*THIS* is why I love ebay...

I posted a couple days ago that I'd listed some ebay stuff. Seventeen stuffs to be exact. Well, they ended tonight.

And my grand total!??!

$303.92!

Guess who gets to go shopping now?!?!

That's right! ME!

Girl's Night Out

So, today around 4, my husband calls from work and asks what we're having for dinner. I tell him I can make pizza. He says, "How about I just stop and pick one up on my way home?"

Cool! Works for me. I don't have to cook that way! He said he had some errands to run so it'd be about 6:30 when he got home. Again, works for me.

Cut to 6:30. The phone rings and guess who it is?! Yep, Hubby. Turns out he decided (at the last minute!) to go to his friend's house and watch a football game!!!!! Geez, buddy, thanks for the notice! At least he had the smarts to apologize! Whatever.

At this point, there's no way I'm going to scrounge up something for dinner. I'm due for a store run so there's not much (quick) edible stuff in the house and anyways, I'm just not in the mood! So I pack up the girls and we headed to Friendly's! Can't beat that, huh?! Ate our food (chicken fingers and grilled cheese YUM) then we dined on a yummy dessert of ice cream. I got a free happy ending reeses peanut butter cup sundae with my meal, J got an oreo sundae with her meal, and C got a dish of plain ole' vanilla. She's not too picky at this age so she was happy as a clam! All three of us cleaned our bowls! J ended up with three nice chocolate stains on her shirt and a lot of it on her face. I'm always armed with wipes in the diaper bag though so we were fine!

On the way home, we made a pit stop at G. Willies (Goodwill) since they're having their monthly 50% off the store sale. Picked up a few things then we headed home just in time for lights out! I had them in bed within 25 minutes. And here I sit...

Still waiting on Daddy to come home so he can climb in his doghouse.


~~
By the way, I'm a guest blogger this weekend over at my good friend Indigo's blog. Check it out if you get a chance!

cute kid update....

It's been a while since I've talked about the adorable things my girlies are doing!

Well.... *this* is going to be one of those posts!!!

***warning.... Momma gushing ahead...***

Let's start with my 2o month old. Oh my, is she fun these days?!!? She's getting so smart and so big. I can't believe that in less than 4 months, she'll be turning TWO!!! Where has the time gone!? She's starting to talk more and more and will repeat just about anything for us. Last night at dinner, I told her I loved her and she said, (in baby talk of course), "I love you TOO!" Put that too on all by herself, thank you very much! A few minutes later, she repeated, "I love you Jenna" to her big sister. Then she gave a big cheesy grin. Totally melted my heart.

She's also starting to "read" her books back to us. One of my faves to read with her is Dr. Suess's Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? Today we were in her room and I had her go get it so we could read it. She knew the sounds on almost every page. Proud Momma moment there! A few weeks ago, I sat at the kitchen table and in the span of a minute or two, taught her circle and star. And she still remembers and points out "kircles" whenever she sees them! We've worked on square and she sorta kinda knows it.

Her favorite current shows?!?! Blues Clues and Dora the Explorer of course! She knows almost all of the characters and goes crazy when the shows come on. She loves to dance around when they play music (which in those shows is very often!). If this trend continues, I'm already thinking of what theme her second birthday party is going to be! Should I give you three clues?!?! ;)

Just today, we had another heart melter moment. C has been giving kisses for a while but now she will bend down and give you a kiss on the cheek! Puckers those lips up and smacks ya a big wet one! Then giggles and does the other cheek. I must have asked her for 50 kisses today just to get that warm fuzzy. Soooooo sweet, don't ya think?!?!

Speaking of sweet, she's certainly developing her sweet tooth! She's already figured out that if she eats her dinner, she gets a treat. As soon as she's down from her chair, she heads right over to where they are kept. And there's no peace until she gets what she wants! Her current fave?! Dum dum suckers! Quick and easy and cheap. My kind of treat!

Well, it's getting late..... I need to hit the hay as we got a playdate with J's best bud tomorrow!

I think my next post will have to be some J gushing!

Out with the old, in with the new!

Ok... I admit it.... I am an ebay junkie.

I discovered this wonderful website about 4-5 years ago and have been hooked ever since. I go in spurts where I buy buy buy and sell sell sell.

Right now, I'm currently selling... and once they close, then I will buy buy buy!! Just listed 17 auctions on Monday evening that will end on Saturday evening. These were all clothes that my 20 month old has outgrown. The sad thing?!?! I'm having a hard time letting them go! I've listed some of my very favorite outfits. Many of them are newborn things that I couldn't bring myself to list until now! She just looked soooooooo cute in them! Dang... I wish they fit into their clothes longer!

