Mini Rant

So I have to just lay out my mini rant really quick.

Why is it that people think they can use animals and dispose of them as though they are some child's play thing you pick up at wal-mart? I mean seriously!? What on earth goes through the mind of the person who posts their 10 week old kitten for free on craigslist because "my daughter changed her mind" ?

That poor cat now has to go to another totally new environment and try to be ok with it. No different than the guy who posted his great dane for free because "I'm moving out of state and it's too expensive to take him with me". How expensive is it really to pack him up in the car with you while you drive there? Oh wait yea it's free! But you got this huge dog and now you're moving and you don't want the hassle or responsibility or whatever or this beautiful creature who has probably done nothing to deserve being randomly abandoned.

It's people like that that make me wish I had a tremendous amount of land so I could take them all in ( yes I know I would inadvertently become a hoarder and that is a whole other problem) but I can't and I have to just sit by and watch people take on animals that they only want while they're cute little puppies or kittens.

And yes I know a relatively pointless rant but I had to say something because I just find it so frustrating!!!

On a better note took bean to my Aunt Wendy's today and she was soooooo excited to see that Wendy had a little dog. She thinks the ones that are her size are just too much fun. Plus my cousin had left her new puppy there for the day and OMG to watch the munchkin and the puppy rolling around on the deck was just too cute. My cousin actually got a picture of her with the puppy that is just adorable and she said to her "well I have to hold on to her so she doesn't knock you over!" Just too adorable.

Suspense

So of course with child come as variety of exciting events and we have come to term one of them "sippy cup roulette".

Yes in fact is is quite the suspenseful game in which you clean up the munchkin's room, the living room, etc. and find that she has stashed sippy cups in various places, or there is the one that she put in the sink that never got put in the dishwasher and so it sat there for a day or two, and you open them.

Well now it's time to do dishes and you stand there at the sink, hoping and praying, slowly unscrewing the top and wondering 'what will I find in this one?'

And the game is all going along just fine, water, juice, water, water, juice, and then the bullet... milk...

The cup you were dreading.

It wasn't an intentional thing, it just got misplaced, or buried in the sink, somehow you lost track of it, but now there it is in all its chunky glory and you just can't get the water turned on fast enough to rinse it down the drain.

You have officially completed a game of sippy cup roulette.

Now hopefully you survived without any major complications, and managed to keep whatever was in your stomach still in there.

Fortunately for me, daddy took over the game this morning and so we didn't have any hidden bullets so I guess we all were able to steer clear today, and just wait for the next game of sippy cup roulette.

Some confusion

Today was just full of so much confusion, and for the whole family too.

A friend of ours son's 5th birthday was today and we were invited to the party, but what to get the five year old who seems to have everything? Well we landed on a Nerf gun, actually a pair so he and his cousin wouldn't fight over them, and some monster truck matchbox cars. Not really sure but that was the end result, plus we couldn't stand there debating much longer or I think bean would have figured out how to convince daddy to buy her the Buzz Lightyear toy she was playing with. Keep in mind we're a week from her party.

Then we got to the party and as much as I wanted to try to mingle with everyone, there really wasn't anyone to mingle with. There were a whole ton of kids, some of which I'm not really sure who they belonged to since as far as I could tell all the adults were accounted for by the kids I recognized. But then came the hard part for little one. And that is really where all of this was going. How do you keep your kid from talking to everyone, but then at parties convince her that it's ok to play with the other kids?

Apparently Grandma and Poppy had the same problem with her last weekend and when they went to the beach there were lots of other kids that wanted to play with her, but she wanted to stick to herself and then because the other kids wouldn't stop trying to play with her, she wanted to go home.

Fortunately at the B-Day party there were kids she knew so she was willing to play with them, but the one little boy she didn't know came over, I think to show her how the power wheels worked, and she just started crying.

Now she's been in daycare so definitely had the socialization, and she's been able to warm up after a bit, but is this just a phase or what? I guess I just don't remember doing the whole super shy thing when I was little, then again I don't really remember 3. And in the same I don't want her to be all super shy for her party next weekend.

Two more weeks

Well we only have two more weeks left until classes resume. Then hopefully we'll be done and off to vet school.

The job thing didn't work out, not sure if I posted that here or not.

Been a busy week this week trying to get everything in order and ready for Tori's party, plus Matt worked days Thursday and Friday which threw our whole schedule off a little bit. Then Thursday I ended up in the ER with my friend Christine. Poor thing, we just wen to the mall to look at some maternity clothes for her and she started having pain in her belly and then spotting and she's only ~9 weeks so off to the doctors we went. She has the cutest little boy Aiden that stayed with us for the night and Tori just thought that was the coolest!

She was so excited he was over to play and then just wanted to lay down with him on the couch and watch a movie when she saw he was tired. He was too cute all curled up on the couch. The downside is she almost refused to stay in her bed because he was here.

On another note I have started getting into jewelry making. Some of you may have seen my first crochet piece and now I have a bunch of supplies to make "regular" beaded jewelry. I've made a few pieces, two anklets, two necklaces so far and then I have more in the way of the glass beads now to make more traditional jewelry. It's funny really it started as trying to come up with jewelry embellishments for the crochet stuff I make but then I wanted to try making more traditional stuff. Now I'm thinking about seeing what it would take to set up a table at the farmers market but I don't know how much I really want to sell stuff like that. I guess I'd rather have people show them off to friends and family and have people ask for stuff that way, but I guess we'll see. I'll post some pictures soon of completed pieces.

Tori is too funny with it all too, the couple times we've gone to the store to get supplies she's picked out a thing or two, well Wednesday we went to this new craft store, Hobby Lobby; HUGE place!, and she found this little princess tin lunchbox and by the time we got to the register she had it packed with stuff. She had embroidery floss, candy, beads, pendants, she had a thing of waxed thread, just filled it. The cashier went to open it and I was like OMG how did she get all that stuff, well needless to say she was allowed to have the lunchbox but not all the goodies stuffed inside.

For now though it's the weekend and we're waiting for daddy to get home from work and then maybe go to the park, though I think it's going to rain soon...

Pictures

A few more of the great pictures! Now I have to upload them to snapfish or something to be able to order prints. But I thought you might like a preview!

Home again

Well everyone is home again, not that really anyone but Tori was gone but the house is full again.

It's too funny really, I couldn't wait to have a few moments to myself, especially after Wednesday last week, but we won't go into that, but then once she was gone I was a bit lost in what to do.

Though the drive home from dropping her off was quite nice and I was able to stop off in some of the craft stores along the way home and just poke and look at stuff, of course that also got a bit dangerous because I didn't have the little kid keeping me on task so at one point I looked down and realized my arms were full of clearance jewelry and crochet supplies; I want to start adding embellishments to the things I make, and then realized that even with it all being clearance I still had waaaaayy too much stuff.

On the other hand Matt and I had a nice weekend, finally had some time to quietly enjoy each other's company. And Saturday we went to a nice dinner with Mike and Becky which was wonderful. A bit of a celebration of Becky's new job as a store manager for the coffee monster DD. Then Sunday we went to retrieve the monster and well I have to say it really is just too funny, and quite heart warming to know that she is the same kid no matter where she goes.

We pulled down the street and she came running outside because she heard the car, then with Poppy there on the porch started bawling and clinging to Poppy as much as possible saying "No mommy I can stay here if I want to, I can stay with grandma." Of course a few minutes later and she was giving us hugs and kisses and giving me a tour or her new house and hew windows out of  which she watched the deer.

Then we got into story time and well I did everything I could to keep my composure. Grandma and poppy proceeded to tell us about how Saturday bean was having a nothing is right and you can't do anything about it day and so Grandma finally gave up and set her up in the den with cartoons and her Dora sleeping bag and brought her snacks and lunch to her in the den. Then when Poppy told her it was time to come sit down and have dinner, to which she replied, "No poppy I don't have to come sit down, grandma brings me my food."

It's ok you can laugh hysterically, I did too.

Fortunately that was the only day she was a complete handful. The  only other time they mentioned was they tried to take her to the beach, and I had gone out and bought her a swim vest for that purpose, but she was intimidated by all the other kids who wanted to share toys with her and talk to her so even though she apparently talked about it all morning that day, about 20min after they got there she was pretending to be asleep so she could convince Grandma to take her home.

Again I had to contain myself thinking 'wow she really had gotten entirely too good at manipulation for a girl of only three.

Speaking of which I have to give a quick shout out to Rants From Mommy Land, another blog that I read frequently. Their story today was about temper tantrums and how they are in six stages and that while you may think you simply progress from one to the other until they are done, instead you get to six and then start the cycle all over again. Really too funny, I almost snarfed coffee while reading.

