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8月31日 Mail call!Just got back from going to the mailbox... wait a minute, this one requires backstory:
I went to a party this past Saturday, a Summer Thock party in honor of Donna's visit. Lots of talking, lots of laughing, great times! One conversation that has stuck with me is when Donna was talking about what stories we have to tell. It occurred to me that my blog is the story of my time as a stay at home mom. A little slice of what it has been like for me. I didn't exactly intend for it to happen that way, I started blogging to keep busy while Shawn played Star Wars Galaxies and I have stuck with it, even though Shawn has moved on to World of Warcraft. LOL
What does this have to do with me getting the mail? Well, on the way back from the mailbox (it's not on our street, they make us walk for it!) I was flipping through what we got and realized that today is a good day - nothing to increase my blood pressure! It's also a good representation of the type of mail a young family of four receives. So might as well write about it, right? :D
Here goes:
Coco has been cooking dinner as often as I will let her and she just came in and informed me that it is time to start. We are making spaghetti and sauce with garlic bread. I promised just to be in the kitchen and tell her what to do and not do any of it myself. Let's see if I can keep that promise. :) Love, Jen 8月28日 A visit from a fairyCoco lost her first tooth yesterday! It took exactly a week from the time she could wiggle it to show us it was loose.
Coincidently, yesterday was the Meet and Greet at Coco's school and the first time we were allowed in to see the new building. Colleen's tooth came out right after she walked into her first grade classroom. Even though school doesn't start until Tuesday, her new teacher declared Colleen's the first lost tooth of the year! She has special envelopes that she uses to send the teeth home to the parents.
It was hard to get Colleen to go to bed last night, she could hardly wait for the tooth fairy. Colleen knows all about the tooth fairy. She is beautiful. And a fairy. And small. And she uses magic to get into the house. And she can read English. Colleen goes on and on about the tooth fairy.
And best of all, the tooth fairy gave Colleen a "bill"! Not even a penny, but a whole bill! Colleen has carried that dollar around all day. She even set it beside her while she worked on her Hannah Montana scrapbook. I will not be surprised if we find the dollar bill taped to a scrapbook page before the day is over.
I wrote the tooth fairy a note and asked her to leave me the tooth, and she was nice enough to grant my request. This was weird to Colleen, who can't imagine why on earth I would want her tooth. It's for the little envelope in her baby book that is labeled "first lost tooth". :D
I was thinking about Christmas presents today, I've got about half of my shopping done and it's time to start thinking about the tough people. I came up with a few ideas that I hope will be well received. For some reason, I also came up with an idea for a Tooth Fairy pillow case. A special pillow case that the child gets to use on the night they are expecting the tooth fairy. I'm thinking about a little fabric envelope on the upper corner that the tooth goes in, probably will have a picture of a tooth on the outside. That envelope could be attached with velcro or something. Maybe a little button. I'm not sure about the logistics yet. But the envelope will be quickly, easily, and quietly interchangable with an envelope with a dollar sign on the outside of it. Get my drift? I was terrified the tooth fairy was going to wake Colleen up during her visit last night and then the gig would have been up.
My mom was wanting to know exactly which tooth Colleen lost, because bottom right front tooth wasn't specific enough LOL! I looked up a dental chart and Colleen lost the tooth named letter "O".
  8月27日 No scrub formula.... ha ha ha!OK so the mold stuff worked, kind of. It cleared up the pansy, faint hearted mold lickety split. And in all fairness, it put a hurtin' on the big bad biker gang mold patches. But at the end of the day, there is still mold on my house and I will be back out there tomorrow, armed with my trusty spray bottle of mold killer... and a scrub brush.... and the mental image of an Evangelical preacher smacking my house upside its moldy wood boards and commanding, in his best Sunday Morning TV Broadcast voice, for the Demon Mold to BE GONE! Out you beast of hell! Out you Demon Mold. Jesus commands you to BE GONE! 8月26日 Status Quo*sigh*
Today's been fun!
I cleaned a bunch of toys up, during which time the kids were on different floors getting a bunch of toys out. It's a never ending cycle! I am hoping with school and the various lessons the kids will be doing soon that they will be too tired to make much of a mess in the evenings.
