Getting on a Schedule

1. I am a procrastinator. I work best under pressure and I can not for the life of me make myself work ahead.
2. I love lists. I love crossing "to do"s off of my lists.

So, I am now trying to combine these two conflicting parts of my personality into some semblance of a schedule for housekeeping/cleaning/decluttering/etc.

I am going to vacuum, dust, mop, clean once a week. One day downstairs, one day upstairs. I am going to work through one room/group of rooms the other three days during the week on a rotating basis throughout each month. This way, I should not have to do any housework other than picking up on the weekends and the house should always be company ready.

I am making a schedule with detailed lists of what I want to accomplish each day. I am setting deadlines. This way I am almost constantly marking off my "to do"s and I am also working against a deadline in order to satisfy my inner-procrastinator.

Borrowed Wisdom

This post was copied in whole from one of my good friends at The Conservative Bulwark.

http://theconservativebulwark.com/index.php

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House. One is from Chicago , another is from Tennessee , and the third is from Minnesota .

All three go with a White House official to examine the fence. The
Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Chicago contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700."

The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the
other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"

The Chicago contractor whispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence."

"Done!" replies the government official.

And that, my friends, is how the new stimulus plan will work.

Hat tip to Cosmoh for the story! 8-)

Okay, So I'm Gonna Say It . . .

Do you remember that card game everyone used to play? It had many names: Cheat, BS, I Doubt It, etc. I, however, learned to play the game when it was called "Bullshit".

On the table there is a discard pile, which starts empty. A turn consists of discarding one or more cards face down on the pile and calling out their rank. The first player must discard Aces, the second player discards Twos, the next player Threes, and so on. Since the cards are discarded face down, you don't actually have to play the rank you are calling. For example, if it is your turn to discard Sevens, you can actually discard any card or mixture of cards; in particular, if you don't have any Sevens you will be forced to play some other card or cards.

Any player who suspects that the card(s) discarded by a player do not match the rank called can challenge the play by calling "Bullshit". Then the cards played by the challenged player are exposed and one of two things happens:

1. if they are all of the rank that was called, the challenge is false, and the challenger must pick up the whole discard pile;
2. if any of the played cards is different from the called rank, the challenge is correct, and the person who played the cards must pick up the whole discard pile.

So, in honor of this wonderful past time of my youth, I am calling "Bullshit" on this "stimulus" package. See how great this card game plays into how this thing has spiraled out of control. We don't know what is in it, but I am betting what they are telling us isn't the truth - not even close to it.

If I'm wrong, then America wins, eh, maybe. If I'm right, then Ameria is going to be picking up the cards for a really, really long time.

Facebook

I have been on facebook for a while now. I was introduced to it by one of my internet mommy friends. After our message board blew up, most of the mommies on the board moved over to facebook to keep in touch.

Over the past couple of months, though, I have also reconnected with so many of my high school classmates on facebook. One of my really, really close friends that I lost contact with in college and never thought I would hear from again - there she is on facebook.

It's amazing what technology can do to bring people back together. And I also discovered that I like more of the people from high school as adults than I did as high school kids. I have a feeling, though, that is a pretty universal feeling throughout all of us who have reconnected. High school kids just suck that way, you know.

So, if you aren't already on facebook (and I know most of you are), you might want to consider just setting up a very simple page just to see who finds you. It's very quick and very simple. You can set it up so that you have to approve anyone who wants to be your friend and you can set up your profile so that only your friends can see. It's a little like myspace, but it doesn't scare me as much as myspace for some reason.

Long Time and All That

Things have been busy, but not crazy. So, I guess that is a step in the right direction.

Dylan is doing great in school and is already talking about starting first grade next year. He earned a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese yesterday and we had a great time. And, can I just add, that going to CEC at 3:00 on a Wednesday afternoon might be the absolute perfect time to visit that establishment? We were one of approximately 3 families in the entire place. It was wonderful and not anxiety inducing at all.

Brady is growing by leaps and bounds. It seems like he is learning a new word or ten every single day. I was beginning to get anxious about his language development, but his vocabulary has just exploded since Christmas.

Jason is still crazy busy and stressed out beyond belief, but next year will be better. Right?!?!

I have started trying to purge all of our excess stuff through some local and not-so-local selling sites. I have sold about half of what I have listed so far. It could be better, but it could be a whole lot worse too.

CHANGE

Well, change starts today. We'll see how it goes.

Oh, forgot to mention . . .

Brady's international "lap" ticket only wound up costing us about $12.00, but I did have to stand in line for about an hour to get it. When I finally got to the front of the line, the agent was upset that I had to wait so long. She said that when we first checked in the agent should have taken care of it then. She was quite upset when she realized that we had asked two separate airline ticketing agents and both of them said we did not need a ticket. We asked one last time at the gate and the gate agent told us we did need the ticket, thus the long line I stood in. Luckily, we had gotten to the airport very early.

