Nablopomo

All the cool kids are doing it, so why not some of us not-so-cool kids? Yes, it's National Blog Post Month, where you post every single day for an entire month! No cheating by back-dating posts or posting twice in a day or anything like that. Think I can do it?

Yeah, I know, my track record isn't all that great, but it's worth a shot! I just wonder if I can find enough things to post about for an entire month. Hm... maybe more posts about spaghetti up the nose?

For now, a pic of the boys right before trick or treat - which, btw, Kyan loved! He totally rocked at it and wanted to go again the next night. But I think I'll save those details for tomorrow. I need a whole months worth of posts, y'know!

Up yer nose...

Kyan has started putting things up his nose. So far it's been cheese and spaghetti, and an attempt at a crayon piece (it was too big, thank God). I've been able to get him to blow them out, so no trips to the ER... yet.

I don't know how to make him understand that you don't put things up your nose. I would have thought that when it hurt, he wouldn't have done it again.

Wrong.

So now what? What makes a weird-o kid stop putting things in his nose?? I'd only seen this on tv and in movies before now, not in real life, so I have no idea how to convince him that this is not okay. I mean, I've told him not to do it, but he doesn't seem to want to listen. Strange, for a 2-1/2 yr old not to listen, right?

Anyone know how to make a toddler stop putting things in his nose? I really don't want to have to go to the ER for an extraction, but if this keeps up, I'm afraid that's exactly what's going to happen.

I think I'll change his name to "Spaghetti Nose."

snicker snicker giggle giggle

Okay, so I'm updating a menu for a pizza place, and they've added a few things. But the menu is kind of written all over and it's not too easy to follow. Lori had talked to the manager without me present so I was figuring it out as I went along, when I come across a line that reads "with choice of m.Balls"

Begin juvenile snickering.

I call for Lori to come help me, trying really hard now not to laugh, and ask her what m.Balls are supposed to be. She takes one look at it and, apparently without thinking says...

meaty balls.

I got nothing done for 10 mins. In fact, I'm still giggling.

Too stupid to save.

Yeah, that's me. Too stupid to save.

I had typed out an entry using Word, like a good blogger. But I neglected to save, the computer froze up, and that was that.

I refuse to try to re-create a post that was, admittedly, half-assed at best.

I'm disconnecting the home computer tonight to move it to the new digs where the cable will be connected tomorrow. But since this is moving weekend, there probably won't be much from me for a few days.

Like that's unexpected.

But maybe there'll be pictures when I return! Wouldn't that be nice?? And maybe a post about something other than my house and moving!

We'll see...

Have a great weekend!

Goodbye, house

Excuse me while I have a sentamental moment. It just really hit me that this is the last weekend we will ever truly live in this house. I'm really ready to move, to move on... but there are so many bits of my life wrapped up in this house that maybe it's not so easy as I imagined.

At 15... I can still see my grandfather sitting on the edge of my bed (the only time he was ever in my bedroom) in the middle of the night, telling me my grandmother had passed away.

At 17... walking through the door as a high school graduate, and running right back out again to celebrate and party with friends.

At 19... moving out for the first time to go to college.

At 23... bringing home my first baby from the hospital, as a new single mom. God, that was the scariest thing I've ever done.

At 27... sitting on the couch in the living room, awake for the entire night, with Jaben on my lap dozing fitfully with his broken arm, still uncasted cradled against his tiny 4-yr old body.

At 32... (should I stop with the ages now??) the word "Pregnant" showing up on the test... unexepected, but not really, in the tiny bathroom off the living room. Bringing my second baby home from the hospital... more experienced, not as scared, but still the unknown. Seeing my first baby feed my second baby - his new, much loved baby brother - his bottle with the most tender, sweet look of wonder on his face.

Two sets of first steps, first words, first hugs, first "I love you..."

There is a lot of history in this house, a lot of memories... both good and bad. I have to remember that they don't stay here, they come with me. With us. It really is time to move on, that this new house, new neighborhood and new schedule are what we need now. This is a very good thing for my family, for my boys, for our lives. But even when it's the best, most exciting thing, when you've worked so hard for something and wanted it so badly... sometimes it's hard to leave a place filled with so many memories, so much of our lives. It's only across town, and this house with it's memories of our lives will always be here. And everything that happened, all of our memories will always be with us.

I can't wait to move, to move on... but I just needed a moment to say goodbye house.

