Hello!

 

I am very excited, I got my new bedroom furniture today.  I officially have the furniture I want for every room in the house.  This is the first time in my adult life that this is the case.  Thank you, CraigsList!

 

My new furniture is quite old, but it was lovingly taken care of and it is in excellent condition.  I don't have any of my own photos to post of it yet, everything is still in the garage.  Shawn is sick with a terrible cough and now I am starting to get that sore throat, heavy chest feeling and a tiny pitiful cough (compared to Shawn's body wracking one).  Besides, I still have to paint the ceiling and finish the trim in our room, and I don't wish to work around a room full of furniture, so it can stay in the garage for a week or two.  The pictures will be at the bottom of this entry, it is a matched set, the wood tones don't vary as drastically as they appear to in the pictures, that is a trick of the lighting.

 

My bedroom is going to be the most "out there" room in our house in terms of decorating.  Shawn chose the color scheme, three quarters of our walls are tourquoise, the trim is a dark blue, the other quarter of our walls are "marshmallow", and the ceiling is going to be this hmm, how to describe?  Like a light fluffy orangish color.  Trust me, they all go together beautifully, but it is the polar opposite of a neutral color scape.  :)

 

I have dark bamboo roman shades for the windows.  I have plans to buy white or light cream curtain panels with grommets at the top and hang them on bamboo poles above the windows.  One day we may replace the very old carpet with carmelized bamboo flooring and if/when we do, I want to place fluffy white shag rugs here and there.

 

I am going for a mid-century, high end polynesian resort look with a modern twist.  It is hard to achieve without straying too far into campy, tacky, or just plain weird territory.  I am resisting the urge to buy a bobble head hula girl for my night stand.

 

 

Headboard

 

Long Dresser

♥ Who' s siblings do/ did you see the most?
I'll say my siblings, although it is really a toss up.  Both of our families live in Cincinnati, so we see his brother and my sisters during our visits there.  But sometimes mine will come visit us, so I'll say we see mine more.

♥ Do you have any children together?
Two: Coco and Wes

♥ What about pets?
We have had 3 ferrets, 2 siberian huskies, 2 mutts for about a week, and 2 cats previously, and now we have 2 fish.

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
I would have to say my mental health.

♥ Did you go to the same school?
Yes

♥ Are you from the same home town?
Yes

♥ Do you live in the same town now?
Yes

♥ Who is the smartest?
We each think the other is the smarter one, but in truth we are both very smart in different ways.  We compliment eachother.

♥ Who is the most sensitive?
I am the more obviously sensitive one, but he has a wonderful sensitive side.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurant

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple
Our move from NC to WA

♥ Who has the craziest exes?
Shawn had a really crazy breakup, the girl he dated before me, but she dropped out of the picture rather quickly and in hindsight I think her jealously was prompted by her ability to see that Shawn and I meant more to each other than either of us realized at the time.

♥ Who has the worst temper?
I lose my temper much more quickly than he does

♥ Who does the cooking?
Me

♥ Who is more social?
Me and that is not saying much as I'm pretty shy  (Leaving Lauren's answer as I couldn't have said it better!)

♥ Who is the neat-freak?
Neither one of us is the traditional neat-freak, but he likes to keep his desk clear and I need to have closets and drawers organized.

♥ Who is the most stubborn?
Tie, we are both very stubborn

♥ Who hogs the bed?
Neither...we are one of those gag-me-with-a-spoon couples that still snuggles together every night.

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
Usually Shawn on a work day, me on the weekend.

♥ Where was your first date?
There wasn't really a first date.  I just turned and asked him if he remembered and he said the bad 80's dance club by UC that we went to that one night and the crazy girl was hitting on Shawn so he asked me to pretend to be his girlfriend... guess I never stopped pretending!  LOL

♥ Who has the bigger family?
Me

♥ Do you get flowers often?
I get them fairly often, but far enough in between so that they aren't expected when I do get them.

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
We used to always go to Florida for Thanksgiving and Cincinnati for Christmas.  This past year we stayed at home for both.  I'm not sure what the future holds.

♥ Who is more jealous?
I am.  I'm convinced that all the hot alternative computer geek girls at his work have the hots for him.  I thank my lucky stars that Shawn usually doesn't pick up on girls flirting with him.  :)

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
Depends on when you start counting from.  From when we first met?  Over a decade.   From when I told him my feelings for him?  Almost 1/2 a year.  From when he finally gave in and became my "boyfriend"?  Almost instantly.  We knew we were "it".  We knew the relationship was going to end in marriage.  It never occurred to me at the time that most 19 year olds mean it when they say it, but still end up broken up eventually.

