Not so evil...

You Are 24% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

Well, do you think this is accurate? I do.

Help, I'm going through blog withdrawl!

I have been so disconnected from my computer the last two days.

Rylie was sick yesterday and today.

The kind of sick where you just don't want to move, nothing's comfortable, and you just want to lay on mom while she stands up and swings you from side to side.

No fever. Hardly any wet diapers. Scared momma. I took her to Urgent Care for kids, and the lady said she has an ear infection. I've never seen an ear infection like this one.

This morning I called Seth's mom to see if she could watch Rylie, as she was still acting sick, but with no fever. She had a dr. appointment. Since I can't call in sick I went ahead and took her to daycare and they actually took her.

She started throwing up around 9:00. I finally wound up having Seth's cousin pick her up to keep her until his mom could get her.

All this afternoon she just wanted to lay on my chest.

I got a great idea for an invention- a contraption shaped like a mother's chest with something to wrap around them like your arms. If someone can come up with this it would be worth a lot of money. (Of course nothing can take the place of a mother's comfort.)

I finally gave her a bath, which she cried through. Then a little later she all of a sudden got down off my lap and started smiling and walking around. She found Hunter's plate from dinner, and finished almost everything he hadn't eaten.

Thank goodness she's feeling better. I don't think I could have stood another whole afternoon away from my computer.

Top 5 Tuesday

For this weeks edition I'm asking the question:
What are your top 5 biggest pet peeves?

I'm not sure why I picked this one, other than I wanted to get away from movies and tv, and I am trying to come up with things that don't have any requirements other than being human. I have tons of pet peeves, but there are some that bug me way more than others.

Here's mine:

1. People who are unobservant and think they are the only people on earth. This applies to people who leave me change for more than one letter (usually like 10) that I have to put stamps on, and people who park in front of their own mailbox, or someone elses because they are only going to be there for a minute (you know that has to be the time I will come). This also includes shoppers who stand in the middle of an aisle blocking the way because they are either on the phone, or talking to someone they're with, and not paying attention. And people who try to give back mail that's addressed to Current Resident saying "Doesn't live here". Think about it stupid!
2. Garage Sales - unless there's a good deal for me. If I'm working though, forget it.
3. People (usually snowbirds) who drive around a parking lot for 15 minutes looking to get a spot close to the door. We live in the desert, it's not even cold here, if it was 15 below 0 I would understand. Get off your lazy butt and walk a little.
4. People who complain, and ask for advice and then never do anything about their problem. I try not to complain (about things in my control) just for this reason. I don't want to have to feel obligated to use what people tell me, even if I think they are full of shit.
5. People who literally live off of the government. I don't mean people who are having a tough time and it's temporary, I mean people who just don't work, and get every single kind of government assistance out there, indefinately. The ones who are waiting outside the post office and ask our janitor to see of they got their check yet. Oh, and the ones who just keep having kids and use them as an excuse for not working and being on welfare. I work hard for my money, but I only have a high school diploma, and it is possible to get a decent paying job, even with just a GED.

Wow, I guess I've got a lot, it was hard to choose, but these were the easiest to come up with on short notice, so they must be high up on the list. Now it's your turn!

Oops, I messed up Mr.Linky.

Also please e-mail me your questions for my 100th post extravaganza by tomorrow, thank you!

Purple Ribbon Month

August is purple ribbon month in California. We're not in California, but it's also purple ribbon month in Arizona even though it stands for something a little different. If you look it up you'll find that the purple ribbon stands for a lot of different things. In California it stands for preventing death or injury of children in and around cars. In Arizona it stands for preventing child drownings. In either case, it's about protecting our children.



My story:

Five years ago we got a phone call on a Sunday in August. Our friend's two daughter's, ages 2 and 4, were playing outside. The mom thought they were out in the front yard with their dad, who was working on a car. Their dad thought they were inside with their mom. They found the girls in a car in the backyard. The doors were unlocked, and they had climbed inside to play. No one knows why they didn't get out. It was 99 degrees outside that day. Who knows what the temperature was inside the car.

I don't think I'll ever forget the days after the girls died. Everyone got together and had bake sales, they put together a golf tournament, a raffle, and a car wash to help out the family. It was a terrible tragedy, and thankfully there were no charges against the parents. They are good people. They love their kids. It happened to them.

So far this year there have been 22 cases of children dying in hot cars. I haven't been able to find the statistics on drownings, but I know that last month in AZ there were 4 drownings within a week. One of those was a 3 year old boy, the nephew of a police officer, at a family party with a bunch of adults around. It can happen to you, unless you are constantly aware of what your kids are doing and where they are. There are ways to make sure these things won't happen.



I found this website about awareness. It's 4 r kid's sake. Please take a few minutes to go there. Read the brochure they have about ways to prevent accidents. All it takes is a few minutes and you could save a life. And please feel free to copy this ribbon and post it on your own blog with a link to either that site, or back here.

Biggest DORK ever!

I just realized something.
And it made me feel like such a dork.
I've seen other people's posts like Rachael's about replying to people's comments via e-mail.

I never really understood.

You see, I've always just clicked on the reply button and typed my message, and then hit send.

Before today I never even looked to see if there was an e-mail address.

I should have looked.

Now I understand.

There are probably a lot of you out there that I've replied to your comment (or, thought I did)that didn't get it.

For that I am sorry.

You'll never know.

I won't either.

I promise to be better from now on.

But only if you promise to read Rachael's post and follow her directions.

Thank you.

This weeks Top 5 Tuesday is going to be pet peeves.

Mine's ready, is yours?

It's not the spa, but I'll take it...

