Good Grief

I really need to update my user-pic over here. Ava looks SOOO small!

I was clearing out some thing sin my Photobucket account yesterday. I found a bunch of videos I had made when Ava was about 6 months old! That seems SO long ago. Even hearing Johanna's voice on the videos, she sounds so different now.

These children are certainly growing up so fast. Lost teeth, language explosions.

How do they keep getting older while I stay the same age? ;)

This, I want to know. :)

11-11 - 11:11am

I just noticed that's it's 11/11 and I'm writing this at 11:11am. LOL

I always notice weird times like that. I'll just happen to glance at the clock and it'll be 4:44pm or 10:10am, or 2:22pm. That one is a favorite, since Johanna was born at 2:22pm. :)

WHY I notice the odd times, is beyond me. Maybe it's just because they are more noticeable. LOL

Hope everyones Sunday is going well. The Hubster is off taking pictures. I should be clenaing something, or maybe taking down our H'ween decorations. LOL I've been too sick to take them down, and I'm better now, plus it's nice out, so I really should. LOL


I've been busy playing Webkinz and d/l-ing the beta version of YIM. Hopefully this version will solve my YIM issues. More often than not, I've had to use the web version. I can send messages on the old, regular version just find, but I don't always receive them. Then everyone thinks I'm being a snob and ignoring them. LOL

I've also got all caught up on Facebook, and successfully Mass Poked everyone, so I think I'm good with my online activities after this post is done. :)

They girls are busy playing "summertime". Well, I'm not sure what Ava is doing, J's trying to get her to go along with her ideas, but Ava's not to reliable. LOL So far, J's set up a beach, making summer pics and now wants a "summer snack" so I guess I should go work on that for her. :)

Have a Summery Day! ;)

Grrrrr

Blogger has been taking fooooorever to publish my posts. So now watch, this one will fly right through! LOL

My antibiotics are slowly kicking in and I've been feeling more like myself every day. The Hubster on the other hand... after 3 days of staying home from work, I suggested he go to the Dr. too. :) He's now got some antibiotics too. :)

Johanna has a long weekend. We had a fun day at the mall yesterday. She got a haircut and a new Webkinz, I also bargained with her. She could get the Webkinz, if I got to yank out her VERY lose tooth. So she now has now front teeth! :)

She's been running around singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!" LOL

I told her her classmates will think they have a new studen tin class when she returns to school on Tues. LOL

It's a Miracle!

Wow, Look who's actually posting??

ME!


LOL


I apparently really suck at keeping up here, don't I?


I think I got a little too addicted to Facebook. :-P Between that and household, uhhh, "duties" and my boards and email, I don't seem to get over to the ole blog too much. :(

Not to mention I'm now a Webkinz addict. LOL


Things here are going pretty well. I'm just getting over a fun old chest cold. The Hubster seems to have it now. Lucky him.

Johanna's turned 6, lost 1 of her front teeth, and the other one is about ready to fall out. Actually, it won't surprise me if she comes home today w/o it. LOL Her teacher yanked out her first one. She was afraid J was going to swallow it. I tried to yank out the other one for her yesterday, but she wasn't going to let me. I think she wants her teacher to do it again. LOL

She's loving Kindergarten! It's just amazing to me what they learn in K these days.... I remember going 1/2 day and having a nap time and snack time and story time. Johanna is READING.

So umm, there goes the days of spelling out stuff we don't want her to know! Dammit. :-P

Ava's 21 months old now! She's back to being interested in the potty, and she's talkign up a storm. I probably hear a new word from her every other day! It's fun that I can have little conversations with her now!

Of course my having the chest cold has made that a bit challenging. I lost my voice completely one day and I still don't quite sound like myself.

We we're getting ready to go to the grocery store this am, and I told her to go find her socks. She had her shoes, but needed socks.

She comes back, hands me a piece of double bubble (from TOT-ing) and says "Suck". I look at her and I say. OK. A) that is gum and not a sucker, and B) I said SOCK not Sucker! LOL

So, Yeah... LOL It's Monday here!