However I do have one question for them.

What about the kid that has figured out I am more apt to lose my "schmidt" if instead of only one tantrum style at a time she combine two or three so that not only is she so loud I can't see straight but she's also stiff as a board and immobile?

Oh wait yea that's when I end up locking myself in the bathroom and praying daddy will walk in and rescue me from temporary insanity.

And last side note, I plan on some pictures of my success in that garden at some point this week! I officially have blooms!!

Up and down all at once

Well today was a topsy turvy kind of day. Had a nice night last night with the clan members; yes I have  given up on listing all of you but you all know who you are so henceforth you shall be the clan. Ate some food, drank some beer, speaking of which I've found a new "mass production cheapie" [the term we have used to indicate the beer you can go to any beverage center and pick up cheap when you just feel like a few beers but don't want something super strong, like when you just want sangria as opposed to the nice bottle of merlot] Miller High Life. For the longest time our household was always Budweiser people but then there were a few things that happened. To start Tom and Dorothy introduced us to the 16oz. aluminum bottles and well after that the brown bottles just didn't get cold enough or taste good enough. Then we started paying too much attention to the born on dates and realized that anything more than a month old really did taste old. Next Dorothy got fed up with not being able to get fresh aluminum bottles so she tried the Miller Light aluminum bottles; turned out to be pretty good. Then we had munchkin's b-day party last year and to allow for a variety I had bought some Bud, some Miller Light and maybe some Corona; I know there was at least one other I bought but don't remember what. And almost all the Bud was gone, most of the third beer and the majority of what was left was miller light, so I drank it and came to like it. Fairly light, nice hot day cold beverage kinda beer, and it went great with most summer food.
As of recently, the past 6-8 months we've been venturing out again and trying various things, Matt seems to still be on the Corona kick most of the time, and we've been going back and forth with friends trying various micro brews from the surrounding area. Well Matt was in the beverage center and we had seen an add about for every Miller High Life bottle/can purchased that Miller would donate some amount, I think it was like $0.25 to various groups to support vets, so he bought some. I like it! I know a really long 'speaking of' but I figured I would share.

So like I said good afternoon/evening yesterday.

Then today was the last day for me. As you know I went for a job interview a week ago last Friday and then did a four hour volunteer and went and worked at the clinic on Monday to see how I liked it and if they liked me. Well I was really hoping to have heard something in a couple days; they had said at the latest Thursday last week, but we got to Friday and I was starting to be pretty down about the whole thing and wondering whether it was worth it to call them. I finally decided that I would wait until Monday, that would allow a week for them to have had other people do the same thing I did etc., and if I didn't hear anything by noon then I would call them. So I called... kinda wish I hadn't... didn't get the job... kinda bummed about it...
On the upside; like I said a very topsy turvey day, I then got the following from one of my professors "What were they looking for? an underachieving slob? that is the only reason I can see someone passing you over...better luck next time!" totally made me feel so much better!

So then I went about my duties today and I got some laundry taken care of, well stuff put away, still can't really do any since the dryer is busted. I mean yea we have the clothes line but then we run into two problems, one, stiff undies [trust me, not much fun], two, the toddler that has to point out to everyone that our clothes and her panties are on the line because the dryer is broken.

I mean at first the explanation to the neighbor; who bless her soul works at an elementary school so she thinks bean is just too cute, about how "mommy had to put her panties in the sun to clean them because the dryer is broken and daddy fixed it but it's still broken because he couldn't fix it so now my panties are outside see!" and she points to the clothes. Now I don' have anything wrong with putting clothes on the line, to be honest in many respects I favor it. Keeps me reminded that there is laundry being done so I don't forget it in the washer/dryer, saves energy, and I think it helps give it all a nice scent. But it does require that it not rain and I don't think I'll fair so well in that tomorrow.

But again on the plus if it does rain tomorrow, my drainage is finally done! I finally got all ~18 sq. ft. of my rock edging/drainage done. And I have to say I think it looks pretty awesome! [I'll try to get pictures up] So now all I have to do is seed for grass and then I'll finally be done!! Though I do have a few more plants to do something with, I have a few that are quickly outgrowing their pots so they have to be re-planted. But that's fun sit in the sun stuff not sweat my tucus off and work like a pack mule stuff. Plus then I can enjoy bean playing in her pool and play with her as opposed to envying the laughs and giggles from over my shoulder. Plus I can sit in it and stay cool and finish up my book!

I need some opinions

Over the past few years I havebecome a big advocate of hair donation for cancer patients. Ok well maybe not big but I'm working on my second donation cut and I need some help. I have recently learned that there are a number of different organizations to which I can donate as well as the fact that some of them also have the option to have people give pledges per inch that you donate.

I think this is a wonderful opportunity to do something really great and not only raise some money for those charities but also to use the opportunity to donate the hair so some person, man, woman or child, can have the hair they have lost as the result of cancer or illness.

But here is where I need your help.

One, I want to take a poll of sorts to see to whom I should donate.
1. Pantene Beautiful Lengths
2. Wigs for Kids
3. Locks of Love
4. Children with Hair Loss
5. Childhood Leukemia Foundation
6. Matter of Trust

Two, I want to see if any of you would be willing and/or able to pledge for my donation, possibly see if you have any other people from who you could get pledges.

I really want to be able to do the most good that I can with my donation which is why I am looking to you all for some input. To see which you think is the most worthy cause.

Poking

So I poke around periodically on Craig's List for free stuff. Sometimes it works out quite well, sometimes too well because I find things I want but never make it to go get them or I don't have the room for the stuff I find. However, today worked out quite well! I came across an add stating the individual was re-doing their garden so had ~70 edging stones that were free, the best part was they were only a few blocks away. So loaded up the munchkin and went to get them. Took ~65 of them, the others were either too cracked up or broken for me to see it worth it to take them for anything. and now I have free edging stones for parts of the garden!!

Then this evening I was doing some more poking around on facebook and came across some awesome pictures!

I took bean last week to have some pictures taken by a lady that offered up a children's sitting as part of a fund raising raffle, well we won the raffle. Now I just can't wait to see the rest!!

Stick with enjoyment

Well it's a wonderful 72 degrees and raining here. Actually I quite like the peace and quite the rain leads to, just such a soft and gentle sound, the only thing about moving somewhere with little rainfall for the year I would really miss.

But I think it's wonderful, definitely a nice change from the heat wave we had for a while there. And it's some natural rain for the flowers, which look like they are so close to having blossoms, I'm so excited!! Plus it will serve as a nice flush for the flower bed I almost poisoned.... Yea I had a major uh-oh for a while there. See we have a bit of an ant problem and I noticed the fresh little leaves of a bunch of my plants getting munched on, so I went to the store and got some insecticide, just some simple granules to spread over the ground. Well I held off on putting them down for a while but then one day I went to move one of my pots and noticed they had decided to nest right under all my beautiful new flowers. Of course in my haste and frustration; after all I had worked so had to get the blasted things to grow I was going to let the most populous beings on the planet destroy my efforts, so I sprinkled some of the granules right under the pot, in the flower bed. The last part was a problem. It served it's purpose to kill the bugs, however, it also worked as a strong chemical, probably acid, and burned the plants. In a matter of only a couple days my plants were wilting and I had brown leaves everywhere. So out came the miracle grow and the water, fortunately after a great deal of flushing the ground I think they'll all make a reasonable recovery, the plants that is, the bugs thank goodness are still gone. We did lose a few in the process, some infants that were just coming above ground, but again thanks to the rain I have new things growing in my pots on the stairs and will soon have goodies to transplant and fill in the holes.

As a result of all this experimentation however, I think I have come to a conclusion. Next spring, possibly even as early as late winter, I will plant my seeds indoors, though not in those silly greenhouse things, that was an epic fail, and then move them outside after I'm sure it won't frost anymore.

On another note in regards to the house and the rain though, we may soon have a problem.... a leaky roof... fortunately it's not my house so I don't have to worry too much other than making sure none of my stuff in the attic is anywhere that can be damaged by the leaking water. On the other side of that, I have to say something to the landlord and I'm pretty sure he's not going to be very excited about it all. Especially since it looks like there was a patch job done recently, past couple years anyways, there is dripped through tar all over the place where the water is leaking through. So I'll send him an e-mail and see what is to be done.

Otherwise I am just going to enjoy the serenity the water offers and continue to sit here on my front porch and watch my munchkin play in her kitchen while I talk to you and then get back to reading my book.