As backward as a fundamentalist Muslim!

ME!! ME!! I AM! I AM!!

LMAO! This is exactly what was said about/to me:
“by making a nursing mother cover up because your son automatically sexualizes women when he sees a bit of flesh is akin to fundamentalist Muslims telling women to make sure they’re fully covered when going out in public so they don’t give men crazy ideas.”

That comment falls somewhere between the most ridiculous statement ever made (and rather infuriating, to boot) and hysterically funny! I’m not sure yet which it is. What brought on the charming comparison of myself to a fundamentalist Muslim? Simple… I stated in the comments of a blog (that I will not link to because I’ve already caused far too much debate on her blog, I like her, and I refuse to cause more) that while I am pro-breastfeeding, and wish I could’ve, I don’t support the right of a woman to pop her boob out wherever she wants without being discreet or covering up. Why, you ask? Because I’m the mom of a hormonal pre-teen boy and he’s uncomfortable with bare boobs in public and I really don’t think it’s appropriate for a grown woman to be flashing her girls around with out being aware of who’s watching.

I’m all for discreet breastfeeding. DISCREET, people. Don’t take your shirt all the way off and sit there topless, please. Don’t take off your bikini top and shoot me dirty looks when I cover my pre-teen’s eyes. I find it really scary that I’m expected to change the views and feeling s of a child – rather than the adult respecting the feelings and views of that child and covering herself. Or hey, sit on the other side of the booth… I don’t care. I just prefer you not flash your breasts in his face.

Comments like that do not help the breastfeeding cause. Sorry, they don’t. If you want me to respect your right to breastfeed (which I do, der), then please respect the rights of young boys and not flash your boobs at them. I understand that your child needs to eat, but if you’re respectful of my child’s discomfort and are cool about it, I’ll protect your right to breastfeed in public forever. It’s not me against you, or us against them… It’s about cooperation. And I am sick to death of the “my way or the highway” mentality. People won’t respect you or your rights until you respect theirs. That’s just how it is.

Hm… wonder how many flames I’m gonna get? Eh… only like 4 people read this thing anyway. *grin*

Finally

I was finally able to get online at home where I could reinstall my stat counter. So yay for that! I don't actually check it too often, but I do like to see what kind of google searches bring people here, and how many are visiting. When I think of it. So yay for that! At some point I want to add a new banner, but I'm just getting used to the new look (which I LOVE) and don't want to mess anything else up, so that might wait a bit.

As of right now, I have a 4 day weekend! My boss totally rocks! She tossed Monday off at me right at the end of the day yesterday. I think she's trying to get me to use up my days off before the end of the year (I've got tons), and make sure I get time to get my house ready. Not to mention that November is going to be insane and I'll probably be looking at overtime (which is much-needed right now!) so time home with the kids is welcome. I should be cleaning and doing laundry right now because I don't know what the rest of the weekend will bring. Probably a few trips to the dump, definitely a trip to Goodwill to make a donation, and absolutely haircuts for both boys when the best beautician in the world gets off work Sat.

The weekend of the 20th I'm taking a 5 day weekend (yes, I really do have that much time off saved) because we're supposed to be moving then (!) and I want to be home Jaben's first couple of days riding the bus to make sure we get him to the bus stop at the right time, and that he gets home okay. It would suck to miss the bus his first day and not have a ride home. I'm sure he'll be fine and he's plenty old enough to handle it on his own... but no matter how old he is, he's still my baby and I need to be sure he's okay.

Gotta go get things back in order in my disgusting house. I can't wait to move and actually have enough ROOM for things!!

YAY!

Yay for Dani! Not only is her blog one of my favorites, but she pointed me to Bloglines which totally rocks and makes blog surfing tons easier! I’m still figuring out all the bits and pieces there, but I’m so excited I’m able to read the blogs I was starting to have problems with. AND I will be adding some back into my blogroll because I love these blogs and I missed them!

I’d heard of Bloglines before, but didn’t know anything about it. So thanx again, Dani, for sending me that way. It really does make my blog reading tons easier!

In other news, the house is definitely coming along. The bathroom is basically finished, and the rest needs to be finished in a week and a half!! Wow, that’s so little time!! Send us all the good luck you can spare that we make it. We’re planning to move everything in on the weekend of the 20th… it’s going to be a crazy few weeks! For now, a few pics of the pretty bathroom….
























