Who Isn't...

grilling cinnamon rolls this morning??

Just one more thing that has E grumbling, 'Where is my model home?'

Stay tuned for more old house fun.

Thank You!

I just wanted to thank all of you for you thoughts and prayers for our sweet Isis. It was greatly appreciated.

Everyone is doing much better and the girls speak to her daily by looking up at the sky. How innocent they are... I wish we all could recapture that.

Stay tuned... we have something up our sleeves...

We're crazy, we like adventure...

it's one crazy adventure we're on.

I'm a dork and E is hanging his head in shame...

What Do YOU Do When You're Alone?

E left us for 3 days for a fun-filled work retreat, complete with briefs and brainstorming sessions. I'm sure there isn't anywhere else he would rather be. Of course, to me, that sounds like a fabulous way to spend 3 days... especially the lone hotel nights.

Anyway, when the kids are finally down for the night and I have the house all to myself... what is it that I do? Watch a movie, take a bath, curl up with a good book, surf the internet?? Not even close. I clean. Sick, twisted, insane... believe me, I know, but there really is something so calming about order to me.

I think I first realized this problem of mine when I was in college. When I had a big test to study for or a important paper to write, I would first clean my dorm room and later my apartment. That way, I would have a fresh slate and a clutter free mind... no distractions to speak of. And yes, I do realize that this is also a form of procrastination. My motto used to be, 'The last minute is just as good as any other minute.'

Every since having kids, it has gotten worse. Whenever I get angry or frustrated, I start picking up the house or cleaning the kitchen counters. I guess it's my way of taking control of such a control-less environment. For the most part, our kids are great. Don't get me wrong, I love them both, but kids are not 100% controllable. I guess no one is 100% controllable, but you do get a higher percentage when dealing with contemporaries in a management situation. So, I guess I grab hold of the one thing that I can 100% control and that is the cleanliness and organization of my home. Because this is my sanctuary and it should make me feel good, right?

So, yes, I am in need of a good psychologist, but in the meantime... I am off to clean another room and maybe organize a closet.

But I want to know...

what do you do when you are alone?

Go Rockets!!

I just received an email from a former HS classmate telling me that they have started a website in order to plan our 20 year reunion. Holy Crap!! 20 years?!? I figure this June will be 16 years since I graduated from high school.

Reality check... you are OLD!!

Money, Money, Money!!

Tis the season to do taxes... fa la la la la la la la la

Ours are done... woohoo!

Are yours??

All Our Bags are Packed...

The movers came today and packed the entire house.  Of all of our moves we've done, this has seemed to go the smoothest.  Except for the part when one of the movers actually packed the cat litter box.  Are you kidding me?  E just told me that the guy at least emptied it out first.  Whew!  

Now, if we could just find the cat, we'd be in business.  We caught a glimpse of him running toward the door earlier today and haven't seen him since.  Hoping that he hasn't run away.  Not sure how to explain that to the little ones.  Now if the hamster decided to run away, that might be OK.  Although I'm sure that e would have a bigger problem if 'snow princess' went missing.  All of my attempts to get her to donate it to her class have failed.

The movers will be picking everything up tomorrow and then we will finish cleaning.  I use the term 'we' loosely.  My mother-in-law has practically cleaned our entire house already.  Got to love that.  It has been so nice to have them here to help us.  I will be enlisting help from any willing relative for all future moves.  I am hooked.

Alright, snoring KK is making me sleepy.  More adventures in moving to come.

My Favorite Knife...

Is a Five Star Santuko knife from Zwilling J.A. Henckels. We have a whole block of Henckel Knives but this is the one that I always use and it my favorite.

But, it, hates me. Last March, while I was cutting green peppers for a really good omlette that I was going to make, it sliced through my ring finger. After frantic calls to my neighbor and friend, I headed to the ER and spent 3+ hours there and got steri-stripped on up. The finger is finally looking semi-normal, although the nail grows rather funky.

Wait! What is Princess Jasmine doing there? Oh yeah, last night I was cutting green peppers with my favorite knife... you know how the story goes. Just no trip to the ER this time. I am a dummy.

Christmas is Coming!

I have completed our Christmas letter and will be sending them out today but I have a request for you all.