I was going to do some laundry but yesterday Steph came up to say that the tumbler in the dryer isn't functioning properly... have to include that in the e-mail to the landlord too since it is his dryer.

Keep our fingers crossed

Another fabulous Sunday yesterday!

The gang traveled to Enchanted Forest Water Safari and had a BLAST!!! We hung out for a while in the lazy river, we went down some water slides, we watched Tori and Penny have a blast in the kiddie pool and just generally had a fabulous time. Though I have to admit one of my favorite moments was standing in the kiddie pool with Penny. She just has that beautiful chocolate color and watching people look at Matt and I with a half black baby was just too damn funny. This one lady looked at me and goes "Oh she's so beautiful! She must have gotten her color from her dad." To which I simply replied "No, her mom." and then watched the lady awkwardly smile at me and then walk away. Some people really are just too funny.

On a not so funny note though it was frightening to see all these young ladies in these teenie bikinis. All I could think of was bean and what she was going to look like as she got older and then the mom side of the brain kicked in and prayed she would be flat chested and awkward so I wouldn't have to worry about her in a bikini. Of course at the same time Matt and Tom were talking about how they have devised a plan so they can get both girls totally submerged in cars so that was they won't want to go to the water parks and be in small bathing suits.

Fortunately I have at least 8 and I'm hoping for more like 10 years before having to worry about it too much.

But all in all we had a blast and got a nice tan!

The best part was I got to have fun again this morning!

 I had my observation/second interview day today at the clinic and it was wonderful!

It felt so good to be back in a clinic and working with the animals again. Though I have to admit I was a bit confused to start. I thought I was going to be going in to work a bit and so I put scrubs on and dressed appropriately to be in a clinic and working with the animals. But when I got there they seemed to think I was more so going to just be standing in the background and watching. Little did they know I'd much rather get my hands dirty and be there holding the animals and drawing blood.

Fortunately they were very o.k. with me jumping right in so I helped restrain, watched some digital x-rays; so intrigued by the way! The digital images were SO good and just made everything so clear, the best part was the one image was just a tad too bright so Paul pushed a button and it was darker and easier to see everything! So cool!

And now I just have to wait and see what they think... **fingers crossed**

Then tomorrow we go to look at a possible daycare. The one I looked at Friday is not going to work, and we'll just leave it at that.

Well time to get to my book, the author just dumped half the characters off into a gully in their brand new custom rail car.

Holy WoW!

Wow so it is definitely hot out there. I know Detroit saw a heat index of 112F but the 109F we had here was plenty enough for me.

Fortunately we've spent the majority of the past two days indoors with the blessed air conditioner on.

As far as the tree of us are concerned though not too much going on. Munchkin is being cute as always and then daddy is working hard as always for us. Speaking of working mommy had a job interview yesterday. I actually go Monday to do a few hours on observation, see if I like the way they run their clinic and the Doctors like me so I have a bit of studying to do this weekend. Just brush up on a few details, make sure I know my goods before I go in and try to show a few new Doctors that I know my stuff. Then hopefully I'll have a job!

Then it will just be trying to figure out how to tie up the loose school ends so I can finish up and then apply for vet school. Actually I have to get the ball rolling on that stuff now seeing as applications have to be in by October. So plenty to do as always and since tomorrow is going to be another scorcher I think I'll spend the day inside and working on applications, laundry and cleaning up the kitchen. Because well of course I finally hand washed the floor again on Monday only to have the dogs go tracking mud into the house.

Hmmmm maybe I'll have to fashion a towel at the door to wipe their feet... Oh wait I have a three year old who will let them in the house anyways... Oh well, at least she's cute!

Ps. It being warm all day and night has done WONDERFUL things for my flowers! They are getting so big, I just hope they bloom soon, or at least bud!

So much fun

Well this weekend was a blast!

Saturday was relatively uneventful but Sunday! Oh my goodness we took Sunday Funday to a whole new level!

We started the day with a family breakfast, and by that I mean the whole family; Tom, Nicole, Penny, Mike, Becky, Matt, Tori, Joe and I, unfortunately Steph had to work. for whatever reason Tom called and thought it would be a good idea to go to Denny's for breakfast before we went to the farmer's market. Well then Matt decided it needed to be a much more populous event and so Mike and Becky and Joe got dragged into the process too. Kinda felt bad for Mike too because he originally said he didn't want to go and then when we told bean he wasn't going to come she started crying, so of course Matt made him listen to her cry over the phone and totally guilted him into coming.

After we had made quite the ruckus at Denny's we ventured down the road to the farmer;s market and I realized it had only just begun.

It all seemed to start out fine, but then little one realized she had LOTS of people to go bouncing between. So what did she do? Exactly that and every 30 seconds decide she wanted to walk with someone else, until she decided she was going to stick with Aunt Colie and then it just got funny. Matt went over to her to try to get her to walk with him and was quickly looked at and told
"Never daddy, I want to stay with Colie and my Penny cousin!"

I thought it was just too funny.

Then Tom saw the bouncy bounce, and the guy running it, well lets just say he made the mistake of telling Joe and Tom they could get in it after the kids were done.
Oh my goodness I have not laughed that hard in a very long time! To watch two fully grown men bounce about, especially when they were on the off bounce of each other and almost pushing each other through the roof of the silly thing, that was hilarious!

Then they convinced me to get in.

I have not had that much fun, just genuine childish fun is a really long time. It really reminded me how incredibly important it is to just let loose and have fun and feel like a kid again. You just have to remember that it's ok to have fun and laugh and pretend that you're only 8 again.

But eventually it had to come to an end and we headed home. On the flip side I believe I'm convinced that there needs to be a bouncy bounce at munchkin's birthday party. Partly for the kids, and even more so for the adults!

Then I went off for my spa treatment, which was fabulous!

Came home and the family was now in the back yard and resuming the good times. Not to mention it was CRAZY hot so I stopped at wal-mart on the way home and got a new pool for the munchkin, got her one with a slide, and she was too damn cute. It of course finally got cool and she was blue, I mean lips were straight up blue, standing there shivering but insisting that she was still going to play in the pool. So what does daddy say, I'll heat it up for you baby. And out came the grill and a pot. He actually started trying to heat pots of water on the grill to put hot water in the pool.

Lets just say that didn't last long, and the alternative was even more obscure and involved a torch.

Fortunately by then we had convinced the kid to go take a hot shower and head to bed.

But an awesome weekend none the less!

I feel so bad but it was so funny

Yesterday I have to admit I laughed at my own kid. It was just too funny though.

We were on our way out of the mall and she was running toward the door. I told her she just had to wait a minute so I could get my stuff out of the cart but she kept running. Now the doors at the mall have nice large glass windows on either side of the doors. Some of you may be able to see where this is going. So the munchkin is running and I keep thinking well she is going to run up and slap her hands on the window, nope, she ran straight into the window, forehead first. I couldn't help it, it took everything in me not to burst out laughing, and I did squeak out a few snickers because I just couldn't hold it in.

It was one of those moments where you wish you had a video camera recording at all times because that was probably a $10,000 video. But alas it was only my eyes that saw it but I had to share because well it was just too damn funny not to.

Otherwise not too much to report. I thought about maybe putting up a little of my other writing, I do write some  poems and things every once in a while but then I remembered most of that was on my other computer... and then didn't feel so much like writing more.

Almost a week

Well as the title indicates it's been almost a week since our last check in.

A multitude of reasons behind that; just didn't feel like it, didn't have time, etc. But none of those are particularly important.

What is important on the other hand is that it is July and the sun has given me a nice tan today and there has been progress in the garden. Though I do have to admit if I don't start tanning the front side of me people may start to look at me funny and ask questions. I definitely have gardener's tan. My entire back and my shoulders are all nicely colored, but then you get to my legs and my front side, well lets just say I'm still white. So I think tomorrow, after a few errands in the morning, I'll get my book and relax and tan my front side. My legs could use some help too, sitting on them most of the time while weeding or digging has resulted in them staying pretty pasty too.

On that note I have to say I love that I have found this interest in my garden, I just wish I didn't have so many dangerous plants. They're not dangerous in the sense that they're poisonous or anything like that, but more than half the bushes in my yard have thorns. There are a few in particular, my neighbor calls them fire bushes; really little round leaves, dense branches, they grow green and then turn this beautiful red and almost purple. But damn do the multitude of thorns that they grow HURT! I mean I don't want to be out working in long sleeves simply because I'd probably pass out from heat exhaustion, but my arms do not appreciate getting torn up the majority of the afternoon. And actually the thorns cutting my arms open I can deal with, but when I would occasionally catch one across my stomach as I was trying to cut the monstrosities from the fence, OWWWWWW! So I guess it's a bit of a catch 22 because if I don't cover the skin then it hurts but then if I do cover it and then it gets caught in my shirt that hurts just as much.