Hope you've all been doing OK out there in blog-land, and I'm really sorry I stink at updating! :)

Is it bad...

that I was really excited this morning, to be able to look out my windows? The past few days, you can't see out in the mornings. The dew point has been SO high here, that they are all fogged up on the outside. Not a good sign.

This morning however, the dew point is a mere 68. I'll take it!

Could be worse. Those of you out there in other areas of the state are having really hot, 100+ weather. So I'll take my 90's and deal. LOL

We've been busy. We girls' started up swimming lessons this week. We also have company arriving this weekend. I need to work on finding the guest room again. It seems we get it all cleaned out for guests, and then they guests leave, and it goes back to being a catch-all room again. UGH.

Hope everyone is staying cool! I'm off to go work on my WW pic.

Memories

I've been reminded of something this week. It's been a HUGE wake-up call too. I've been reminded of what daily life is like with a VERY busy 17 nth old. LOL Holy cats! Ava's always been busy. She finally realized she could go down the steps in the house. She's been able to crawl down steps for a while now. I think it's because we mostly would carry her up and down here at the house, that she didn't realize she had that option here until this past week.


It's now ALL she wants to do. If I dare close the door down here so I can try to get something done, she has a complete fit. Full on screaming and all that. yay. If this keeps up, I may be drinking heavily by the time she's 2.5. LOL

It's interesting, having a toddler and an older child. Ava wants to do everything her big sister does. So I think that makes her 10x braver than Johanna was, which is scary. lol

We've been doing some "Spring Cleaning" around here. It's been good, but stressful, since like I said, trying to do anything with Ava awake is near impossible. LOL

Today I have to run errands. I'm looking forward to getting out of the house. I really don't do the 90+ degrees and humid thing very well! It's been like that for a good 4 days maybe. ick. So it was good weather for me to be cleaning... inside... with the a/c. lol

TGIF

Yeah, it's a bit cliche', but Owell.


I AM happy it's Friday. Despite the fact that I still had to run out and do some errands. Apparently, the dogs like to have food. Dang them. ;) If not for the fact that there wasn't enough food to last them until Monday, I would've totally stayed home.

Traffic was bad enough today. I wouldn't want to have tried it tomorrow. Plus we are jam-packed with things to do tomorrow too.

As I was standing in LINE at the self Checkout at Wal-Mart (yes, you heard me right) I was thinking that I was glad it was Friday, and that we were about ready to be DONE and on the way home.

J got her 1/2 way progress report for swimmign yesterday. She's doing really well. She needs to work on a few things tho. I told her her teacher said she needs to practice those things, and she says "Mom, how can I practice when we don't have a bog pool"?

Uhhh, ok good point there.

Being the clever Mom I am, I told her she needs to practice them AT swimming lessons. That while her teacher is helping the other kids in her class and she's waiting for her turn, that she can work on some of the things she needs to do.

"Oh, Ok."

I have more to post about T-ball last night, but the hubster is out scaring the killdeer Momma with the lawnmower and needs me to find a clean shirt for him. :-P These are HIS shirts, surely you think HE'D know where they are. That's where you (and I too appparently) would be wrong. :-P

Heeeey Everyyybodyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

What a busy couple weeks it's been! My Mom was here, The IL's were here. J started T-ball games. We've been out in the pouring rain for one of them. (ok, well I ran back to the van with Ava, and the rest of them followed shortly there after..lol)

The girls and I have started swimming lessons. J loves hers. Ava's not too impressed, and I forgot that carrying a 21lb child for 30 mins in a pool was actually work, until I tried to climb up the stairs 2 days later. LOL

There've been lots of pictures taken.

We've survived being blown away in the gusty wind yesterday!

Let's see.... There's a Killdeer nest in our front yard.

Next week (if I can remember to actually call and make the appointment) Buddy will be going in for THE surgery at the vet's. He's 2. It's time, it's past time, cause he's really getting obnocious. lol He needs his testosterone cut off. No pun intended. lol

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm going to try and get caught up with everyone in the next couple days.

Ohhh, almost forgot my biggest news!!

DUDE! I'm gettin' a Dell! :)

Hiatus

My Mom arrives tomorrow. I need to be cleaning. I may not be posting too much in the next couple of weeks. We'll be busy, I'm sure. The IL's are coming down for a weekend in there someplace.