I was being a really good and perceptive mail carrier, and noticed that the box was open at one of the houses on my route. They have a tall fence that just the face of the box sticks through, and on the other side they cut out the back of the box and made a door. It's a HUGE box, which mail carriers LOVE! They are some of the nicest people whenever I've talked to them. They own a couple of fast food restaurants. ( I won't tell you which, but I'm sure their's is better than the one I left my food at the other night).

Anyway, they are getting ready to move off of my route which makes me sad, but I am so happy for them, they're going to a really nice area. Since I knew that, I got worried when I pulled up the other day and their mail was all over the ground, inside the fence. They usually get a lot of mail, and that day the door on the inside of the fence had fallen open. The gate was closed and the mail had to have been from Saturday, (I tried to get in to pick up the mail because I know they don't have a dog but I couldn't get the gate open) so I kept their mail from Monday since we've been having some bad storms and I didn't want to just leave it (the box is so big I couldn't get the back door closed either). I also held it the next day because I still didn't see anyone there. Yesterday I stopped because their car was there and talked to the lady. She was really nice, as usual. She thanked me for watching out for their mail, and gave me 4 tickets to one of the local waterparks! I just looked up the admission prices and it looks like if we went it would cost us around $85.00 for just the 4 of us to go. I guess it pays to be perceptive!

Project Discipline Update: Today- Fact finding about unlocked vehicles. Yep, me too. My lock is broken, so I think I'm safe on this, since they changed the wrong lock when I wrote it up. Hopefully this means no letter of warning.

100th post update: Start e-mailing your questions like MAD! You can use this e-mail debtfree05@gmail.com , and thank you in advance!

The edge of reason...

I'm on the edge. I've been joking for a few days that I'm going to have a mental break. How much stress can a person take before they just lose it?

I used to say I had the best job in the world. I also believed it. Where else can you go in whenever you get there (early, late whenever) as long as you're done by 5:00. Where else can you go home when you get your work done and get paid for the whole day. Sounds great, huh? Plus you have the added benefits of working without anyone bothering you for the most part, and listen to your iPod while you work, talk to someone, take a break, run home cause you forgot something, just a really relaxed place to work. Good benefits. Good retirement.

Lately they couldn't pay me to invite people to work there. There are a lot of factors, mostly just stupid stuff. The last couple of years trying to get a vacation approved was a really big pain in the a$$. Seriously, our last vacation we didn't even know until the week right before we left if Seth actually got approved or not, for his own sister's wedding! It makes buying plane tickets miserable, to buy or not to buy?

Now I have a 7 day paper suspension in my file. For too many unscheduled absences. I have 2 kids! They go to daycare! We only have one person who can watch the kids for us, and she has a life too, plus, they're my kids! Besides all that, I really haven't missed all that much work. Really. They are calling in people who've been gone 2 times this year. 3 times and they get a letter, 4 means suspension (on paper just means it's in your file, you don't actually get the time off).

I filed a grievance with the union, so we'll see if I can get that suspension thrown out. I hope so, because I don't think my kids will be going away anytime soon. If the post office was really smart they would have their own daycare centers, with sick rooms. I would even pay for it. Just gimme a place I can take my kids, 6 days a week, same schedule as me, and have a sick room, is that too much to ask? Heck, they're talking about taking away routes, they could use some of those people they will have to be paying anyway to watch the kids. I'm a genius!

On top of that, I've had to file for FMLA since Hunter was sick. The lady from the office called me and by the time I was done talking to her I wanted to cram the phone down her throat. She bacically told me that even though Hunter had several dr. appointments, went to the ER 2 times, and had all kinds of tests, he has to have some kind of chronic condition for it to be considered an FMLA condition. She sent me the papers back so I can go pay another $15 to have my dr. fill them out again.

While I'm dealing with all this stuff at work, I'm also dealing with 2 whiny, grumpy kids, and that other stuff at home. No one said it would be easy. Sometimes I just wonder what I'm supposed to do. I don't really want advice from anyone who hasn't been directly in my situation before. I don't know what to say, who to talk to, or how to actually accomplish anything. It's really frustrating. I just feel inadequate all the time. I feel like I'm holding my breath and waiting for something to happen. I know I can't go back to the way things were before. It's like being on a plane in a holding pattern with a lot of turbulance. I'm freaking out. All the time. Even when there's nothing to be freaked out about. It's my fear of the unknown that has me the most freaked out.

I know I need to talk to someone. Talking about serious stuff is hard for me. Writing is so much easier. When I talk I usually wind up crying and you can't even understand what I'm saying. I can't seem to stop these days. I'm NOT a crier. I HATE it.

Then sometimes I feel even worse for thinking this stuff is really that bad. Everywhere people are dealing with much worse things than this. Really. I know, I'm weird. Can't help it. I know I'll get through this. I just needed to vent. Thank you for taking the time to read (if you're still here.)

Wordless Wednesday

My big post will have to wait until another day.

I thought I would post these pictures to entertain you.

Pictures of my loves.

Hunter at the ER last week (or was it the week before? I can't even remember), they gave him gigantic popsicle called a Bullet Bar. He actually ate the whole entire thing.

Rylie has a favorite spot on the rug in front of the back door (with a friend).

Seth said she sat there for a long time while Hunter and I were gone to swimming lessons.

Poll update: Polling time is over, and you all have about 3 days to e-mail me your questions, or leave them in the comments. I'm going to need a lot, so gimme whatca got. Whatever randomness you can think of.

Stupid Tax Trivia Update: I still don't have a winner. If anyone wants to do a second guess, have at it!

Top 5 Tuesday

It's time for another edition of Top 5 Tuesday!

This week I wanted to know:
What are your Top 5 favorite movies of all time?
Here's mine-

1. Pretty Woman- The ultimate Cinderella story. Who doesn't love Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in that movie, they were just awesome.
2. Where the Heart Is- I could watch this movie a thousand times and not get tired of it.
3. Behind Enemy Lines- I think this was the first movie I saw Owen Wilson in that I actually liked, no LOVED! If it's on TV, I'll watch.
4. The Shawshank Redemption- Just a great movie.
5. Return To Me- Just a great romantic comedy.

