Yikes!

So the other week I was at the mall and I picked up a couple pairs of Sandals for Ava at Payless. They were BOGO 1/2 off. So, being the smart Mom I am, I got her 1 pair in a size 5 and another in a size 5.5, figuring we would be set for the summer or at least a couple months anyway.

So I put her size 5's on this am, and I swear her feet grew overnight! Her toes are thisclose to hanging over the ends of the sandals now! ACK! They were NOT like that yesterday!

At least I can be thankful we have a bigger pair on hand and Payless generally runs their BOGO sales pretty frequently, huh? ;)

So....

I was getting out of bed this am, and I realized something. It's Monday.

I feel like I need one of those cute Kitten posters that says "I Don't Do Mondays".

Speaking of Cute Kittens, anyone watching Acceptable TV? I forgot to catch last weeks episode to see if "Kitten Calendars" got voted through again.

ANYWAY.... We need longer weekends. Ours was busy and relaxing all at the same time, if that was possible. I just wasn't wanting it to be back to the old grind again today.

3 more weeks till school is done and I don't HAVE to get my butt up and dressed and driving to school.YAY!

Of course, the next week Mom is coming for a visit, so we'll be going all over the place, and then the IL's are coming for a weekend and then we start swimming lessons, and then there's the plays in the park and library activities and park play dates and, and, and...

So, ummm school starts in Aug and I can just throw J on the bus and I don't even have to get outta my jammies, did I mention that? LOL

Get Real: Bloggers Without Makeup

Inspired by People Magazines "Stars without Makeup", Steph over at Adventures in Babywearing decided to hold a little contest "Bloggers without Makeup".

This really isn't a challenge for me, since I RARELY wear any makeup at all, but I wanted to play along anyway.

So here I am, in all my natural glory. :)

T-ball

So, J started T-Ball on Thurs. You know how you have to sign up for these things MONTHS in advance? Well, like good parents we did that.

We were sure to ask her if she wanted play before signing her up. She said "Yes" and "Sign me up for whatever you want".

So, we did.

Problem is, while she can remember some minute detail from 3 years ago, she doesn't seem to recall agreeing to sign up for T-ball.:-/

So, it's been interesting. We don't want to push her, yet she's signed up and needs to make an effort/stay committed. Plus she wants to sign up for Fall Soccer. So we told her she needs to do this and stick it out, or there will be no signing up for soccer.

They had a practice yesterday as well. We left early and got her a new (pink) tball glove and a hat. She liked that.

This am, we practiced hitting and a little catching. She likes hitting better, and I think she's a little afraid of catching 'cause she doesn't want to get hit in the face. Can't say as I blame her, but she still needs to try it.

She's the ONLY girl on her team. At least she's easy to spot out there on the field. She's the one with the pink mitt. ROFL

Ava's not happy to hang around for an hour during practice. Instead, I load her up in the stroller and we take a nice, looong walk. I walked 40 minutes yesterday. Holy cow am I outta shape tho! LOL I need to get out and take walks more often! I think we'll do that every practice. I'm kinda bummed they decided to only practice once a week now. I could use 2 40 minute walks a week. LOL

Now if i can just cut out my donut habit, maybe I'll drop a few pounds. ;)

Angela Simmons did not coin "Food Shoppin"

So I was catching up on my recording of this weeks' "Runs House" and Angela kept mentioning how she needed to go "Food Shoppin".

Having not lived in NJ since like, 1992, I had totally forgotten about that phrase.

It made me laugh. Eric was like, WHAT did she say? He had NEVER heard that phrase before.

I was IM-ing with my friend, Cathy and was telling her about it. She grew up in NJ too, but hasn't lived there for a long while. She had totally forgotten about it as well.