And of course, another day, another mail delivery... containing news of another homeowner's insurance snafu. Seriously, this has been going on for over a year now and the excuses are wearing thin. Knock On Wood, hopefully it is all straightened out AGAIN. Turns out that the people who did an outside evaluation of our house in NC thought it would cost over one hundred thousand dollars more than we were insured for to rebuild the place if it were a total loss. I always play it on the safe side and I considered us to be a tad over insured already so this came as a big shock to me. At least half a dozen phone calls later and we agreed on a new "cost to completely rebuild" number, whether or not it is a fair number, who knows?!?! I said that I wanted it documented that the figure came from the company's analysis and should the house become a total loss, I will be expecting the full amount that they now require I carry. I'm sure it came off snarky, but folks, it is just my luck that we would have devestating loss, and then find out that the insurance company will only pay out at a lessor amount. I get to pay the difference between the bill that our mortgage company paid last month and the cost of the increased coverage. It'll be between $20 and $184, the rep wouldn't have an exact figure for a few days because our new agreement needs to be "run through the system". I predict that this matter isn't resolved and won't be for some time. I'm sorely tempted to contant Guiness Book Of World Records and see if I can get in there for longest running issues with an insurance company. LOL
Housepainting is S-L-O-W-L-Y moving forward. I am writing this blog while I am waiting for the mold killer to work on the siding. Then I'm going to go rinse it off with the hose. The stuff I am using says it is a "no scrub" formula, so hopefully that will be the end of the mold. Fingers crossed. I bought top of the line primer, meant to block and ward off mold, so that should help too.
My sister just called, the one who just had the new baby. Hi, Becky! Talking to her calmed me down. I've been pretty upset and stressed out over the insurance situation, as well as an escrow account discrepancy with our WA mortgage company. I worry that maybe it is just me, being argumentative and picking fights with companies all the time. Seriously, you wouldn't think that so many different companies would be making mistakes on the same person. Do they make mistakes a lot more than is reported or caught? Do people just not pay attention? Or am I some Paranoid Patty who always has to fight with the people we do business with?
I don't know about all of that, but I do know that it is time to rinse the mold killer stuff off the house. Back to work.
Love, Jen
PS While I have been occupied, the kids got out the Lite Brite and scattered pegs and the black papers everywhere. They also got out a couple of puzzles. And they came in to yell at me that it is taking too long for me to be ready to go swimming. I can't decide if I feel beaten down and like a door mat, or if this is all some joke that would be really funny if it happened on a sitcom tv show. I'm going with funny. Less depressing that way. :D
8月25日 I'm an auntie again!Sunday evening, my sister gave birth to her 3rd child, her first daughter, Miss Aerilyn Riley. I'm so excited to be an auntie again!
 8月23日 So that I don't forgetThis past Thursday, 8/20, Coco's bottom right front tooth got very loose. She still hasn't lost it yet, but I would like to track how many days it takes for her to lose it, I have a scrapbooking layout in mind for it. LOL 8月19日 I'm pretty sure this is what Wesley hasIt's called YTD, Youthful Tendency Disorder. Here is an article about it that helps explain. http://www.theonion.com/content/news/more_u_s_children_being_diagnosed
At least I don't feel so alone anymore. :D Email from my momAn elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course , the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house." The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?" "That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them." "For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house." Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them. SO, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path! 8月15日 Dance Class Observation DayToday is the last day of summer classes at the dance school Colleen goes to. It is parent observation day. They schedule these every 6 weeks or so so that we can see how our little dancers are progressing. They encourage parents to leave the studio during classes the rest of the time, because first of all there's not a lot of space, but also so that the kids focus on their teacher instead of always making sure their parents are watching. I stayed for the first class and sure enough, Colleen called out several times for me to watch her.
Anyways, back to today. Colleen is beyond thrilled. In her mind this is something of a cross between her Broadway Debut and a beauty pagent. She is insisting on full hair and makeup and she expects us to throw roses to her when she finishes dancing. She frequently expresses desire to be declared the best. Shawn and I have tried to explain to her that today is just a regular dance class, except they do a little bit of a coordinated dance at the end and we get to watch. She doesn't believe us. I hope it all works out and that she doesn't get dissappointed by how today goes.
Well, the toaster oven just dinged, her breakfast is ready. After eating we have to start curling her hair and applying her makeup. Because that's how our Coco rolls.
Pictures to follow after the class! :D
Love, Jen 8月11日 About the GoatsFirst of all, there is a new photo album with pictures of the goats and little snippets about their personalities and habits.