If you have moved and you think that we don't have your address, please email it to me.  If you are in the process of moving and have a different address that you would like it sent to, please email to me.  If you have never given me your address and are in desperate want of a letter, please email me your address.

Thank you in advance!

How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Shower

1.  Send husband off to present his thesis at the Pentagon (see post below).

2.  Get two-year old out of bed.

3.  Turn on TV and hope that said two-year old would watch something (even though she never has).

4.  Hop in the shower.

5.  Entertain two-year old by poking head out of shower every now and then to make sure that the Neosporin is not being used as toothpaste.

6.  Just as you are about to finish, have two-year old remove PJ's and diaper on their own, yell 'I naked Mama', and climb into shower with you.

7.  Oh yeah, make sure that the diaper has been soiled so that when two-year old climbs in with you they are sure to smear feces on the edge of the tub and bring a friend with them.

Ahh... it's going to be a long couple of days.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

I am working on a post for later, but in the meantime...


Is 8:53 AM too early for a glass of wine??

And the Winner is...

House...







#2


Thanks to all of you for your comments and advice. We signed a 3 year lease today.

We absolutely fell in love with the yard and the amount of space that it has. We have increased our square footage over our current place by about 2000. We are going to have to be careful to not go crazy buying furniture to fill it. A refrigerator box desk is sounding like a viable option, along with a cinderblock coffee table for the 'formal' living room. When we get into the house, we will post pictures with our stuff. But in the meantime, take a gander at these.

Backyard and pool.


Deck


Kitchen


Dining Room


Breakfast area


Family Room


Living Room


Entrance/Foyer


Wash Room/Mud Room


Bedroom #1


Bedroom #2


Bedroom #3 (door leads to den/craft room)


Master Bedroom


Master Bath


Den/Craft Room


Outside


We might need to paint. I'm not sure if I can live with all that blue for the next 3 years.

I Can't Smell Through Plastic!

I've heard mention that I've been a little long-winded lately so, Trailer, this is for you.

E and I were at the store last week and I remembered that we needed new airfreshners. I handed this to him and said, 'What do you think?'. He handed it back and said, 'How am I supposed to know? I can't smell through plastic!'.


Ahh!! I am not the only one with moments.

Everyday is Blog-Worthy

And today was no exception. It was quite an adventure. Sit back, grab a cup of coffee and relax... this is going to take a while.

This morning we all got off to a late start. Today was pumpkin patch field trip day at school, so the first challenge was agreeing on something for e to wear. See, those of you familiar with my picky, picky girl, know that the ONLY thing that she will wear is dresses. And not just any dresses, they must be short sleeve dresses, and not just short sleeve dresses, but sundress dresses. And certainly not short sundresses... they must be long. God forbid that there is ever a mention of a shirt underneath a dress for added warmth. So, needless to say, it is quite a difficult task to outfit her in jeans and a t-shirt. Once we conquered that feat, we headed downstairs for the breakfast battle.

After deciding what she wanted to eat, she took the whole breakfast time to eat a whole two bites. Oh well. I had also forgotten to pack her lunch last night, so that added a couple extra minutes to our lateness.

KK has been feeling sick the past couple of days so I let her sleep as late as she could until I couldn't wait any longer. I finally got her up and dressed and downstairs. She whined and cried and had a fit when e was looking at her. Two off on the wrong foot. Super. I got her breakfast ready and some orange juice, which she downed like she had just walked through the desert. At this point, E came down to tell me to get my butt moving. KK cuddled up with him and her bagel, and then expelled it all over him. Ahhah! That's why she was so grumpy.

I grabbed everything that needed to go to school with us and ran out the door. Got e to school just in time and then ran back to drop Big E at school. You see, Tuesdays is uniform day and it's not too fun to ride your bike in your military uniform. I also happened to volunteer for e's field trip, so I needed to be back to school by 9. But I had one more small errand to run.

OK, so nothing is quite ever good enough. I love my new car, but decided that it needed leather and was able to get a good deal on a leather install. So, I headed back to the dealership that I have been at almost every day since I bought the car (too long of a story for this already long story). I was to drop off my new car and pick up my old car to drive for the three days that it takes to install the leather. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong.

