Wii interrupt this blog

I just wanted to let all my readers know that I am a Guitar Hero! Yes, I am so much better than my son and my husband. Of course, I have been playing it for two days straight and my fingers hurt so bad I can barely type.

**Also, I am not sure why the son keeps complaining about not getting to use his Christmas gift. Seriously, mother and son bonding time. I play. He watches.

I think it is time for a refill

One of the issues that occurs with having three children is that I have to share my computer. Somebody is always on it. They are also always printing things. Our ink cartridges run out fast. It seems we are always in need of a new Hewlett Packard Ink Cartridge.

Inkjetdeals.info has information for several online retailers that sell inkjet cartridges at a discount. You can find cartridges for many name brand printers. They also have coupons available.

This site also has lots of information on printers. You can learn about different types of printers and also about generic cartridges.

My personal favorite link on their site is the Seven Tips for Saving Ink. I am definitely going to bookmark that link.

This post is sponsored.

I should have posted this yesterday but here ya go

Twas the Night Before Christmas...Mom Style

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the abode,
Only one creature was stirring, she was cleaning the commode.
The children were sleeping, all snug in their beds,
While visions of X-box 360 and IPODS flipped through their heads.

Dad was snoring in front of the family TV
With a half-constructed bike propped up on his knee.
So only Mom heard the reindeer hooves clatter,
Which made her sigh, 'Now what's the matter?'

With toilet brush still clutched in her hand,
She descended the stairs and saw an old man
All covered with soot, which fell with a shrug'
'Oh great,' muttered Mom, 'now I have to clean up the rug.'

'Ho! Ho! Ho!' cried Santa, 'I'm glad you're awake---
My gift to you was especially difficult to make.'
'Thanks Santa, but all I want is time alone.'
'Exactly!' he chuckled, 'so I've made you a clone.'

'A clone?' she muttered. 'What good is that?'
Now run along Santa, I've no time to chat.'
Then out walked the clone, the dear mother's twin,
Same hair and same eyes, the same double chin.

'She'll cook and she'll dust, she'll mop every mess,
You'll relax, take it easy, watch the Young and Restless.'
'Fantastic!' mom cheered, 'My dream has come true!'
'I'll shop and I'll read and I'll sleep the night through!'

From the room up above, the youngest did fret.
'Mommy come quickly----I'm scared and I'm wet!'
The clone replied, 'I'm coming sweetheart.'
'WOW!' the mom smiled. 'She sure knows her part.'

The clone changed the small one and sung him a tune
As she bundled him up in a blanket cocoon.
'You're the best mommy ever---I really love you!'
The clone smiled and said, 'I love you too!'

The real mom frowned and said 'Santa , no deal!
That's my baby's love that she's trying to steal.'
Smiling wisely Santa said, 'To me it's so clear,
Only one loving mother is needed right here.'

The mom kissed her child and tucked him in bed,
'Thank you so much, dear Santa, for clearing my head',
Knowing time goes too fast ,and it won't be too long,
That her children will no longer need her cradle nor song,

The clock on the mantle then began to chime;
Santa whispered to the clone, 'It works every time.'
And with the clone at his side, Santa said,' Goodnight
Merry Christmas, dear mom, you will be all right!'

© By Catherine Cornell

My fingers are bleeding

Does anybody else seriously dislike all those little wires that hold the toys into their packaging? I can not tell you how many of those I have removed today. Merry Christmas to the people who invented those and the doctors who will be treating all of the parents tomorrow. :)

New Year's Resolutions

I have so many resolutions for the upcoming year. One of them is to lose weight. I lost around thirteen pounds last year and have gained all of them back. If I don't get my weight under control I may consider getting a Lapband. I know that for my weight loss Conroe TX is one of the many different locations available for this procedure. I certainly will try other measures first but it is nice to know that this is an option.

This post is sponsored.

