Monkeys & Neighbors

Not only does he love monkeys
but sometimes I think he IS one!

Remember from this post when I said that Little Dude has his own ice pack? Well, let me tell you why. And these are just stories from this week!

Sunday night I was blogging cleaning the house when I heard a scream. I have never heard a cry like this one and I honestly didn't know which kid it came from. Yes, it was that bad! I go running and I hear feet running in my direction. Turns out Little Dude was sitting on the side of the couch and fell. Well, he said he fell. I think he was trying to be Superman and fly into the stuffed animals that are in the corner next to the couch. I think it scared him more than anything because he stopped crying as soon as I hugged him. I grabbed his ice pack, sat with him for a few minutes, then proceeded to get the kids ready for bed. As we're getting ready to read our bed story I notice the huge purple goose egg on his forehead! Thank goodness it was on his hairline and people aren't going to think I neat him or something! I'm also glad I decided NOT to cut his hair!

Last night GG and I had a Brownie meeting. I really need to start taking special tea and maybe ear plugs to these meetings! Anywho, as we're pulling into the driveway, GG says "Look! Dude is waiting for us!". He was standing on the back of the couch hanging from the curtain!

Please don't fall! Please don't fall!
Where the hell is you father?!?

Just this morning, Little Dude decided to pull out the Lincoln Logs and his bucket o' army men. Somehow in his mind they go together. His space shuttle also likes to play with the knights. I come upstairs from throwing in some laundry to see him sitting on the tv stand! First off, it's cheap and I put it together, which means it may or may not be very sturdy. Secondly, the tv which is already dinged up was NOT cheap!!!

Thankfully he didn't fall for those last 2 stories, but the potential was definitely there!

Maybe I need my neighbor to come help watch him for me so I can stay longer in bloggy-land. Speaking of my neighbor...

She does watch out for people in the neighborhood and she also tends to be quite the gossip! It does make me feel good that my neighbors care enough to make sure we're safe. Like the time she was ready to call the cops about the young man dressed in all black at night standing across the street from my house as me and the kids are getting out of the car. Btw, he was just waiting for a ride from a friend. But I've come to the conclusion she's a mooch.

A few months ago she needed something from her sister. This sister was supposed to drop said item off, but never did and she wasn't answering her phone. She asked if I could ride her over to see is her sister was home. Long story short, I did, no sister, wasted trip.

Shortly after that she said she needed to pay her gas bill but she left her purse at her dad's 1/2 hour away. Could I pay her bill for her and she would give me the cash. That's a big fat HELL and NO!!!

Yesterday she came a-knockin' because her cell phone bill was due (oh crap!). Her car broke, her son's working a double shift, and can I give her a ride to the Cricket store in the morning? I tried to weasel out of it by saying I have to go to my mom's (which I really do at some point). She said if my car's here, she'd come by. To my knowledge she hasn't stopped over yet. Of course I was giving Little Dude a bath and then in the laundry so I wouldn't have heard the door anyway. Oops! What I want to know is, you have at least a cell phone. Why can't you call in a payment? Even if your phone is shut off due to not paying, you can still call the provider to pay the bill. And where the heck is her husband that I've heard about over the past 3 years but have yet to see?

Please tell me I'm not the only one with a crazy caring neighbor?

Until next time...

Say Cheese

First off I want to give shout outs to my new followers.

Now onto the cheesiness that is this post.

Not cheesy as in mushy or anything like that.
Cheese as in

I LOVE TO TAKE PICTURES!!!

It all started with that first click after GG was born. Way back then (cuz she's oh-so old, right?) I had one of those cameras where you had to load the film yourself. I was pretty good at first, but all those rolls eventually sat in their plastic cases on my bookshelf. It must be hereditary because my mom rarely developed film, too. A few years ago she found a roll from Hills. If you know that store and when it closed, than you know just how old that roll was!

Anyway, now we have a digital camera. My line of thought is why develop when you can pull it out and physically show people the pics you took! But now I have hundreds of pictures on the camera and there's a lot of dumb ones, too. That's a lot of pictures to sort through just to delete a few dumb ones!

A little over a year ago, I was contacted by Shutterfly through another site I'm on asking me to make a photo book. The book would be free as long as I joined a particular group on this site and reviewed the book making process. Woo-hoo!!! Free developing of pics with a free album. And it turned out beautifully!

Since then I've learned that you can store your pictures at Shutterfly and if you want them printed out, they can be delivered to your house or to Target - my home away from home! Of course, I've yet to take advantage of this genius-ness. Why, you ask? Well, partly because I'm lazy (see above about undeveloped film). The other reason is they keep asking me to order stuff. And this stuff is free! In the past week I've made a calendar and I just finished another photo book.

I wasn't asked by any Shutterfly people to blog about this, but maybe if I do, someone will see and send more free or discounted stuff my way.

Hey! A girl can hope, right?

