Wednesday ramblings.

*Two of my really good friends are at Disneyland right now and I really, really wish I could be there. I was supposed to go for a day last week but ended up getting really sick. I'm better now, but still can't go :(
*We are planning a family trip to Disneyland though!! Hopefully in the next couple of weeks. Just need to work out the details with Pete.
*Tomorrow is my one year anniversary of being a stay at home mom!
*We're going with the Kindergarten class on a field trip to the hospital tomorrow.
*I've written about my neighbors Towering Terror of Dirty Dishes before. It's pretty insane. Even Pete has noticed. Again..I certainly don't mean to judge her. She could easily come in my house and ask why there are 3 loads of clean laundry in my laundry room not folded. She could ask why there is still Cheerios under my table from breakfast. She could ask why the pile of junk next to the phone never seems to get any smaller. My point is, I'm not trying to say I'm better than her in any way. It's just that I SEE the HUGE PILE of nastiness dishes every time I walk up or down my stairs. There is a huge window there and I see it. I'm not trying to see it...I just do. If her dishwasher is anything like mine, it's the smallest dishwasher known to man. So I get that. I have to run mine at least once a day. Mine is full to the brim running right now and I still have a sink full of dishes. However, my dishes are rinsed. There is no evidence of the food that once lay upon them. The thing that really gets me though....she has 3 kids. 7,9 and 13. Why aren't they helping mom out?? Why don't they have chores? Jake is only 5 and he already has chores. Oh well. At least I don't have to clean her dishes.
*Not to get all political...but what the heck is going on? I read the news just about every day and every day it just sounds worse and worse. California especially. The state has no money. In fact they will be sending out IOU's for tax refunds. There is no more money in the unemployment fund. They are getting 2 billion dollars in bailout money from the feds and that will only last until the end of February. (!!!) Oh and get this...the schools are struggling every day to keep supplies and teachers and all the important stuff for our kids...they're laying people off left and right and then I read that the Superintendent of one of the larger districts in Northern California just got 4% raise in wages. He already made over 200 thousand dollars a year. They're talking about cutting out music and P.E. and this idiot is laughing all the way to the bank. What is up with that??
*enough of that. I really don't know what I'm talking about anyway.
*Megan is fully potty trained now and uses the potty as an excuse to get out of anything she doesn't want to do. She's pretty smart. I say "Ok, time to clean up!" and she says "I need go pee pee." I say "Megan, finish your food" and she says "I need go poo poo!" And I say " Meeegaaan this is not a game you need to eat your food and then you can go potty " then she starts screaming NEED GO POO POO! so of course then I just let her go because sheesh it's only been like 3 weeks and well, maybe she really does have to go and then what if I don't let her go and then she craps her pants and THEN well..what fine mess that will be.
*She's horrible at cleaning up. horrible. If she doesn't tell me she has to go potty, she walks around in circles with one thing in her hand to make it look like she's cleaning. Tonight she even tried barking orders at Jake to clean up her toys.
*I keep finding ants on my kitchen counter. Not a lot, just like 3 or 4 at a time. I can't figure out where they are coming from. It's like they just fall from the sky. I spray and spray and they just keep coming back. It grosses me out. I do not like ants.
*I can't think of anything else.
*This is enough random for one Wednesday isn't it?

Computer crack addiction.

I can't believe it's been over a week since I've posted to this blog. I guess I just don't have anything to write about. Same ol'-same ol' around here.
One thing that has been keeping me....well, occupied I guess...is Facebook. OMGosh. Who turned me on to this computer generated, time sucking crack addiction?? It started out as just another place to hook up with my online blog buddies and has quickly turned into a place where all my old friends live, and Pathwords and Wordtwist games, and status updates, and movie quizes, and pictures from 6th grade and prom night, old boy friends, and people who I'd completely forgotten about..... Computer Crack!
Someone help me.
I'll be back later.
I have to go check my Wall again.

well that didn't take long.

I seriously thought it would be a few more days before I could get back online. But I got all fixed up today. :) Luckily, I didn't lose anything on my hard drive---which is a total blessing, because the guy at Dell said "you probably should back up your hard drive before the technician comes out" but didn't say anything about the fact that if I didn't, I wouldn't even have an operating system. As in Windows. I don't know a whole lot about computers, so you really need to spell this stuff out for me, ya know. Jeesh. Anyway, no worries. All is good. But seriously, why would they send you out a new hard drive with nothing on it? Especially if they thought the reason your computer is not working is because of 'a failure with the hard drive'. It makes no sense to me.
Anyway the computer crashed Saturday when I was right in the middle of uploading and editing some pictures I took at the San Francisco Zoo, and the beach that afternoon. I'm so glad I didn't lose any of those pictures! Pete's sister Rachael asked me on Friday if I wanted to do something with her over the weekend and we decided to go over to the city. It was such a beautiful day over there! Seriously, we both got a good case of Spring Fever. (and it's only January!) This time of year San Francisco is often much warmer than it is in the valley were I live. I think it's probably one of the best times of the year to visit SF.

This is Caitlin. I think she's so photogenic. Snaggle teeth and all. :)

Jake with his big goober face. : Megan's not looking much better!

