well well well...

Hubby is living it up in Vegas - having a WELL deserved break.

 

SO I bought myself a break!  A babysitter for this evening to help entertain the kids (it's been raining for 2 days and we're all a little stir crazy) so I could actually eat my dinner and clean up!  YAY Me - the best $25 I ever spent!

 

Hubby home in T-3.5 days!

damn...

hubby went out of town for 6 days

 

Forgot to eat dinner.

Walking!

And we have a walker!  Who will be going to stride rite to get her first shoes today!

party time!

BabyJ turns ONE tomorrow!!  unbelievable!  We are having her party Sunday - along w/a half birthday party for toddler T (his real bday is in Dec).  So our house will be awash in Lightning McQueen and Tinkerbell Sunday, as well as cake, candy, drinks, people, toddlers and craziness!

Wish me luck!

tying shoes?

Is it odd that it only took Son 15 minutes to learn to tie his shoes?

pray for strength

is what I do when BabyT (toddlerT?) spills his Elmo potty FULL OF PEE on the hardwood floor in the guest bathroom.  OH MY F-ing GOODNESS.  I know he's trying to be helpful and dump it but REALLY?  All over my floor?  I almost had a stroke I was so upset.

going to break her cell phone

The person over my cube wall has ringtones - OBNOXIOUS RING TONES.  SEVERAL (the one that just went off is "Hallelujah"  - VERY LOUDLY).  Not only does this person chat on the phone all day they let their phone ring several times before answering the damn thing.

and the older women too!

A third grader walking by that rides Son's Bus saw Son in the yard yesterday and she tried to get him to come over (out of our yard) and talk to her.

She said she had been watching him in his afterschool ultimate sports camp and wanted to chat with him. And was he busy watching her too?  Thank GOODNESS Son is So Not Interested in girls, but it is odd.

i have fainted.

Son has received TWO love letters in his backpack this week from the girls in his class.

One invitation to SPEND THE NIGHT....OMG.  Hubby and I almost dropped dead.

And one letter just professing love.

Good lord people, he is SIX and in Kindergarten!  What on earth is going on?

menu planning works for me!

One of the websites I read says that menu planning will save you lots of $$ because you can goto the store with a list of only what you need to buy to feed your family for that week.

Since our grocery bill (5 people!) has gotten out of control - the rising prices are killing us, especially since I try to buy Organic if it's an option for that product (they make organic chocolate!) - we're looking at EASILY $200 a week (and that doesn't include formula for the baby).

So yesterday I made my menu for the week (which doesn't include fast food or restaurant food for the whole week and went to the store.  Well, pizzas were on sale, so I bought 5.  And I bought baby cereal, ice cream (buy 1 get 1 free!), walnuts (heart healthy!), a jug of gatorade, and a couple of other things that weren't on the list.

The total: $130!  So I got everything we needed, plus a few bonuses and spent way less!  YAY!

Look 10 Years Younger!

Me and the young guy on our team, J, were meeting with our "Problem Manager".  He said something about the young kids these days.  I asked how old he was because I think he looks about 43?  I am 34.  HE SAID 33!  He thought I was the same age as J, who is 23!  Yay me!  I look 11 years younger than I am?  AWESOME!

so, um yeah - SKIING!

We went to Snowmass, CO with Hubby's parents.  What a trip!

For the first time in YEARS, I got to ski!  And not only SKI, but ski EVERY DAY.  FOR TWO HOURS.  With hubby!  Without children!  It was AWESOME! 

I spent Monday - Thursday working on my technique (which was crappy).  I can get down any slope (Jupiter Bowl in Deer Valley?  Where they did the OLYMPICS?  Check!  I can get down it - not ski it well, but I didn't die!).  But I wanted to ski more like all those rich people skiing around who get to ski more often than once every six years!  So I worked and worked and worked on my technique.  And I improved!  Yay me!  I even went down the Campground Run - which is a BLACK!  And a Black on the west coast is WAY HARDER (steeper!  LONGER!  STEEPER!) than a black on the east coast skiing.  I laugh at blacks on the east coast, because EVEN if you find them scary, they only last 1/8 of the time the ones out west do!  But I did it!  And I didn't do too bad!

But then Thursday night, we got snow.  At the base of the mountain, it was like 16 - 19 inches, easily 2 feet at the top.  I've never skied that much fresh powder before, so out we went into the blizzard (it was still snowing like crazy Friday morning).  And the first thing I did was fall down! Into 2 feet of powder.  Which is pretty much like falling into 2 feet of water - you get submerged.  It was neat!  So I went down the green as I was a bit shaken - skiing in 2 feet of powder is nothing like skiing on a well used run!  MISTAKE!  Apparently no one skis green slopes in that much powder because the powder makes you go so slow.  SO I was skiing on totally unskied territory and I was alone.  And terrified I was going to screw up in all that mush and go flying off the mountain.  But they had run a snowmobile around the slope for morons like me so I just went in it's track and finally got to where the run crossed where Hubby was waiting for me.  But by the end of our time, I had improved my powder skillz as well, aren't you proud?

