we go. We arrived early, cuz I’m just that good…and then we learned that the info THEY had said that we were supposed to check in at 9am, and start at 9:30! WHAT? I could have slept another half hour??? Argh! I could have been on Facebook for that half hour, I could have done a lot of things with that half hour…alas, it was not to be. Oh and guess what! The gal from Girl Scouts didn’t even show up (said she was sick) the poor venue had to deal with us all by themselves.

The event was a field trip & tour of a local Vet’s office. The girls were going to learn about pet care, talk to a woman vet, talk to a woman vet tech and get a tour of the vet’s office. This isn’t your normal vet’s office either…it’s one of the major offices that provide care for pets who’s owners cannot afford to pay full price. The rest of the money is supplied by donors. The girls were all asked to bring in donations of supplies…they got a nice haul.

Our group got to tour the office first. We got to meet a poor puppy with a broken leg, a cat who was in for blood work (no touching please!) and a lab who had had a very large abdominal mass removed and was having her bandages changed. The girls got to see jars of stuff removed from pets (blech!) and read some radiographs (x-rays). The vet tech told us where she went to school and about her job, what a typical day looks like…etc. It was very cool.

Then it was time to talk with the Vet and learn about how she became a vet, via being a Country singer. She didn’t go into details. LOL! She also told us that she has 7 dogs, a cat, & 14 birds…but didn’t tell us how many pets she’s allowed to have where she lives. I bit my tongue about how that many pets is an occupational hazard for vets. ;)

Since we started our tour so early, we decided to go with our friends to one of our favorite museums. I was worried that it might be crowded, but it wasn’t that bad. Started off in the health section of the museum and learned about the sugar content of some cereals. Then Darly wanted to do the age progression simulation. She wasn’t happy to learn that she might look like her great grandmother. He he

Then we headed to the IMAX to see Under the Sea in 3-D! That was very cool. I thought I might have nightmares from the sea snakes, but it wasn’t that bad. :D Next we went for a visit to the Amazon exhibit. They had REAL piranha that we could watch…looked like normal fish, although these were the kind that will swarm.

Then it was time to head home…we beat DH home.

Well that was Saturday.

On Sunday, Darly had to Acolyte at Church…so we had to be there early…(what’s up with all these early mornings???) We get there and there’s a man outside taking pictures. I didn’t think too much of it and we went inside. A minute later, he comes in and introduces himself. Seems his friends invited him, but he got there way too early. So I show him around…he’s quite the talker. After I managed to ditch er get him someone else to talk to he somehow found his way to DH too! After Church service he ended up taking our picture. Ne ne ne neeeeh!

We had brunch at Egg & I, and went to the library. And that’s about it.

See so very exciting here.

Help Stop MRSA Now

2010-10-20T18:49:00.000-06:00

Like all parents the most important thing is keeping my child safe. And there are so many things out there that we need to protect our kids from. Some things are really scary and life-threatening. Our kids get exposed to so much even when we have them in our site all the time. I’m of course, talking about things like germs and infections. I feel so fortunate that Darly is so conscientious about germs. Okay, okay I’ve managed to train her to be another germophobe! But…

Skin infections like MRSA, a potentially life-threatening antibiotic resistant Staph infection, are the cause of 56 percent of all outbreaks of infectious diseases in competitive sports in the U.S.

Luckily, simple preventative steps like scrubbing hands frequently, wiping down hard surfaces with a bleach solution (1 tablespoon of disinfecting bleach diluted in 1 gallon of water), covering cuts and regularly cleaning, laundering and disinfecting sports equipment can reduce the spread of bacteria. And funny enough, these steps also help stop the spread of other germs like the common cold and the flu!

S.T.O.P. MRSA Now Coalition, Swap Me Sports, professional basketball star Grant Hill, who was affected by MRSA, and The Clorox Company are teaming up to educate families and coaches through Equip Them Well, a program to help teach families and sports teams about practical MRSA prevention steps . Through the program, parents can also collect, disinfect and donate used youth sports equipment to communities in need.

