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

The Case of the Missing Bathing Suit

Anyone seen Ladybug's bathing suit?
It's pink, with yellow trim, one piece, with nemo on it.
No?
Well, I haven't seen it either.
I think it's been since last Thursday.
Of course tonight was the first night for Ladybug's swimming lessons.
We had to make an emergency dash over to L's house to get one.
Thank goodness that K has tons of clothes, bathing suits and shoes to hand down, or I may have had to go buy one.
I have looked everywhere.
We went swimming at L's last, and I was sure it got put in our bag along with the towel.
And do you know how hard it is to look over every square inch of your house without telling your 3 year old swimming addict what you're looking for?
Yes, that's right.
I'm that kind of mother.
The one who enrolls one child at a time in swimming lessons, so the other one has to sit at home and be left out.
I'm still learning at this parenting thing okay?
If I had known that I would be listening to Spidey scream and whine for an hour after we got home about wanting to go to AJ's pool (actually the AJ Pool), I would have asked his grandma to go to swimming lessons with us so they could do it at the same time.
Or I would have taken the time to dry off and change clothes and keep lying to him about where we went.
Spidey will get his turn, in 2 weeks.
I can't wait.
I really hope he can survive the next 2 weeks.
I also hope that I can find Ladybug's bathing suit.
I'm sure it will turn up...probably at the end of the summer.

Short and Sweet

I hate texting. It takes me forever, and it costs me extra money.

I had 13 received texts this past month.
Seth had 22.
I texted to someone 8 times, Seth-12.

If you text me, expect to get a bill from now on.
We don't pay for unlimited texts, because we don't text.
If I don't text you first (which I usually don't), don't text me.
If I do text you, it's only because you don't answer your phone, which also annoys the c.r.a.p. out of me!

Oh, and if you're the person in front of me at a light, please stop texting and pretend to be paying attention to the road, I don't have time to sit and wait for you to notice that the light is in fact green and you can go.

Wrong Numbers

We get a lot of wrong numbers.

They started around the time I had Ladybug, so about a year and a half ago.

Of course they would wake me up while I was sleeping, new baby and all.

It was the same thing every time, and it was happening almost every day.

I'd say "Hello?"

They'd say, "Hi, I'm returning ____'s call"

I'd say "I'm sorry you have the wrong number."

Of course they'd be embarrassed and apologize.

After awhile though it started getting really annoying.

Finally, one day about a year ago, I asked the caller who exactly they were trying to call.

They said they were calling about medical records at Scottsdale hospital.

They also said that this was the number that was given for them to call a specific person at the medical records office.
But, that's just crazy, isn't it?

I mean, who would give out a wrong number to so many people?
I decided I needed to investigate.
I looked up the number to the medical records office at the Scottsdale Hospital.

I called.

The lady I spoke to insisted that our number was in fact their number.
She said it had been their number for 5 years!
Except it had been our number for 5 years.
She suggested that we change our number.

Excuse me? Did I hear that right? Change OUR number?

In the 5 years that we had this number we never had any problems getting our phone calls.


Did she think I was crazy enough to fall for that?


Well, no way!



I called the hospital administration office instead.



That lady looked up the right number.



Yep, their's is one number off!




So now every time we get someone calling for them I give them the right number.




I should call this guy and have a little chat with him....





We also for some reason have been put on a contact card for someone's child in the Gilbert school district. So every once in a while (too often if you ask me) we'll get a recording telling us that our child has been marked absent in 2 or more classes today. Nice!

Oh, and then there's the calls we're getting for some lady who lived in this house before the people we bought it from, I think. She's got someone looking for her. Or should I say a few companies. And I don't think they believe me when I say she doesn't live here. I really wonder how they've even gotten her associated with our number. Old address list probably.

Thank goodness we have caller ID. Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who can't just not answer a ringing phone if I hear it.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen thoughts from today...



1. Why do animals and babies love to shred kleenex? Combine the 2 and I could have an entire house of kleenex confetti in about an hour.