And SON?  He is an awesome skier!  We skied with him a couple of times (he was in ski school all day and loving it) and he blows our minds!  He tried to ski thru the woods!  And tried to get over to the jumps!  Thank goodness he didn't see those things in time to ski over to get to them!

Anyway - more on what we did that wasn't skiing coming up next!

And we're back!

We just returned from our annual ski vacation out west!  MAN did we have fun!

But the time change!  YIKES!  We flew out west March 7, and had a 2 hour time difference.  Then the clocks sprung forward on March 8.  Then we returned home and NO ONE set OUR clocks forward so all day yesterday in addition to being off by 2 hours for the time zone, we were off 1 hour because the clocks were wrong... And man did we manage to screw up everyone's body clock!

going green!

Ok!  We're going green!!!

Here's what we're doing!!

 

** recycling plastic, glass, newspaper

** recycling cardboard, paperboard, magazines & junkmail

** bottling the water that runs while I wait for the faucet to heat up - I use this water to rinse out the recycling

** not drinking bottled water if we can help it

** not ordering straws for the adults at restaurants

** using washclothes to clean the 2 babies after meals (we were doing this anyway at a savings of at least 6 papertowels a day!)

** not letting the shower run on and on while we wait for it to get hot and get distracted away.  I'm waiting by the door for it to get warm.

** taking shorter showers

** turning off faucet when washing face (already doing that for brushing teeth)

** not turning the car on until we're actually ready to drive away.  Even if it only saves 10 seconds of idle time per trip, over time, that is A LOT of gas.  I'm also no longer using the remote starter to start my car (this is sad, I love love love that thing) but my truck is a GAS HOG and to let it sit and idle just to get warm is DUMB and WASTEFUL

** Potty training BabyT.  This will be a huge savings for the environment - all those diapers!

 

It's funny, but all the going green stuff is CHEAPER than doing it the wasteful way.

Oh, except for the green cleaners.  Those are damn expensive. Also the dishwasher soap doesn't seem to work very well - I've tried Seventh Generation liquid and powder and they both suck.  Any suggestions?

The products, well, that part is getting expensive!

one suitcase???

Are you freaking serious?? Airlines are now only allowing ONE suitcase per passenger?  PLEASE.  Go fuck yourselves.  American and United - bite me.  You suck.  A lot.

is there no goodness going around??

omg

http://justanotherpregnancyblog.blogspot.com/

i am not for Obama

Barack Obama in 2004 responding to the question of why he was ruling out running for president in 2008:

"You know, I am a believer in knowing what you're doing when you apply for a job. And I think that if I were to seriously consider running on a national ticket, I would essentially have to start now, before having served a day in the Senate. Now, there are some people who might be comfortable doing that, but I'm not one of those people."

From Rachel Lucas.

so many tears

Are you following Flotsam's blog?  She had twin babies recently, and lost the little boy.  Simone is still very sick and her latest updating has her fighting her way thru!

warning, you probably won't be able to read this without crying...

http://flotsamblog.com/2008/02/24/the-golden-ticket/

OMG!

I did NOT KNOW that John Rich had a reality show!  It's called Gone Country and it's fabulous!  He takes artist from other genres of music and is giving them a chance to cut a country single.

We have Bobby Brown, Dee Schnieder (from Twisted Sister), Maureen that played Marsha Brady, Carnie Philips, Julio Iglesias JR., and some chick from American Idol.  Oh, and Sisqo (The Thong Song guy).  It's great, and who doesn't love John Rich?!  He is so...so....HIM.  He's a great artist with great insight.  I always have a lot more respect for artists that write their own music and he writes his own and a lot of the other country music out there.  It's worth tuning in!  And they show his awesome house, Gretchen Wilson's farm and who knows what else!

well.

As of last night, we are sponsoring a child thru Compassion International.  I don't know if you've been reading around the blogosphere, but they sent some bloggers there to meet the children that they sponsor.  I am awed and humbled by what they've experience and written about.  I want to make a difference ( a post coming soon about the differences/changes going on around my house!  It's big stuff for us!)...and my way to make a difference is to sponsor a child.  At least that's where I'm starting, no telling what'll come next!

Check them out: http://www.compassion.com/default.htm