What's $300 Anyway...

I thought that would get your attention...

We have always tried to teach our kids to share, share, share. Well, yesterday, Vincent was over at his friend's house next door playing. He came home and announced that he was looking for his Pokemon cards. I guess they were trading or something. Anyway, he couldn't find the cards, and I wasn't sure where he had put them, so I suggested he look on the kitchen counter. He did, looked a few other places, and went back next door.

A few minutes later, he comes back in the front door and into the tv room, "Mom, Mrs. Rittle is here!" Ok, I think, why is Mrs. Rittle here. What did he do that couldn't be resolved with a simple phone call, or a simple sending him home. Why did my neighbor feel it necessary to actually bring my kid back home?

I met her at the front door, where she promplty handed me 3, one hundred dollar bills. She told me that the kids were all playing when it got eerily quiet. You know, moms, that quiet that means something is definitely wrong. So she went to investigate and saw my kid handing each of his friends, yes, a one hundred dollar bill.

Here's the story. We had a little mishap involving the rear bumper of our Expedition and the front quarter panel of a friend's pick up truck. Our other neighbor nicely fixed it for us for, you guessed, $300 dollars. We were going to pay him today so the money was sitting on our counter top. The rest is history.

Thank goodness for alert neighbors. Otherwise, I think there would have been some spend happy kids in our neighborhood... and a really popular 5 year old...

What the Hell is a Thundersnow?

Yesterday, in the midst of possibly one of our most unusual spring/winters ever around here, we had a thundersnow. Apparently, it's a fairly uncommon weather circumstance, but apparently has something to do with lake effect precip, of which we have plenty. Anyway, I was picking up the kids yesterday from the sitter when I saw a huge flash of light. Immediately, I exclaimed, "what the hell was that?" and then I heard the very very loud clap of thunder. When it does that and you look outside and see sleet/ice/and snow coming down, it's a little unusual.

The strange thing about it was that it kept up for a while. It wasn't like just one big bang and it was over, this storm went on for over an hour like this. I guess if it has to snow, thunder makes it a little more tolerable. You can just close your eyes and pretend its summer, I suppose. Although, ANY measureable snow in the end of March just kind of pisses me off. Speaking of pissing me off, read this. It's pretty funny, and seems like something that has happened in my house a time or two...

As I write, Dawn, our new housekeeper is undoing years of filth in my home. She asked for a ladder this morning to do the ceiling fans (how can you NOT love a woman like that?) as she pulled out her paintbrush to get in the little screen that is by the motor of the fan. Uh, yeah. I told her I didn't realize she got that picky, and guaranteed her it had never been done before. She said, "oh, yeah, the paint brush is great for other areas of the house, too, like the wood grain in the doors."

The wood grain in the doors? Isn't that illegal or something?

I hardly use a paint brush for painting, let alone getting the dust out of the wood grain pattern on my interior doors.

I think I'm in love...

Ahh, Melatonin...

I am writing to you tonight in an altered state... vicodin and melatonin, to be exact. I took these for legitimate reasons, really. I was up at 0:dark thirty this morning to work the desk at work. I was en route to work in the dark, which is totally against my policy. I didn't eat anything of real sustenance until roughly 8:30 pm, so I really had quite a remarkable headache. And I didn't sleep for more that about 34 minutes last night (due to the fact that I had to get up at 0:dark thirty). I love love love melatonin. Nights when my head is racing, or nights that I just NEED a good, hard sleep, I pop one of those little miracles, and sleep like a baby. Well, maybe more like a college student on Monday morning...

Amy, by the way, you get my thumbs up as far as I'm concerned for melatonin. The stuff works, and dosen't affect you the next day like other "sleep aids."

I also have had an extraordinary amount of lower back pain lately. In fact, Monday I thought I was actually going to have to call in sick, because I wasn't sure I could get out of bed - literally. Well, I made it out and to the chiropractor. This is another hot topic with me. I'm not into the whole "alternative medicine" thing, but I'll tell you the chiropractor just works. A few minutes on the table and a few snap/crackle/pops later, and I am walking out $18 poorer, and almost 100% better. No kidding.

I was at the scene of this crash yesterday - you can read the news article. None the less, it was pretty amazing. One, that any one actually lived that was in that car. Two, that is is SO SO SO important to wear your seatbelt PROPERLY and not under your arm, or around your back or whatever. Wear it like you should. Not like it would have made a difference in this case, but still. Notice I'm not in the picture. I was actually standing next to the photographer, checking out his equipment...okay. I'm going to bed now.