This may seem like common knowledge

Growing up my mom wouldn't let me in the kitchen. I can understand now how being the mother of five kids she wouldn't want us all in the kitchen. It was just easier to do it herself.

The problem with that has been that I have had to basically teach myself to cook. I mean it hasn't been that hard. I am a good reader and can follow directions pretty well. Plus, apparently my mom doesn't mind giving directions OVER THE PHONE.

I have never been good at making spaghetti. It was always sticky. So my family has basically had "goulash" spaghetti for as long as I have been cooking. I just make rotini noodles and dump in the sauce and mix it up.

Tonight I tried my hand at regular spaghetti and meatballs. I was quite impressed with it, if I do say so myself. First of all, I used whole wheat noodles. I love whole wheat pasta. My husband doesn't mind it in the rotini noodle but didn't seem to be a fan of the spaghetti noodle.

I also just used frozen meatballs. If I had realized I could just get half this stuff premade I would have been doing it years ago.

Now here is where I feel I am finally learning what it means to be a real cook. After I put the spaghetti in the water I decided to put some olive oil in it so that it wouldn't be all sticky. Now maybe everybody else on earth already knew how to do that, but I did not. So score one for me.

While my sauce was cooking with the meatballs I noticed that it was pretty thick and there wasn't really enough so I decided to add some water to thin it out. Also something I never would have thought of when I was young. Score two for me. I probably should have added two cups of water but I will remember next time.

Anyway, moral of the story. I was so excited to have non-sticky spaghetti and meatballs and I thought it was wonderful and I didn't even have to call my mom for help. :)

I guess my love for dessert carries over into movies

I love watching Johnny Depp movies. He is such a wonderful actor and can really carry off any part. The movies that he picks and the roles that he plays are always so unique. They are certainly not your standard boy-next-door roles.

Sometimes it is hard to decide which Johnny Depp movie I like the best. His role as Roux in Chocolat was riveting. I think one of my favorite moments from that movie was after they put the sign on the chocolatery to "boycott immorality" and Vianne Rocher asks Roux to come in for some chocolat. He asks her, "What about boycotting immorality?". Then she responds, "What about it?"

I also thought his version of Willie Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was hilarious. I loved the scene when the children first arrive at the chocolate factory and his robot "kids" danced around and sang. His response after they exploded, "sorry about that" was too funny.

I think that I like his romantic scenes best especially the ones from Chocolat. I loved the scene I mention earlier where he was teasing Vianne Rocher. He can definitely play any part, from the hilarious to the scary to the romantic. That is why I am interested in seeing his new movie that just came out, Sweeney Todd. It looks like it is going to be another great role. If you are interested in the movie you can visit the official Sweeney Todd movie site. You can also visit Sweeney Todd on MySpace.

My grades are in

For any of you that are interested in how I did last semester, I got two A- and one A. I am pretty excited about it. I think my overall grade point is a 3.76. I have three classes scheduled for January and I think I will be able to do just as well. Yep, if only I could be a professional student.

Hopefully my roof won't leak

Many people are out finishing up their Christmas shopping. Well, some may be starting it. A large dent was put into our Christmas budget when our car broke down last week. There are many people who don't plan ahead or have savings put away to handle these types of situations and need to get a loan. I know because usually we are one of them.

There have been many instances where my husband and I have been in need of a loan. The most common type of loan is the Personal Loan. We have used personal loans to pay for cars and various other expenditures.

I have many friends that have gotten debt consolidation loans or loans for home renovations. Since our home is in need of some serious renovations we may be looking into one sometime in our future.

Personalloan.com.au offers some wonderful resources on the different types of personal loans available. They offer information on bad credit loans, debt consolidation, high risk loans, online loans, and secured versus unsecured loans. They explain what the loan types are, which ones suit your needs, and how to improve your credit score. They also show the standard requirements for securing a personal loan. I think this information will come in quite handy when we are looking into getting another loan.

This post is sponsored.