Of course, my old car was unavailable since it was given to someone else to drive. Something that i had to let slide off my back since that car is still not paid off... another story for another day, and I was in a hurry to get to the school. They told me that Enterprise would be there to pick me up in 10 minutes, and just like the commercial, they did. They brought KK and I (car seats, stroller, bags, etc.) to one location where we unloaded, went in and got the paperwork ready. Then we waited for another driver to pick us up and bring us to a different location to get the actual vehicle. Once there, I signed the paper and we were off to the pumpkin patch.

Not two minutes into the drive, the 'low gas' light dinged. Naturally, I was on a road void of gas stations. Thankfully, the fumes carried me to the patch within seconds of the buses pulling up.

But I have saved the best for the last. What did they put me in you ask? My absolute most hated car of all time...


The PT Cruiser.


Complete with nasty stains and that smell... uggh, that smell.

Needless to say, I do have yet another call into the dealership for them to get me out of this thing.

Poka-Yoke and How I Proved It Wrong

For those of you not familiar with Poka-Yoke, take a gander at this this explanation. Or, if you don't want to click away from this wonderful blog, I shall explain: "A poka-yoke device is any mechanism that either prevents a mistake from being made or makes the mistake obvious at a glance." Not to be cited for plagiarism, I should properly state that the aforementioned quote was taken from this website . There are many examples of this found in everyday life; the 'you must be this tall' sign at the amusement park, most gas caps are connected so that they aren't left behind, and the best example is... wait, I need to give you background first.

Alright, it was 2006... the year that we returned back to civilization from Guam. OK, that's not fair to Guam, but we were really excited to be back stateside. I was really excited to be back stateside, which meant that I was able to head to MN in July. If you've never been to MN in the summer, you definitely need to go. I am getting off track...

So, I hopped on a plane with the girls (E couldn't come since he was just starting his course load at NPS) and landed in good ol' MSP. My sister was there to pick us up and the next day, we all headed up north to E's parents' lake home. The girls and I were going to spend some time with the Grandparents enjoying Northern MN lake country. Another side note, I have the best inlaws ever... I can spend numerous days with them and feel so completely at home.

I was staying in MN for a couple of weeks, so I had made plans to head back down to the Twin Cities to visit with my friends. When you only get back once per year, you have to pack in as much as you can. E's Aunt was kind enough to loan me her Jeep for the voyage. This is where everything went awry. My wonderful Mother-in-Law starting thinking that an older Jeep wasn't the best thing to send her precious grandchildren on a road trip in. (And by no means am I implying that she was at fault for what was about to happen). She worked her magic on LB (Grandpa) and he agreed that it would be best that I take the brand new Armada down to the Cities. So, AAA number in hand, I was off.

After spending the night at my sister's, I headed over to visit with one of my great girlfriends, 'The Dancer' (a story for another day) and her little boy. On my way back to my sister's house, the 'bitch' (navigation system) got me lost. I was on the phone with my brother-in-law when I got rear-ended by someone. What's worse than getting rear ended in not your own car? Oh believe me... lots... we'll get there. Thankfully, the car that rear-ended me was no match for the Armada. All that was damaged was part of the trailer hitch. I went to Nissan the next day and got an estimate and contacted the lady who was supposed to send my inlaws a check. I wanted to make sure my bases were covered, because man, that sucked. I had to call them and let them know that I was in an accident but everything and everyone was OK.

The next day, I had plans to have dinner with another of my girlfriends. This was a flawlessly laid out plan. We ate dinner and had a great time. After dinner, I bathed the girls and put them into their pajamas and we were off to head back up North. e had a movie to watch and k would surely fall asleep. About an hour into the 3 hour drive, I decided to stop for gas. I pulled into a BP gas station (for those of you that aren't familiar, the BP color is green). e was still awake and KK was asleep, so I figured I should hurry so I wouldn't wake her up. I grabbed the farthest pump handle on the left, which was also the cheapest gas price per gallon. Most of us do the same thing, correct?? Anyway, it didn't fit. I thought that it was weird, so I looked at the gas tank and noticed that there were lots of scrapes around the tank and figured, 'it's a new car, maybe there is something weird with it'. So I proceeded to fill up the tank, while holding the nozzle the entire time. 17 gallons later, we were off.

