Fall, Y'all! Bloggy Giveaway

***COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED. I WILL DRAW TWO WINNERS TOMORROW AND POST THEIR NAMES ON MONDAY***

I am so excited about participating in the Fall, Y'all! bloggy giveaway. I meant to participate in the Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway, but, as usual, I procrastinated until the last minute and by the time I was ready to do my post and link up, it was too late. I was very disappointed. Since I missed out on participating in the Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway, I am going to give away two items in this giveaway, to make up for not participating in the first one.

The two items I am going to give away are children's books. They are from a series called Baby Loves Jazz. We have several of these book/cd combinations and we love all of them. We plan on getting all of them eventually. Now, since I am a procrastinator, I haven't picked which two I'm going to give away, so that will be a surprise. It will depend on which ones are available at my favorite bookstore. I am going to go shopping this week and pick out two of them.

Here is Hayden with our collection so far.


These are board books and they come with a jazz cd. The cd follows the theme of the book and they have really fun songs on them. A couple of our favorite songs are Bouncin' on the Bed and I Like Blue Lemurs. The kids read the books at home and we listen to the cd's in the truck. They all have their favorite songs and we have to play them over and over and over again. It is good entertainment for them.

The requirement to be entered for a chance to win one of them is to leave a comment below telling me what your favorite children's book or books are, whether it is something that you loved as a child, something you love to read to your children, or something your children love. My family LOVES books and the more great suggestions we get on children's books, the better. I am going to make a list out of all of the great suggestions I get and we will have a great reading list for winter. I can't wait to see what your favorite children's books are.

I will pick the winner on Sunday, November 4th, and post the winners' names on Monday, November 5th.

Good luck to everyone!

Parent-Teacher Conference

Tonight we had Carson's Parent-Teacher Conference. I knew that academically everything would be fine, and it was. I also knew that behaviorally everything wouldn't be fine, and it wasn't.

Academically, he is doing great. He does all of his work and he gets most of it right. As I've been reviewing his papers since the beginning of the year, I have noticed that whenever he misses something it is because he rushed through it and not because he doesn't know the answer. I'll ask him the answer and he will get it right. I'll ask him why he got it wrong the first time and he says he doesn't know. I think it's because he knows he's smart and he is trying to whip through everything as fast as he can so he can goof off. One thing I am most proud of him for is his reading ability. He is a great reader and he loves it. I think it is very important to be a great reader and to love to read. Carson's teacher gave us a paper containing diagnostic information about his reading skills. He is in the top 1% of kids nationally in the 2nd grade as far as reading skills. Yes, I am bragging. He needs to start reading harder books because he is reading far above his grade level.

I feel it is very, very important to be a great reader and to love to read. Books are one of the best ways to get an education. My dad is the person that instilled my love of reading in me. My dad was a very smart person. He dropped out of college after two months and never went back. He worked for the railroad for 44 years to the day and his particular job didn't require a lot of intelligence. But he read constantly. He would read four or five books a week. Since he read so much he knew a lot of information about a lot of different subjects. I used to call him all the time with random questions that I needed help with for work, and each time I would call I would be sure I had a question that would stump him, but he always knew the answer. My dad taught me to read when I was three years old and I've loved to read ever since. When Carson was born my dad started reading to him from the day he was born. Carson would be snoozing on my dad's lap and my dad would be reading to him. It was so funny. Unfortunately, Carson is the only one of my children to benefit from having my dad around. My dad died when Hayden was two weeks old. He died of cancer and he was so sick by the time Hayden was born that he couldn't even hold Hayden. A couple of times we propped up some pillows on my dad and laid Hayden on his chest so he could talk to him, but he was so weak he couldn't even hold him. A couple of days before he died he wanted to read to Carson and Hayden, so Carson climbed up into bed beside him and we set Hayden in his carrier up on the bed beside him and he read a book to them both. I was lucky enough to get that moment on video. Even though he was only around for a few weeks after Hayden was born, somehow his love of reading even rubbed off on Hayden. Hayden is only in Kindergarten and he is already reading chapter books. A funny story about my dad is that six months before he died his doctor told him he couldn't drive anymore because he was on so much pain medication that it was dangerous. My dad agreed, but he said he would only drive to the library because it was less than a mile from home. The doctor told him that he couldn't even drive that short of a distance. My dad was so mad at that doctor. During the whole time he had cancer and was dying, that was the one thing that he was really ticked off about. The library was so important to him. So my mom would drive him to the library and drop him off and he would call her a few hours later and come and pick him up.