And of course a quick shot of my cute toddler checking out the new tub…

Adolescence sucks

I’m hurting for Jaben today. He’s losing his best friend.

Let me back up a bit. Jaben is a busy kid… he’s always got some activity or other going on, all summer he was gone at various friends’ houses during the day (and at least one night a week) because I work – and couldn’t see the point in paying for daycare for an 11 yr old. Just didn’t seem worth it. So, he spent lots of time this summer away from home and didn’t see his best friend, J, very often. None of this was avoidable, and none of it was Jabe’s fault. It’s just life.

Naturally, J found other kids to hang out with while Jaben was off doing his summer things. And gradually, as the summer wore on, J was available less and less when Jaben would call; he was turning down sleepover invitations, and generally just not around. I can’t very well blame him, he certainly couldn’t be expected to sit around at home alone waiting for Jaben to be available to him, and he needed friends and things to do.

Then school started again. For the first week or 2, things seemed fine. Jaben has been walking to school with J, but J no longer came home with Jaben after. Last year you could count on J always being there after school and, more often than not, staying for dinner. This year, he doesn’t even walk home with Jaben half the time. One day last week my mother went to pick Jaben up and saw J running away from the school with another boy. When she asked Jabe where J was, he said he’d gone to the back of the school to meet someone. Later, when they passed J and this other boy and Jaben yelled to J out the car window, the other boy yelled back, “Shut up, he doesn’t like you.”

Ouch. Jaben says J wouldn’t talk about him like that, wouldn’t do that to him. But I have my doubts. From the little bits I’ve seen of J in the past few months, I believe he’s changed. He’s not the sweet, loyal kid he was. He, understandably, wants to fit in, and unfortunately doesn’t have the strength of character (that I thought he had) to defy the other kids and stay friends with the one who’s not around so much. Jabe doesn’t hang around with the other kids in the neighborhood – he’s not home often enough and he’s not interested in the things they are (girls, defying authority) so he just doesn’t fit. No big deal to him because he always had J. But now…?

Jaben is having a hard time with this even tho he won’t talk to me about it. I feel a little sick for him today because he left for school 15 mins early. He said he was just ready to go, but I also know that the other boy meets J in the mornings now, and if Jaben doesn’t get there first, they simply leave without him. Seems like Jaben should forget it and move on, but he’s just not willing to let his friend go. He doesn’t get it that he can do better than someone who would treat him like that, that he’s got other friends who care about him and really wouldn’t blow him off… but he wants someone close by.

It’s really hard to watch. Jaben is so very smart, he’s got such a big heart, but he’s socially awkward and he honestly believes the best of people. He’s got very little common sense and he doesn’t read people well (he’s inherited these things from his mother – poor kid) and because of this, he’s going to get hurt quite a few times before he learns. And there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t shield him from the bumps and bullies of adolescence, I can’t change it. All I can do is ride it out with him.

Fortunately, most of this will be over soon. Once we move, Jaben will be riding the bus to school and he will no longer be living in that awful neighborhood. I know I can’t protect him forever, but I feel like removing him from the situation is what’s best for him at this time. He’s not prepared yet. He’s immature for his age and, as long as he doesn’t get hurt, that’s fine for now. He needs to mature at his own pace and not be “into” girls or anything else until HE’s ready… and not pretend to be in order to impress his “friends.”

I know there are kids in the new neighborhood that are okay to hang out with. We’ve got family friends right up the street, and while they’re not home much more than we are, I know their son at least is a real friend to Jabe. And that’s important, even if they don’t see each other much at all. Also, when we were working at the house this weekend, we hadn’t been there 10 mins when a boy from Jabe’s class rode up on his bike to see him and took Jaben around quick to introduce him to a few friends. That just made me happy. He may not end up with a ton of friends, and maybe running from an increasingly bad situation isn’t always the answer, but in this case, I really think things will be better all around – but particularly for Jaben – once we’re gone.

Still and all… adolescence sucks.

That's done but it wasn't easy

I've re-added the blogroll.

It's not as full as it was because I've had to remove some people. Mainly due to blog overload. There seems to be a problem with bloggers just adding too much stuff to their blogs... you know, posting awards in the sidebar, animations and ADS. I've got nothing against these things, for the most part.

