7 Quick Takes Friday

1-
I think that my MIL and my girls are probably all going through withdrawal...They haven't seen each other in 13 days...I'm actually pretty sure that this is the longest period of time since Eva's birth that they have been apart...MIL and FIL got home from their cruise, and FIL got sick...so on Tuesday when I hosted bible study at our house, hubby had to take the girls over one town to DQ and a basketball game instead of up to visit grandma. THEN, MIL was going to come down and help me out/hang out with the girls yesterday (hubby was out of town for most of the day), but SHE ended up getting sick, so she couldn't make it down...now Eva and I are getting sick...so the 13 days may drag on even longer!

2-
Continuing with my ambition in the kitchen, for bible study I made homemade fajitas and homemade tortillas...then I fell off the made from scratch wagon. I ended up using a Wanchai Ferry Chinese food from a box (cashew chicken, yum!) thing, which was really really good, and made me want to learn how to make Chinese food. I bought Edamame last time we were at WalMart (not something sold locally) because I thought it would be fun to try. Hubby wasn't so sure that it would be fun...it turns out that the girls LOVE edamame, and so I am thinking I may have to grow some this summer.

3-
Hubby is working in another town today...so, it (naturally) snowed last night (and of course, I didn't make the girls pick up all the outside toys yesterday because they of course had to come in the house and start whining at me while I was actually trying to accomplish something) and I woke up in the middle of the night to take some medicine, then Eva woke up about an hour later and we gave her some medicine...then hubby reset his alarm because he thought that the snow was going to keep him from traveling to the other town to work. So, he woke up at 5:30...called the boss at the out of town office, found out that he still needed to go, and jumped in the shower. I made him coffee, breakfast (toaster strudel still counts as making breakfast, right?) and gave him some cash for lunch. Then, I was about to head back to bed, and right when I was about to turn off the kitchen light, the phone rang (at 5:50 AM) so, I gave the guy hubby's cell phone number...there's really nothing like the phone ringing before 6 in the morning...

4-
Hopefully the roads will be okay this evening. One of the churches in the next town over is showing the movie "Fireproof" and offering free childcare...I'm very excited about the free childcare thing...and I've wanted to see Fireproof for quite some time now.

5-
Update on the library book on tape that Charlotte destroyed last Friday...hubby went into the library for me to see what we needed to do...they told him to bring back the special book on tape bag, but that our girls could just keep the book. They said we didn't need to replace it, because they were planning on buying a hardcover version of the book in honor of one of the women in town.

6-
I am anxiously awaiting our tax refund...according to TurboTax's first estimate, we should get our refund today...of course, it is not there yet. Then the IRS estimated it would be here by the 17th when I checked last week. When I checked this week, it said by the 24th...I'm really hoping for the 17th. Once it is in our savings, we will have 50% of our emergency fund funded...and we'll also have a little money for home improvement projects (hubby is sooo excited...not...)

7-
I recently subscribed to Cookie Magazine...I'm really not sure what my thinking was when I did so...I like getting magazines because sometimes that's about all I can handle. My favorite, of course, is Faith and Family. I used to get Good Housekeeping, but it grated on me after a while because of its idea of "budget" items, etc. So, after that ended, I subscribed to WonderTime (still have that subscription, too) which has some pretty good stuff, but is a little bit yuppy. I'm thinking that I thought Cookie might be a more family friendly good housekeepingish magazine that dealt with moms of younger kids...but I just read my first issue yesterday (I got two, so we'll see if I like the second one any better) and half the magazine was about s-e-x...and not in a good Catholic way, either...there's even a line drawing of a woman in a thong and garter on one page...so I don't even feel like I can keep the magazine at kid level and not get questions...

More quick takes, as always, over at Jen's blog!

Now, I know I'm insane...

...but this made me laugh until I cried...

7 Quick Takes Friday - In Case You Were Wondering??

1-
First of all, I went on retreat last weekend. The retreat billed itself as a "healing retreat", and I dragged my SIL along with me. I was the first person there in the morning (SIL missed the turn for the Knights of Columbus hall), and so I sat down at one of the tables, opened my folder, saw this, and contemplated running away...

In the end, I did stay, and I am much more comfortable with the concept and the practice of the "woo woo gifts" (as my table leader liked to call them...) Hubby, on the other hand is still VERY suspicious...particularly of speaking in tongues and being slain in the spirit...so I'm thinking that when our church has a charismatic retreat this summer that I might make him go!