♥ Who eats more?
We are pretty evenly matched

♥ Who sings better?

Shawn, but I sing more often.

♥ Who does/ did the laundry?
Me, and thank God for it.  LOL

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Shawn

♥ Who drives when you are together?
I almost always drive, unless it is bad weather out.  It drives him nuts when I stomp on the imaginary break pedal while he drives.

♥ Who picks where you go to dinner?
We never were good at deciding.  We make Colleen pick now.

♥ Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong?
Toss up.  I'll usually cave and not be mad first, but he is usually first to see my point and see where I would think he was wrong.

♥ Who named your pet(s)?
The kids each named their own fish.  Other pets were always a joint effort.

♥ Who wears the pants in the relationship?
Shawn, for sure, although we both have our say in things.  He's the "breadwinner", I am the "homemaker", but we make important decisions together and I do handle the money / bills.

♥ Who has more tattoos?
Shawn

♥ Who eats more sweets?
Me

♥ Who cries more?
Me, but I am very embarassed to cry in front of him.  Weird considering #1. He's seen my cry many times before and #2. He's seen me give birth to both of our kids.  If he can watch that and still love me, a few tears and some snot shouldn't scare him off. 

 

Exciting news about Shawn and I to follow... I'll try to write it up tonight or sometime this weekend.

 

Love, Jen

Colleen's school had "crazy hair day" today.  Yesterday was Wear PJs to School day and Monday was Wear a Hat to School day.

 

We had a lot of fun with Crazy Hair day.  I put lots of pony tails in her hair and I colored them with washable magic marker.  Colleen insisted on all the bows.

 

The bows started hurting her head while she was at school so she decided to take them out.  One got stuck and instead of asking for help, she went ahead and cut it out of her hair.

 

We are going to get her hair cut now.  Check out the pictures of Crazy Hair day in the album.  I'll add photos after her professional repair job later on today.

 

Jen

Housing bubble?  HAH!

 

Credit freeze?  HAH!

 

I go to read the headlines today and learn that two more people have been arrested because they defrauded people out of millions of dollars.  They told investors that they had made millions and millions in profits.  INVISIBLE, MADE UP money! 

 

We aren't that much poorer or worse off than we were before.  It's just that now the liars and cheats that told everyone things were going so well are being found out and called on the carpet. 

 

Maybe we all need to get away from the concept of virtual money for a while.  Kind of hard to lie about how much you have when it can be laid out on a table and counted.

 

Greedy rat bastards trying to save their own butts are at the root of this mess.

I have it set to play random songs

 

She likes The Cranberries, she says they are GREAT

 

She knew enough to bring it to me when Eminem came on.  I forwarded to the next song, she was dissappointed.  She said that the boy one was pretty awesome.  Good gravy!

 

The next one up was Fergalicious.  She loves Fergie.

 

I wonder what will come up next.

 

I have a wide range of musical knowledge (My dad thought I didn't know Iron Butterfly and their famous 17 minute song.  Hah!)

I am trying to pass what I know on to the kids.  You never know, one might grow up to have a career in radio!

Two posts ago I mentioned a Greek god pushing the world up a mountain only to have it roll back down again.

 

I couldn't remember the exact details because I was combining two different stories!

 

Atlas was condemned to hold the world on his shoulders for fighting against Zeus.

 

Sisyphus is the one punished by Zeus to push the rock up the mountain. 

 

I feel better now.

 

Love, Jen

This is a pretty neat video.  And now if you are signing with someone in the deaf community, you won't have to spell out P-R-E-S-I-D-E-N-T O-B-A-M-A.  :)

 

If you took a look around my house this morning, and then again tonight you would probably not notice any differences.  It looks like I did nothing today and I have nothing but exhaustion to show for it!

 

I called and put the orders in to have the utilities in Charlotte taken out of our name.  We have rented the house (it never did sell) and our tenants move in early next week.

 

I wrote an email to our realtor / property manager updating him on the utilities and promising to mail him a check for the things he shipped to us from the house.

 

I wrote an email to the handyman who is finishing up the installs of the garage door openers and the one automatic bathroom vent timer switch that Shawn didn't get to while we lived there.

 

I updated our tax return file with the paperwork we got in the mail today (still no W2s, drats!)

 

Emptied the dishwasher, loaded it again, ran it.

 

One load of laundry

 

Cleaned out the fridge

 

Took garbage cans to curb, rolled them back to garage.

 

Got Wes and I showers.  I even managed to pluck my eyebrows and blow dry my hair.  This is a banner day, folks.

 

Got Colleen's Valentines ready for her class.  Learned my lesson from last year and will not have her write their names on them till closer to the day (had a student leave and a new one enroll and didn't have a valentine left over, so had to put sticker over old name - embarassing!)