But there are at least 3 blogs I love that I can't even really access anymore because their ads, animations, awards, or photos take too long to load or are too big and either take entirely too long for the time I've got or simply freeze up my computer. I know blogher is extremely popular, but if you've got blogher ads on your site, I'm probably not going to be visiting anymore. The blogher ads are some of the worst for causing load problems for me and no matter how much I love your blog, I just don't have time for that. Sorry, I'll miss you, let me know if you're able to reduce some of what they've done to you, but for the time being I won't be visiting. Which sucks.

I'm still working on the whole customization thing myself (and wow this new set up on blogger makes it MUCH easier than the old one - if I'd known this I'd have updated my template much sooner! Even if it DID delete my blogroll it's totally worth it!) but if you don't know what you're doing, if you don't understand size and load times, please please please limit yourself on what you add. There are a couple of other blogs I went ahead and listed that I may not be able to check much longer because they're simply getting too big. I keep thinking of that whole organization thing... one in, one out. If you're adding something new, please remove something old. That will keep things running more smoothly, keep your load times down, and allow more people to access your blog. If you're not sure this applies to you or you think it might, it probably does. Removing one or 2 older things definitely makes a difference and might make it easier for more people to visit you. Just a thought, I'd hate to have to remove anyone else. I'm bumming about the ones that had to go because geez my blogroll is small now!

It couldn't be helped. I'd like to add more and I'll probably be searching for more imaginary friends soon, but for now it has to be what it is.

Hogwarts reputation!

I love Harry Potter, and while this quiz was pretty doofy, the results are fun!

What's Your Reputation at Hogwarts? (26 different characters)

Crazy Outspoken Psycho (Who's Original In Every Way)House: HufflepuffBest Friend(s): Blaise, Fred, George, and yourself.GryffindorsHarry: Thinks you hate him ever since you called him a "creep". (And is still a little upset that you never gave Cedric the chance to ask you to the Yule Ball so he could go with Cho).Ron: Likes that you don't bow down to Harry and that you wear whatever you want without being so self-consious.Hermione: Is envious of your hair. She loves how you color it, keep it shiny and tamed, and how you do it. Her favorite of your hair styles was your "Hot Pink Streaks" style.Oliver Wood: Has dreams about meeting you in person and falling head over heels for you immediately.Fred and George Weasley: Are your best friends and sidekicks. You assist them in every way possible, and vice versa.Seamus Finnigan: Likes that you wear different colored clothes and don't bother to always match but somehow manage to look great.Neville Longbottom: Thinks you're a little loopy but is still kind to you.Dean Thomas: Always compares his girlfriends to you.Ginny Weasley: Helped you add blue dye to your hair one day because she wanted to find out if you were actually that cool in real life.Parvati Patil: Copies your style profusely and relentlessly.Padma Patil: Secretly hates you ever since you mistook her for her sister and called her a "brainless fashion robot".HufflepuffsCedric Diggory: Was going to ask you to the Yule Ball but was cut short when George and Fred ran up to with a new idea for their shop and you excused yourself excitedly.RavenclawsCho Chang: Is upset that Cedric only asked her to the Yule Ball as a last resort, but still accepts the fact that you're much better looking than she could ever hope to be.SlytherinsDraco Malfoy: Wants to be able to express himself like you. He wishes he didn't have to care what other people of him and could just say "I don't give a fuck," with as much ease as you do.Crabbe: Is attracted to your bright hair and clothes.Goyle: Likes your really long eye lashes.Pansy Parkinson: Wishes she had beauty like yours.Marcus Flint: Likes your taste in music (electronic, indie, alternative) and almost mustered up enough courage to ask you to a concert.Blaise Zabini: Is one of your other closest friends because you got him to open up. He confessed everything to you and even cried a little on your shoulder, and you two are the best of friends.TeachersDumbledore: Has no doubt that you'll take your creativity to all new levels as you mature. (as in get older, not more... motherly).Professor McGonagall: Is proud, but watchful, of your ambition.Professor Flitwick: Likes you, but doesn't know you too well.Professor Trelawney: Asks you for your opinion on everything she does.Professor Snape: Loves how you brighten the room, but hates how you attract the attention.Filch: Envies you for having so much fun at school.
Take this quiz!








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Ah crap

I was messing around with templates, etc, and lost my blogroll. And now of course I don't have time to fix it. I'll put it back, I swear. I have a lot going on right now so it may take time. If anyone reads this and wants on the blogroll, might not be a bad idea to comment and leave your link. Otherwise I'll probably just go thru and add from my favorites list. I hate to think someone might get left out, but it's probably going to happen. Sorry!!