Getting back to Carson, since this is supposed to be about him, his behavior at school leaves a lot to be desired. He is disruptive because he talks when he's not supposed to, he bugs other kids and he doesn't mind his teacher. I knew that we would be discussing all of this at his conference. We spent probably two minutes discussing his academic progress and the rest of the time we talked about his behavior. I just knew we were going to come home after the conference and I would be very disappointed with the whole thing, but, surprisingly, I came home feeling very positive about everything. His teacher is such a great teacher. As we talked about his behavior she got Carson's opinion on everything: what he is good at, what he needs to work on, what his goals are and what he can do to accomplish those goals. She had him tell her specific things that might help him accomplish his goals, such as doing extra work or reading when he is finished with his work, sitting in a different seat so he's not around specific kids he's tempted to bother or talk to when he shouldn't be, and projects that he can work on during class. I really thought it was great that she was so positive with him and let him decide for himself what things should change to help him, instead of just telling him that he needs to behave better. I think the fact that the ideas were his (with a little help here and there) and that he knows he is in charge of himself will really help him change the way he behaves. On days he gets in trouble he will often tell me he didn't get in trouble, or he doesn't remember why he got in trouble. He has a planner that he brings home every day that tells what he did that day and that he can write down upcoming events in. We decided that each day at the end of the day he will write down in his own words how he thinks he did that day. Then his teacher will write down what really happened. Then if he was truthful about what happened he will get a sticker or a reward. That way we will know what really went on at school, and he will start to look at himself and the way he acts and he can focus on what he needs to work on.

Overall it was probably the best parent-teacher conference we've ever had and I am extremely impressed with his teacher. She realizes that he's a very smart kid and he needs help figuring out how to focus on certain things and she has come up with some great ideas on how to do that. Hopefully the rest of the school year will go smoother for him than the first couple of months have so far.

Halloween Party

I used to have a friend/co-worker who would have a kids Halloween party at her house every year and invite us. It was really fun. A little over two years ago we had a bit of a falling out. Since I've been an adult this is the first time I've had something like this happen. I am really easy going, and I really felt like this woman, who is in her early 60's, acted very immature about the whole situation. I apologized to her for my part in the situation, but she never apologized to me. I still feel bad about the whole thing because I really considered her a friend at the time, but since then I realize that I wouldn't really want her as a friend since she let her true colors show. I hardly ever see her anymore, and when I do we are friendly to each other, but it's just a totally different feeling than it used to be.

Anyway, back to the subject of this post, the Halloween party. Since I'm no longer invited to Ms. Snobbypants' annual Halloween party, I've wanted to have a party of my own. For the last two years I contemplated it, even planned out a few things to do, but my procrastination habit took over and it never happened. Today I sent out invitations to our First Annual Halloween Party. There's no turning back now. The party is going to be next Saturday, and I'm very excited about it. Carson has already decided he wants to play Pin the Third Head on the Three-Headed Monster, so tomorrow he is going to start drawing the monster on a poster board. We are going to decorate pumpkins. I am going to serve lunch, so I'm trying to find some good Halloween recipes to make. I am going to make a cake, so I need to start getting ideas for that. I want to have the party outside, so I hope the weather is going to be decent.

Tomorrow morning I am going to sit down and make a list of what I need to do along with a time line for accomplishing everything for the party. I need to be really prepared because the party is at 12:00 on Saturday and Mike works until noon on Saturdays so he won't be around to help me get ready. I am really hoping I can pull this off without being stressed out and running around like a mad woman trying to get things ready at the last minute. I want everything to go smooth so I will want to do it again next year. Wish me luck. I need it.