I love my Mom.

My Mom also likes to read over my shoulder when I'm online.

That, I don't love.


I'm sure I'll need a sanity-computer break now and again. Especially since they baby will want to be nursed and have a nap. :)


Just a little FYI for you all. :)

Get over yourself

So, several weeks ago, the Hubster comes home from work with a surprise for me. He found out there was a local production of Grease going on in town. He purchased tickets for us to go to a Sunday Matinee, as a late Mother's Day gift. He knows that Grease is one of my all time favorites.

Now granted, taking a 16 month old to a play is a challenge. However being that it was Sunday Matinee, I think ok, no problem.

I grew up in suburban NJ, just outside of NYC. If you were taking your kids to a play it was... on Sunday afternoon. I don't know if it's just me or not, but I always assumed it was standard. You don't really take young children out to the evening show, for a variety of reasons, but if you go to a Sunday Matinee, expect to see children.

Ava was a bit fidgety, She hadn't had much of a nap. All things considered we thought she did really well. I had to nurse her a bit. Had we been sitting on one of the ends of the rows, I may have considered getting up and discretely taking her out. As it was, we were seated smack in the middle, with at least 6 people on either side of us. I figured it would be far more disruptive to get up in the middle of an act, carrying a screaming baby, and making 6 people stand up than it would be for her to cry for 10 seconds while got her situated to nurse.

Apparently that was the wrong thing to do. AFTER the the play was over, we were accosted by the Director. She cornered us saying she had at least 25 complaints, and some of those were from the actors. She said she recommends only children over the age of 7 come to plays. JUST as we were getting ready to apologize to her she said in a very egocentric, snotty tone "I am APPALLED that you did not take THAT CHILD out of the theatre".

Had I been able to absorb what she said in that moment, I would've had a lot more to say to her.

I really have a hard time believing that THAT many people complained and she did NOTHING about it. I also have a hard time believing that the actors were complaining as well. If you can't act through a little bit of disruption in the audience you have a problem. It's not like she was screaming non-stop for 30 minutes. Her worst episode lasted maybe 30 seconds, at best.

I'm pretty sure the theatre itself will be getting a call tomorrow. We want to find out of this is the theatres' policy or just this woman on an ego trip. Especially since the Hubsters employer is a sponsor for that particular theatre. The Hubsters employer prides themselves on being Family Friendly. I'm sure they will be interested to know just how we were treated by this organization.

NOWHERE does it say don't bring children. In fact the ticket prices are set for "All Ages."

We love community theatre. When we lived in MN, we frequented our local one. Here in SD, they are always talking about how they need support and people to come see the plays. We were happy to help and be entertained. Until this.

I mean, honestly. Someone tell me if I'm in the wrong here.

Had someone come up to us at some point during the 2.5 hour performance and said the baby was disturbing the other patrons and could they help us to find a place outside the theatre to take her, I would've been MORE than happy to oblige.

There was a 15 minute intermission. did anyone say anything then?

Hell, if someone is disruptive at the movie theatre, they ask you to leave. So this all came as a complete shock. The people next to use weren't annoyed. In fact the saint of a man was smiling and talking to Ava.

It's a MATINEE people. Get over yourselves.

Uhhhhhhhhhh

Hi there! You might remember me, My Name is Cyndi and this is my blog! LOL

Holy heck did we have a busy week here. A busy week with nice weather! I kept forgetting things I needed at the store (I know, I know MAKE A LIST)So I spent almost all my am's when J was at school running around.

Her concert/Graduation was on Friday. it was really cute! I'll post the video of her graduating. It's a little long, but it's really funny cause another little boy had to potty, and I didn't notice it at the time, but he starts jumping up and down, hopping and holding himself well before anyone noticed, the poor guy. LOL

I also need to get majorly caught up on the scavenger hunt!! (BAD ME!)

Hope all my fellow Mom's had a nice Mothers Day! I was taken out to breakfast, got to watch some TV while Ava napped. Then we ordered Chinese and lounged around the kiddie pool the rest of the afternoon. It was a nice day!!

I found pics!