Plus, each individual who enters the sweepstakes on www.StopMRSAnow.org will score a chance to win a trip to Phoenix for a Suns game and an exclusive “meet-and-greet” with Grant Hill.

Professional Basketball Star Grant Hill Coaches Parents in MRSA Defense

--Stop MRSA Now Coalition Member Focuses on Disinfecting Sports Equipment and Other Shared Items to Help Prevent the Spread of MRSA--

September 13, 2010 WASHINGTON – Skin infections like MRSA, which spread through skin to skin contact as well as contact with equipment and shared items, are the cause of 56 percent of all outbreaks of infectious diseases in competitive sports in the U.S.[1]^,[2] – but simple steps parents can take can help prevent the spread. MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a potentially life-threatening antibiotic resistant Staph bacteria that has increasingly been found in community and youth sports settings.³

The Stop MRSA Now Coalition in partnership with The Clorox Company and SwapMeSports.com, has teamed up with professional basketball star Grant Hill to launch Equip them Well, a program to help teach families and sports teams about practical MRSA prevention steps, such as washing hands and disinfecting equipment with a bleach solution. Like so many others who have been affected by the threat of MRSA, Hill understands the importance of prevention, both in the locker room and on the court.

“We need to get more kids in the game with youth sports – but I also know firsthand that MRSA is a tough opponent that many young athletes may face,” said Hill, MRSA survivor and Stop MRSA Now Coalition member. “That is why I am excited about the Equip Them Well program to inform parents and coaches that we all play a part in MRSA prevention.”

Donate Used Sports Equipment and Score a Chance to Meet Grant Hill

In addition to educating parents about MRSA prevention, the Equip Them Well program is committed to providing the resources necessary for kids from all communities to take part in youth sports. Parents can collect, disinfect and donate used youth sports equipment to communities in need through the Equip Them Well page on StopMRSANow.org.

Each family that visits StopMRSANow.org and enters the sweepstakes will score a chance to win a trip to Phoenix for a Suns game and exclusive “meet-and-greet” with Hill.

Equip Them Well – With Simple Equipment Wellness Steps

MRSA is generally spread by skin to skin contact and by touching surfaces that have come in contact with a person’s infection. The following steps can help prevent the spread in community settings:

Scrub up – Wash hands frequently with soap and warm water for at least 15 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand rub sanitizer.
Wipe it down – Use a disinfecting bleach solution to wipe down and disinfect hard surfaces. (1 tablespoon of disinfecting bleach diluted in 1 gallon of water or as directed on label)
Cover your cuts – Keep any nicks or wounds covered with a clean, dry bandage until healed.
Keep to yourself – Do not share personal items, like towels or razors, that come into contact with bare skin.
Use a barrier – Keep a towel or clothing between skin and shared equipment.
Don’t play dirty – Wash children’s athletic clothing after each use, using the warmest wash recommended and adding bleach when appropriate.

All teams know that sports equipment is often shared among teammates. That makes “equipment wellness” another important part of preventing the spread of MRSA in youth sports settings. It is important to:

Regularly clean and disinfect sports equipment like balls, racket grips and bats.
Pay particular attention to disinfecting or properly laundering sports equipment that comes into direct contact with the skin of the players, such as headgear/helmets, mats, and body armor. ^[3],^[4]
Avoid using tape to wrap gripping areas of rackets, bar bells, or to repair rips and tears on other sports equipment. This may provide an environment for germs to thrive and may interfere with the disinfectant process.

Parents can read and download practical prevention steps online at www.stopmrsanow.org.

About STOP MRSA NOW

STOP MRSA Now is a coalition of community members who have experienced first-hand the threat of MRSA and MRSA experts who are committed to working together to reduce the spread of MRSA in community settings and to educate community members on MRSA prevention.