And now that I look over this I realize I didn't include any of my own pictures (for once). You see, it took me an hour and a half to make my book. It really is an easy process, but C was working on his computers downstairs. That seems to make my internet connection upstairs uncooperative. Staring at a screen, trying to work, and getting frustrated is not a good combination! I don't know how C does that all day, every day! Bless his wallet heart!

Until next time...

What I Meant

While driving on the highway Monday to get my husband from work, I noticed an SUV behind me flashing her lights at me.

What did I do...

Put on my turn signal and switched lanes so she could pass me.

What I should have done... Flip her off
slow down and actually go the speed limit
but make sure I'm right next to another car
so she can't pass me.

Oh, wait, sorry I DID the second one. Minus the flipping off. I really need to stop that cuz one of these days the kids are gonna up and flip someone off!

****************************************************

Little Dude was looking at his new truck book from the library. With a mouth full of chewed up, nasty french toast, he sneezed all over the book. I cleaned off the book and gave him the paper towel to throw away.

What he said...

{while pinching the towel between the tip of 2 fingers}
I don't want to throw away the sneeze! It's gross!

What I wish he would have said...
Sure Mom! I'll throw it away.
Afterall, you were the one to clean the book.
It's the least I can do!

****************************************************

Last week GG brought home not 1, but 2 notes from school about being in trouble for talking too much. Believe me, if anyone knows she talks too much, it's me! After 3 years, I guess she finally got a teacher that does something about it other than telling her to shush.

Her punishment from me...
no video games and
she had to write 10x "I will not talk in class".

What I meant to say...
You keep talking in class and you're gonna eat soap!
while that is tempting,
we don't need a child going blind
due to soap poisoning

****************************************************

The house phone rings. Right away I know someone wants to sell us something or they're looking for some credit union. Apparently this credit union use to have our number. It's still listed on their website and there's no way to contact them to have it changed. I obviously can't call. LOL!!!

Anywho, annoyed because I was cleaning
(really! I was!)
I answer.

Silence.

Just as I'm about to hang up, I hear
"Hello! This is Verizon calling about Fios.
May I speak with
*insert complete screw up of my name".

What I said...

Aw, screw it! I'll be honest. I hung up on him!

Verizon sucks!!!

Now hop on over to Chief's and see what others meant to say.

I promise ~ it's hilarious!!!

Until next time...

Sticky Sticky

I came across this incredibly easy peanut butter cookie recipe. If I can make them, anyone can! And they are so tasty that I just have to share the recipe!

1 cup peanut butter (any kind)
1 cup sugar (granulated)
1 large egg

Preheat oven 350°F.

Mix sugar and egg together,
then and peanut butter.

That's it.

Now form into 1" balls an press with fork.
Dip fork in a little sugar so it won't stick.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 350°F.

Makes 1 dozen cookies.

To give credit where credit is due, I found this recipe at Cooks.com.


And FYI, we got 2 dozen!

Now head over to SupahMommy's for some more fantastic post-its!

Until next time...

Best Birthdays

MommyBrain loves birthday and she just celebrated another one.
Happy Birthday!!!

In honor of her, this week's Meme is about best birthdays!

Obviously, my kids' first birthdays trump all others. Reaching that milestone means that you, as a parent, have survived a whole year with a baby. And if you had a baby like my son who didn't figure out how to take naps until he was 3 months old, than reaching the one year mark is definitely cause for celebration.

And speaking of my son, I'm surprised he's made it this far. It says a lot when we have a special ice pack just for him! As a matter of fact, I had to pull it out tonight because Superman Little Dude thought he could fly off the couch. Head...meet wall!

Anyway, back to birthdays. There are 2 that come to mind for me. The first was back in '99. I was in my second year at Slippery Rock when my birthday rolled around. Nothing special happened, except for the fact that is was 70 degrees out. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but my birthday is in early February and I was at Slippery Rock. We're usually snowed in that time of year!

My other greatest birthday ever, which is way cooler than being graced with unseasonably warm weather, was my gift from my mom last year. She bought tickets for us to see this man...

Yep, that's right...Jimmy Buffett!

Of course the concert wasn't for another 4 months and that was THE longest wait. EVER!!! And I am NOT a patient person!

But it was so worth the wait! Well, except for the heat. We could have done without that. Seriously, I thought I was going to melt! At one point I pulled a beat up old umbrella from the trunk to try and give us shade. I think I did a pretty good job of rigging in to our chairs. Of course, looking back, I'm sure the margaritas weren't helping. At least not with the heat!

If we are lucky enough to score tickets next year, I have a plan to make the experience even cooler. See, last year we had our drinks in the parking lot and walked around admiring the other fools in clothing they should not have been wearing fat men in coconut bikinis fans. And we had pretty good seats. Beach balls were being tossed around, everyone was so drunk nice. All in all, a good time. But I now know why people get there at the butt crack of dawn when the lots open. And I want to be one of those people. Good times!

Now head on over to Supah's blog and MommyBrain's blog to read about other great birthdays. And tell MommyBrain happy birthday while you're visiting her.


Until next time...