Dylan's all-inclusive resort fee was waived by a very nice man. When he asked about the children's ages, we were honest. When he realized we had not paid for Dylan because of Dylan's age at the time of reservation (4) and because of the length of time that had passed since we made the reservation (almost a year), he said that for that week, we could just say that Dylan was four.

Home Again

Well, we have been home for about a week now. Vacation was good, trip was without too many problems, and it is good to be home.

Dylan and Brady did very well on the plane trip to Mexico and the trip home. We spent a lot of time just hanging out at the pool at the resort and trying to find ways to keep Brady entertained so that he would stop trying to run all over the place. Two of the best purchases we made right before the trip were this (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4532497) and an umbrella stroller. The stroller was great in the airports and getting through security stuff. The harness was wonderful everywhere else. It helped us keep him close while letting him feel free and it also helped us keep him from falling down a lot. The pathways were uneven and he tripped quite a bit. By keeping a tight hold on the tail of the monkey, we could keep him from falling down.

The resort had programs for the kids almost every night and they also had a kids club that scheduled activities for the kids. We never left the kids alone there, but they still had a blast.

Anyway, we are home now and currently preparing for our last Christmas of the year. We will celebrate with the rest of Jason's family who did not come to Mexico.

ARRGGH!!

I hate sudden suprises, unknown fees, and hidden arrangements. It makes me crazy. Especially when I find out about these things a week or so before I am about to take a trip.

Situation #1 - We owe more money to our resort because Dylan will be 5 when we travel. Children under 5 are free and he was under 5 when the reservations were made. But when the person who made the reservations for us was giving ages she gave them at time of reservation, not time of trip. I tried to tell her, but she just waved me off. Now, if this wasn't an international trip maybe we could get away with not paying. But, he has a freakin' passport with his date of birth listed right on it. No way can we get around paying this extra couple hundred dollars. Now, I know part of this is my fault for trusting someone else to make reservations for me, but geeze, at least attempt to give the company accurate information. By the way, I did call the company and clarify. We definitely owe the money and the policy has not changed recently to exclude 5 year olds. It was clearly a problem that created by the person who made the reservation.

Situation #2 - We did not purchase a ticket for Brady on the airplane. He is under two and can fly for free in our laps, right? That is what everyone told us. Nope, wrong. That only applies to flights within the USA. International flights require a ticket for children of any age no matter where they will be sitting. Now, the ticket in a small percentage of the adult fee, but still. I find this out one week before we leave. I mean, when I made the reservations online, I put in that there would be 4 people, 2 adults, 2 children and the ages of the children. Wouldn't you think this would have come up at some point during that transaction? Nope.

This is almost more stress than I think this trip is going to be worth. Plus all the packing and planning for what about this and how am I going to keep Brady and Dylan happy on the plane ride. WHAT WERE WE THINKING??? This had better be fun or I don't know what the heck I am going to do.

It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas

Okay, so I said I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't going to decorate for Christmas because we weren't going to be home. But Jason convinced me to decorate the outside and the downstairs so that the kids have a feeling of Christmas. We did decide not to put up a tree this year, but at least the house looks a little festive.

Dylan helped me outside and inside. He was a good helper and had a good time. I guess just letting him enjoy putting up the decorations made it all worth it.

Brady is already trying to tear stuff down, so that will be my challenge for the next few weeks.

I have a little work to do before we leave for Christmas, but the major thing I have to do is to dig out all of our summer stuff again. Christmas at the beach should be interesting to say the least.

Big and Brave

Dylan's class performed a Thanksgiving program today. All of the kids were dressed up (in costumes made and provided by the teachers - yeah!!) as pilgrims, Indians, corn, or turkeys. They each had group speaking parts and individual parts. Dylan was an Indian man ("big and brave"). He did so great. He remembered all of his lines and spoke loudly enough that you could hear and understand what he was saying. I was so proud of him. After the program, we all went back to the classroom and had a Thanksgiving feast. The meat was provided by the teachers and the parents provided the rest. It was wonderful. Here is my big and brave Indian man.



Brady was with me at Dylan's program and he was such a good, big boy. He sat quietly throughout the program and was just wonderful. He, however, was not interested in eating lunch and refused everything I offered to him. He seems to be on an eating strike right now and I can only get 1 good meal into him each day. He does snack some throughout the day, but not enough to make up for refusing to eat at mealtime. Here is a picture of my big, little man.

On Your Mark . . .

So, it's that time of year again. Whoever decided it was a good idea to have two of the biggest holidays within one month of each other was just crazy. Now, I suppose, the argument could be made that when the holidays were originally established families lived much closer together and the holidays in general were not commercialized or resembled anything like they appear today. But, now, everyone travels everywhere for what seems like a month to a month and a half and spends way too much money. Things are tight everywhere this year, but my family has been pretty lucky so far (knock wood). No one, that I know of, has lost their job and everyone still has their homes. So, in the grand scheme of things, we are probably a lot luckier than most families in this great country of ours.