 

After we got home from picking up Coco, I went through her bookbag (I do this every day, this is not a surprise to her).  I found an assortment of items that didn't belong to her.  She insisted it was ok that she have them but I emailed her teacher to be on the safe side and it turns out she took them without permission from the math center.  These were items they were using for counting today.  We've been having a bit of trouble with Colleen taking things she wants, either without asking at all, or she'll ask and be told "no" and then take it anyways.  We have talked with her about this at least half a dozen times now and the consequence if she did it again was a "spanking butt".  Spanking is the final straw in our house and are very rare.  I asked Colleen what the consequence was if she took something without permission again and her lip started quivering.  She said in the smallest and most pitiful voice that it was to get a "spanking butt".  I told her that she was not going to get her spanking right then, I was going to wait till Daddy got home so that he and I could talk about it first.  We are going to have to draw straws to see who has to do it - we both HATE giving spanking butts.  I had Colleen write a letter to Mr. K, it took her about forty five minutes to write it and it took an entire sheet of paper.  It says:

 

Dear Mr. K

I am sorry

for taking

the things from math. 

I will

not do it again.

Sincerely,

Colleen

 

I had already promised Wesley a long walk and an ice cream after we picked Colleen up from school (it was sunny and warm-ish) and I didn't think it was a good idea to cancel it because it wasn't Wesley's fault that Colleen took things she wasn't supposed to.  I also decided not to exclude Colleen from the ice cream, because that wasn't one of the consequences. 

 

So we bundled up and set off for the Baskin Robbins.  There is no cross walk where we'd need to cross the street to get to it, so we had to walk past it about a block so that we could cross at the cross walk.  The kids weren't thrilled with this, they thought I lied to them about going to get ice cream.  I was all like, "Seriously?  Since when do I lie to you?  Since when do I promise you ice cream, make you walk all the way up here, and then say I was just kidding?"  They thought for a minute and decided to give me the benefit of the doubt (eye roll).  We got there about 3pm and I hadn't ate yet today (I forget to!  Time just gets away from me!).  I was starved and all of a sudden a $5 Little Ceasar's pizza sounded wonderful.  We got the pizza and asked the Baskin Robbins clerk if we could eat the pizza in there before getting our ice cream.  It was fine with her, so we each had a slice (Wes had 2 slices) and then we got our icecream.  Colleen had chocolate, Wes had strawberry and theirs looked so good I had a scoop of each.  :)  After we were finished we began walking back home (again, going the opposite direction to go to the cross walk, again the kids protesting like we hadn't JUST been through this *sigh*). 

 

On the way home Colleen started bargaining to go to the play ground.  The sun was setting, it was starting to get cold, and I wanted to get back home to try to get some housework done so that it didn't look like I sat around eating bon bons all day.  I was firm about not going to the play ground (a nice walk, pizza, and ice cream is plenty for one day).  I did compromise and let the kids play in the back yard for a little bit when we got home. 

 

After they came back in Wesley wanted to watch a movie.  He was concerned about having Bunny (his blanket) and Nilk (a sippy cup of milk), which only means one thing: the little guy is going to fall asleep.  He walked the entire way there and back (the first time he has managed it!), so I imagine he was tuckered out.  Colleen watched Shrek 2 with Wes till he fell asleep, then she wanted to do art projects.  I let her cut out pictures from the christmas cards. 

 

Colleen and I each had another slice of pizza for dinner (Wesley didn't want any more). 

 

I filled out my Official Ballot for the newly created Director of Elections position and I got the check for our realtor ready to mail.

 

I helped the kids tidy their rooms and feed their fish

 

I made a good sized dent in the pile of crap I don't know what to do with on the kitchen counter.

 

It is now 9pm and the kids bed time.  We pushed it back an hour (it used to be at 8pm) and the kids are better for it.  They would fight sleeping and call for us a dozen times when we put them to bed at 8 and then they'd be up all early the next morning.  9pm suits us all much better.

 

Shawn had an off site morale event at work today, so he is at the office now, working late to make up for the time he spent out of the office.  I'm sure this is not the intent of morale events, but it always seems to work out this way for poor Shawn.  I miss him.  I didn't get to spend very much time with him last night, I cooked dinner for the family, but I didn't eat with everyone.  Instead I had dinner out by myself with a book and then did our grocery shopping for the week.  The alone time is a much needed break, but now I miss Shawn even more because its been two nights that we haven't got to hang out together.

