Why oh why did my sidebar disappear. I use it to get to my friends blogs and I'm currently having to just follow the links on the couple of blogs that I have bookmarked. ARGH. I haven't changed my template in a week or so and I can't really find anything that looks like it's "off" in there.
Bleh. Maybe it will show back up tomorrow!
Thought I'd let everyone know that our AC is up and running so you don't have to feel sorry for us anymore. Apparently there was some sort of crack in the unit so we were leaking freon and causing global warming. Which didn't help our situation any, now did it?
I'm on "break" right now. Sunshine had a choir rehearsal at church this morning. They've having "child-led worship" tomorrow and they wanted all the kids to come up and rehearse this morning. He's singing a song and taking up the offering. I'm so proud. Superman's job it to NOT YELL during the service. Of course, if he does I can dump him in the nursery.
Anyway, since I took both boys up to the church w/ me all morning, dh was going to watch them all afternoon while I did some things. But, alas, the highway is shut down so I can't get anywhere in less than 45 min. BLEH! So, I'm playing on the 'puter and then going upstairs to clean. Fun, fun, fun.
It rained last night so we left the windows closed all night. I woke up to 80 degrees inside, thought "my God, it's 6:30 a.m. it *must* be cooler outside." I was right - it's a chilly 70 degrees in my backyard right now. So I'm sitting here w/ all the windows open feeling a nice cool breeze. Not sure how long it will last, but hopefully at least until this AC guy comes to view my AC.
Aaaaah. Cool air. Aaaaaaah.
I really think my kids are sucking out my brain cells while I sleep. Seriously.
Superman had Cowboy Day at school today and I was supposed to bring chips (to atone for 2 parties of bringing nada) and help out w/ the sand art table. No problem, except that I thought the event was Thursday. So, he didn't wear the cute cowboy shirt I bought him and I had to mumble a lame excuse about *planning to run home to change and pick up the chips. After my record this year I'm pretty sure the teacher knows what really happened.
I get back and have to stand out in the sun in 90 degree weather helping kids make little jars of sand art. Fuuuun. I did get a couple of pics of him on the horse and jumping on the bouncy thing. Which I will post if I can find my camera. Made it all worthwhile.
Meanwhile, the boys are just getting smarter every day. Sunshine is now reading chapter books at school and knows all kinds of amazing facts about sea animals, dinosaurs and other stuff that I'm totally clueless about. And Superman knew that the mystery garden formation was a mushroom. And that Elmer's glue won't stick cloth to plastic. Although I had a hunch on that I just didn't have any superglue.
The AC is still out. We have this home warranty deal, which will save us a ton of money, but the catch is we have to go thru that company who then sets us up w/ a repair comany. I had this conversation with the repair company this morning. (WWFA = Woman with funny accent; Me = me.)
WWFA: I haaave a wark arder heee ee aaar to wark on you a-ear condi-ti- own-air.
Me: Huh?
WWFA: I haaave a wark arder heee ee aaar to wark on you a-ear condi-ti- own-air.
Me: The *air conditioner*?
WWFA: yeaus. We-ill you be the-air this afternoon?
Me: Yes. I'll be here anytime someone can come fix it.
WWFA: We-al, our guy ma-aybe we-ill (OK, I'm going to stopy typing like she talks now b/c it's giving me a headache) stop by this afternoon to look at it.
Me: Stop by to look at it?
WWFA: Yes.
Me: You mean to fix it?
WWFA: To look at it. Maybe. If he has time. We'll call you if he can come.
Me: To *fix* it?
WWFA: Maybe he *look* at it. If not today, he come tomorrow between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Me: Um, Okay (mentally trying to figure out if I can sit here and sweat all day)
WWFA: Will you be there.
Me: I should be. If not, please call me at (cell phone number)
WWFA: OK. We'll call you when he can drop by to see you
So, what I'm gathering here is that someone is "stopping by" to *look* at my broken AC, but they aren't really sure if they're going to fix it or not? Oookaaay. It was 100 degrees out there this afternoon. I think we are all going to die! Fix my AC already.
What's that supposed to mean? Where do they get those words they use for the blogger sobriety test? CECPUS. I have no idea what it means, but I'm pretty sure it's obscene in some language.
Thought I'd share some pics of our Easter weekend. The boys went to an Easter egg hunt Saturday. Sunshine was really excited about it and even laid on the couch for an hour beforehand to rest up for it:
Superman, on the other hand thought the egg hunt was a terrible idea:
Until he realized they put chocolate in the eggs and everyone got a couple of prizes from the prize table after:
Sunday we went to church and out to lunch. Here they are in their Easter outfits before we went.
Took awhile to get Superman in it and I'm not sure he's all that happy about it, but we kind of got a smile out of him. Oh to have a child who will just wear whatever I put on him without a fight. It would be heaven!
I really liked the pics of a baby pepper that Lisa posted last week so I decided to copy cat her.
The baby tomato was really cute 
You can't really see it in the picture b/c my camera is obviously not as good as Lisa's is. It's up under that brownish dead flower thing - a tiny green ball.
The baby cucumber was pretty cute too, though:
A little easier to see. And here is the mystery item in my garden:
Any thoughts on what it is? It is not doggie vomit. There are two of these things and I poked around on the other one to find that it's kind of a powdery substance that is dark brown under the top.
Finally, as long as I was in the yard taking photos thought I'd show one of our compost "bin." Not really compost yet, I guess - it's supposed to take 6 months to a year. 
Oh, and our AC is broken. So, if I don't post for awhile it's b/c I've had a heat stroke. Just kidding. But, we may be spending the next few afternoons hanging out at Target since they have AC and it's predicted to be in the upper 90s this week.
Yes, I have a pain in the neck. A real one. Weird. I was fine when I woke up this morning. Then I was laying in bed watching the boys play, heard a crack and now I can't move my head w/o excruciating pain. UGH!
Hopefully the Aleve will kick in and I'll feel fine in an hour or so. Since I didn't take any pics yesterday I most likely won't be participating in SPF. : ( Hmmm, unless I can get the kids to take pics that will remotely work..... Hmmm.
I'm trying to post at least every weekday, but don't have much time now. E won the contest on why my jeans don't fit. Thanks girlfriend. I feel much, much better now.
I did yoga this a.m. and an hour, yes, an hour on the elliptical trainer yesterday. My butt hurts so it must be firm, right?
I think I won the worst mom of the year (or at least the week) award. Superman had a party and egg hunt at his school today. First, I didn't sign up to bring anything. This will be the second party in a row that I've bailed on. Actually that's the fault of the Janes who apparently carry pens and sign up the second the list goes up on the board. But, then, I brought the eggs, but totally flaked on the fact that he'd need a basket to hunt his eggs with. His teacher said he was more than happy w/ his plastic HEB bag so maybe that's what he'll get for Easter too. hehehe
Can someone please tell me why my jeans don't fit even though I'm trying to eat healthy and working out 3-4 times a week? UGH. Waaaaah!
That is all.
I really have no excuse for not blogging lately. I haven't been off on an exciting trip like Angela. I haven't been busy interviewing for new jobs like Lisa. I've just been feeling all antsy about life and not focused enough to sit for 5 minutes and give a shout out to the world. But, here I am. I'll do it now. Just be warned that it's silly ramblings and I probably won't bother to spell-check.
Let's see. Today we had a playdate w/ Sunshine's friend from school. He brings his little sis over to play w/ Superman so I don't have to entertain anyone for a few hours until his mom comes to get them. Usually it's a pretty relaxing afternoon for me, but everyone was in grumpy moods, so we had little fights breaking out all over. This one's not speaking to that one. That one hurt this one's feelings. Apparently no one likes grape juice....
My garden is starting to come up and one of the tomatoes has a couple of little yellow blossoms. Yippeee. I go out about 10 times a day to see how tall everything is. (which is why I'm never blogging. I'm too busy monitoring every tiny bit of growth) I need to thin the beans, okra and broccoli, but I just can't bring myself to pull up any of my babies. Maybe tomorrow I'll get my nerve up. Meanwhile, my basil, that I desperately *need* to be up NOW, is taking it's own sweet time. I even bought a starter plant a month ago b/c I needed fresh basil for my spaghetti. And it's all used up down to the dirt. I planted a whole big pot of seeds and there are 2, yes, 2, *tiny* little sprouts in there. C'mon basil. You've gotta be big and bushy by the time my 'maters are ready. And I'm not even going to talk about about the whole cilantro issue.
Anyway, if anyone knows what in the heck to do w/ "yellow bush beans," lemme know. I'm not sure how we ended up w/ them except that they looked kinda neat and I could fit 2 of 'em into the space I had available.
The hubby built me a little cage to try to compost and I guess that's going well. It's full of grass clippings and leaves, anyway. I won't really know if it's working or not for a few more months. I do, however, go look at it and poke at it w/ shovels and sticks a few times a day. Yeah, I'm using my time wisely.
This weekend is Easter, which reminds me I need to go fill some eggs w/ candy for a party on Thursday and go ahead and make up the baskets all pretty while the kids are outta my hair (in case I have trouble and need something else.) I don't usually do big gifts for Easter, but hubby had his heart set on this big basket at Big Lots w/ big, cheap toys in it. Of course, he didn't bother to buy it, just told me to. When I went back they were out. So, I went shopping and got a ton of junk to stick in there. Candy and the usual, plus Sunshine is getting a some Star Wars figures and Superman is getting a Superman action figures to add to his growing collection.
I'm really, really ready for summer. A couple of my commitments, which I'm getting really tired of, will be up come summer and I can hardly wait. I'd say I'll blog more then, but you can find me by the pool whenever I get free time.
| Your Personality Profile |
 You are shy and intelligent... and a very hard worker.You're also funny, but many people don't see your funny side.Your subtle dry humor leaves your close friends in stitches. |
I have to admit I love that song. But, the reason it's in the title is it's the theme of Way Back Wednesday this week. Brought to us as always by the lovely, talented and tipsy Kept Woman.
When thinking about this theme I realize that I actually still have some fashion items from 1985 in my closet. They all have sentimental value... Really... stop laughing..
First, I bring to you the red leather skirt.
Kept, first, because my beloved Nana bought it for me for Christmas despite my mother's protests. And because I have a fantasy of one day fitting back in it and shaking my ass on Whitesnake's car.
Next, I bring to you the Limited jacket. This is circa 1983.
I don't really know why I've kept it except that I remember begging for it and promising my mom it was the only jacket I would ever ask for again... I actually wear it around the house when the Man has the AC on in winter. It's nice and soft and old enough I don't mind it getting messed up when I'm cleaning or whatever.
Finally, what we've all been waiting for BIG EARRINGS (I never fully managed to acheive the big hair thing so I stuck w/ big jewelry):
Did you play?
Well, it's been almost a week since I've posted! Not that much of interest to write about really. Kind of back to the same old routine this week.
Saturday we took the kids to ride the Cedar Rock Railroad . Just a little kiddie train going thru a park. We'd planned a picnic, but got chased into the car by bees. After that we had to come home and clean the car....
Sunday had the cub scout Bicycle Rodeo. The kids had fun. Two hours was waaay to long for me out in that wind, though!
Got a little worried about the garden since it nearly froze on Thursday night. But, everything survived. Still have more stuff to plant but I'll have to wait until it's less rainy. Mark set up a wire cage for a compost pile, so we'll see how that goes. I guess we won't really know for a few months. I'm not sure I can bring myself to put actual food waste (like lettuce, etc) in there. We'll see. It will def. be a good spot for all the yard clippings and such.
Here's hoping for a more exciting week.
I've had a couple of questions on how we made the raised beds for my garden, so I thought I'd post how Mark made ours.
Get four 8-foot long boards at Lowe's, Home Depot, whatever. If you have a few old boards laying around in the yard you can use those. I think the ones we used are about a foot wide, but don't quote me on that. You can get longer if you want a bigger bed, but that was as big as we can manage in our yard. The bed we built has room for 4 tomato plants and a cucumber plant in the back row, probably 2 more rows of short plants. They are a bit crowded, but it cuts down on weeds.
While you are there, get some of those metal board corner connector things. I'm sure what they are called, but someone who works there can probably help you find them.
Cut two of the boards in half. I think they will do this for you at Home Depot as they always offer to cut boards for me. But, since we have a couple of fancy saws, hubby did it himself. Use the connectors to connect two long boards to two short boards, making a rectangle. Do the same with the second set of boards, then put it on top of the first and use the straight connectors to make it stay steady. I think you can do this all with nails, but those fancy connector things just make you feel like a real carpenter, ya know?
Fill the beds with lots and lots of dirt. Preferably good dirt, but whatever you can get is fine. Like 5,000 wheelbarrows full or so should do it. Then, you are done.
Oh, and don't buy the treated lumber. It looks pretty, but can leach stuff into the soil and contaminate your veggies. We used plain old pine. I'll post a picture of the sandbox later to show you what color the veggie box will be in a couple of years.
(Hoping blogger will let me post these today..)
First, here's the "after" on the yard:
I realize that there is still some dirt around the edges. Hopefully it is filling in the gaps between squares of sod and helping the grass grow together smoothly and all that. The new flower bed is in the back left corner.
Here's my garden box. I went out and bought some stuff for it today and we'll probably plant it after Sunshine gets home from school.
And, while blogger is letting me post photos, here are some of our other Spring Break activities.
In front of the state Capitol:
After seeing Shamu:
No, he's not crying b/c he's wet. He's crying b/c we made him look at me instead of the whales for 10 seconds.
Flamingos and ducks:
At the Magic Time Machine:
Now, last week was Spring Break. Although we were working like crazy in the yard 1/2 of it, I did 2-3 loads, as usual, every day. Then, on Wednesday, the hubby helped me push a whopping 6 loads thru to be sure we had everything to pack for San Antonio.
We get back Fri. night, I do 3 loads on Sat, 2 on Sunday. Soo, I should be "all caught up", right? NOOOOOOO. My downstairs laundry sorter is overflowing and the kids laundry hamper upstairs is full. What do these guys do? Just periodically empty their dresser drawers into the laundry hamper.
Grrrrrr....
The yard is done! DONE! The huge dirt pile shown below is gone, along w/ two pallets of grass. Yippeee! In addition to now having a front yard full of actual grass (as opposed to leaves and dirt) we also have a new garden box in back and a corner flower bed in the front. Can't wait to plant them - I'll have to wait for the blisters on my hands to go away first, though.
I will post pictures of all our hard work later, but blogger hates me tonight so it'll have to wait.
For our break this afternoone we went to see Roving Mars at the IMAX and I highly recommend it. While we all have seen the news reports, the movie is fascinating and the photos of Mars blown up on the IMAX screen were excellent!
Then we headed out to the state capitol b/c Sunshine has been asking for at least a year to go there and while we live about 20 min. away and pass by it on the highway at least twice a week neither of my kids have actually been inside. We had a picnic on the lawn. Well, really the boys did. Hubby and I ate before we left home. Again, I have a few photos to share, but blogger sucks tonight so I'm off to take a hot bath and fold laundry.
But I think the kids had fun today anyway. Yes, that is a giant dirt pile in front of our house. We've been needing to get the grass out there growing again and somehow decided we'd do it ourselves since the hubby would be home more than usual during Spring Break (he's technically on vacation, but is working parts of a few days).
We got about 80 percent of that moved around the yard and spread out or into a garden bed in the back today. AND got about 1/3 of the two pallets of grass we got laid out today. The goal for tomorrow is to finish it in the morning and then go to an IMAX movie and a quickie tour of the state Capitol building tomorrow. Despite living less than 30 min. from it and driving past it twice a week on the way to church, my children have never been in it. They always ask, so we're going.
It may not sound as exciting as their classmates trips to Disney, Colorado and Florida, but for cheap fun you really can't beat a huge pile of dirt.
Our plans for Spring Break this year include hanging out around here getting stuff done, hubby working some the first part of the week, then heading down to San Antonio Thursday, spending the night and hitting Sea World on Friday.
This week we have *beautiful* weather predicted all week long. not too hot after tomorrow, cloudy but no rain. Right up until FRIDAY. Yes, the day we are supposed to have our big Spring Break outing it is going to rain.
I guess we'll alter our plans a bit and go as early as we can Thursday and spend Thursday there instead, but I really think we'd have more fun if we took our time getting down there, bummed around the river walk and El Mercado on Thursday, ate a nice dinner then got up bright and early to hit the big SW. Best laid plans and all.
Sorry, excuse the griping. Just had to whine to someone.
Had a great dinner out w/ the kids tonight, then realized that we'd probably come out ahead if we'd just forked over for the sitter. Since when does a 6-year-old eat an adult plate, then scavenge food off of MY plate? All this after eating fried calamari for an appetizer. If I could eat that much and be half as skinny as Sunshine I sure would, though. Mmmmmmm. That'd be the life. Mmmmmmm.
Time for Stuff Portrait Friday, brought to us once again by the lovely Kristine. This week she wants to see our junk - trash can, junk drawer and trunk.
First, my trash can:
We def. have too much stuff in that pantry!
Now, my junk drawer:
So much paper in there - I think what I really need is a new filing cabinet and eliminate the junk drawer.
And my trunk:
Tada. I have to admit here that I got it in between loads. I cleaned it out so the mulch I picked up this morning wouldn't get all our precious trash, um, er, I mean kids art projects.
Did you play?
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