Delusions of Grandeur revisited

Remember my little post on delusions of grandeur? Well apparently they have not gone away. I still suffer from them. Honestly, I really thought that my shopping would be done, my house would be decorated and immaculately clean by December. I thought I would be sitting around baking some cookies and drinking cocoa while listening to some Christmas tunes.

REALITY CHECK: None of that happened. I literally just finished my shopping, my house barely got decorated and isn't quite finished and it definitely isn't immaculately clean. Oh well, I will try again next year. If at first you don't succeed......

Our New Year's To Do List

Another thing my husband and I will be doing in the new year is reviewing our finances. We are in a time of transition right now since I am in college. We will be looking at our budget and trying to find ways for us to save money. I know that there are several ways that we can cut back. One of the things that we might look at is Auto Refinance to lower our monthly car payments. We refinanced one of our previous cars and lowered the monthly payment while saving quite a bit on interest. It will be nice to save more money. Maybe I can talk hubby into putting the money we save in our budget under shoes.

This post is sponsored.

Family Fun

Last weekend my in-laws got tickets for (almost) the entire family to ride the Polar Express train ride. The town where the train ride is located is around an hour and 15 minutes from our house. I figured if we were going to go that far we should stop in at my favorite restaurant in a town that is an hour away.

The train ride was scheduled for 6:30 with boarding at 6:15. We left our house at 3:30. I figured if we got to the restaurant at 4:30 we would beat the dinner crowd. Was I ever wrong. It was packed! Luckily we got seated and had ordered our food by 5. We got out of town around 6 and barely made it to the train by 6:15. I can tell you that boarding began much earlier than that because the trains were packed. But we got there, got on the train and had a good time. (Although I did not get a bell, oh, the bitterness.) Seriously, I still BELIEVE.

Here are some pictures of the fun and festivities.

This is my goofy brother-in-law. Actually, he is a good guy and he comes in real handy if you are putting up a fence.


This is one of my sil's and one of my adorable nieces.


Hubby with C and AD. (By the way, I bought hubby's smashing sweater at my friend's Steve and Barry's).


Me and R who was very excited to be there. I explained to R that Santa only brings big ticket items to teenagers that enthusiastically believe.


My wonderful mother-in-law and father-in-law.

A good time was had by all. There was much eating of cookies, drinking of hot cocoa and the kids each got a bell. I really, really wanted a bell.

All I want for Christmas is a good nights rest

Do you ever have those nights where you don't sleep well? It seems that I rarely sleep well at night. There is always something that causes me to wake up. Sometimes it is our children, sometimes it is the dog but more often than not it is just the fact that our current bed is uncomfortable.

My husband and I have had our current bed for approximately seven years. We are definitely in need of a new one. We both wake up every morning with a backache. I am not sure if our bed is too soft or if the coils have given out. We have tried rotating it around and flipping it over to see if that would help but it didn't.

So bed shopping is one thing that will be on our To Do list for the new year. I have seen a lot of different beds advertised and one bed I think we will be looking into is the Temperpedic bed. It relieves pressure and stress while conforming to my body. Being the mother of three boys I could use some pressure and stress relief.

I know Angelbeds has these beds at remarkable savings, which is good because I may need to purchase several just to keep my children in their own beds.

This post is sponsored.

I have a new nickname

Yep, around town I am currently known as mom of the fire alarm puller. Yesterday AD and I went to pick C up at school. We went into the building and were waiting in the entryway with other moms and dad, grandmas, babysitters, etc. AD was standing right next to me when all of a sudden I saw his little hand go up and in an instant it was done. He had pulled the fire alarm and it was going off. So I picked him up and ran into the Principal's office and told him AD had done it so he knew it wasn't a real fire. Unfortunately all the little kids, who were getting ready to go home, had to go outside for a fire drill.

