Car Trouble

Ordinarily I don't think about my car. I get in, I drive. It's when things go bad that I get grateful for what I had or I cruse the problem that arises. As with most things, things that go bad happen in threes.

1. Thursday morning I was rushing out the door trying to be on time for carpool pickup to get to school. In some hurried state, I managed to flip a switch and my "automatic sliding doors" were no longer automatic. In a panic I thought that maybe a fuse went out and I figured that I would stop at the dealership after I dropped off the kids. Well, it was almost comical to watch me manually open the doors for the kids to get out at school. It was reminiscent of my childhood and yelling "All clear?" just to ensure that no fingers were harmed in the closing of the sliding door.

As soon as I parked at the dealership, I said a quick prayer that the car would work again. I was prompted to look at the switch the controls the doors and realized that I had inadvertently turned it off. Silly of me, but I think God needed a laugh at my expense.

2. Later that morning... I was driving on a country road and a rock hit my windshield and chipped it. The weird thing was I wasn't driving behind a car when it happened. The only other car on the road was about 25 feet in front of me on the other side of the road. How does that happen?

3. Friday morning. When I got in the car to leave, my battery was dead. Michael was still home and was able to jump start the van. That entailed backing his truck onto the street, rolling the van down the driveway so that the jumper cables would reach. In the midst of buttons being turned on and off, the door lights got left on overnight.

Maybe my car is trying to tell me something, just not sure what that is. I think that Jack might clean it and I'll try and give it a little extra love as I'm running around this weekend. Wouldn't want my car to get cranky and start doing these things on a regular basis.

100 Days of School

Today was the 100th day of school. Emma's shirt says it all.

Before school, Emma came bouncing down the stairs already dressed for school. That was a little unusual, but it was dress of choice day and I figured that she was excited to pick out her clothes. Her initial outfit consisted of the green shirt as the bottom layer followed by another t-shirt and a sweater covering them. She was also wearing a long brown shirt scrunched at her waist layered over her jean skirt. To really pull this off she needed mismatched leg warmed, alas she does not own leg warmers.

I did have her take off the brown shirt, but I was ok with the rest of the outfit. I didn't realize what the green shirt had on it.

After school, Emma is holding her lunch bag in front of her covering her shirt. She very quietly says, "Mom, I have to tell you something." I immediately think, "What did she do?!" Emma continues by lowering her lunch bag and shows me her shirt.

I was a little confused, thinking that maybe she did it at school. Nope, she had planned out the whole thing the night before. I was honestly too relieved that she hadn't misbehaved in school to care about the shirt. Emma and I had a talked about how we treat clothes and sneaking. I'm not sure it was a very effective talk considering I had to keep turning around and laughing.

Grounded

A week ago Jack got grounded. It involved homework and something about him "not minding being grounded" when he decided he'd rather get a D on an assignment than do it. When he thought that being grounded was better than doing homework, I knew that I had to be serious when I explained how being grounded was going to work.

Instead of one week of grounding, it turned to two. No friends, no video games, no computer, no tv (I have been letting him watch all the princess movies that the girls have watched), no Legos.

It might have been the Legos that sent him over the edge, but he decided that being grounded wasn't such a good alternative after all.

As for me? Well, him being grounded essentially means that I'm grounded as well, right? Actually it hasn't been as bad as I thought. I've enjoyed not having to drive to playdates, listen to "Can I watch...whatever tv show?" We have another week to go, hopefully my sanity will remain in tact.

Blue Tape

I took a long break from painting and decided that I needed to get back in the program this week. You know, New Year's resolutions and all.

The most satisfying part of painting is when the bulk of the wall has color on it. Second to that satisfaction is when you get to pull the blue tape off the wall and see that (hopefully) crisp line that is achieved.
I still have a lot of white walls to cover, but I'm getting closer to my ultimate plan of "no wall left white".

A Night Out

I had talked to the mom of our usual babysitter earlier in the week and semi confirmed a night to have her come and babysit. In my head...I thought that I would call and confirm and then surprise Michael. Well, I forgot to do both.

Come Friday afternoon, I had a moment of clarity and remembered the date. I had already emailed a friend to let her know that I would come do a girl's night at her house. Why is it that things seem to happen at the same time? Girl's night out or date with hubby?!!!

Michael and I ended up going to a nice place for dinner and enjoying the evening to ourselves.

Note to self; go get a new calendar!!!

It's the Cheesiest!

A lover of all things pasta and cheese related, macaroni and cheese is the cheesiest. Earlier this week, I actually made shells and cheese....from a box. It was just that kind of night. In an effort to redeem myself, I made from scratch mac n' cheese.