These are my current Top 5's, although I'm sure I could move some around if I actually gave it some more thought.

(I have to say thank you to Simply Shannon for reminding me, I almost forgot about this until I saw your post. Maybe I should let you have it instead, hehe. I just have the worst memory. Plus I was working on a really big post which I will hopefully get done for Wed.)

Anyway, Please join me in Top 5 Tuesday and leave your link so we can check out your blog!!!

Randomness and organization

Last Monday- A long hot day at work must have given me some kind of mutant energy to cook dinner, clean out my pantry, and go to swimming lessons for Hunter. It looks like this now 7 days later, be glad I didn't do a before shot. Seth has taught me some skillz in the how to's of pantry organization.

Today (Sunday)- as I was getting my new dishes out of the box to get washed up and put away I figured, "what the heck, I may as well reorganize too. I didn't do any before shots, so just imagine that each and every one of these cabinets had at least one shelf that was spilling out when you'd open the door.
This cabinet used to have the glasses and sippy cup nightmare. Now it's the stuff I don't use as much.

Most of the stuff in the above picture came from this cabinet that now has the glasses and plates(below). Notice the empty spot on the top left...I'm still trying to figure out what goes there. I got rid of a bunch of sippy cup parts that didn't have what it took to be a complete sippy cup. I have no patience when it comes to non-matching, part missing, cups. And I'm also sick of holding on to the spare parts thinking that they may just come in handy one day. Just not gonna happen my friends.

This last cabinet used to have the dishes, and kids plates (which was also a nightmare). What is it about all that stuff that makes it hard to just put it in and keep it neat. Maybe it's just built to piss people off that like to be orderly, and show that nothing is orderly when you have kids. I'm also figuring out what's going to go in that spot on the middle shelf. It seems amazing to me that I have all of this extra space...there must be something I'm missing.

Randomness:

Things that bother me in the kitchen:

1.No one else knows how to load the dishwasher but me, literally. People try, but fail miserably. I actually prefer to have the dishes rinsed (yes rinsed, I'm not asking you to wash it) and piled in the sink.

2. There's a distinct difference between a dish rag and a dish towel. I can't stand finding a soaking wet towel sitting in my sink under a pile of dishes that haven't been rinsed! It grosses me out to no end.

3. Forgive me this, but I like my dishes to be clean after I wash them. If they're not, I will rewash them before I put them away. I will notice. If you don't take the valve out of the sippy cup, it won't get clean!

I've been tired lately, a little stressed, and a lot annoyed. Saturday was a day I really could have just lived without. I was ready to either cry or just quit my job. I did neither.

Now, since you're still reading, enjoy this little video of Rylie playing with the cat.

I'm still waiting for the right answer to the Stupid Tax Trivia....

And I'm going to close my poll tomorrow (Monday) night, so hurry up and vote, and be prepared to e-mail me your questions, I can't wait!

P.S. One last thing, This weeks Top 5 Tuesday is going to be...What are your top 5 favorite movies EVER? Come back on Tuesday to link up (if I can manage to get mr. linky to work again it will be a minor miracle).

Stupid Tax Trivia

Anyone who has heard Dave Ramsey knows what stupid tax is. If you haven't heard him, you really should, he's the best financial guy out there, and he's on AM so it's FREE. If you don't know, Stupid Tax is when you've done something stupid that costs you money.



Tonight I went over to Wendy's to get the boys some food. Rylie was sleeping and I wasn't that hungry so I didn't get much. I don't usually get kids meals because I just can't justify spending that kind of money to get some crappy toy and not that much food. This time however, since I wasn't eating, I ordered a kids meal along with Seth's combo meal and chili (I know, who eats chili when it's 100* outside?) So, I pull up to the window and the guy hands me a full bag, and I look the the top because the cheese and onion for the chili is in one of those containers that they put the baked potatoes in, and it took me a minute to realize what it was. So then the guy hands me my drink, and says "Thanks, have a nice day," and I drive off. I get on the freeway, only to avoid all the lights, and as I'm getting up to my exit I realize that they didn't give me the kids meal in the kids meal bag. So I check ('cause what if they just happened to run out of bags or something), and sure enough, they didn't give me the kids meal.



Here's the trivia...Do I...

A.) Turn around and go back to the store, wasting the gas it takes to get back over there?

B.) Just go home and forget the $4 I just paid for the stupid thing, and make Hunter something else to eat?

C.) Forget the food, but go home and call the manager to see if they will give me something for the inconvenience?

And for part 2: I have to admit I was a little distracted when he handed me the food...what was distracting me?

The first person to answer this correctly will win a little prize from me!

What's in a name?

I've never been one for nicknames.
I don't have one, never have really (that I knew about anyway, who knows what people might have called me behind my back). I don't think you can consider "the mail man" a nickname, that's more of a title isn't it?
I don't even usually call people by their nicknames, unless that's all I know them by.

Seth likes nicknames.
He even has one that he got from people at work-Baby Seth, because when we started he was just a baby, and looked like one too.
He likes them so much because for some reason he can remember nicknames better than real names. He's got a name for almost everyone at work, wanna hear?
See if you can spot the theme.

