February 27, 2006

Give Me Hope!


This is my new anti aging miracle. I "hope"!
I'm not sure I trust the name...."hope in a jar"...
I need something much more certain and concrete!
Hmmm, "concrete in a jar"...don't think so. Not a
good selling point - putting concrete on your face.

Speaking of things that AREN'T good selling points...
To Ackerman Associates and Kirby Vacuum Company:
It's not a great "selling point" to have your 21 yr old high school drop outs go door to door with your "free gifts" only to take them back. Here's my story...
It is 4:10 pm in the Clay Cottage and Miss. Tonja is getting her daycare kiddos snack when the doorbell rings. Thinking that it's A's father picking up a little early, I get "A" down from his booster seat and head for the door. I open it and there is a very young male species on my front porch to which I say..."Oh, it's not your daddy!" The young male species looks at me and asks if I'm the happy homeowner. I said "well, I don't know about the happy part." (small talk -ok)
So, he had a round tube of wipes that say "orange cleaner". He proceeds to hand this to me while saying that he is from Ackerman Associates and they want to give me this free gift so I will remember their name. I say "Thank you" (knowing there's a catch) and wait for the selling to begin. He says "Ok, do you remember our name?" to which I say "Yes, Ackerman Associates" His eyes get big and he says "WOW! Most people never remember." Umm, hello, you just told me 2 seconds ago. Although I must say I was pretty darn impressed with myself. I usually don't listen to people who are trying to sell me things. Anyhoo...he tells me that he is with a van of people and his van is competing with another van and that there is a girl out in his van that only needs to do ONE more demonstration of their wonderful Kirby vacuum cleaners and they will win. (Ok, for the record oh young one...I wasn't born yesterday, although you look like you may have been!) So I look at him and say "Right now?" and he says yes, they really need to get this done. So, I look at him and say "I'm sorry, but I run a daycare out of my home and we're just finishing snack, I still have preschool to finish up and I have parents coming and going from now until 5:00". He just looks at me and then looks at the "free gift" he just handed me. I said "Do you need these back?" He looks down with this half smile / half "I'm so sorry" look on his face and said "Ya, I'm going to need those back..." So I hand them back. He tells me to have a nice day and I shut the door. Hard. WHAT? Did they just hand me a free gift so that I would remember their name, then ask me their name, I REMEMBERED, and they just took it back?!
See, this is where my harmful good upbringing comes into play. I do the right thing first, by politely handing back the wipes, when really I should have chucked them across my front lawn and told him to go get them! GRRRRRRR!!! I have plans for this "Ackerman Associates"...I will write, I will email, I will call, I will complain, I did blog, I will send to all my email groups and everyone in my address book, I will warn everyone I see, and I WILL GET MY FREE WIPES BACK!!!!! Darn it!!!

I am going to Walmart tonight and buying a NO SOLICITING sign!!