About 5 miles down the road, when I was ready to turn the cruise on, the car started acting funny. It felt like I was putting the brake on when I was trying to accelerate. What the heck was going on? I pulled over and decided to call my inlaws. I used my best 'nothing's wrong' voice to say, "Everything is OK, I wasn't in an accident, but I just stopped for gas and the car is acting funny". I explain to my father-in-law what was happening and he immediately says, "You didn't put diesel in it did you?" I say, "I don't know, how would I know?"

I pulled out my receipt, and sure enough it said DSL on the receipt... which I proceed to tell him. And then I hear him say, 'She put f*%$ing diesel in it' to my mother-in-law. A proud moment in my life. Worse than messing up for your own parents, is messing up for your inlaws. I thought the world would end. I now knew how E felt everytime that he dissapointed his parents. It was awful.

So, I am stopped on the side of the road, 2 miles away from MN state prison on the phone with AAA and LB trying to figure out how to get me out of this situation. They decided to send a tow truck and the inlaws got out of bed and headed down south to pick us up. Thankfully, the tow truck that came was equipped with 2 young boys that were great entertainement for e while the grandparents were on their long journey.

L&L finally arrived a little after 1 AM and e pushed me towards my father-in-law and said, 'say you're sorry mommy'. Which I did and I don't think I will EVER live this down in my lifetime.

So, the most obvious Poka-Yoke control is that gas nozzles are made so that they do not fit in the wrong tank, but, when you have the right tank, you can put any gas grade into it. Idiot-proof... my a@#!!

The Dryer Ate My Sock

Don't you hate that when that happens? It's inevitable... the dryer will always get a sock. You never know when it's going to happen, it just will.

Even more hateful, is when your house develops a black hole. Things go missing with no trace. To date, we are missing a shoe, an entire box of markers and a cordless telephone. Yep, that's right... an entire hand set is missing. How the heck does that happen? And where could it possibly be? I do have an idea of who might be responsible though.

Saving the World, One Plastic Bag at a Time

OK, so they got me at the grocery store. Who can guess why? Yep, it was the 'organize up to 60 bags!'. I love to organize. This was one of those random in the middle of the aisle hanging things. Those things that you never need, but somehow find a way to justify.

Here is a look at all of my plasic bags that I have. Why I have that many... I cannot know. That's way too many for poop scooping. Maybe I'll use them when we have a garage sale.


Then I downsized so that I didn't have to have so many bags, but it just wasn't working. Way too messy.


Here are the bags now. Very nice.


And now, Buddy's food no longer has to share it's shelf. Everything is right in the world.


Yes, I am well aware that I do have several issues. Life just wouldn't be as fun if I didn't.

What's More Annoying Than Spilled Milk?

OK, let's be honest... spilled milk IS annoying. We do our best to teach our kids that there is really 'no use crying over spilled milk,' because for them, really there is no use. The person who should be crying is the one that has to clean it up. You have to drop whatever you are doing and make a mad dash to get something to stop the milkfall which will inevitably land in every unreachable nook. And God forbid you don't find it all and it starts to smell up your whole house. So really, spilled milk is annoying.

But what's more annoying? When you spill it. And not just a glass... a whole entire gallon... which you spilled because you were trying to carry too many things into the house so that you could get the kids fed and the little one put down for a nap at a decent hour. Even more annoying, you spilled one of the two gallons that you bought on the way home, because if you had bought just one, it would have cost you $4.56, but now the one you are left with was $6.30 (darn club cards). And worse yet, while you are trying to clean up the disaster you call home, your 4 year old reminds you that the gallon of milk that you spilled outside and forgot about is now dry. So you have to roll up your pants and try to pressure wash it off the cement with the freezing cold water from the hose that sprays all over your pants anyway.

I'm sure there are more annoying things than spilled milk, but for me, right now, there really isn't anything more annoying than spilled milk.

Seriously?? Is This Really Necessary??