MRSA is a potentially life-threatening antibiotic resistant Staph infection. The MRSA bacteria is carried by up to 5 percent of the population, especially in younger people.[5] According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2005, nearly 19,000 Americans died from MRSA infections.[6] During the same year, there were 134 cases of MRSA in children.[7]

About SwapMeSports.com

SwapMeSports.com is a free community website that allows parents to buy, sell, trade or donate used sports equipment. The organization facilitates the donation of equipment to organizations, schools and leagues through its community giving program. All donated equipment benefits the many children who would like to participate in sports but cannot afford to. SwapMeSports.com’s sponsorship of Equip Them Well encourages families and teams to collect, disinfect and donate used sports equipment, while educating them on MRSA prevention. For more information, visit www.swapmesports.com.

About The Clorox Company

The Clorox Company is a multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer products, with fiscal year 2010 revenues of $5.53 billion. Clorox markets some of consumers' most trusted and recognized brand names, including its namesake bleach and cleaning products; Pine-Sol® cleaners; Green Works® natural home care products; Brita® water-filtration systems; Burt’s Bees® natural personal care products; Kingsford® charcoal; Hidden Valley® and K C Masterpiece® dressings and sauces; Glad® bags, wraps and containers; Fresh Step® and Scoop Away® cat litter; and Armor All® and STP® auto-care products. Clorox is committed to making a positive difference in the communities where its employees work and live. Founded in 1980, The Clorox Company Foundation has awarded cash grants totaling more than $80 million to nonprofit organizations, schools and colleges. In fiscal 2010 alone, the foundation awarded $3.5 million in cash grants, and Clorox made product donations valued at $8.8 million. For more information about Clorox, visit www.TheCloroxCompany.com.

The Clorox Company sent me information about the Equip them Well program not intended to solicit product claims.

A daughter in mourning...

2010-10-12T22:24:00.000-06:00

IM convo cuz we're both on computers...only 20 feet apart.

Darly says: OMW, there's an AMERICAN GIRL COMMERCiAL

RENEE says: on tv?

Darly says: no the site, but I think it will be on tv soon

I HATE YOU MATTEL (owner of AG)

RENEE says: y b sick & cry (note: she had emocions for sick & crying) oh cuz they're cheapening the dollies?

Darly says: Cry cuz ag's going in the pitts,

RENEE says: sorry hun

Darly says: Sick because MATTEL IS SICK

RENEE says: you could boycott them stop buying their stuff

Darly says: Soon they'll be all plastic, have gient boobs,

Huge butts,

RENEE says: gient?

Darly says: GIANT

RENEE says: they already have huge butts

Darly says: bigger butts

RENEE says: boycott, boycott

Darly says: Teeny itsy bitsy waists,

RENEE says: no more mattel stuff in my house

Darly says: I wisk WISH

RENEE says: sounds like barbie

Darly says: exactly

RENEE says: life in plastic...it's fantastic!

Darly says: That's why i'm gonna go to the ag store, and SCREAM at everyone there that Mattel is DORKS

NO IT'S NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT (in response to my life in plastic remark)

RENEE says: ummm I don't think I can take you to the AG store to make a scene I thought you wanted to work there

Darly says: the whole point of AG's was NOT to be like barbies

Eh, DID

RENEE says: I know, but then the original owner sold out and made millions

Darly says: It was for them to be encouraging girls to make the best out of childhood

RENEE says: now Mattel is driving them into the ground

Darly says: NOW MY CHILDHOOD IS RUINED

RENEE says: like they do everything

Darly says: (crying emocion)

RENEE says: good thing you're all growed up now

Darly says: NO I'M NOIT

I'm 12 years old and I want to stay a little kid who loves her dolls

And can shut out the rest of the world when she's with them

RENEE says: la la la la

Darly says: I want to have a proper childhood

But that will never happen

My children will be born into plastic agony

And the world will expolde

RENEE says: ya know not every childhood includes over a thousand dollars worth of dolls

Darly says: Yes,

But the first AG's only cost like, $70 maybe less

RENEE says: are any of your dolls PC's (PC is for Pleasant Company, original owner of American Girl)

Darly says: one

wel, teo

Sandy, and niv=cki

NICKI

RENEE says:

you must be really ticked cuz you can't even spell like a cat!