I Need a Break

I could really use about a week alone at home with no husband, no kids and no dog. If I had that time alone I could get caught up with everything I need to do. I just keep thinking that things have got to slow down so I can get organized and keep the household running smoothly. Most of my problem is my job. I just can't be happy with it. I am self-employed and freelance. If I don't have enough work I complain that I'm not making any money. If I have too much work I complain that I'm too busy. There's no happy medium. On the other hand, if I had everything at home running smoothly, then work wouldn't be a problem. I keep setting up schedules, but they never seem to remain in place. I do give credit to Mike because he helps out around the house and does a lot with the kids, but he's been working some overtime for extra money so he's been gone more than normal. He has been cooking dinner most nights because I'm too busy, though, except for the nights he's gone.


Another thing that's bugging me is Carson is already getting in trouble at school. Since school's started I've had one call and two notes from the teacher. His problem is he is hyper and if he's having a particularly bad day he just can't calm down. He is fine if he's doing something he wants to do, but he gets bored easily and that's when he runs into problems. When he's like that he won't listen to what anybody's telling him. So far his Kindergarten and 1st Grade teachers have been able to handle him by giving him extra work to do or having him help other kids. Last year there were several kids in his class that didn't speak English very well, so after he was done with his work his teacher had him help them, which he really liked to do. He likes to feel like he's helping out. Next week is parent/teacher conferences, so I'll have to talk to his teacher about finding extra things for him to do so he's not so bored and annoying. He is a very smart kid, not a genius by any means, but very smart. Last year his teacher came right out and told us that he was the smartest kid in the class. They took some big test at the end of the year that basically had everything they had learned throughout the year on it and he got every single answer right. No other kid even came close. So he is very smart, he's just a pain in the ass a lot of times. I've got to try to figure out a bunch of things for him to do around the house to help me out that won't seem like chores to him but will seem like it's something fun. Any ideas? I need help.

So between feeling buried with everything I need to do, but don't ever seem to accomplish, and dealing with a wild seven-year-old, I am feeling very run down right now. I know it's only going to get worse because my birthday is in about a month and then I'll be even older. I've recently realized that my age is starting to take its toll. I've always been a night person. I could stay up all night and get work done if I needed to and it wouldn't even bother me the next day. Lately, though, I can't stay up late. Last night I was working in bed (mainly because that's the most comfortable place to work) and I actually fell asleep with my computer on my lap and my headphones on and the light on. I woke up some time in the early morning, maybe 4:00, and was only able to take the headphones off because they were hurting my head. I was too tired to turn my computer off or turn the light off. At least when I woke up at 6:00 my computer was ready for me to finish what I should have last night before I fell asleep. I've got another job that I need to get out tomorrow, so I'm going to have to stay up late tonight, too. I am working on it. I just had to take a break so I figured I would complain about everything here and get it out of my system. I'll be back working in a few minutes. I am hoping I can be done with my job by midnight, provided I don't doze off in the middle of it.

All right, I'm done complaining. I'm going to get my job done, go to sleep and wake up tomorrow with a new attitude. The boys have a half day of school, so I'm going to plan some fun stuff to do when they get home and start planning our Halloween party that we are planning on having next week.

By the way, those cheating girls on Survivor really ticked me off. I can't stand it when people lose on purpose. What a couple of morons. I hope they get voted off soon.

I Need a New Phone Battery

Amaya was talking on her play phone. She was talking to her grandma and telling her what she was doing. All of the sudden she said, "Uh-oh, my phone just died," and hung it up. What that proves is either that I need a new battery for my phone, or that I talk on the phone too much because I say that phrase at least once a day.