I told AD he does not want to get on the bad side of the teachers BEFORE he starts school. So now the ENTIRE town knows that AD pulled the fire alarm. It is a small town and my public humiliation travels fast. When you see me around remember, it isn't Melody anymore just call me mom of the fire alarm puller.

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Eventually hubby wants a new one

I love taking pictures. That is why I am so glad we have a digital camera. We bought our digital camera at the beginning of this year and I really enjoy using it. It is a Kodak EasyShare Z650. We take pictures all the time whether we are on family outings or just hanging out at home.

There are many reasons that I like having a digital camera. The developing process is just so easy. We can upload and store the pictures on our computer and then save them onto CD for future use. To get our pictures developed all we have to do is upload our pictures to one of the many online photo developers. This lets us choose only the pictures we truly want developed. In some cases, we can have our pictures in just an hour.

I also like the fact that we can delete pictures we don't like before developing. I can crop them on my camera or on the computer to make them just how I want them. We can even display our photos without getting them developed by using digital picture frames. We got one for my mother-in-law as a gift for Mother's Day and she prominently displays it on her kitchen counter.

I mainly want to take pictures for blogging and scrapbooking. My husband however would like to delve a little bit more into photography and take some classes. He wants to upgrade our camera to something a little more high tech. While he will certainly get to pick out the model on our next camera, I personally think the Nikon D200 would be an excellent choice.

Maybe I will have to get him a new digital camera for his birthday or Father's Day.

Merry Christmas to Us

Yesterday my hubby and I got our Christmas gift. While I don't know if it was exactly what we wanted, we went ahead and purchased it. It was quite expensive, 450 dollars to be exact.

I know most of you wouldn't spend 450 dollars on something you didn't exactly want, but seriously, who wouldn't want a Transmission Control Modulator?

Yep, transmission problems at Christmas. Gotta love it. Of course, now my husband can be so grateful that his wife starts Christmas shopping in August. The amount of presents we had left was miniscule so we weren't worried about paying for the car AND buying Christmas presents.

Just in case any of you forgot, It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

**Merry Christmas to my mechanic's wife! I hope she gets something nice.

I love to blog

Blogging is something that I really enjoy doing. I started blogging in August to keep in touch with my family and friends. However, I found out that there were so many other benefits to blogging. There have been many benefits but to just to name a few, I have made new friends, won free stuff, and found new recipes to try. Recently, I found out that I can get paid to blog.

How exciting that I can get paid to do something that I love to do. There are so many things that I will be able to do with the money that I earn from blogging. It will help us pay down our debt. We will also be able to save more money so that we won't have to worry about an unexpected car or home repair. We will be able to save money for vacations. I think the possibilities are endless.

One of the many reasons I am eager to do this, besides getting paid, is the flexibility. I can fit it into my schedule. How many posts I do and when I do them is entirely up to me. I will be able to work around my children's doctors appointments, games and family events. If you are a blogger and are looking for a way to make some extra money this is definitely something you should look into.

Bloggy Tour of Homes

Well, this has been quite the week with snow storms and power outages. I didn't have time to make any cookies (or an oven) so just get a cup of tea, coffee or cocoa while I show you a few things around our home.

First is the new wreath for our front door. I never had a fake real Christmas wreath before and I love this one dearly.


Next is our Christmas tree.


Here are some of my favorite ornaments on our tree. This is the only ornament I have left from my youth. I am pretty sure he is over 20 years old. One eye did have to be replaced. You can probably tell that by the color difference. He has one brown eye and one white eye.

The next three ornaments are also very special because they are the "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments from each of my kids. You may notice the "matchy-matchyness" in the fact that they are all Precious Moments.




Moving along...I do not have a Nativity yet. I have asked hubby for the Willow Tree Nativity for Christmas. Hopefully, I will get it. In the meantime I have this plaque of the Holy Family from my mother-in-law.


One of my favorite decorations for Christmas and the winter season is snowmen. I can not however show you all the snowmen so I will show you my newest addition, courtesy of my mother.