Chalupa
Hogi Yogi
Pumpkin
2 liter/Ray Romano
Jeaner Beaner
Ameoba
Roodles
Crabby Patti
Mean Jean
Lou Lou
Super Slacker
Briefcase
Hawaii 5-0

There's more, but some I just can't list. Jeaner Beaner is a little strange. He's not Mexican, but almost looks like it, and speaks a lot of Spanish because he grew up in south Texas. One time we went to a party at his house where there were a TON of Mexicans, and Seth walks in and pretty much yells "Jeaner Beaner" and imagine the looks he got. (Believe me when I tell you Seth is not the least bit racist!) .
A lot of the names he comes up with are food. I don't know why. I think he's getting away from that now though.
Sometimes when he can't think of someone's name he just calls them bubble butt (I know, it's mean). Not sure why on this one either, except some of them have a little bubble goin' on. Even worse is the fact that we'll be talking and he'll refer to someone as bubble butt and I have to ask, "which one"?
After 10 years he still has trouble remembering some people's names.

P.S. Don't forget to vote on your choice for my 100th post! And be prepared to e-mail me some questions (I'm thinking 20 from each person might just get me to 100....)

Such is life...

We were running late trying to make it to swimming lessons tonight. I almost grabbed my purse, but since I was going maybe 3 miles I thought, naw, I won't need it. As I'm getting in the car (Hunter is all strapped in) I noticed the gas light was on. I thought for about 2 seconds about getting my purse, but then thought, naw, it's only 6 miles round trip. All the way there I thought about what we would do if we ran out of gas.
I didn't bring my cell phone either, because who needs that in the pool? No calling for help. That leaves walking, I could live with that I guess. If I had to walk home with Hunter, I could take the other car to get gas in the gas can, go back and fill up the car, then bring the car seats home for the kids and have Seth take me back to get the car. Or, hey, even better (and probably frowned upon by the boss) leave the Audi, drive the SUV home, and pick up Seth and the kids, and take him to get the Audi (OK, I'll admit, I just thought of that one).
I worried about it all the way there...

As we were checking in for the class a lady walked up behind us. Very chatty type. I checked us in, and it turned out this lady and her son were in the same class (this was day 4, and their 1st time there, she had to work late the other days.) I thought I could at least be nice and show her where our class was. She proceeded to sit down to wait next to us and kept talking. Very chatty this woman, really, I don't think I've actually ran into anyone out here that just talks to perfect strangers like she did.
We had about 3 minutes till class started, here's what I learned.

1. She's divorced.
2. The ex is a prick (not exactly her words).
3. He's 35.
4. He's been married 3 times.
5. He has a pool.
6. And a brand new baby.
7. He only knew his "new" wife for 6 weeks before they got married.
8. Her son has almost drown 3 or 4 times just this summer (I'm wondering how true this is)
9. The ex doesn't seem to care about taking the son to swimming lessons.
10. The ex is a certified diver "so he should care"
11. "and that's why people get divorced"

Do you think she was a little bitter?

It certainly took my mind off of my gas light.

After class I saw my friend from work who's daughter's class starts after ours is over. I was so happy to see her. She saved me. I didn't even have to ask. She's that kind of friend. All I had to say was "I left my purse, and my gas light is on". She followed me to the gas station on the corner and gave me some money for gas. I am so blessed to have a friend like that. I know if it was me I would have done the same.

I didn't have to walk home. And more importantly, I didn't have to leave the Audi sitting by the side of the road, because that would have been a tragedy!

Ooooh, it's almost here...

I am getting really close to 100 posts, and I was just thinking of something that might be fun.

What do you all think about asking whatever you want to know, and giving me, oh, I don't know, like 100 questions to answer?

It could be about whatever (although I do reserve the right to not answer if it's too personal) you decide you want to know.

Maybe I should do a poll...that's it, I'll do a poll and you all can choose which you would like to see for my 100th post, K?

The one about Kenny...

There was this guy at work.

His name was Kenny.

He passed away a few years ago, this post is a tribute to him...and to say "GROW UP" to some people.

One year for Halloween Seth made a mask and went as Kenny (he loved it).

He was a good guy...nice sense of humor, gave good advise, you know, just a good guy.

His wife also worked with us...as did his ex-girlfriend of way back when...can you see where this is going?

They didn't get along, Kenny and the ex, and in fact there were two distinct groups, some on Kenny's side, and some on the ex's side. You couldn't be friends with both.

So back to the mask...

Shortly after that Halloween Ken had to retire for health reasons.

For his retirement party we made a ton of Kenny masks and everyone had one when he walked in, it was great.

After Ken retired he had a stroke. Then his parents died, and then a son, all within a month.

It was awful for him, and because of the stroke he couldn't talk or really do much of anything.

He didn't let people visit, not even his close friends. His wife quit work to take care of him.

Some of the masks are still around today, at least they used to be (lucky for me I have the picture we used to make them).

One of them was posted up where he used to work, but someone keeps taking it down, usually when no one's looking.

One of Ken's best friend's still works there, and we think they're doing it to piss him off. There are still these people that are enemies, and I understand that some people can hold a grudge, but really, let it go!

Grow up!

If you don't like someone, just don't talk to them, it's really simple.

At the very least you should respect people's property, if it's not yours, don't touch it!

It's absolutely true!

I was blog hopping the other day by way of Mcmommy's blog, trying to catch up on all those blogs I like but don't have on my google reader. She has this little thing on Friday's called POW. Most of you know about it. Anyway, my point is, I found this post by Bejewell. Her blog is called The Bean. It's great. I always have myself a good time over there. She does swear kind of a lot (which is ok, because I do too, just not so much when I write). Her POW post was called It's Just a Blog. Bejewell has left me a few nice comments before. She's a great girl. And an awesome writer. It was like everything I have been thinking all rolled into one excellent post. Well...except all that blogher nonsense. I don't even know what blogher is, and I don't think I really want to know.

Obvoiusly you can see by now from my Tuesday post that I must be loser of the century...I mean, really, only one person wanted to do the top 5 tuesday? Am I that boring?