Darly says: yes

And my shirt's all wet

RENEE says: WHAT?

Darly says: I'm crying

RENEE says: real tears?

Darly says: yes

RENEE says: ah hunny don't cry

Darly says: They're pure evil

RENEE says: yes

Darly says: They don't even care about girls anymore

RENEE says: well I guess I don't need that coupon for the personal shopper now

they never did

Darly says: All they want is bukoo bux

RENEE says: yup

Darly says: AG WASn'T ABOUT BUKOO BUX

RENEE says: until Mattel gave them bukoo bux to buy the name

I really think that they're shooting their nose off to spite their face though

opening stores everywhere will make the stores not so special

Darly says: All i want is the remnants of Pleasent company's past

RENEE says: so now I have to buy just from ebay

Darly says: Elizabeth, and Josafina

No,

I may get a few of the semi newer outfits

cuz I like a few of them

RENEE says: lol

Darly says: but then I will go off to some other doll brand

Maybe GBH

They're cute

Soon we'll be abel to buy AG's in target

for 1000000000000 dollars ofcourse

RENEE says: and Walmart!

Darly says: Yes

And walmart

RENEE says: and KMart

and Smarty Mart

Darly says: Kmart LAYAWAY

RENEE says: and quickie mart

Darly says: SMARTY MART??????????/

RENEE says: and doobie mart

Darly says: QUICKYMART/

RENEE says: and wookie mart

Darly says: what the

RENEE says: and petsmart

Darly says: Um

As dog toys?

RENEE says: and dingomart

Darly says: for 5000000000000000000000000000000000000 dollars?

RENEE says: and automart

and bippomart

Darly says: And lemmie gues

Fartmart

RENEE says: LOL

I got her to stop crying over the commercial. course I still think she wants me to buy her some more dolls. ugh

Confirmation Retreat

2010-10-11T09:26:00.000-06:00

I don't know what I was thinking when a few weeks back I agreed to help chaperone my daughter's Confirmation Retreat, but I agreed so I went. Now I know what everyone complains about when they have a sleep over! I got NO SLEEP!!! Usually when Darly has a sleep over I get sleep...cuz I don't have to worry about how late the kids stay up...if they sleep, good, if the don't, oh well they're not my kids and they'll go home soon enough.

Not so at a Retreat. See the first problem with this is I had to sleep in the same room with the ~~kids~~ girls. Second, we had no beds...so sleeping on the floor. I'm not such a good sleeper on the floor, even with an air mattress. Then I had to get up several times for bathroom breaks because I had consumed a bunch of water because where we were staying was pretty dry. ugh! AND I had to get up at 6am.

The food was good, the kids were pretty good and the lesson was good too. Just the lack of sleep. When we got home on Saturday I went to sleep really quickly after our dinner...which I'm so thankful was left-overs. If I had to start dinner from scratch we would still be hungry. lol

So, will I do another retreat? ummm Maybe I'll let someone else have that pleasure. ;o)

Sneak Preview

2010-10-10T15:57:00.000-06:00

I posted last week about getting to see Life As We Know It and I really wanted to share the sneak preview experience with you. Here's my post about the movie...you should go see it!

First I received an email asking if I wanted to go see the movie and post a review on it. And seriously I did want to see it. I had seen previews and was excited to see the movie. So I said yes right away as if you snooze you loose on these kind of things.
I also asked my friend to come with me, cuz I had two seats...why not use them?

So the day comes and we go to the theater. I had some choice seats reserved...sweet! But first we had to go through security. I hadn't been to a movie in a while so at first I assumed this security was just normal, it wasn't until later that I realized what was up. We were asked to turn off our cell phones before going in too. I was thinking "SWEET! no cells going off during the movie!" Turns out that was part of the same security. Also our bags were checked. All of this was to make sure that no one was sneaking in a video camera to make a copy of the movie because we were seeing the movie before it's release date.

The movie theater that we were going into had another movie title on the sign that tells you what theater to go into for your movie. There were no ads and only one preview for another movie. And then during the movie the security guys who scanned us with metal detecting wants as we went in had special binoculars to use to watch us with to make sure no one was filming the movie.