It's not that hard to make once you have the basics down. The first time I made it, I measured every thing and made sure I had the exact cheese that it called for. Ha, that was a long time ago. I'm more like Julia Child...a little bit of this, a little bit of that. A little for you, a little for me. The mac n' cheese turns out different every time because I never have the same cheese, but it's still good.

Photo Toy

I found a new toy. It's a photo application for my phone. Actually one of my neighbors was taking pictures of Lily and and knew that I needed to get it.

I'm usually not a tech junkie, but I had to figure out how get the application on my phone. I had to update the software on the phone and then figure out how to get it from itunes to the phone. Yup, I figured it out.

Flipflop Weather

The weather is so nice (60s) that I was wearing sandals yesterday and today. Anytime the temperatures start to warm up I get a little spring fever and want to jump right into the next season.

I know this won't last, but I'll enjoy it while I can. Jack keeps saying; "This is Spring, right Mom?" I hate to burst his bubble, I just remind him that it's January.

7 Minutes

I knew there was something in the back of my head that I needed to remember. Against my better judgment, I agreed to let Jack have a sleepover last night. When the phone rang at 7:45, I remembered why I didn't want to have a sleepover. Jack had a scout activity this morning and I have remembered all week...until this morning. Luckily they called and asked if he was coming. I said yes, we'll be there in 7 minutes. It takes 5 minutes to get there.

Jack was dressed in under a minute flat. I threw snacks in a backpack and remembered to grab a water bottle. Emma, Lily, and myself wore our pjs. Jack's friend looked at us like our heads were spinning. No time for head spinning, I needed to get Jack to his activity.

We made it in 7 minutes. If only we could get ready for school so quickly. I now have several hours with just the girls. You can do anything with two, right?!

3 Day Weekend

While Michael is off playing in Vegas, I'm manning the home front. In an effort to alleviate single mom stress syndrome I will be having movie night tonight and maybe tomorrow night. The criteria for a movie rental is pure fluff. Nothing deep, thought provoking, or too serious is allowed.
In other words, comedy preferably a romantic comedy. I'm leaving my options open. I'd hate to get to Blockbuster and be disappointed by lack of availability. Now I just need to work up the courage to brave Blockbuster with kids.

OK, I didn't make it to Blockbuster, but we did watch a movie. Nanny McPhee satisfied most of the requirements.

Auctions

So, we have a few things listed on ebay and tonight is the end of the auction. It's like watching a horse race and I find myself cheering each time the bids go up. I imagine that there will be a few last minute bids. It's nice to know that other people are will to pay money for stuff that we'd like to get rid of.

We don't use ebay a ton, but it tends to get contagious. Michael wanted me to look around and find more stuff to list. If it wasn't such a hassle dealing with packing and mailing, we would probably list more often. I think the last time we listed something it was over a year ago.

I might have to pop some popcorn and enjoy the end of the race tonight.

An Off Day

So last night I started to feel that "I'm getting sick" feeling. I felt fine all day then, wham! it hits me. I'm going to blame this on Keira. Not exactly sure how germs can carry through phone lines, but I'm sure that she's to blame.

After a miserable night's sleep, I can tell that it's offically a sick day for me. I took the kids to school in my pjs came home and did nothing on the couch. At about 9:45 there was a knock on the door. I'm still in my pjs. My visiting teachers are at the door holding a plate of cookies. I had remembered on Monday that they were coming, but it had completely slipped my mind come Tuesday morning.

Who was I to turn away a plate of cookies? I let them in amidst compliments on my sock monkey pjs. I was a tad embarressed, but I was just sick enough to not care. When they left I managed to hit the shower, just in case anyone else showed up at my door.

Michael volunteered to pick up the kids from school. I was extrememly grateful I didn't have to brave to masses to get Jack and Emma from school. I was on the verge of thinking that I might have to to the "drive thru" pick up. Thankfully it didn't come to that.

While on my deathbed...er, sick couch I watched The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. An oldie but a goodie. I need a few more Cary Grant movies to make my recovery complete.

Ratios

Who knew that the butter and brown sugar needed to be equal to the bread? No wonder cinnamon rolls are not very healthy, and nor should they be. Thanks to all the technical support I received, I was able to "mostly" rescue the following pan of rolls.

Busy Lazy day

Lots of things to get done, but I'm taking my sweet time doing them today. So far we're up to three loads of laundry, should I make a push to get to the bottom of the baskets? Perhaps one more for the day.

Craigslist worked out well today. I was able to sell a tv stand that I intended to sell months ago but had no takers. Michael was very busy listing stuff on ebay and Craigslist as well. Nothing like having stuff lying around to make us motivated to try and sell it. Jack nearly got listed because he was sitting in front of the computer for a long time today.