 

OK I'm off to toss the kids into bed.  Then it will be so quiet here... thank goodness I have another book to read.  OH!  back to my original point - do you see how it looks like I didn't do anything today?  No progress made on any projects, nothing tangible to show for my efforts.  I feel like that dude, what was his name?  Maybe Atlas?  The one who was doomed to push the world all the way up the mountain just to have it roll back down and have to start all over again.  Shawn will remember his name.  Hon, if you read this, post his name in the comments, it will drive me crazy until I remember it again.

 

Love, Jen

Wesley almost always comes up with some fun game to play or cute thing to do on our walks to and from Colleen's school.  His penchant for this has made him the most popular kid that doesn't go to school. 

 

This morning he brought along his checkered flag from his Lightning McQueen pop up play tent.  He was a Crossing Guard.  He looked both ways for cars, and when the coast was clear, he held out his flag so we could cross the street safely.  The actual Crossing Guards got a big kick out of it.  While we walked down the sidewalk, he tapped the handle of his flag on the ground, just like the big kids do.  Oh, I wish I had a video of it!

 

Another favorite is Gingerbread Man (he runs, yelling out "You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!" and I chase after him).

 

Sometimes he brings a favorite stuffed animal (his Nala lion that he calls Baby), his giraffe, his security blanket (named Bunny), a book or two, or as many little Hot Wheels as he can carry.  Sometimes he carries things in his Lightning McQueen lunch box or he pushes them in the doll baby stroller.

 

He's a neat kid.  Although right now I'm done singing his praises because he is freaking out that I am writing this instead of watching Voltron with him and he is kicking the wall, yelling I HATE YOU, MOMMY!  I HATE YOU!  *sigh*

Following is my To Do list for today.  I'll update tonight with what I actually get accomplished.  Let's see if publishing it to the world makes any difference in how much I do.

 

Fix Toilet

Wash Colleen's bedding

Wash Wesley's bedding

Clean Yellow bathroom

Clean My bathroom (wash walls?)

Clear out Dining Room

Take trash out

Finish cleaning Kitchen

Finish packing away Laundry

Iron Colleen's dresses

 

If Time:

Work on my bedroom

Work on computer room

 

It's 10:15 am and I have started Colleen's bedding in the wash and I have packed away all laundry but the whites. 

 

I'm off to give it the old college try!

 

Love, JEn

 

11:30am update:

Colleen's bedding is done - her bed is made, Wesley's is in the dryer.  Yellow bathroom is clean.  Laundry is totally packed away (except the dresses that I still need to iron).  I've added cleaning the garbage cans to the list because as I've been emptying the small ones into the big bag I realized how filthy they are.

 

THANK YOU SHAWN for getting my Zune back up and running, I am having a blast listening to music while I dash around.  Right now Miley is on... she's just bein' Miley!  :P

 

 

2:00pm update:

This little experiment is making my stomach hurt.  My hypothesis was that if I made my intentions public I would be more focused and efficient in my work, like I am when I know the washing machine repair man is coming between noon and 3:00pm (that was Friday and you should have seen all that I accomplished).  My hypothesis was proven true, I will work harder because I want to impress everyone with how fast I get everything done.  The downside to this ofcourse, is that I am rushing around like a madwoman and I've given myself a stomach ache from the self inflicted stress.  Can't win for losing.  Going to go try to fix the toilet.  Pray for me! 

 

Oh, yeah, forgot to write what I've crossed off.  Garbage and recycles are out to the big bins, garbage cans are clean and have new plastic shopping bag liners in them, Wesley's bed is made and lunch has been made, eaten, and cleaned up.

 

1am Tuesday "morning" update:

 

When's the last time you ran?
yesterday, Wesley and I were playing Gingerbread Man on the way to get Colleen from school.

Do your jeans have rips, tears, and holes in them?
not yet, but the pair that I wear the most are getting weak in the knees

What are you dreading right now?
Can't think of anything I'm "dreading", but I am putting housework off for no good reason

Do you celebrate 420?
????  I celebrate 4/24, my wedding anniversary

Do you get the full 8 hours of sleep a night?
No, Wesley still doesn't sleep through the night regularly

If anyone came to your house on your "lazy days" what would ya'll do?
Every day is a lazy day!  I guess watch TV or read a book by the fire

Who last grabbed your ass?
Wesley, he was going to "chew my chubbies" (a game we play)

Have you ever been on your school's track team?
Yes, cross country.  It wasn't for me.

Do you own a pair of Converse?
Not any more, but I lived in them in 9th grade.

Did you copy and paste this survey?
Yes

Do you eat raw cookie dough?
no, I limit myself to unbaked brownie batter and cake batter

Have you ever kicked a vending machine?
Kicked, cursed, tipped, it's all the same  (Becky's answer is good enough for me!)