Um... ow!

One thing about having boys... those external boy parts and their sensitivity.

Ky likes to run around bare bottom after his bath at night, which is no biggie because he uses the potty a lot better that way. Last night he was doing that when all of a sudden he let out this horrible scream, started crying and dancing around the middle of the room holding "himself." We later figured out how he'd hit "it", but at the moment all I could do was pick him up and hug him. When Jaben figured out what’d happened, the kid went pale… he says that’s the worst pain there is. I’ll have to take his word for it.

So anyway, I’m sitting on the chair hugging him, rubbing his back and kissing his cheeks – cuz really, what else could I do – when Kyan, so tearfully pathetic says, “Mommy, kiss it!”

And I am such a good mommy – I laughed. Yes, that’s right, my baby hit his weewee for the first time hard, and mommy laughed. I so rock. I told him Mommy couldn’t kiss his weewee, but that it would feel better soon anyway. But then he decided he needed a Spongebob bandaid. Cuz you know, bandaids solve everything. And in my infinite wisdom, I put one on. It’s not ON the weewee, it’s above it, on the flat soft part, but still a rather sensitive area. That sucker is going to stay on there until it falls off in the bath tonight cuz NO WAY am I pulling it off!! Ow ow ow!! Course the bandaid was bugging him this morning, but there wasn’t anything I could or would do. It’s staying there. He’ll just have to have a soapy bath tonight.

I told the babysitter about it this morning so she’d know why there is a bandaid on his weewee, and she said what I thought… “I hope he doesn’t have a messy poop in there today.” LOL! Let’s hope for a good potty day!

Let’s move it!

Heh. I'm not antsy or anything, am I?

Upcoming events regarding the house…

Sept 28 (maybe) and 29 (for sure) will be a garage sale and painting party. Those who know where it’s located are VERY invited to come take some of the garage sale items off our hands, and of COURSE to come help paint the inside! I know, the outside needs a ton of work as well, but that will come. Right now we’re more concerned with making the inside nice. We say “livable” but it’s going to be NICE. So – if you’ve got no plans the 29th, grab your painting supplies and a potluck dish and come help us finish our new house! We’re all so very ready to move!

In the news with the boys, Jaben is applying for student council this year! It’s not an elected position at their school, they must fill out and application and, accompanied by 2 teacher recommendations, turn it in to the student council advisor who then chooses who represents their class. It’d be so good for Jaben to get this! If he gets on, he’s considering running for class president as well – which IS an elected position – but let’s take this one step at a time and hope he makes student council first.

As for Kyan – gosh, he’s getting so smart. Yesterday he was being a typical 2-yr old and making me crazy. This morning he saw me making my lunch and said, about the sandwich, “Dat por meeee?” (Is that for me?) Well… who could turn that down? So I got him a little paper plate, cut the sandwich into 4’s, and he had a bit of ham sandwich for breakfast. Heh. I think he wanted to be with me, because he actually sat at the kitchen table with it and talked to me while I made a new lunch. THEN… when I was tying my shoes to get ready to go, he started telling me the process of shoe tying… “cwoss dat dere…. Good job mommy! Den, go awound da twee….” Just too darn cute. He must’ve picked that up at the babysitters… she said she’s always teaching someone to tie their shoes!

So yeah, the boys are doing well. Jabe’s as anxious to move as the rest of us, but he’s doing well. We’re all just stressing about getting it all done, getting moved, then the task of getting the current house ready for sale and actually SELLING it. We won’t be doing much before putting it on the market… cleaning carpets, painting the whole place just plain white and probably replacing a window or 2, but that’s IT. Take it as it is… it’s not going for much, but we should at LEAST break even. Can’t ask for more than that, eh? Just pray it all gets done soon so we can move on to that phase of the process. I’m just so very ready to be settled and get that house ready to go. I know the market is crap, but I really do hope someone will take it. Can’t stress about that right now… too many other things to stress about!!

I will never understand people

I lurk on a few message boards generally to get information from the posters on subjects I’m interested in, or things about my kids. There is one board that has recently been having a debate regarding peanut allergies in school. A mom came on asking about certain precautions put in place to protect a child with a life threatening peanut allergy and all of a sudden it turned into this giant debate! One mother is even suggesting that putting restrictions on what she can send to school with her child, or having the parent of the child with the LIFE THREATENING allergy provide all snacks interferes with her child’s education. I can’t for the life of me follow that logic. At all. To me, it seems selfish and self-serving. It actually made me a little sick. I was going to post and let them know how disgusted I was with the replies, but have decided to avoid the board altogether from now on. I lost a LOT of respect for some posters and that makes their information less valuable to me.