February 23, 2006

Happy Birthday T1! ~ My Big 12 Year Old

What can I say...it's been a great 12 years babe!!
I love you, I love you, I love you!!
You're my big boy! You've been there with me through it ALL! Leaving your father, moving to a different state and starting over on our own, staying up late with me watching Lifetime when I was preggers with your brother... (You poor thing, I'm sorry for exposing you to The Golden Girls at such a young formative age!! - Is that why you wanted a cheesecake for your birthday last year?) Anyway, it just seems like you've always been there (for/with) me. We were laying in bed a couple nights ago...(this time watching Nick at Night, not Lifetime...) and I just started laughing out loud. You asked me why I was laughing and I said "because in a few days I will have a 12 year old!" That is so funny to me. I can't believe I have a 12 yr old!! And boy...what a great 12 yr old I have!! You're the best. Period! There is no other 12 yr old better than you! I can't believe 12 yrs ago tonight, at this very moment, 9:47 pm, you were only 45 minutes old. WOW what I would give to go back! Ok, so maybe I'd add a couple weeks to that...you know with the C-section recovery and all...but still, I would give anything to go back! Just for a minute, just to hold your little body in my arms again. Just to smell your little baby smell. Ok, now I'm sitting here bawling and you're on the couch playing your new Gameboy SP and you're going to look over here and figure out I'm writing about you. I hope you read this tomorrow and I hope you know how much you're loved. How much I deeply, truly, LOVE you!! With all my heart!! You're my first love! My first true love! You are the one who gave me my favorite title in all the world..."MOM"! So thank you... thank you for that title! I love it and I cherish it, even if I don't live up to everything that title should stand for on a daily basis! And thanks for forgiving me for all those days that I didn't do a good job of living up to that title! You're a good kid!! Even if I wasn't your mother, I would STILL want to know you!! Ok, bawling again...just tell me this... how did I get so lucky? Not only do I love you because I'm your mother and I have to, I love you because you're fun to be around! You just walked over here, you saw me crying and you just said what I love to hear you say...MOM!! Even if it was in that, "I can't believe she's crying again" voice....like you do when all the sad parts of movies come on. Ok, enough...I don't want you to think I'm depressed because it's your birthday, NO WAY!! Rock on little man, cause we got many more FUN years ahead!! I mean we've only begun...we still have acne, dates, driving, getting you through high school, your first job, college...and we'll stop there. I don't think I can handle thinking about marriage and grandkids!

February 22, 2006

If I have to witness one more dramatic "goodbye"...

Oh my gosh, seriously. I just stumbled upon yet another dramatic , sad, heart wrenching "goodbye blog" post. Ok, I'm trying not to be judgmental, and all in all, these dramatic goodbyes have a good meaning, but STILL....it's a BLOG people!
These women with their "last posts" , like it's their last breath... And their "I'm sorry, it had to be done, it was either the blog or my family/marriage/children's welfare" I'm not even kidding here!! And their "I've consulted with my husband, my psychiatrist, my friends and my family and I think this is for the best." Consulted?? A.R.E. Y.O.U. S.E.R.I.O.U.S? Really? Are you serious people?! It's a blog. These women really take this THAT seriously that they feel if they don't pull the plug completely on their blog that their lives are going to be in total ruins. What the heck? Blog when and if you can. There are no rules. And if you belong to some blogring that dictates when and how much you must post, maybe you just need to leave it. This isn't a blogging issue here people, this is an addiction problem. If you can't shut your computer down to make sure the your children are fed, your husband is taken care of, your house is clean, you get a daily shower, and your kids get to school on time...maybe you shouldn't have internet at all, period! I just don't see how these women can honestly blame their home/work/marriage/children issues on having a blog. PUHLEEZE! Take some responsibility here...I don't think these issues, lie within having a blog. Good grief, so you have responsibilities that will keep you from blogging for a couple days...so then DON'T blog for a couple days!! See how easy that is? Just don't blog every second of every day! Simple! Do it for fun in your spare time. Is it THAT hard? Really?

Get a grip ladies and up the prozac dosage!

February 21, 2006

Quick Note

Not much is going on, just a quick note to keep all my fans happy. LOL

This week is going so far, so good. T1 is finally starting to feel better and hasn't coughed today. I'm happy about that. I thought I was going to have to call the doctor again this week, but I think he's getting better.

I'm only working Mon. - Thurs. this week and took Friday off for T1. His birthday is Thursday and since I'm always off for his brothers birthday in December, he asked if I would take off for him this year. Well, YES!! Of course I would! We don't have any big plans for Friday. He wants to go to the mall or to a movie. Sounds good to me. Thursday night we will go out to eat with grandpa and grandma, come home, open presents and have cake and ice cream. My mom has to work til 11pm, so she'll miss the presents and cake, but we'll meet her somewhere for her lunch break at 6:30...probably Applebees.

Saturday we are getting up early and heading to Michigan. The kids and I will go to my aunts first and have a birthday celebration for my grandpa who is turning 83 and then we'll make our way over to Gwen's house to spend the night. I can't wait to see her baby. Well, her 'baby' is 19 months old now, but I haven't seen her yet, so I'm excited for her to finally meet her "Auntie T". Ok, and I'm excited to see my best friend too!! We'll come home on Sunday. Hopefully early enough for me to clean the house up a little and get ready for work Monday morning. I think this weekend is going to go by too fast!! Why can't we work 4 days and have 3 off?

