It's been two weeks or so since our famous After-Halloween party, and I stopped unpacking a week or so before that to concentrate on getting the place decorated and getting the items we needed, so it's probably been near a month since I last unpacked anything.
I was QUITE excited to finally unpack SOMETHING, even if it was just a bag. All bags are mostly clothes so nothing thrilling. The bag got dumped into the laundry chute.
I was actually pretty amused because the big bin we keep out dirty clothes in has been completely empty every day, and now I've dumped a bag full of clothes into it so we're back to catching up LOL. I guess I had it too easy only doing two loads of laundry a day. I've already started my white loads (of which I have two). With the new bag I imagine I'll have three total white loads today [I HATE WHITE LOADS!!].
Now I'm folding the clothes I took out of the dryer from last night.
I was going to draw some today since I can't do any outside work (I tried to, but the ground is still way too cold and stuff is sticking to the ground - annoying) but I think I'd like to play some Sims 3 again, since I scrapped a family yesterday and had to start all over. :)
Have a great Thursday!
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Thursday, November 20, 2014
Thursday, November 13, 2014
The start of Jr High basketball
It was a dark, cold, blustery evening. We were very excited for our first game of the season. It was made even more special because my daughter (Diva) was going to be a Jr High basketball cheerleader for the first time ever.
I needed to come early to drop off the Capri Suns Diva promised I'd bring (that she didn't tell me about until the day before yesterday), so I got to see her in uniform with her hair all done up and her sparkly headband ($5) and make-up. I took a few pictures and then settled into the gym even though it was still half an hour before the 7th grade started playing. I got a pretty decent seat (half court!)
When it was finally time for the 7th graders to come out they came out fast and hard and aggressive! They amazed the crowd with their determination! One kid actually JUMPED OVER a kid from the other team trying to get the ball! Another kid had his arm bent around backwards but he seemed to be willing to break his arm in order to just get the ball back!! They won by a landslide.
Then my son's team came out. My little star barely lived up to his nickname. He was called for travelling at minimum six times. It was just sad. Last year he was the star of the team! The rest of the team did little better. The other team got so far ahead they started running continuous clock....I didn't even know they HAD a "pity rule" for Jr High. We lost 40-something to seven....and not one of those seven points were scored by an 8th grader...they were all made by 7th graders that moved up to help out the 8th grade team.
It was a depressing start to the season. Last year they lost every single game....I'm pretty sure they lost every single game the year before....I was hoping they'd learn from their mistakes by now, but no.
I'll still try to update this site on their progress through the season. We do have some pretty great players....they just don't come together as a team very well.
[On a brighter note this was the first game in two years that my little Star didn't get called for a bunch of fouls LOL]
And even worse we came out to a dusting of snow on our vehicles and ice on the roads!
I needed to come early to drop off the Capri Suns Diva promised I'd bring (that she didn't tell me about until the day before yesterday), so I got to see her in uniform with her hair all done up and her sparkly headband ($5) and make-up. I took a few pictures and then settled into the gym even though it was still half an hour before the 7th grade started playing. I got a pretty decent seat (half court!)
When it was finally time for the 7th graders to come out they came out fast and hard and aggressive! They amazed the crowd with their determination! One kid actually JUMPED OVER a kid from the other team trying to get the ball! Another kid had his arm bent around backwards but he seemed to be willing to break his arm in order to just get the ball back!! They won by a landslide.
Then my son's team came out. My little star barely lived up to his nickname. He was called for travelling at minimum six times. It was just sad. Last year he was the star of the team! The rest of the team did little better. The other team got so far ahead they started running continuous clock....I didn't even know they HAD a "pity rule" for Jr High. We lost 40-something to seven....and not one of those seven points were scored by an 8th grader...they were all made by 7th graders that moved up to help out the 8th grade team.
It was a depressing start to the season. Last year they lost every single game....I'm pretty sure they lost every single game the year before....I was hoping they'd learn from their mistakes by now, but no.
I'll still try to update this site on their progress through the season. We do have some pretty great players....they just don't come together as a team very well.
[On a brighter note this was the first game in two years that my little Star didn't get called for a bunch of fouls LOL]
And even worse we came out to a dusting of snow on our vehicles and ice on the roads!
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Not a good week.
Between the Mr working weird hours (sometimes 2nd, sometimes 3rd, sometimes half of one and half of another), my not sleeping well (it happens), my CRAZY busy schedule, a water line busting in the alley directly behind my house, a sick elderly dog, trying to get my kitchen reorganized and cleaned, and getting Halloween put away, not even mentioning this dreary freezing weather.........I just want to stop everything and play computer games all day!!!
But I can't.
And I won't.
I'm finishing up the kitchen now and let the day go from there.
I'm miserable with worry about my elderly dog. We have a vet appointment so hopefully that will make me feel better...but to be honest I'm ALSO worried the vet will order all kinds of tests I can't afford right now and I feel like my dog probably doesn't NEED too many tests....he's nearing 13 years-old....he might just be winding down. Then I start to think he might be on his way out and then I start freaking out because I have had this dog as a member of my family since before half my children! What will I do without him!!
So here's to hoping it's just an easy fix, which would be all that more awesome if it was cheap, too.
I'm trying hard, here, but today just isn't a good one.
I'm trying to pick a new book to read. My official book is too difficult when my mind is running too fast (another thing I'm bringing up with the doctor ~ this frantic thought pattern usually precedes a bout of depression) so I finished my entire "Little House" series. I've got a LOT of choices I just don't want to choose. My stepson brought me a Lisa Scottoline from who knows where. The last Scottoline I read I did not enjoy....but then again I severely disliked the "Twilight" series but I adored "The Host" by the same author, so I'm willing to give it a shot. My only issue is it looks suspiciously like the other book I already read and disliked enough to give it away....it's called "Devil's Corner." I remember quite a lot of the book I read before but not the name so I should know pretty quickly if it's the same book. However it's here and it's out so I might as well start reading it.
After I finish the kitchen, of course.
But I can't.
And I won't.
I'm finishing up the kitchen now and let the day go from there.
I'm miserable with worry about my elderly dog. We have a vet appointment so hopefully that will make me feel better...but to be honest I'm ALSO worried the vet will order all kinds of tests I can't afford right now and I feel like my dog probably doesn't NEED too many tests....he's nearing 13 years-old....he might just be winding down. Then I start to think he might be on his way out and then I start freaking out because I have had this dog as a member of my family since before half my children! What will I do without him!!
So here's to hoping it's just an easy fix, which would be all that more awesome if it was cheap, too.
I'm trying hard, here, but today just isn't a good one.
I'm trying to pick a new book to read. My official book is too difficult when my mind is running too fast (another thing I'm bringing up with the doctor ~ this frantic thought pattern usually precedes a bout of depression) so I finished my entire "Little House" series. I've got a LOT of choices I just don't want to choose. My stepson brought me a Lisa Scottoline from who knows where. The last Scottoline I read I did not enjoy....but then again I severely disliked the "Twilight" series but I adored "The Host" by the same author, so I'm willing to give it a shot. My only issue is it looks suspiciously like the other book I already read and disliked enough to give it away....it's called "Devil's Corner." I remember quite a lot of the book I read before but not the name so I should know pretty quickly if it's the same book. However it's here and it's out so I might as well start reading it.
After I finish the kitchen, of course.
Friday, November 7, 2014
Continuation of last entry:
I have gone through the few things that made it from "the crate."
Upon further inspection, half the items are now in the trash.
The one skirt still seems fine so it will get put away.
On a brighter note, the two shirts actually seem fine, and, wonder upon wonders...after losing the ten pounds they both actually FIT!
HOORAY!
One shirt is stained from it's ordeal, so it will be a work shirt, the other happens to be a Halloween shirt, so it will get put away with my other Halloween shirts Monday.
I'm just so happy I fit into them!!
That is all.
Upon further inspection, half the items are now in the trash.
The one skirt still seems fine so it will get put away.
On a brighter note, the two shirts actually seem fine, and, wonder upon wonders...after losing the ten pounds they both actually FIT!
HOORAY!
One shirt is stained from it's ordeal, so it will be a work shirt, the other happens to be a Halloween shirt, so it will get put away with my other Halloween shirts Monday.
I'm just so happy I fit into them!!
That is all.
UGH
Yesterday I finished the basement. It didn't take long, but boy was it physical! ALL my muscles were sore by the time I was done. I was very pleased that I only hauled one garbage bag of trash out of there.
However, I was NOT pleased at one find.
One of my goals with reorganizing the basement was to put all our Christmas decorations in one place. So I moved boxes and crates all to one spot. My stepdaughter had tried to attempt the same thing, only she put the boxes she was moving into a pile next to the pool table, and I didn't want that because it limits the space around the pool table for people to navigate in order to get the best shot. ;)
After I moved her boxes to be with the other boxes, I found a familiar crate.