I thought it was all very interesting. I don't know if anyone was upset by it or not...they shouldn't have been...we were all there to see the movie for free. There were other folks there who weren't with the same group that I was...I asked who they were with and they were very friendly about it. They also got to see the movie in exchange for a review.

All in all it was a great experience and if I ever get the chance again I will do it.

It's about time!

2010-10-08T12:59:00.002-06:00

for a new look!

I finally decided to change my blog template...aren't you glad? I had been using that template for I don't even know how many years...but I noticed (yeah, just now...duh) that the header said I was still a LLL Leader and I quit that about 4 or 5 years ago. So it was time to go!

Also it helped a lot that blogger has some free, easy to make more me-ish templates that are free...oh yeah, I said that. lol

I don't know if this will make me blog more. But I'm liking it so far. What do you think?

"Hello My Name is Hope" campaign

2010-10-07T08:54:00.003-06:00

I think most of you know how addicted to Facebook I am. My poor blog here often gets neglected because of it. Well now I have a good excuse to be on Facebook and you do too.

Way back in the 80's my grandparents were going through a very rough time. My grandfather was in the late stages of Parkinson's disease and my grandmother was struggling to take care of him all on her own. I can't imagine her horror in learning that there was a lump in her breast. I don't know all the specifics as I was just a teenager and unfortunately such matters were not discussed in our family. However, I do know that my grandmother decided that since she didn't have the time for additional treatment that she would just get a double mastectomy and be done with it all so that she could put her focus back on my grandfather. Well it's 25 years later and my grandmother is still alive and kicking.

As you know, October is Breast Cancer awareness month. I am excited to learn about the "Hello My Name is Hope" campaign presented by www.Quill.com, a leading business-to-business online and direct marketer of office products. To boost breast cancer awareness, Quill.com is inviting all Facebook users to post and personalize virtual "Hello My Name is Hope" stickers on their profiles to honor both survivors and victims of the disease. The familiar "Hello My Name Is" stickers take on new meaning with personalized messages of hope and support shared across the Facebook community. For every sticker shared, Quill.com will donate $1 - up to $20,000 - to City of Hope, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center dedicated to research, treatment and education.

Here's my sticker. Isaiah 43:2 says When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. And I feel that this scripture is perfect for all of us but especially breast cancer victims as they need the strength and encouragement. The picture on there is from my Women's Group at Church. I know that at least one of these lovely ladies that I'm proud to be a member of has gone through breast cancer treatment and I pray that she stays in remission.

So what can you do? If you're on Facebook, click on the link http://www.facebook.com/quill and allow the app. Spread the word and spread the Hope! Let's provide all the funds we can.

I learned about this campaign through MomSelect.com and received an entry into a contest for a gift card for my blog post. However, I would have posted this anyway as it's a cause I believe in.

"Life As We Know It" – Review

2010-10-04T10:51:00.003-06:00

2 Moms – kids – hubbies + Fun Movie = GIRLS NIGHT OUT!!!

About a week ago I got the most awesome opportunity in my email box. This is something that I never in my wildest dreams ever thought would happen. I got asked to go to a pre-screening of “Live as We Know It” a new Warner Bros. movie. Little ol’ me! Who wudda thunk??? So of course I asked my buddy Marsi to come with…we both needed a girls’ night out.

As luck would have it, I had saw previews for this movie and it was something I really wanted to see. Here, you watch this http://lifeasweknowitmovie.warnerbros.com/ and tell me you aren’t interested…go ahead, I’ll wait…

Let me just say THE ENTIRE MOVIE IS THIS FUNNY! (okay, there are sad parts, the baby’s parents die) but the rest of it was FUNNY! Oh and to make the movie even more fun, there are plenty of EYE CANDY shots of Josh thrown in!