Hope everyone is having a great week! I can't complain!

God is good, All the time! All the time, God is good!

February 18, 2006

My top 7 list....

Although this seems a little highschool to me (Sorry "G"), I promised a friend, my best friend, that I would add this to my blog...so here we go. This is my top 7 list of the "men" I would choose, if that were ever in my lifetime possible. Actually, I probably wouldn't choose any of these men, because I'm not sure any of them are "husband" material but anyway, here they are...

**Ok, well, my "common" pick would be husband material, except he doesn't know I'm alive. Although I do have his work email addy and I've thought about just emailing him and saying something to the effect of: "Hey, I know you, I'd like to go out with you sometime, so are you up for it?" Just to see what he says. I have a 50/50 chance...right!


So here they are:

Ethnic Background: Wayne Brady - he's cute and funny.

Movie Star: Leonardo DiCaprio - sorry, he is just looking hotter as he matures! The whole Titanic thing, NO! But now...YES!!

TV Star: Joshua Marrow - Nick on Y&R - always had a thing for him!

Common, Ordinary, Everyday Person that I know: NR -I don't think he even knows me, but he has met me once.

Over 40: George Eads - CSI and just HOT!! HOT!! HOT!!

Bad Boy: Tommy Lee or Dale Jr...it's a toss up. Oh, ok, I'll take them both!

Freebie: Owen Wilson - He's just a cutie patootie!!


February 15, 2006

Our Week in Review

I'm using "Trebuchet" font, which is my son T1's favorite font...which he also calls "trench bucket"...lol I guess I shouldn't "laugh out loud" although it wasn't really "out loud"...but I don't know how to pronounce it either, so in our house, it's trench bucket!! And "Comic Sans" is still comic sans...and btw, I hate the way everyone is using "sans" now in general conversation (or should I say in blogging conversation).

Anyway, my almost 12 yr old son has pneumonia. Go figure. He's had it twice now in his almost 12 years. Makes me feel like mother of the year, considering he's been sick for almost two weeks and I've just been dosing him up with OTC meds and waiting for it to go away. And the worse part of it is, I probably wouldn't have even taken him to the doctor if he wouldn't have overdosed himself. Monday night! He thought he was being helpful at 10:00 pm by giving himself his Motrin Cold...and he almost got it right, only he gave himself 2 TBS of it instead of 2 tsp...big difference there. My skinny little 11 yr old who only weighs 80 pounds soaking wet ended up taking 600 mg of motrin, and 90 mg of pseudophedrine. A normal dose would have been 200 of motrin and 30 of pseudophedrine. Of course I called Poison Control. They said he'd probably be ok, but to have him drink and for me to watch him and check on him every 20 minutes for 2 hours. Did I mention this was at 10:00 AT NIGHT when he did this. If you know me, you know 10PM is my cut off of my day...at 10pm I MUST be on my way to bed or it and I get UGLY! Of course I was worried enough that I did it with little grouchiness. So anyway, he wasn't feeling well yesterday and wanted to take more cold medicine, but I thought since he had had so much the night before that maybe I should call his doctor's office just to check it out. They had a nurse call me back and upon talking to her, we decided he needed to be seen. Not because of the overdose, but because of the symptoms not letting up by the 10th day. Well, at that time it was 3:30 and they close at 4:30...T1 was in bed and HAD to have a shower before going anywhere, the office is a good 25 minutes from my house on a good day, AND, I had all my daycare kids here. Thank goodness my mom was off work yesterday and could stay with the kiddos. I felt a little bad, because we were suppose to have a Valentine's Day party, BUT...I think they got the better end of it, my mom gave them ice cream sandwiches for snack and my 3 yr old daycare girl had THREE of them. LOL I about flipped when my mom told me this. She just looked at me with that "grandma look" and said "They were SMALL!"