2-
I changed our theme on gmail yesterday (to ninjas...just for hubby who thinks he ought to have been a ninja or a pirate...one of his coworkers told him that he snorts too much to be a ninja...and that's definitely true..) and it asked me to put in our city...so I did...and Gmail told me that I did not input a valid city name. In the end, this time I put in Denver (I don't know why Gmail needs to know where I am located for a ninja themed e-mail browser...) The last time this happened, I was entering a sweepstakes (a very dorky hobby of mine...wait...I don't have any non-dorky hobbies!) I think maybe it was for an RV...when I put in our city name, it told me that it did not have enough letters (as though I have control over how many letters are in our town's name...) that time, I got creative and used the name of another town that shares our zip code (and has about 100 people in it...)

3-
Last week for story time at the library, they met at the local museum and talked about buffalo bones and the Indians that used to live around here. So, Eva has been telling us all about the museum ever since. Hubby had Wednesday off, and really wanted to take the girls on a field trip (he wanted to do the Denver Zoo or Museum of Nature and Science...but as it was BEFORE PAYDAY, we ended up doing the closer and way more affordable local museum...) It's a good thing we didn't go much farther, because I don't think we even spent 45 minutes there...Naturally Charlotte pooped her diaper on the walk up and smelled terrible the whole time (that child WILL be potty training soon...) and we took the tour at Eva speed. It is a pretty neat museum...much better organized than the one in hubby's hometown.

4-
Continuing with my goal to make more things from scratch (such as the hot dog buns and tortillas I posted about already), and continuing with my new tradition of cooking steaks the dinner before payday (we're working our way through half a quarter beef...) we had a really tasty dinner last night of rib eye steaks, Au gratin potatoes and glazed carrots (The only veggies currently in the house are some carrot and celery sticks, a bag of frozen soup veggies, and the last bag of corn we put up this summer...) I really need more practice on timing from scratch items. Hubby grilled out the steaks, and also grilled a bunch of chicken legs while he was at it, so I have a meal for today half done already!

5-
You don't want to know how many times a day the girls want to watch the "Pug Summer" video that hubby posted here last week...not to mention the "Bad Pugs" video that if you want to see, you'll have to go over to YouTube (think really bad singing with words changed to relate to a pug using the theme song from COPS)

6-
Today is FILs 50th birthday. Most likely he is being harassed at meals on their cruise. I am wondering how the whole cruise boat thing is going. MIL called me right before they left (they were on the lido deck, with frosty beverages in hand) because they told her that cell phones wouldn't work once they set sail (MIL without her phone for a week is an entertaining thought! She's worse about her cell phone than hubby is about his...and he updates facebook mobily quite a bit now...) The cruise ends tomorrow, then they fly home on Sunday.

7-
I hope that they are having a good time, but I am REALLY looking forward to them getting back...you see, we get their dog when they go on vacation (I guess it's only fair, since they get our dog every time we go out of town...) She's a pug (Bubba's older sister) and her face is even more squished that Bubba's face. Well, she is used to being fed wet dog food that makes her smell (she's getting mostly dry here), sleeping in bed with MIL and FIL (she gets a pillow on the floor here) and getting lots of table scraps (it's a dog eat dog world around here...plus the kids don't drop too much, so she's really screwed...) She is a very sweet dog...but THE SNORING!!! I don't know if I can take it much longer...I'm already suffering from sleep deprivation, and I still have two nights to go!

Of course, there are plenty more quick takes over at Jen's blog!

BONUS EDIT...

So, I just finished up school with Eva, and part way through I noticed that Charlotte was playing with the library books...in particular a book on tape. I told her no, and to put the book back...she left it alone for a while. I looked up later, and noticed she had the book out of the bag, and told her to put it back...she couldn't so she brought it to me, and it was then that I discovered to my horror that she had pulled all of the tape out of the cassette...and actually severed it...so now hubby is going to stop by the library on the way home to find out how we can deal with this (if I can just order a new one for the library, it will be about $8...I remember library replacement fees for books to be $25 when I was a kid...I shudder to think what the standard replacement fee might be now...) Not a particularly good start to the day...

If hubby can do this...surely I can figure it out...

So, here goes!

Not to pat myself on the back or anything...

...but I just have to say that I rock!

Okay, so I'm a dork, but anyone who bothers to read this blog knows this already...

Our fridge is getting to be VERY pathetic looking, as payday is not until Friday. So, I've been getting a little ambitious with meal prep (other than the totinos pizza rolls for lunch yesterday since hubby had a last minute schedule change...)

On Monday, after my weekend retreat (more about that on Friday...I need to scan in a picture...) I made homemade sloppy joes, served with apples and homemade pickles. I got dinner in the crock pot early, and made Moroccan chicken casserole...then we decided to go up to my MILs house so that I could clean her kitchen while she is away on her cruise (and hubby had a meeting to go to up there) and I brought the crock pot along.