Anyways I got all the bushes shaped up fairly well, some look a bit sad, I cut a lot of dead crap out hoping it would spark new growth, and I'm still coaxing the rose bushes into hanging around, so maybe by the end of summer I'll finally have a respectable garden.

Speaking of respectable things to look at I was so proud for a bit thinking this plant that was coming up by the house was this super neat pink tuft thing, it now has huge leaves with thick stalks and when i chased the stalks to the ground what did I find? Why the root structure I thought for sure I had killed since I hacked it all up in the process of digging out that spot. so now I have this plant, more than likely a weed, though that term is so relative, and if it flowers I wont consider it a weed, if it doesn't, it's a weed and it's gone. and this time I'll be sure to actually take the root structure out of the ground.

Fortunately my potted plants are all doing well so I will have things to transplant, may do that tomorrow before I sun bathe.

Oh and for all of you who are wondering, Where was the little one through this weeding and gardening day? Well as soon as I turned the hose on she was a happy as a kid in a candy store. Gotta love being a kid and amused by being able to get yourself soaking wet.

The really funny part, when she would turn the hose on the dog! Guinness would run, then come back and stand just far enough away and bark at her, then start running in circles. Tori would then fill the bucket we have outside for them to drink out of and as soon as Guinness got close enough, SPLASH! to the side of her head. Lucky for her I always turn the hose to the mist setting before I give it to bean to play with.

Feelin Like it's Working

Well I have to admit it really does feel wonderful to know that people are reading and commenting, though I would love if you would leave a name. when you go to comment you can actually put in a name, when you open the drop down list and where it says Name/URL you can enter in your name.

Anyways, another hot one today, I think we're going to sped a good portion of the early afternoon inside and then maybe outside a bit later as it starts to cool off. May even let the little one play in the water. She has figured out how to squeeze the hose handle, and found it absolutely hilarious to chase mommy around with the hose. Now she used to have a blow up kiddie pool that we could fill up but unfortunately one of the dogs put a hole in it so maybe our day today will have to incorporate going to the store to get one of the harder plastic ones they can't poke a hole in.

And I think Ive officially decided I don't have the motivation to truly overhaul the front yard so I'm going to clean out under the bushes and then get one of those roll out gardens. A pretty ingenious idea if you ask me. A roll of biodegradable mesh filled with flower seeds and a bit of soil and fertilizer, all you have to do is rough up the ground and roll it out and viola, you have flowers in the garden. Now I just hope it's not too late in the season. Speaking of flowers I have to start thinking about transplanting some of my potted flowers since they are getting a little stifled in their pots.

Well between garden work and some laundry, since Matt has no clean jeans I guess I have real work to do now.

What a munchkin

Sometimes she is just down right hilarious. Others a little less so. Today as I was trying to clean up the house I felt so bad because she wanted so badly to help but the are two issues to that assistance; one, the chemical component, two, the fact that she usually ends up making more of a mess. So I try to find other ways in which she can help. For example in folding or putting away the laundry she is handed her underwear which she can simply put in a drawer. Otherwise we end up with a massive pile of clothes in her "dresser" and then I have to refold them all. Or when unloading the dishwasher she can pull out her utensils and put those away and when we get to the top shelf she reaches to hand me the cups that I then put away in the cabinet. In the first attempt with her assistance she came walking at me with a meat knife, now she can only pick up her utensils. Today it was cleaning up the laundry and then cleaning up the toilet. Both of which posed new challenges. With the laundry it was getting her to discern between clean and dirty. She had a pile of clothes that I had put on her couch to put away and while I admit it was partly my fault for no putting them away before asking her to clean her room, she proceeded to say "But mommy there's too many clothes for my elephant." her hamper looks like an elephant. So after figuring out the laundry issue in her room I decided it would be best to have her just clean up her room in general.

Now usually this is a relatively simple task for her but in this case more than half the contents of her room was scattered about her floor. The result was a stash of dress up dresses under her picnic table, a bed full of blankets and stuffed animals; ok at least she was close there, and her toy box well the shelf had some of her movies and a few pairs of shoes, but only two books which is what the self is meant for. Now inside the box, more shoes, her toys of course and then we found several socks, some more shoes, a sweater, several stuffed animals, her crayon box, her empty crayon box. so mommy decided the toy box needed a bit of an overhaul. We didn't entirely empty the box but we did get the majority of animals back into the animal hammock, books on the shelf and shoes in the shoe basket but when it came to searching the bottom for the crayons, that got interesting.

She insisted that she had dumped them all on the front porch so I told her to go get them, her response "No mommy my crayons are in my toy box and you have to find them so I can color a picture. Oh look there is my picture mommy!" She climbs over me to grab a piece of paper and then continues on about a ten minute rant about coloring and making pictures with an end of "Oh no mommy I have no more stickers to make my pictures pretty." 

After getting the rest of the toy box situation under control I wanted to get the toilet cleaned before we headed out to take bottles back and possibly head over to Ema's. she wanted to help clean the toilet. But I already hate cleaning the toilet and really didn't want her anywhere near the bleach concoction that is lysol bathroom cleaner. So I try to usher her off only to have her come running around the corner "Mommy I have to clean my toilet so I don't have poop on my butt because I went poop already and you have to clean the pee." One of the most jumbles sentences I've ever heard from her but I couldn't help but laugh and then was sorely disappointed in my move to inhale the fumes.

Fortunately we were done at that point and the task was to get the bottles in the truck and then go to Ema's. Little one and I took a vote though and decided we would rather go to Ema's than take  bottles back and it was a good thing we did too as Poppy (Matt's dad) was at Ema's and bean hasn't seen Poppy is quite a while. She had a blast with Poppy and Ema for a while and then the storms started to roll in and it was off to home.

She never fails to amaze me with her little attitude and personality and I'm sure she will always continue to impress me with the variety of things she says and does, and the fact that she does them almost every day.

My pups

She was just looking so cute I had to share

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Quite the weekend

We had quite the busy weekend, and now a lazy holiday! :-) Friday was great Matt had gone into work early so he was home early and we were all able to sit down and have family dinner. Though we only barely had dinner since tiny is back on her I'm going to pick like a bird kick and Matt wasn't too terribly hungry.

Saturday on the other hand was... well it was an interesting day to say the least.
We have been talking since we bought the gazebo about possibly building a deck or something underneath it. It would sever a few purposes if we did actually. One it would get it up off the ground so that when it rains the bottom of it doesn't get totally covered in dirt. Two, getting it up would make the dogs a little less likely to go charging through it when they play. I swear they have little to no reverence for their own health or safety. Guinness and Feeny were chasing each other the other day for possession of the ball and one of them, *SMACK*, head or hip or some major part of their body slammed straight into the corner panels. But of course they just keep running with no recognition of the hit. So lifting it would hopefully make them a little less likely the bash into it. And third if were were to build it up on some sort of deck it would allow us to have something other that dirt to walk on. The only downside to this plan would be how exactly to place said deck in the yard.
We don't want to put up something permanent since we don't own the place but of course we need it to be sturdy. Then the idea became well we'll just dig a few post holes and have it be a removable platform. This method would also serve well for winter, this would allow it to be easily removed since that spot in the yard is really the only place to put any accumulation of snow. Then the problem arose of how do we accommodate for the yard being so crooked? we didn't want to make it exceptionally tall but in order to give it clearance on all sides, one side would be about a 8in. step from the yard.
The solution, Matt says he'll level the yard.

Now I had my apprehensions to start. I knew it would be a substantial undertaking but figured well we do have a three day weekend to do it, plus it will get me motivated to go work in the garden again and get this huge vining rose plant moved and maybe some more flowers planted. So Saturday morning wee got up, had breakfast and headed off to home depot.