A while back, I had gone through all the clothes I had been selfishly keeping "for when I lose weight." Of course, it's been about 9 years since I've lost anything except my tiny 10 pounds, so I decided I'd be mature and get rid of (donate, mostly) most of those clothes. I kept a few choice pieces for inspiration, for sentimental value, or because I bought them when I had less children and more money so they cost too much for me to want to part with. I whittled it down to this one crate.
The problem with this crate was instead of a bottom, it had kind of a plastic mesh. It was fine to keep the clothes aired out, but you may remember our basement flooded pretty badly that one time.
I specifically remember telling a teenager to check that crate and get out the wet clothes so I could wash them. This teenager specifically told me they did it. At the time I had SO MUCH laundry because of the flood that I thought nothing more about it (my brain barely functions enough to keep me alive, I swear).
Until of course I found it underneath a ton of Christmas decorations.
The crate did not smell (to me: I have a pathetic sense of smell. I can barely smell anything most of the time), so I opened it up and I'm betting you can guess what I found.
UGH.
So I washed them anyway (I'm nothing if not optimistic) and dried them, but most of it was garbage by the time I was through.
I saved four shirts and a skirt, but I really don't think even they will make it through many more washes.
I am very irritated with the teenager that lied to me but there's nothing I can do about it now. I probably shouldn't be keeping clothes I don't fit in anyway.
****NOTE*****
After I washed and dried the ruined clothes I did run a cycle in the washing machine with just bleach to clean it (I also left it open all night to completely dry the inside) and I did thoroughly clean out the dryer with the vacuum to get out all lint/destroyed pieces of cloth out of all the exhaust JUST to make sure.
However, I was NOT pleased at one find.
One of my goals with reorganizing the basement was to put all our Christmas decorations in one place. So I moved boxes and crates all to one spot. My stepdaughter had tried to attempt the same thing, only she put the boxes she was moving into a pile next to the pool table, and I didn't want that because it limits the space around the pool table for people to navigate in order to get the best shot. ;)
After I moved her boxes to be with the other boxes, I found a familiar crate.
A while back, I had gone through all the clothes I had been selfishly keeping "for when I lose weight." Of course, it's been about 9 years since I've lost anything except my tiny 10 pounds, so I decided I'd be mature and get rid of (donate, mostly) most of those clothes. I kept a few choice pieces for inspiration, for sentimental value, or because I bought them when I had less children and more money so they cost too much for me to want to part with. I whittled it down to this one crate.
The problem with this crate was instead of a bottom, it had kind of a plastic mesh. It was fine to keep the clothes aired out, but you may remember our basement flooded pretty badly that one time.
I specifically remember telling a teenager to check that crate and get out the wet clothes so I could wash them. This teenager specifically told me they did it. At the time I had SO MUCH laundry because of the flood that I thought nothing more about it (my brain barely functions enough to keep me alive, I swear).
Until of course I found it underneath a ton of Christmas decorations.
The crate did not smell (to me: I have a pathetic sense of smell. I can barely smell anything most of the time), so I opened it up and I'm betting you can guess what I found.
UGH.
So I washed them anyway (I'm nothing if not optimistic) and dried them, but most of it was garbage by the time I was through.
I saved four shirts and a skirt, but I really don't think even they will make it through many more washes.
I am very irritated with the teenager that lied to me but there's nothing I can do about it now. I probably shouldn't be keeping clothes I don't fit in anyway.
****NOTE*****
After I washed and dried the ruined clothes I did run a cycle in the washing machine with just bleach to clean it (I also left it open all night to completely dry the inside) and I did thoroughly clean out the dryer with the vacuum to get out all lint/destroyed pieces of cloth out of all the exhaust JUST to make sure.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
A Quick Extra
I am paying for the Netflix service where I get a DVD in the mail, and when I'm done with it I mail it back and after a little while I get a new one.
Well a while back I stopped getting new ones. I looked it up online and apparently I still had a Friends disc somewhere.
I.
LOOKED.
EVERYWHERE for this stupid disc, and it did not exist in this house!!
So the other day my husband and I finally broke down and changed our streaming Netflix to work on four screens instead of two (we were tired of fighting with children over who gets to watch). I considered (for quite a while, actually) shutting off the DVD service (I'm still PAYING for it, after all)....but I ultimately didn't.
So today I was headed for the bathroom, and remembered that two weeks ago I finished my "bathroom book," and I decided it was time to put a new book in there. I looked through my "to read" shelf (which is drawn from my "to read" PILE, which is getting pretty big) and found this book:
It was my "van book" from when I only drove the van, and it fell into the "meh" pile of books that I read a bit of but wasn't really enjoying so I just kind of left it sitting around. (It's a mystery book, and I'm not fond of mysteries.)
So I decided to grab it and put it in it's new home in the bathroom cabinet to read whenever I'm spending a longish time in the bathroom. Since that was what I was doing, I ended up opening the book and began to read....and I'll bet you can guess what fell out of it.
MY MISSING NETFLIX DVD!!
WHY. ON. EARTH. This thing was IN MY BOOK all this time I have NO IDEA!!!!!
I have never once in my LIFE put a DVD in a BOOK.
In any case since I have it I'm going to go ahead and watch it ;). Then I can get it mailed later today.
This is further proof that I'm correct in my theory that one of my husband's ex-girlfriends has passed on and is spending eternity messing with me to make my husband mad at me LOL!
P.S. I LOVE "FRIENDS!!!!!"
Well a while back I stopped getting new ones. I looked it up online and apparently I still had a Friends disc somewhere.
I.
LOOKED.
EVERYWHERE for this stupid disc, and it did not exist in this house!!
So the other day my husband and I finally broke down and changed our streaming Netflix to work on four screens instead of two (we were tired of fighting with children over who gets to watch). I considered (for quite a while, actually) shutting off the DVD service (I'm still PAYING for it, after all)....but I ultimately didn't.
So today I was headed for the bathroom, and remembered that two weeks ago I finished my "bathroom book," and I decided it was time to put a new book in there. I looked through my "to read" shelf (which is drawn from my "to read" PILE, which is getting pretty big) and found this book:
It was my "van book" from when I only drove the van, and it fell into the "meh" pile of books that I read a bit of but wasn't really enjoying so I just kind of left it sitting around. (It's a mystery book, and I'm not fond of mysteries.)
So I decided to grab it and put it in it's new home in the bathroom cabinet to read whenever I'm spending a longish time in the bathroom. Since that was what I was doing, I ended up opening the book and began to read....and I'll bet you can guess what fell out of it.
MY MISSING NETFLIX DVD!!
WHY. ON. EARTH. This thing was IN MY BOOK all this time I have NO IDEA!!!!!
I have never once in my LIFE put a DVD in a BOOK.
In any case since I have it I'm going to go ahead and watch it ;). Then I can get it mailed later today.
This is further proof that I'm correct in my theory that one of my husband's ex-girlfriends has passed on and is spending eternity messing with me to make my husband mad at me LOL!
P.S. I LOVE "FRIENDS!!!!!"
The Busiest Time of Year
I love our annual "After Halloween Party," but I am so busy I don't have time to unpack!! And there are things out there that I really REALLY want unpacked!!! (I can't say I "need" them or they would have been unpacked already.)
I am so grumpy this morning!!! And it would cheer me up to unpack a bag of clothes (my mind has been recalling several items [mostly of children's clothing] that are missing from this house) or a crate or something!!! And I really need to start working on getting furniture in here or consider getting rid of it all together! Although it will soon be too cold to worry about furniture until Spring.
The kids have been less than helpful in keeping the house clean. I had most of it cleaned and party-ready, thinking if they could JUST pick up after themselves it would stay that way.
No.
I just about had a meltdown because there was a dried piece of bread crumbled into my floorboards, and a bowl of mac n' cheese sitting out all night.
I threatened all the children that if food keeps getting left out punishments will start becoming unreasonable and unignorable. We did not have the first bug OR mouse last winter!! And so far I've already seen evidence of a rodent (I left a bag of pistachios out and suddenly they were all shells with suspicious black pellet feces laying around. Proof enough for me!) and God help these children if I find a bug in this house!!
I told them this morning that AFTER THE PARTY (because WHY do they think the house has to be clean just for company? It should be clean ALL THE TIME!!!) every single time I find dirty dishes laying around or food left out EVERYONE will be grounded! [read: no wifi] And if no one can pick up after themselves it will go from being grounded one day to two, then three....I would certainly hope if everyone in the freaking house gets grounded for a WEEK just for a bowl of cereal being left out they would alter their behavior?
