Another Boring Day

I don't think I've ever had two such boring days right in a row. I did end up puking a couple of times last night. The only good thing about that was after standing by watching me puke, Hayden felt so sorry for me he said, "I love you, Mom." I guess that makes up for him making me clean up his vomit in the middle of the night last week.

I have to complain about the biggest toy retailer in the country. They suck. There was an ad in the paper today and something that we want to get Amaya for Christmas was on sale. Since I was still feeling a bit under the weather I sent Mike over to get it. He comes home a while later saying they don't have any of the item. They did call another store and said they had a bunch over there. I told him he'd better go get one because it seems to be a popular item and if he didn't we might have a hard time getting it. He wasn't too happy, but he ventured out again. He drove across town and guess what? They didn't have any either. They didn't even have a spot on the shelf for them. He first looked for them on his own and then asked an idiot employee if they had any. The guy left to go look something up and said they didn't have any. Mike was pissed. He called me and I was pissed. He said he would just come home. I got on the internet to find a phone number where I could call and bitch someone out, and just in time Mike called me back to say they actually did have it. Just before he was walking out the door he decided to ask one more person and they found one for him. So it wasn't a wasted trip after all. I hate to say that this is the first gift we have bought for Christmas, so we have a lot more shopping nightmares ahead of us in the next couple of weeks.



Earlier this morning, before his fun shopping trip, Mike took a quick trip to the store. When he came out from the store the truck wouldn't start. Luckily he was right next door to his work at a convenience store where he has known the guy who was working for years. The guy jump started the truck. It has been having a problem lately and last week we took it in to get an oil leak fixed, the battery checked and a tune-up. For some reason, even though it was written down on the work order, they only fixed the leak. We have to make another appointment for the other two things. Gee, they must get their employees from the same place the giant toy retailer gets theirs. Now we have to deal with the truck having problems for a few days and I have a job tomorrow that is about 45 minutes away from home. I hope I don't get stranded there. At least if it was in town I could call Mike and he could come and help me. I guess I'll figure something out between then and now.



On a happier note, Spot loves the snow. He is such a goofball. The boys played outside for a while today and worked on their snowman they built yesterday. Amaya was taking a nap again. I guess we'll have to start planning outside play when she's awake because she was pretty upset when she found out the boys got to play outside and she didn't. Mike hasn't pulled our tomato plants out yet and there are still some red cherry tomatoes on them, even though they are frozen. Carson got a couple of tomatoes and put them on the snowman for eyes. Spot saw them and he jumped up and ate the eyes. Carson went and got more and gave the snowman eyes again. Spot ate the eyes again. Then it became a game. Now that I'm thinking about it, it probably wasn't a good game. I hope I won't be cleaning up tomato barf tonight. I guess it would be better than cleaning up poo barf, but that's another story for another time.

Shopping Spree

I can't believe it. Today was the third day in a row that I went shopping. I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond. I love that store. I could spend hours there. I wish I was rich, because I would definitely buy most things that store has, especially the kitchen stuff. Since I've been organizing lately, it is fun looking at all the neat containers and organizing stuff. It gives me good ideas of stuff that I want to get in the future. One room at a time, though.

I Need to Get Out More

Today was the second day in a row that I went shopping. That is unheard of for me. It's not because I don't love to go shopping, because I do, it's just that we haven't had a lot of money lately so I haven't been able to. Luckily that should change soon because at the end of the month my job is changing a bit.

I went to Office Max because I needed to copy some stuff for work, and I ended up getting a few fun things there. Then I wanted to look for something to put our Summer Reading Program stuff in so I went to Michael's because they had their baskets on sale. I found a great one with a lid. I like the fact that it has a lid because it hides all the paper inside. While at Michael's I decided to look around a bit. I really wanted to see the new Martha Stewart stuff they have there. There is a lot of neat stuff. Since it is over by the rest of the scrapbooking stuff I decided to check some stuff out. I really haven't been into scrapbooking, although I have done a few pages in a scrapbook years ago.