We pick up a wheelbarrow, a tamp; a tool by the way I had never heard of until Matt mentioned he would need one, and a longer handled shovel. Now at this point I was beginning to question the undertaking, realizing exactly how much dirt was going to have to be removed and the time, it was now almost 1:30pm. But we went at it anyways. I started digging at the rose bush, needed some help when I got to the roots as they had grown around a piece of the rebar used to hold the fence in place. So they got chopped up and transplanted to one of the major holes in the bush line down the fence. We'll see if they make it. Then of course I had a spot to fill and our neighbor had gotten a huge collection of day lilies from her sister, had used what she wanted and then gave me the rest so we hacked that into a couple pieces and again we'll have to see if they take. Rose said they may not look great the rest of this summer but that next spring they should come back really nicely after they've had a chance to set new roots. As far as the rest of the leveling, well he got a lot done but just ran out of steam and daylight to finish so that will have to be finished up next weekend, thankfully it's only four days away!! Plus super excitement! I have a wonderful friend ;-) who is sending me Country fest tickets!! So I will finally be going to the first real concert of my adult life. Yea I know that sounds a bit sad but it was just never really my thing. Went to a few ammature gigs in high school and as a member of band a chorale I was in a number of performances but the concert scene just never really appealed to me. Not sure if it is something we can bring the munchkin to though so we'll see about that part of the plan.

Then to cap off the weekend we went to a wedding last night and had a blast!!! My first Jewish wedding and let me just say do they know how to have a good time! The ceremony was beautiful and the Rabi was great and translated a lot of the Hebrew marital contract that was recited by both parties. Then there was a series of blessings, some recited, some sung, again translated and then the traditional breaking of the glass; which until I read in the program had no idea what it was really for. Then went to the country club for a fabulous cocktail hour with lots of cheese, fruit, crackers and fresh carved turkey and corned beef. Then we came to the  open bar, it was all over from there on out. We were eventually moved into the ballroom and of course the traditional couple's first dance, the dances with the parents all that fun stuff. There was a cute little slide show and had to laugh when Matt's tenth grade self came across the screen. Great dinner and just a continued wonderful time all night, then bonus, with it being so close to the 4th there were fireworks. So everyone went out to the balcony and we toasted and watched the fireworks. It was truly a wonderful evening and of course the bride and groom looked fabulous and we wish them all the best in this next stage of life!

And little one stayed home with the aunt and uncle and form what I was told had a relatively quiet night, the occasional hiccup but of course to be expected from the monster at this point.

Now we've had a lazy day watching cartoons, eating and a bit of cleaning before possibly finding somewhere that we can take bean to to see some fireworks this evening.

Nifty!

Gotta love the world of technology sometimes. I have finally found a way to upload some pictues for the blog. And I have to admit it is definately the easiest method for me. Simply an application on the smartphone, yay!!

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So happy!

I got the sweetest card in the mail today and I am so excited now because of it!

Background real quick...

Christmas Eve 2009 Matt finally proposed to me and I was so excited! i was so happy we had finally made that level of commitment to our relationship;not that having a baby together wasn't significant commitment but proposal for marriage is different. All my friends were excited, all our friends were excited and I thought this would be so much fun to plan a wedding and have a great time putting ideas together with friends and family.

Unfortunately, my family was a great deal less than enthusiastic. Now I will grant you that in my head I had a bit of a movie scene reaction expected, so I had probably set my expectations too high, but if you don't shoot for the stars then you'll never potentially be able to reach them right? Then some time after that we had a few hiccups, but realistically what couple doesn't? At which point a number of people in my family felt it necessary to point out to me that my relationship wasn't the type that should be continuing on into marriage; and while no I don't believe any spoke those exact words, some with similar concept were uttered.

Now I had mixed feelings, wasn't quite sure how I felt, I loved my other half but I was devastated at the fact that my family was continuing on this path of we don't like him and regardless of whether or not you're happy we're not going to like the situation. Then the only solace I found in my situation was that after the fog cleared my darling and I had determined that we really were meant for each other. And that like any normal two adult couple where both people happen to be strongly opinionated, and even more strong willed, we were bound to have arguments, disagreement and times where we really wanted to rip each other apart. But on the plus, any couple that thinks they can get along through life, specifically marriage, without ever having an argument, disagreement, spat, pick a descriptor, was delusional and we live in the real world where schmit; as others have appropriately termed it for reading etiquette, happens.

After that the majority of my focus was turned to school and trying to finish up my degree so I really didn't do too much thinking and or attempting to plan for the wedding. In fact up until a few months ago we really hadn't even come to an agreement as to when we wanted to have the wedding; though the majority of that was due to trying to figure out when and how we are going to pay for it.

Back to a bit more present...

Now that I am out of school I have had the time to start looking into possible venues, methods, decor, dresses, cakes, the whole enchilada! But every time I got some really great ideas I kept coming back to, wow no one in my family has shown even the remotest bit of interest or excitement per the wedding. Matt's had mentioned possibly having the wedding at their house, which Matt instantly said no, he wants more than just the back yard wedding. So I started looking into places where we could have the sunrise wedding with the wonder breakfast buffet like we want. Now the only hard part has been again trying to figure out the logistics. How many people are going to come? Where is it going to be? Where will the reception be? And the questions are seemingly endless. But there is always one question that for the bride to be is a particular one, what is my dress going to be like?

Now I have some ideas and I've seen some things in galleries and on TV but in the same I'm not a person who likes to spend a whole ton of money on something that isn't going to get much use. So the idea of buying a wedding dress was well I'll find one I like but I really don't want to spend a lot. Then it was well, who is actually going to go shopping with me? But thanks to today, both problems are solved and there is an added bonus that I get to have a family member who wants to be involved!n As I mentioned before I got a card in the mail today, it was from my grandmother. She has circled the date that Matt and I picked for the wedding and mentioned that when my aunt got married that my great grandmother bought her wedding dress, so she would like to do the same for me. I'm so happy and so excited that she wants to be a part of the dress process. So now in the next six to eight months I am going to take a trip to see her and she and I, maybe an aunt or two or even three, possibly even my cousins can all go out and go dress shopping!! I'm so excited and now full re-motivated to trying to work out the rest of the details and get ready to have a fabulous wedding in 2012!

The never ending questions

So as we all know there are a few things in life that are the seemingly never ending questions. For example, when will the laundry be done? when will the computer stop shutting down in the middle of trying to write? when will my e-mail stop getting flooded with spam? and most importantly, when will she stop being so cute? The funny thing about all those questions, they all have a common answer, never. Ok well maybe I could find the appropriate setting to adjust so my computer would stop trying to shut down randomly but otherwise, never.

Now there are times where I am ecstatic that she will never stop being cute, but there are times where it's less cute and a little more concerning. This afternoon, while adorable that she wanted so badly to play with the dogs. Chasing them about the house and trying to play with them, in the same she wouldn't stop trying to grab their tails as they ran away. Thankfully we did a great deal of training with them as soon as we found out we were pregnant so they don't really pay any mind to it. However, Guinness will get fed up with it after a bit and then she starts running and barking and in our little apartment, it gets quite loud quite fast. Then after she was done chasing them she decided she needed to nap with them. Well as of late Guinness has picked the bathroom floor; more than likely because it's the coolest surface for her to lay on, also possibly because it's usually the last place bean will go, today was a different story though and she absolutely insisted on sleeping on the bathroom floor with the dog. Again very cute, but a bit disturbing. I try to keep my house clean, as I have mentioned before, but all in the same I personally just really didn't want her laying on the bathroom floor. So I asked her to go lay in the living room and she responded,

"But mommy I have to lay her with Guinness because we're tired and we need to take a nap."

After which she started fake snoring and proceeded with "See mommy we're sleeping so just leave us alone."

I mean come one how much cuter can she get?!

On the flip side we made some brownies today and of course had to have some after we had our lunch. The only downside, she wanted more. And when she didn't get it, WOW, you would have thought I had given birth to the devils child almost three years ago. She ran to the living room, dropped to the floor and started full out toddler temper tantrum on the floor; kicking, screaming, fake crying, the whole nine!

Again not quite so cute but it was another one of those, no these are never going to end. The kicking and screaming and carrying on may but to be sure she will always be very adamant about getting her way. And to be honest I hope she always stays that cute.

As she grows

It really is amazing to me sometimes how much my little one has grown. I still can barely believe she is going to be three in just two months. Today we officially hit another milestone though. She has her first, well at least the first I know about, imaginary friend. A little cat that stays in the palm of her hand named Little One. she was too cute about the whole thing too. She was in the shower, well getting out of it and she had her hand closed so tight she had white knuckles. I didn't pay it any mind at first but when we got to her bedroom and tried to get her dressed and she still refused to open her hand I asked her why.

"Because Little one is in there mommy, I have to keep her covered."

"She can't come out for just a minute?"

"No she's very sad mommy, and she's very shy of you."

"Well why is she so sad baby?"

"Because her mommy went to work and she hasn't come back, but not you mommy you're here and so that makes her feel better."