Lagoon

Yesterday we went to our local amusement park, Lagoon, or as Carson and Hayden used to call it before they could say it, The Magoon. We usually go toward the end of September or early October because it is cooler and it is not as crowded. There are two down sides to going in October. The first one is that some of the rides are closed because they set up haunted houses for Halloween. The favorite ride of ours that is closed is the kiddie bumper cars. The second down side is any ride having to do with water. Since you are bound to get wet, it makes for a rather cool day since it takes a while for your clothes to dry.


Amaya was a little bit scared of some of the rides. The first ride we went on she was gripping on to me like she was afraid she was going to fall out. It was a very mild swinging boat ride, which is a kiddie ride so it's not bad. She was fine on most of the smaller kiddie rides, but there were a few that she wouldn't go on, primarily any that looked like they were up in the air high, like the helicopters. She loved the little boats. She went on them a few times. One time she had just gotten off of them and Hayden ran to get on. She said she didn't want to go, but then at the last second changed her mind. Mike started taking her in to help her get on a boat and she took off running. Before she got very far she fell, face first, onto the asphalt. She got a big scrape on her forehead and her nose was gushing out blood. She didn't get to go on the boat. Mike had to sit with her and try to get her nose to stop bleeding. Carson and I weren't there because we had gone on another ride at the same time so we didn't see her. We just saw the aftermath of her bloody face and shirt. Now today when she woke up this morning and again when she woke up from her nap she had two bloody noses. Hopefully her nose will be back to normal tomorrow or I may have to take her to the doctor. I felt her nose and it feels okay to me, but then again I've never felt a broken nose before so if it was broken I probably couldn't tell.

Hayden was a total wimp yesterday. The first ride we were going to go on he chickened out at the last minute so he didn't go. The second ride he cried on. That was the same ride Amaya was gripping onto me so tight. As an aside, there was a girl who didn't want to go on that ride. I'm guessing she was about seven or eight years old. Her mom forced her to go on the ride. The girl was screaming and crying and grabbing her mom's shirt and her mom basically lifted her onto the boat and held her down. The girl was begging her mom not to make her go on the ride. She was even pleading with the operator of the ride, "Don't make me go on this ride. Can you please let me off?" The poor kid who was the operator didn't know what to do. He was just a teenager and was looking to her mom to do the right thing, but she didn't. I consider what that mom did to be child abuse. Nobody said anything to her, and I feel guilty about it now, but she looked like if you said anything to her she would kick your ass. After the ride was over the girl was more relaxed when she realized it wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be. I can't believe some parents. I mean, Hayden was a real boob on some of the rides, and there were several rides where we got all the way in and started to get on and he freaked out and didn't want to go so I didn't make him. On the ones he was scared of but decided to go anyway he ended up liking them. His favorite ride was called the Dragonfly and he went on that ride probably 10 times. Sometimes he would go on it, get of, run around and get in line again and ride it again. It was a ride where swings are hanging down and then it goes around in a circle. The first time he rode it he started crying when it started, but towards the end he realized he loved it. It was really weird seeing him afraid of so many rides because in past years he went on any ride that he was tall enough for and had no problems. He is my overly sensitive child, though, so I never know what his mood is going to be from one minute to the next. He ended up having a great time, though.

Carson is now tall enough, barely, to go on every ride there, much to my dismay. There is a new ride this year called Wicked. It is a roller coaster and it goes straight up, then straight down, then goes really fast until it reaches a point where it does a corkscrew-like maneuver. I didn't dare to go on it and I tried to talk about how scary it was so Carson wouldn't want to go on it, but it didn't work. He wanted to go. He was barely tall enough to go, and they made him sit in a booster seat on the ride. Hayden, Amaya and I just sat on a bench and waited for them. I did get a picture of them on it, but it's was on my 35mm camera so it will be about five years before I get that developed. I didn't want to use my digital camera because I knew it would turn out blurry, but I did get a picture of the up and down part. Carson is now tall enough to ride the big rides, and there is one kiddie ride that he is too big to ride. My little baby is growing up.

