Your money's no good here.

Literally.


This past week has not been a good one. My grandfather and Craig's grandmother went into hospitals early in the week. My grandfather recovered without major intervention and went home Friday. Craig's grandmother's condition was worse. He and I made assorted trips to the W.Va. hospital she was medivac'd to. I stopped to get gas on the way and found this sign on the gas pump. (She is doing great too!)

We love you Grandpa and Momaw!

More Peeping Tom children

I'm going to have to create a new category for just pictures of my kids being peeping toms. We're now up to 5!!! (And it's weird to see the hits I get for people google-ing "peeping tom"--and yes, I've now had more than just the one. eeewww!!)

First, it was the roofer that nearly fell off the roof when he discovered my kids staring out the window at him.

Second, it was the swingset installers that took 13 hours because my kids kept interrupting to wave at them.

Third, here's Princess sitting on the step
stool watching the plummer repairing the master shower. This pic was taken in June I think.


Fourth, was the painter in the master bath in July. They pushed my desk chair over to the door and sat in it together to watch. (Why yes, that IS a picture of Andrea's kitchen counter superimposed on the pic of my desk!)



And this week, it's the dishwasher installer (another post on that soon.)

Asleep vs Not Asleep

ASLEEP at naptime
















NOT ASLEEP at naptime

Please don't drool on the phones

A.) I am coveting Craig's new cell phone--it has an alphabetic key pad. That is a feature I need, not him! The man had never sent a text message in all the 6 years he had his previous phone; received them, but never sent them.

B.) Al is dying to have a cell phone. It gets mentioned at least once a day. As we passed by them in Meijer's a couple days ago, he felt it necessary to point them out yet again, as if I had somehow forgotten the first 472 requests. His exact words were, "Don't we look good together?"

Touching Moments, cont.

The post about my Touching Moment with Princess jogged my memory about a YouTube video that I thought was sooo funny and very sweet. It's a father singing about how the little sweet things make the hard times in parenting worth it.


But one he has that is even FUNNIER THAN THAT:



Oh, I love it!!

Backseat Driver, part 2

Princess & Gman were to be eating their chicken nuggets on the way to a birthday party this evening. We were at a red light, about 3-4 cars back. I turned around to discuss the "no dinner, no cake" rule with Gman. Suddenly, Princess says, "Moooooooommmmmmmmmm, they're gonna honk at you."

I look to the front to see that, yes the light has changed, but it was so recent that even the first car hadn't moved yet. I almost never honk at cars in front of me for taking too long to go, even when I can see that the driver isn't watching the light. So, how did she learn this?
PS--We've said for quite some time that she's probably the one we'll live with when we're really old.

Perspective

Things look very different when you look at them from a different angle.

(I took this picture at a drive-thru safari in Cedar Point, OH. Princess says she remembers this giraffe because it was trying to stick it's head in the window)

Touching Moments

Princess is sick. Fever in the 102+ range. At that temp, kid's go two ways: ornery or lovey. Gman was both when he had it 2 days ago, but she gets lovey. Here's the convo we had:
Princess: I love you, Mom.
Me: I love you too, Sweetheart.
Princess: You're the best mom.
Me: Well, you're the best daughter!
Princess: You are special.
Me (heart melting): You are special too, Sweetie.

These are the little moments that make the mess, late-night screaming, continuous mopping, tons of laundry, sibling bickering, and crayon marks feel like a worthwhile trade-off.

300,000 numbers in quadruplicate

Trying to do a little thinning of the accumulation in the house. I found FOUR full-size 2008-09 phone books, all by different phone companies. (We also have two reduced-sized copies.) My phone's camera really couldn't capture their true essence:


So I got out the big guns!


According to my Division of Government Communication's ruler (Isn't it ironic, Kfuj?), I have SEVEN inches of 300,000 phone numbers in quadruplicate. Where were all the tree-lovers before all these phone books magically appeared on my porch?

Backseat Driver

From the time she was barely two and yelled, "Mommy, a octagon" while pointing at the stop sign we were sitting at, Princess has been a backseat driver. We "upgraded" her to a booster seat the other day. On her maiden voyage in it, she informed me, "This new seat makes the car go faster!"

"Message in a Bottle"

I dropped my cell phone in the parking lot yesterday. I couldn't get into the menu or address book. It would only allow me to call 911. Considering how quickly my whole day was falling apart , I felt I needed 911, but figured they wouldn't agree to the severity of my troubles.

When I would open the phone, the screen would have a graphic saying I needed to "Insert SIM card." (The SIM card never came out!) and at the bottom of the screen was the lonely, silent message "SOS"
Sing with me...It's Sting and The Police:

"I'll send an SOS to the world
I'll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
message in a bottle......."

My thought is....if your cell phone is ACTUALLY sending out an SOS...you must be in really deep trouble. My IT Hero Hubby was able to quickly fix it...so quickly, he was able to fix it before I got back from the next room with a camera. He sends his apologies. ;-)
Thanks, honey!

Memory Lane Monday

We travel back to August 1998, when Al was only 25 mos. old . He was fascinated by the US Atlas. I actually have a few different pics of him laying on the floor looking through it. Doesn't he look so big in his mannerisms, and yet so little compared to that book?

