The "Toastie Tush"

Someone posted this in a comment on Erin's blog and I am so glad they did. I have been saying for a long time now, that I would pay GOOD money for a toilet seat warmer. There is nothing worse than having to sit your behind down on a ice block. ESPECIALLY in the middle of the night. I have been known to hold it for as long as humanly possible just because I didn't want my butt to freeze to the toilet seat. We should not have to live like this people!! We are civilized now. Of course, maybe I should just be grateful I can sit down and don't have to squat...

Speaking of squatting, that reminds me of my girls camp days. One year we had to build our own latrine and then they were judged. We won. We had a big tarp wrapped around 4 trees. We dug 2 holes...one for onsies and one for twosies. Onsies was a squatting hole and twosies had a log across it for sitting on...which I can't really remember exactly how that worked...anyways, we also has a stick thing that we were able to hang a roll of toilet paper on and a little makeshift wrack for magazines (church magazines I believe) and a shovel. On the "door" we hung a sign that said "vacant" on one side and "occupied" on the other. Looking back, I can't believe they actually made us USE those. At least in years passed they had "the royal throne". It had stairs leading up to it and you could actually see over the top of the stall door. AWESOME!! (I wish I could remember what campsite that was.)

Anyhoo...bring on the toastie tush and may your toilet sitting time be happy!

I think the neighbors are home.

How do I know? Because I can hear/feel the blaring bass from their stereo. It's vibrating my entire house. Come on people. Just because it's in the middle of the day doesn't mean people don't care if you make a lot of obnoxious NOISE!! This is a residential area, people do have kids...trying to nap!!! Take your stupid stereo, the drums you like to practice in the afternoon and your beer parties and [censor].

I thought I wouldn't have to deal with stuff like this when we moved into a house. You would expect it from an apartment where you share walls. I wish there was a way to screen your neighbors before you moved in somewhere. I never want to live next to single guys ever again. Especially ones who party. I will repeat my sentiments from my private venting blog (that I wrote last March)...

Dear dumb guys next door,
I know you think you’re cool. But guess what…YOU’RE NOT!! You’re just irritating!! Shaking the neighbors houses with your bass does not make you a cool person. It makes people want to key your car! Okay, maybe it’s just me that wants to key your car…and slash your tires…and smash in all your windows…and shred you’re seats…and rip out your stereo…and take those speakers in your trunk that you were showing off to all your friends yesterday and beat them with a baseball bat until there is not one piece still together, then take all the pieces and throw them back into the trunk and start the whole car on fire and watch it burn to the ground, then take what’s left of the car to the nearest cliff and throw it over and watch it fall until I can no longer see it any more, and hope it lands in a river where it will be carried far, far away!! *deep breath* That would make me feel much better! But since I can’t do that…would you please…just…SHUT IT PEOPLE!!
Sincerely,You’re annoyed neighbor

It always makes me feel so much better to vent. :)

Mailbox vs Minivan

And the mailbox WINS!!

As many of you know, I babysit a little girl and this week her Mom has an early shift and has been dropping her off around 6am. It's still dark outside, she drives a minivan, it has tinted windows, and our mailbox is black. Not a good combination. This morning she dropped Amare' off and left. A few minutes later I heard a crunch and then a crash. It took me a few minutes to figure out the noise came from outside. I looked out and there was poor Kara, standing behind her minivan surveying the damage. I bundled up (cause it was -4 out there) and went out to see what happened. She was in tears talking to her husband on the phone. When I got closer I saw that her back window was completely shattered and there was glass everywhere. Upon closer inspection I could see that there was also a nice big dent just below the window. And this is all that happened to the mailbox

See where I circled the dents? There are 2 small dents on the bottom right hand side of the door, and a slightly bigger dent on the top of the mailbox, which may or may not have already been there, not sure. Oh, and there is some chipped paint. Normally, when a mailbox gets hit by a car, it takes the whole mailbox off or at least knocks it crooked or something. (I know, because I've hit a few myself. haha.) That is one tough mailbox!!

Here's a picture of the shattered glass on the grass around it.

Crazy I tell ya!

The Proper Way to Carry Scissors???

We gave Lizzie's hair a little trim today and after we were done I asked Mike to put the scissors away. He took them by the handles and walked passed and the blades whizzed passed Lizzie's head. Okay they were about a foot away, but still. I all the sudden imagined some innocent child running passed and getting jabbed in they eye or something...even though the other kids were both napping...I told you I was paranoid. Anyhoo, I explained to him that the proper way to carry scissors is to hold the closed blades in your hand pointing down (as MOST of us learned in kindergarten) and we ended up getting into an interesting and quite humorous conversation/debate/argument about why he thinks it's ridiculous to carry scissors by the blade. I told him that if you hold them by the handle and swing them while walking, your likely to stab someone. He argued that if you hold them by the blade you are more likely to hurt yourself, and he says, "If by some small chance someone else gets hurt I can help them. Who's gonna help me if I get stabbed." I assured him that if it was bad enough, I'd call 911. His response was, "but I'm already on the scene. So it would be better for someone else to get hurt." Or something along those lines. Seriously, how can you argue with that???