LET'S HOPE, because I can't live this way anymore....I can barely keep up with picking up after my husband...I can't do five kids as well anymore [not to mention 3 dogs, one of which is elderly and having more problems every day, two cats, a rabbit a tortoise and a turtle!! {although I don't really have to do very much with the turtle}.]
Well, I'm off to clean some more! I'm finishing the basement today. It would have been done a month ago but a certain teenager begged me to let them do it so they could earn money, then they never did anything. Now the party is Saturday and if we want the basement to be a haunted house it still needs to be cleaned up. So I will have to do it. For free.
I live the life, y'all. ;)
I am so grumpy this morning!!! And it would cheer me up to unpack a bag of clothes (my mind has been recalling several items [mostly of children's clothing] that are missing from this house) or a crate or something!!! And I really need to start working on getting furniture in here or consider getting rid of it all together! Although it will soon be too cold to worry about furniture until Spring.
The kids have been less than helpful in keeping the house clean. I had most of it cleaned and party-ready, thinking if they could JUST pick up after themselves it would stay that way.
No.
I just about had a meltdown because there was a dried piece of bread crumbled into my floorboards, and a bowl of mac n' cheese sitting out all night.
I threatened all the children that if food keeps getting left out punishments will start becoming unreasonable and unignorable. We did not have the first bug OR mouse last winter!! And so far I've already seen evidence of a rodent (I left a bag of pistachios out and suddenly they were all shells with suspicious black pellet feces laying around. Proof enough for me!) and God help these children if I find a bug in this house!!
I told them this morning that AFTER THE PARTY (because WHY do they think the house has to be clean just for company? It should be clean ALL THE TIME!!!) every single time I find dirty dishes laying around or food left out EVERYONE will be grounded! [read: no wifi] And if no one can pick up after themselves it will go from being grounded one day to two, then three....I would certainly hope if everyone in the freaking house gets grounded for a WEEK just for a bowl of cereal being left out they would alter their behavior?
LET'S HOPE, because I can't live this way anymore....I can barely keep up with picking up after my husband...I can't do five kids as well anymore [not to mention 3 dogs, one of which is elderly and having more problems every day, two cats, a rabbit a tortoise and a turtle!! {although I don't really have to do very much with the turtle}.]
Well, I'm off to clean some more! I'm finishing the basement today. It would have been done a month ago but a certain teenager begged me to let them do it so they could earn money, then they never did anything. Now the party is Saturday and if we want the basement to be a haunted house it still needs to be cleaned up. So I will have to do it. For free.
I live the life, y'all. ;)
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Oops....
When I get really involved in a project I kind of forget everything else.
That being said I cleaned my room today (found some missing books LOL) and forgot ALL about dinner.
My poor husband, who had been working since 4am, was less than thrilled.
I felt bad for HIM but didn't really care myself because I got a lot done today. I didn't realize my room was even messy until I started cleaning it! But I have been so busy getting stuff ready for the party I kind of became blind to my bedroom.
Oh well, my room is nearly clean and I guess it's a leftovers night!
:D
LOVES!
AmyG
That being said I cleaned my room today (found some missing books LOL) and forgot ALL about dinner.
My poor husband, who had been working since 4am, was less than thrilled.
I felt bad for HIM but didn't really care myself because I got a lot done today. I didn't realize my room was even messy until I started cleaning it! But I have been so busy getting stuff ready for the party I kind of became blind to my bedroom.
Oh well, my room is nearly clean and I guess it's a leftovers night!
:D
LOVES!
AmyG
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Clothes!
I FINALLY unpacked a box of MY stuff!! (Of course on a day I wasn't taking pictures...figures.)
And it was CLOTHES!!
For those of you who don't know, I only had a couple pairs of jeans and a few (nicer) shirts - mostly my school spirit shirts - when we moved in. Since then I got a bunch of new clothes for Christmas and a whole bunch of clothes during Kmart's dollar sale, and I even got some on sale at Khol's, so it's not like I don't have clothes....still, it was superawesome to find a box of my nicer clothes.
It does pose a dilemma, however. At our old house I had a walk-in closet that was chock-FULL of clothes!
My current closet is much MUCH smaller....the Mr doesn't have much of a problem because his half of this closet is about the same size as his fourth (lol) of the walk-in closet. But I am going to have a TON of clothes that won't even FIT in this closet. :(
For the most part I can find a new place for my sweaters and small jackets.....but after that I will have to keep my wardrobe trimmed down and that's going to be hard for me. But I must do it!!! I have lived perfectly well with what clothes I have right now, so hopefully I'll keep that in mind while I'm going though the clothes I just unpacked (they are in the laundry ~ they were clean when they were packed [still on hangers, even!] but they've spent a year in a cardboard box and I have asthma and allergies....not taking the chance...they get cleaned!).
I'm actually kind of excited to go through them. I've lost over ten pounds since I last wore these items! Hooray!
Today I'm doing some bills and then I'm sitting outside trying to get my roses planted again. It's a good day to do it! My stepdaughter wants a pot or two and it's getting close to freezing at night so if I don't get it done soon I'm going to start losing them. They were cheap so it won't be a horrible thing, but I did still pay money for them LOL! So wish me luck and the time to get it all done!
And it was CLOTHES!!
For those of you who don't know, I only had a couple pairs of jeans and a few (nicer) shirts - mostly my school spirit shirts - when we moved in. Since then I got a bunch of new clothes for Christmas and a whole bunch of clothes during Kmart's dollar sale, and I even got some on sale at Khol's, so it's not like I don't have clothes....still, it was superawesome to find a box of my nicer clothes.
It does pose a dilemma, however. At our old house I had a walk-in closet that was chock-FULL of clothes!
My current closet is much MUCH smaller....the Mr doesn't have much of a problem because his half of this closet is about the same size as his fourth (lol) of the walk-in closet. But I am going to have a TON of clothes that won't even FIT in this closet. :(
For the most part I can find a new place for my sweaters and small jackets.....but after that I will have to keep my wardrobe trimmed down and that's going to be hard for me. But I must do it!!! I have lived perfectly well with what clothes I have right now, so hopefully I'll keep that in mind while I'm going though the clothes I just unpacked (they are in the laundry ~ they were clean when they were packed [still on hangers, even!] but they've spent a year in a cardboard box and I have asthma and allergies....not taking the chance...they get cleaned!).
I'm actually kind of excited to go through them. I've lost over ten pounds since I last wore these items! Hooray!
Today I'm doing some bills and then I'm sitting outside trying to get my roses planted again. It's a good day to do it! My stepdaughter wants a pot or two and it's getting close to freezing at night so if I don't get it done soon I'm going to start losing them. They were cheap so it won't be a horrible thing, but I did still pay money for them LOL! So wish me luck and the time to get it all done!
Friday, October 17, 2014
Yesterday's Adventures
My adventure yesterday. I got bored so I started taking pictures of everything I was doing and thought it'd make a good (if dull) blog post LOL.
So I decided it was high time I started unpacking again (I had been concentrating on Halloween decorations for the past few weeks). I picked a crate (another stack gone!) and lugged it to the patio to unpack it. It was unreasonably heavy. I opened it up and found this:
CANS?!? REALLY?!? Someone packed CANNED FOOD in a CRATE?!? RIDICULOUS!!! I was pretty sure I had unpacked all the food within the month we moved in!!! This crate could've been used for something a lot more worthy than canned food!
So whatever, I started going through the canned food.
It turns out, 60% of that canned food expired in 2010..... THREE YEARS BEFORE WE MOVED!! What?!? Someone packed up expired food in a crate and then we moved it with us!!!
RIDICULOUS! Ha ha!
So I dumped the expired food and the rest of the food expires next year, but JUST TO BE SAFE.....I opened up a can of pear halves and sampled it to make sure it was still okay to eat ;)
I'm still alive today, so they must be okay. I might try another can of pear halves just to make double-sure, however, haha!
I wanted to mow, but it was way too rainy:
So instead I decided to work on my drawing. I've been trying to get back to doing some things that I enjoy instead of just cleaning (or finding reasons not to clean) every single moment of every single day. So I started this drawing last week and worked on it for about 20 minutes, getting this much done: (10 points if you know who the subject is!)
And yesterday I worked for about 20 more minutes and finished up with this:
Decent enough, so far. It's been a while so I'm a bit rusty. Still, the only person I need to impress is myself, right?
After that I decided to get back to work. It was still too rainy to mow, but it wasn't too rainy to go pick up the driveway. Lazy (and probably dumb) people walk or drive past our house and throw garbage into it....so I got all the trash and then moved the chairs into the garage to dry off for the football game tonight, and picked up a few things my husband insisted needed to be left outside but have remained in my driveway untouched except for when I move them to mow. They've been there over a year now. I moved them into the garage as well.