I have this thing called feedburner. It shows how many people are subscribed to my updates. For some reason I have to check this stupid thing every day. I guess it's so I know if it's really worth it to keep this up. I know, some of you have told me I'm hilarious, thank you. But, I'm curious, does anyone know why I'll have x # of subscribers, and then the next day it's x-2, and then the next day it's back up to x? It happens a lot, and maybe I'm just paranoid...I should probably stop looking, but I can't, it draws me in every day.

I know, you're probably thinking I should grow up. I don't even usually care what people think of me. For the last couple of years I've really stopped socializing at work, because of all the drama and gossip that goes on. I try not to talk about people and what they're doing to piss me off at the moment. Without that and gossip there's not a whole lot left to talk about. If I even mention that I have a blog I feel like I'm back in High School, and getting closer to the geeky table every minute (not that we had a geeky table that I ever noticed).

I'm basically just having a hard time with what to write about. Updating on the kids is obvious, they usually give me plenty to write about. The thing that I wonder about is work. I mean, I know how to do it anonymously to a point, and people seem to love my post office posts, but do you just want funny stories? Weird ones go without saying. I have so far tried to not complain about the job itself, because really what good would that do? I was thinking about a letter to the Postmaster General that could be really funny. There's the girl at work with 8 kids, Jerry Springer life that would be really entertaining (most of my family have already heard about her), there's the customers...the lady at the storage place who refuses to talk to me (and why is a whole story), the people who are not the least bit observant about anything, and of course the weird things that happen on the route, I'm sure those could all be fun and entertaining. I could also write about the 7 day paper suspension I got on Monday (unfortunately it's just on paper, I could really use a break!). There are also stories I still hear, even though I don't gossip (I swear) about people in the office. People who need to grow up because they are 50 years old and still acting like they belong in kindergarten. People that really don't take their jobs seriously, and some that are overboard (hello supervisors).

I guess I'll just write what I want to and who cares if anyone's reading. I think am just reverting back to adolescence when I really thought people were laughing at me, and I took things way too seriously, and wished I was part of some group, any group really.

Let me know what you'd like to hear about and I'll take it into consideration (maybe, or maybe not). Should I do a poll?

In the end I guess it really is "Just a Blog" that someday I might have made into a book for my kids (minus all the ranting and raving). It will definately be nice to have this for my kids to look at, because I already know I'll have forgotten most of it by the time they will want to know, since I have such a bad memory and all. (I mean really, I can't even remember all the great things I want to blog about by the time I get home from work.)

Anyway, if you're still reading this, and if you want some really good reading, (and I'm just not doin' it for ya,) head on over to my blog roll, and check out some of these great blogs:

I'm not going to link these, they are linked on the list...(I really don't have the time now, swimming lessons start in 30 minutes!)

Carol@ Siswick Construction Zone
McMommy@ The McMommy Chronicles
Rachael @ Mommy Learns to Blog
Shannon @Simply Shannon
...ok, if they are on my list over there they are absolutely awesome. I have a ton more to add to it, but I've just been lazy.

Top 5 Tuesday

This Mr. Linky thing looks like a lot of fun, and I think I could spend hours checking out everyone's sites and answers (or at least 5 minutes since I would be lucky to get 2 people to join in on this).

Today I would like to ask...

What are your Top 5 shows you will be looking forward to this fall? Here's mine...

1. Heroes


2. Friday Night Lights


3. LOST (next year)


4. Brothers and Sisters


5. Samantha Who?

It's a pretty sad list, but I have really gotten out of the habit of watching tv. I've been waiting for so long for Heroes I almost can't remember where it left off. I'm sure it will be the same way when I get to LOST next season. I think FNL is not back until January, or next year, if it even comes back. And I usually wind up watching Samantha Who online, because I can't ever remember that it's on. ( I made a cool mosaic of my shows, but I couldn't get it to upload, boohoo)

Now it's your turn! Leave me a comment and do a post on your site, and link up. I promise next week's Top Five Tuesday will be a better topic.

#723 on the list of things they don't tell you about raising kids

The flushing-things-down-the-toilet-because-I-can-phase.

When we moved into our house we knew we were going to do a lot of work to it. The carpet in the living room and hallway was really disgusting. It was white shag carpet that was so dirty it had a greyness to it, and if you walked on it barefoot it felt like it was cutting into your feet, like crunchy carpet. We decided we had better get it done right away since Hunter was just getting to the age of crawling and I just couldn't have my baby crawling around on that dreadful nasty carpet.
One of the other things we decided to do since we were going to put tile everywhere except the bedrooms and den, was to get new toilets. Our other house was brand new so no one had used the toilets there before us, (OK, probably a few construction workers, but I blocked that out.)

Have I ever mentioned my extreme dislike of public toilets? Well, now I have. I extremely dislike public toilets. So much so that in high school I would literally "hold it" all day. How I've never had a bladder infection I'll never know. On family vacations I would hold it as long as humanly possible to try to avoid going any more than absolutely necessary.

So anyway, the thought of moving into this house that had at least 4 previous "sets" of tenants/owners, just grossed me out to no end, so it was a good thing we were getting new toilets. They were nice, we didn't spend a ton of money on them, but they got the job done.

After Rylie was born last year, Hunter must have been either really deprived of attention, or really curious. I'm going to say really curious, because he is after all a boy, and boys seem to like to see what happens when you do X.

One day the toilet in our guest bathroom wouldn't flush right.

We tried plunging it.

That didn't work.

We tried snaking it.

That didn't work either.

Finally, Seth took the toilet off, and guess what we found in the trap...

This...( I'm sparing you the real picture I took of the one that was actually down there, it's pretty gross!)




Yep, that's right, Hunter wanted to see what would happen if he flushed this thing down the toilet. I didn't happen to notice that it was missing because I only had about three of those things. We had actually thought it was a golf ball.

So Seth re-set the toilet.