Don't you hate it when the radio ruins good songs by playing them over and over?
sure, but I don't listen to the radio much

Do you watch Trading Spaces?
No, I don't have cable.

How do you eat oreos?
It is very rare that I do.  When I do, I twist them apart, eat all the frosting, then eat the wafer parts last.

Have you ever stayed online for a very long time waiting for someone?
Not really, but I check IM throughout the day hoping for a message from Shawn

Are you cocky?
I don't think so, maybe

Could you live without a computer?

HELL TO THE NO.  Shawn went to India for 6 weeks and my computer died on the 2nd day.  I thought I was going to die myself.

Do you wear your shoes in the house?
Sometimes.

Who or what sleeps with you?

Shawn, lots of pillows, blankets, crumbs from the kids, cars Wesley looses in the covers, books I've fallen asleep reading, you name it. 

At what age did you find out that Santa wasn't real?
I don't know

How many phones, house phones and cell phones are in your house?
A cordless deal with two working hand sets (the 3rd doesn't work anymore), Shawn's cell, my pay-as-you-go cell that is barely ever charged, and Shawn's old cell

What do you do when you're sad?
Cry

Who would you call first if you won the lottery?

I'm not sure, probably an attorney to set the trust up (so that the trust can claim the money instead of me, I'd like to keep the win private

Last time you saw your best friend?
Lauren: My birthday, late June

Shawn: This morning

Are you in high school?
No

What jewelry are you wearing?
nothing, unless you count my ankle bracelet for house arrest  (Again, Becky's answer, too good to delete)

Is anyone on your bad side now?
No one I can think of.

What's the first thing you do when you get online?
Check my mail

Do you watch Grey's Anatomy?
No, have not seen a single episode

How do most people spell your name?
Exactly right?  It's only 3 letters, hard to mess up

Would you wear a boy/girlfriends clothes?
Yep, I have a t-shirt of Shawn's on right now.

Where do you work?
At home, hardest job I've ever had

What are you doing tomorrow?
I will probably go to Colleen's class to help them make their gingerbread houses (it's late because of the snow days)

Is Justin Timberlake becoming the next Michael Jackson?
I hope not, for his sake.

Favorite name for a girl?
Growing up my doll was named Shannon.  My daughter is Colleen.  I'm not sure I have a hand's down favorite.

Favorite name for a boy?
My son's name is Wesley, although I also really like Benjamin, Christopher, or Nicolas

Will you keep your last name when you get married?
I really wanted to, but it was important to Shawn that I take his name and now I can't imagine it any other way.  Sometimes I misspell my maiden name, even.  :)

When was the last time you left your house?
This morning to walk Colleen to school

Do you return your cart?
yes

Do you have a dishwasher?
Yes

What noise do you hear?
Wesley playing with his big bucket of cars

Would you survive in prison?
If the past is an indication of the future... yes

Who is the youngest in your family?
Growing up, my sister Amanda.  Currently, Wesley.

If all of your friends were going on a road trip, who would most likey overpack?

Lauren (love ya!)

Do you know anyone with the same name as you?
Only family members

What's the last thing you purchased?

Subway sandwiches, several days ago

Do your siblings ever pay for stuff for you?
yes

What brand are your pants right now?
I don't know, let me check...  Lee

Ever been to Georgia (the state)?
Yes

What irritates you most on the internet?
The stupid ass ads

What brand is your digital camera?
Fuji, but I miss my Olympus. 

Do you watch movies with your parents?
Its been a long time, but we used to when I was little.

What song best describes your life right now?
Forever in Blue Jeans

Do you own expensive perfume/cologne?
Depends on your definition of expensive, but most people would say I don't

Are you taking college classes right now?
No

Do you like sushi?

No

Do you get your hair cut every month?
no

Do you go online everyday?
yes

Since about October Wesley's life ambition has been to become Santa Claus when he grows up.  I have never in my life heard of another kid who wants to actually be Santa as in "what do you want to be when you grow up".  He is sitting here right next to me talking about how he is going to use Batman's Batmobile to go fast to all the houses.  He is perfectly OK with Santa delivering toys and going down chimneys but he can't wrap his head around the concept of flying reindeer.

How on earth are we all going to start our fires when the newspapers all go out of business?

 

For that matter, how did people start fires before there were newspapers?

 

Things that make you go "hmmm"

This is what I have so far.  Thoughts?

 

I've not written about this in a while, but I am still struggling with keeping the house clean and tidy.  I was doing pretty good there for a while at our old-old house in Huntersville but I never quite got back into the swing of things after the move to the house in Charlotte and then less than a year later the move to Washington.   I've not been a member of FlyLady for a while now but I think I can do this without that form of guidance.

