First Impressions

OK any of you who knows me really well knows I am not good at first impressions.

Some examples:

Mark (my dh) I started working and he was one of my bosses. His boss told him I had 8 kids. I did not know this. He asked me how I dealt with so many children, (not knowing what exactly he was talking about (there was a lot of kids in the dinning room at that time) I said throw food at them and hope they shut up? Of course he was a bit taken back at this comment probably thinking he should call DCFS on me.

Alexis: She joins the play group. Since none of us have met before, I couldn't remember who was who. She tells me Hannah was cute so I said "do you want to hold her?" she said no but I kept saying no its OK here take her. After I got home and someone explained why she didn't want to hold her I could have died. (and cried which I did!) The latest.........

My new neighbor..... The family next door sold their house and moved out. I have been going on and on about how excited I am and that I hope a young (under 50) family moves in. In passing since Friday, I have seen a younger guy, older people (parents most likely) and a young girl Ashley's age, and a woman. Last night while doing laundry I saw thru their kitchen window a woman holding a baby. I was sooo excited not only were they our age but kids this was like a triple bonus in my mind!! So today I was grooming the dogs and in the back yard when the guy pulled in with his truck to unload stuff. I said "Oh hello, I am Jamie are you the owner of the house now?" He said "Yes hi I am Brian" I said Oh I have a brother named Bryan. How funny, Are you married?? (now again this is because I am excited to have another female on the block that I might be able to talk to yada yada you know how it is when you have no life) To my horror he said "NO" so of course I said why not?? he shrugged and said just not. I said a deflated "oh" and start talking about what trash the old owner was and we were talking about the disarray they left the house in. At this point another truck pulls up and a woman get out who is pregnant and walks up and wraps her arms around him and I was saying do you mind dogs? mine do bark. She said Oh no we love dogs we have a black lab.......... OK as you can guess I am pretty confused at this point.

First,,,,,,,, who is this woman? his girlfriend?? and why didn't he introduce us? Who is the young girl I saw? and worst of all

OMG HE PROBABLY THOUGHT i WAS HITTING ON HIM WITH THE ARE YOU MARRIED COMMENT!!!! DOH!!!!!

so thank goodness Hannah came out so I said this is my daughter Hannah, I have another inside named Ashley and then my husband Mark who is at work welcome to the neighborhood and thank goodness you have great weather to move in, I should let you go..............(while I go die in a hole somewhere in my house....... where is that bottle of wine I started last night omg)

Kids Incorporated

Flash back....... mid 80's , Saturday mornings, what do you watch on TV?

Kids Incorporated of course. It was the best show ever if you were a young girl in the 80's they had the coolest clothes, best hair, and sang awesome songs. You just had to sing along. My dad always made sure he was out of the house by the time it came on and heaven forbid my parents try to get me out of the house while it was on.

It had character's you loved like hunky Ryan, Martika who was the coolest, Mario who was a dancer and a drummer, Stacie who had the best hair ever.

Well we know that some grew up to make it past the show

Mario Lopez was on Saved by the Bell, then went on and on. He has even done Dancing with the Stars. Guess he was a dancer all along haha and boy is he HOT

Martika had her hit while still young we all remember "Toy Soldier"

Jennifer Love Hewitt has had several TV shows, movies , even an album. She is currently on her own show "Ghost Whisper "

but ..... did you know Stacie.........is......... FERGIE??? OK I am embarrassed to say I am in love with Fergie how can you not sing along when you hear "How come every time you come around My London London bridge wanna go down" or what about "Fergalicious"? I should have known that I was in love with her from way back when!!! Now I don't feel so bad I can say I have been a fan of Fergie since way back when , I have always been a supporter haha.

Now for anyone else wanting to take a trip back down the Kids Incorporated memory lane go here!

Vacation Overload

OK first let me say I love my children. How ever, I am thinking that 2 weeks at home with this is a bit more than my nerves can handle. I have noticed I eat more, and shop more when they are home. hmmm maybe I should maximize the usage of the Children's Museum Membership and get them enrolled in every activity possible to get them out of my hair. There are no children in the neighborhood to play with and I am frankly tired of entertaining them.