When Carson went to school today he told all of his friends that he had rode Wicked and none of them had dared to when they had gone over the summer. One of his friends said he wanted to go on it but he was too short. I'll call him Z. Z is one of Carson's best friends. He is so darn cute. He is a dwarf. Mike was wondering what would happen if Carson wanted to bring a friend with him to Lagoon some time and it was Z. He most likely wouldn't be able to go on any of the rides Carson would want to because he is too short. He is barely taller than Amaya and he is seven years old. I started thinking about how unfair it is that there are certain height restrictions. I realize they do it for safety reasons and it is very necessary, but I know there have got to be some adults that would be too short to ride the rides. I wonder if they could have some special seats that are sized differently so little people could ride, too. I think I'll have Carson ask Z what rides he can go on. I'm sure he is used to not being able to do some things that other kids his age can do, but it sure is sad.

This year I've decided that I'm eliminating four rides from what I'm willing to go on. They are rides that go around in circles fast. They make me really dizzy and nauseous. Three of them aren't scary, they just make me sick. One of them is scary, and I almost puked on Mike once when we rode it. Luckily I didn't but I was sick the rest of the day. I guess you know you're getting old when you get sick on amusement park rides and you aren't even drunk.

One thing about Lagoon is it has one of the oldest wooden roller coasters in the country. To me it is just scary. It looks like it could fall down at any minute. The paint is really coming off and you can see the bare wood. I was thinking that if that wood is exposed to the weather without any paint on it, eventually it is going to fall down. Luckily when Mike and Carson went to go on it there was a problem so they couldn't go. It was just another scary ride I didn't want Carson to go on, but he really wanted to. Hopefully they reinforce it by the time we go next year.

Happy Birthday Amaya

Amaya turned three years old on Tuesday. I can't believe she is three already. The last couple of years really flew by. I can't believe how big she is. My brother and his wife, who live out of state, sent her a birthday present. It was two outfits. She opened the present and I took the clothes out and I thought to myself, "Well, these clothes aren't going to fit her. They are way too big." They were size 3T. The next day I tried one of them on her and it fits perfectly. It seems like she grew up overnight.


Tuesday she went to school and took a treat since it was her birthday. As she walked into the room she held her hands up over her head and yelled, "It's my birthday!" None of the other kids cared. Those immature little two-year-olds. After Mike got home from work that evening, and after he took Hayden to get a haircut, since school pictures were the next day and he looked like a mop top, we went out to dinner to celebrate Amaya's birthday. After we ate dinner we came home and she opened her presents and then we sang Happy Birthday to her and ate cupcakes. She had a very happy day.


Today we had a party for her. I have to say it was the easiest, non-stressful birthday party we've had in the last seven years. It's not like we put on elaborate birthday parties for our kids, but we usually serve a meal, either lunch or dinner, and have ice cream and cake. Of course it takes us about three days to clean our house to get it ready. I have made every one of my kids' birthday cakes, and I'm very slow at it. This year it only took us Friday evening to clean the house. We've really been working on organizing it and keeping it clean and it's working. We decided not to make a meal. We just had ice cream and cake. We didn't decorate anything. We just got Amaya one balloon. Normally we get a bunch of balloons and the kids end up fighting over them and we end up getting mad and popping them. It took me four hours to make the cake yesterday. I really love making the cakes but it takes me forever. So overall getting ready for the party was really easy. The biggest thing was making the cake.

We just invited Mike's grandpa and grandma, Mike's mom and dad, my mom, Mike's brother, Mike's other brother and his family, and my sister and her family. Mike's brother and his family didn't show up and we have no idea why. Everyone else showed up and Amaya had a great time.

Here is Amaya opening her presents, with a little help from her big brothers.

Here she is with a couple of her presents. It is so hard for me to get a good picture of her because whenever she knows I'm taking pictures she acts goofy. She'll make faces, look away or she'll look right at me and the second I push the button on the camera she looks away.




Here she is with her cake. She thought about that cake all day long. The second she woke up she asked for her birthday cake. After I baked it she said, "Is it done?" After I made the icing she said, "Is it done?" After I put one spoonful of icing on it she said, "Is it done?" Then she was really ticked off when I made a sandwich for her for lunch because she thought she was going to eat cake for lunch. It was so funny.