 

I unsubscribed from FlyLady right after Microsoft made their bid for Yahoo.  It was a very fair offer, in my opinion, and I'm not just saying that because Shawn works for Microsoft.  They offered $32 per share when Yahoo was trading at $19.  Immediately after the announcement Yahoo's stock went up and Microsoft's went down.    FlyLady sent out an email to all of her subscribers in ardent (and uneducated) support of "the underdog" Yahoo, who was, in her opinion, being bullied by Big Bad Microsoft for no good reason.  She didn't bother to research the facts very well and I was dissappointed in both her knee-jerk reaction and that she would use her subscriber list like that. 

 

Lacking instructions from FlyLady I have been winging it on my own (pun intended!  LOL).  I think I have come up with something that will work.  I am calling it Don't Give Up Ground.  Don't Give Up Ground is simple.  Don't let rooms that are tidy and clean get disorganized and dirty.  Keep up with them every day.  Rooms that the kids have a hand in messing up get addressed before the start of their night time routine.  I think it is important to teach them to clean up after themselves.  I'm not 100% leading by example yet, but I am trying.  Rooms that the kids have not messed up I go around and straighten after putting them to bed and before sitting down at my computer.  Once I am here reading blogs and messing around on the Internet I never end up getting back up to tidy up again. 

 

Rooms on my Don't Give Up Ground list are:

Colleen's Bedroom

Wesley's Bedroom

The main bathroom

Living Room

TV / Family room

and although it is not a room: the kitchen pantry

 

Rooms that are very close to being on the list are:

Dining Room

Our bedroom and bathroom

Garage

Computer Room Storage Area

 

Rooms that are the hardest for me are:

Kitchen

Computer Room

And even though it is not a room, our yard could do with quite a lot of tending, pruning, and weeding

 

 

The two rooms that are bugging me the most are our bedroom and the kitchen. 

 

I've heard time and again that it takes a month to make a habit.  So my plan is to add one room a month to my Don't Give Up Ground list.  At first I gave myself a day per room, then I expanded it to a week, but those are unrealistic time frames.  If I want it to stick I am going to have to do it right and rushing through something is rarely ever the right way to do it.

 

I am trying to decide which room to add to my list for this month.  Since we are already almost 1/2 through it needs to be one of the "nearly there" rooms.  I'm going to go with the dining room.

 

I'm going to go ahead and work it all out now, while I'm thinking about it.

 

Don't Give Up Ground rooms as of 1/13

Colleen's Bedroom

Wesley's Bedroom

Main Bathroom

Living Room

Family / TV Room

Kitchen Pantry

 

Being added to the Don't Give Up Ground list by month

January: Dining Room and Computer Room Storage Area (this one is easy, plus I need room to store finished ornaments)

February: Our Bedroom and Bathroom

March: Kitchen

April: Computer Room

May: Garage

June: Start on yard.  I think this will take all summer.

 

I'm going to try my best, guys.  February marks the 4 year anniversary of my staying at home and I really want to have a better handle of things.  Shawn swears I can do anything I put my mind to and I am going to apply myself to this once and for all.  Wish me luck!  :)

 

Love, Jen

I went to Michaels today to take advantage of their new markdowns (80% off Christmas items).  The place was a mad house, but I got more supplies for my Christmas ornaments business.  I want to just jump in and start making ornaments right this second!  I'm forcing myself to be methodical and organized about this though.  I need to know how much this all costs to aid me in setting my prices and keeping track of profits (and hopefully not losses).  I want to have a variety of ornaments to choose from, but I need to keep it managable. 

 

Something occurred to me at dinner tonight.  Where am I going to store them between making them and selling them?  Some kinds are easy - flat or relatively flat: easy to store in boxes.  It's the embellished glass balls that have me stumped.  I was thinking I could set up my drying rack and hang them from the dowels, but that has a few major drawbacks: It's easy for the kids to knock over the drying rack or steal ornaments to play with.  Dust is another issue and the rack does take up a lot of space.  I suppose I could put the rack in the storage closet in the computer room and cover it with a sheet to keep dust out.  Will have to give this issue more thought.

 

For now, here is what I do know:

 

I have supplies to make 25 popsicle stick sleds.  I am using mini craft sticks and my prototype sled is adorable.

 

I have 144 regular size solid colored glass balls and 72 mini size colored glass balls.  I also have 9 clear glass balls that you can decorate on the inside or out.  These balls will be decorated with artificial flower picks, ribbons, gems, and Christmas-themed buttons / embellishments.