It still wouldn't flush right.

He plunged it again, and again, and again....

Cut to 3 weeks or so later, we finally went and bought another new toilet after numerous attempts of plunging, snaking, taking the toilet off again, and all that. And this time I bought a toilet that is supposed to get just about anything down. (We think there might have been a crack or something on the inside that was preventing it from flushing right, since we never found anything else in there.)

I really hope Rylie doesn't go through this phase.

(Since having kids, I've gotten a refreshed dislike of public toilets... because your kids just can't use them without touching every square inch of everything they shouldn't touch. And, right now Hunter's at the don't-come-in-the-stall-with-me phase, so who knows what he's touching in there, shudder)

Rylie's new fun game

She likes to walk around the house and put her blanket over her head. Lately her blankie has been drug around every square inch of the house. So far though she isn't so attached that she can't go without it. She did spot it in the dryer among the clean clothes one day and about had a coronary until I got it for her, it was pretty cute.

It's Real Life Part 4

This weeks It's Real Life (click on the picture to go to Farm Fresh) post is about a momentous occasion. Any one we've had. I thought I would just pick the most recent, Rylie's birth. There are no pictures of the actual labor, well, there are pictures, but sorry, I'm not sharing those. I will however share some of the ones in the hospital, and also her meeting Hunter for the first time. They will all be in a little slide show at the bottom of the post. Not my ideal way of posting this, but due to time constraints, and simplicity's sake...well...that's how you're getting it.

I had my Dr. appt at 9:00 am, and she was surprised to see me still pregnant. I was actually 39 weeks and 3 days I think, had been having contractions for weeks, and Hunter was 10 days early on his own. She checked me and I was still 3 cm and 50% effaced. She stripped my membranes and tried to break my water while she checked me (and made me swear not to tell the nurses she did it on purpose if it broke), but it just wouldn't break. She said that's all it would take to really get me going, so she said to go walk for an hour or so and then go to the hospital and tell them I'm leaking fluid and hopefully get them to admit me. I was pretty worried that they would still send me home, and that I'm such a bad liar they would know it.

I called Seth and told him what was going on, he was at work, so I took him Hunter's car seat so he could pick him up from daycare. Then we went to the mall to walk for a little bit and so I could eat, since they wouldn't let me eat once I was admitted. After that we went over to the hospital, and by then it was about 12:00. They checked me and I was still 3 cm. They had me walk till 1:40, I think, and then we went back to the triage room and waited to find out what was going on. My Dr. said she really wanted me to stay, so they never checked me again, because they got busy transferring me to a room. I think it was around 3:30 or so when I finally got to the labor room. Seth came to the hospital after he dropped Hunter off at MIL's house. He had time after work to go home and clean up a little bit, since I wanted to make sure I had a room before he came over there.

So I guess around 4:00 they decided to start me on pitocin while they waited on my Dr. to come. I had been her 1st appt. of the day and she had something like 50 patients to see that day, so I still had to wait awhile for her to break my water. Since they were starting the pitocin I had them do the epidural soon after that, because that stuff just sucks! They still hadn't checked me since they knew she'd be coming anyway. My Dr. finally got there around 7:30 or so and broke my water, I was 5 cm and 80% effaced then. My epidural was different this time, last time it was so strong I couldn't even move my legs at all and they had to tell me when to push. This time I could feel my legs and they were just really tingly, and I could just barely feel some pressure from the contractions. So, then we figured we'd be waiting a while. The nurse had me switch sides a couple of times because Rylie was facing the wrong way and they wanted to see if she'd turn. The stupid monitor alarm kept going off because she'd move, the nurse had to come it to check it. Around 8:15 she was checking the alarm for my bp and I told her I maybe needed more epidural stuff because I was feeling a lot of pressure from the last few cx I'd had, so she decided to check me and found Rylie's head right there. I started pushing then, and pushed through one cx. She went and got the Dr. (who had 4 patients in labor at the time) and then they all got everything set up really quick. I pushed once to get her head out and that was it, the rest of her just kind of came out. She was holding onto her umbilical cord with one hand when she came out, it was pretty funny, too bad there's no picture of it. So, it was really a very easy and short labor and delivery. She was born on Wed. the 11th at 8:42 pm, and we got out of the hospital Thursday night at 9:00pm.

Oh, and if you compare this to Hunter's delivery....a lot alike (I know, I'm very lucky!)

Here's the pictures... (the picture of the quilt is the one I made for her.)

Still here....

I don't even remember where I left off.



Yesterday the doctor sent us to get an ultrasound.



They couldn't rule our appendicitis, so they sent us to Phoenix Children's Hospital ER.



Let me tell you how far that is from our house. It's.Far.



We got there around 5:30pm.



Spent about 20 minutes in the waiting room (isn't that illegal? I thought it was mandatory for it to be at least an hour.)



We had our own little room with a bed, a recliner, and a tv.



They sent us for an xRay, and left us there for awhile (they said they got busy in the OR, I think they forgot us.)



xRay was inconclusive, so they sent him for a CT scan (he sure didn't like that one)



All they could tell for sure was that he's really full of poop.



So at 11:30pm or so we got discharged with instructions to follow up today.



He slept fairly well most of the night (I got about 4 hours...maybe).



This morning we started all over again with the tummy hurts, and pain, and then he threw up all over me again.



After calling every dr, office, nurseline, and finally Dr. Erin, I took her advice and we're trying something just a little less invasive than an enema. Hopefully that will work (I really don't want to have to do the enema). I can't do another day of seeing my guy in pain like this, not to mention the sleep deprivation, smelly, dirty house, mountains of laundry.....

Yeah, I did it too...

Yeah, curiosity got the best of me, I was just dying to see...
So I took it.
The seven deadly sins test.