Really though, I'd be willing to bet that he knows the correct way to carry scissors and agrees with it, but anyone who knows my husband knows he LOVES to debate/argue...whatever you wanna call it, even when he knows he's wrong. Why?? It's part of his stubbornness. It doesn't matter what it is and sometimes it really makes me crazy. For example, we were looking at apartments and we saw a couple places with flat top stoves and he was all excited about it. We both really want a flat top stove. A few days later the topic of a flat top stove came up again for some reason, I can't remember exactly how. I think I had found another place with one and he proceeded to argue with me about how they aren't THAT great. I told him he was just saying that because he isn't the one who cleans the drip pans of our current stove. We argued about it for several minutes until it hit me that just a few days earlier he was singing his own praises of the flat top stove. I brought that to his attention and he stopped and thought about it for a second and it dawned on him that he really did want a flat top range and was arguing to argue and didn't even realize it!! Seriously, he just can't help himself!! What's a wife who knows all and is ALWAYS right to do??? However, it kinda makes me feel better to know I'm not the only crazy in the family. :)

Back To Our Natural Habitat

We decided to go to the Dallas Zoo while we are here. We also decided to save gas and take the train. Jacob was totally excited to ride for the first time. He sat there and said, "Choo, choo" the whole time we were on it. Lizzie was just excited to be able to look out the windows. All the kids had fun. Aunt Cathy and Annabelle came with us too.

Since it's winter there were a lot of exhibits under construction and parts of the zoo closed. We also got there right when all the fun animals, like the elephant, giraffes, and tiger were eating, so the only view we were really able to get of them was their backsides. If you ask me, they should put their food in the middle instead of the back of their cages or whatever. Jacob was all excited to get to see an elephant but was not impressed when all he was able to see was a tail swinging back and forth. It would have been cool to see the front of it. It was huge. Anyhoo...we still had lots of fun though.

We thought it would be fun to rent a wagon to pull Jacob and Belle around in. It turned out to be a life saver. We knew they weren't going to be able to walk to whole way without getting tired, and Jacob was not gonna be happy being strapped in a stroller. This way we were able to pull them from exhibit to exhibit and they were able to get out and look when they wanted to.

Lizzie fell asleep not long after we got there and probably slept for at least half the time we were there.
Jacob and Annabelle's favorite part was the bird and reptile exhibits.

After a short diaper change/potty break and some snacks for the kids... we were on to MY favorite part. The gorillas and monkeys.It was fun to watch them. They were as aware of us as we were of them. I got a close up shot of the male gorilla and he looked right into my camera as I was taking the picture. (I'll post it on my photo blog along with other pictures I've taken on my trip in a few days.) Then, he got annoyed with me and went and hid. After the gorillas we saw the monkeys and this was the best part of the zoo. Mike was his favorite.
I wish I would have taken a picture of Mike as well. Mike would hold out his hand and the monkey would reach back, which is what he's doing in this picture. They had a special bond. I think they are long lost brothers...maybe cousins. I don't know. Mike would pretend to toss something to it and it would look around for it. Then it would do this...

It was awesome!

After 3 1/2 hours, the kids were tired of looking at animals and just wanted to play. So we took some quick pictures of some statues...

and then Mike loaded them in the wagon and ran them around. And almost died when he rounded a corner and came head to head with a golf cart coming the opposite direction. He decided to slow it down after that.

Back on the train Jacob zonked out within minutes. We were all exhausted. I think Annabelle was bored on the way home. She wanted to pose while I took pictures of her. She cracks me up. I was ready to hit the pillow by 8:30pm. I was exhausted. My legs have been cramping since we got back. Maybe I should get back to my workouts and get back into shape.

Things I'm looking forward to this year.

• Mike being ALL MINE for the ENTIRE month of January.
• Mikes graduation. See the above ticker.
• Moving. We love Missouri, but are really looking forward to our new little adventure. However, I am not looking forward to the life of a single, married, mom. Hopefully I will at least catch glimpses of my husband during his 3 years of slave labor.
• Hopefully finding a house to rent with a fenced in back yard.
• Bigger income. We won’t be rich but some money is much better than almost none. :) Which leads me to my NEXT item.
• No longer needing government assistance. We managed to get off food stamps. But I LOATH WIC (the people who work there who think I’m an idiot because I’m on government assistance and the stupid vouchers that scream “Hey look everyone…I’m on WIC”) and as grateful as I am for Medicaid, I can’t wait to get rid of it as well.
• New furniture. When we move, our couch for sure is going in the garbage. I can’t wait for new living room furniture, a new dining room set and a headboard for our bed.
• A new washer and dryer.
• Our trips to see family.
• Getting a minivan. I always swore I would never get one. But now, for some reason, I can’t wait to get one.
• More frequent trips home. With triple the income we have now, we will be able to afford more trips home or at least be able to fly people out to see us (any takers?).
• Hopefully having or at least conceiving baby #3. :) We'll see how that goes.

Overall, it looks to be a very exciting year for us.

Happy 2009!!!

Here we are at 5 minutes to midnight. I didn't think I was gonna make it. I was pretty tired by 10pm and laid down on the couch to watch a movie. Within minutes I was snoozing. I woke up around 11pm and got out all the junk food we bought to party with. :) I think I ate an entire back of chips. Word to the wise...if you plan to smooch at midnight, don't go with the onion dip!! :)