Another goofy face from Jake. *sigh*

And then we stopped at the beach. It's just a block from the zoo. You would have thought Jake had died and gone to heaven. He got out of the car, looked out to the sea and said with all his heart, "oh mommy! this is AMAZING! This is a dream come true!". When we got down to the water he immediately started his search for 'treasure'. And Megan....she didn't quite know what to do. She just ran around and circles for about 10 minutes before she settled in with some sand digging.






It felt good to get out and do something. I've felt so cooped up lately. I'm hoping there are more days like this to come!

Crash and burn.

My computer completely crashed. :( I'll be back in a week or so.

My days are all messed up.

I keep thinking today is Monday. But it's Tuesday. Right? Right. It was bad having holiday's in the middle of the week. Thursday felt like Saturday. Friday felt like Sunday. Saturday felt like it should really be Monday. And by Sunday, I had no idea what we were doing anymore. Everything was all screwed up. I was SO looking forward to yesterday. Yesterday was the day I was going rewind and start over. I had plans of taking Jake to school, coming home and going on a walk (which I haven't done in forever), running a few errands and getting life back on track. Back on schedule. Even before the holidays I had been slacking on a bunch of stuff and yesterday was the day I picked to get it all back in order.
Sunday night I printed out some cute little note cards so I could make my lists, and started planning out my week. This was going to be good, I thought. A fresh start with the new year.
Then....the school called. They cancelled school. I knew right then this wasn't going to be good. It felt like a tiny hole had been pricked in my bubble and I could feel the air slowly seeping out of it.
They cancelled school due to a gas main break, which was a good thing to cancel school for.
Anyway, sure....sure I could have still done all my list stuff even if Jake didn't have school. The school factor shouldn't stop me, right? Well right. Except...except it was raining yesterday. And *poof* just like that my bubble had completely burst.
I did accomplish a few things on my list. Like, I did end up cleaning Megan's closet out. And I did get the laundry folded. And I did get myself to the store for more milk. So, I guess it didn't turn out all that bad. Except for that walk. That's what I was really looking forward to. It's one of those things that I know once I just do it, I'll like it and I'll keep doing it. At least for a while! It was the rain that stopped me. I know, poor excuse. It's not like it was hurricane or anything!
Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will walk! (said like Bravehart with my sword held high)
Today finally, everything is sort of back on schedule. Tuesdays I help out in Jake's class, which I really enjoy. But it kind of messes everything up for the rest of the day. I go in at 8 and stay until 10. But school gets out at 11:30. So it doesn't really give me much time to do anything before I have to run back out to pick him up. Tuesday's always end up being a wash for me.
Hello...could this post BE any more boring?
Anyway, here's to getting back on track for tomorrow. :)

Woops!

Comments are now open on my photo blog. I always forget to set that up at the beginning. Anyway, it's good. Comment away if you want :D

That wasn't so bad.

It's been just over a week since I decided to start potty training Megan. And dare I say it?? But...I think she's got it. I was just about to give up. Let it go for a week or two....I mean, she peed on my chair, she pooped on my floor, and it seemed like absolute torture every time I set her on the potty. But something caused me to just keep going. It felt like she was sort of getting it, but there was just something missing. The answer was time, consistency and leaving her alone. It's funny how it ends up being a learning experience for both of you. It really seemed to click on Tuesday. I set her down. She cried and cried. I said "I'll be right back". She cried some more and then got real quiet. All of a sudden she goes "MOMMA! I GOING!" And that was it. She just needed me to leave the room. It's been 4 days now of dry and no accidents. Which also includes an entire day away from home and long car rides. Yeah. I'm pretty happy about it. *I knew I shouldn't have said anything. Right after I wrote this she peed on the floor! LOL! oh well, she's still doing pretty good!*

New years eve was pretty uneventful. It went just about like I wrote in my last post. We didn't make it to midnight, though I did get woke up by our neighbors blowing their horns at 11 and then again at 12. It was cool. But they went on and on for like 20 minutes with the horns and screaming. The next day we got up, had a big breakfast and then headed to the ranch. It was a fun day just hanging out up there and watching Pete work, and me cleaning up the cabin a bit.

Today I took down the tree and put all the Christmas stuff away. I just hate that chore! But it feels good now to have it done. Time to get on with it. I can't help but look in living room and think there's something missing now though! And it's dark in there...no more light from the tree and the garland on the mantel.

I decided to go ahead and attempt the 365 project once again. There's just too much good stuff that comes out of it to not do it. I need to do it. So I created a new blog: With Love, 2009 for my daily pictures. Which brings me to my word for 2009. I wasn't even going to pick a word this year. I wasn't feeling it. But then I read something today (on a food blog, actually) and it just kind of clicked. The author said whatever you do in 2009, do it with love. If you do it with love, it will always be great. And isn't that so true? If you really put your heart into something....it just turns out better, every time. So that's my word. Love. I would have NEVER picked that word on my own. It seems so cheesy and lovey dovey. But that one little sentence really stuck and it just seemed to fit. So I'm going with it.

Are you doing the 365? Did you set up a place for your pics? Link me up so I can check it out, ok?