I can’t imagine, as a mother, not being accommodating to ANY request made of my children, or me to protect the LIFE of a classmate. No pb&j at school? No problem. The other mother will provide all snacks? Great! One less thing for me to do! She might not provide the things I would, maybe it’ll be things my kids don’t like or contain ingredients I wouldn’t normally feed them – but they won’t DIE from it.

Another argument was about birthday celebrations. Apparently bringing in treats for a birthday is a big deal to some people. I wouldn’t know – I had a summer birthday, Jaben has a summer birthday, and Kyan isn’t in school yet. Are a few kids going to be sad that they can’t bring tootsie rolls or cupcakes for their buddies? Sure. Will it kill them to miss one year? Absolutely not. What it will do is teach them a lesson about sensitivity and empathy. I just don’t think an in-school birthday celebration is worth risking a child’s life.

I can’t imagine I’m in the minority with this. I’m actually amazed at how many people seem to have issues with accommodating life-threatening allergies, even going so far as to suggest the child be home schooled. Can you believe that??

Obviously, I’ve made my feelings on the matter quite clear, and this is definitely a vent. I am appalled at the “reasons” offered on this message board, so if you have one that might make more sense, please share. I am ALWAYS open to other points of view. I had no idea I would feel so strongly about this, but the very idea that protecting a child’s life wouldn’t be the priority of a mother simply made me sick. Shame on her.

Zoo Trip!

To celebrate the long weekend, we went to the zoo! To make it a bit more special and because we really needed to get out of dodge, we also got a hotel room for the night. We needed it badly and, aside from a few 2-yr old meltdowns (mild ones, at that), we all had a blast! Check out the pics below... aren't my kids cute?? And yes, the baby CAN swim... in his floaty suit!

Labor Day weekend

Well, school started for Jaben on Tuesday, and so far so good. I'm a little worried because it looks like his Adderall is going to run out 2 days before his doctor appt, and that would leave him 2 school days without it. I really don't want that. I need to call in an hour when they open and see if we can do something about that.

But as far as the weekend goes, today Kyan and I aren't doing much. I need a blood test, to do laundry, and get the house straight. We also need to make "you got thru the first week!" cookies for Jaben to come home to. Tomorrow, I'm getting new rear tires on my car and taking the boys to the Melon Festival. Saturday night, I need to stop by the bar where they're taking my cousin for her 21st birthday. I really don't have a lot of interest in bars these days so I probably won't stay long, but I want to say Happy Birthday and have a beer with her.

Sunday, we're going to the zoo! I can't wait to see how Kyan likes the animals!! After that, we're going to try to find a hotel with a pool and hide out for the night. We all need a break and to get out of town, and this would work perfectly. Hopefully we'll be able to find something nice, but reasonable, with a decent pool the boys can swim in. That would be lovely!

So Kyan's got a new thing this week... he can't stand tags in his shirts. If there's even the tiniest tag in the collar, he begs me to cut it off. The one I just put on him already had the big tag cut off, but he HAD to have the smaller one cut off too. He is not content until there are no tags left on his shirt. I'm sure he couldn't feel that little tag, but if he sees it - that's it. "Mommy, cut tag off." For now, it's kind of amusing, but I'm sure it won't be if I ever manage to have a garage sale and want to sell a bunch of his stuff... no tags means no sizes!

Oh well -- if it keeps him happy...

In the past week...

I have...

• had a birthday
• worked overtime
• gotten my biggest paycheck to date from my employer (due to the overtime)
• gone to Jaben's orchestra orientation
• found out Valley Beach is closed for the season (sob)
• chosen the flooring and paint color for our bathroom
• chosen the boys ceiling fans - Kyan's is SO CUTE!
• begun organizing my room for the move
• realized I need a lot more boxes to do the boys room
• bought the boys a GUINEA PIG

I need to upload the pics from my camera so I can fit more on it. Once I do that, I'll post a pic of Nibbles (our guinea pig). She is so cute and the boys just love her to pieces! We're still working on teaching Kyan to be gentle and careful with her, but he's doing okay. He loves having a pet he can pet and hold, and so does Jaben. We're now a 3 pet household - hard to believe for anyone who knows me. Ha! But they're "easy" pets... we have Bella the beta (our first pet), Retro the parakeet (#2, brought by Santa at Christmas), and now Nibbles the guinea pig. I should take quick pics of all 3 to post, but as I said, I've gotta unload my camera first. So... maybe another time!