So thinking that maybe it was a manifestation of her anxiety about Matt being gone at work a lot I assured her that daddy will always come home from work to see her.

"Well that's good mommy because I love daddy and Little one will miss him if he doesn't come home."

And then she went about her business getting dressed and cleaning up her room. It was just too adorable. After a few minutes she came out to the kitchen as I was coming out of the bathroom and proceeded to announce to me "Mommy! she's not shy anymore and she wants to see you." upon which she opened her hand, I reached down and pet the pretend cat in her palm and she simply giggled and ran off to the living room to play.

I know there are some people out there who think that the imaginary friends are dangerous happening because they let the child believe that they don't have to talk to real people. I however believe they are a wonderful tool in child development. After all when is the last time you remember sitting there and having a conversation with your imaginary friend. I remember I used to work out all kids of issues with mine. Being upset about moving or having to go to a new school, something my friends had done that hurt my feelings, etc. but regardless he/she was always a good thing.

Not to mention the other good things it means about development. Now I know she can use her imagination the play and do other young child activities. She has that creative mind that will most definitely come in handy in life. And above all it just shows a developmental milestone and I couldn't be more proud of my little girl. Though as I said before I still can't believe how fast she is getting so big.

By the way total side note, THANK GOODNESS FOR AUTO SAVE!! I was in the midst of writing, actually almost done all I hadn't written was the last little paragraph there and all the sudden my computer decided it was a good time to shut down and install updates. But thankfully the blog had auto saved so I didn't lose everything.

What a day!!

Very productive day today! It makes you feel so good, getting tasks done, and working on projects. Makes you feel so good. Today I got the bookcase repainted, re-arranged the living-room, re-arranged the kitchen and got the living-room and kitchen super clean.
The only thing I didn't do that I wish I had was hand wash the kitchen floor. On the other hand I moved furniture, vacuumed places that haven't seen a vacuum in too long. It's funny really. I like to think that I keep my house pretty clean. I mean it may be a bit cluttered at times with all the munchkin toys all over the place or the laundry; I really hate doing laundry, it seems like a never ending to do. But otherwise it's clean. However, when you move furniture and appliances around and then see dirt and hair balls and who only knows what else hidden away, you start to feel like the place really isn't that clean.
Now I move the fridge, not all the way but I always rotate it out at least once a month to suck up the plethora of hair that collects behind it, but today, oh my goodness! There was soo much hair under it!! Then I got really ambitious and decided to swap the handles on the fridge. WOW!! Way more of an undertaking that I planned. The only relief about it was as bean was watching me get increasingly more frustrated about the whole project she turns to me and says "Mommy you can do it, you just have to fix it a little bit harder." At which point I had to just drop the ratchet and laugh for a minute.
She really was trying to help but there are definitely times where she needed to go do her own thing.
That however was the dangerous part of the day. We had a small shelf that we were using as a supplement for the fact that we have little to no cabinet space in which to put food. The only awkward part was it was actually a neat little shelf that our previous neighbors had their kids put their hand prints all over; very cute but a little weird since they weren't bean's hands. So today I finally decided it should be re-painted.
I had bought two cans of black spray paint when I bought all the stuff to build the fence; don't ask me why I bought two but on the  plus side they were only $0.98 so no big deal that I had way too much. and so I figured extra paint and a shelf that needs painting, good deal. The downside, I didn't have enough. So I thought for a min, and remembered there was some spray paint in the basement, so I went to investigate. Tori of course had to follow and we found a gold, green and more black, yay! Now the only issue, she wanted to paint. So I thought 'ok well we can get creative with it and she can paint it and we can custom decorate it.' Again the downside, aside from letting her handle the spray paint cans the only paint she has is either water colors or washable finger paint. so I thought well we'll just re-do the hands, I can trace hers and then spray paint a soft outline of them. However, it was a miserable fail. I ended up totally covering my hand in gold spray paint and just big runny blobs on the shelves. So we touched it up with black and then decided to use the gold to spray nice light highlights across the whole thing. Personally I thin it came out great, little one " Uh oh mommy, you made a mess. I guess you have to paint it again." I almost peed my pants laughing so hard.
as an end result we have a self that actually almost looks like wood if you ask me and I have my living room re-done, my kitchen re-set and for tomorrow.... the front porch and tiny's bedroom, maybe mine too we'll see how motivated I am...

At weeks end

So after much deliberation and a great deal of input I have come to the conclusion that I have used entirely too much energy concerning someone who has no regard for compassion. I have given a lot of thought to the whole thing, really contemplated how I feel about friends and good people vs. bad people and to be honest it all came down to one little statement. "Mommy you're the best for loving me."
I realized that it doesn't really matter what people chose to do in their lives all of us are going to make mistakes. Offenses have been made against me, people have hurt my feeling and I know that I have hurt others at various points in my life. But above all I still knew who I truly loved and who really loved me.

There are people in our lives who will test us, but it's not those tests but rather what we learn form those test that it important. And yes I know that sound ridiculously cliche but it's true. I have learned that it doesn't really matter who people are or what they do, at some point they will hurt you, no one in this life is going to avoid it. Now I know you are probably all sitting there saying to yourselves 'oh come on, don't be so cynical about it, there are good people out there.' And I'm not disagreeing with that and I do believe that there are, but in one way or another they will. Whether it is a friend who steals from you, family that doesn't call for your birthday, a teacher that cheats you out of a grade that you felt you deserved, a job that fires you, and the list goes on. But it's bound to happen and the sooner we can accept it the sooner we have that energy to move on with and dedicate to the people and tasks in life that deserve it.

On a happier note my little one is too freaking cute! We went over to Ema's today and brought over some toys for bean to play with, she starts building a castle in the kitchen but then I think realized she had only brought the single post legos; well mega blocks but same difference, and so she stacked them all on top of one another. So she gets it all assembled, brings it to the table and says "Ema look at your castle! I made it for you because I love you!" All with this exceptionally high pitched excited tone. so Ema tells her it looks more like a tower, to which she answers "No Ema a made you a cute tower because I love you!" Which was much more of a scream. Almost as though she had to clarify, and they expression on her face was too funny. She had this face of determination like she was going to make us understand no matter what. She proceeded to take the tower, knock it down and then say that she was going to color instead because she wanted to draw mommy and daddy and "bear moosing and my Guinness dog." Of course Ema looks at me trying to understand the 'bear moosing' and when I tried to explain it I was corrected by little one, "No mommy she is my bear moosing because she is my Honey bear and she is my moosing so she is my bear moosing." With hands on her hips and head cocked. At which point I could help but laugh and just love that little kid.
So once again I saw light in people and the fact that there are people in the world who deserve my energy, time and attention, and there are those who don't. Now it's just time to weed out the mess and love the right people.

Lazy Day

Today I have decided is going to be a lazy day. It's rainy and miserable outside; though the rain is doing wonders for my garden. But everyone is a little stir crazy from being couped up the past couple days; the dogs especially. So we're going to keep it low key, watch some movies, read some books, maybe paint/color some pictures this afternoon.
It's funny really how crazy we all get. We spend the majority of the winter indoors and it's no big deal. But then summer comes around and we spend as much time as possible outdoors, soaking up the sun, exercising, and in general just trying to be outside that when we get to a stretch of a couple days where we have to be inside, everyone goes a little nutty. The munchkins start bouncing off the walls, the dogs won't stop trying to wrestle the adults get a little wiggy with all the noise indoors. We all lose it just a bit. Then the next day the sun comes out and everyone is forced outdoors where the kids can be as loud as they want, mom can get somethings done around the house without everyone in the way.
On the plus side, school is officially out so Autumn and Amanda can come over during the day and the girls can play, expel loads of energy in the back yard. And with the "fence" across the driveway now the dogs can come out and we don't have to worry about anyone going to far down the driveway to the road. It's not really a true fence like what is around the rest of the yard, it's technically a rabbit fence for the garden but it's easy to move with it only being held in place by a few wooden stakes, but it's also enough to keep the dogs and children in the yard which is perfect!

So I have a dilemma I was up contemplating most of the night that I could use some objective opinions on. We are about 99% sure we know who it was that robbed us the beginning of May, but there was nothing the Police could do without some reason for him to do it. A fight we had gotten into or something like that, or until the fingerprints come back. But last night I got some information that he was in the hospital, apparently he was admitted for alcohol poisoning. Now he used to be a good friend of ours so there is a part of me that wants to go see him and make sure he is ok, on the other hand there is a part of me that says he seriously betrayed my trust and friendship so does he really deserve my kindness. I don't know and I still can't come up with an answer. I guess I'll just have to ponder a bit longer.