 

I have 4 unopened packs along with the 1/2 used pack of Eco-felt, the felt made from recycled plastic soda bottles.  I am going to make all kinds of ornaments from this - I have a pretty neat poinsettia, two different kinds of doves and cardnials, stockings, and of course, clothes for my clothespin dolls.

 

I do not currently have any clothespins for my dolls, I plan on using my 40% off coupons to buy them at Michaels as I get the coupons.

 

I have a few styrofoam balls left over from this year, and I have found the manufacturer of them, who will sell them to me in relatively small wholesale lots.

 

I am slowly but surely getting my crafting area organized.  I am going to use my computer room desk.  I don't want to use my desk in my bedroom because that is for my scrapbooking, besides, Shawn is usually in the computer room at night (when I will be working on this) and I'd like to be in the same room as him.

 

OK my dag gone dryer keeps beeping at me so I am going to go fold clothes.  Thanks for "listening" to me.  :)  Writing it all out in public is helping me commit to the idea.  Now that I've gone and bought all these supplies I can't let myself chicken out and not follow through with it.

 

OH!  Before I go... between now and Christmas I am going to use my Etsy store to sell some of the photo frames I embellish, so that I have a good reputation (ie feedback) prior to Christmas so that people will trust me and buy my ornaments.  I'm working on an Irish / St. Patrick's day themed one as well as a kitty one and a doggie one.  Once I get it up and running I'll post a link here. 

 

I'm pretty excited.  :)

 

Love, Jen

 

I slept almost all day.  I'm wiped out and I don't know why.  Just plain pooped.  Wonder if I am just being lazy.

 

Kids woke me up a little after 8am.  TOday was Shawn's turn to sleep in, so I got up with the kids and we had cereal and I got a movie started for them down in the TV room.  Then I came back upstairs and went back to bed till about 11am.  Ordered pizza for lunch.

 

The cutest girl scout came to the door today.  My neice in Cincy is a daisy scout and I will probably buy cookies from her as well, but this girl was just too adorable to say no to, so I ordered a couple of boxes from her while she was here.

 

Ate the pizza, started a fire (perfect day for it, grey with a gentle rain) and sat in my chair by the fire to read.  Started falling asleep.  Gave in and went up to bed.

 

The kids woke me up about 5:30pm, literally fighting with each other on my body.  Wasn't the ideal way to get me out of bed, I was grumpy about it.

 

We had "noodle soup" from a lipton foil packet for dinner.  I microwaved it.  Not the best dinner in the world, but I am proud that we didn't have something delivered (like the pizza we had for lunch).  The fire was mostly burned out but I got it going again.

 

Wesley was still hungry after eating his soup and some of Colleen's (boy was she mad, but she should have come down when we called for her.  We gave her 4 chances), so he ate the slice of left over pizza.  He was still hungry so I gave him a couple of packets of those fruit gummy snacks.

 

It was getting close to bedtime for the kids and they had a lot of pent up energy from being couped up all day so we were wrestling and tickling and chasing each other around.  I KNOW BETTER THAN TO DO THIS.  Wesley throws up EVERY SINGLE TIME.  Pizza, gummies, noodle soup, and red fruit punch juice box.  I wanted Shawn to stop playing his game and help me clean it up voluntarily, so instead of saying anything I stormed around in a huff (yes, I know this is immature and counterproductive, can't seem to stop myself).  I tried the carpet cleaner on it, but the carpet cleaner has seen better days, it is over 10 years old.  It helped somewhat, but it wasn't cutting it.  I stormed around some more and got a bucket and scrub brush then made up the cleaning solution.  Shawn came in and said that he would scrub.  I was all like "no!  I've got it!" in a mean voice.  He insisted, I insisted, I came to my senses and relented.  I mean here the poor guy is, trying to do what I wanted him to do but wouldn't ask him to and I am trying to bully him out of doing it?  He scrubbed, I blotted with old towels.  The stain is mostly gone and I think as long as we have the carpet professionally cleaned soon it will be just fine.

 

Ugh!  It is only 11pm and I am exhausted again.  A couple of my buddies children had mono recently.  I was never around the ones that actually had mono so it can't be that, and yet maybe it could somehow?  My sister is pregnant and she is in the very tired phase right now.  Maybe I am having "sympanthy tiredness" for her?  Ugh!  All I know is that I want to go lay down again and I will probably be asleep before my head hits the pillow.

 

OH!  I remembered why I even came on here in the first place - I picked my name for my Christmas Ornament shop (drumroll please) the.... Frivolous Elf.  I haven't designed the logo yet but I envision a funky font with lots of curly cues and a sassy little elf that looks like me only cuter and thinner.  :P

 

Love (and big YAWNS), Jen

 

What the hell?