Then, background:
Shawn and I are in the process of preparing our house to paint the exterior. The job is long overdue, the paint is in terrible condition, down to bare wood in some places. In order to clear the way to pressure wash it, I went out and started on the overgrown shrubbery and foliage that surrounds the house, especially in the backyard. After two days of sweating, cussing, bleeding, and darn near crying I decided to call in the pros. At the rate I was going I was going to have a coniption fit before I ever got to painting the house. I called around to human landscapers, the cheapest one wanted to charge $22 an hour, and she would come on bus with her shovel and hoe. That wasn't going to work for me. She'd be here for days and I don't have that kind of money. A more professional company with actual machines charged $35 an hour, per man hour, not including the dump fee. I cancelled on them before they were able to come out to do the estimate of how many people and hours it was going to take because I found THE GOAT LADY. Why pay humans when you can rent goats? The goat lady and her husband came by the next day with four goats and we were set to go, except as the goat lady was leaving two of the goats started bleating loudly and repeatedly. She took those two troublemakers back with her! Sunday we received the replacements and except for the occassional "how are you doing" bleat, we don't hear much out of them. On Saturday the two that stayed with us, Boss Lady Big Horns and No Ears (I named them), stayed on their leads, tethered to stakes in the ground. This was to keep them from eating the poisonous Rhodedendron leaves. Sunday morning I cut the leaves off the two bushes and let the goats roam our fenced in back yard. Sunday right after lunch the other two arrived and the goat lady and her husband pronounced our backyard "Rhodie Free" and all four were permitted to roam free, which they have done ever since. Goats eat more when they are able to go where they want. When on a tether they always want the leaf that is out of reach and will spend considerable time and energy trying to stretch to it instead of eating what is at hand. They poop A LOT and now that is day 3 with 4 of them there is a faint but definate scent of "barnyard" hanging around our house. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't get too bad and the neighbors don't start complaining.
Next, an email I sent on Monday to my dad about them:
Here are pictures of the first two. I call them Big Horns and No Ears. I will be giving them better names, hopefully today. We got two more yesterday, a Nigerian Dwarf that they named Stella, and a rescue goat with horns and long ears. She is much whiter than the others, a sort of "buff" color with a white face. I named her Crackers. During dinner last night Colleen asked why I choose that name and I replied that "Mommy is racially insensitive." Shawn laughed so much that some food came out of his mouth. :D Jill, The Goat Lady, told me that Crackers was not friendly towards people (doesn't like to be touched), and suspected abuse, or at least neglect, before she came to them. Jill chose her for us because she likes ivy, which is what we have the most of. I took that as a challenge and won the goat's trust within a couple hours. All I had to do was lavish attention on the others and hand feed them the delicious Weeping Willow leaves. They ate all they could reach first thing, so I go over and strip off a small handful and they come gobble them up. Soon Crackers was curious enough that she tried it. I pat her head while she ate and gave her a few more handfulls. Throw in some kind words, that's all it took. That goat loves me. Last night she watched TV with me. I left the patio door blinds open and she stood out on the other side of the door for a couple of hours while I was just on the other side. We watched Animal Planet, of course. I ate sunflower seeds and watermelon and she chewed her cud. It is seriously unbelievable the amount that they have ate already. I'll probably take pictures again today, of the new goats and the progress. They are roaming the backyard free at this point, now that I have all of the poisonous Rhodendron leaves cut out. This means that our whole backyard is getting "fertilized", but the poop is not hard to deal with. It is hard pellets, a lot like deer poop. At least so far, our backyard doesn't have a barnyard smell. I'll be sure to post more Goat Adventures on my blog soon. You can learn more at The Goat Lady's website: http://www.thegoatlady.org/index.html 8月10日 Getting ready to go back to schoolFor those of you who know about the goats, you may be wondering why I am not writing about them. It's beause I am waiting for the camera batteries to recharge. Once they are ready to go I'll take new pictures and post a new blog.
It hit me today that we have about 3 weeks to get ready for the kids to go back to school. Today we are doing a wardrobe check to see what we will need to buy for the new year. I did Wesley first. He has 2 pair of jeans, 2 pair of dockers-style pants, and a pair of cords. He has one hockey jersey, 2 long sleeve t-shirts, 2 button down shirts, 4 polo style shirts, a hoodie jacket, a raincoat, and his winter coat. His rainboots still fit but he needs new gym shoes. Although we have a big pile of clothes that don't fit him anymore, I think what is left is enough to start the year off with. BIG THANKS to Aunt Cyndi, who gave us a big box of cousin Avery's outgrown clothes.
I am getting ready to start with Colleen now. The amount of clothes she has is astounding to me. She may even have more clothes than Shawn.
I think after I do Colleen I am going to go through my own closet. Now that we have cable I watch a lot of What Not To Wear. I'm becoming paranoid that Stacy and Clinton are going to ambush me and I'll have to endure their little comments about how my clothes don't fit right, have holes, tears, and stains, and that I look like a unisex homeless person. I highly doubt that I will buy anything new, but it can't hurt to throw out the really bad stuff and see what is left.
OK, back to Coco's closet, and then my own. Then hopefully a goat update.