Greed:	Low
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Very Low
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Very Low
Pride:	Low

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

There you have it, I'm a gluttonous sloth. I always wanted to know how I ranked, there's one more thing to cross off the list of things to do before I die.



And just to kill a few hours (it literally took me that long, I'm a little slow, hence the sloth rating)

I made myself a little mosaic, for the mosaic Meme I saw on Simply Shannon's blog.



Here's the instructions:

Answer each of the questions below.

Surf over to Flickr (set up an account if you don’t have one–it’s quick and easy) and type your answers (one at a time) into the search bar.

From the choice of pictures shown only on the front page, click on the one that moves you.

Once the page with your picture opens, copy the URL.

Surf over to the Mosaic Maker, set up your mosaic, and paste your URLs.

Click “Create!”



The Questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you attend?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. What is your favorite drink?

7. Where would you go on your dream vacation?

8. What is your favorite dessert?

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. Choose one word to describe you?

12. Your Flickr name?

Ugh, really....

It's now 11 pm. I got home an hour ago.
At 1:30 Hunter was running around here acting fine.
I cancelled his 3:15 appt at the Dr.
He falls asleep at 3:30.
He wakes up at 4:30 crying hysterically.
Nothing helps him.
I take him to urgent care, we got there at 5:00.
They get urine, blood, a throat swab....and with the throat swab he gags and pukes all over me and him. Nice.
Tests all come back normal, but Dr. refers us to ER for ultrasound to rule out appendicitis.
We go there right away, get there at 6:00. MIL and SIL meet us there, I'm so grateful for that. ER waiting room alone would have really sucked!
Hunter sleeps, the whole time.
We finally get called back at 9:00.
He sleeps on the bed, in a gown.
Dr comes in at 9:30, says he's fine and we can go home.
Hunter wakes up while putting his clothes on, says his tummy doesn't hurt anymore, he wants to go home to sleep.
I pray that I get to sleep all night, I need it.

A waste of a good sick day?

Is there such a thing?

All night last night Hunter was up and down. Mommy this and that, my tummy hurts, I have to poop, I don't wanna poop, I gotta trow up, I don't wanna trow up, my troat hurts, I wanna sleep with daddy, I wanna sleep on the couch, I wanna sleep on the floor. And you don't even get to experience the high pitched, loud whinyness of it. Every 20 minutes it was something. No sleep for Mommy.

I guess my Mommy instinct is failing me. I have no idea what's wrong. My only clue is the persistent, "My tummy hurts".

He hasn't eaten much, even though he says he's hungry. He asks for something, I make it, and he doesn't eat it.

He's been drinking a ton, I've been giving him 20%juice to 80% water.

He's been eating "hopcicles", from the "waywador".

This morning (around 5 am, cause yes, I was up) I decided that I would take Rylie to daycare and stay home with Hunter (since we paid for Friday I figured she should at least go today, I wasn't going to waste any more of my money, which is a whole other post in itself).

We took Rylie, he didn't want to get out of the car while I took her in.

He kept saying he wanted his daddy and I had a package to mail, so we went to work. I mailed my package on the machine in the lobby, and he saw his daddy. Can I just say how much I love the fact that I can't just get a day off from there without some reason to go there?

I made the mistake of asking him if he wanted pancakes when we left for home, thinking I'd just pay a visit and waste some money at McD's. Then I looked at the clock and realized it was actually lunchtime, no pancakes. OK, I'll just get some mix and make "homemade" pancakes.
He didn't like them.

I'm taking him to the Dr. this afternoon, even though I'm sure there's really nothing they can do, and I'll probably just wind up looking like some kind of over reactive mother. I'm just stumped. He visually doesn't feel well, he was actually laying on the floor in our bedroom this morning when I got out of the shower, instead of asking to watch TV or playing. the whole time we've been home he's just been laying around, which is totally not his usual self. He still hasn't thrown up.

Oh well, I've been there before, when he had a 103 fever and it was New Year's holiday weekend, and he was 11 months old. The Dr at Urgent Care told me babies get fevers. Didn't look at him much, and didn't seem overly concerned. Didn't even take any tests. Just made me feel like an over reactive parent.

Well, I guess better over reactive than under, right?

Random thoughts #2

- We had a good weekend, very relaxing (except for that whole working on Saturday thing).


- Seth got his 30 day chip today.


-When Hunter says bathing suits, it sounds like baby soups.


-Rylie is learning so fast. She now knows the signs for light, cookie, eat, more, down, and sleep. She even said light the other day. She also sort of says what sounds like nice kitty.


-I definately should NOT get a Costco card, if I do I'll probably go broke.


-If Rylie falls and hit's her head one more time surely she's going to have some kind of brain damage, right?


-Is it possible to be burned out by swimming already? Maybe it's just because it makes me tired.


-Maybe I'm not tired from swimming, but from staying up too late.


-This week at work better be much easier than last week or I'll probably end up crying (or at the very least whining...a lot).


-How is it possible that people like my post office stories so much?


-How do I get companies to send me stuff to try out and give away, cause I could totally do that?


-That Python siphon for the fishtank was well worth the money, quick, easy, and most importantly, clean. (we've had to use it a couple of times in the last few weeks)

-I think my washer must be broken, the timer said 1 minute left, and that was 10 minutes ago...it's still spinning right now.

We have a winner!

Shannon is the winner with her CHEETO's guess.

Thank you everyone who guessed, (I guess my hint helped somewhat...)

Shannon will be getting a Mary Kay Satin Lips set in the mail, as soon as she e-mails me her address.

In conjunction...

with Mommy Learns to Blog I thought would do a sister post (I'm convinced we are long lost sisters Rach!)

You see, Rachael is having a little contest over there, wherein you guess what the word is that her little Mad Hatter is referring to in her own language.