Finally if I had not spent most of my day so far in the dark, we could have sat down and had some cookies here. (You may notice the snowmen on the bowl, also courtesy of my mother-in-law.)


Well, that is all folks. I hope you have enjoyed the Christmas Tour of our home. Please head over to see more (and I am talking A LOT more) at the Bloggy Christmas Tour of Homes sponsered by BooMama.

**Edited to Add** We do have Christmas stockings in case you were wondering and while I would have loved to show you our Christmas stockings with personalization they gave out a little more info than I was comfortable with.

Menu Plan Monday

Sunday: Lasagna, salad and bread

Monday: Cheeseburger Skillet and veggie

Tuesday: Potato Soup and sandwiches

Wednesday: Chicken and Dumplings

Thursday: Chicken Noodle Soup

Friday: Hamburgers, chips and beans

Saturday: Spaghetti and meatballs with veggie and bread

More Menu Plan Monday over at Laura's.

One of my little quirks

I have a problem. I call it OCD although I like the way one of my sister-in-laws puts it. I am matchy-matchy. I don't know why but my house can be a mess but seriously as long as stuff matches I don't care.

Here is a little example of my strange matchy-matchyness. C went to stay with grandma and grandpa last night because he is doing such a great job at school. Today he went with his cousin to a movie. This evening we met them all to go on the Polar Express train ride. My mother-in-law got tickets for everybody in the entire family (that could make it). When we went to leave we couldn't find one of C's gloves in my sister-in-law's van. Here is my train of thought on the way home....

It is only a glove. I could probably go out tomorrow and look all over town to find a pair to match his coat.
It is only a glove. Maybe I could just stop by tonight. I bet the store is still open.
It is only a glove. I think I will just go to my sister-in-law's house and look through her van real quick and see if I can find it. Because then I won't be in such distress and I will know if I should go buy a new pair tomorrow.

So that is what I did. I went to my sister-in-law's house. She found the glove lickity split (cause she is cool like that) and I went home in peace and harmony.

I don't know what it is that causes me to be like that. Sometimes I find it a little annoying. But everybody has their thing. My sister-in-law has to pick up her house every night before she goes to bed. Why can't I have that one?

Time sure flies when you are shopping

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted anything since Tuesday. Time has flown by. You know I thought I was going to be done with my shopping by now. Mostly I am but I seem to have been doing a lot of it lately.

I have been trying to finish up C's list. The problem with him is that it is an ever changing list. So he is stuck with what he got now. There was one gift that I decided to not to get him so I suggested to my brother that he get it for him. Yesterday my sister-in-law called to tell me it was on sale. I was quite excited because I have been waiting for this toy to go on sale for MONTHS.

I called my brother, told him it was on sale and asked him if he wanted me to go pick it up for him. He said yes so back to town I went. After I got the toy, AD and I went to get hubby some socks for Christmas. Hubby likes the warm socks from the sporting goods store. He usually gets them in our gift exchange but this year we didn't draw adult names. So I took it upon myself to buy them. (Yeah, I'm a good wife, I know it. :)

AD and I looked for slippers at the Children's Place but didn't find boy ones that we liked. Then on our way to the GAP we passed a candy place in the mall. My mom had been looking for the candy shop at a different mall and they didn't have it there. So, being a good daughter (yes, I know) I called my mom and asked her if she wanted me to get the candy for her. She said yes.

AD and I did not find the hat and gloves we wanted at the GAP. Are you noticing how I am getting everybody else's shopping done but not finding what I wanted? I know, it was annoying.

Finally we left the mall. I needed to pick up some dinner so I went to the big W. I try not to shop at the big W because even though supposedly I am living a better life because I am paying less I can't help feeling that maybe somewhere somebody is compensating for it, ya know? While I was there I found the slippers and the hat and gloves that I wanted and they were cheaper. I know most people would be jumping for joy, I was just irritated by it.