This is the cake she wanted. I wanted to make a very cute kitty-cat princess. It would have been pink with a little crown on it that said, "Amaya" on it. But she wanted a turtle. Does this look like a turtle to you? It think it does, but apparently it doesn't. Some of the people at the party couldn't tell what it was. Another reason I know it wasn't that great of a cake is that usually people will tell me how cute the cake is and "ooh" and "aah" over it, but nobody even said it was cute. They said it tasted good, but they didn't say anything about the way it looked except, "What is it?" So it only took me four hours to make a cake that didn't look like a turtle.

This picture is from last year on her birthday. It was my fault that she was looking so sad. When it was time to cut the cake, I was so excited to videotape her eating her cake. Well, there were a bunch of other kids whining for cake and ice cream, so I decided to give them theirs first so when I gave her hers I could concentrate on her with the camera. So I was busy dishing up everyone else when someone noticed how sad she looked because she was the only one not getting cake and ice cream yet. It was so cute. This year I didn't make that mistake again. She got her cake and ice cream before anyone else and she was very happy.

Spider Bite Update

My toe almost seems worse today, but I am wondering if it is because it was cramped up in a golf shoe all day. Luckily it didn't affect my golf game. It is really big and red and itchy. Gross. In a comment on my last post Beverly was concerned it could be a brown recluse. I was kind of concerned about that, too. Yesterday I did some research and from what I found out the two most dangerous spiders in the U.S. are black widows and brown recluses. I've never seen a black widow at our house; although, at the house I grew up in we had black widows all the time. One even tried to jump on me once. I'm sure it really wasn't trying to jump on me, it was just trying to escape, but it scared the crap out of me. I don't know if I've ever seen a brown recluse before. We do have a lot of spiders and I usually only kill them if they are near me. If is see one on the ceiling I just let it go. From now on I am going to kill every spider I see because I don't want to have another bite like the one I've got. It really sucks. From what I found about black widows and brown recluses the bad effects of their bites happen fairly quickly, and I don't have any of the bad symptoms of either of those spider bites. I am now on my third day, and other than being driven nuts by the swelling and itching, I don't think it is anything dangerous; however, if it doesn't clear up by Friday, or at least if I can't tell it's getting better, then I am going to go see a doctor. The worst part is there's a hard bump on where the bite was, and I'm sure it's where the poison is built up. I wish I could just take a pin and poke a hole in it and squeeze it out. I'm sure it would feel better. I'm way too much of a wimp to attempt something like that, so I'll just wait it out.

As you can tell from the discussions about my toe, it's been fairly boring around here. The spider bite has been the most interesting thing that's happened this week, other than Amaya's birthday, which I'll talk about later.

The Joy of Spiders

I have two toes (on on each foot) that are shaped exactly like Fritos. It's really ironic that my favorite chips are Fritos. The Frito toes are the second to biggest, and to make matters worse they are longer than my big toe. Very attractive. Yesterday morning I had an unfortunate incident that made the Frito toe on my right foot even more hideous. Amaya and I were leaving the house to run a few errands. As soon as I walked down our front steps I felt a very sharp, stinging pain on the bottom of my toe. I took a few steps and couldn't take it anymore so I quickly slipped my shoe off and rubbed the bottom of my foot on the grass. I checked inside my shoe to see if there was a spider or a bee or some kind of sharp object in it. I didn't see anything. I ran my fingers inside to see if there was anything sharp poking up. I didn't feel anything. I was pretty sure I got stung or bit by something, but I didn't have any proof. Throughout the day my toe ached a bit, but it was nothing bad. By the time I went to bed last night it was itching like crazy. I put some hydrocortisone cream on it to see if that would help. It didn't. It drove me nuts all night. When I woke up this morning it was really swollen and red. It is extremely annoying. I hope it gets back to normal very soon because I'm supposed to go golfing tomorrow and I don't want anything to interfere with that. I am keeping an eye on it and I figure as long as it doesn't start affecting the rest of my foot or turn a strange color, like black, then I should be okay. I think it was probably a spider that got in my shoe and then bit me when I stepped on it. I have no idea what kind of spider, though, since I probably brushed it off in the grass when it bit me. I hate spiders.