Here's my XT! Check out that printer too! Top pf the line and everything. muahahahahahahaha




Here's Dad on his Laptop. This isn't the first one he had I don't think. So It's probably somewhat smaller than the original one. LOL

Happy Onlineversary to meeeeeeeeeeeeeee

This month marks a HUGE event for yours truly. I have now been online for exactly 1/2 my life.

In May of 1990, I was winding down the senior year of HS. My Dad came home one night with this Zenith (huge by today's standards) Laptop, which he then proceeded to set up on the kitchen table, hook up to our kitchen phone line and connect to something called "Prodigy".

Being a good geeky girl, I was immediately hooked. :)

All this eventually led to my getting my own phone line (only I would be getting my own line to dial in, and not to chat on the phone... LOL) and even better we got a home PC. A Zenith XT, that thing was smokin', let me tell you. CGA monitor and the whole bit! lol

I'll have to see if I can find my picture of it someplace. LOL Of course I think by then we had switched to GEnie, after Prodigy tried ot charge people .25/per email after you hit your monthly quotient (which I'd hit in like a day) LOL Anyone out there remember that? lol

So yeah, it's been 17 years! Yikes. Maybe I need to send out some thank-you's to everyone who's put up with me for this long. hahahaha

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

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. ;)

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. :)

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!

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! :)

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!

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. :)

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. :(

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....

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.

How's the weekend going for everyone?

Yesterday was pretty busy. I took the girls out to the Washington Pavillion. It was AG day there, and our 4-H group was meeting there instead of the regualr venue for our meeting. They had a lot of fun activities for the kids. Johanna got to make butter and rope (both activities about wore her arm off LOL). There was a puppet show and puppet making and coloring and learning and lots of free stickers too. They even had free lunch.

Just as it was time to stand in the lunch line, Ava had the mother of all meltdowns. That was fun. Of course She was overtired and had pretty much had enough of being in the stroller.

It was POURING out when we left. Thankfully I was just parked across the street, and it wasn't cold our or anything. It WAS great tho, to stand inside the van and strap the girls in. No more half hanging out of a car to get them buckled in while I get soacked! YAY!

I made some cookies later on in the day. It was a nice treat on a rainy afternoon!

Ava fought her nap ALL day, until about 5pm. It was then I IM'd the hubster (I didn't dare yell out to him) that we should order pizza or something, cause there was NO WAY I was going to move and risk waking her up, just so I could cook. LOL

Today's been kinda lazy. I've been working on laundry and picking up... but we havne't done anything outside the house. It keeps trying to be nice out, but then it gets cloudy and looks like it's going to storm. I vegged on the couch and watched some VH1 while Ava had her am nap.

JOhanna decided to put on a "Fun Carnival" for us today. There were games and activities and we got ziplocs to put our treats in. LOL We also got to taste her "Secret Smoothie recipe" Thankfully I helped her make that one. We used a couple bananas some mandarin oranges some pineapple juice and some ice.

That's pretty much been our weekend here. It's supposed to be 72 here tomorrow! I'm gld I bought a few shorts outfits for the girls last week. They might need them!

Toothpaste

Ok, I've been meaning to write this for some time now, I just haven't seemed to manage to find the time.

I grew up using Crest Toothpaste. When the hubster and I got together, he was a Colgate guy. In the interest of saving $, as I was a SAHW I went ahead and just started using Colgate. No need to buy 2 different kinds of toothpaste. Toothpaste is Toothpaste, right?

This went on for years until I was PG with Johanna and I couldn't STAND Colgate. In fact I ended up using Crest Kids Toothpaste, cause it was the only thing that didn't make me nauseated.

Afterwards, I went back to Colgate. Until I got PG with Ava. Then I just wanted to use Crest. Of course I could barely stand to brush my teeth with her either.

So A while back, I bought the hubster a 4pk of Colgate at Sams Club. Later that week I was in WM and they had it for $1/tube. You could buy 5. I had a coupon. So now we are at 9 tubes for him. At the same time, I bought myself a 2 pack of Crest.

I can't remember excatly when all this was, but I can tell you that since then, The hubster has gone through the 4 pack I bought at Sam's Club, and I am STILL using the same tube of Crest.

HTH can he go through 4 tubes when I haven't even gotten through ONE? I'm not brushing any less. There's the same amount in each tube? Is he just a wasteful slob? Probably!

I'd also like to add, that I enjoy having different colored toothpaste than he does. It is now GLARING obvious which one of us is spitting all over the sink/faucet/counter when we brush, and I will give you a hint here, it's NOT me! LOL He used to try and say how did I KNOW it was him. Well now I know, and he can't dispute it! Muahahahahahahaha

Anyway, that's my Toothpaste story. LOL

Do you guys have a brand you like better than the other? Is it the same one your spouse prefers? Is it the kind you used as a kid?

Discuss....

Memory Lane

Sometimes, I love the fact that things on the web are archived forever. Kelli was sending me links via IM to her old blog, thanks to way back. She had a lot of pics of S as a baby.

That got me looking for my old website from when we lived in MN. Pretty funny to see that and my Tom Eplin Fan site. I wish I could remember my URL for that stuff from before I moved to MN. Owell.

Then I remembered that my Old blogspot blog is still around. LOL So I looked at that. I started there when I was pregnant with Johanna and then moved to my Xanga Blog. I've had a lot of fun reading those old entries. Even more fun reading all the comments. It also makes me a bit nostalgic.... not just because it was my first PG and an exciting time for us, but because there's so many people who commented that I've lost touch with, or don't talk to that often anymore. :(

Lots'O'Stuff

First off, thanks for all the great comments, everyone! I've read them all via email, and I need to go and visit some blogs still. I'm hoping to get to that before the party is over. :)

Wednesday, I stayed in and worked on cleaning up down here. I had intended to do it Tuesday as part of Tackle It Tuesday, but that didn't happen. I was even prepared to humiliate myself and take pics to show you all of just HOW bad it was down here.

Let's just say I ended up with several trash bags and 3 bags of toys and clothes and shoes to take to GoodWill.

I still need to do so minor picking up and run the Roomba and the Scooba. I'm hoping to do that tomorrow.

Sadly, we still have way too many toys down here. We seem to have fallen into a vicious cycle that is thrift store shopping and garage sale hunting. "Momma, can I have THIS?" Oooh, look a cute barbie car for $1. "Sure, why not" and before you know it, you are drowning in stuff.

At least, buying used toys, it seems more like recycling or at the very least a cheap rental. LOL I buy them something for a few dollars or less. They play with it for a while, and then it goes back to be resold again to someone else. :)

The bad side is there's just too much stuff and I think they get overwhelmed and there seems to be a certain lack of respect for the toys happening here. I'm thinking that if there's only 3 barbies instead of 30 (not that we actually have THAT many, but it's probably close.. LOL) that she will take better care of them.

So that's where I've been. That and dealing with snotty-baby. She doesn't seem to have a fever, and overall, she seems less congested. She's in that gross snot stage tho, and I'll be happy when she's feeling better!

Today I ran errands, and picked up pictures of Johanna with Clifford for her school journal. She's bringing in a special treat (suckers) for the class tomorrow. I may attempt to go in and read the class a story too. She really would like me too, I'm just not sure how well that will work with Ava running around.

Hope everyone's had a good day, and if you've made it through all this, thanks for reading! I'm off to watch the rest of Idol!

Sunshine!

Well the sun came out yesterday and the wind died down. YAY! It was nice to look out and see something other than white! The Hubster went out, twice, to clear off the driveway.

Thankfully, the sun did a good job melting the remaining snow on the driveway and the sidewalk. Hubby said we had a few 5ft drifts out there. Craziness!!

I stayed in and made Brownies. Today, Hubby cleared away some of the killer icicles that were hanging off the gutter.



Did anyone happen to catch the lunar eclipse last night? We tried, but weren't terribly successful.

We were scheduled to go to a friends house, but he needed to go help his FIL with snow removal, so we had to reschedule. I was actually looking forward to getting out of the house.

We thought about going somewhere, but instead opted for staying in and doing laundry. Oh and getting Chinese Food delivery. YUM! :) I'll just consider it part of the party celebration! :)

We've been watching Charmed, season 7, as predicted. I think we are almost done with the 3rd disc now.