What to do

So I did it again. Went all weekend without posting. Oh well.
Anyways not too much to say as of late. Sunday as you all know was father's day so we had a nice day. Matt was pretty hungover, and actually still pretty drunk from Dan's bachelor party Saturday night. Tom and Nicole came over with little miss Penny, LOVE HER! and we had a nice dinner. I went to the meat market and I have to say of all the things to buy in bulk in order to save money, meat is number one on the list. The meat market up the street from us is great about that. You can buy a whole fillet or a whole NY strip and pay half or less and then they'll cut it to what ever size you want. The only downside was Colie picked up some nice corn on the cob and we decided to keep the house as cool as possible so we cooked everything on the grill, my silly self forgot to put the corn on first so the steaks got a little over done. I could have taken them off and just let the corn finish but I was afraid they would get cold and well there is nothing worse that cold beef. But it was still a nice dinner. NY Strip, corn on the cob, some smashed red potatoes, and a salad. Good stuff. Nicole made a super awesome desert too! She got some really great fresh strawberries from the farmer's market Sunday morning and then I picked up some vanilla pudding and or course there was whipped cream! Bean thought the whipped cream was the best part of course, though she got it as a bit of a treat in general since she slept through dinner.
She hasn't been doing so well with the whole napping plan since she's been home. Which I take most of the responsibility for. Since Matt doesn't get up until 10ish we don't generally go to bed before midnight, of course the little one is usually in bed way before then; sometimes not by much but I try for at latest 10pm. So our schedule is a little wacky, which during the week is fine but then on the weekend when we try to have dinner as a family at a slightly more reasonable hour it has a tendency to bite me. But I figure as long as the schedule works for all of us who cares. Besides if she were still getting up at her school usual of 6:30-7am that would mean I would be awake entirely too early ;-)
Though we may have to get back to a schedule more like that, or at least I will. I have to find a job of some sort. Even if it's just up at Stewart's up the street in the morning. Something to bring a little extra cash into the house. I did put resumes out a little over a week ago, that's on my to do list for this afternoon is to do some follow up calls and see if anyone is willing to let me come in for an interview. thank goodness I don't have to worry about interview clothes thanks to my Aunt Julie. she sent me five boxes full of clothes a couple months ago. Actually it reminds me that I still have some things I went through in the attic that I need to take over to goodwill. Maybe that will be the plan for tomorrow. Go through some more clothes and take things to goodwill. I have a bunch of Tori's stuff that I'm not quite sure what to do with either. I  mean I'd like to hold on to it for child number two in the event it's a girl but in the same I don't know that I want to hold on to that stuff that much longer. And some of it I could clean up and give to Tome and Cole for my little Penelope but in the same I know they don't have a ton of storage space either so I don't want to clutter up their apartment.
Speaking of clutter, how exactly does one go through the clutter? For example I have boxes and boxes of stuff, just stuff, in the attic that really NEEDS to be gone through but in the same I constantly find myself saying "Oh yea I still have one of those, it's upstairs." So I go upstairs and rummage through some things and voila! there its is. So is it really safe to go through all those boxes of stuff also, I have quite a lot in the way of papers; important papers, bills, receipts, things of that nature. What do I do with all that. I mean none of it is truly relevant right now but in the same what happens in six months from now when I go up there to look for something only to realize I threw it out. That would make me SOOOO mad.
I guess what I really need to do is just down size. Anything more than, whats the audit line 7 years, so anything older than that can get tossed. Plus I know there are papers from school and crap like that that can get tossed. Maybe that will be my project while this weekend while Matt finishes up the Jeep, or the rear brakes on my car, or the brakes on Joe's car.... and the list of his car projects goes onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.... I think you get my drift.
Ok so plan for the rest of the week...

1. Resume call backs
2. Sort through clothes and take not fitting/never going to fit again stuff to goodwill
3. Go through boxes of papers and toss anything older than 7 years, or crap I know I won't need again
4. Go through the toys and other stuff in the attic, sort out what's what and toss the non needed; or donate/give away whatever I don't want
5. Local job applications...

And I'm sure I'll come up with more, not to mention all the general cleaning/laundry etc. that needs to be done around the house on a daily basis.
Well I guess I have my work cut out for me then.

TGIF

Not a terribly strenuous week but I still feel as though it was plenty busy. Today we're going for a change of pace. It's 12:23pm and I have dishes done, the air purifier cell is soaking and there is laundry running. That is pretty much all my plans for the day. Now the munchkin and I are outside, I'm sitting in the gazebo talking to all of you and Tori is riding her bike. Not exactly the most beautiful day for the afore mentioned activities as it's overcast and according to weatherchannel.com it's 70 degrees. But we're comfortable and from here I can easily run downstairs and put more laundry in, the dogs can be outside; though Honey doesn't seem to thrilled because Guinness just wants to play with her but that primarily just means getting chased and chewed on, and well we might get a bit of rain and I would love to sit out here and listen to the rain.
Side note Bean just brought me a dandelion, then said 'oh wait no I need that, I need to go put gas in it." left, rode up and down the driveway, came back with the flower, "here mommy now it has gas for you." Where do they come up with stuff like that?
I love the imagination though. I remember when Hannah and Laura and Traci used to come over and we would pretend we were mermaids trapped in the pool over the evil sorcerer and we would dive to the bottom to try to see if we could escape through the drain. Or when I still lived in MD and Athena and I would be in the back yard, particularly after the basement caved in and we would take the clay and make little figurines. My mom still had one of them for the longest time, definitely gone by now though.
I think that may be one additional task for the day, getting bean to paint some new pictures, maybe even get creative with some paper scraps and glue, maybe add in a little glitter. I guess we'll have to see where the day takes us.

Excitement!!

So I just had to let you all know that my plants, grass included are finally sprouting!!! I'm actually very proud of myself if I have to say so. I'm glad that I finally got something to grow and even more excited that my lawn may finally stop looking like a sad excuse for, well I can't even come up with an analogy that adequately describes the situation.
Tori agreed it was exciting too but then told me I had to go to time out because I wasn't careful. I was watering some of my potted plants and two of the pots I bought are really meant to be inside so they have no hole in the bottom and I got the one a little too full of water so I went to try to pour some of it out and instead ended up pouring half the container into another pot. She responded "Oh no mommy you dumped it!" I told yes that i accidentally dumped it and she responded with, "well you have to be careful or you're going to have to go upstairs mommy." I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be concerned that my daughter was trying to put me in time out.
I decided laugh was the best option. She proceeded to do her now customary "no mom, that's not funny" which just makes me laugh more and then I explain that yes I do have to be more careful and that's why we have to pay attention no matter what we're doing.
At this point she walked away and started riding her bike again. Oh well so much for the afternoon lesson. Regardless, my plants are growing!! and I'm excited!!!

Killing time

So I tried to tell myself that I would be really good and post at least every other day if I couldn't do it every day, but obviously that hasn't worked out so well thus far. But in the same you have to have new things to write about right? Otherwise its just the random babble that goes on in my head, and I'm not sure that anyone other than myself is really interested in hearing all that.
Anyways, so the past two days have been mostly bopping around the mall days. I wanted to get out of the house and it's been pretty miserable weather wise here so Tori has been couped up with entirely too much energy. So we went over to Colonie Center on Tuesday, poked around, tried to come up with something for Matt for father's day; only to come up mostly empty handed. It didn't help of course that he wasn't giving me any ideas. Instead we'll have a nice dinner with friends and our munchkins.
Today we finally got to get back outside though. Yesterday we could have spent some time outside, and we did later in the afternoon. Wen went over the Amanda and Autumn's house for dinner and the girls played in the side yard while Amanda and I sat and had a glass of wine. That venture all in its own was probably the most entertaining part of the past two days. We load up in the Honda to go get a bottle of wine to go with dinner, and Amanda drives a Chevrolet Cavalier so nice little four cylinder, gets them around just fine, and Autumn thought my car was the fastest thing in the world! Those girls were too funny! I would pull away from a light or stop sign, and nothing special, but because they're in the back seat so there was full wind with the windows down and the exhaust on the car being loud they thought we were going SUPER FAST! And that was exactly what they kept squealing in between giggling and screeching in excitement. Amanda and I were laughing so hard. They thought it was just the greatest thing. Now of course Tori has been in the car a million times and so it was technically nothing new for her, but to have Autumn there and so excited you would have thought we put the two of them on a roller coaster. Then we got back to Amanda's and the girls are playing in the yard while we waited to start cooking dinner and they're trying to play tag. Well more so Autumn kept tagging Tori. she wasn't quite catching on to the concept yet. I foresee in the future for this afternoon however lots of bike riding and mommy reading the new book she got last week.
Should be an interesting one, North and South, all about a young man who comes to live in the colonies and then gets wrapped up in the civil war. I'll let you know how it goes. Oh and I found another great pattern for a cute shell bag that I want to crochet too.