As far as my Valentine's Day, it was nice (other than the doctor part). I got ROSES. And even though the guy didn't sign the card, I KNOW who they're from! My mom made dinner and we swapped gifts after. My kids MADE me cards, which I ADORE! I love MADE cards!!!! T1 got me (*with help from grandma) the Natasha Bedingfield CD. It's good. I'm listening to it right now. T2 got me (see *) a valentine blanket. It's so cute and SOFT!! It's got little hearts all over it and it's so comfy!

We were up at 4am. Not because of illnesses or anything, but because our neighbors behind us (Taylor calls them our "backdoor neighbors") have a dog that barks NONSTOP. He's done pretty good lately, but last night he was just crazy! I debated calling the police, because I did that a few years ago when it was a weekly/nightly/daily thing, and I couldn't even sleep with my windows open in the summer like I should be able to...irritating!! So I sat there all upset and angry until 5:30 when I decided to turn my tv on loud enough to half way drown out the barking. Tonight I will call the police!!! I will!! I'm too tired to deal with it anymore! And these neighbors are not nice neighbors either! I would LOVE to be able to go over there, or call them and ask in a nice friendly way if they could please take their dog in at night, but that would get me nowhere I'm sure. I've dealt with them before and they don't care. It's just rude! If you have a dog or dogs that bark all night, put them in somewhere! Beside the fact that we have a noise ordinance in this town.

Anyway, that's all for now. I am so tired I don't even know what I'm writing about. I am making the kids a fast dinner and going to bed! Sleep...I need sleep!

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Matt 11:28-30

February 11, 2006

Movie reviews and Rantings

Ok, so last night we watched "Wedding Crashers"...b.o.r.i.n.g. (in my opinion) Not much of a plot, or not an interesting one. Too long and not much action.
Today I watched "In Her Shoes"...I liked it. It was funny and held my attention.
I guess I'm just a sucker for chic flicks...hmm, maybe that's because I'm a chic!

So today I woke up after a very eventful night of sleep. I dreamt all night long. And had the most interesting dream at that...I was of course, at a wedding. Hmm, wonder why I would dream about a wedding...I doubt it was because I watched a 5 hour long movie about weddings or anything. Anyway, I was at a wedding and I have no idea who was getting married but I was the female version of the guys in the movie. I saw my ex boyfriend and most of his family, so maybe it was someone in their family that got married? I don't know but anyway, so he was there and I was trying to get him to look at me...why I don't know because I could really care less if he ever looks at me again...but oh, in the dream, I was looking hot! Then, I saw another guy I was friends with when I was like in 5th grade so I was dancing with him and he actually could dance really good. Then there were a couple other guys that I knew and I was flirting with them and then I noticed it was getting kind of late and I had no idea how to get home as the reception was about 2 hours from where I lived. So, I called my parents to see where they were...the reception was outside and it was huge, so I figured they were just somewhere else. Well, they were about an hour down the road on their way home, this put me in a panic because I needed to follow them home. So, I was like, ok, I'll just get directions and leave now and I'll be fine. So then I ask my mom about the kids and she said they didn't have them. This put me in a huge panic because I didn't have them and had absolutely no idea where they were. My mom thought I had them and I thought she had them. So I was begging her to have my dad turn around and she said they were too far down the road and she was sure they would show up somewhere. So I get off the phone and I start running everywhere I can think to look for them, I'm asking people to help me and they won't, I'm asking if someone can use the mic and make an announcement that my kids are missing and they wouldn't...I was really freaking out and then I woke up. And I must have slept on my neck or head wrong because I was extremely dizzy when I tried to get up.
So dizzy that I had to hold on to furniture and walls just to get in the bathroom. I thought I was ok until I tried to lay down again and WHOA when I did, the room was spinning. (And NO, I wasn't drinking last night!!) I have no idea what it was but it lasted until about 3:00 this afternoon. But now I'm better and made it out to walmart to do my weekly shopping. Fun!! It's always fun to go to a store that is SO absolutely disorganized that none of the employees have a clue as to what is going on. I just love it! They have 32 check outs and tonight they had 10 opened. NICE!
So, we were in line forever. But the thing that got me and I guess I shouldn't be surprised is the audacity of some people...ok, our line had about 6 people, which was the shortest line, but this woman gets up there and I'm 2 people away from getting up there myself...so she's just taking her good sweet time and she does the thing I despise the most...makes 2 orders out of her stuff. Why can't these people pay for everything at once! So she does her first order and the cashier girl starts on her second order...THEN this stupid white trash woman (and I can say that cause I'm white!!) asks the cashier if she could use her phone and call for her kids to come up to our line over the store loud speaker. WHAT! You have to be kidding me. Grrrrrr! So the cashier does it. In the mean time, this woman says her kids will have things to buy so for her to hold on with her order. I am boiling at this point and all I have to say is that I'm glad there was another woman in between us cause I would have said something! (PMS - enough said) So, her kids come running up, her son has stuff in his hands and then she says to her little girl "there's chocolates over there for your teachers for Valentines Day, go pick some out". I know I had to have had some veins sticking out on my forehead. I think next time I go to walmart, I'm going to have to be drunk or back on zoloft. I sat there and laughed because I know one of my worst traits is patience and it's something I have really been in prayer about lately. Not just for situations like that, but for many other big areas in my life. I have to remind myself of this verse:

My brothers and sisters, when you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience. Let your patience show itself perfectly in what you do. Then you will be perfect and complete and will have everything you need. James 1:2-4

February 10, 2006

Our Friday Night Rentals...





















February 9, 2006

My Word Cloud




www.snapshirts.com

This is really cool huh!

February 7, 2006

Febreze Noticeables

Ok, so I had a nice little picture with the Febreze logo to go along with my post, but for some reason it won't upload...so, you don't get a pretty picture, but you do get me sharing my experience with the new Febreze Noticeables...are you excited? I bet! I signed up to get a free one, with the promise of blogging about it...so , here I am keeping my promise.
Well, lets start with price...I don't know how much they are, because like I just said, I got mine FREE. But I'm sure you could find out easily by just clicking on an online store and checking it out. I can't imagine it's too costly. Ok, now for the product quality...well, I was very surprised when I opened my package, it was heavy and the refills of "scents" are actually in glass. So good workmanship there. I'm always impressed when things are glass and not plastic. So after taking it out, I realized they had sent 2 refills, wow, that was nice!! I chose the scents "morning walk" and "cleansing rain", they're ok. Oh and the plug in changes back and forth between scents and you can adjust it to "high" or "low" depending on how many times you want it to switch back and forth and to what degree you want the scent.
The next refill I have to use is "calypso breeze" and "hawaiian paradise" and that smells yummy!! Although I'm not really into "rain" or "hawaiian" scents, they are both really nice. I will have to check out what other scents they make and find one that is more my taste. So, I plugged it in my living room first and within minutes I could smell it working. I went away that evening and when I returned home I could smell it as soon as I walked in. Not an overwhelming smell, but a nice smell. I have it at the top of our stairs now. So, overall, I think this is a very good product and would definitely recommend it.

February 3, 2006

Ooops Missed A Day!

Well, I guess my hope of getting a post on here every day this week just didn't happen. Better luck next week, eh?! Yesterday wasn't the best day anyway...I had a daycare parent get really upset at me and although I tried to explain my side of things, I wasn't getting upset which I think made her more upset. OH well...I didn't do anything wrong and I think she expected me to say I was sorry and that I was wrong. I think she thought I had sent a nasty note home, but in reality, they just took it wrong. I told her that I was sorry they took it that way and I wished I could explain things better but that I felt like since I didn't mean the letter in a hurtful or angry way, I couldn't really feel bad about it. Well, not in those exact words, but you get the jist of it. Maybe? Anyway, I got a phone call this morning that their child would not be here today and they'd see me Monday. No good bye or anything, she just hung up. Oh well, maybe she didn't mean anything by it. I'm trying not to assume. However, I will not be surprised if they walk in Monday morning with their termination notice. As a matter of fact, I'm expecting it! Not hoping for it because I just love their little boy, but if they are as unhappy with me as she told me they were last night, I would rather not have them here. So, needless to say I could use some prayers, ok A LOT of prayers with filling some daycare openings. I'm thinking positive...I could get a call today, or this weekend!! Ya never know!! What I do know is that I'm not stressing out over it, things like this have happened before and the Lord has always taken care of things. I'm almost kind of excited to see how He works this all out for me.
Here's a great link for you:
http://www.gotquestions.org/trials-tribulations.html
I really like these verses:
"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him" (James 1:2-4,12).