In fact, I think I'll go get hubby and tell him it's time to watch some more. Ava's about ready for a nap. There's nothing like a snuggly baby and your favorite show! :)

March Blizzard

So, we've been having a Blizzard. You know it's serious when the close the school here in the city. They hardly ever do. In fact, I think the last time the kids had a snow day here, was Fall of 2005. There's only been 7 snow days in the last 10 years.

We've now had 2! lol

We have a 6ft fence around out backyard. There are drifts back there that are a good, 3ft high. The dogs think it's great fun. I'm just hoping they don't get any higher. We don't need them hopping over the fence!

Yesterday am, I was IM-ing with my friend Laura. She lives here in SD too, just about 45 minutes north of us. I was telling her that I was putting some country ribs in the CP for supper. I bought them on Sale this week, and needed to cook them.

The purchased part of a cow (I can't remember if it was 1/4 or 1/2) this fall, and so she was inspired and grabbed a pkg of ribs to put in her CP too.

Now, Laura make THE BEST beans, EVER. So she starts blabbing about making beans, which has me wishing there was no blizzard so I could drive over there and get some. So I start wondering if I have a can of baked beans. Nope. I did have about 1/2 pkg of dried Pinto beans tho.

So I go to my favorite recipe site, and I find this. Ummm, YUM!!! it took most of the day to make them, but that was ok, cause it took the ribs that long too. They were REALLY good. so much better than canned!!

Then Laura starts blabbing about Banana Bread, so since I was already perusing AllRecipes.com, I looked one up and found this one.

Banana Banana Bread



again, YUM!!! I made a few modifications. I used 1C whole wheat flour and 1 C All Purpose. I added vanilla to the sugar/butter/egg mixture. I added Cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of ginger to the flour mixture, and I threw in a pkg of chopped walnuts.

This bread won't survive till supper. LOL

I really don't know what it is about being STUCK at home that makes me bake/cook/try things from scratch. Normally, I'd be opening up a can or a box, but it's kinda like a challenge to see what I can make with what we have around the house.

Anyone Want to Take Bets?

On whether I am still semi-sane come Monday? LOL

It started snowing here, around about 11am. Just in time to be a huge mess in time to Get Johanna from School.

There's nothing I love more than driving around on sloppy roads, with people who drive like morons. :-/ I came close to not having to worry about what we do with my car when we get the van. Thankfully I was travelling in the left lane of a two lane road when this genius pulled out from a side street in front of me, and then realized she couldn't get stopped.

Anyway, they are saying we should get something like 4 inches of snow today. There's more coming Thursday and Friday.

Did I mention the hubster is home sick?

Stuck at home. All the rest of the week. With my FAMILY. auuuuggghhh! LOL Don't get me wrong, I love them, and there's really no-one I'd rather be stuck with, but I think by Monday I'll be ripping out my hair. LOL

At least we haven't started watching Season 7 of Charmed yet. I'm sure we'll be getting that watched over the next few days! LOL

Late Night

I couldn't sleep. So I got up, I'm, finally tired enough to get my brain to shut off.... I hope.

This James Taylor song came to mind.... :)

Let It All Fall Down

Sing a song for the wrong and the wicked and the strong and the sick, as thick as thieves.
For the faceless fear that was never so near, too clear to misbelieve.
Well the sea is jumping salty and the porpoise has the blues,
my recollection's faulty and I cannot find my shoes.
And my wiring is misfiring due to cigarettes and booze,
I'm behind in my dues, I just now got the news.
He seems to tell us lies and still we will believe him,
then together he will lead us into darkness, my friends.

Let it fall down, let it fall down, let it all fall down.
Let it fall down, let it fall down, let it all fall down.

The man says stand to one side, son, we got to keep this big ball rolling.
It's just a question of controlling for whom the bell is tolling.

Let it fall down, let it fall down, let it all fall down.
Let it fall down, let it fall down, let it all fall down.

There'll be suffering and starvation in the streets, young man.
Just where have you been, old man? Just look out of your window, man.

Let it fall down, let it fall down, let it all fall down.
Let it fall down, let it fall down, let it all fall down.