2. Is it bad to let your child have the one thing he's obsessed with at the moment(swimming), just to get a couple of hours with no whining?



3. I love that Ladybug knows the signs for more, and bird, they are so cute.



4. I wish I was as smart and cool as McMommy. She is absolutely the funniest bloggymamma ever!



5. If I put superglue on my fingers the mail won't slip out of my hand, but then I guess I'd have a pretty hard time getting it in the box, huh?



6. Why do I bother giving advice to people who ask for it but never listen?



7. How does my house go from spotless to trashed in 0.65 seconds?



8. How does my teeny tiny 20 lb Ladybug, eat her weight in food everyday? Won't she explode after awhile?



9. Why do I work as hard as I do so that I can stand in line at the grocery store behind those people using their food stamp cards, getting cashback for cigaretts and alcohol, and they probably don't work at all? And I also get to pay through the nose for taxes, daycare, and health insurance, and they probably get all that stuff free too.



10.Really, Is my memory that bad that I can't remember 13 thoughts I had today? Or did I even have 13 thoughts today?



11. I love the way Ladybug "talks".



12. Is it possible to get through to a 3 year-old without yelling? I feel like the more I yell, the less he listens to me, but he doesn't listen when I talk normally either.



13. I just looked at the last sentence I was trying to type, and it's obvious that I should quit while I'm ahead.

We saw this guy...

We went to the mall the other day.

We saw this guy.

Well, I saw this guy (because I just notice things/people).

I couldn't look away, it was like a train wreck.

I pointed him out to Seth.

He laughed too.

I can't tell you how close I was to pulling out my camera.

I had it in my hand.

I hesitated.

This guy could've just... went off... if he saw me taking his picture.

I tried to think of a way to make a picture.

I will have to describe it to you (to the best of my ability).

Imagine...

Guy in his late 30's or early 40's.

Reddish (I think) hair, balding with a buzz cut. No trace of any sun exposure.

Kind of nerdy looking, but no glasses (why do all the pictures of nerds have to have glasses?).

Kind of made me think of those guys in high school that really liked heavy metal bands, and never showered.

Probably about 5'9 or so, and 115 lbs, really skinny legs.

Wearing a black t-shirt that was pretty worn (it was probably a really old Metallica shirt, but I didn't want to get that close).

Black leather pants (remember the really skinny legs). Leather pants are supposed to be tight right? Well, his weren't.

Black....um,.....leather or vinyl?.....boots (laced up) up to his knees, that had about a 6 inch platform on the soles.

And did I mention the really skinny legs? They looked nonexistant in those boots!

Got the picture yet?

I hope so, because no amount of photoshop could recreate that.

If I see this guy the next time I go to the mall, I will definately take his picture, hopefully without him seeing me.

If you're in a store before then, and you happen to see the cover of the July-August issue of Psychology Today, there's a woman on the cover wearing almost the exact same boots, it's hilarious!
(It's not on the website yet, it's still the June issue, but I delivered one on Friday I think.)


Well, I found a picture of some similar boots...

Does that help?

Updates...

I thought I would throw out some updates on past posts, cause something made me think it would be relevent, and hopefully entertaining.

I think I did okay without Supernanny. I'm pretty sure I was having work stress carryover, making it seem really out of control. (Hey, maybe the title of that post should be my new blog title...)

The cat seems to be fixed (knock on wood). Now the only problem is that Hunter keeps taking her into our bathroom and saying she has to go potty, or puts her in the shower with him and closes the doors so she can't get out. He would spend all day in there with her if he could. And we're still not sure we have the right name. We've thought about "Hey Stupid" instead.

Hunter's fat lip was much better the next day after the accident.

The dislexic clerk is still dislexic. I look forward to his days off.

Our house smells so much better. The trash got picked up that next week, (of course they didn't come nearly as early) and right this second it's completely full again, but luckily only one more day till trash day.

We have a trip to Disneyland in October. We're thinking of buying the plane tickets for Seth's mom, and Olivia, and letting them take Rylie, since she's free, and then we could drive the grocery getter, with Hunter and not have to worry about things like this happening.

And for my Real life....I got a major cleaning bug on Friday night, and my house still looks fabulous today with only minimal effort! And the kitchen really is my favorite room in the house (now that I can see it). W redid the whole thing (well, really the whole house) after we moved in. It had white appliances, white countertops, a broken leaky dishwasher, stainless steel sink, very light cabinets, and white tile that was laid on top of linoleum.

What's that?

You want to see what it looked like before?

Well, Ok, you talked me into it, here's a before picture...If you click on it you can see all the pictures in the web album, before and after's.

I even got rid of the huge desk in Rylie's room, and now she's got room for toys so she can play!

Ok, I think that's it for the updates. Probably not really as entertaining as you'd hoped huh? But that has been my life lately.

The best thing EVER....

One of the things we miss the most about living in the midwest is the meat. Some people say they can't taste a difference, but we can. Every time we go home to visit we usually get some meat from the meat locker in town.

One time we brought back 50 lbs of beef jerky, crazy...yes. (We obviously didn't have kids back then.) We took orders from people at work who had tried it before, and we actually had to limit how much they could get. We had one guy that got 5 lbs, and would have gotten more if we had let him. It is some really good stuff, and you also can't beat the price, but really..... Now we don't say anything, and we only bring back some for ourselves(meanies). We rarely get jerky, usually just hamburger, steaks, summer sausage, beef sticks.....is your mouth watering yet?

The last few times we've brought back pork tenderloins.
What's that?
Never heard of them?(It must really be an Iowa thing)
Oh, they are only the best thing ever!
Basically they are cuts of pork that are tenderized (makes sense, tenderloins)
And here's the best way to make them....

1.Dip it in an egg and milk mixture.



2. Coat it with Ritz cracker crumbs.


3. Deep fry it in oil (I use peanut oil) until it's golden brown.
I suppose the professionals use a deep fryer, I hate the mess.


4. Let it cool, you don't want to burn your mouth on this cause you really want to be able to taste it.

5. Put it on a bun with your choice of mustard, ketchup, pickles, onions, whatever you like.

It's really too bad you can't just get a little taste from the picture, you know you want some. Just give me a call the next time you're in town and we'll have you over. Or you can get yourself to our small and obscure hometown in Iowa and visit the meat locker and get your own.

I Need Your Help!

Ok, here's the deal.

I've been thinking about it for a while, and I need to totally overhaul my blog site, and I want you to help me. Here's what I need.

1. A new title- AZ Piper's is what I started with, but I'm not sure it will fit if we...say, someday... move back to Iowa. The only thing I can think of lately is "Hot Mom in a Mail Truck" and of course, that may not even fit in a few years, and HOT being the literal definition at 114 degrees, is not always true either. (and let's not even go to the place where I would refer to myself as a "hot" mom in the figurative sense, because I do live in reality)

2. I need a new layout- I could use some input of maybe a theme (or even a color scheme) that would be good, and fitting. I may go with having someone design me one, but I still need something to go on here. Suggestions of blog designers is welcome too.

3. I need you to also help me spread the word so please link up to me, it would really help me out.

I'm thinking it will be something of a contest. So comment your idea to me, and at the end of the week, I'll have a poll and see which ideas win. Then if your idea is the winner you will win a prize. I think there's only one rule. You have to have actually read and "gotten to know" my personality a little bit to be included in the polls. This doesn't mean you have to have commented, but seriously, I don't want some sports themed blog, or you know, something that would not totally fit my personality. So basically I'm saying I have free reign over deciding what makeg it into the polls.

My Evil Plan....

What do you do when it's 112 degrees and you have 2 rambunctious, kids suffering from cabin fever?

Take them to the public pool for a couple of hours, of course.

It was cheap, I only spent $3.50 for the 3 of us.

I didn't get any pictures, because I didn't even take the camera.

I didn't take the camera because, well, let's be honest, I can't manage 2 kids and a camera at a pool.

Hunter loved it.

Rylie liked it (after about 45 minutes of clingage).

I decided we'd have McDonald's (drive-thru of course) for dinner.

We came home.

We ate.

They loved it.

It looked like this....

And this...

And then very quickly turned into this...

My Evil Plan... It worked!

It's Real Life

Ok, Farm Fresh Iowa is doing an It's real life Fest, and well, I'm participating, more fun for you.

The thing is to take pictures of certain things around the house without prepping them so it is really real life, get it?

First- The Toilet, I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be lid up or down, but this is how I found it.(lucky me)

Next up- Laundry (beautiful ain't it?)

A closet, ours in the master bathroom. It's bigger than this but I couldn't fit it all in and I'm too lazy to add another picture.

Lady Bug getting in some beauty sleep (it's way to hot to bother with pj's here, plus my kids sweat buckets when they sleep)

Spidey- looking for the kitty

Self portrait- Why dry your hair when mother nature will do it in less time?

The fridge...

I'm sure that was supposed to be the inside of the fridge...

Favorite shoes...

Least favorite but most worn (and of course stinky)shoes...

Favorite room in the house (with few to choose from)

And how could I forget the kitchen sink...

The case of the dislexic clerk

Yesterday I brought some mail to my supervisor.

It was in the "Hot Case" (where we get mail as we walk out the door, so it really should be accurate).

It was for another route.

I had already given back the same exact pieces to the clerk to rethrow once.

My supervisor's response was "Well, where's your yellow card that says "not 31" on it?"

Since I didn't use it then it must be my own fault that I've gotten the mail back again, not because the clerk doesn't know what he/she is doing.

So today I had a whole stack of mail that wasn't mine.

I dug out my little yellow cards. They look like this.....(we are very high tech)

I placed one on each stack (2) of mail that wasn't mine with a rubberband.

I later went to the letter case and found 1 letter that was correctly given to my route, and about 8 things from the stack I had previously returned (with the card). And, I also received one of my yellow cards back.

So I went to the supervisor, and let him know about the situation. He took the mail and the card.

About 5 minutes later one of my co-workers came over. He knew of my conversation of the day before.

He had my other card.

The other one that said "not 31".He was thinking he should put his "not 13" card with it and give it back to them.

**You'll have to forgive me if this isn't funny to you at all. At this point in time I have to find something to laugh about there or I will either get myself fired, or quit.**

Am I all alone in this?

I'm sure I'm not. But I really feel like it.

I feel like an outsider. You know, the girl who sits at the cool kids table, but doesn't really say anything because I have the totally opposite opinion as everyone else.

I admit that when I was younger I probably liked NKOTB for about a month. But I have this seriously damaged long term memory (to go along with my hearing problem). I can't remember which song I liked. I know there was at least one I listened to, but I really can't remember what it was.

So, maybe since I can't remember being super obsessed, that's why I really couldn't care any less about them now.

I won't be going to their concert.

I won't be listening to their songs, unless it's on the radio, which I rarely listen to.

I definately won't be buying their cd.

And I guess I won't even care who's talking about them, or if they care that I don't care, because I'm an adult, and I am allowed to have my own opinion.

And if you are indeed one of the NKOTB obsessed out there, you're very welcome to like them all you want, you can have my share.

How to eat a corn dog

A few years ago (before we had kids) we lived far away from work (at least 30 mins).

We were responsible and frugal, so we carpooled everyday.

Our house was brand new and there was nothing around for miles, not even a gas station.

One day we stopped at the store by work and got our groceries and since it was about lunchtime we got something from the deli.

I don't remember what I got, but Seth got a corn dog.
He was driving (he always drives) and eating his corn dog.
About halfway through he hands it to me and says "I can't eat anymore, throw it away."
I said "Seriously, you only ate down to the stick?"
He said, "Well, I don't want to mess with eating around the stick, I'm driving."
So I said "Why don't you just push it up?"

Now imagine that lightbulb turning on, cause that's exactly what it was like.

We must have laughed the whole way home after that. And like a good wife I still remind him how to eat a corn dog, (although, I'm not even sure he's had one since then)

The Accident

Here's how it went down.

I was talking to my Aunt about very important stuff while the kids were in the bathtub. (very nonmomish of me, but really sometimes we do have to multitask)

I got Rylie out of the tub and her diaper on while she squirmed like crazy.

I go back to get Hunter (um, yeah, my 3 year old is really not going to drown in 5 inches of water while I'm literally 10 feet away, because he's way too smart to put his face under water), and I find him throwing water out of the tub by the cup full (it looked like he was trying to bail water out of a boat). I told him to stop, but he continued, thinking "oh she's on the phone, I won't get in trouble". So I pulled him out of the bath and put his ho around him. By the time I pulled him out of the tub, the rug in the bathroom was soaking wet, which I didn't notice. (Have I mentioned our entire house is ceramic tile, except for the bedrooms and living room?) I guess when Hunter left the rug, his feet were still really wet. Instead of just crossing the hallway to his room, he went towards the living room, and on his way he slipped. All I heard was the thunk, and then him screaming. Seth picked him up and he was already bleeding from the mouth.

See, when I wrapped his ho around him, his arms were all tucked inside, so he couldn't catch himself when he fell. He was bleeding from his upper lip so bad it left a little trail of blood all the way to the kitchen. I sat him down on my lap and tried to calm him down as I was also trying to stop the bleeding. We must have sat there for at least 10 minutes. Finally I gave him a little piece of gauze rolled up to shove up under his lip, just like the dentist.

The poor kid looks like he got in a huge fight. I can't wait to see what it will look like tomorrow.

So sorry auntie, I really did have to get off the phone right then, (I'll call you tomorrow night, same time, K?)

Father's Day

This morning Rylie was up bright and early. Once the boys got up we started talking about what to do today.
We had taken Hunter to see Iron Man on Thursday (yeah, we're bad parents PG-13). So today we decided to take both of them to see Kung Fu Panda.

Can I just say, 14 month old+movie in a theater = not good.

We got there as the previews were starting, and being a Sunday it was pretty full and our only choice was to sit closer to the front. At first Rylie seemed to be interested, but about 15 minutes into the movie she started squirming (and of course talking). I got up and took her out, spent way too much money at the snack bar, and brought the guys back some popcorn, a pretzel, and a drink. She sat for about another 10 mins until she started squirming again. I took her out again. No snack bar this time, just took her. We went back in a few minutes later, I kind of thought she should be getting tired, maybe I could rock her and get her to fall asleep. No such luck. All together I probably spent over half of the movie in the lobby not watching the movie.


And the little angel finally did fall asleep on the way back home.



Later on after Rylie woke up from her nap, we went to the Arizona Museum of Natural History, aka the Mesa Southwest Museum. This was actually only the second time we've been to any of the museums around here. In the 10 years we've lived here, the only places we've been to are the Phoenix Zoo, and the Air Force Museum. I think we will be trying to get out more to see some of the things around here. We had a lot of fun today.



The outside of the museum in downtown Mesa.






Hunter and Seth checking out the dinosaur statue, Hunter looked like he wanted to climb up on it, but it was so hot it would have melted his skin off.






One of the cool dinosaurs.






Another dinosaur, they had him set up to move his head and mouth. There was a whole mountain scene with different dinosaurs, and a waterfall that flash flooded every little bit.


The waterfall during the "flash flood" which only lasted about 2 minutes, but was pretty cool.

Supernanny, Where are you?

I'm thinking of putting my 2 children and the cat up for adoption. Is this too drastic?



Today was a little piece of absolute insaneness (is that a word, cause I'm making it one)



Work is bad enough. Coming home is worse somedays.



Things that drove me crazy today:

8:15 am-Cleaning up cat poop off of Hunter's anywhere chair (for the 2nd time this week, thank goodnes it's washable).

1:35 pm- The 1st 5 minutes I was home from work I got to hear "I want to go swimming" about, oh, I don't know, maybe 30,000,000 times. And that was even after I said we would be going as soon as I got some lunch.

Also in that 5 mins I got to listen to Rylie whining and climbing up my legs. My guess is that she was hungry too, since she ate about half of my lunch (Hunter ate the other half, after he said he wasn't hungry)



2:30 pm- We went swimming, but it seems that Rylie is deathly afraid of the pool, if you get her near it she clings for dear life.



4:15-6:30pm- Hunter being on time out about 50 times (I'm starting to think I need to come up with something else).



5:30-5:50pm- Searching everywhere for the cat (literally) for 20 mins just to find out that she likes it under the armoire in the bedroom. I wonder why?



6:30 pm-Getting Hunter to sit down for dinner, after picking up all of Rylie's food off the floor, (because it just tastes better with floor scum on it)



6:32 pm- Hunter getting up from not touching his dinner, and promptly telling me "Mommy, kitty's poopie" and seeing her in the middle of pooping on my couch (of course as I'm getting my own plate of food, loss of appetite anyone?)



7:15 pm-8:00 pm- Coming home from Wal-Mart (which I was superbly dressed for by the way, I really did fit in) and trying to clean the couch with 2 kids trying to get the spray bottle, climbing on everything, knocking over the lamp.



8:30 pm- Deciding Hunter was being a little too quiet, and finding him standing on a chair next to the fishtank with an empty bottle of fish food (which was previously full). And yes, the food was all in the tank.

This was the point of the "I've had it" moment, and just as quickly, both kids were in bed for the night. If I had known they would go down as easily as they did, I would have put them in bed about 2 hours earlier.

Anyone have the number for Supernanny, and does she do cats too?

Parker

Hunter has a new best friend.

Her name is Parker (after Peter Parker).

She's about 8 weeks old.

Rylie likes to play in her water dish.

And eat her food (which really grosses me out when I catch her).

They both like to chase her around.

And scare her.

And try to pick her up.

And shut her in the cabinet.

Stay tuned for more about Parker.......

Random Thoughts 2

If you wash one of those little USB flash drives it will still work, I tested it out. (it only went through the washer, I didn't test the dryer too)

If you wash a cell phone , and find it when it's in the dryer, it might work too, and possibly better than before.

If you're at any store with lawnmowers, your 3 year old will see them, and you won't be able to leave until he gets to sit on them.

Kids actually do eat better if they aren't distracted by the t.v.

White trash is white trash, no matter how it's dressed up.

You can put inexpensive stuff in a nice house and it will usually look ok, but you can't make a house look better just by buying things from an expensive store.

Wordless Wednesday?

Well, not so wordless. If it was wordless you'd never understand the signifigance of this box of Puffs.

About 4 and a half hours before this picture was taken, this box was full. I had even transferred the remaining ones from another box to this one. I am the only person using this box, so as you can see I've been blowing my nose a lot this afternoon. I thought it was a really bad day of allergies, but I'm sadly starting to think that it may be a cold, blech.

The Amazing Dog Rescue

I was having one of those days. Time was dragging along. I started work early, but I couldn't seem to find what I was looking for all morning (even my vehicle keys were missing). I was amazed that I still got out to my route by 10:45.



The beginning of my route is all boxes where I have to get out and the box is on the other side of the sidewalk. So I was on my second street, and as I got out to put the mail in the box, I noticed a little dog walking up to me. I slowly turned around to get back in the vehicle, because who knows when a dog is going to bite, even the little calm looking ones. So I sat down and I was going to pull away and the little dog walked up and stuck his face in the door. I didn't want to go because the dog was so close, so I sat there to see what he would do. I didn't think to close the door. He actually got in my vehicle, and parked it behind my seat. This has never happened to me before and I didn't really know what to do.



The first thing I did was take a picture with my phone. I always carry my camera with me, but I didn't have it today. Then I called Seth. He laughed and said "take a picture with your phone", I said"I did that already". So now what? He didn't know. I couldn't get him to come out, and he was panting. I went up to the house I was in front of and knocked but no one came. So I went back one house (to the one on the corner) and knocked. The guy came to the door and I knew they had dogs, so I asked if one was missing, he said no, but he'd look to see if he recognized it. This guy lives on the West corner, and there are houses across the street to the South, but to the East is a school, and to the North on both sides (E&W) is vacant lots for new construction.



Anyway, as we were walking back to my truck the lady from next door was walking down to get her mail and I asked if it was her dog. We looked in and he had gotten out of the truck, and was sniffing around the house to the West of the lady's house. But then that quick he came back and jumped back in. It wasn't the lady's dog, and neither one of them recognized it so they left me there with the dog to figure out what to do.



Did I mention that it was 8,000 degrees today? I think the high was predicted to be like 102 or something. This poor dog looked like he'd been wandering for awhile, and there was no collar. I tried to give him some of my water, but I didn't have anything to put it in. So I finally decided to take the dog home (since I'm only about 2 miles from home) and put him in the backyard, he seemed really nice, and thirsty, I figured I could get him some water at least.



Since Seth's route is between my route and home I thought I would stop and show him the dog. As I was driving up to the box he was delivering (a set of boxes) there was a poster on the side.

I could tell right away it was a lost dog poster. so I get up there and the picture looks a lot like this dog. I called the number and said "I think I have your dog".



Turns out, the people lived on Seth's route. How weird is that? The place I picked up the dog was about a mile East (across one major street) and another mile North of were the people lived. In doggy distance that's a long way. They said he had come up missing last night, and they had put up the signs about 20 mins before I called.



They were so happy to see their dog, I can't even tell you. I have never had anything like this happen to me. It definately made my week.



Here's a picture of my little hitchiker.

Rylie's New Groove

Rylie has been starting to dance lately, along with climbing. I realize the song is probably not appropriate, but it was really the only dance song we could find at the time.



And in other news, check out Mama's new(used) grocery getter...

We have been talking about replacing our truck (the one we sold a few months ago), and this gets around 30 mpg. Now I'll really have an excuse to not take the kids with me to the store.

To My Stalker...

Dear Stalker,

I know who you are, and you should know too. I have one thing to say. Get over it. Please don't check in on me. I have a life, it is good. I know I said let's be friends, but who means that? If I wanted to catch up I would let you know. I don't. If you don't hear back from me it's because I would rather not hear from you, and I actually thought that you would have gotten the hint by now (after all, it's been 15 years). I don't mean to be rude, just honest.

To any of you "blogger stalkers" out there. If you'd just comment once in a while you wouldn't be considered a stalker anymore, just a "friend". Of course, I probably don't have any of those anyway.....just the real kind ;).

The Best Baby Tip You Ever Got......

Ok, we've really scared the heck out of Alex, so I thought we could share some really good tips for when she does have a baby, you know, sort of payback, to her and some of the other scared to death (and maybe even pregnant) ladies out there.

I'll start

*Buy some of those puppy training pads(make sure they have adhesive) put them on top of the matress pad, under the sheet, then do another layer on top of the sheet, and a sheet on top of that, so when you have one of those inevitable nights where there's leakage or other issues you can just take off the top layer and you'll already have clean sheets.

*Teething- There are these things called Teething Tablets by Hyland's, (they also have ones for colic) they are like baby crack. Seriously, they are goooooooood, and homeopathic.

ok, that's really all I can think of right now (sad isn't it), who else has one?