For Thanksgiving, we are headed down to see my family. We will split Thanksgiving Day between my dad's family and my mom. On the day after Thanksgiving, I am planning to spend some time over at my dad's house beginning to pack of all of his stuff in anticipation in possibly renting it out after the estate is settled. My grandmother (dad's mom) and my aunt (dad's sister-in-law) have spent a lot of time cleaning the house. Apparently, it was pretty disgusting. On Saturday, we are going to an old fashioned cane syrup making session and having a miniature family reunion.

For Christmas, we are flying to Mexico and spending Christmas at the beach. We are all looking forward to it and I hope it is as wonderful as we are expecting. Due to the expense of this trip (which was paid for almost a year ago), we are having a very small Christmas present-wise. We are thinking this may be something we do every year - a fabulous trip the week of Christmas as our main family gift and then have a few gifts for the kids just so they don't completely feel like they didn't have a Christmas.

Nothing Much To Say

Well, I'm still here. Nothing much going on.

Brady is still growing and learning new things everyday it seems.

Dylan got his second report card yesterday and is doing well in kindergarten.

Jason is still really busy and the kids only get to see him a couple of nights a week. He is home every night; he just gets home after they are in bed.

I am hanging in there; thinking, maybe, I should go to the doctor and see if there is anything she can give me to work through this funk that I am in.

Anyway, we are all still here and still doing relatively well.

Halloween - Take Two

After school, Dylan kept asking every ten minutes if it was time to go trick-or-treating. It seemed like Brady was in on the conspiracy to drive me crazy too because he refused to take a nap today. Anyway, after all of that we finally got the kids dressed and they stood still enough for one decent picture.

Darth Vader and Yoda . . .



Dylan did all of the trick-or-treating this year. He was so cute. He still gets a little shy when he is talking to strangers, but at least this year he went up to the homes by himself and usually remembered to say "thank you" to everyone handing out candy.

Brady just rode around in his little push car. There were several very kind people who actually walked out and handed some candy to Brady too. He did eat his way through a couple of packs of sweettarts while we were walking around the neighborhood.

Halloween - Take One

Dylan dressed as the big, bad wolf for school today. The costume we had already purchased for trick-or-treating was "not acceptable" as a storybook character, so we had to improvise.

We did purchase the wolf mask. I bought some brown clothing (that will be reworn - darn it) and then purchased brown fur and tacked it on myself. I tacked fur onto the tummy, around the hands, and around the feet. He looked so cute.

So, may I present "The Big, Bad Wolf" . . .



Sadly, soon after the school day started one of Dylan's classmates ripped off his tummy fur (after he had told her to please be careful and not to pull). His teacher, however, was very kind and gave him a safety pin so the the fur could still be used.

Traveling Pajamas

These pajamas have been around and survived three boys. I love looking at pictures of all of the boys wearing the same outfit. Sadly, I don't have a picture of my nephew wearing them when he was 18 months old.

Dylan - 18 months old in 2004 (sorry for the poor quality, we didn't have a digital camera then and our scanner is pretty bad too)




Brady - 18 months old in 2008

Dylan's Nose

I got a call from Dylan's school yesterday. He had fallen down some steps at recess and hit his nose. It bled quite a bit and the nurse was afraid he may have broken his nose. So, we rushed to the pediatrician's office and got him checked out.

(Can I just say I love our pediatricians? The doctors, not the office staff, took it upon themselves to get us in and out in under twenty minutes. Most of the doctors were on their lunch break and one of them saw us sitting in the waiting room (by ourselves) and said there was no reason we should have to hang out all afternoon just so she could shine a light up his nose and then send us home or to the ER.)

His nose was not broken - just some soft tissue damage. He is a little bruised, but the swelling has gone way down. We actually expected him to wake up with raccoon eyes today, but he escaped that fate. Actually, for as bad as his nose looked yesterday, I am suprised at how little bruising there is today.

Just a Few Pictures

Family Pictures

We had family (and extended family) pictures taken yesterday. I don't have any of the pictures back yet, but should have them soon. I can't wait to see them and share them.

It was quite an experience. We had nine people (Jason's grandmother, Jason's dad, Jason's sister, her husband, and son, Jason, me, Dylan, and Brady). We tried really hard to get a good shot of everyone, but with the three kids ages 5, 3, and 1, it didn't quite work out the way we had planned. Brady was not happy at all to be held and he was screaming and kicking. Dylan and Ty (our nephew) were almost never looking at the camera at the same time.

I am sure the photographer got some great candid shots (which she admittedly prefers doing with kids). We have used her before and she always winds up getting some really good shots. Not to mention, she was amazing with all of the chaos of the kids and fighting of the adults - it was a very interesting couple of hours. She just laughed it all off - though she may have gone home and gotten drunk afterwards. I probably would have in her position.

I am hoping we got some good shots of our family. We haven't had a family shot done since Dylan was a baby. I did get to see some of her previews and they look promising, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

Pictures to come in the next day or so - I hope.