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Saturday, March 19, 2011

Date Night

Can I just tell you how strange and incredible it is for kids to be old enough to leave home by themselves?  We don't venture far, aren't gone too long, and insist on phones being carried in their pockets at all times, but it's so nice.  :)

Tonight was date night.  Our kids love it because it usually means they can consume as much ice cream and watch as much tv as they want.  They always encourage us to leave and have fun and stay out as long as we want.  Well tonight we gave them a project to work on.  They've been building a loft bed of our oldest and it's ready to be primed.  So after giving them instructions and watching to make sure they're doing it right, we're off.  I feel a little more secure tonight because we're watching our favorite dog while her owners are out of town.  Yay!  (I love dogs.)

After dinner, we decide to walk around and only Target is open for wandering around at the late hour of 7:30 (ha ha, smaller town here).  While walking around the cameras, I remember a conversation with my father in law and wonder what a SLR (?) camera is.  Well there's this kid that works there that is more than happy to tell us all about the cameras.  During his spill, he starts talking about 35 mm cameras.  He stops - pauses - and looks at us, "You do remember those old 35 mm cameras, right?  I mean, I know I had to go to the antique store to find mine ..."

Finally we end up back at home.  Walk into the house and yup, the kids are stuck to the screen watching their favorite show.  But check this out, they're already showered and in their pj's and everything.  I'm impressed!  And then I walk into the next room and the dog comes to greet me.  With little chunks of paint stuck in her fur.  Great.  The dog wasn't suppose to go in the garage near the paint.  Let's go see the damage. 

My husband starts laughing at the paint job.  There are wonderful areas!  Then there are not so wonderful areas.  Literally, there will be a spot that is completely missed but right underneath it is a big dripping section and it makes you wonder where the drips came from.  Ya.

Then, inside the house, are little doggie footprints of paint.  Until the paint wore off anyway.  Sigh.  He goes to work fixing the paint, I go to work scrubbing the paint off of the floor and everywhere else I find it. 

While I'm scrubbing, my son tells me, "Hey mom!  This is for you!"  He pushes play on the computer and I hear a commercial start playing, "While most wrinkle creams fade away but your wrinkles don't ..."  My son is sincere enough that I believe him when he says that isn't what he wanted to show me.  (Or do I just want to?)

When I'm almost finished, I ask the kids if they know what we're doing.  When I start to tell them, they start to laugh.  They think the painted dog prints are funny.  They think the paint on the door is hilarious.  When I tell them about the paint on my new washer & dryer, they both suck in their breaths and a look of terror comes across their faces.  They know this isn't good.  (Which I think is funny that that's what got their attention.)

So it's all clean now.  The floor.  The door.  The washer & dryer.  All the doggie footprints.  I guess the bottom line is that while I'm glad they can watch themselves for a few hours, I'm glad they still need us around.  :)

Monday, March 14, 2011

Funny email

GM vs MS


 For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way
 computers have enhanced our lives, read on. At a recent computer expo
 (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the
 auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the
 computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got
 1,000 miles to the gallon."

 In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release
 stating:

 If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving
 cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

 2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to
 buy a new car.

 3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You
 would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off
 the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue.
 For some reason you would simply accept this.

 4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause
 your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to
 reinstall the engine.

 5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable,
 five times! as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only
 five percent of the roads.

 6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all
 be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation"
 warning light.

 7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

 8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out
 and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle,
 turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna

 9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn
 how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in
 the same manner as the old car.

 10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Is it just me?

The time has rolled around to get a new printer.  After way to many hours of searching for what we want, reading reviews, searching about cartridges, and hunting for sales, ta-da!  Finally - I'm going to go buy the printer.  (insert cheering here ...)

Part of getting a lower price is trading in our old printer for their "recycling" program.  Saves me money and unloads the old printer so I'm game.  So I haul in the old printer and realize, hey - I still have 4 good ink cartridges inside of here that are worth $3 a pop - that's another $12 I can take off of the price tag.  But you can only get the ink cartridges out when the printer is on.  Hmmm.  (Should've just walked away at this point...)  So I talk to the salesperson and they're very willing to plug it in and let me get them out.

Yup, pulling those suckers out and bam.  The yellow starts dripping ink all over the white counter and floor.  Nice.  I was so embarrassed.  The lady behind the counter quickly walked away.  The guy stuck there with me promptly went to gets supplies we go to town cleaning it.  Almost done.  What do I do?  While trying to shift the paper towels in my hand, I completely drop the ink cartridge and yellow ink goes spraying everywhere.  What can I say at this point?  My daughter tells me, "Way to go mom."  Thanks for that, now spray over there so I can wipe it up and be quick about it!

Well their store is clean now - I can't say the same for my shoes and pants.  Yellow looks good on me right?  In any case, it'll be a while before I go there again.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Questions kids have

I really try to teach the little ones that when they pick their nose (because they're going to do it) to go in the bathroom and put it on toilet paper.  "Try" being the key word here.

Well a little 3 year old guy today is at it on my couch.  I really like my couch and ask him to stop.  He looks up at me and sees the baby which sparks a question from him.  "Does the baby pick her nose?"

To which I answer him, "No.  The baby doesn't pick her nose yet."

His very confused reply, "Well why not?"

Thursday, March 10, 2011

A shopping we will go!

I have several nicknames for my kids and they always know my mood by which one I use.  :)

So I'm at the grocery store with my daughter on a Saturday morning.  Ugh.  Not a good time to go, but that's when I was able to.  While waiting for me to grab some salad dressing, my daughter sits down in an empty spot in the shelfving by the toilet paper, with the cart right next to her.  So from looking in, you only see my cart next to the shelving.  I didn't think about this.  I just was happy when people stopped walking by so I could grab the dressing and move on.  Which I almost do.  Before moving on, I look at her and casually but not too quietly so that she hears me ask her, "Hey baby - you coming with me?"  As my daughter stands up to follow me, an older man on the other side of me tells me, "Oh.  I didn't see her there..."

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Potty Training

Ahhh, do potty training adventures ever go away?  Not in my world, at least not for many years anyway.  So I'm taking this little guy to the bathroom and he wants to sit on the toilet.  Well, usually there's a reason why a little boy would want to sit instead of stand because even at that young age they recognize that it's easier to stand.  So I put him up on the toilet and the next thing I know, I'm getting sprayed.  Not by an infant mind you, but a 2 year old.  Lots more quantity involved.  Wow.  I'm just grabbing his sides and trying to move his entire body in the downward position cause I don't dare open my eyes to try to see what I'm doing or my mouth to tell him to point down, point down!

Sigh.  Can't wait for naptime so I can shower!  What's next?

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

I'm Back!!!

Okay, so I haven't written anything here for a while, but you gotta give me credit cause my taxes are done.  Yay!  But I haven't forgotten about you and have been taking notes so there's lots of good stuff coming.  :)

But first, tonight.  I will tell you about tonight.  I'm a cub scout leader, for about 3 1/2 years now.  A lot has happened in that time.  But tonight, well ... tonight was just *special*. 

We're working on safety, which involves taking fingerprints for an identification card their parents hopefully will never need.  Yes.  Eight 8 & 9 year old boys.  Two 10 year old girls.  Two of the boys have ADHD and 1 is special needs.  So ya know, things have a tendency to be, well, let's just say that it makes me appreciate my day job more.  :)  These boys are great, just extremely active - which is the way they're suppose to be really.

Back to tonight.  Fingerprinting.  I show them how it's done and have them work with me doing their own fingerprints.  Of course I forget to bring wipes, so they get to go to the bathroom to wash their hands 2 at a time.  I really should have checked the condition of the bathroom before leaving, I just thought of that right now.  Oops.  While we're finishing up, they're running around, chasing each other with inked up fingers.  Playing the piano (nope, didn't check that either), drawing on the board, ...  good times.

Next comes the plaster.  Yes, we're going to actually take footprints of these wonderful boys in plaster for them.  (Wow - we are such over achievers!)  Fast forward to the end of the night and you'll see 2 leaders, a parent, and their cub scout scrubbing down the brick exterior of the church building trying to get the plaster off of it.  I really hope it's gone when it dries.  As we're going to put the cleaning supplies away, one of the counselors of the bishopric sees us.  Stops and looks at me and I've got the busted look on my face.  After staring at me for a few seconds and neither one of us saying anything he shakes his head and says, "I don't even want to know" and starts to walk away.  I can just see it, "Yes bishop, the beautiful red brick on the side of the church that's about 3 years old is now white.  Let me explain ..."  Well that's one way to get released.