Yesterday night, I made homemade mac and cheese and dessert (a special request by Eva). We had a little leftover, and had that with brats on my homemade hot dog buns and homemade pickles for lunch today.

And tonight, I had 4 chicken thighs left over (uncooked) from when I made the chicken casserole, so I needed to get them used today. I didn't quite know what to do, so we decided on tacos. We roasted the chicken meat, defrosted a bag of my homemade refried beans (made last week in the crock pot), pulled out a little cheese, a jar of homemade salsa, and I made tortillas from this recipe. Served with corn that we put up this summer, I am feeling very pleased with myself.

And now a word from Eva, who was informing me that I could change the color of my text...

"Dear grandpa and grandma. I want to see you here but you are on vacation and I want to see you again and go on vacation with you."

...and now Charlotte

I sit. Mommy and daddy talk.

There you go...and I am going to go play sequence for kids now!

Beautiful pro-life music video

You might want to watch this without kids in the room, just because it's a love song to a child who was never allowed to be born...and your kids might not be old enough to have that conversation yet. Plus, if you react like I did, they will probably wonder why you're crying. (just a little, though!)

h/t to American Papist

25 things about me

So, I'm going on a little bit of a Facebook binge while MM is out of town on retreat. But this is really trying to be economical with my online time: I developed this list for Facebook and am now using it here because I thought someone out there might be a little bit interested. To be honest, I really got the idea from MM, who did exactly the reverse: after losing her first version of "25 things," she copied and pasted parts of her January quick takes from here to create a new list for Facebook. Anyway, here's this:

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. [MM] and I are both apparently techno-dolts, as we both managed to lose our 25 things lists ([MM]'s after she thought she had published it, which may have ended her relationship with the notes application.)

2. This should not really be surprising, as we are both (a postal worker and a stay at home mom) walking, talking anachronisms.

3. Two books having to do with the "philosophical underpinnings" of a postal system, both of which I really enjoyed, are David Brin's "The Postman" (although I've never seen the Costner movie) and Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal."

4. No, I'm not going postal. And it's not really that funny, the 800th time it's been asked.

5. Although I can kinda see how it happens: bureaucracy's "irrationality of rationality" and all, a la Max Weber.

6. See? I (sort of) use my Sociology degree in my daily life!

7. I think, if I had it to do over, I might've majored in History. I tend toward that in much of my independent learning and reading now.

8. Not that I didn't enjoy a Soc major and minors in Philosophy and Peace and Justice Studies...but "enjoyed" don't pay the bills. Heh

9. I do think all the critical thinking exercise I received during this course of study helped me kick some serious butt on the LSAT. Too bad I really, really didn't want to be a lawyer, when all was said and done.

10. I'm pretty content now just providing for my family doing whatever will pay the bills in a morally acceptable way.

11. I don't know how it's going to look, but I really like the idea behind what [our alma mater] (I've read) is doing outside the Science Building w/r/t the interconnectedness of "faith" and "reason."

12. During my lifetime, I think I've gone from one extreme to other, thinking they were either/or. Now I think it's a largely false dichotomy, but there still is some creative tension between the two.

13. Maybe that's why I like "Lost" so much. I think it's BOTH sci-fi AND fantasy. Jack and Locke are both right.

14. W/r/t "Lost," though, I do lean more toward "goober" than "scooby." See http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1550612_20245769_20253740,00.html if you care to figure out what that means.

15. While at ew.com, I noticed a story called "29 films you saw too young." It's funny, because I was just thinking about how I had a hard time reading "Lord of the Rings" again when I was really old enough to get more out of it because I had probably read it too early, and how Eva's gotten some really cool toys that were just too old for her but then were trashed by the time she could really get something out of them. I think this is analogous to a lot of experiences (and lifestyle choices). But that's just me, and I probably never would've thought that when I was younger.

16. Going back to the faith and reason thing, we just saw Ben Stein's "Expelled" film. Whatever your feelings on intelligent design, evolution, etc. I can't recommend this documentary highly enough. It's so much better than I expected it to be.

17. I'd better stop rambling and hurry this up before I have to leave for work.

18. I'm paranoid about losing all this again and have been periodically copying the whole thing just in case.

19. I'm glad to have moved back out to the boondocks, although there are times I miss being able to go to lectures on a whim, etc. I think I actually miss the city more than [MM] does, though it's still not that much.

20. I'd like where we live a little more if I didn't have to drive by the Butte Motel every day. One side of the sign lost the last "e," so it now says Butt Motel. I don't know why that bothers me so much, but it really does.