 

I'm messing around on the computer last night, reading CraigsList Rants and Raves because it is safer (for me) than looking in the furniture for sale section, and it is usually funnier.  It's late, maybe about 1:00am.  I get an Order Confirmation email from Amazon, but wait, I didn't order anything.  I know better than to click a link in a suspicious email like that, so I opened up a new browser and logged into my Amazon account.  Sure enough, someone had just placed an order for a sony camcorder.  Wasn't me, I was on CraigsList.  Wasn't Shawn, he was playing WoW.  Wasn't the kids messing around and somehow accidently doing it, they were in bed and besides I was on the computer.

 

I have never signed into Amazon from another computer, I've never even used a public computer.  Wait, I take that back.  I checked email once at the Ronald McDonald house when Wesley and I were in Iowa for his club foot evaluation by Dr. Ponseti, two years ago.  Didn't check Amazon though, I know for sure.

 

So I:

Cancel the order

Change my account password

Delete all saved financial information

Delete all addresses

Put in a request for Amazon support to call me ASAP

 

Amazon does indeed call me right away and I am connected with a lady who I am sure is a wonderful person, but she barely spoke a lick of heavily accented English and she would not deviate from her script.  Having worked help desk jobs for quite a long time, I know the score and I tried what I could think of to get her to transfer me to someone who was authorized to talk to me without a frigging script.  I even resorted to "I want to cancel my account", which really should have done the trick.  Instead, what does she do?  She sends me the email with the process of how to close the account and, following her script, asks me if there is anything else she can help me with.  ARGGG!  She could not / would not tell me who accessed the account, how it was done, the IP address of where the order came from.  I mentioned an advertising email that I had gotten from Amazon that I clicked on a few days ago for the ooma telephone system and she had nothing worthwhile to say about that (was it an authorized marketing email, could my clicking on the link in that email somehow allow someone access to my account?).  So frustrating!

 

After we got off the phone I read through the account closure email she sent me and it had a part where if I was not satisfied with my phone call I could fill out a web form and someone would get back to me.  I filled out the form.  I wish I had copied what I had written before I sent it, I incorrectly assumed a copy would be sent to me.  I basically said - My account has been compromised, An order was placed, I cancelled it in time, I deleted all personal information from my account and changed my password, but I want you to research this situation better and I want a response from Amazon.

 

Shawn then worked his voodoo on my computer to make sure that I didn't pick up any viruses or malware from my jaunt on CraigsList (yes, it's possible), but the scan was clear.  I used Shawn's computer to change my passwords (which weren't the same as my Amazon account, but just in case) on the most important of my other accounts.

 

I got the response from Amazon this afternoon.  It is obviously a pre-written response with all the markings of having been written by a committee of marketing / PR folks and legal folks.  It is a load of BS and I still don't know who accessed my account, how they did it, what IP address it was from (and it is BS that they can't tell me that)  My Amazon account has been closed by them and after their response to this very serious issue, I don't think I'll ever reopen one with them again, I don't care how good their prices are.  A few dollars off something isn't worth the possibility of identity theft.

 

I am tempted to post Amazon's response here, but I want to think about it first.  I don't think I could get in any trouble for it, I'm not bashing them, just stating facts, but still, I want to think about it first.  If you know me in real life and are interested, let me know and I'll forward their response to you.

 

What a load of crap.

HOLY COW!

 

Who sells these ads?  I can't go to a single web site without seeing "before" and "after" pictures of some girl who happens to have a "diet blog".  She's lost 25 pounds in 14 days (like THAT'S a good idea). 

 

Right under the diet blogger is the Flat Stomach - One Rule OBEY!  (I've never clicked on it but I hope it shows instructions for how to do sit ups).

 

Under that is the Flirt for Free! video showing some girl who may not be exactly pretty, but she is always thin and she always seems like she is up for a "good time".

 

I don't even remember what I came on here to write because I am all up in arms over this stupid advertising.  I know I can't wish for there to be no advertising on the internet, but I do wish that I could select what kind of advertising I see from a list of categories.  Lord help me if they had a "housewife" category with ads from Yankee Candle, Target, Plow and Hearth, Toys R Us, Hallmark, and Michaels.  We'd be broke.  Targeted advertising seems so much more practical to me, I'm never going to click on those diet ads or dating ads, but I know I'd end up clicking on any of the retailers mentioned above.

 

I'm going to go play trains with Wes some more.  I made an awesome track this morning and my knees are killing me from crawling around on the floor, but sore knees are better than heartburn from these stupid ads.  How do these "companies" have the money to pay for these ads?  OK, ok, I'm done.  :)

 

 

Love, Jen