Movie Synopsis:
In the romantic comedy “Live as We Know It,” Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl) is an up-and-coming caterer and Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel) is a promising network sports director. After a disastrous first date, the only thing they have in common is their dislike for each other and their love for their goddaughter, Sophie. But when they suddenly become all Sophie has in the world, Holly and Messer are forced to put their differences aside. Juggling career ambitions and competing social calendars, they’ll have to find some common ground while living under one roof.

I can’t really tell you much more about the movie without telling you the entire story…cuz I love to blab, but this is a really good movie to go see with your friends. I think that all parents would get a kick out of this movie because Holly & Messer are really good at making a mess of things. The movie is rated PG-13 (note: she didn’t call that stuff on Holly’s face poo).

If you're still not convinced that you should see this movie, check out the link again http://lifeasweknowitmovie.warnerbros.com/ and check out the other stuff they have there. I need to go back and check out the sweepstakes!

I attended a complimentary screening of this movie to facilitate my review and received a gift card from Mom Central as a thank you for my time.

Don't Fret the Sweat - Review

2010-09-27T10:38:00.002-06:00

Darly and her friends are now reaching the age where they aren't just sweet little girls anymore. They're starting to become young women. Unfortunately that sometimes means funky smells when we're all trapped in the car. UGH!

I feel blessed in that I can talk with Darly about this kind of stuff. Darly has known this was coming for about 4 years now and she's been excited to grow up. I got her a book about growing up back when she was about 9 or so and she read through it and couldn't wait for her body to start changing. Darly asked for and started using deodorant a while back. But we are having shower issues and sometimes her friends need a hint.

Need some help talking to your tween/teens about funky smells and telling them it's deodorant time? Check out DontFretTheSweat.com Your glorious guide to sweat, kids and confidence for tips, confidence-building tools and more information about the Tween Confidence Index.

DontFretTheSweat.com has some really cool stuff on there like a game for parents to see how much they know about teens today. I admit that my score could use some improvement, I had no idea how many kids today have cell phones and use them to access the internet. I really appreciated the coupon section...cuz who doesn't want to save money, right? I'll have Darly take a look at the product finder so she can choose which type of deodorant she wants to use...I sure hope she doesn't choose the most expensive one. LOL!

So far Darly seems to be loving the new Suave Wild Cherry Blossom Antiperspirant/Deodorant that we got to try out. I hope she picks that one cuz it smells really nice.

I'll be sharing this post with my daughter's friends' moms in hopes that I don't get trapped in the car with Mr Funky again. I really hope this post saves you from being trapped with Mr Funky too. :D

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Unilever and received the items necessary to facilitate my review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Still frustrated by the doctor!

2010-09-21T12:14:00.002-06:00

a while back I posted this lovely post. well the saga continues... @@ <-that's me rolling my eyes.

DH went back to the hematologist yesterday and came home still frustrated by this man. It seems to us that he doesn't even read DH's chart. DH asked about the repeated blood testes that have been ordered and the guy couldn't even give DH a straight answer about the results. He quickly flipped through the chart and said that the white blood cell count levels did seem to be improving a bit (funny with all the blood they've been drawing!)

The doc wanted to do another bone marrow biopsy. The last time DH had this procedure it A) costs us nearly $300. B) ended up cracking DH's pelvis and left him in pain since...and C) showed nothing wrong with him!

When DH said that he did NOT want to do another biopsy because he thinks his pelvis was cracked by the previous one the doctor tried to tell him that his symptoms were NOT from a cracked pelvis but from a pinched nerve and that he should go see a chiropractor. (yet when we checked the symptoms on line they all together point to the cracked pelvis and not a pinched nerve!) The doctor tried really hard to convince DH to take another test. DH refused.

The reason the doctor wants to run the test is to find the cause for his low white blood cell count. The doctor refuses to believe that this is just genetic. Every other doctor that DH has been to has looked at MIL & SIL's records and believed, but apparently in this day and age there MUST be a reason other than genetics.

I suggested that DH speak with his primary care doc about the results and see if she might suggest a second opinion or believe him and his charts so he can discontinue seeing a doctor who seems bent on draining our checking account. Hopefully he'll do that as he really would like to stop seeing this doctor. fingers crossed.