The Terrible Twos - All In One Day

I used to boast about how non-terrible twoish my two year old is/was. That was until today. I think in exactly one 24 hour period, she managed to make up for 2.5 years of badness. She's got this thing lately where she just refused to do __________ (fill in the blank). Most of the times it's:
1) eat
2) clean up
3) stop throwing things
today, well, it was
4) everything

It was just a crummy behavioral day from the word go, and it seemed to just go from bad to worse... oh yeah, this could be why...
5) nap
and yesterday it was
6) nap

I'm not so sure it has to do with the disappearance of the buh-buh. She honestly hasn't even asked for it. She's just been BAD.

Anyway. That's all I have to say about that. Someone better call the Easter Bunny and tell him that she's good most of the time. Otherwise, after today's episode(s), I'm sure the Easter Bunny and Santa both are wanting to stay far, far away. One redeming factor, I suppose, was that Vincent was good. He was probably just so damn confused to see Jade being rotten, he just felt he should stand by and watch the show.

Well, I'm going to go put peroxide on my finger from where I got bit (yeah, no kidding!) and polish off the red wine...

Happy Easter. :/

Buh-Bye Buh-Buh

The day finally came. Jade went cold turkey - no more buh-buh's. Her buh-buh was her pacifier, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of hearing her screaming for it...

Anyway, today marks day 3 of absolutely no pacifiers. The first night went amazingly well - much better than I had anticipated. She cried for a few minutes, asked for them a few times, then went to sleep. She even took a nap at the sitters the next day without too much fuss. Tonight, she's asleep peacefully, without even a mention of them. If I knew it would be that easy, I'd have done that a year ago.

In other news, I think I have gangrene of the finger. Take a look at that picture... do you think I should see someone? It was a little miscolored yesterday, but tonight it got really bad. No. Just kidding. We dyed easter eggs tonight, and silly me just decided to fish them out of the dye baths with my fingers instead of using the little egg-dipper thingy. I thought it looked pretty cool on the finger though...

It's amazing what kids can get into in a moment's notice. Today I went downstairs for a few minutes to come up and see that Kirby had apparently decided to start a revolution. Like in Braveheart - I see the resemblance. The kids must have thought it would be a good idea to color the dog. So whomever was responsible for this decision decided to do war paint on his forehead. Maybe I should investigate the older one, since the paint seems to be in the shape of a "V". He looks like one of the Manson girls or something... I guess that redeems his worth a little. Any dog who'll allow two kids to color his forehead without creating enough of a stir to alert a nearby parent deserves at least a little credit...

Another Wedding

Hooray! I booked another wedding today for this fall. That makes a total of 4, with a few promising prospects on the horizon. Today was pretty lame. I worked all day and as soon as I was getting ready to leave, it started to ice/sleet/rain/snow. This past weekend I was looking at Sunday's sale ads and saw all the Easter clothing on sale. It all showed pictures of happy tots and their families in cute little sundresses, with cute little white sandals strolling through fields of lush green grass as the sun shined down upon their pretty little heads.

I don't know where you are, but that's definitely NOT how Easter looks in NW Indiana, especially when they decide to hold Easter before April 1st. This in fact is a direct quote of OUR Easter forecast. "Sunny start, but clouding over as low pressure passes to the south. Continued cold as highs fail to reach 40 degrees. Northeast winds." Not so great for that little bunny, or the 3 year old in sandals, I'd say...

In other news. I scheduled an appointment with a house cleaner for her to come give us an estimate on cleaning our house. Some friends of mine, who happen to be totally, well, frugal lets say, use her and say it's totally worth every penny. One girlfriend of mine excalimed "she's my favorite person." Since we've been considering it anyway, I thought there's no time like the present. It's not like we won't still do dishes, laundry, and basic day to day stuff, she's just going to do the stuff that we hate. Like cleaning the baseboards, dusting, ceiling fans, bathrooms, microwaves... well, pretty much everything else. We work hard. We deserve it, right?

Weight In Friday, er, Saturday

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, so I'll give you yesterdays information today. Yeah.

I indicated on a previouse post that I was re-initiating Weight Watchers and was going to begin posting my weigh ins again online. It must have worked, because I lost 3 more pounds this week, just by paying attention. So I'm back down to 141, which is where I was before my little "vacation."