I got to thinking, that probably outside of the NY-NJ-CT maybe even PA area, that no-one probably uses that phrase and hearing it on TV they might think it's some new fangled hip-hop girl saying. LOL

I also got to laughing about how it's apparently necessary in NJ to distinguish what kind of shopping you are doing... Mall Shopping, Clothes Shopping, Food Shopping, Car Shopping, etc. LOL

I need to go message my cousins on MySpace and give them a good ribbing. :)

Wordless Wednesday

I'm blaming the weather...

Johanna was SO not motivated this am. I told her to go brush her teeth and 10 minutes later she still hadn't done it. 5 minutes before that I told her to get her shoes. She hadn't done that either.

Talking to my neighbor at school this am, her girls are having the same kind of day.

Quite frankly, so am I! LOL

I took J to school and ran to the store. I realized after I got home yesterday that I had forgotten to get Bananas and pick up a loaf of bread to make garlic bread with tonite. So we did that.

I get home, and I am greeted by Dottie.

Now, I realize that being greeted by your dog is not THAT unusual, but this means that I had forgotten to lock her in her crate.

Dottie is locked in her crate while we are out because Dottie likes to go food sampling in the Kitchen.

So I do a quick scan of the kitchen on my way to let the dogs outside and happily note that everything seems ok, aside from the bag of chips on the floor. I think they just fell down.

Let the dogs out, and hear a noise. A noise that sounds a lot like chips hitting the floor. Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed the chip bag on the floor.

So while my puppy was a good poochie and left the chips alone and didn't leave me a huge mess, the same can't be said for Ava. LOL

Then she proceeded to step on them. Apparently crunching chips is fun.

So, yay! LOL

I have a mountain of wash to do and I feel like doing none of it. I ill tho, but I don't wanna! (whine whine whine)

I had planned on scooba-ing the kitchen today, but I'm not. It will only frustrate me. It's going to rain all day and 2 seconds after it's clean and sparkly, the dogs will come in from the yard and get it all dirty. So I am on strike from floor washing until the rain stops!

Oh and if anyone happens to see my motivation, please send it here, and maybe suggest it does the laundry for me while I take a nap. :)

Ebates

Do you all know about Ebates? A friend of mine was talking them up a while back and they offer your $5 just to sign up, so I signed up and then promptly forgot about it. LOL

Dunno if you guys know about ebates.com or not. I signed up a while ago and then forgot about it. LOL

This w/e I was wanting to make a purchase from a certain UK catalog company... I'm not easily influenced by their catalog mailing and offering of free shipping and a certain % off AT ALL. :ahem:

I remembered someone saying that you should remember to shop through ebates w/them because you'd get an addition % off. I think it was only 5%, but hey. 5% is 5%!

I really need to use ebates more often. Goodness knows I do enough online shopping. It really wouldn't take that much more of my time to check and see if the place I want to purchase from is an ebates member and I can save a little extra.

You can click here to sign up: http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?id=32655517 if you are interested. Plus I get a little kickback if you do end up making a purchase if you use my link. ;)

What are you watching?

What are you guys watching on TV these days?

Seems like a few of our Favorite shows have started back up again and we have a full TV viewing Schedule again.

ER started back up with new episodes last week. Big People, Little World started up again too.

Runs House started on MTV. I love Run's House... for a multitude of reasons. It's funny as heck for one. I also love listening to their accents. I grew up in the town over from where they live, so I love hearing them, and seeing all the places they go. My Mom worked for years at the HS their oldest sun goes to.

When they go to the mall it's "My Mall". In this last episode, JoJo and his friends were eating at one of my Dad's favorite places to go. I can remember sitting there years ago and eating supper with him. The batting cages they went to were in my hometown. It's fun and comforting all at the same time to see all these things on tv.

In a weird way, it kinda makes me feel like I know them better.

There's been a Planet Earth Marathon on today. We've watched some of that. I watched some VH-1.

I finally got the Hubster to sit down and watch Acceptable TV. I need to run over to the website and see if they have any of the back episodes online. I missed last weeks' show.