If I hear "I am bored" one more time I can not be held responsible for my actions. Would it be bad to lock my kids out of the house?? It is 58 degree's out so it would be good for them wouldn't it?? I just can't get over how 3 days after Christmas they are tired of their new toys already. We need to seriously work on appreciating what we have.

So anyway OK enough of my complaining of my kids I am off to try some new wine and teach Ash how to use the new sewing machine Joy Joy.

Pictures of Country Life

This is the river and the one lane bridge that you have to cross to get to the houses from town.

The girls on the river behind my granparents house.
Hannah at river

Ok I can't figure out how to label and load pictures thru the post so here is the rest of the pictures I wanted to add to last post haha This is Ashley and Maisie

Home Sweet Home

We are back!!

The kids and I had a great time. The girls got to play with Maisie the pet calf , the three horses Star, Blaze, and Clyde (although since they are all 3 wild mustangs there wasn't a lot of contact with each other) Then there was Jack the new Black Lab my mom adopted last January when he was dumped in the woods. After they all had enough of each other, we headed down the valley to bug "great grandma and great grandpa Douglas" and their Burrows. They have the small burrows that are about 3.5 feet high named Zachariah, Jenny, and Mini Pearl. Hannah fell in LOVE with them all.

Of course we couldn't end our days there, we had to go exploring in the woods in the back yard and go down to the river. The girls thought this was the coolest. Hannah even thought she heard a BEAR!!! LMAO I told her there were no bears around but she wasn't having it.

Then to end out the days we had our deer watching time. It always seems magical to me to sit and watch the deer come out of the woods and come up to the house to feed. Even though this is something I have grown up around I never can get enough of it.

Christmas Vacation

It's Here!! We made it!! The Girls and I are going to Missouri to visit my mom and maternal side of the family. I am soo EXCITED!! I feel worse than a kid. I realized I haven't been to "the country" for Christmas in well over 17 years.

I was thinking today of my "country" memories. First let me set the mental picture where I am going. You know the "Over the river and thru the Woods to Grandmothers house we go"? this is the truest sense of it. My Grandparents and Mother live down in the Valley of the woods complete with one lane bridges over the river that if it snows and melts or rains, the flood out. My Grannie has the river flowing thru her back yard. The other side of the river is a cliff. At the top of the cliff and around the bend a bit (OK about 20 min) is the house and Museum of Laura Ingals Wilder. Its where she lived when she wrote her books.

When I was a kid, there was no garbage service there yet, they burned or composted everything. They still had party lines until maybe 10 years ago. My family has real live deer that come feed off the back porch. It is the most calming, relaxing environment. The neighbors are the most amazing network of friends that it puts even the closest city neighborhood to shame. (Can you tell I love love it there?)

I was remembering today how all of the families would drive in and then at some point we would all trek into the woods ( and by woods I mean they live in Mark Twain National Park land so it's all the woods there) and pick the tree and dads would chop it down while us kids explored and pretended we were lost leaving trails to find each other. Then dragging it home and decorating it and sitting around the fireplace. The sounds of the wood snapping and popping. The smells of the Peanut butter Pies and Lemon Meringue pie baking for Christmas Dinner. All the cousins and us fighting for spots on living room floor to sleep in because all the bedrooms were filled with the Adults. Such happy thoughts.

So with all this in mind I am packing up my own kids and heading over the river and thru the woods to make our own New memories because unfortunately time has moved on and cousins don't get together like we should. Sad things have happened since then and some have passed on. But these are things only us Adults will remember and the kids will be in awe of the new experiences.

With all that said Merry Christmas Everyone and Have a Happy Wonderful Holiday!

Flash Back

So I am in the middle of holiday baking and I got online to check out a recipe when I saw a story that caught my eye. (we all know I don't read the paper or watch the news) There was a Huge Storm in the Pacific Northwest

To all of the people suffering right now my heart goes out to you. This is way worse than our storm. No one died here. I am going to turn off all my lights, music, and make the kids take an hour of thought time for how lucky we were. (no I am not turning off my heat. I already suffered that not going back)

Something Extra

OK I did some shopping today and I was "done" with gifting for the girls.