I have one too.... with a video of he himself saying it. And actually it's not guess the word, but guess the product he's referring to.

Let's see how many guesses it takes...and if I've told you this already you're not allowed to say, cause that's cheating! Oh, and the winner will get something from me in the mail.

This is SO cute!

I just had to share this, it's too good not to.

You can enter to win this fabulous bag at Sew Gracious

Really, go check out her store, there's so much to see!!!

(I linked the picture to the giveaway post.)

How many times did this show up in your reader, cause I had to change it a few times?

It's Real Life part 3

Farm Fresh Iowa has done it again... and I'm an Iowa girl so I had to participate.

I missed last weeks It's Real Life post. I think I found out about it too late. But I'm going to do the one for this week, aren't you excited?

This week's assignment was "Where the magic happens"

Well, here it is...my 1 picture real life.

Notice the lack of pillow on the left side of the bed, which would be Seth's side. Apparently the floor is just way too hard to resist for him these days. He's always been a bit of a rebel about sleeping just about anywhere that looks comfortable at the time. Me...not so much.

We bought our bedroom set at Ashley Furniture, it came with 2 night stands, an armoire, and we also got a mirror that would go over a dresser, but we have never found a place to hang it. I may have him hang it in our closet one of these days. We aren't really dresser people and don't have room for a dresser anyway, because it's way more important to have a tv in the bedroom than to have clothes to wear. Am I right?

The quilt on the bed was made by my aunt. I have several from her, she does really good work. Seth made the cedar chest that's on the right side of the picture. He made it before we bought the furniture, it matches well.

The lotion is for looks mostly , sometimes my incredibly dry skin reminds me I need it though, like when my nonexistant cuticles start shredding because my hands are so dry, ow. I tried to put it out of reach, but Hunter still gets into it. I just can't get enough of the Johnson's Bedtime lotion, it smells so good.

My night stand is pretty much empty, just the alarm clock and the baby monitor.... oh, and how could I forget the remotes for the tv and cable box, most important. What's in my night stand? Ha, that wasn't required, and you really don't want to see it.

No pictures on the walls in here, Seth wouldn't let me put up my celebrity crush posters (maybe a little insecure?). I mean, he is so much better looking than Brad Pitt, and Matthew McConaughey, and all those other guys anyway.

My favorite thing about the room is the bed. And when I say bed, I mean the fantastically comfortable Tempurpedic mattresses. I made Seth agree it would be our Christmas present when I was pregnant with Rylie. I was about 6 months pregnant by then, and I slept as well as a pregnant woman can up until the end. Oh, and I have to include with the bed, my pillows too. We both got the tempurpedic pillows, and each got a (regular) body pillow all included with the bed. Must haves, for sure.

The only thing I dislike about our room is the size. It's pretty small. And there's only one possible layout for everything. We were spoiled in our other house, the bedroom was a little bigger, even though the house was smaller.

I don't think there's anything that makes it uniquely me.

And I don't have a picture of my pajamas, but just picture a wife beater tank top and pajama pants or shorts. No nightgowns for this chick, I can't stand them.

So now you know where the magic happens (the blogging magic, that is).

What am I really thinking...

when I'm out on my route?

Well, it really depends on the day.

Usually it has nothing to to with anything that's in the mail that day.

Seriously, I think very little about what may or may not be in the mail/packages people get.

Occasionally I may read the cover of OK! magazine, but only because they come up with the craziest stuff.

And yeah, once in awhile I might read the cover of Soap Opera Digest, but only if it's the ABC soaps one, and only if it has something to do with General Hospital, not that I watch it, but I used to.

So, here's the big secret...
I'm usually thinking, "Oh, I hope they aren't in there watching me because I just..." and then finish the sentence with any number of these remarks on a given day.

...had to go back to 3 different boxes (on the same street) because I wasn't paying close enough attention and it caught up to me.

...tripped on the sidewalk as I was taking a package to the door, and in the process, dropped said package.

...fell into my vehicle, because I didn't step up high enough and got my foot caught on the step. (causing a bruise on my arm from the stearing wheel)

...dropped all of the mail on the ground as I went to put it in the box, and then had to get out to pick it all up.

...twisted my ankle on the uneven ground as I stepped out of the vehicle.

...spilled all of my water down my front when I was getting a drink. (and man is that cold!)

...ran over their dog! (no, just kidding on that one, it's never happened to me, but did happen to someone I know, and right in front of the owner)

...opened the door on the box and it fell off the post. (This has happened too many times.)

...don't have time to talk for 20 minutes if they come out here.

Ok, I do think about more than that, but on most days I'm so clumsy I usually think one of these things at least once. I have more bruises on my arms, and most are from the door latches. They stick out obnoxiously far and I'm always running in to them. And I pretty much always backtrack if I miss a package (I do it from memory) which I probably average about every other day.

Lately, I've been loving all the questions I've been getting about the heat.

"Is it hot enough for you?"...um, what do you think?
"Do you have air conditioning in that thing?"...no, actually my heat is on all year, so it's hotter in the vehicle than outside.

I do have a couple of really nice people that leave me water. One lady puts a container of ice and a gatorade in the box for me, a full size gatorade...NICE!

So those of you that were worried, have no fear, your mail doesn't really tell us that much about you.

Yay, my makeover is complete!

Thank you so much to Krystyn over at Krizzy Designs. She completely made over my blog for me, and very quickly I might add.

If you would like to makeover your blog, or even just check out all the fancy cards she can make, just manuver your way on over and she'll be happy to help you, and tell her I sent you ;) .

And coming up, after swimming lessons, I'm going to share with all of you curious cats just what your mail carrier is really thinking. (Well, ok, I can't speak for everyone, so it'll just be what I'm really thinking while I'm out doing my route.)

Stay tuned....

Wordless Wednesday