21. We have a pug named Bubba.

22. We are beginning to suspect that our two-year-old, Charlotte, may be allergic to Bubba. This may become a problem.

23. I love my kids very much. It helps that they're already little dorks like their parents.

24. I'm proud of how [MM] and Eva are doing with the homeschooling so far. I am excited to see the fruits of this develop.

25. My life is totally not what I thought it was going to be ten years ago. Thank God!

And now for something completely different...

Yes, this is stupid. It also has me about to fall out of my chair laughing. You be the judge of whether that's a compliment to the song or an indictment of me!

Quick Takes Friday

1-
We ordered another Spanish program yesterday...Eva will be done with the first Kindergarten Spanish program in two weeks...I'm still looking for the perfect one, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it! So far we have (almost) finished Teach Them Spanish, and have ordered Flip Flop Spanish.

2-
I finally made decent looking hot dog buns (they were a little crumbly, but I think this recipe has definite potential!) from these instructions.

3-
MIL, SIL, the girls and I went to see Matthew Kelly speak this week. He was really good...I just wish I hadn't missed the first part of his talk because of a VERY poopy diaper...(Speaking of poopy diapers...I don't remember for the life of me how we potty trained Eva...any pointers and tips? We are hoping to transition before too long!) Back to Matthew Kelly...we got a bunch of his books (surprise, surprise!) including his DVD set and workbook. MIL and I are hoping that we will be able to get our Women of Grace group back together to work through his study. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe we'll get it together for Lent.

4-
Since giving up diet soda and transitioning to coffee, I have discovered that it is necessary to buy those ginormous coffee containers...and for some reason, I find it a little disturbing to go through as much coffee and we are going through!

5-
A week or two ago, we got our annual form letter from the church detailing our giving for the year for tax purposes. This week, we got a form letter from Father saying that a form letter was not enough to express his gratitude for our support of the church...so, he apologized for the impersonality of a form letter with...another form letter!

6-
The girls get to go stay with Grandma tonight and tomorrow, as I am heading up to a women's retreat with my SIL. Then hubby will pick them up tomorrow evening, and on Sunday, I'll be coming home from the retreat, and MIL and FIL will be leaving for their cruise to Mexico.

7-
Okay, I'll fess up one of the items I was asking for prayers about now...This week I had my first appointment with a bariatric surgeon, and all is looking like it should work out. They see me as an excellent candidate for Adjustable Gastric Band surgery, and I fit our insurance company's specifications for qualifying. So, at this point, I am working on losing 20 lbs and trying to get my exercise up to 5-7 days per week. I'll have an appointment with the dietitian next month, and my psychological evaluation in March. I'm also waiting for the all clear on the insurance front, and have been told to be "very careful" in terms of not getting pregnant, because they (obviously!) will not do the surgery if I'm pregnant. The doc told me one story of a woman who was there on her surgery day, and had a pregnancy test come back positive...obviously, she wasn't able to have her surgery...so really strict NFP rules, here we come!

More quick takes at Jen's!

I may pay for this later

Since I have apparently figured out how to embed YouTube videos on here, I'll go ahead and post one that MM was on the fence about whether to post or not. Don't get me wrong: it's completely wholesome, but it references a part of pop culture that not everybody appreciates, to say the least.

But MM ain't here today! ;-) And, anyway, it really IS wholesome (and FUNNY!).

"And if you're Catholic, there's even mooore." ROTFL

Matt Maher

Back in September, MM and I saw Matt Maher on EWTN's "Life on the Rock," and he made such an impression on me that I immediately asked for the new album he was promoting for the birthday I had coming up in October. I've really enjoyed it since then, and am a little amazed at the niche he-a very devout Catholic-has carved out in the overwhelmingly Protestant Christian music industry.

Anyway, now that we can actually watch streaming videos on our computer, I thought I'd post an overview of Maher's most recent album from the record label. *crossing my fingers this works!*

Would it be insensitive to say...

that I, on the other hand, am having a pretty good day? At the very least, it kind of reminds me of the old statistic about how getting married massively extends the lifespan of the average man, but somewhat shortens the lifespan of the average woman. At least, I think that's what the old statistic says... I'm a little bit fuzzy on it, now.

To be fair, I just talked to MM on the phone, and she seems to be having a better day. She made my mom listen to Dave Ramsey with her, which I find fairly funny. Still pretty hectic, but better. Hopefully the girls (and my sister and mother) will behave relatively well at the lecture they are attending tonight. Otherwise, the final good/bad tally for the day may be in some question.

I have to say I am enjoying the first uninterrupted and unscheduled time I've had to marvel at our new 256K internet connection. I'm affraid I've misplaced a lot of blame for computer headaches the last couple of years with our PC itself, when it mostly had to do with us just being too cheap to upgrade (admittedly, MM's dad's gift to us of more RAM not too long ago helped a lot, too).