Or so I thought. I went to K's today (they are going out of business and I heard they marked stuff down again) and while looking at all the jewelry that was 60% and 70% off to put on my list for Mark, I came upon a Big Sister/Little Sister Heart Charm. It was originaly $149 wich I would never consider but........ since it was 60%..... I couldn't pass it up. so then the gold diamond cut chains that were reg $100 were 70% and then an extra 20% off on top of that so when its all said and done they have a very very nice necklace set for about $60 each wich I am sure to some is very $$ still but something about it just pulled at my heart.

It took me back to the days when I was little and dreamed of having a sister. You know no one ever wears big sister little brother jewelry. I don't know I guess I always go overboard with christmas but I just had to get these. Of course Ashley is old enough to really take care and appreciate this but Hannah's will be a special occasion necklace till she is a little older.

Christmas Spirit

I think I have lost my Christmas Spirit. Has anyone seen it??

I am not sure if this is because of all that happened at the begining of the month with the no power for a week or what but my batteries to keep the C spirit going has ran out. Is it over yet?? Can I crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head and some one yell for me to come out when its over??
No I haven't finished my Shopping. (I think if I don't have your gift yet, your not getting one)
No I haven't done my Baking. (I just spent $60 on freaking condiments, I don't think I want to go spend that much on s***to bake and give away)
No I haven't finished my Decorating. (and at this point I am not going to)
No I am not done Wrapping Presents (do I have to?)

Can we say BAH HUMBUG. Is this something with age or am I in a funk?

Sweet Tea Boycot

I think I should boycott McDonald's. When visiting states on the East Coast, You can get GIANT glasses of Sweet Tea from the McD's for a $1.

This is such a great deal and it doesn't leave me with the over load corn syrup , carbonation combo upset stomach soda gives me.

The Problem? You can't order Sweet Tea in Decatur. Hell for all I know all of IL. I asked them tonight "Why don't you guys sell Sweet Tea in Decatur" The lady gave me some crap line about how there wouldn't be consistency to it. Then she said because.......... are you ready for this............ no one asks for it. Ummmm hello so is that how it works?? You have to keep asking for an item before they will consider carrying it?? If that's the case, I ask all fellow readers and McDonald's customers to please PLEASE ask for Sweet Tea every time you place an order. Hell I think we should all call a store everyday till they carry it!!

Gift Exchange

So the idea of gift exchanges is a good one sometimes. I always try to put lots of thought into keeping within the price limit. So this year we had a $5 limit. OK we can do good with this right?? I went to Target and they had $1 sets of food from DQ (like ice cream sandwiches, and blizzards) so we got one of those, a basket with fruit, a basket with veggies, a tray of meat items, and a server with dairy products and then a bonus apron to really get into the theme.

So the teacher planed out a system so all the kids would exchange gifts girls to girls boys to boys. All nice and well intended. So the kids swapped gifts and opened them. Hannah got a nice Ballerina Barbie. (as in the real deal barbie) Some of the other gifts were the dollar barbie knock offs , one girl got a Bike Horn and a pair of Flip Flops?? a stuffed dog, a cell phone toy. you get the idea.

So anyway the girl who received Hannah's gift was admiring Hannah's barbie. She said how much she liked it and wished she had one. Of course my wonderful daughter being so nice like her mom said if you like it I will trade it and you can have it and I will take your gift.

so yes all said and done we came home with the gift we brought. Now I am not complaining because its a good gift but ugh I didn't want all these things at MY HOUSE!!

On a good note boy these parents really get into the party's. We came home with a KROGER PAPER BAG full of stuff. I took in a bag of candy. Parents sent in FILLED GIFT BAGS!!! I felt like a total loser cheapskate. I will so do better for V-day.

Poor Pebbles

So we got a call from our vet today. Our youngest baby is diseased!!