Cheers!

1:20am

Finally the music has stopped.

I was awoken approximately 20 minutes ago by very loud, godawful country music coming from somewhere in the vicinity of my backyard.

I got out of bed and called the police - after one half-asleep misdial to the sheriff's office. They said they were already enroute. Apparently someone else had been woken by the godawful music too.

So now it's quiet, but I'm awake. Who plays music so loudly, in the middle of the night, that several neighbors - at least one from the next street over - call the police to shut you up?

I can't wait to get out of this neighborhood.

At least they didn't wake the boys.

Yup, we're still alive!

Just really, really, relentlessly busy!! I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted. I hadn't even thought much about it, really. I'm just not one of those bloggers who can post every day, or apparently even with some regularity. I'm kind of over feeling bad about it. If anyone reads the blog I'm sure they're aware by now that sooner or later, a post will come.

So, what's been going on. The new house is underway. Things are more of a mess than we'd first thought, so all the walls in the bathroom have to be removed and some areas treated because of MOLD! Yeah. Oh God mold. Fortunately, we've got a good guy working on it and he'll make sure it's taken care of. Just that it's one more thing we didn't count on. Things seem like they're going to cost much less than originally thought, so yay for that. That's going to help a lot as we continue to encounter the unexpected and hopefully it will all come together so that we can be IN by Halloween. That's the goal, anyway. I took some pictures when they had the floors ripped up to put in the new subfloors, and I need to get back over soon to get pics of the rest of the progress. I'm hoping to eventually post before, during, and after shots. We'll see how that goes.

Last week we went to Cedar Point with the family. My cousin and her boyfriend were visiting from Alaska so the whole group got together to ride coasters and eat fried junk food. It was GREAT! My mom had to work so she brought Kyan over for me for the twilight hours and I got to spend the day riding with Jaben. He was AWESOME!! He's rather short for 11, so this was the first year he was even tall enough for some of them. He finally got to ride the Raptor with me (my favorite!) and he LOVED it! I was worried because he's not big on flips, but when it ended he screamed "THAT WAS AWESOME!!" and set a great tone for the rest of the day. He didn't care for the new Maverick (which I LOVED) but he rode more rides that day than ever, so we had a blast! When Kyan came, I found out how truly fearless my baby is. He kept pointing at the giant coasters and asking, "I ride that?" Too cute! We took him to Camp Snoopy and he rode EVERYTHING! He was so cute on the Woodstock Express (giggled the whole ride!) that we bought the video at the end. I think we've seen it about 85 times now and he never gets tired of it. Just as an aside, the angle they shoot those from is not adult friendly and mommy looks like a sluglump. Niiiiiiiiiiiice.

I'm probably going to be working some extreme hours next week, so rather than wait and maybe miss the Huron County Fair next week, I went ahead and brought the boys to the Erie County Fair last night. We were not impressed. As we got there, Kyan got on the merry go round, then we went to look at other rides for Jaben and they shut them down for an hour!!!! We were so mad! So instead we went to play games (lots of useless junk there) and get something to eat. Eventually the rides started up again and the boys found one they could ride together and they loved it! Jaben got a real kick out of riding with Kyan (he's a blast on a ride), and so they went twice. It was so cool seeing them do this together. Can't wait till Kyan's even bigger and they can do more of that really great stuff together!! We only ended up staying about an hour and a half (small fair) and we were done.

On the way out, we ran into some people from a nearby haunted house, the haunted Hydro (only the best haunted house ever!!) and got to talking to a goul. Yes, he was dressed as a goul and had the COOLEST mouthpiece that gave him screws for teeth! Said he made it himself. Anyway, he told us they're always looking for volunteers and we should contact them!! I've ALWAYS wanted to work at a haunted house so we're definitely looking into it. If Jaben is old enough (website has no age limit listed) we're going to try for it together. That would be so much fun!!!

So, that's it for now. School starts soon and knowing me, I may not write again until then. But, we've been having a great summer, the boys are happy and healthy and things are trucking along.