Sadly, though, I can only torment my friends on Facebook so much without getting pretty bored. Same thing goes with watching the tube. So, I have to say that I'm missing MM and the girls pretty badly. A little peace and quiet is nice once in a while, but the chaos is what gives my life purpose, I guess.

Correction: I have since been informed that we actually now have 512K, not 256. As you can see, I was thoroughly involved in the research and planning of this switch. ;-)

Not having a good day...

I couldn't get dressed this morning because I needed to wash and dry a load of laundry (I needed underwear...)

While trying to put some podcasts on our IPod for our last minute whirlwind trip to see Matthew Kelly speak (plus go to a bunch of doctors appointments on Tuesday) it turns out our IPod is corrupted.

Hubby and I thought he was supposed to go back to work at 12:30, but found out that he is actually supposed to be back at noon (we found this out at 11:25 when I was defrosting hamburger for today's lunch...)

AND, I caught one of my oven mitts on fire while cooking...

Hopefully the rest of the day goes better!

Quick Takes Friday- High Speed Edition

1-

I have doubled my productivity since getting our DSL equipment installed yesterday...okay, maybe not PRODUCTIVITY...but at least all of my time wasting on the Internet takes less time now!

2-

I'm much more excited about podcasts now that I was before. We used to download a podcast called "Pray as you go" by the Jesuits, but each week we'd have to leave our dial up connected all night long to get five podcasts for the week, and I doubt that any of them are longer than 10 minutes. I downloaded next week's podcasts yesterday, and it took me a whopping 10-15 minutes to download them all...Even the slowest DSL is amazingly fast for me!

3-

Charlotte is sick again...I'm supposed to take her back into the doc next week to check on her ears...at the last appointment he said that she either was just getting over an ear infection, or just getting one. We didn't do antibiotics since there was a good chance she was getting over one, but now her fever and cough are back (after almost 2 weeks of very few problems). Poor kid!

4-

Yesterday we got done with school before 10:30 am, which is a record as of late...basically, I've been doing well if we start school before nap time. Hopefully today I will follow the same plan and get school done before lunch...then, of course, I have another week of school to plan out.

5-

Besides the faster Internet connection getting me going faster in the morning (I'm sure I'm not the only one that says "just ONE more blog, THEN I'll get ready..." more than once a morning!) I took Danielle Bean's advice about night showering...I never thought it would work for me, with my horrible curly hair, but I've done it twice now (which is more than I usually do in a year...I only have showered at night before if I had to spend the evening around smokers...) and have found that if I braid my hair after my shower and sleep on the braid, my hair actually looks pretty good (for my hair anyway!)

6-

Eva has recently started to get things off the top of the TV cabinet (I can only assume that she stands on a basket and stretches to reach things) and out of child proofed cabinets (to get things for her sister, of course). Not that I am surprised that she CAN do these things, it just is a little strange that this is the first she HAS done these things...I've had to remind her that when I put toys in a child proofed cabinet, that means that I want to control access to it...the dumb "Froggy book" (LeapPad) that she got out is now confiscated and in my room because the girls were driving me nuts with fighting over it.

7-

Speaking of the LeapPad book...don't you HATE it when well meaning people get your kids toys that are way too old for them? The LeapPad would have been an awesome gift for Eva this year, but she actually got it from my parents when she was 2...not a good age for that sort of thing. Of course, this is not limited to my side of the family...one time the girls went shopping with hubby's parents, and somehow my FIL ended up taking them to pick out toys (because, to grandparents, every time you go shopping is a time for a new toy!) and Charlotte got a Dora doll that said ages 3+ (which was fine, because I do supervise my kids with toys...she might have still been under a year, but at least was significantly under 2), and Eva got a kids ATM that said ages 7+...eventually, we had to smash the dumb thing to get her money out because the stupid thing was too complicated for us once the instruction booklet got lost (sorry MIL, it had to be done!) A few times Eva has asked about it, and we had to give her some story about giving it away (well, the trash guys COULD have taken it out of the trash, how would I know?)

More quick takes over at Jen's, as usual!

Budgeting, email and taxes...oh my!

I am so completely tired of sitting in front of the computer getting these three things done (so naturally, I am sitting in front of the computer blogging about how tired of these I am!)

Hubby's hours have been cut back little by little over the last several months, and we keep thinking that they'll start going back up soon...so we've just been trying to go with the flow. Well, we got his pay stub for this Friday, and were a little sad to see the number. But, it covers all our bills (although we did have to put off contributing to Charlotte's college fund for a month), so we're not complaining. Hubby did, however, apply for a part time second job (evenings and weekends) so we would appreciate any prayers about that situation.

We also have been planning on getting high speed Internet for my 30th birthday in August...so I was researching prices (after being told by the church organist that she had tried to call me for several days because she needed a cantor for a funeral, and that she finally gave up and got her daughter's doctor to allow her off bed rest for preeclampsia for the funeral...) and found out that all of the places that provide high speed Internet out here require a one year contract. Since we are REALLY not sure if we will be here much longer than a year (particularly if hubby's hours keep getting cut) we decided to go ahead and get high speed now...so starting Friday, I'll be able to do all sorts of things on the computer I never have before (I can watch my first YouTube video!) So, I don't know if that was a good or bad decision, but I guess I'm locked into paying for a year...

Of course, with changing ISPs, we also have to change our e-mail address...I didn't actually realize how many places I would need to change our e-mail until I started going through our inbox and trash can in Outlook...I mean, just little things like Seton Home, Blogger, CCL, ITunes, banks, mortgage, investment accounts...and on and on and on...

I also started working on taxes, and decided to try the Turbo Tax free edition (as suggested by Christine R...thanks!) and it is working out great so far (I still need the appropriate documentation from our banks, but other than that I'm all set!) and it is looking like we will be getting back a good chunk of change, and are going to owe the state under $200 (MUCH better than the almost $500 we owed last year!)

Well, I should probably stop procrastinating and get back to everything I am working on! Hopefully I'll get a chunk of it all done before nap time is over!

My girls are goofy...

So, a while back, we were watching something recorded on our DVR because two things were recording. When it finished, the TV went back to the PBS station, where one of the shows recording had just finished...there was some sort of cooking show on, and Eva begged to watch it. I figured that cooking shows are generally pretty safe, so I agreed to let her watch it.

Well, the show (which I really don't have any objections to, other than I find the woman a little overly cheerful) was Katie Brown Workshop...and Eva LOVED it...so, I ended up finding it on the TV and recording the episodes. Now the girls are constantly asking to watch Katie Brown (even Charlotte can say "Kay-ee Bwown!"

Also, on Friday afternoon, I had to take the girls up to the church to meet with the organist because I was a cantor for Mass this weekend. So, when we are leaving I pulled out my new cell phone to check the time. Eva said "Mommy, you have a new phone!" and I of course responded that yes, I do have a new phone. Then she said, "and we have a new car!" (of course, it is a 1995 Olds, but yes, it is new to us) and I said that yes we do have a new car. So, she said "We have A LOT of new things!", and I decided to tease her a little bit. I said "yes, we do have a lot of new things...should we get a new Eva?" and she said "No! Cause I am the Eva that was in your tummy!", so I said "should we get a new Charlotte?" and Eva again shouted "No! Cause Charlotte is the Charlotte that was in your tummy!" (Charlotte is also shouting no at me at this point). So, I said, "Oh, okay...should we get a new daddy?" and Eva responded "Yes!" (Charlotte still voted no)...

We've decided to keep the current daddy after all...

Quick Takes Friday

1-
We finished up the transitions teacher training classes for CCL, so we are now certified to teach the premenopause and postpartum classes...with the number of women in my mom's group at church, you'd think that we would have people waiting on the postpartum class (and maybe a few will want to take it when we do offer it!) but strangely, we've had one woman really needing the premenopause class, so it looks like that may be our first supplemental class. We did have a small problem with the test for the premenopause class...the required score to pass was 100%...and when we got done it told us that we got one question wrong (thankfully, it does tell us what question...) so we took the test no less than 10 times trying to get the right answer (it was a select all that apply question), and finally on time 10, I insisted that we had put in the right answer the first time through, and told hubby that I was putting in that answer again, and if it didn't work, I was going to call someone and give them a piece of my mind. It worked! We had answered the question right the first time, but the computer system screwed something up...actually, this happened on another test with a required 100% score where we had answered correctly and were told we answered incorrectly...of course, that answer only had 4 possible choices, so by time 5 of testing, we managed to pass...but if it is a choose all that apply and there are 5 options....well, that's a lot of different tries!

2-
We both have new cell phones. My MIL offered to put me on their family plan (which hubby has been on forever...he's the oldest, and all of his siblings have moved on and gotten their own cell phone plans...not us though!) the carrier gets way better service in our area than Verizon (No, I can't hear you now on my Verizon phone unless I stand next to the back door and don't move, sit out on the porch, or park in front of the grocery store to make a call...) which is what my parents have (I am still on their family plan, too, for a little bit longer). Hubby talked his mom into unlimited web access, and has been wasting even more time with his phone (he is a cell phone addict) than usual. I haven't done any web yet, but I am pretty enamoured with the voice activated calling on mine....

3-
Of course, we got the new phones up in MILs town, which we went up to on Wednesday. Eva and my MIL and I stayed until the end with the signing of the contract at the cell phone place, but hubby took Charlotte out to MILs house. So, after the contract was signed, we went to the grocery store. At the store up there they have little kids grocery carts. Grandma, of course, let Eva drive the cart. Unfortunately at one point Eva was running with the cart (after I told her not to about a dozen times) and grandma walked in front of her accidentally. Well, the cart rammed into my MIL and cut her heel, but also flew back and gave Eva a bloody fat lip. After a lot of drama, one of the ladies from the deli brought her a bag of ice, and we made it through the store.

4-
Other interesting things that happened on Wednesday...my MIL booked a 5 day cruise for FILs 50th birthday...she's not telling him about it (of course, she told the cell phone store lady, FILs brother, her dad, all her kids, and who knows who else!) and her original plan to get him to the airport was to tell him that hubby's little sister and her husband had a huge fight and that she was on a plane home...hubby's other sister and I both think that was a bad idea. I've suggested buying him a new swimsuit, printing out a cruise itinerary, wrapping it up, and giving it to him as an early birthday present at breakfast the morning they are supposed to leave. It should be interesting, as he doesn't like to be away from home for more than 48 hours...

5-
This just fits my normal luck...it took me forever to figure out a Christmas present for my parents. My mom is in full de-junking mode, and most of the ideas that hubby and I could come up with would probably be thrown out. Finally, we decided on a magazine subscription, but my mom isn't much of a magazine person...however, she has been driving me nuts for the past year or so telling me how very "green" she is...so, I ordered her National Geographic's Green Guide for Christmas...well, it never debited from my account, so I went to find the customer service info, which took me forever to find...it turns out that they stopped publishing the magazine...so, I gave my mom a copy and told her she was getting a year's worth for Christmas, and they stopped publishing the magazine...it just figures!

6-
Have I mentioned how annoyed I am with our e-mail spam filter?!?!? For some reason, about a month ago all of my yahoo groups things started to be put in the spam folder. We have tried about 101 different ways of getting it to go into the INBOX, but have had NO LUCK!!! So, when my Catholic Moms group gets all chatty, I end up having to go into the spam folder in web mail three times a day to keep up, which is quite inconvenient with dial-up Internet.

7-
Yesterday I got to help out with Eva's story time at the library. They were shorthanded (there was a small plane that went down two days ago, and killed several people, and one of the ladies was with her friend who lost her husband) and the kids were supposed to paint hand prints on the wall in the story time room. So, I got to paint the kids hands and tried to help get some of them cleaned up, too...it really was more of a 4 person job, but we got by with 3 adults. The experience reminded me why I don't do more painting crafts around here!

Thanks to Jen for hosting quick takes!

$52.40

Well, we are back from our short vacation/K of C meeting, we picked up our kiddos, and we are back into the swing of normal life (although I am still working on laundry from the weekend!)

Yesterday we took the day off school (I normally plan on Saturday or Sunday for the upcoming week) and one of the urgent matters that needed to be attended to was grocery shopping. We left the fridge in a very sad state (a couple of grapefruits, some margarine, a bunch of condiments, and a tiny little bit of milk that we didn't finish before we left). Our pantry was also looking a little empty as well...so I had $42 in my wallet, and intended to shop with that...well, I wasn't having a very good day yesterday, and by the time I got the items we needed (milk, eggs, bananas, etc) and a few of the specials (79 cent chicken, yogurt, cereal), I had pretty much lost track of my adding. When it was all totaled up, it came to over $57, and I just about cried as I handed over my coupons...I had even passed up a fairly decent deal for toilet paper (which I didn't remember to buy while we were away, but we still have a couple of rolls) because it was $6 or $7...the total came down to $52.40...I admitted defeat and handed over my debit card (silently cursing because we haven't even received our gas bill and I have to pay it out of this paycheck...)

I came home depressed...hubby's reaction was SO not helpful (something along the lines of "it's not that big of a deal!"), and a while later I added the transaction to Quicken. When I typed in our local grocery store's name into the "Payee" space, it popped up the last transaction amount to them, which it always does...but the amount was $52.40...I had to go over to the other account and make sure that I hadn't put the transaction in already in the wrong checking account, but sure enough, the last time I used a debit card at that store, my total was EXACTLY the same as it was yesterday...that was back in mid-December...I find it a little creepy...and I'm starting to wonder if I should just start budgeting $52.40 per week...

7 Quick Takes Friday

1-
I always love every other Friday, because it is PAYDAY!!! Sometimes I really wish that hubby got a few more hours at work, but with all of the holidays (unpaid) recently I am not going to complain about it. The good news is that we have enough money to pay our bills that are due, and even put a little into our emergency fund. We now have 11% of month 2 funded, and we are aiming for 5 months.

2-
We had dentist appointments this week. Eva LOVES going to the dentist (it's really funny how excited she gets about it). I think this is mostly due to the fact that she seems to have inherited my good teeth, rather than hubby's lousy teeth. Just as an example, I think I've had two fillings in my life (not as good as my mom, who got her first filling after 40) and hubby had two fillings on Tuesday...

3-
Hubby is currently teaching Eva a science lesson...and I'm trying not to listen...I just heard him say "it's like when you fart..." which Eva really thought was funny. Today has something to do with baking soda...

4-
We get a romantic weekend away to Colorado Springs...okay, maybe not really romantic, since it is for a K of C meeting...but it is a getaway, and the kids are going to stay with grandma. So, after we finish class and pack this morning, we are taking them up to grandma's town, taking grandma out to lunch (as a pre-babysitting thank you) and then transferring the dog to her car, driving home, changing cars, then driving down to the Springs. I'm looking forward to a little shopping.

5-
Speaking of shopping, I am a little bummed that the major grocery stores aren't having good sales this week...(well, one of them is, but they don't have any stores in the Springs...just in Denver...) but I am excited about Walgreens. I figured out four transactions for today (or Saturday, but I think we'll be pretty busy then) and two transactions for Sunday. The first day at the end I will have spent $36.11 OOP, and will get $27.48 back in rebates (with another $3 manufacturer's rebate). The second day, I will spend pretty close to $10 even. That includes getting medicine, cereal, dish washing detergent (I have 1 electrasol tab left in the house), soap, generic pull-ups, all the FAR items, oatmeal, valentines (for Eva's story time group), vitamins and soda. Hopefully all goes as planned, but I'm sure I'll have to be flexible.

6-
My MIL has offered to try to potty train Charlotte this weekend...I told her I'd send up panties if she's feeling ambitious, but I'm just not that hopeful...after all this is the kid who when we call her a big girl yells at us saying "NO!!! Baby!!!"

7-
Am I a dork that I can't wait to do our taxes??? I've been contemplating when to buy Turbo Tax, and thought about doing it this pay period, but if I do, I can't put money into savings. Besides, we don't have any of our tax documents (I know, I need therapy!) but I am excited to get it done, because I am estimating that we'll be getting about $900 refund (we paid less than $1 in federal tax this year, but our two little tax credits should get us something back.) Although I have to admit that I am not excited about filing state taxes, because last year we owed over $450 to the state, after years and years of getting a refund (partially due to tax changes in the state, and partially due to the fact that we paid more federal taxes before kids, and therefore paid more into the state tax system.

As usual, there are more quick takes over at Jen's blog!

Just checking in...

Hi to anyone who may be reading this. Thought I'd check in, as it's been approximately three millennia since the last time I wrote anything here. I still don't have anything particularly interesting to say, but I am finally feeling a little perkier. I've had the coughing crud trend that's been sweeping the country and, although I'm still snotty enough to be annoying my co-workers with my snorting and snuffling, at least I don't want to curl up in a ball and cry anymore. At least not about feeling sick, anyway.

Speaking of being annoying, does anyone else besides me have such a serious kid that you sometimes feel the need to purposefully annoy them with silliness? Eva seems to have taken after me in the taking yourself too seriously department, and she hasn't been around long enough for the world to deflate her head as thoroughly as it has mine... so I've been trying to get her to lighten up a little. Yesterday I was dancing and skipping around the house a little bit just to get on her nerves, and I was successful! She glared at me and shouted, "Dad! I said no dancing around in the house for big guys like you!" Remember, this is a four-year-old. This led MM to give Eva a warning about shouting at her dad, and a warning to me about intentionally being irritating.

Actually, the said four-year-old is sitting on my lap as I type (along with her two-year-old sister). This is not especially helpful to my already so-so typing skills, but it is making me more thankful for blogger's spell checker.

I asked Eva what she wanted to say on Mommy's blog and (although I'm not sure she understands the possibilities) here it is, in her chosen color:
"I love you Mommy! Can we play with Play-Dough? And after we clean it up, can we please color with crayons? That's all."

Charlotte, for her part, says:
"Geen. My dink. Sooch E-a."

FYI, Eva interprets this last part as saying, "Dear Mommy, I want to write a letter to Eva's teacher."

Huh.