AD and I headed home and I made dinner. After dinner we all opened our First Gift of Christmas. AD got jammies, Hubby and I got cable knit sweaters and R got a sports sweatshirt. C got jammies too but he was spending the night with grandma and grandpa so he opened his there.

It was a pretty full day and I am glad I could do some shopping for other people. :) What can I say....Merry Christmas.

I have the necessities

I am grateful to have power, heat, and the INTERNET. Because seriously, what would I do without the internet? Hubby and I drove to get gas this evening and discovered that half our town was without power. But we have cable tv so how could we have possibly known? We certainly weren't watching the news.

Quite honestly, I am amazed we didn't lose our power. This morning I was talking on the phone when I heard the strangest sound. We looked out our back window and found a branch had fallen off our tree. By the time it was all said and done we probably lost half our branches. Our power lines are right by the tree. None of the branches landed on the lines, God was watching out for us. :)

The weather is still horrible here. Well, the streets actually. The rain-sleet-ice-snow has stopped for now. The outlook for the week looks good. I am thankful and so, I am sure, are the shopping malls. Now people can back to business, shopping that is.

Our family has been homebound for most of the day. C went outside to play with his friends. R ventured out to the library on foot. I was quite shocked that it was open. My hubby took a quick drive around to look at all the limbs hanging everywhere. He also got my van unstuck. It was just sitting in front of the house but there was just too much ice. Hubby, the neighbor, and a nice family that was just driving by all helped push it out. We had thought originally to move our cars to the back of our house by our GARAGE when the rain started but with the falling limbs, we decided maybe it wouldn't be a good idea.

I know at least one of my sister-in-law's went to work today. Hubby found out that they told everybody where he works to go home at 10 am. Pretty much everybody else we know stayed home. The kids have a delay for tomorrow too.

This storm has been quite the adventure. I was initially excited when I found out we were going to have a warmer than normal winter. However, if it means ice storms instead of snow, I will take the cold. I can always wear a sweater.

The weather outside is frightful

Wow. It is only the beginning of December and I am already sick of the snow. I think we have had three storms in the span of one week and we are looking at 1-2 more this week.

We did make it to the church play on Saturday and to my mother-in-law's Christmas party on Sunday but we missed my cousin's college graduation party and had to cancel plans to go out with friends on Saturday night. R has had two out of three wrestling matches cancelled plus a vocal concert. It has just been crazy.

It doesn't seem like there are only 15 days until Christmas. I don't even have my Christmas tree up yet. Of course that is mainly because AD keeps destroying the Christmas decorations. So far he has broken a snowman candle holder and my "How Many Days Until Christmas" Calendar. I am a little afraid to put up anything else.

I really didn't get around to my Christmas cards so I guess people won't be getting those this years. I also haven't finished my shopping. Mainly because C keeps changing his mind. So, I have two more things to get for him. But Santa is DEFINITLY.NOT. getting him a $90 Transformer toy. Sorry. It is not in me to do that.

I have three finals this week since I had to reschedule the one from Thursday due to SNOW.

R has two wrestling meets this week and I am hoping he can get to them. I am also hoping hubby will be able to make it to work. He only has two weeks left until his plant shuts down. Then he gets two weeks off. They give them the week of Christmas, plus through the New Year but hubby took off the rest of the first week so he will be home with us. Wow...two entire weeks with everybody home. I think we have had that NEVER.

The house is a mess and in need of much cleaning so I suppose that I should be doing that. Oh what fun....

Going on a tangent.

Today I moved a few things from our old bedroom (the media room) to our new bedroom. One of the things I moved was a small dresser. When we were using the old bedroom this was our ONLY dresser. Needless to say, all of our clothes did not fit into it. Basically I took it over. Hubby's clothes were delegated to a couple baskets, hangers, and a plastic hangy thing with shelves. Now that we have our armoire for our dresser we can use this little one just for our personal stuff. I am so exited about this. I get a drawer for my socks again! It seriously is the little things in life that make us happy isn't it?

