Snooze...ZZZZZZ

How do you know when you aren't getting enough sleep?

When your alarm goes off at 6:30 am and you can't remember why.

Then you hit the snooze, just in case. (Not really the snooze button is closer than the off button, reaching which means you have to move another inch in the bed and you are just too lazy.)

Then when the alarm goes off again and you think, oh yeah. I have to get P up for school and make an appearance at work. But hey, its only 6:40 and the bus doesn't run until 7, so I can hit the snooze again.

6:50. Good I still have another 10 minutes before the bus.

7:00 WHAT???? How did that happen? What was I thinking. The bus runs at 7, meaning you have to get up and be ready BEFORE 7. You dolt.

P was late for school today.

Irreplaceable

Recently Parent Reviewers sent me the book Irreplaceable by Stephen Lovely. His debut story is about the lives of 2 families after a heart transplant: the husband and mother of the woman who died and the mother who receives her heart. The husband struggles with the thought that his wife is dead and another is living with her heart inside her body. The mother with the heart suffers from the guilt of knowing another died to save her and yet is extremely grateful. So grateful that she makes contact with the woman's mother who seems to be accepting and happy that her daughter saved a life. The husband on the other hand wants nothing to do with her. He struggles daily without his wife and has trouble with the thought that her heart is beating in someone else while she is dead. The man who hit and killed the wife also makes contact with the husband seeking forgiveness. He is sorry about the accident but is also grateful that a life was also saved.

At first I thought that this book would be hard to read with the emotional content. It really isn't. It wasn't overly emotional although you can't help but feel sympathy for the characters. The writer makes it very easy to understand all sides of the situation and all the feelings associated with it. It was easy to read and you can tell the author did his research. I came away with a greater respect for the families who donate a loved ones organs and also bigger happiness for the one on the receiving end.

To get your own copy, and you really should check this book out, visit here .

Let's Play Catch Up

We have busy this week. E was sick and was running a fever of 103 for 4 days. I took her to the doctor and she has an ear infection. She had one at her checkup and it probably just didn't go away. She also has a sore throat, but the strep test came back negative. I got an antibiotic for her ear, so it should take care of everything. Only one dose and her fever disappeared. Completely. Just gone. She feels so much better now.

Jb and I had our eye exams yesterday. All year Jb had been complaining about how his glasses didn't seem strong enough. He was right. The doctor gave him a weaker prescription than he needed, on purpose. Just to see how he did with glasses before he gave him full strength. Seems weird to me.

We still haven't found a car yet. I found one I like and want, but I can't get the price down in my range. I have another place to look at this weekend, but if I don't find something I give up. I can't keep sitting with no car and 2 kids. I will have to break down and get our old car running as much as I hate to do that.

Even though we have no vehicle, I am trying to plan a vacation. I want to go to the ocean. Jb wants to go camping. Jb likes to really camp, not that sissy camp ground stuff. No electricity, no running water, nothing but gravel trees a mountain and a creek. Not my idea of a vacation. It's too much work. Give me the sissy campground by the lake. Plus, its cold in the mountains at night. We would have to buy a tent (ours dry rotted last year), outdoor clothing and various camping gear to camp. I think buying all the gear would cost the same as getting a hotel for a few nights. I don't know what we will end up doing, but the odds are in my favor. We went camping last time and FROZE our rears off. It snowed the night before and I forgot the air mattress so we were on the cold ground huddled together. P spent the whole time begging to go home chanting "member? member the skunk?" "yes, P. I remember, but you don't smell it anymore, it went home." or "but the bears...." "The bears will stay away P. You are too loud and talk to much for the bears to come around."

He still has this thing about bears. This week he came out of his room terrified because he heard growling outside his room. (It was more than likely a wild boar) He swore bears were tying to get in the house. I won't lie and tell him there are none. We live out in the woods near a wildlife management area and I want him to be cautious. It took his daddy getting home and making it in the house without being eaten by bears before he would go back to bed.

Strange freebies

I have been searching craigslist for the past few weeks looking for cars and various other things. Everyday I am amazed at the weird things I see on there. Is there really someone who will take a drive to pick up a $0.35 off coupon? But today I was floored at the ad I saw. This person has a white leather couch to give away. Ok. So far so good. Then comes the kicker. Their dog had puppies on it. EWWWWW. They are at least honest and let you know it has a stain and a smell. I am gagging over here. They did try to clean it but only got out about 90% of the stain. They describe the stain and then assure you that it is not human blood.

Seriously??

Can we get some forensic's on this? Can someone tell me the difference in the staining characteristics between human vs dog blood? How am I suppose to know they didn't ax their boyfriend and are getting rid of evidence?

I want to see the puppies.

UPDATED at 5:40
I may be convinced right now. Maybe I should have opened my emails before I made fun of somebody else's crap. I listed my hugely tremendously piece of crap car on craigslist last night and the response has been overwhelming. I guess it is true that one mans trash is another mans treasure. I may actually unload that hunk of junk. Maybe that nightmare of a couch will find a home too.

And I listed a scooter that I just want to get rid of and I have lots of interest in it too.

Hot dog, I might be able to go buy myself a big screen tv. And a new stand to hold it. If I didn't jinx it just now.

Sikulu & Harambe

My children and I recently received a new book. This story teaches children the importance of helping others. When a lady's clothes get washed down the river she tries and fails to get help from the nearby animals. When she does finally get help, the animals that help are rewarded and everyone sees that it pays to help others.