I'm sure I'll blow that entirely today, though, because as I write I have exactly 10.5 pounds of corned beef brisket cooking in 3 differenct crock pots upstairs. I'm planning on serving this with roasted red potatoes, cheddar bread, and two different types of dessert (grasshopper parfaits -how Irish - and carmel apple cheesecake). Yum.

I'm actually downstairs in the basement and I can smell it cooking from upstairs. I just love making my house smell like cabbage for a week...

What a Nice Day

Today was so beautiful outside. I think it's funny that in September when its 55 we all put on our coats and hats and light a fire and stuff. In March, 55 feels tropical. Especially after this winter!

I had a photo shoot today with my friend Allisa, her son, and her newborn. I have never really shot a newborn before, so I was excited at the opportunity. Sure, I had taken pics of my own kids, but haven't really had the opportunity since I got my good lighting and other studio stuff.

Here are a few of my favorites from today's shoot... I just love baby shots in black and white...

This Place Sucks

As I type to you today, I am currently in prison. Really!

The fun thing about it though, is that unlike most of the people here, when I'm done, I'm going to get in my car and go home.

I was asked to take the intern on a tour today, so that's why I'm here. I've been here way more times than I'd like to remember, so I figured I'd wait in the internal affairs office (away from the offenders) while the IA guy takes her on the tour. Really, how many times does one person need to see where they make license plates?

This is a pretty cool place, if you could just get rid of all the prisoners. I'm at the one in Michigan City, which is the oldest prison in the state. Apparently it housed criminals like John Dillinger, and is currently also where Indiana's Death Row is. It's also where all state executions are done.

Anyway, enough on that. Tonight we are going to dinner with some friends of ours to the new Italian place here in town. I've heard rave reviews about it. I'm sure I will find something on the menu that is Weight Watcher's friendly - yeah, right. I don't think "italian" and "weight watchers" are even allowed to be spoken in the same sentence.

Speaking of weight watchers. As many of you have probably noticed, I haven't been posting my Weigh In Fridays lately. That's because I suck. I totally have ignored all the principles of being a good weight watcher, and have lately been eating whatever I damn feel like eating. I have done it with some moderation, and still weigh under 145 though. Not much under, but under. I recommitted myself to the program this week, though, and I think I'll have a loss this week. That is, if I can find something to eat tonight that doesn't have 10 sticks of butter in it...

Well, almost

I've been lucky since Brian and I entered into the world of horse ownership. I have yet to take a spill. In my younger riding years, this was pretty much a daily occurrence - something I expected to happen more than not. That was partially due to the fact that I thought it would be fun to try:
1) Seeing if my horse would clear a 3 foot jump - riding without a saddle.

2) Seeing if my or my friends horse was faster as we raced across the field, with only halters and lead ropes, and once again, no saddle.

3) Wondering if I could stand on her back and ride at the same time

Well, you get the point. I don't do these things anymore, in fact, I prefer just kinda taking it easy. A "missionary position" take to horseback riding, if you will.

Today I was bored so I thought I'd break that pattern. I was looking for something different - something "riske". So I had a brilliant idea to try to hit a polo ball (read: tennis ball) with the mallet that I haven't swung (on a horse) since college. Needless to say, I was riding our most polo-unworthy of the two horses - Sam. Actually, that isn't totally true, as he'd probably make a pretty good polo horse athletically. It's just the part that he's terrified of things swinging around his head that would (did) cause a problem.

I knew I was up for a challenge, which is probably the only reason I didn't actually fall off. After I had my share of freaking the horse right out (it really wasn't that bad), and having swung the mallet a few times on the right side, I decided to say enough is enough and give up. So I transfered the mallet to my left hand to deposit it over the fence. BIG MISTAKE. Not remembering that horses are very one sided animals, meaning they don't understand that the rock, traffic cone, wheelbarrow, whatever they saw when they were going clockwise is the same rock, traffic cone, wheelbarrow that they are seeing going counterclockwise. Seconds before I was officially done with polo for the day, Sam decided to flip out.

That's a little harsh. Actually he skidded sideways, which freaked him out more, and it was all down hill from there. I managed to ditch the mallet (aka: horse eating tiger) and calm him down WITHOUT FALLING OFF. Ha. Anyway, I thought I'd report my momentary lapse of reason. All this idle time I haven't been using to blog is making me get crazy ideas...