A guy I know got bit by a black widow spider on his back and he almost died. It was in his bed and he came home from work and went to bed. He woke up a couple of hours later and couldn't breathe very well and his chest felt tight. He though he was having a heart attack. He called an ambulance and they took him to the hospital where he stayed for a week. They found the spider dead in his bed. The think while he was sleeping he must have rolled over on it and it bit him. They said it was lucky he was a fairly large guy because if it had been a smaller woman or a child they most likely would have died from the bite.

One night Mike and I were sitting on the couch eating dinner and watching TV. I was drinking a large glass of milk. I went to take a drink of milk and I felt something tickle my lip. As I was swallowing the milk I looked down into the cup and saw a huge spider floating on the top of the milk and its front legs were touching my lip. I screamed and thew my milk across the room. Mike had no idea what had happened until I told him and we found the spider on the floor. I'm glad it was such a big spider because if it had been small I probably would have swallowed it.

Enough with the spider stories. I'm creeping myself out.

Works For Me Wednesday

Today's edition of Works-For-Me Wednesday is Backwards Day. This means instead of giving a tip, we ask for a tip.

My problem is mini blinds. Right now we're in the process of totally re-organizing and cleaning our whole house, and my biggest problem so far has been the mini blinds. I've tried cleaning them by taking them outside on the grass and spraying them down with cleaner, scrubbing them, rinsing them off and wiping them dry, but they still aren't sparkling clean. I've tried soaking them in the bathtub with various concoctions of cleaners, including vinegar, and they still aren't sparkling clean. So far the only thing I've found that works is to take them somewhere and have them professionally cleaned, but that becomes rather expensive in the long run.

What I need is a fool-proof way of cleaning them at home so I don't have to spend a fortune to have nice-looking blinds. Eventually I want to switch them all out for the two-inch wood blinds, which I think look better and would be easier to clean, but we just can't afford that right now. Besides, the kids are still at the ages where when they ruin a mini blind I don't care so much but if they were to ruin two-inch wood blinds I would be extremely angry.

Also does anyone know if the vacuum attachments that you can get for mini blinds actually work for in-between the deep cleanings? I've also seen dusters designed for this purpose but haven't tried them until I can find out if they really work.

Any help with my mini-blind problem would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Now, go over to Rocks In My Dryer and give people in need some of your great advice.

Tackle It Tuesday

My tackle for the week occurred yesterday and today. I potty-trained Amaya. Basically, the way I've potty-trained all my kids is to wait until they are almost three (mainly because I'm lazy) and then when I get so tired of people saying, "Isn't ________ potty-trained yet?" then I decide to do it. So yesterday when Amaya woke up I said, "Your birthday is in less than two weeks and you are going to be three years old. Three-year-olds don't wear diaper. They wear undies. Only babies wear diapers. Do you want undies or a diaper on?" Of course she said, "Undies." I put undies on her and told her she couldn't pee in her pants, that if she needed to go pee she needed to tell me. All day I would ask her every once in a while if she had to go pee and she would tell me if she did or didn't. She wore undies all day yesterday and didn't pee or poop her pants. I gave her stickers and goldfish crackers when she peed in the potty. Today she wore undies all day and only had one accident. She didn't even pee at school. She even pooped in the potty today. I think for two days into it she is doing great by only having one accident, and it was my fault because we had been gone and when we got home I forgot to ask her if she needed to go. She got busy playing and peed her pants. She is still wearing diapers at night, of course, but I am hopeful that she will do good from here on out. So far this tackle has been easy, and I hope it continues to be.

Sibling Rivalry

This sign was taped to Carson's bedroom door:



This sign was taped to Hayden's bedroom door: