ohhhhhhhh $hhhhhhhhhit!

"Oooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$hhhhhhhhhhhit!"

That's what I was saying as I ran into Kiddo's room this morning at 7:25 a.m. Me, the lightest sleeper on the planet. The anal one who always sets her THREE alarms every evening (and did, in fact set them last night) somehow over slept this morning. I still have no idea what happened. All I can come up with is somehow they did not go off.

Miraculously, despite being awaked 40 min. Later than usual, Kiddo made it to school on time and I, super mom (snort) was amazing. Oh yes, I was perky for the first morning of my life. I had to be. He kept crying, poor thing. Between being rushed like a maniac and having not read his Monarch Butterfly book to more than 3 people he was a wreck. Cried a total of 3 times. Crying before school is a first for him.

The good news is, today is the last day of school. After today we've got 2 weeks of Fall Break coming our way. Yahhhhhoooooooooooooooo!

Another day in the life of....

Kiddo got up around 1 a.m. to pee. He calls out, "Mom! I need you!" very urgently. I was on my computer but got right up and ran in there. What I found was a lake forming upon what was once my bathroom floor. I jump right in the lake and make for the valve to turn the water off since the toilet doesn't plan to stop pouring out water any time soon. By the time the water valve is shut off the lake has made its way out to the carpeting. All the while I'm yelling for my husband to get his butt off his computer and get in there to help me out. Does he? Nope. He says he'll be there in a moment and yes, at that point he knew what was up. Niiiiiiiiiice.

So hubby mopped up the floor and plunged the toilet (my hero). I finished sopping up the lake and then got to disinfect everything. The icing on the cake was, I had just finished cleaning the bathroom prior to this whole fiasco. Ain't life grand?

I want to go away from the world and be alone for awhile. I swear, if I was a drinking woman I'd have had me a tall glass of something strong tonight!

Tomorrow I'll deal with the nasty soaking wet towels and bathroom mats which are currently sitting outside in a trash bag. Lord help me.

Happy 7th Birthday Google

I dunno.... those slices of cake are lookin' good to me. I should probably go to bed now.

Key issues

Yeah... so it wasn't that long ago that my house key/key to the laundry facilities broke off in the laundry room door. I went the next day and got a duplicate made from my husband's key.

I already had to make another replacement. What is the deal?! The new one I'd had made, it freakin' bent. How on earth does a key get bent. I went to use it one morning after taking Kiddo to school and the stupid key was bent and thus, would not slide into the lock and unlock the door.

Bah.

Thankfully my husband was at home, though sound alseep in bed. Yes, the lucky duck sleeps in a lot later than I get to on school days. I pounded on the door for a few minutes and then started yelling. Once he realized it was me he opened the door. I was lucky. He can usually sleep through anything.

I figure I really ought to have made more than one copy this time around since this whole key thing is just bizarre. Never had issues with keys before... of course I didn't get an extra made. I just love going to the shop and asking the dude to make me another key. Not.

Stay away from the following:

1) Total Raisin Bran. I like Raisin Bran. I like Wheat Chex. I like lots of very healthy, loaded with fiber cereals. Total Raisin Bran is like eating cardboard flakes with raisins. Gak.

2) Kroger Frozen Chicken Tenders (that are breaded and cooked). These are beyond gross. They taste like very bland meat loaded with artificial smoke flavoring. Terrible.

3) Dial anti-bacterial foaming hand soap. Just bought it today, just used it. $1.85 at Target, what a deal. But now I smell like a man. It's not a bad smell, I just don't personally want to smell manly.

I got tagged again!

Uh.... thanks Charity... :)

Here goes nothin'.

Ten years ago: I was 20. I had met my husband just a few weeks prior and we were busy getting to know each other; spend almost any waking hour together that we weren't working. I worked all hours of the day and night (and lots of them) at a residential care facility for the elderly and was trying to take a few classes on top of all that. I had no time for anything else but it didn't matter because I was young and happy.

Five years ago: I had a two year old. I was learning more and more about web design, HTML and making my own graphics. Things weren't super easy for us financially, but we were doing ok.

One year ago: I was crazy busy helping out in Kiddo's school. I was there at least 3 days a week working. I was also very sick. I was so worn down and not sleeping much that I was really ill for 3 months.

Yesterday: I slept in really late, it was lovely. I watched the movie In Good Company and really enjoyed it and I also caught E-Ring on USA. I was surprised at how much I liked it, I hope to keep watching it. I also read some of Once a Thief by Kay Hooper, I did two loads of laundry, made Creamy Chicken and Cheese enchiladas for the family's dinner and made one trip to the grocery store. I also installed a few things onto my new computer. There may have been more but that's about all I recall. Nothing overly thrilled. Basically a typical day in my life.

Five songs I know all the words to: This will be easy - I know the words to 100's of songs.....
Since you been gone - Kelly Clarkson
Going Under - Evanescence
Special - Garbage
Mr. Brightside - The Killers
I'm a believer - Smashmouth

Five snacks:
Doritos (they're evil and addicting, stay away!)
Peanut Butter Twix
raw veggies with my low fat ranch dip
fresh pineapple
an english muffin with light Laughing Cow Cheese spread onto it


Five things I would do with $100 million:
Invest it
Buy a home locally (on the beach - WOO!)
Go back to school
Buy a new car so I could go back to school (no school's here have the major I want)
Travel
and number 6 - never worry about money again. Ever.

Five places I'd run away to:
Malibu
Santa Barbara
Catalina Island
any nice hotel on the beach
a lovely, quaint cottage somewhere in New England

Five things I'd never wear:
a bikini
leg warmers (been there done that in 2nd grade)
super low rise pants (with my build even mild low rise pants look horrid)
bell bottoms (lord help me)
Birkenstocks

Five favorite TV shows:
Lost
Alias
Nip/Tuck
The Shield
Rescue Me
... and a ton others, but it said only 5

Five greatest joys:
My son
Taking a bubble bath when it's quiet and no one around to bug me
doing something nice for someone else
the ocean and beach
music

Five favorite toys:
my new Dell computer
my MP3 player
my digital camera
Star Wars Galactic Heroes Han Solo and Princess Leia
my new printer


Five to tag:
Michelle
Juls
Stacy
Chris
Tammy

Books read 2005

While browsing the other day I saw someone who had a "Books read" list going on their blog. I thought it was a good idea, to keep track/see the books I've read over the year. So here's mine.... I started reading again as a hobby in June, since then I've read:

One for the Money (A Stephanie Plum Novel) by Janet Evanovich
Two for the Dough (A Stephanie Plum Novel) by Janet Evanovich
Three To Get Deadly : A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
Four to Score (A Stephanie Plum Novel) by Janet Evanovich
High Five (A Stephanie Plum Novel) by Janet Evanovich
Hot Six (A Stephanie Plum Novel) by Janet Evanovich
Watermelon by Marian Keyes
Seven Up (A Stephanie Plum Novel) by Janet Evanovich
Hard Eight (A Stephanie Plum Novel) by Janet Evanovich
Visions of Sugar Plums (A Stephanie Plum Novel) by Janet Evanovich
To the Nines (A Stephanie Plum Novel) by Janet Evanovich
Sense of Evil by Kay Hooper
Ten Big Ones: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
I Don't Know How She Does It : The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother by Allison Pearson
Derailed by James Siegel
Touching Evil by Kay Hooper
Whisper of Evil by Kay Hooper
Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
Body of Evidence by Patricia Cornwell
Hunting Fear by Kay Hooper
Hiding in the Shadows (Shadows Trilogy) by Kay Hooper
Stealing Shadows (Shadows Trilogy) by Kay Hooper
Out of the Shadows (Shadows Trilogy) by Kay Hooper
ALL THAT REMAINS by Patricia Cornwell
Cruel & Unusual (Kay Scarpetta Mysteries) by Patricia D. Cornwell
Chill of Fear by Kay Hooper
Eleven on Top (A Stephanie Plum Novel) by Janet Evanovich
Once a Thief by Kay Hooper
Always a Thief by Kay Hooper


Currently reading (or currently sitting on my nightstand for me to read):

Don't Kiss Them Good-bye by Allison DuBois
Must Love Dogs: A Novel by Claire Cook

Which Lost Character are you?

Take the test Which Lost Character Are You?? My Results: Claire You scored 67% kindness, 36% courage, 34% seedy past, and 43% secretiveness!

"Don't talk to me about the baby. I'm sick of everyone telling me what to do." You are Claire. You are a very kind and caring person. You're not the bravest on the island, but you will stand up for yourself when the need arises. Compared to the other survivors, you have a pretty clean past and you're open and honest about most things. It's a good thing, too - Turniphead needs you to be nurturing and caring in order for him to grow up and NOT become the antichrist. Luckily, Charlie seems more than happy to assist you.

Dude! I got a Dell!

I'm on a computer high at the moment. My beautiful Dell arrived today, hubby set it up (mostly) and I'm busying doing the rest of the setting up.... it's amazing, it's perfect. I love it!

Finally, I can get back online. I can get to my life without having to get on for 5 min. and then wait a few hours to try again for another 5 min. I was quite honestly losing my mind.

Anyway, the Dell. It's sleek. It's black. It's fast. It's quick. It's lovely. *swoon* Hubby is jealous... but hey, he got my new Sony Flat Screen monitor so he did get something out of this, too.

Thoughts for the day (thus far)

I'm having some serious sticker shock issues right now. My husband just told me how much my new computer is going to cost. Holy crap. No matter I have to have a new computer. Mine is locking up on me every few moments and I'm here trying to get some actual get-paid-for-work work done.

Is it wrong that after eating two Krispy Kreme's yesterday I no longer feel so depressed and hateful to the world? I guess it's PMS (x10) that's going on, but ugh. I've been hating on everything for the last week. Yesterday, after donut time, I felt perfectly fine. Today I'm still feeling better but not as good as yesterday afternoon.

I was so ready when school started back up for Kiddo on Aug. 1. Now we've only got two more weeks before their first break. I'm about ready for it. I need the sleep. Been having terrible insomnia for the last week... which now that I think about it may have been related to my hating the world bit.

OPI / Marie Claire Freebie

In the October 2005 Issue of Marie Claire (with Keira Knightly on the cover) there's a coupon (on page 272 - info on page 32) for a free full size bottle of OPI Cabernet for the Lady at Trade Secret or Beauty Express Salons.

The color, Cabernet for the Lady looks really pretty - like a berry-red. They're calling it a berry, but going by the photos in the magazine it's more of a rosy/coraly/red with shimmer. Very pretty if you like reds!

My scan (which is kinda crappy as far as the color goes) -- offer expires 10/6/05 or when supplies are gone.

Grocery store shopping etiquette

Some tips on how not to piss off other shoppers:

1) While it's fabulous you're shopping with your friend and her two children, please respect that there are other people in the store too. That means, don't block every isle the two of you lazily stroll down. It also means it's not a good idea to stop mid-isle, blocking off the entire isle and just stand there and chat like you're on the beach. Not everyone is there with their friend having a blast and being lazy. Some of us actually need to get what's on our list and get the heck outta there. We have stuff to do. Move it!

2) If you have three children under the age of 5 and one of them cannot be controlled by you or any other human being, it's probably not a good idea to take them to the store. A screaming, shrieking 2 year old wandering around while his mom keeps yelling at him and saying things like, "You better get over here or I'm leaving you." really makes the whole grocery shopping experience even less pleasant than usual. I get you may not be able to go shopping without all three kids, that's life. However, if said 2 year old can scream and throw a fit for the entire 40 minutes you're grocery shopping it's definitely past time you learn some new techniques on how to deal because your child is hell on legs.

3) If you work at the store and end up bagging groceries for someone that include 2 liter bottles of soda... it's not a good idea to put two into a single, thin plastic bag and then place it on the shelf under the shopping basket. The reason this is not a good idea is that when the poor customer pushes their cart out to their car that bag has a really good chance of slipping off the cart completely thus dumping out both 2 liter bottles of soda into the parking lot. And 2 liter bottles of soda roll pretty darn well. Said customer may not even realize what happened until she's already at her car and has people yelling, "Miss! Miss! Did you drop something?!"

I'm just saying.

Pride Day at School

Kiddo's school has had a Pride Day every year since Sept. 11. They have it either on or very close to 9/11. Today is Pride Day, the kids are having a special assembly and are wearing Red, White and Blue. Since Hurricane Katrina did so much damage (gosh, that feels like an understatement) his school is also having the kids bring in coins to donate.

Yesterday, in the car:

Me: So, are you going to give some of your money to help out?

Him: No.

Me: Ok, fine. You don't have to... but you know those children don't have their clothes, their toys, their books, their PlayStation games....

Him: *thinking*

Him: Ok, I will give 5 [cents]

Me: Just 5 cents?

Him: Ok, 8

Me: Why only 8?

Him: I don't have that much.

Me: Yeah you do. You have a piggy bank with lots of coins. Me and dad always give you our change.

Him: Oh yeah, 'cuz some of those are tens, huh.


This morning:

Without any prompting he brings out his piggy bank and tells me he needs to get it open. I pry it open and start dumping. I've got a pile on the couch and I ask him what he wants to give. He looks at the pile and takes a little from it to keep, looks at the big pile that's left and says, "That much."

So I counted it out - $2.48. We put it into a ziplock baggie for him to take to school. He was highly impressed with the amount. "Wow. That's a LOT! The town that gets this is gonna be lucky."

He's hilarious even if he doesn't quite fully get it.

I explained to him that $2.48 alone really isn't much - but that with all the children bringing in some of their coins it is going to add up and really help some people. I went on to tell him this wasn't about having mom's and dad's give their dollars to the kids to bring - it was about the children. I told him his dad and I had already given some of our money. His response, "Really? That's cool."

Are mom jeans worse than flabby bellies with stretch marks?

I have to ask.....

Which is worse? wearing mom jeans or wearing low rise pants that make your flabby rolling belly hang over a few inches showing your stretch marks?

This is brought on by what I saw yesterday outside of a store. I'm not a fashionista. I'm a jeans and tees kind of girl. I'm a mom, I don't have a job outside of my home that means I must dress up in any way. I won't wear anything that shows my belly as a public service. Trust me, I've got some rolls and plenty of stretch marks from my pregnancy 7+ years ago. I don't want to see it and neither does anyone else.

So what do you think? Are mom jeans (which, no I don't wear them - I wear just normal jeans) better than allowing a chubby stretch marked belly out for all the world to see? Me? I'd go with mom jeans before I was that cruel to the world.

Mirrors suck. Big time.

You know when you're already not exactly feeling your best? I mean, you know you didn't put makeup on and you already know your hair is months behind on the highlights thing and it needs a cut desperately... but then you catch sight of yourself in a mirror and can really SEE how horrible it is and you just feel like mega-crap? Yeah, that happened to me today. I knew I didn't look good. I guess I was just in denial about how bad I was looking. Granted, it was in a store dressing room - but still!

I bought two pair of jeans and hoodie. It has been really pathetic that I own one pair of pants and they are black, not jeans. I mean, I own more than that - I just can't currently fit INTO anything else. I do have capri's and such but gosh I simply had to get me some jeans that fit. Of course this made me late picking up Kiddo from school. And my Mother-in-Law who works in the office at the school called and left a message on our machine at home saying he was getting concerned. I asked him about it and his attitude was basically he could care less. He was hanging out with friends and his grandma was right in the office. So yeah, bad mom moment. Oh well. I seriously had to get some pants and taking Kiddo to the mall when I have to try things on is about as fun as shooting ones self in the foot.

Katrina relief.....

In the wake of what a disaster the south has become I'm so glad to read about the following:

Donations, supplies rush in...
Morgan Freeman to help raise funds for Katrina relief
TV Telethons Announced for Katrina Victims
Duff to Donate $250K for Katrina Victims
Dave Matthews Band to Do Benefit Concert
Katrina Felt Across Entertainment World
Diddy, Jay-Z pledge $1M to Red Cross
Cage donates cash to New Orleans neighbours
Celine Dion pledges $1million US to American Red Cross

I only wish I was able to do more than I can... Whatever you might be able to do (donate cash, pray, whatever) I hope you'll do so. A friend of mine is going to donate 100% of her profits from her Body Shop at Home business to the Red Cross between Sept. 1 - Sept. 14 - that's 25% of your order going to help the victims of Katrina. Want to help out and enjoy some great products at the same time? Check out her site!