That blue & gray marbled carpet was brand new when I moved into that apartment. Clashed with my hunter green and cream couch set somthin' awful. But the day Al spilled 1/4 of the French White nail polish on it, I was oooooohhhh sooooooooo very glad to have that carpet. French White polish diluted with a little water and spread out to the square yard around it blends very nicely on blue/gray marble carpet.

What's your weirdest hit?

If you have a Bravenet visitor counter, you can find out a fair amount of information about those visiting your blog. My fave is to look at the "referers" stats...it shows where people came to your blog from. Mostly unimportant, but for those who found you via a google search, you can see what their search topic was.

My biggest draw is people searching for Rear Window Graphics, Longaberger or info about eyeliner related pink eye (recall this post). I do get an occasional hit for other other stuff, but I got the weirdest hit possible to my post about the little ones being peeping toms on the swing set installers.

Some weirdo in Chelmsford, Mass. was doing a search for "Grandmother peeping tom."
EEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

What's your weirdest hit and which of your posts gets the most hits from outside the usual circle?

Tween correspondence

The email trail went like this:

TO: Al
From: Mom
I'm glad you've got email. You are growing up so fast! Just because we live in the same house, doesn't mean you can't email me too! I love you!


TO: Mom
FROM: Al
i love you mom, and i know i can email you, but if i want to talk to you i can just walk ten feet and talk to you

"Mommy Dearest"

The other night I was in the living room and I hear water start running in the master bath. I know Craig is in his office in the basement. It's 11:10pm, so my thought is Princess is making her usual potty run. A few minutes later I hear the water turn on again. What IS she doing up there? I quietly sneak up the stairs to find this:

He struck a pose and said "Cheeeeeese!", not knowing that once the pic was taken his mommy would go 28 shades of Joan Crawford on his little self.

Year of the Shoes

School started for Al today!! It would appear that seventh grade is about the shoes, even for the guys.

Good-bye, Woody 1994-2008

Woodman passed away . I guess technically, he was my parent's dog, but we all loved him. Woody was definitely one of the good guys and will be very missed.

Memory Lane Monday

We recently went to my folks for a visit and my dad was sprucin' up the motorcycle he bought last year. It reminded me of this pic from when I was little. It was taken 1-2 months before my 2nd birthday. We lived in Ft. Lewis, WA then.

"Candy-coated breakfast meats"

The quotation marks are to give credit to the author, because I just couldn't (wouldn't?) come up with that on my own. The caption under a picture in today's Lexington Herald-Leader reads "Fairs take a back seat to no one in creating food products that horrify cardiologists..." OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH are they not kidding! Today's required reading is not for those faint of stomach or those with a 3-digit cholesterol level.

Fish Eggs

Gman had his first official visit to the dentist on Thursday...there's an hour of my life I'll never get back. Let's hope the next one goes better. His prize from the Treasure Box was a tiny toy fish--the kind you put in a glass of water and it "grows." As he got in the car seat, this convo took place:
Gman: Where's my fish?
Mom: You're sitting on it.
Gman: Where's my fish?!
Mom: You're sitting on it!
Princess: You're hatching it!

Playgroup

Princess and Gman have been in a playgroup for about 2.5 years. There's about 6-7 mom's in the group, with 12-14 kids (ages range from 1 to 5), but participation varies from time-to-time. Every Wednesday we get together at one house or another. As you can imagine, it is quite chaotic when everyone is there, but it is great to get to chat with other mom's while the kids are all chasing each other. No major injuries that I recall, just the occasional whack with a toy or bite mark. Not a bad record considering the number and ages of kids.

This month is pretty much the last of our regular participation since Gman and Princess will both be in preschool, but I may swing a way that Gman and I will still go.
Here's a picture of most of the gang, my 2 are at far right:

Conflict of Interest?

This is the first business you pass when you come to the first town near where Craig's folks live.

The readerboard says:
Kenneth Witt
Law Office
Open
Ruger

The blue sign says:
Witt's gun & pawn

My comment to Craig was "Wouldn't it be ironic if attorney/client priviledge covered that your attorney has the pawn on your gun?"
Craig's comment was "It would really be ironic if it was used to hold up Witt's Grocery at the 'other end' of town."

Memory Lane Monday

This is my Great-Grandma Elizabeth O'Haver. The greatest woman to ever live. She was wise, sweet and funny. She played Canasta and Chinese Checkers with her granddaughters and great-grands, and she did not believe in letting the younger generations win. I interviewed her for a college history essay once. She told me about how she would hitch up the wagon to go down to the creek to cut ice blocks in the winter and pack them in sawdust to keep for summer when she and G-G'pa lived in S. Dakota. She ran their Mom N Pop store while he worked in the mines.

The photo wasn't dated, but I think it was taken when I visited the summer of '89, which would put her at 90 yrs old.

Glasses

Our family plays a driving game that involves looking for purple vehicles. Yesterday, on the way to the zoo with Grandma and Papaw, we were sitting in the MickyDee's drive-thru when the following conversation occurred:
Princess: Purple car
Grandma: Where?
Princess: At the gas station.
Grandma: Which gas station?
Princess: That one (as if G'ma can see her pointing)
Grandma: I don't see any purple cars at either gas station.
Princess: That's because you don't have your seeing glasses on.