Lastly, after a day of moderate work, my husband got tickets for D's annual pancake and sausage dinner. It was awesome.....I didn't have to cook!! All the kids enjoyed their meals,
And we finished off our evening watching our Tank play football.
It was a great day.
:D
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Autumn!
It is Autumn here in Illinois, which means, in addition to leaves dying and falling off trees, some GORGEOUS skies!! I think I take more sky photos during autumn and spring than any other time of the year!
Beautiful!
Speaking of....here's some embarrassing photos of my stepdaughter going through what jewelry I have unpacked to find things to wear for the homecoming dance!! LOL
She ended up borrowing quite a few things!
I have some good pictures of her all dressed up and ready to go to the dance, but they have not been downloaded off my camera yet. I let the battery die and now I need to charge it before I can get the images off LOL!
I do have a SD card slot on my computer....but it has ceased to function (quite a while ago, actually) so I cannot get images off my cameras any other way than via USB cord, and there has to be power to the cameras to do that.
So next time!!
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Continuation
The plans I had made today kind of got thrown out the window (this week has been a bit brutal on everyone around me), so of course my whole world was messed up because I don't think like a normal person thinks LOL.
I put up on Facebook whether I should continue cleaning/organizing/rearranging the basement or if I should finish cleaning up the pool and get it put away already.
The general opinion was I should finish the pool before the rains come (tomorrow-ish) and enjoy the *nice* weather while I can.
Of course then the Mr called and mentioned he's out of socks so I ended up spending time in the basement anyway.
If you've read my blogs you know what happened the last time I was cleaning the basement. I did not want a repeat of that situation. Knowing I still had to finish vacuuming cobwebs out from under my basement stairs, I leashed up one terrified puppy named Butterfly and forced her to go under the stairs with me. She was upset at first, but quickly realized I was serious and she wasn't leaving. Instead of panicking and peeing on the floor (which is what I figured would happen) she sat on my lap while I finished up under the stairs. You could tell she wasn't happy about it, but she did it so I praised her and gave her a treat.
When I moved on from the stairs I began vacuuming the cobwebs on the ceiling. I did not bother leashing Butterfly up because if she peed on the floor I could easily clean that up. She tried to come after the vacuum one time and I poked her in the side with my finger and said "no" very sternly but without yelling at all.
At first she ran to her cage and cowered inside it every time I turned the vacuum on, for which I praised her and gave her a treat.
After a while she began running over and lying down on the ground whenever I used the vacuum, for which I also praised and fed her a treat. After a while the other dogs began running over while I was vacuuming and sitting around me because unlike my Butterfly, they are pretty smart and wanted some of the action she was getting LOL!
I have a picture but it's still on the iPod of Butterfly lying on the ground (but still pretty obviously not happy) while I'm vacuuming. Such a good girl!!
So SO FAR she is being a good little puppy while I'm working and that's good. I haven't had to clean up any more dog pee (SO FAR) and that's great.
I'm not quite halfway through the basement at this point....and I really didn't get very much laundry done today (socks got done so no one can complain at least!), but maybe tomorrow I'll get started a little earlier. I'm just dealing with some outside issues and trying to help out when I can, so my own stuff is getting put on the back-burner.
Also I have had a constant headache for two weeks straight now, and I'm considering bringing this up when I see the doctor (soon). It's not bad enough to warrant major meds...but the fact that it's never going away is concerning me.
Love you all!
Monday, September 29, 2014
blah
So this Monday so far has been a very bad day. Not because it's Monday, of course....just happens to be a really bad day on a Monday. I'm trying to stay positive, but it's hard when people that you love are hurting.
Just a little bit of laundry to do......
I have so much laundry to do that I separated not only into colors, but into the people they belong to as well. The girls have a TON more clothes than the boys, and I needed to make SURE that some of the boys' clothes got washed. I did four loads of laundry Saturday and it's almost still the same amount of laundry I have to do today! My tough decision of the day is shall I continue to work on darks or do I start doing brights today? I'm thinking I'll keep doing darks until every pair of jeans are clean.
For the past couple weeks I've been working on getting the rocks out of what's supposed to be my rose bed. This whole summer I've noticed we have a whole lot of grasshoppers....but this is only our first summer here so maybe there are just a lot of grasshoppers around here, what do I know? But the weird thing is, these grasshoppers don't seem to be afraid of anything!! When I was tossing rocks into my rock pile I was startled to see a large grasshopper sitting on a rock right next to the one I just threw....and he just turned a little to see what I threw at him and didn't move! He didn't move for over half an hour while I was STILL throwing rocks in the pile! (I did try to not hit the little thing.)
Well the rest of them are the same. I found this one on my gate and he just sat there while I opened the gate, walked through it with all my bags, and then shut the gate. So I took a picture with my hand nearly touching him. He didn't care. When I touched him he just moved over a bit.
This is strange in MY book but again....what do I know?
So laundry today, maybe work in the basement some more....I have a meeting at the school so I'll need to shower & be out of here in a while.
I hope your day is going a lot better than mine!
AmyG
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Story of my LIFE
I have three puppies. One is 12 and 1/2 years old and nothing in the universe phases him (probably why he's lived so long LOL). Two are brother and sister and they are four years old. They will be five on New Year's Day.
Butterfly is my little girl puppy and even though she is beautiful she is also dumb as a box of rocks (possibly dumber). She absolutely HATES it when I sweep, and she absolutely HATES it when I vacuum. I understand the vacuum is noisy and it can scare a sensitive puppy.
I have been working on training her to not react as much while I'm vacuuming, and I was working hard on it today, because I'm cleaning the basement.
She was doing relatively well all day, then I started cleaning under the stairs. This required me to first clean off the stairs, then get under the stairs with the shop-vac and suck up all the cobwebs. Butterfly was on the stairs watching me (I can only hope to see if the vacuum killed me so she can attack it) and then I hit a stair wrong and it bounced out and sucked on her leg.
This dog went absolutely insane. She tried to get her head through the stairs to bite the vacuum and when she couldn't do that she got RIGHT ABOVE me and then peed.
On the stairs.
Which then dripped.
Down the stairs.
And THROUGH the stairs
.
onto
.
ME.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I was less than pleased.
Kids are running down wondering why I'm screaming.
Butterfly runs away and hides in her bed [cage].
When I realized what was happening I thew the hose to the shop-vac on the ground (still on) and I got out from under the stairs.
At this point ALL the dogs are in their cages because I'm yelling obscenities LOL.
I actually think I was angrier that there was dog urine on the stairs I had JUST. CLEANED. AND that I had been stacking things on the stairs that needed to go upstairs/in the garage and now all of THAT had dog pee puddling under it than I was that there was pee on ME. (I'm a mom ~ pretty used to it.)
In any case I gave the two other puppies a treat and put them all to bed while I went upstairs (writing this) to take a break. (I did put down dry-sweep on the pee and shut off the vacuum.)
Needed a break anyway ~ I haven't left the basement except to walk the dogs (which incidentally I had done within ten minutes of getting peed on) ALL DAY.
I have maybe a fourth of the basement done. I didn't realize how bad a job people were doing cleaning down there. They were actually doing the OPPOSITE of cleaning. I found the sour cream we've been missing for two weeks (hint: it was NOT in the refrigerator) and some clothes behind the dryer (WHY??). I had to spend over an hour cleaning off the table I told people to never put anything on because I needed it as a folding table (I've been using the pool table as a folding table today and putting the folded clothes in baskets on the ground). When the kids set up the filter system for the turtle's aquarium they just threw the cord on the ground where it's been getting stepped on and kicked and stuff and quite frankly it would be dangerous for people to walk over there, so I reran the cords behind the other things along the wall like a normal person. The last time we got food for the turtle (last weekend) I told Tank (the turtle's owner) to dump the bucket after he gave the turtle the fish.....it was still there, complete with about a dozen dead fish and three dead crawdads (wtaf?).
And all this has just been in the fourth of a basement I've gotten cleaned.
So yeah.....I'm going back down there soon to keep on a'truckin' and I will walk the dogs again and they will still be able to watch me..........but only after I'm done with the stairs.
:)
Butterfly is my little girl puppy and even though she is beautiful she is also dumb as a box of rocks (possibly dumber). She absolutely HATES it when I sweep, and she absolutely HATES it when I vacuum. I understand the vacuum is noisy and it can scare a sensitive puppy.
I have been working on training her to not react as much while I'm vacuuming, and I was working hard on it today, because I'm cleaning the basement.
She was doing relatively well all day, then I started cleaning under the stairs. This required me to first clean off the stairs, then get under the stairs with the shop-vac and suck up all the cobwebs. Butterfly was on the stairs watching me (I can only hope to see if the vacuum killed me so she can attack it) and then I hit a stair wrong and it bounced out and sucked on her leg.
This dog went absolutely insane. She tried to get her head through the stairs to bite the vacuum and when she couldn't do that she got RIGHT ABOVE me and then peed.
On the stairs.
Which then dripped.
Down the stairs.
And THROUGH the stairs
.
onto
.
ME.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I was less than pleased.
Kids are running down wondering why I'm screaming.
Butterfly runs away and hides in her bed [cage].
When I realized what was happening I thew the hose to the shop-vac on the ground (still on) and I got out from under the stairs.
At this point ALL the dogs are in their cages because I'm yelling obscenities LOL.
I actually think I was angrier that there was dog urine on the stairs I had JUST. CLEANED. AND that I had been stacking things on the stairs that needed to go upstairs/in the garage and now all of THAT had dog pee puddling under it than I was that there was pee on ME. (I'm a mom ~ pretty used to it.)
In any case I gave the two other puppies a treat and put them all to bed while I went upstairs (writing this) to take a break. (I did put down dry-sweep on the pee and shut off the vacuum.)
Needed a break anyway ~ I haven't left the basement except to walk the dogs (which incidentally I had done within ten minutes of getting peed on) ALL DAY.
I have maybe a fourth of the basement done. I didn't realize how bad a job people were doing cleaning down there. They were actually doing the OPPOSITE of cleaning. I found the sour cream we've been missing for two weeks (hint: it was NOT in the refrigerator) and some clothes behind the dryer (WHY??). I had to spend over an hour cleaning off the table I told people to never put anything on because I needed it as a folding table (I've been using the pool table as a folding table today and putting the folded clothes in baskets on the ground). When the kids set up the filter system for the turtle's aquarium they just threw the cord on the ground where it's been getting stepped on and kicked and stuff and quite frankly it would be dangerous for people to walk over there, so I reran the cords behind the other things along the wall like a normal person. The last time we got food for the turtle (last weekend) I told Tank (the turtle's owner) to dump the bucket after he gave the turtle the fish.....it was still there, complete with about a dozen dead fish and three dead crawdads (wtaf?).
And all this has just been in the fourth of a basement I've gotten cleaned.
So yeah.....I'm going back down there soon to keep on a'truckin' and I will walk the dogs again and they will still be able to watch me..........but only after I'm done with the stairs.
:)
What I'm Reading
I thought I'd post what I'm reading right now since I haven't done anything noteworthy lately (I was in a homecoming parade but that's on Facebook).
Today I will be cleaning the basement. All of us except for the Mr take turns cleaning the basement but it seems to me everyone else does the BARE minimum. Now it's my turn and I plan on spending the day cleaning it up the way it SHOULD be and maybe rearrange it a bit. The Mr AND some kids are using it as their personal junk drawer and that will stop RIGHT NOW!
Anyway here are the books I'm reading right now:
My "Easy Read"....this happens to be a book I read when I was a kid but the easy reads are just what they sound like. Something I can rip through with minimal thought. "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I've been moving through the entire "Little House" collection (that I own, anyway).
Bathroom Book ~ the book I keep in the bathroom for when I'm waiting for the tub to fill up or waiting for the straightening and/or curling iron to heat up or when I'm sitting there....you know. Star Trek fanfiction ~ "Devils Bargain." Not bad, really. Still on the fence as to whether I'm keeping it or not.
Van Book ~ might actually need to be called my "purse book" because I don't just drive the van anymore. I carry this book in the backpack I'm currently using as a purse to read whenever I'm sitting around (waiting for a train, waiting for a kid/husband to come to the vehicle.....recently when I was broke down and waiting for help and yesterday while sitting in the high school office waiting for children). "Airs of Night and Sea." I actually bought the first book of this series from the dollar store a couple years ago and read it. I liked it and thought the kids would like it so I kept it (it's still in the garage since we moved). I found this book at the Dollar Store when I realized I left the house without a book and saw that it was a continuation of the other book from this author...and even better it was on sale for THIRTY-FIVE CENTS!!! Heck ya, I'mma buy it! So I'm reading it now. It's just as good as the first one. :)
Officially Reading ~ The Once and Future King. I started it a while back but it's an old book and when the cover got ripped off I stopped reading it. Now it sits at my computer desk so I only read it when I'm over there. Poor old book.
Today I will be cleaning the basement. All of us except for the Mr take turns cleaning the basement but it seems to me everyone else does the BARE minimum. Now it's my turn and I plan on spending the day cleaning it up the way it SHOULD be and maybe rearrange it a bit. The Mr AND some kids are using it as their personal junk drawer and that will stop RIGHT NOW!
Anyway here are the books I'm reading right now:
My "Easy Read"....this happens to be a book I read when I was a kid but the easy reads are just what they sound like. Something I can rip through with minimal thought. "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I've been moving through the entire "Little House" collection (that I own, anyway).
Bathroom Book ~ the book I keep in the bathroom for when I'm waiting for the tub to fill up or waiting for the straightening and/or curling iron to heat up or when I'm sitting there....you know. Star Trek fanfiction ~ "Devils Bargain." Not bad, really. Still on the fence as to whether I'm keeping it or not.
Van Book ~ might actually need to be called my "purse book" because I don't just drive the van anymore. I carry this book in the backpack I'm currently using as a purse to read whenever I'm sitting around (waiting for a train, waiting for a kid/husband to come to the vehicle.....recently when I was broke down and waiting for help and yesterday while sitting in the high school office waiting for children). "Airs of Night and Sea." I actually bought the first book of this series from the dollar store a couple years ago and read it. I liked it and thought the kids would like it so I kept it (it's still in the garage since we moved). I found this book at the Dollar Store when I realized I left the house without a book and saw that it was a continuation of the other book from this author...and even better it was on sale for THIRTY-FIVE CENTS!!! Heck ya, I'mma buy it! So I'm reading it now. It's just as good as the first one. :)
Officially Reading ~ The Once and Future King. I started it a while back but it's an old book and when the cover got ripped off I stopped reading it. Now it sits at my computer desk so I only read it when I'm over there. Poor old book.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
The Bad Day
My husband had fixed my BMW and since it was my only other vehicle I took it to my dentist appointment.
It's a pretty long drive to get to my dentist so on the way I stopped to get gas and use the restroom. When I came back out my car was DEAD. It refused to even TRY to start!
I called my husband and he told me to see if someone would be nice enough to jump-start my car and then get it home immediately.
I was pretty frustrated that I had to cancel my dentist appointment, but I did manage to get one guy to jump the BMW and I headed home. However at the stop sign I had to hit the brakes (because, you know...it's a stop sign and it's there for a reason) and it died again. I pulled over to the side of the road and called The Mr again, and he said he'd "see what he could do."
Here's the photo of where I was stuck:
Lastly.....my bedroom has been full of BEES lately!! I don't know how they are getting in!!! I'll have to check the attic for a beehive. Every time I sit down at the computer two or three bees will show up and start buzzing around my head. I'll open the window for them and usually they are smart enough to exit the building, then I'll shut the window....and another bee will show up! It'll drive me nuts not knowing how they're getting in here. Only my bedroom so far....no one else has bees.
So I hope you all are having a fantastic week.
It's a pretty long drive to get to my dentist so on the way I stopped to get gas and use the restroom. When I came back out my car was DEAD. It refused to even TRY to start!
I called my husband and he told me to see if someone would be nice enough to jump-start my car and then get it home immediately.
I was pretty frustrated that I had to cancel my dentist appointment, but I did manage to get one guy to jump the BMW and I headed home. However at the stop sign I had to hit the brakes (because, you know...it's a stop sign and it's there for a reason) and it died again. I pulled over to the side of the road and called The Mr again, and he said he'd "see what he could do."
Here's the photo of where I was stuck:
Car after car after CAR went by (not to mention about 50 semis) and NO ONE stopped to help me. So I figured I was too far away from anything resembling a town to walk anywhere so I did what I do best and read some of my "vehicle book."
TWO (2!) people stopped, but only one offered to turn around and jump me again. So we got the BMW started again and I took off, not wanting to use the brakes or turn signals or anything else that required use of the battery.
However I only made it a mile or so when the car died again. Here was my new view:
So I called the Mr back and he had to take off work and come rescue me. While he was there I had to hold up the hood for him and even though MOST semis and vehicles that went by switched to the other lane to pass us, ONE semi drove so freaking close to me I thought his/her mirrors were going to hit me. A bunch of rocks were thrown into my car (convertible top was down) and the gust of wind that went by with the truck felt like it was going to rip the hood clean off the car and take my skirt with it!
Anyway, the Mr charged up the BMW's battery in the van and that got me home where he finally fixed the alternator and I've been using the BMW ever since.
That actually started a week of stress for me. I had the BMW fixed but it cost me money, which put us on a short week, which always causes marital fights.
I didn't sleep for three days STRAIGHT and was less than sunshine and bubbles.
Luckily last night I DID get to sleep.
Last night we also had two extra kids and decided on a spaghetti night. This picture isn't very good but here:
Lastly.....my bedroom has been full of BEES lately!! I don't know how they are getting in!!! I'll have to check the attic for a beehive. Every time I sit down at the computer two or three bees will show up and start buzzing around my head. I'll open the window for them and usually they are smart enough to exit the building, then I'll shut the window....and another bee will show up! It'll drive me nuts not knowing how they're getting in here. Only my bedroom so far....no one else has bees.
So I hope you all are having a fantastic week.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Photo day!
Okay, another week means another round of pictures :)
First off, I have been trying to draw more. I have some of my mom's drawings and I am very happy to have them. So I started sketching whenever I felt like it, and I'm working on a drawing of one of my kids right now.
Here's a sketch of an eye I did while on hold (on the phone). Eyes are the only thing I can draw without a reference photo.
and they're not even that good. :)
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It's getting colder pretty quickly which for our house means hat weather!!
Over the past year or so I've been picking up hats for sale and now I can finally start wearing them! I look pretty cute in hats if I say so myself. :p
So I didn't blog about it, but we've had really bad luck with cars this past month!! My husband was driving my stepson's car, and the fuel pump went out of it. So it went to the shop. A couple weeks later my husband was driving my stepdaughter's Monte Carlo and had to slam on his brakes from hitting some fool who peeled out of a driveway, and that snapped a brake line apart. So he limped it home to work on it when he had time. Those two cars weren't a high priority fix, because we still had the van and the BMW.
My daughter got sick (Hand Foot Mouth aka Enterovirus ~ BLECH) and I took her to the doctor. The doctor prescribed her some medicine and we went to get it. On our way the BMW started acting funny.....lights flashing and the turn signals suddenly didn't work. It suddenly died while I was driving it. It managed to roll into a parking lot and I even parked it in a space correctly, but it would not start up again. I had to call my mechanic and wait for him to get all the way out to where I was. While waiting I got my kid's prescription and walked around an air-conditioned store, but we also had to sit in the car. We took the top mostly off but still had some shade inside.
My mechanic showed up and I had to buy a brand-new battery, which would at least get us home....but I was forbidden to use any electronics all the way there. My daughter rode in his air-conditioned truck while I drove the car. The Mr (my mechanic) told me to take the "back way" home so if I did break down again it wouldn't be on the freeway that has had MORE than it's share of accidents and even deaths this year, but it turns out the back way had massive construction and I ended up getting sunstroke just from sitting in the BMW!
Anywhoo, I did get back home and then the family was left with just one car that worked. The Mr HAS to get to work and back, so I was stuck at home with no vehicle. Then another kid got enterovirus, so I had to drive my husband to work to take that kid to the doctor. That was enough for the Mr to go ahead and get the BMW fixed up.
And we were very happy. Unfortunately now comes the hard part...going through everything and cleaning up the mess I made in my bedroom LOL:
So I have plenty to do today!!!
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As my facebook friends know, this morning I fell down the stairs. I did not injure myself but I was out of commission for a while with ice on my ankle. While I was recovering from my highly embarrassing fall, my daughter told me she wanted to use some of my perfume. I told her to go ahead, it was in my closet.
She came back down and told me she didn't like my closet at all. I asked why not and she said it was just scary.
I said ridiculous....Spot is in there keeping an eye on things!!
And I will admit if you don't live in my closet and USE the closet-in-a-closet every day, it might be considered "scary." The people who lived here before must have thought so, because they put an extra latch on it LOL.
I laughed about it and said, "I JUST cleaned that out! All the *scary* stuff is now behind the couch in the living room! Ha ha ha ha.
And one last LOL for ya...........the texts I sent my stepdaughter when I heard she was singing in a hallway for her friends:
I'm just mean I guess ;).
First off, I have been trying to draw more. I have some of my mom's drawings and I am very happy to have them. So I started sketching whenever I felt like it, and I'm working on a drawing of one of my kids right now.
Here's a sketch of an eye I did while on hold (on the phone). Eyes are the only thing I can draw without a reference photo.
and they're not even that good. :)
I can sketch other things, but they always look like a cartoon, which is okay. Here's a sketch I did of my stepson the football player:
It's out of proportion but it ended up okay.
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It's getting colder pretty quickly which for our house means hat weather!!
Over the past year or so I've been picking up hats for sale and now I can finally start wearing them! I look pretty cute in hats if I say so myself. :p
So I didn't blog about it, but we've had really bad luck with cars this past month!! My husband was driving my stepson's car, and the fuel pump went out of it. So it went to the shop. A couple weeks later my husband was driving my stepdaughter's Monte Carlo and had to slam on his brakes from hitting some fool who peeled out of a driveway, and that snapped a brake line apart. So he limped it home to work on it when he had time. Those two cars weren't a high priority fix, because we still had the van and the BMW.
My daughter got sick (Hand Foot Mouth aka Enterovirus ~ BLECH) and I took her to the doctor. The doctor prescribed her some medicine and we went to get it. On our way the BMW started acting funny.....lights flashing and the turn signals suddenly didn't work. It suddenly died while I was driving it. It managed to roll into a parking lot and I even parked it in a space correctly, but it would not start up again. I had to call my mechanic and wait for him to get all the way out to where I was. While waiting I got my kid's prescription and walked around an air-conditioned store, but we also had to sit in the car. We took the top mostly off but still had some shade inside.
My mechanic showed up and I had to buy a brand-new battery, which would at least get us home....but I was forbidden to use any electronics all the way there. My daughter rode in his air-conditioned truck while I drove the car. The Mr (my mechanic) told me to take the "back way" home so if I did break down again it wouldn't be on the freeway that has had MORE than it's share of accidents and even deaths this year, but it turns out the back way had massive construction and I ended up getting sunstroke just from sitting in the BMW!
Anywhoo, I did get back home and then the family was left with just one car that worked. The Mr HAS to get to work and back, so I was stuck at home with no vehicle. Then another kid got enterovirus, so I had to drive my husband to work to take that kid to the doctor. That was enough for the Mr to go ahead and get the BMW fixed up.
I was very happy to have a car back!!!
He even fixed the radio! Hooray!
Then he fixed the Monte Carlo so he can drive it to work and back for now.
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Everyone is feeling better and THANKFULLY (so far, knock-on-wood) only the two kids got sick. We seem to have it contained.
So I started on my annual closet purge.
I needed to get out the winter coats and gloves and scarves and go through the clothes I put in there "to go through later," and while I was in there I decided to go ahead and get the Halloween decorations out and clean out the entire closet.
Here's how it looks empty and clean: :D
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As my facebook friends know, this morning I fell down the stairs. I did not injure myself but I was out of commission for a while with ice on my ankle. While I was recovering from my highly embarrassing fall, my daughter told me she wanted to use some of my perfume. I told her to go ahead, it was in my closet.
She came back down and told me she didn't like my closet at all. I asked why not and she said it was just scary.I said ridiculous....Spot is in there keeping an eye on things!!
Then I realized she probably wasn't afraid of my CLOSET....she was PROBABLY afraid of the closet IN the closet....the door you see here:
And I will admit if you don't live in my closet and USE the closet-in-a-closet every day, it might be considered "scary." The people who lived here before must have thought so, because they put an extra latch on it LOL.
I laughed about it and said, "I JUST cleaned that out! All the *scary* stuff is now behind the couch in the living room! Ha ha ha ha.
And one last LOL for ya...........the texts I sent my stepdaughter when I heard she was singing in a hallway for her friends:
Monday, September 15, 2014
Random photos again
Nothing much this week. I've been happily busy and getting things done. Here's some random pics for ya, though. :)
I was cleaning the kitchen and noticed that some burned smudges on my glass-top stove. It made me laugh.
Unhappy stove is unhappy.
I tried to clean it off but it is still there. I have yet to look up something strong enough to clean it that won't damage my glass-top.
While perusing the dollar store I came across this sign:
I looked down the isle and didn't see ANYTHING marked "$0.00" so this sign is inaccurate. They should fix that.
Sometimes it feels like I've only been with my husband a couple years. But while visiting with my mother-in-law she mentioned that she was getting rid of the play set. She has had this play set for at least 13 years....which was a couple years after my husband and I got together. Thirteen years.....it's amazing how quickly that time goes! So I took this picture of the last kids to play on the play set before it leaves for a new family.
Ah, the feels.
Thinking about my family in Hawaii having to deal with lava flows.
AmyG
Sunday, September 7, 2014
"What Did You Do To Me?!?"
So last night, my husband and I decided to patronize our local bar and a have a few drinks and a pizza.
When we paid our tab and left, we were walking home when my husband announced, "I don't think they charged us for the pizza...." So we went back and double checked and we were correct, they did not charge us for the pizza. So we paid the remainder of our bill and left again.
We were halfway home when my husband yelled, "What did you DO to me?!? Fifteen years ago I would have realized I didn't pay for the pizza and thought to myself, 'YES! I just scored a free pizza!!!!'"
I had to laugh. It's funny because it's true. He's a completely different person than he used to be. He used to just throw his trash out the car window until I slammed the brakes and went back and picked it up because I DO NOT LITTER!! Now he uses the car trash bag. He used to get into fights when an arguement got too heated and now he uses much more diplomatic ways to deal with it (thank goodness since he's a manager lol). And yes, if I had realized I hadn't paid for something I would have gone back and paid for it, and apparently that has rubbed off on my husband, too.
My husband has also quit smoking, although I really didn't have anything to do with that. I was certainly thrilled when he did!!! He has now been smoke-free for four years.
I think his spoken vocabulary has gotten better thanks to years of listening to me, also.
What's even more amusing is when we first decided to be together, his ex-wife said, "teach her to be the wife you want her to be" because she thought she knew everything and I knew next to nothing. I'm guessing it's because I couldn't cook ANYTHING. I could BARELY boil water. But I could raise kids and clean so I don't know why she said it (just to be mean, I'm guessing - it's hard to accept someone who's going to raise your kids for you).
But it turns out, it was the other way around. I taught my husband how to be a good person. He's such a different person from his previous marraige I'm not sure his ex-wife would even know who he is!!!
But I'm glad he's turned out to be a pretty good guy for me.
Puppy love has sure worked out for us. :)
When we paid our tab and left, we were walking home when my husband announced, "I don't think they charged us for the pizza...." So we went back and double checked and we were correct, they did not charge us for the pizza. So we paid the remainder of our bill and left again.
We were halfway home when my husband yelled, "What did you DO to me?!? Fifteen years ago I would have realized I didn't pay for the pizza and thought to myself, 'YES! I just scored a free pizza!!!!'"
I had to laugh. It's funny because it's true. He's a completely different person than he used to be. He used to just throw his trash out the car window until I slammed the brakes and went back and picked it up because I DO NOT LITTER!! Now he uses the car trash bag. He used to get into fights when an arguement got too heated and now he uses much more diplomatic ways to deal with it (thank goodness since he's a manager lol). And yes, if I had realized I hadn't paid for something I would have gone back and paid for it, and apparently that has rubbed off on my husband, too.
My husband has also quit smoking, although I really didn't have anything to do with that. I was certainly thrilled when he did!!! He has now been smoke-free for four years.
I think his spoken vocabulary has gotten better thanks to years of listening to me, also.
What's even more amusing is when we first decided to be together, his ex-wife said, "teach her to be the wife you want her to be" because she thought she knew everything and I knew next to nothing. I'm guessing it's because I couldn't cook ANYTHING. I could BARELY boil water. But I could raise kids and clean so I don't know why she said it (just to be mean, I'm guessing - it's hard to accept someone who's going to raise your kids for you).
But it turns out, it was the other way around. I taught my husband how to be a good person. He's such a different person from his previous marraige I'm not sure his ex-wife would even know who he is!!!
But I'm glad he's turned out to be a pretty good guy for me.
Puppy love has sure worked out for us. :)
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
I mowed!
I know, mowing shouldn't be the reason I post. But our mower is nearly on it's death bed. You have to go over the same area two or sometimes even three times for it to look even because the blades only rotate so many times a second. Also when our neighbor or our kids (or even the husband) mows they only do the main areas and not the corners or edges or around the camper. So I set out to mow everything and I did. It looks FANTASTIC (if I do say so myself). I even moved the wood pile (that's too big to burn) and mowed there because those weeds were driving me CRAZY. I went over the entire yard until it looked like a healthy mower mowed it.
If it doesn't pour down rain tomorrow I will hopefully weed whack and then my yard will look amazing.
Of course I need to plant my roses (yeah, STILL) and trim and then I'll just burn everything I can.
My neighbors saw me mowing and I have the feeling they will mow tomorrow LOL.
Now I'm exhausted and need a shower!
If it doesn't pour down rain tomorrow I will hopefully weed whack and then my yard will look amazing.
Of course I need to plant my roses (yeah, STILL) and trim and then I'll just burn everything I can.
My neighbors saw me mowing and I have the feeling they will mow tomorrow LOL.
Now I'm exhausted and need a shower!
Friday, August 22, 2014
Random
I have been super sleepy these past few days and I don't know why. So I haven't been getting anything done since I will nearly fall asleep sitting up. I'm okay driving, but if I sit for any amount of time I find myself snoozing. Earlier today I fell asleep and woke up because I swore I heard someone yell at me ~ but of course no one is here during the day so I guess I was dreaming guiltily about sleeping. I hope to accomplish a lot more next week.
My youngest child is nine and very imaginative. He comes up with games for us to play together. This game involved my Star Trek figurines (I'm a huge nerd, get over it) and Pokemon-style cards that he made up himself.
(For the record, I am an Original Series (Star Trek) fan, but someone gave me some Next Generation figurines, so yes, that is Riker).
My husband and I have been trying to get back into going for a bike ride every other night. I started taking my phone with us for the "MapMyRide" app that keeps track of where we go, how long it took us, and the amount of calories we burned, so every once and a while I get a photo. Here's the cool sunset we saw at the start of our bike ride:
I tried keeping my pedometer on my shoe....
bad picturebut it didn't work out. It only measures about half the "steps" I take while on the bike.
Lastly, I decided to take a picture of the bike with it's lights on so you guys could see it, but this is the best I could do with the phone:
Tomorrow I hope to spend most of the day catching up on laundry, which I haven't done in the past two days, and I only did one load then....I also will be doing dishes since my older two kids won't be home and it's not time for the younger ones to do them yet.
Also we hope to do the Renaissance Fair, although I'm not interested in spending much money there. We didn't get to go last year because we were busy moving.
Oh, yeah, we're coming up on one year in our new house!!! We will be opening up some Moscato Di'Asti to celebrate our one-year anniversary.
Year one: Unpacked a little LOL
Love you all,
AmyG
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Great Date!
My husband grew another year older, and as a celebration I decided to take him out to dinner and a movie. We were thinking Red Lobster, because it's a Tuesday and we have bills due LOL (and we love Red Lobster). So we got dressed up and got ready to go.
Unfortunately, because we had to pick up a cheerleader and a football player from practice at two different schools, we did not have enough time to do dinner AND a movie. So we stood and discussed it, and he decided that he really, REALLY wanted to see "The Expendables 3," so we went to the movie and did Steak 'n Shake afterwards.
The Expendables was very good. It was more actual movie and less cheesy catch-phrases. As a chick, I really enjoyed it.
Steak 'n Shake was pretty awesome, too. I tried the Royale, but I hate American cheese, so I asked if they could put cheddar on it, and they did, and it was AWESOME. If you're going to be bad, that's a pretty good way to do it ;).
Then we headed home. There are two large towns around where we live, and we were in the smaller of the two, D-. It isn't the biggest town in the world, but it is a decent size, so imagine our surprise when we were heading down the main street, the street with all the businesses and all the nicer houses, we saw two enormous deer! Two huge bucks wandering down what is essentially downtown D- was amazing to me. Luckily they stayed on the sidewalk. :)
We had taken our convertible out, and on our way home we got stopped by a train (that happens out here in cornland). The train was moving super slow; in fact, it seemed to be stopping, but it was okay, because that was when we noticed that the sky was CRYSTAL CLEAR and you could see the milky way and the leftover meteors from the perseids would occasionally streak the sky. It was amazing! One shooting star lasted a couple of seconds and looked to be orange with a pink tinge. Then we looked to the South and saw that the enormous thunder clouds we had seen while it was daylight were still there, and they were lighting up the night sky on the horizon. It was SO BEAUTIFUL!! I was sorely tempted to pull over and just keep watching the sky: I'd watch the thundercloud for a while and then watch the stars for a while. But eventually the train finally passed and it was nearing midnight so we headed home. (No pictures because I was driving, helloooo!!)
I don't know about my husband, but I had a GREAT NIGHT!!
So of course I wanted to share it with you guys! ><
Unfortunately, because we had to pick up a cheerleader and a football player from practice at two different schools, we did not have enough time to do dinner AND a movie. So we stood and discussed it, and he decided that he really, REALLY wanted to see "The Expendables 3," so we went to the movie and did Steak 'n Shake afterwards.
The Expendables was very good. It was more actual movie and less cheesy catch-phrases. As a chick, I really enjoyed it.
Steak 'n Shake was pretty awesome, too. I tried the Royale, but I hate American cheese, so I asked if they could put cheddar on it, and they did, and it was AWESOME. If you're going to be bad, that's a pretty good way to do it ;).
Then we headed home. There are two large towns around where we live, and we were in the smaller of the two, D-. It isn't the biggest town in the world, but it is a decent size, so imagine our surprise when we were heading down the main street, the street with all the businesses and all the nicer houses, we saw two enormous deer! Two huge bucks wandering down what is essentially downtown D- was amazing to me. Luckily they stayed on the sidewalk. :)
We had taken our convertible out, and on our way home we got stopped by a train (that happens out here in cornland). The train was moving super slow; in fact, it seemed to be stopping, but it was okay, because that was when we noticed that the sky was CRYSTAL CLEAR and you could see the milky way and the leftover meteors from the perseids would occasionally streak the sky. It was amazing! One shooting star lasted a couple of seconds and looked to be orange with a pink tinge. Then we looked to the South and saw that the enormous thunder clouds we had seen while it was daylight were still there, and they were lighting up the night sky on the horizon. It was SO BEAUTIFUL!! I was sorely tempted to pull over and just keep watching the sky: I'd watch the thundercloud for a while and then watch the stars for a while. But eventually the train finally passed and it was nearing midnight so we headed home. (No pictures because I was driving, helloooo!!)
I don't know about my husband, but I had a GREAT NIGHT!!
So of course I wanted to share it with you guys! ><
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
MUCH BETTER
I'm 100% better!! (Okay, 99.999% better.)
School has started and I am now in the process of getting back into the school routine. I did great yesterday, but today I sucked. I've done nothing of use to anyone except walk the dogs a few times. The biggest problem I have with school days is after 3pm my day is over.
Oh well.
Here's some pics:
I was walking the tortoise and my littlest boy decided to come out and help by skimming the pool! Isn't he sweet?
Waffles with strawberry & blueberry toppings.
Candles (Pink, of course!)
Me having fun with candles (bored waiting for husband to get home):
My birthday girl, now 11 years-old! If you're wondering what all that white stuff is (on her),
It's paint. She got an old dollhouse from our neighbor and she wanted to repaint it. If you think SHE was messy you should have seen what she did to my patio!! Oh wait, I have a photo of that, too:
All in all she had a good birthday. We had a party with a cake for her a few days later. The photos from that will be on facebook. Good day!
School has started and I am now in the process of getting back into the school routine. I did great yesterday, but today I sucked. I've done nothing of use to anyone except walk the dogs a few times. The biggest problem I have with school days is after 3pm my day is over.
Oh well.
Here's some pics:
I was walking the tortoise and my littlest boy decided to come out and help by skimming the pool! Isn't he sweet?
There is a tortoise in this picture:
I guess when you can't see your pets in your lawn it's time to mow, eh?
It was okay, I didn't even have to get up! The long grass must've scared him, too, because he came back to me LOL.
"Don't cut the vine on the fence," they said, "It makes pretty flowers," they said.....Now there's barely enough room to hang clothes there!! It doesn't show well in this picture, but that vest is resting on top of the vine!!!
Enough? No? Okay, here:
A beautiful Illinois sunset:
My Diva's birthday dinner:
Candles (Pink, of course!)
My birthday girl, now 11 years-old! If you're wondering what all that white stuff is (on her),
It's paint. She got an old dollhouse from our neighbor and she wanted to repaint it. If you think SHE was messy you should have seen what she did to my patio!! Oh wait, I have a photo of that, too:
All in all she had a good birthday. We had a party with a cake for her a few days later. The photos from that will be on facebook. Good day!
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
RANDOM RANDOMNESS!
Okay, I'm sick for real. It was bad with the tonsilitis, now it's worse. It's like a bad cold that gets worse every hour. When I lay down I feel like I'm going to hurl. So I have to sit. I don't do a lot of games on the computer (I have Sims 3 days but not every day, I do a little Throne Rush on Facebook and I've taken to what is essentially Yahtzee but is called "Royal Dice" on Facebook as well) I start getting bored. So I came up with these completely random photos to blog about. I'll give some descriptions but basically this is a boring random post about boring random stuff LOL. You can skip this post if you want.
First up [not boring to me lol], I was bored while my daughter and her friend went back-to-school shopping for some jeans! I had to be stern that they HAD to get three pairs of jeans (at least) because my mind is set for autumn and winter and shorts and skirts sometimes aren't warm enough.
Then while they (and the other four kids) were trying on their jeans and other clothes to make sure they fit I started perusing the jewelry isle and found some things for my wish list:
And a set of camera earrings!!
SO AWESOME!
-=-00-==-00-=-
So here is the one outfit we let our daughter get. She's very proud of it:
That's a real tie so I've been showing her how to tie a tie ;)
I remember I said I'd take a picture of the horrid mess I have yet to unpack. Brace yourselves:
The above picture is the one section I've been working on and as you can see I have gotten through about a fifth of it (look back in the blog for the before picture). The other day I took that bottom green crate on the right so technically I finished the column ;).
So here was the crate I decided to unpack:
Usually after I unpack a crate I clean the crate up (they are getting dusty in the garage), but this crate I held off because I found this:
Yeah, that's a bunch of baby spiders. I left the crate out overnight (I did check all the stuff I brought in to make sure there were not spiders on/in it) but the next day they were still there so I hosed 'em off.
Here is the fruits of my labors:
One of my husband's binders and a mini chalkboard, a vintage Danville Wings megaphone and a bunch of my husband's hats. Also [not pictured] my "Jade" chess set. I'm not sure if it's real Jade or not, but the box is made with real leather trimming, so it could be real (I'm not a jade expert). It just seems so grainy and the jade I'm familiar with is always smooth, so I don't know. In any case it's not a full set and many pieces are broken. I set it up in my glass cabinet with the best looking pieces out where I can look at it whenever I want.
=-00-==-00-=
I finally started taking pictures with my phone, so you might start seeing some of them. A few weeks ago my husband and I decided that it was high time we both had our very first brand-new bikes ever. So we went to quite a few stores looking at prices. We finally found some on sale at Walmart for $70 each.
You can't tell in this picture but we each have a headlight, a tail light, and lights around the body. The Mr's is blue and mine are multi-colored which makes it look like a Christmas Bike LOL. As we've driven around the neighborhood we have received many comments such as "sweet bikes!" "I love those bikes!" "I want a bike like that!" and "Are you guys in a parade?"
LOL!
We were biking every other night and walking the other nights but since we've been sick we haven't done anything. The Mr is better but I seem to be getting worse every day.
=-00-==-00-==-00-=
Random pictures:
Me at the public pool:
My stepdaughter at the public pool. Believe it or not she requested I put this on Facebook. I declined but I can put it on here. ;)
My daughter at the pool:
Me with "Convertible Hair:"
And finally! My Diva has finally entered middle school (they call it Jr High out here). I laughed because her locker was pretty big and I bet her that she was still so small she could fit right in it! She of course wanted to know for sure...:
I guess if your mom is the one who puts you in your locker (and doesn't shut the door) it's all right, right? LOL!!
Anyways.....here's to hoping I get better ~ because I don't like being miserable. :)
Love to ya.
AmyG
First up [not boring to me lol], I was bored while my daughter and her friend went back-to-school shopping for some jeans! I had to be stern that they HAD to get three pairs of jeans (at least) because my mind is set for autumn and winter and shorts and skirts sometimes aren't warm enough.
A California neclace!!SO AWESOME!
-=-00-==-00-=-
So here is the one outfit we let our daughter get. She's very proud of it:
I remember I said I'd take a picture of the horrid mess I have yet to unpack. Brace yourselves:
The Horror
Everything I've unpacked so far and look at that. It looks like I have a LOOOOT of getting rid of to do.
While I was unpacking I let Igor wander around the yard to graze. He found the hose to the pool's pump quite interesting.
Usually after I unpack a crate I clean the crate up (they are getting dusty in the garage), but this crate I held off because I found this:
Here is the fruits of my labors:
=-00-==-00-=
I finally started taking pictures with my phone, so you might start seeing some of them. A few weeks ago my husband and I decided that it was high time we both had our very first brand-new bikes ever. So we went to quite a few stores looking at prices. We finally found some on sale at Walmart for $70 each.
Looking at bikes.
We took them home and "pimped" 'em out a little with some lights so the motorists would be able to see us:
LOL!
We were biking every other night and walking the other nights but since we've been sick we haven't done anything. The Mr is better but I seem to be getting worse every day.
=-00-==-00-==-00-=
Random pictures:
Me at the public pool:
So crowded (Sarcasm).Anyways.....here's to hoping I get better ~ because I don't like being miserable. :)
Love to ya.
AmyG
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