As a military family, you become used to moving often and know what you can and can't take with you. So, when you move, you always pack up that random box that you can't bear to throw away and bring it to your friends or neighbors... lightbulbs, frozen sausage, a package of batteries, candles and cleaning supplies. Surely someone will be able to use them.

By now, you all know that I am all about organization and efficiency and finding an easier way to do things. But this? Come on. I recently acquired the 'Power Sprayer' when a good friend moved... it shoots a continuous spray of liquid so that you don't have to incesantly pull the trigger that comes with a bottle of cleaner.


That must have been one seriously tired cleaning person to come up with this invention.

A Beautifully Strange Morning

So, this morning, I rode my bike down to Cannery Row to pick up my car from the ramp. Wait, rewind. My beautifully strange morning started as an almost equally strange night. Let's start there.

I worked last night until about 9:45. Normally, ATOM is open until 6, but on the last Friday of every month we stay open until 9 and serve wines by the glass. We have live music and the restaurant downstairs has appetizers for sale. It's a really fun time. Anyway, it was my boss' 29th birthday (yeah, I know) yesterday and everyone was going to go out after work to celebrate. I thought it would be fun to act like I was young again, so we hired a babysitter from 5-12 so E could come play too. So, long story short, we had a great time, stayed out until 1 and did the responsible thing and took a cab home.

Back to me on my bike. I was truly enjoying my ride this morning. The weather was gorgeous... clear and sunny, but not hot. A day kind of like this...


I had to reflect on how really nice it is here and that I am going to miss living here. The majority of my ride was along the water on the bike/walking path, which is a fabulous place to people watch... people running with dogs and strollers, the professional bike enthusiasts and the many, many tourists.

The first interesting group I came across were the Del Monte beach homeless club? I have never seen the homeless as I have seen them here, they almost seem to be enjoying it. Then, I passed by a group of Japanese men dressed to the 9s... white and black tuxedos (9:30 AM people) taking a picture of something/someone in the public restroom and laughing. I am still wondering what the heck was going on.

I arrived at my destination, rode up the elevator with my bike and found my car waiting. The ramp that I parked in is the main large ramp that everyone visiting Cannery Row parks in. So I casually walked my bike to my car, pretending that I just finished a gruelling workout and tried not to attract too much attention. I certainly don't want to be the subject of someone else's blog about their strange morning. I opened the liftgate on my SUV and was welcomed with a trunk filled to the brim with birthday presents for KK. I had completely forgotten that I had left her presents back there so she wouldn't find them. And these weren't small presents... I am talking about one of those cozy coupe ride-on cars in a huge box. As you can imagine, the amount of time that I spent arranging and rearranging the contents of my car was quite substantial. I finally managed to get the darn thing in there and I have no doubt that everybody who walked by me was wondering what the heck I was doing.

We either need to invest in another car or a bike rack or just go back to staying at home and save the trouble and money.

Whew... Thank God that's Done!

So, I'm not the type of person known to say 'No', when asked to help. I will volunteer for everything thinking that I can do everything. I don't know, I must have a God complex or something. Anyway...

I got a call a while back from our PTA volunteer coordinator asking me if I was available on a particular day. I immediately said, 'Yes', and apparently didn't listen to the rest of the conversation. Turns out, what I said yes to was to be the coordinator for the fall fundraiser at our school. Huh? What's that? What does it involve? I have a Kindergartner... I have no idea how this stuff works.

Along with my, 'I can do everything' attitude, also comes the, 'why bother bothering others when I can do it myself?' idea. I mean, if it is going to take me a while to figure out what I am doing, I certainly don't want to waste other peoples' time. Plus, I like my own way of organizing things... again, it's a control thing. Amazing that I did really well in management, as I am obviously not great at delegating.

So, I did most everything for this fundraiser, with a little help along the way. I roped E into counting money with me one night. He said, 'There are so many better things that I could be doing', and my response was, 'But are you going to be doing them?'. OK, not that I am trying to pat myself on the back. That's the furthest thing from what I am trying to do. I am trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with me? Why can't I say no? What's wrong with letting others help? Why do I get myself into the predicaments that I do? Ahh... self evaluation is so much fun.

I don't have time to ponder as I am off to do a training manual project for work that I volunteered to do. Oh, the irony.