Now, I realize in other people's homes they each get their OWN dresser and that is how it is for our kids. However, I don't know that hubby has ever had a dresser (well, at least on his own that is). When we first started dating, hubby hung all his clothes up or didn't hang them up. It all depends on who you ask. Anyway, after we got married he probably inherited one of the dressers that I already had or that somebody gave us. But I guess if it was a dresser that I already had, then somebody gave it to us. I wouldn't know what to do without hand-me-down furniture. (Thanks to my big brother and my mother-in-law!)

Back to the story...

Now that we have the armoire in our room, hubby gets one shelf in the top and one drawer. I get two shelves and a drawer. You would think that means that I have more clothes than hubby right? WRONG. I have maybe three shirts hanging in the closet. Hubby has like 15-20 shirts in the closet. I have three coats, two for winter and one jacket. Hubby has like 4 or 5 coats plus some coveralls. Do you see what I am saying here? Even though hubby professes to not really shop or care about clothes. HE HAS MORE THAN ME. My husband is a clothes horse. Plus he always tells me that he never has enough. I need more jeans, I need more button down shirts, I need more sweaters, I need more t-shirts.

I guess one of the reasons this is sooo funny is because I used to own a ton of clothes. I shopped all the time. I used to sort my clothes by type and then sort them by color. I was freaky with a capital F about my clothes. Then something changed. I had more kids. Two more to be exact and I never really lost the weight I gained from being pregnant. So I don't like to buy clothes. I don't like to try them on and certainly don't want to spend my money on them. Why? Because I think eventually I am going to lose that extra 40 lbs and I don't want to have all these extra clothes that I will have to get rid of.

Last year I lost 13 lbs so I did go out and buy myself a few new pairs of jeans and some t-shirts. This week the doctor confirmed that I gained every.single.one.of. those.pounds BACK. So, now I am back to not buying clothes and hoping (because I never actually do anything about it) that I will lose weight.

So the prayer I will probably be praying most this holiday season is "Dear Lord, PLLLLEEEASSEE don't let me gain any more weight"

One of my very favorite plaques that I have seen "Dear Lord, if I can't be skinny, please make my friends fat." Just Kidding. I wouldn't want everybody else to be fat. Well, maybe just a couple for me to commiserate with.

Will I never learn?

You know that little trick where you aren't supposed to give babies toys that will fit through the toilet paper cardboard center (whatever that is called)? Well, I think I have a new idea to add to my list. Don't give a toy to your 2-almost-3-year-old if the toy will fit into the VCR player.

We were sitting in the "media" room. I was working on the computer and AD was watching a DVD of Cars. We have that VCR/DVD combo set so we can play our DVD's and the 50 million VHS tapes we have accumulated over the years. AD kept putting his hand into the VCR part. I told him to not put his hand in there. His response? I am trying to get my car. Yes, his car. His little, bitty, tiny car.

I somehow managed to stick my ginormous hands into the VCR and extract this tiny car. Amazing I know, but it is amazing what you can do when you think you might have to buy another one of these contraptions if you can't get the toy out. Yep, monetary motivation, works every time.

My social life is diminishing

I wasn't too terribly bothered by the fact that AD was sick until this evening. I mean I obviously don't want him to be ill but other than that I thought we would just hang out at home and he would get better.

I totally forgot I was going to go have lunch tomorrow with some girls I used to work with and see the new baby one of them just had. So, at the last minute I had to cancel. I did not want to make the new baby sick. I was really looking forward to going out. I haven't seen two of them in a long time and I haven't seen the new baby at all, other than a picture from right after her birth.