I am making a pork loin for dinner and because it's not my families favorite dinner I went ahead and made cinnamon rolls for dessert. I need some expert advice. How do I make them with the ooey gooey center? Mine turned out "fine", but they were a little on the anemic side for the bread/sugar ratio. I suppose it was a good thing that they aren't as tempting without the filling dripping out.

Up for A Swim?

Lily and I took a minute to look at the geese this morning. It was pretty warm yesterday (60s) and so there was a partial thaw. I think the geese were egging each other on; "You go first!"

All My Hooks In A Row

Michael put the hooks up last night. They look marvelous, don't you think? I'd like to say I'm all done, but the are a few edges to finish painting, painting the rest of the laundry room, and training the kids to dump all their school related gear in the appropriate spots. Baby steps to getting it done.

See the pretend bag stand in for all the kids' backpacks.

Birds and The Bees

I was a deer in the headlights. Unprepared was I to discuss the inner workings of the female anatomy to my 9 year old son. Yes indeedy, I had to exlpain what a feminine product was for.

Jack skinned his chin on the way to the car after school. When we got home I told Jack to go look in my bathroom for the bandaids. Little did I know that he would look in my bottom drawer, you know, the one that's off limits to everyone. Well, he came out holding an item and asked; "Will this work?" Immediately my mind races to an image of him with a pad stuck to his face and I can't control my sides from aching as I start laughing.

"Umm, no Jack, that won't work."

"Why not?"

Yup, I then had to launch into a birds and bees discussion. Failure to plan will inevitably lead to some stammering, questionable explanations, and possibly 9 year old boys walking around with pads stuck to their chin for First Aid purposes.

Viva la Revolution

I swear yesterday someone said that they needed to work on their New Year's Revolutions. That is one way to conquer the New Year. I'd like to say that I'm working on my resolutions, but today is officially the beginning of the New Year for me. I am using the excuse that the kids did not start back to school until today and I wasn't going to test my limits while the kids were still on break.

Michael's idea of "going 'round the horn"is starting to sound pretty good. Since it's already past the start of the year it's too late to start making resolutions. Better wait until next year.

Nah, I have too much of Dad in me to not make resolutions. I suppose I'll stew on them for a while and wrap my head around what I'd like to accomplish this year. Throw some ideas at me, hopefully not the reject ones from last year.

Quick Change

With the arrival of the new year, there were a few changes at church. First, our ward now meets at 9 AM. Yipee! Much better than the 11 AM meet time from last year. I would like to say I was early and got good seats, but I arrived right on time and sat in the last row. At least the view is pretty good from the back row.

As of late Saturday night, I was no longer the Relief Society Secretary. Talk about a last minute call. I am now teaching the 12 year old girls. This is a first for me being in Primary. It's a small class and I am glad that I didn't end up teaching Jack's class which has 12-15 kids. Thankfully I have a lot of family resources to use (Tia, Sherri).

Winter Break

I feel like I've been fairly patient..haha, others might disagree, with my children this school break. I have gone past patient and straight to crazy mom. I am soooo done with everyone being at home all the time. Did I mention that I need to see if there is an opening at a preschool that I heard about?

As sad as Michael is to be done with vacation, I'm as happy that the kids are headed back to school. I know that there is that other can of worms, you know...homework, that is not fun to open but a necessary compliment to the benefits of school.

I can tell the kids need a break from each other. It was so nice at the beginning of break when they woke up and headed downstairs for breakfast. It was even cute when they started waking each other up in anticipation of Christmas morning. After Christmas it became a race to see who could wake each other up using the loudest toy or turning on the tv to some awful cartoon. Is this too much information? Am I starting to sound *slightly* annoyed with my children?

I Love the Smell of Paint in the Morning

Beware of the following ramblings.

I've been painting the bench that continues to soak up the paint as soon as I apply it. I'm slightly loopy from all the paint fumes but I hope to finish up by tomorrow. I used to love beadboard until I had to paint it.

As a family we went to the movies this afternoon, The Tale of Despereaux. I can only give it one thumb. The kids were entertained and that's what counts, right?

Jack invited a friend over for a "sleepover", it's now 11:05 PM and there is no sleeping as of yet. Here's hoping that there will be sleep in my immediate future.

From Russia With Love

Happy New Year! We had a James Bond marathon starting at the illustrious begining "Dr. No" and wrapping it up with "From Russia With Love". A little Sean Connery to ring in the New Year.

We may have lost some time between 9:30 and 11:05 PM. "Somehow" the clocks magically sped up and the kids got to stay up until midnight then it was bed time. Now I need to fix the clocks without the kids noticing. Maybe when I'm plying them with hot chocolate and donut holes for breakfast they'll be easily distracted.