And to start another week

So I technically never finished describing how crazy the bean was but lucky for us all it continued into yesterday! Oh yay!! It was one of those few time where I have wondered where the mute, or pause, or even just a slow motion button was on the child remote control. Don't get me wrong she was as cute as a button, but she just wouldn't stop. It was like somebody pulled the rip chord with a full tank and decided to just let it run A..L..L D..A..Y! First she would start with hollering at the dogs for being in the flowers, which while I appreciated because no I don't want them in there, was also not just a holler but rather an ear piercing screech that made you momentarily dizzy. Then she would go off and play with her bike for a few minutes only to then be mad because Guinness refused to chase her. Of course followed by then chasing the dog around the yard wondering why she kept running away. All of which would normally be fine since they both definitely need the exercise, however, with the men in the yard trying to assemble the gazebo and me on the porch trying to give them directions, it was a bit too much noise. Then on Saturday we added the rain into the mix and now wet dogs, wet child; because she refused to keep the rain coat on and grumpy men because they were getting wet and it got interesting. So yesterday, not quite as bad since the gazebo was now up and we could just relax in it. On the flip side, still cold and drizzel-ish for the majority of the day. Of course Tori just kept asking to go inside and watch a movie, to which I told her no she had too much energy to be inside. Then provoking the temper tantrum!

She really has gotten entirely too good at them and it makes me wish those were one of those things they video taped; got you all riled up then had you sit and watch the tape while some annoying sound was in the background, or while your husband shouted directions from the lawn, something to keep the frustration going so you could truly experience a good one as an adult. I mean it's one thing to sit and watch a kid on a "reality" show throw a fit and watch the "Supper Nanny" or someone come in and say, "Now all you need to do is add a bit more structure to the child's life and this won't happen." FYI for all you non parents, not the way it works. In the heat of the moment you have screaming child in front of you, probably doing the one thing you have told him/her not to do a million times; our case, playing with the door, and then more screaming. You try the "goose-fra-ba" the breathe in and count to ten while you exhale and you're getting to a calmer state when all the sudden WHAM, something or someone has hit the floor. Now there is either more screaming, some added crying or the moment of silence before the wail because your child is trying to take in enough air they can actually make that much more noise. Oh, and don't forget the dogs pacing around your feet because they hate to hear the baby cry, or the husband outside the house wanting to know where a particular wrench is.

"I HAVE NO *&$^ING CLUE, CHECK YOUR TOOL BOX!!!"

What a novel idea that men would keep tools in the tool box.

Ok, pause, re-focus, screaming child on the other side of the door. Evaluate the screaming and crying. Is there a twinge of pain in there, nope. Ok now do you hear the true distress because they did something they actually feel bad about, hmm that one is questionable still. Is there at least a three second pause between phases of noise, yes. Ok, it is clear to enter the room and try to calmly talk to the child, reason with them as to what ever it was that initiated the tantrum. In our case, not being able to watch a movie after getting home from the farmer's market. Provided all goes well you sit and chat with your child for a few minutes, explain why they weren't allowed to :fill in the blank:, ask if they understand, explain that it makes you sad when you have to yell, or when the child yells and that everyone gets what they want much easier and faster if we use big girl words and don't scream and yell. Offer a hug and kiss, provided all is going well and then an alternative activity.

Yea sounds easy when it's written down but it's like the mass amounts of training the marines go through to stay calm and re attach their respirator in the event they get attacked while underwater. You never really know how you're going to respond until you're in the water blindfolded and some jerk comes ad punches you in the gut and then rips the hose off the back of your head. SOMEONE PLEASE GET ME AIR!!!

Fortunately after some lunch and a nap moods improved and although the clouds never gave up we did sit and enjoy the back yard until bed time. Just felt so good to not be stuck inside.

Now we have moved on to Monday and seeing as I got absolutely no laundry done this weekend that is what my day will be filled with today. As well as putting out a few more job applications. I did have the college go ahead and re-enroll me for next year but the financial aid department said there was little to no help there so I have to figure out some way, other than more student loans, to cover the next year so I'm hoping with work will come money to pay tuition! and daycare and gas etc.

Holy Crap

Wow what a day. My child has officially gone crazy, I think I may have lost a bit more of my own mind, and my dog... completely bonkers.
At 8:15AM Matt's phone rings, Joe decided since he had been up all night that 8am was a good time to get up and building the gazebo; forgetting the detail we still had to go get it from Sears and they don't open until 9:30 or 10. So the house was up, I managed to drift back off while Matt showered and Tori watched cartoons for a few minutes, and then all hell broke loose.
We all got up Tori started hollering about how she wanted cookies for breakfast; finally got her to sit down with a bowl of Lucky Charms, not the greatest cereal I know but at the moment something is better than the nothing she's been way more interested in eating lately. So then we load up and head to Sears. Not such a big deal other than the fact that we had to make two trips since the chairs came pretty much assembled so the box was HUGE!!! (yes that needed to be bold, a few sizes bigger too)
So we get home and already the boys are saying they need beer, but the problem with that is whenever they get beer they stop working so they weren't allowed to have any until they were done. Silly me thinking that would be added motivation to work quickly. We started the project at ~11AM and I just got inside at 5:30PM. A much longer endeavor than I originally planned on is an understatement. On the plus side my gazebo is up and now they're motivated to build a semi-permanent deck for it to sit on.
We originally thought that just having the dirt underneath would be fine but as the rain proved today, not such a great plan. The ground is mostly sand here so Joe started sinking. That was hilarious by the way! He's sitting in the chair, says "I feel like this is slowly leaning back more and more, almost like it's getting shorter too." Matt "Um yea you should get up, you're sinking into the ground." He had about 3" of the back legs buried. Hopefully the deck won't be too terrible a job. I have to try to find something that resembles a plan to follow or I have to sketch out what we're looking at making too so that we actually have a plan and I don't just have men with wood and power tools making a mess of the back yard.
It is nice to have a nice place to sit and relax outdoors too. It's surrounded in netting too so we can keep the bugs out. Now I just have to come up with some sort of lighting. The little ground lights I put in by the sidewalk are nice but definitely not enough light. I'm actually contemplating garage sale searching for an old chandelier, something I can put candles in and not care when wax drips all over it. We have no outdoor electric so anything like that is out of the question; I am not running an extension chord just to be clear too. so we'll have to look around. I love the whole solar powered concept but with the roof over top there isn't much chance for sunlight to come in; though I guess I could try to find something that I could set out during daylight to charge and then bring in as the sun goes down. We'll see. As for right now, the boys went to go help our friend Mike with his car for a minute and I have to figure out what to make for dinner. I feel like beef is definitely on the menu!

Oh and I'll fill you in on the craziness of Tori and the dogs later.

All the things to do

So I finally got the rest of the plants potted. Now I'm thinking I may need to get some actual plants, the only problem, other than like petunias or begonias I don't know of any. I need some suggestions on some shorter plants. Everything I planted is going to end up being at least a foot tall so I have to find something to fill in the bottom. Especially where I didn't really plant anything and where there is just bare space under the bushes. I have noticed some sprouting on my greenhouse plants too. I'm so excited! Never really thought I had the nack for the whole planting and gardening thing but it's really great. Now I just hope it really grows.
Bean is getting tuckered out being out in the sun too. She's too funny on her bike though. She's gotten in to figuring out how to get one of the training wheels up on the grass next to the driveway so then the rear wheel is free spinning. She thinks it's a riot. Have to keep on her about the helmet and shoes rules though. I feel bad though, she was outside with me Tuesday and something bit her. She has these three little welts all together on her cheek and then one up closer to her temple. They don't seem to be bothering her but they're so red and swollen, I think I may take her to the Dr.s on Monday to have them looked at.
I finished a crochet project last night too. Didn't come out quite the way I wanted it to; too short. It was supposed to be like a market bag but like I said it's too short so it's a bit more clutch like. But I like the way it came out. I used this neat piece of ribbon to make the handle piece. And it can drawstring which is nice. I have to try to figure out how to get pictures onto this and then I can show them off. So just a few more things on my to do list for now. Not to mention the laundry that has been piling up. That is definitely on the agenda for the evening; the kitchen is in desperate need of attention. Off to the cleaning.