We're also watching HIMYM, and AI and Survivor and Cayote Ugly, and TAR and taping FOX on Sundays (and for some reason the new stuff is all on startign at 6pm! alrighty then)

I think that's about it. Seems like plenty!

Wordless Wednesday

I'm Melting!

Ok, maybe just the snow melted. :) It was mostly gone by Sunday. Totally gone yesterday. It hit 76 here! YAY!!!!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

The Hubster spent most of Sat on the phone, computer or both doing some work stuff. Thankfully that doesn't happen too often.

Sunday we worked on cleaning up the yard and hung out outside. I pulled up some scary looking dandelions that were sprouting already (just leaves).

Monday I did my shopping and we planned a picnic at the park for supper. That was really nice. the girls played and we ate and then took a little hike along the bike trail.

Today I ran errands and brought some stuff to OUAC (where I ran into a friend and her two girls, that was a nice surprise!!). Picked Johanna up at school and then dropped what they didn't take off at a local shelter type place and then we ran through the DQ drive-by for lunch. They have a pretty good (and reasonably priced) kids meal there.

I had to order a new battery for the Roomba. That arrived today. They only seem to last a couple years. It still holds a charge, it's just not as strong as it was. I've been doing wash too. I had weeded out a lot of J's long sleeved outfits when I drug out the spring stuff. There's only so much room in her 1/2 of the closet. lol Then w3e had all that cold weather and she's out of longs sleeves. it's supposed to get a bit cooler here, so I wanted to make sure she had clothes to wear the rest of the week.

That's pretty much it around here. It just seems I haven't had a free (quiet) moment to hop on and get a post written.

I think we have all caught Spring Fever! :)

Photo Hunters

Out here on the prairie we get a TON of wind. What better hobby to have than kite flying? :)

I should be feeding the girl...

instead of sitting here typing. :) She woke up and came down here about 15 minutes ago. I told her to give me a couple minutes and I'd help her with breakfast.

Whoops. LOL She's happily watching Curious George anyway.

Busy day all around here. I need to go pay the taxes/register the van now that they FINALLY sent our title. :-P

J has a school field trip (I think). It's on the calendar for today. Her Teacher didn't send a reminder tho, and J thinks it's next week. So, either I missed something or J's just mixed up. Either way, I'm sending her in her school shirt. LOL

Tonite is Kindergarten registration! Ack! I cna't believe I'm signing her up for REAL school already! Where did the time go??

Best news! NO MORE SNOW! YAY!

Have a great day, everyone!

Are you Geekier then me?

My friend Bokjae had this up on his site. I thought it was a fun quiz. Hoe Geeky are YOU?

I am 78% Geeky!!

More Fun Quizzes at QuizPox.com

Wordless Wednesday

As promised...

Easter pics....






















So ya, that went well, don't you think? ROFL

As The World Turns

What's better than attending an ATWT fan club luncheon? How about winning the "Win a Day With Brad & Katie" contest?? Not only will you get to have Terri Columbino (LOVE HER) and Austin Peck COME to you house and CLEAN for you, but you will also receive a big fat check for $5,000! Sound like a fun time? you can Click here to enter!

I wonder if I win, if I could convince Austin to clean my shower with his shirt off?? Maybe wear a sexy little shower cap?? What do you think?? :drool:

5 Questions...

I'm being interviewed by Mood Swinging Mommy! go me!

She writes: Hi Cyndi- Thank you for playing! Here are your questions:


1) What inspired you to start a blog?

Uhhh, all the cool kids were doing it? LOL I've been online since May of 1990. I started off on Prodigy, moved to GEnie, went to AOL, then to various local ISP's until broadband came along. I've dialed into BBS's, participated in large and small groups, run message boards,(still do) fan sites, my own personal website...

Actually back then, the website really wasn't far off from a blog, tho that was before blogs. I would try and update it frequently and write little blurbs about the family (Just the hubster and I back then, and the pets) and post pics.