Love, Jen 8月5日 Sweet!I was just sitting on the couch, holding Coco in my lap with Wes next to us, leaning his head on the same pillow I was using. This is the most potent sleeping pill I could take. They work their mojo on me, I fall asleep, and they get out every toy they own and mix them all together and spread them out on all 3 levels of the house. But I'm always tricked into it because the snuggling is so peaceful and welcome.
Anyway, I'm getting off topic. My to-do list was very short today: dishes (check), load of whites (check), and call insurance company to ensure they got the billing straightened out. I had to make sure I called them today because I know a payment is due in August and I DO NOT WANT to have coverage lapse over something as small as this because it is just my luck that some catastrophe would happen the minute we weren't covered.
I knew they called last week during the heatwave, so before I called them I checked the message (I'm terrible about checking voicemails. Seriously terrible, Add that to the list of things I need to work on.). Turns out the message they left was that they got it all straightened out, no further action needed on my side, and the payment will automatically come out on the 28th of this month. AWESOME! This has been an ongoing problem since we moved to Washington, we use the same company for everything here in WA as well as the house in NC and it was messing them up to have two residences. I think it was messing them up because of the type of mortgage we have, both places are "primary residence" mortgages and they kept overriding eachother in the system and the WA mortgage company kept getting (and rejecting) the bill for the NC house. And don't even get me started about the other policies and how they were being billed. All I can say is I am glad it is all figured out now and I wish I had checked that message sooner. It's been hanging over my head for a week unneccessarily.
OK back to hanging with the kids. Its the perfect day for a nap, only 63 degrees out right now and I AM LOVING IT. LOVING LOVING LOVING it!!! We even had a fire in the fireplace yesterday evening and again this morning. Nothing says Tranquility to me quite like sitting in the chair I pulled alongside the hearth, feet propped against the fire screen, reading the last of that tropical tall-tale "A Salty Piece Of Land" while the kids play quietly downstairs. I had a GREAT morning and its segwayed into a wonderful afternoon as well.
The dryer just beeped on the load of whites so I went to check on them - not quite dry yet, set it for another cycle.
Peeked in on the kids, Wes is sound asleep, Colleen looks not far behind him.
Mom is on the phone now, turns out my weed whacker is on a recall list. I had better go check that out now before I forget about it.
I hope everyone else is having a nice day with pleasant surprises!
Love, Jen
Update: Coco's asleep now too! LOL
And my weed whacker is not affected. If you have a Black and Decker Grass Hog, you may want to click on the following link to make sure yours is OK as well: http://www.blackanddecker.com/customercenter/recalls/Recall-GH1000.aspx 8月4日 Feeling GroovyI'm happy tonight. Mellow, content kind of happy.
The kids and I had no lessons, appointments, or other obligations today. It felt like summer vacation! LOL
We spent the day lounging around the house, watching a little TV, playing a little Legos, just a laid back kind of day. Given the sucess of the Lego City firehouse, I decided to go online to see what other Lego City kits were available and their website has a clearance section (you can start smiling and shaking your head at me now). I got the police set, gas tanker, and cement hopper for half off. Wes was very upset that they didn't immediately show up at our house, but I think he realizes that I am not deliberately keeping them from him and is looking forward to the delivery man bringing them to him soon.
We went to the pool at about 6pm and stayed until about 8 (closing time). Shawn stopped by the pool on his way home from work, that was nice. We all showed off for him as he watched from the side of the pool. Come time to leave, the kids were unhappy and (surprisingly) Coco threw a big crying fit over having to ride home in the car in her wet bathing suit. Evidently she would have rather walked, altough she has yet to give us a reason for this. Once we were home, both kids calmed down quickly. I've had a nice calm feeling all day, but it intesified after we got home from the pool.
We had a quick dinner and after a little bit of "On demand" Roary The Racing Car, and a brief tidying up, I got the kids off to bed. I still have a few dishes to load in the dishwasher, I may or may not get to them tonight. I did 3 loads of laundry (it is best to run the dryer at night after it cools off) and I am working on painting and decorating a little photo box for Shawn's boss and his wife... they are expecting a little girl any day now. Oh! And I got my grocery order submitted in time tonight for a delivery tomorrow. This is great, because I had several items with sale prices that end tomorrow. I love the grocery delivery. I love that I can shop at home after the kids go to bed and it is not a big production. I can manage the final cost a lot better this way to, but I think I've written an entire blog about that subject before! :D
I am rereading Jimmy Buffet's "A Salty Piece Of Land". I had forgotten how much I enjoy reading that book. It is one of my favorites. I like to think that the main character, Tully Mars, gives me insight into the Male Mind. It's a fun book, just right for reading on a warm and lazy summer day.
Love, Jen |
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