Well, it ain't nobody's fault but our own,
still, at least we might could show the good sense
To know when we've been wrong, and it's already taken too long.
So we bring it to a stop then we take it from the top,
we let it settle on down softly like your gently falling snow
or let it tumble down and topple like the temple long ago.

Let it fall down, let it fall down, let it all fall down.
Let it fall down, let it fall down, let it all fall down.

Monday, Again?!

Well, here we are and it's Monday again. I don't even go off to work, and I'm not a Monday fan. LOL Johanna looked at me this am and said "Mom, please don't tell me I have to go to school today!"

I said "You have to go to school today"

"Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom, I SAID don't tell me that!"

So yeah... It's Monday here. LOL

I'm trying to get my coat washed and dried before we have to leave. I was a bad Momma and didn't hang it up in the closet. I left it hanging from the railing post, and it got all furry. Imagine that... fur in a house with 4 pets. Really now, who would've figured.

I need to hit the grocery store. I should go to the MOMS Club meeting if I can. We'll have to see what time I get done at the store and whether or not Ava is awake or asleep.

Well, time to put the coat in the dryer and start our Monday. Bah.

The Good, The Bad, and The Fluffy

Well, Somehow, Sioux Falls managed to escape the huge amounts of snow that were seen north and south of us. It looks like we got about 6 inches. Maybe 7.

It was wild watching the weather channel this morning and seeing this huge band of dark blue hovering over us.

Church was cancelled this am. Not that we've been lately, but hey.. LOL

I just sat down here after getting Johanna all bundled up to go help her Daddy clear the snow. She was pretty excited to go out and play. I get a reprieve from having to go out and use the snow blower, since the fumes trigger my asthma. Same goes for mowing the lawn in the summer. hehehe.. that's a good thing.

Ava's settling down for her nap, so there's no bundling us up to go out and play too. That's the bad.

I've been trying to work on wash. I've gotten three loads done so far. We've made the usual weekend calls, tho I still need to phone my Mom. We had lunch, I made more ginger cookies (yum!)

No it's time to sit here and catch up while Ava naps. I need to work on my QWERTY badge for Pogo too. That one is going to take a while. LOL

Oh, and I'm still excited about getting a new(er) car! I'm going to have new-fangled things in it... like windows that go down with a button, and a cd player!, and a car that locks and unlocks with one of those booper doo-dads! GO me! I'm stepping into the 2000's! LOL

Tired

I've been really tired the past couple of days. The kind of tired you are when you find out you are pregnant... only it's the exact opposite thing going on here. lol

The past couple months, I seem to get really exhausted right before my period arrives. It hasn't happened often enough for me to learn to recognize that that is what is going on. At first I think I must be getting a cold or something. Both girls have drippy noses, so I figured that was it, until WHAM! Ooooohhhh yeah....

So I haven't really been up to a whole lot the past couple days. I've tried to do a few things around the house, but then I just peter out.

I have a bunch of wash I need to do today. Hoping I can start that.

We have a winter storm warning here for the weekend. It's either going to just rain or we're going to get up to 10 inches of snow.

I was hoping we could go out and get some real shoes for Ava this weekend, but it's looking like it might have to wait another week.

Oh, and we've started looking more seriously for a mini-van for moi! YAY!!! I can't wait!

Busy... sort of....

We were back to the grind today. I managed to get J to school on time this am. Ava and I grocery shopped and we came home after that and I put stuff away while she had a cookie and watched baby crack Einstein.

Yesterday or so, my board gals and I started up an old discussion. It's been quite refreshing. So I spent time this am, and later this afternoon chatting with them. Almost a year has gone by since there was a big change over there, and it's just nice to talk about it as a group.

We went out to Bk for lunch and then went to WM to do some additional shopping.

Ava fell asleep on the way home and after I brought that stuff in, I sat here, holding her and read my boards.

I hadn't even thought about checking in on PPP until now.

Eric came home and I realized I had totally forgotten about supper. LOL Looks like we're having fish sticks and fries instead of the chicken and rice I had planned on. He has a meeting tonite, so quick is good.

Ava's finally awake and wandering around. J's been doing classwork she missed when she was out on Friday.

AI tonite, and I'm pretty darn excited about it too!

Hope everyone is having a good Tuesday!