A gal from one of the message boards I was on had started a blog and a lot of us were like What the HECK is a "BLOG"? so we read hers and then decided we'd start one too. It's funny reading that one. You can still find it here. Then I went to Xanga for a while, cause the format was easier. Then the hubster decided HE needed to blog, and I needed one on our domain as well, so here I am. LOL Of course his blog is long gone now. He just didn't see the point or something.

So yeah, basically a friend had one and a bunch of us thought we needed one too, but I've always enjoyed writing and rambling on incessantly so it all worked out. :)

2) How do you balance the demands of motherhood with blogging?

Hahaha, I'm not sure I do! LOL Motherhood certianly takes precendence to the blogging. I certianly want to blog more than I seem to be able too. I try to fit it in around naptimes or early in the am, or whenever I can, really. Lots of times I think of something to write about but then life gets in the way and I never get to it.

Like, I've been meaning to mention for a couple weeks now, that I FINALLY opened my 2nd tube of toothpaste. So It's official. I use 2 tubes for every 4 the Hubster uses! LOL


3) What do you do to unwind?

I usually watch TV or a movie. By the time 7pm rolls around, I'm ready to plop on the couch and veg for a bit. Tho lately, the girls don't agree with my plan. lol

I enjoy reading too, tho I am lucky if I can sit down and read a magazine article lately. Maybe I'm just saving up all my reading time for when Harry Potter comes out. ;)


4) What is your top pet peeve?

People who expect the government to do their parenting for them. You can combine that with the FCC. Can't stand them either. All these peopl who are complaining to the FCC about this or that progamming being unacceptable for their children to watch. Uhhhh, HELLO... don't let them watch it. It's not like you only get ONE channel. No-one is forcing you to watch it. /soapbox



5) If you could go on a dream trip for two with your husband, where would you go and why?

Hummm.. well, He's always wanted to go to Austrailia, I've wanted to go to Spain. We honeymooned in the MN Northwoods. I think we'd just enjoy goign back there again. We've also talked about RV-ing around when we retire.

I like to look at the beach, but not swim in the ocean. Tropical places sound nice in theory.

It's corny sounding, but really, anywhere we got to get away for a while would be a dream vacation! LOL

Yeah, ummm

So, you know how this morning I was saying my friend Laura's area was going to get more snow than us?

Yeah, well uhhh, scratch that.

It started snowing like crazy this afternoon and hasn't stopped.

They're now saying 5-8 inches.


Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

... Oh sorry, I got caught up there for a second thinking it was December when I woke up and saw all the snow outside! LOL

I shouldn't complain too much tho. My friend Laura lives a bit north of me and they are supposed to get more than we are. Supposedly it's going to switch to rain sometime this afternoon. However, looking at the forecast for the rest of the week, Thursday is the ONLY day it's not supposed to snow or snow and rain. Bah.

The dogs are having fun. They've been out three times since I got up about 30 minutes ago. Buddy, being the teenager that he is, decided he needed to beat his sister outside, so he LEAPT over her as she was going out the door. Only problem was he didn't account for the snow. I now have a German Shepherd sized skid mark in the snow on the deck from where he slid head first across the deck after leaping over Dottie. :-P

Back to the old grind today. I also need to answer a few questions. ;) Not to mention i still owe you Easter pics. :)

Photo Hunters

I just found this site, and decided to join in. I'm a couple days late for this weeks theme, but, better late than never, right? :)

Dumb Holiday

Found at Angela's, where she found is somewhere else. I thought this was too funny not to post!



More Fun Quizzes at QuizPox.com

WW Photo

Karolee asked if that was a pic of The Sioux Falls. Sure was!! Eric used some photoshop magic to give it a blue tinge, cause it was freezing that day.

It was freezing here on Wednesday, and the look of the pic, reflected how I was feeling. :)

Little People, Big World

Anyone else watching this show?? The season premiere is tonite. They've moved it from Saturdays to Mondays. We'll be watching it and taping HIMYM, since J really likes Little People too.

Spring?

Uhhh, I thought it was supposed to be spring? It's freezing here. No egg hunts for us as it was something like 1 degree out. Of course We were taunted with clear blue skies and sunshine. :-P

It's supposed to snow tonite/tomorrow. I'd rather it do it today. Then I wouldn't have to drive in it, since Johanna is off from school.

Did you all have a nice Easter?

Ours was pretty good. I seem to have caught whatever it was that gave Ava Croup, so I've been feeling puny again. I had a couple good days and then WHAM! At least I'm already on an antibiotic for the sore boobage.

Yesterday I had the hubster attempt to take pics of the girls' in their Easter get-ups. Yeah. I'll have to post a few of those. He did get 2 good ones, the rest are just funny. LOL

I need to work on responding to all the nice WW comments I got last week (slacker, I know. I've been thinking about everyone and thinking of all sorts of things I want to write about, and then I get busy and forget or end up just feeling puny and want to curl up somewhere. :(

Worldless Wednesday

It could be worse...

My friend Heidi and her family are just gettng over a round of rotovirus.... so it could be worse. I keep reminding myself of that.

I ended up bringing the baby into the ER last night. I was pretty sure it was Croup. I was right. I wasn't the cough that bothered me, but how she sounded while nursing. A couple few hours and a steroid shot later and we were home in our own bed. yay.

Unfortunatley, we all had to get up and take the hubster to work this am. His car's in the car ER today. lol Wonder which bill will cost more, the babys' or the cars'? lol

Super Mom that I am, I managed to get us girls home, fed, showered dressed and to J's school only a few minutes late.

I stopped at Caribou for a "wake me up" thanks to Kelli . Then we hit Wal-Mart. I've learned I really should NOT go shopping while I am this tired. I forgot several key ingredients for the things I planned on making for suppers this week. :-P I will pick them up tommorrow. Tonite, i guess we will be having Chicken nuggets and fries. lol

Hope everyone is fairing better than we are.

Oh, I also forgot to mention I've put a call into my Dr. 'cause I'm pretty sure I'm working on Mastitis. Always happens when Ava has a yucky, snotty nose. Whee..

But, like I said, it could be worse....

"Mom My Ride"

Have you seen this? My BIL sent it vis email. lol

The Sickie Family

Why am I resisting the urge to write lyrics to the tune of the "Addams Family" theme song? LOL

I woke up Thursday with a tickle in my throat and spent a lot of the day coughing. I had signed up to be a driver for J's field trip that day, so there was no rest for the weary that day.

If not for the fact that J's class had spring pictures on Friday, we would have definitely stayed home.

It's been raining here since Wed. Friday it started pouring. I picked up 3 movies on my way home from taking J to school. 2 for us girls to watch and 1 for hubster and I to see later. That was the best idea I had all day. I managed to get to rest on the couch for about 4 hours. I didn't get a nap, but I didn't have to move too much. J was entertained and Ava had a nap for a good part of that time.

I'd have to say this is the most miserable cold I've had all season. It just drags you down to the ground and stomps all over you. You have no energy to do much of anything. I feel like I've been run over by a semi and someone's slammed my head into a brick wall. The sad part is, I feel better today!

So that's what's up with us. Bah. It'll be interesting to see if the hubster can last the whole day at work. I suggested he take some cold meds before he left, I'm not sure if he did or not tho.

I'm keeping J home today, cause for one I don't feel like taking her, and more importantly she's still asleep. I gave her a dose of Children's Nyquil last night. She'd had horrible coughing fits the night before that were keeping everyone awake. Man that stuff works great! She didn't cough AT ALL. Of course, she's still asleep... but goodness knows she could use the rest. Now If I can just convince Ava it's nap time, maybe i can catch a few winks myself.