Most of my problem is that I am a huge slacker on getting prints of my pictures. As I was organizing the family room the other day I went through a box that I throw in 35mm film that needs to be taken to get developed. There are 70, yes 70, rolls of film that need to be developed. Here's a little background story on my lack of getting prints made. Back in 2002, two weeks after I gave birth to Hayden, my dad died of cancer. He didn't want a funeral so we just had a Celebration of Life at my mom's house. He died on a Saturday and we were having the Celebration the next Saturday, so we had a week to prepare. We made up some posters that had pictures of my dad from the time he was a child up until the most recent times. I hadn't gotten any pictures developed since shortly after Carson was born two and a half years earlier, so I had to take all my undeveloped film in that week, 35 rolls in all, so I would have some pictures of my dad and Carson to put on the posters. Well, that is the last time I had film developed. The only exception to that is our trip to China. As soon as we got back I took all of our film from that trip in before it could get mixed up with the rest. So, in the 70 rolls of film there are pictures from almost five years ago. The only fun thing about this is that when I do start taking the film in I will have no idea what to expect, so it is kind of fun seeing what pictures are in there. Also, I haven't printed out any pictures, except for a few here and there, of my digital pictures. I got my digital camera right before we went to China in 2005, so there are a lot of pictures. I haven't even printed out our China pictures because I can just look at them on the computer.

Anyway, back to my story. I am totally amazed at how much cool scrapbooking stuff there is. It has got me really excited to get all my pictures developed and get all my digital pictures printed out so I can start putting them in albums. I'm not a huge scrapbooker so I won't spend a ton of time on each page, but I do like to put a few backgrounds or stickers here and there. There are so many cool albums, too. I'm trying to think of how to organize my pictures. I've always thought I would do them chronologically, but now I'm thinking maybe by subject. I read that tip somewhere and I can't credit who I got it from because I can't remember, but I really like it. I want to do one for sports, one for the pets we've had, one for vacations, one for family reunions, one for each kid for all their birthdays, etc. Then I would have one or more just general albums with pictures of the kids around the house or at the park, etc.

I can't start doing this until I have our whole house organized because I may have some pictures hiding somewhere that I don't know about. I think I have all my pictures in a bunch of boxes that I know where they are, but over the years they have been in so many different places in the house that if I were to start some albums and then come across pictures that should be in an album that is already filled I would be really ticked off. I think that will be a project I will start in the fall. I got my first camera when I was about 10 and I'm 40 now, so I have 30 years worth of pictures just shoved in boxes. It's sad. I want to be able to enjoy them and let my kids see them, too.

One thing I did start doing is scanning in all my old printed pictures so I can have copies of everything on the computer. That way I can back all my pictures up onto CDs and store them somewhere else so in case our house ever burned down or got ruined somehow I would have copies of all my pictures somewhere else. Mike's grandma's house burned to the ground years ago and she lost everything. To this day the only thing she still talks about all the time is her photographs that were lost. Her family has hardly any pictures of when the kids were little.

Another thing I want to do is scan in all of my mom's pictures from when I was a kid and all of Mike's mom's pictures from when he was a kid. I would love to do an album for each of us of our childhoods.

It's so funny because yesterday and today I told Mike I was just going to be gone for a short time and I ended up being gone for hours because I was having such a good time looking at stuff. The funny thing is I don't even go to the grocery store. Mike does all the grocery shopping. We started that because years ago I was going to school at night and it made more sense for him to go do it while I was at school than waste our time on the weekend doing it. The other day Carson's class went on a field trip to a grocery store to see how things work behind the scenes, and I was just as excited as the kids. The other moms looked bored out of their minds, but I was having a great time seeing things I don't normally see.

I told you I need to get out more.

Soccer, Shopping and the Library

Today was very busy. Carson, Hayden, Amaya and I watched a movie this morning, Everyone's Hero. It was a really cute movie. We all really liked it. I think it might be one movie I wouldn't mind buying.