February 1, 2006

Happy February!

I can't believe it's February already, it seems like Christmas was just yesterday. February means my oldest son is going to be one year older...this year...12! Which means next year...official teenager. WAIT, hold on, I want off this ride!! Please lift the bar back up...I have to get off!! Pleeeease!

I'm not ready for him to have a birthday...because that means that I'm getting ready to have another birthday next month, which means my parents are having another birthday because all 3 of our birthdays are in the same week. Neat huh. I'm not looking foward to my kids getting older and I'm not looking forward to ME getting older but what I'm most not looking forward to is my parents getting older. I don't want my parents to get older! I don't want them to be turning 6-0!! I remember when they were in their 40's! And my grandparents were in their 60's and THEY seemed so old! My parents can't be that old!!

So how to we stop this? Anyone? Anyone? Cause I need to know!! 33 is ok! I can handle 33! But, I can't handle my son becoming a teenager and I can't handle my parents coming up on retirement age. So, where's the secret formula? If you have it, please give it to me...I'm willing to barter! What do you want? I have a few dollars in the bank (and when I say that, I mean about 24 cents)...I have a nice SUV...maybe you could use my daycare services? I give good back rubs....any takers??

Anyhoo...speaking of daycare... here's a tidbit and a vent, ya ready?!...
The "tidbit"~ On the news last night they had a story of a provider who is probably about 10-15 miles from me, who owns 2 home daycares and just became licensed last fall. So, she's been licensed for about 3 months. Well, I guess a former employee of hers has accused her of abuse. She's suspected of physically abusing kids age 4 months to 4 years. Of course the media does everything possible to make her look bad. Ok, so maybe she did it, but maybe she had to fire that former employee and this was her revenge. I can't imagine doing something like that to someone, but I know people will do just about anything if they're mad enough. It's happened to me by "disgruntal" daycare parents. I've been taken to court (over money issues), had negative things written in the newspaper about me, I'm sure I've had former clients talk bad about me, but hey, if you can't go by the policies of my daycare, you're probably going to get asked to leave and you're probably going to be mad about it. Get over it! And sorry...but I don't do daycare for free... so when I make you pay, you can get an attitude all you want, you're still paying me! Geesh!

Now to the "vent"~ Speaking of my policies... I have very strict ones when it comes to bringing sick kids to my daycare. Point being...I don't want them here!! It's not fair to the sick child to have to be here - they are sick...they want to be home with their mommy, it's not fair to me - when I get sick many people have to find back up care for their kids, it's not fair to the other kids - who will most likely get whatever it is they have, and it's not fair to the other daycare parents - who will have to miss work and take their children to the doctor, and pay for the office visit and any meds needed. BUT, for some reason, you can't get most daycare parents to understand this! They get upset when you won't take their child. And I'm going to leave it at that, because I hate to point fingers or name names (cause I don't know who reads this blog and who doesn't)...so let's just say that I have a child here today who should NOT be here, and when I confronted the dad on this, he got a little upset, (or at least looked like he was about to get upset)...so I kept the child, but I won't do it again. I only have one other child here today and she's older, so hopefully they won't share germs. Except for the truth is, he's been here the last 2 days and have probably spread these germs around anyway, so if someone's going to get sick, it's probably too late now. Gotta love germs!!

So that's it for today...I can't believe it's Wednesday already. I know I said I thought last week was going fast, but this week is going in warp speed. It's those birthdays creeping up! I just know it!!