Right away I could tell that the kids would love this book. And they did. Especially E. The images are very colorful and resemble coloring book pages. She picks this book over and over to flip through. The language is very easy to understand and for young readers, very easy to read. Some of the words are unfamiliar and under normal circumstances would be harder to read. This book helps you by giving you the correct pronunciation of the words. So when you come across the word Harambe, you know how to say it. P, who is 8, was able to pick up on this quickly.

P has read this book to E several times already. E loves to yell "Oh no!" when the lady's clothes get washed down the river or "Help me! Help Me". P picked up on the lesson right away. Sort of. Not long after reading it he tried to use the lesson from the book to con E into helping him clean his room. "Come on E. You should help people. You might get a prize. Remember the story?"

In the back of this book, there is even more opportunity for learning. There is a guide with questions you can ask your children, a glossary of words used in the story, descriptions of the animals and more. Its like a mini encyclopedia. After reading the story you can even visit www.sikulu.com to watch videos, play games, get trivia questions or learn about the author.

If you would like your own copy please visit here

and pick up a copy. They even have stuffed animals from the book too.

I know your children will enjoy it as much as mine.

Just an update

I have been on a cleaning kick this week. Not the daily/weekly type of cleaning, the empty out a cabinet or shelf type of cleaning. It feels good when each project is finished, but my trashcan fills up almost immediately after the trash gets picked up. Hopefully I won't wake up one morning to find that the trash company has deemed me too trashy for one can and dropped off another. (When we started service they said there was no charge for overflow unless it happens all the time. Then they will bring me another trash can and charge me a monthly fee for it)

P is out of school this week and I had hoped to put him to work painting my kitchen cabinets. It took me until yesterday to pick out the paint color, so painting hasn't happened yet.

I am still without a car and still haven't been able to look for one. I was suppose to go to a crop at Archivers with some friends Saturday, but it looks like I will be looking for a car instead. And if I have to give up my day, then I am going to get a reward. I am thinking lunch at El Nopal.

Friday JB will have to take an option day as much as I hate for him to. I made myself an appointment to see a orthopedic doctor after putting it off forever. I fell 6 months ago on my knee and it still hurts and still has a numb spot. I also want to get my left arm checked. It hurts, is weak, goes numb, tingles, you name it. Then because that isn't enough I have the back pain I have been suffering from for over 8 years. I have fell a few times and hurt the same spot over and over. The last time I fell, a spot on my chest and back went numb for a few days. My back always hurts. But I am not done yet. I also have stomach pain that may be related to a pinched nerve in my back. I had to see a gastroenterologist last year because I had some bad stomach pain and abnormal liver tests. Really bad abnormal. Blood tests are fine now so it was probably a bile duct blockage, but I still have the feeling of laying on a lump when I lay on my right side and it aches and is constantly sore. The theory until I get up the nerve to have endoscopy done is a pinched nerve. I am falling apart, its true. I never seem to get enough sleep anymore. I wake up 5 or more times a night because my back hurts and I need to move or my arm is numb or I rolled over to far and my knee touched the mattress. It is ridiculous I tell you.

Hopefully I won't just be thrown a prescription. I would like to find out what is wrong and take care of that because I am not taking medicine all the time.

I am stuck

I have been so busy this past week. Our car got worse and we can no longer drive it. We are stuck with 2 kids and no family car. We can't all go somewhere at the same time. Hopefully we won't have any situations where I need to take E anywhere. Our truck has 3 point seat belts that do not lock and the lap belt and shoulder belt are both the kind that pull out every time you move. No way to get her car seat in and tightened down. Even the locking clips that come with the car seat do no good. Anyways, I have been having to go run my errands plus JB's. In the middle of everything JB finally decides to make repairs to the truck. The wiper motor and the ac/heater switch needed to be fixed. If those two things didn't get fixed then we couldn't drive in the rain or cold. No wipers and no defrost. I was back and forth for parts. Then a bolt got stripped and I was back and forth for new bolts, then for something to take the striped bolt out. It was a pain. But now at least it runs. Now I sit and wait on someone to decide they want to take the kids for the day and come get them so I can go look for another car. Before the money gets spent. I really hate being stuck.

What a difference!

My new camera lens came today. I am so excited to be able to get some pictures that I don't have to edit out my whaa-zoo. I went simple and bought the 50mm lens that is usually part of a kit with the Canon Rebel. My previous lenses were crap. Loads of crap. I hated them. Well that really isn't fair. They could be excellent lenses on the right camera, I wouldn't know. It took me almost a year to find out that the reason the lenses gave me crappy pictures is that they were on the wrong type of camera. The store advertised the lenses incorrectly and I didn't research enough and I ended up with film lenses on a digital camera. And it makes a HUGE difference. Basically the light bounces around a lot more inside a film lens than in a digital. The more light bouncing around and reflecting in the lens the more over exposed and hazy the picture will look. Film cameras can counteract all this extra reflection and light, the digital camera's don't do so well. Especially outside. I could live with indoor pictures made with the film lens, but not the outdoor pictures. And I will show you why. I braved the cold for a whole 2 minutes this afternoon to take some pictures of some trees. (It was too cold to drag the kids out and I was too lazy to go hunt something pretty)

Here is the picture taken with the old film lens. It looks over exposed, hazy, dull, and not at all sharp.

This is taken with the new lens. The colors are much deeper, the picture is sharper and the haze is gone!


I can't wait to be able to go outside and get some real pictures. I will actually feel like using my camera more now. And I can't wait to NOT sit for hours trying desperately to photoshop 200 pictures in an effort to get 5 decent ones.