Carson had soccer orientation in the early afternoon. He and I went and met his coach (who had to volunteer on the spot because there was no coach), got his uniform and schedule and saw who is on his team. So far there is only one other boy. All the rest are girls. That is really strange. Usually there might be one or two girls and all the rest boys. I told him with all those girls that he will probably be the best player on the team. Then I remembered that he's been on several teams where the best player was a girl. We'll have to see how it goes. He loves soccer so he's excited to play, but not excited about the baby blue color his team is.

Then Carson and I went shopping. He so didn't want to go with me, but I told him he had to. We went to a dollar store. It's the first time I've ever been in one. I have been somewhat of a dollar store snob in the past, not because I'm rich, because I'm not, not because I think I'm better than anyone else, because I'm definitely not. I guess I always felt that I didn't "need" to shop at a dollar store. The only reason I went there was to look for some cheap storage items. Carson and I went wild in that store. I can't believe the stuff you can get for so cheap. Of course, there are is a lot of junk, but there is a lot of pretty good stuff there, too. It was fun. The most expense thing I bought was a shower curtain liner for $2.50. They had the cutest hair accessories. I've wanted to try headbands for Amaya because I don't want to cut her bangs and it's a pain to always put it up with hair ties. They had a set of six for $1.00. At least if they don't work out, they were only $1.00. I also bought some cute hair ties with wooden flowers on them. I bought each of the kids a placement so they can keep their meal area clean, only $1.00. Mike and I have been talking about implementing a small reward system for good behavior and I got 500 stickers for $1.00. I did get ripped of on two items, however. I got two sets of three small baskets. They were supposed to be on clearance for $.50 but they charged me $1.00, so I got ripped off $1.00. I didn't feel like I should complain thought, because I got such a good deal on everything. It sort of reminded me of when we were in China and everything was so inexpensive.

Then we went to another discount, but not dollar, store and I bought a really cool collapsible, canvas basket. When I got home I realized how cool it was and decided I needed another one so I went back and got another one. They only had three and now I think I want the other one. They weren't really cheap, though. They were $10.00 each, but they are worth it.

Then we went to the library to get the kids some books and sign up Carson and Hayden for the summer reading program. We have two library systems around here and in the other library system both Mike and I have fines on our cards. Mike has a fine on his card from the library system we went to today, and I didn't have a card so I applied for one. We love to go to the library, we just aren't so good about keeping track of our books and returning them on time. There really is no excuse for that type of behavior, especially since we can renew books or check due dates on line. Hopefully our new library basket will help us be more organized. We really need to pay off our fines, though, so we can use those cards again. I don't feel too horrible about paying the fines because I love the library and figure it is kind of like a donation to the library; however, I would rather not pay to borrow books. Anyway, the kids are excited about the summer reading program and it is one thing to keep them busy.

Mike went to a beer club meeting tonight. They all take food and judge each others' homebrew and whoever wins gets to send their beer off to a national competition. Luckily it is not too far from our house because Mike drives to it and then leaves his vehicle there and rides his bike home. He doesn't get really drunk so I'm not worried about him riding his bike home, but he probably would be slightly over the legal limit so he doesn't drive.

After Hayden and Amaya go to bed Carson and I are going to watch Revenge of the Sith. According to Netflix, they don't recommend this movie to kids under 11, even though it is rated PG. The main reason is because it could be upsetting to kids to see a beloved character, Anakin, turn to the dark side. Carson already knows that Anakin turns into Darth Vader, and I explained that in the end (at the end of Return of the Jedi) Darth Vader does show that he has some good in his heart because he saves Luke. I am usually pretty strict on what my kids watch, so this is going outside of what I would normally let him watch, but we've been watching all the other Star Wars movies and he handled it just fine. Hayden is mad because I won't let him watch them, but he is only four. He does know kids his age who've seen the Star Wars movies, but to me he is way too young. One movie I would love Carson to see is Jurassic Park because he loves dinosaurs, but I still think it would be way too scary. I might have to research it a bit and then decide. It's been so long since I've seen that movie that I can't remember that much about it, other than that is was scary. Carson is getting to the age (7) when he wants to watch some of those movies that I'm not sure I want him watching. It's a hard decision sometimes. Oh well, there are a lot of hard decisions when you're a parent and usually everything turns out fine.