To Start from the beginning we adopted Pebbles from the Humane Society. Hannah picked him out as her birthday present. He was hyper , obnoxious and lovable. We had to have him. The day after we took him home I noticed he was having problems breathing. Of course it was a Saturday so we had to wait till Monday to call them. When we got a hold of someone there, they said that he had in fact recently had a respiratory infection that they would pay for us to bring him in to their vet. So we did and they gave him some amox. That worked for awhile. Well due to the power outage, Pebbles got the sniffles again. So first thing the Monday following we got him in the vet. The gave us moxi again and took some blood to see why he keeps getting sick. The amox works till its all gone then he sounds like an ill sniffy child again. So we go the results. He is borderline positive for Bartonella (cat scratch fever basically) there are different strains of this apparently and the one he has causes URI. Poor baby. So now we had to special order some amoxicillin to have delivered to our house for a month long treatment and hopefully our baby will be all better. Here is another story I found of a similar circumstance.

Hot gifts of the season

I am really curious to see what everyone else is buying for their kids for Christmas this year. I am beginning to think the older they get the harder it is to find what they want.

Ashley asked for VIMGO and Designers World. I was able to get the first item. The second is not going to happen. Can't seem to be in the right place at the right time.

Hannah's hot item this year is the Fisher Price Digital Camera and the Leapster Backpack. I have ordered both online only to get emails saying they are not available. Now I did get lucky, after a week of calling Target and Walmart and looking online EVERY DAY to find them, My MIL walked into Springfield TRU and said they had 4 so she grabbed one for me. I could kiss the woman. We jokingly said she should have bought all of them and did like everyone else in the world and sold on ebay for $150!!! I could really go on a vent about that. I just don't understand why adults do this. Don't they realize they are only hurting innocent children who ask "Santa" for these gifts and the parents end up pulling out their hair to try to accommodate only to come up empty handed by someone trying to make a buck off someone else's misfortune of not getting their hands on it first.

So anyway I just wondered what other things are out there that we can't get our hands on.

The Calm After the Storm

We have survived. It was pure hell but we made it. I am not going to post to much on this subject because to be honest, I am sick of it. I was horrible and I am tired of even thinking of it. Here is the low-down

Thursday night around 9 pm, the power went out due to a neighbor's tree falling on the lines.

Friday we stayed with a neighbor two doors down for heat. Mark didn't go into work until about 3 hours after his scheduled shift because the majority of Decatur was w/o power including Cracker Barrel. They were up and running by 3pm. After short calls to all family and friends everyone we knew was in the same boat as us. We did the CB for dinner with in laws

Saturday we went to in-laws to clean up since they at least had gas water heater. Hannah had her Christmas Ballet Recital then afterwards mil and I did our Christmas Shopping. (Had to have a break away haha) but driving thru town was unbelievable. We just couldn't get over the amount of damage we (the town) had sustained. Around 6pm we met the guys and kids at Ruby Tuesday for dinner and found out they had just restored power to their house. (They were the only house in their neighborhood w/o power go figure) So we loaded up clothes and stayed at their house that night.

Sunday spent at in laws. Heard sucky news that school was going to be in session. JOY not only did 1/2 or more of the town have no power, but we are going to send all the bus drivers out to dodge lines and trees to pick up kids. So I went home with Kerosene heater in tow and rounded up the dogs and cats and slept in the cold house. (now my plan here was to a) not wake up in-laws house, and b) keep all animals alive in the freezing cold.

Monday trooped off to work what can I say it sucked only had one student for my usual 37 on the first route then had 5 of 20 on second.
went to in laws after work got kids ready for home and trooped back home for the pets.

Tuesday same deal sucky day no power, cold whats there to say

Wed Good news Ashley got to go back to school. (French was one the last to get power back.) When I got off work at 5 (routes still suck and everyone is getting sick of detouring) I called the house and the answer machine came on wooo hooo we have power. I ran home grabbed the kids and Hannah's ballet attire, ran to in laws packed up the house (it seemed as though we had moved in) did ballet at the Y had dinner with FIL and home to bed.

Thursday exhausted trying to get thru the day and figuring out what needed to be replaced in fridge as everything was bad

Friday suffering thru day to get to weekend to rest!!

Saturday Yeah we made it stayed in bed till noon haha

Sunday (Today) cleaning entire house to get back to normal. We have achieved regular old house status finally :)