Hanging on...

It seems since our basement was flooding it has opened up a fresh can of worms. I am totally stressed and overwhelmed. I had made some good progress in getting our basement too look like it was finished and livable. It seems my whole family has felt the new chaos. I'm working on getting some things done around here when I'm not completely overwhelmed by it all. I have learned over the years to take baby steps and appreciate any and all progress that has been made. I'm just going to keep trudging along and asking God to keep calm and grounded.

So today I spent far too much money. Man! Was it fun! First my accomplishment of the day was making some returns. Oh crud! I just realized that I forgot one. Maybe I can do that on my way home from work tomorrow. It's the swimsuit I bought back in March, but I only bought the top thinking it was a whole suit.

Ok, purchase number one -- a keurig coffee maker. As my son would say, "It's so easy even my mom can make a good cup of coffee." It's true I can't make coffee. This machine takes all the guesswork out. I rarely made coffee, so I always forgot the amount of coffee needed. Now I can offer my coffee-drinkin' guests a great cup of coffee. Now to find my favorite flavors.

<-- Item number two -- This will hopefully be a great solution to keep my girls' room tidy or at least tidier. It's put together and sitting empty as I contemplate what should go in each "drawer."
Finally, a Little Green Machine. Trish convinced me this was the way to go to get spots out. I had specifically mentioned "shampooing" my minivan carpet. My sister has had one for a long time. She may even be on her second one. I didn't try it out yet. It was too hot to even think about exerting energy outside tonight and I was much too tired to even think about it.

On that note, I'm bidding you good night.

HOT!

I guess I have to wait one more day to be living in air conditioning. I'm not sure what the delay is, but the installer is coming back tomorrow morning. It's not too hot, but I could do without the humidity.

B and I spent our evening together getting HOT hair. My sweet and oh so sassy girl asked for copper highlights since I was making her get her hair cut. Her hair is gorgeous. You'll have to wait for a picture. I forgot my camera at work again. She had several inches cut off, and it looks so much healthier now. My hair is the same style, but maybe a little shorter in back, and darker and stripier. Misty always does such a cool job and tonight she took care of two of at the same time.

After that, B and I went and ate turkey chickpea chili at Panera. Yum! It is definitely a favorite of ours. I may have to figure out how to make it at home. Finally, we wandered around Target. I couldn't find the cute owl sleep pants or nightie for my body. Bummer! I picked up a few tank type shirts and some new file folders.

Tomorrow night I have to get my scrapbooking stuff ready so I can at least attempt it on Saturday. Gotta go, young J is melting down.

Slow learner...

or bad typist. I noticed that my URL had a typo in it, and it said learninghow2BED instead of learninghow2bend (a favorite Gary Allan tune of mine). Yeah, I know I have four kids so learning how to bed is not on my list of things to do.

I'm sorry if you have left me comments previously, but I just had to move my posts for the third time.

Wouldn't ya know

I was all prepared to upload some pictures, but I left my camera at work. Phooey! I had couple of things to share about the kids that would go nicely with the pictures. I guess you'll have to wait.

Tomorrow morning we will have a new central air unit installed! Finally! Can you believe our other one only lasted about 9 years. We use it a lot, but I expected a longer life out of it. The replacement has a lifetime warranty on the compressor for as long as we own it and ten years for parts. I hate making decisions like this. I really would have liked to spend our little nestegg on something else new for the house. Easy come, easy go...

So I went to find a picture to share. Mary and I like go to concerts when we can. Our favorites are Gary Allan and Montgomery Gentry. We were getting desperate to go somewhere to a concert. Lo and behold, I received an email offering free tickets to go see Jason Brown and Josh Gracin at Prairie Meadows. It was just fun to get out. And as you can see, we get a little silly at times as well.

Finally! (repost)

I've located to a new blog home. I switched over right away, but I haven't had any time to post.

Last weekend was spent in Ankeny at softball games. What a great tournament it was! Our girls placed 3rd. They played well and fought hard to win our last game. The closer they got to winning, the better they played and batted. You could just watch them transform into a team.

Now that I have my camera back in my hands, I made yet another back-up of my pictures onto my new portable hard drive. It's red and cute! I then decided that I use my laptop more than our PC, so I should have the pictures on here. I couldn't stop there, so I worked on organising (sorry, I'm not British I just have a broken key) them. I had tons of multiples since I'd often dump my pictures and go. They're all cleaned up now.

Today I am at home waiting for the A/C guy to get here. We've been lucky and it hasn't been too hot in here. I definitely helps not to work too hard and to sit in front of a fan. The younger girls were finishing up their swimming lessons today. Oddly enough, my 4 year old passed level 1 and my 6 year old didn't. I had my mom check to see if maybe the instructor had confused the girls. Apparently, JJ (the youngest) is more confident in the water than JM. JM was upset once her older sister decided to let her know. Maybe I'll post again later. I may even get some scrapbooking stuff out. Shock!

Fighting the urge... (repost)

to turn this blog into a griping, negative, down-in-the-dumps therapy. While I really deal with these things every day, I don’t want to be that sort of person. So I’m working past the grouchies I’ve had today. Poor Jamie bore the brunt of them. My digicam was missing and I was beginning to think I wasn’t going to find it. I spent all day thinking about where it might be. I cleaned junk out of my van looking for it. I checked the basket by the answering machine at least 5 times. So at one point this evening, I was panicking and upset that no one else was nearly as upset about my missing camera as I was. Anyway, I won’t get into the nasty, mean things I said to J but I did feel the need to say I’m sorry later. Afterall, HE FOUND MY CAMERA!!!!!! My mood changed immensely after that.

Up next, dealing with preteen girls and their friends…FUN!!!!

Try, try again! (repost)

Ok, I'm on blog number two already. This one allows me some creativity. Not tonight though. Things just seem to take me too long some nights. Tonight was one of those nights. See ya soon!

Post #1 again

Well, I’ve taken the plunge into the blogging world. I hate writing. I thought you should know that up front. I am an English and grammar geek, so I’ll do my best to uphold my geekdom just don’t expect me to have smooth flowing posts.

I’m hoping that I can track some of my goals in life and maybe even connect with friends and family through my blog. Who knows. Maybe I’ll find my blog to be very therapeutic. This year, 2008, has started out badly and continues to challenge and test me. My dad lost his battle with lung cancer. Then again maybe he won his battle. He certainly isn’t struggling anymore and for that I am truly thankful to God. Lots of every day, ordinary things bring my dad to mind daily. Some moments get the better of me, and I shed a few tears. I’ve never lost anyone this close to me. I’m sure I’ll post more about 2008 and my dad as time goes on. I don’t want to raise expectations too high with my first post.

Good night!