I am sure there will be other times, hopefully soon because one of them might be moving HOURS away from here, but I am still a little sad. :(

My poor little baby

AD is sick. I feel so bad for him. He has a terrible cold and an even worse cough. That is one of the reasons I am so glad to be home during the day. I didn't have to call into work to take a day off for my sick child. I didn't have to worry about whether or not daycare would take him. I didn't have to worry about whether or not I would lose my job because my child had been sick one too many times. These were all things I had to worry about in the past. But today I can just focus on my baby and making him feel comfortable while he is sick.

Here are some pictures I took of him last week before he got this terrible cold.

I WON! I WON!

I won something, a book to be exact. I am so excited. I don't know if I have ever won anything in my life. I probably have I just can't remember. Anyway, BooMama had a drawing for a book called I Love You More and I was one of the lucky winners. One of the reasons I am so excited is because we say that all the time. We always (everybody in our house, that is) say "I love you" then "I love you more." Yeah, I can't wait to get it and read it to the kiddos.

I thought they taught us not to cut in line in KINDERGARTEN

Today I took a little trip into town. One of things I was going to do was go to the home improvement store. I was looking through their ads today and saw that the programmable thermostat I bought less than two weeks ago was on sale. Well, like any good consumer I wanted my $6.37 back. So, I head on over there with my receipt and get in line. Now, maybe I am the one who has this all wrong. Maybe I don't know proper line etiquette.

After I entered the store and went to the customer service counter I stood behind the last man in the line. There were two cash registers but only one line. Now, my perspective on this has always been that you form the line and then they help whoever is next in line. This is not the regular checkout line, it is CUSTOMER SERVICE. While I was waiting in line, a lady comes up and stands behind the person who is at the second register. Maybe she was oblivious to the fact that TWO people were in a line next to her. Not to mention, even if I had been her and stood behind the person at the register I would have GRACIOUSLY told the person who had been waiting when I got there to go ahead of me. Seriously, how rude.

So...I would love input if anybody wants to give me some. Was I wrong? Are my customer service etiquette rules skewed or was she completely RUDE?

I was really sad to discover

I was going through our Christmas decorations to find our Christmas books and movies. I really could not believe we don't have ONE Children's book that explains the really reason for CHRISTmas. Well, you know, other than the BIBLE. We have none that tell the real Christmas Story. We have books about snow, penguins, reindeer and Santa. We even have books about dinosaurs, yep, Christmas dinosaurs. So I am looking at buying some books for my kids about Christmas. I was looking at this one and this one. I better get them ordered soon.

I don't mind the snow

But I am not particularly fond of ice. We are having our first storm of the season. It would be great if it was a snow storm however it is more of an ice storm. R's wrestling meet was cancelled for today so we are all hanging out at home.

We have gotten quite a bit accomplished for the day. We decided that the TV we wanted to move upstairs was just too heavy so we put it in the living room. In the "media" room we put our tv from downstairs on a small tv stand from R's room. We were going to put the entertainment center in the media room but it has a sloping ceiling and wouldn't fit so instead we put the entertainment center in R's room. So it all worked out.

Of course, after really looking at the computer desk we were going to put in R's room their isn't any room in there for it. I think we are going to give it to the goodwill.

This is the list of what I have to finish from this project we have started.

Move small dresser to our closet
Move bookshelf to media room
Give desk to goodwill
Go through boxes and put things where they belong or give away or throw away.

I have about 5 more boxes to deal with. Of course, considering how many I started with, I am one happy camper. It will be nice to have everything in its place. Then after the first of the year we can paint rooms that need painted and put in flooring where it needs it and I will walk through the house and sigh with happiness.

Of course this afternoon I get to help clean AD and C's room AGAIN and we are going to put a Christmas tree up in their room. We have a small tree but my brother gave us a taller one so the little one is going in their room.

Don't you just love home projects?

**Edited to add** Oh yes, I almost caught up on my laundry. By almost I mean I only have an entire hamper of sweaters, an enormous tub of blankets and a basket of sheets. Yeah for me.