But they're not doing anything sitting in a tote, right?!?! I figure I might as well pass them on so I can buy more! The money I make on ebay is my play money. Whatever I "earn," I get to spend back buying more. And if I'm particularly in love with a certain outfit, it's always available on ebay in the next size up, right?!!? That is one of my favorite things about the site! I sware.... more than once, J's had same dress in about 4 different sizes!

I've had the clothes packed in totes, waiting to get the motivation to list them. And I finally got around to it last week. It sure does take time getting the pictures taken, cropped and sized down! Then they've gotta be uploaded to a photo hosting site! And finally, I have to get the auctions all set up and written. A few years ago, I bought an auction template off ebay so I can be a bit fancier on my listings AND have as many pictures as I want without incurring additional ebay fees. I've updated the template for different seasons and in the process learned a bit of html (which has come in handy with this here blog!). Finding the time to list stuff is tricky.... but once I do, then the watching fun begins!

When I have auctions listed, I develop an addiction to the "refresh" button! I would venture to guess I check the auctions 20 times a day to see how they're doing! It gets even worse the closer they get to ending! Those last couple minutes..... pure excitement! Ok.... I'm easily excited, sue me! :) The auctions I have up now don't close for three more days and I'm already up to $85. I'm hoping to make around $300 since I've got some hard to find stuff. Cross your fingers for me! Around half of my total sales will go into our bank account and the rest, I get to spend on more clothes! I've already been searching stuff out!

Then.... once my money's spent, I'll need to get busy listing more! Those totes aren't empty yet! That shopping addiction I've developed is hard to curb!

Thank goodness I've found a way to afford it!

I'm a Jet Setter

My niece went off to college this week. Well... one of my nieces. I have 11.

Anyways, this niece has chosen to go to the college I graduated from many moons ago! When I found that out, I told her that I'd love to go up and help them move her in if she wanted me to. How could she tell me no?!?! :)

It just so happened when we had that conversation, my uncle was there. My uncle who has his pilot's license AND a single engine four-seater plane!! He made the offer to fly us up there. How fun is that?!?! Normally, it's a two and a half hour drive. Flying it takes around 55 minutes. SOO, we set it all up, then prayed for nice clear weather on that day. And after a week of dreary rainy days, we got our sun on the day we needed it!

We had to be at the airfield at 8:00, which meant I had to pick up my niece around 7:30 or so. I ended up spending the night before at my sister's house (the one who was keeping my girls). We didn't even get there till after 9 that night because I'd had a meeting at church till after 8. It was after midnight before I got to bed then my nephew was watching TV in the other room so I kept getting woke up. Finally begged him to turn it off around 2:30. Got up around 6:00, left around seven. Got to my other sister's and they weren't completely ready (5 people, one bathroom) but we ended up making it on time.

My uncle was already there checking the weather radar to make sure we were good to go. It showed there might be a storm coming through later that day so he wanted to be sure he had time to fly up and fly back before that happened. We drove down to his hanger and he got the plane out. LOL... he was able to pull it by a rope! 1500 pounds on wheels!

I have to admit, I was a tiny bit nervous but looking forward to it too. The only times I've ever flown have been commercial flights so this little Piper plane was a new experience for me. My nieces were just a bit more nervous than I was. By 8:30 that morning, we were in the air. My sister, my brother in law, and my nephew drove up in the van with all of her stuff. We actually looked for them once we were airborne but didn't end up seeing them.

My uncle talked us through the whole flight, pointing out our straight line flight path. We wore headsets so we could hear each other talk over the engine roar. My nieces were so cute in the backseat.... pointing out all the lakes, pools, football fields, houses, etc, etc, etc. They got over their nervousness pretty quickly once we were flying. It was a pretty smooth ride, except the landing which was a bit bumpy. We flew right over the highway!

In what seemed like no time at all, we arrived at our destination. The college has a TINY TINY airfield behind the football stadium where we landed. My uncle hung out with us for a few then we hitched a ride about halfway to campus and walked the rest of the way. We had planned for my sister to pick us up at the airport.... but that was nixed when her stuff filled every spare crevice in the van. So, even though we arrived to the town in style, we arrived to campus on foot. I took a few pictures of the flight (did you expect anything less?!?!). Here are a couple below...

My niece started class today. I've been trying to remember back to when I first went to college.... stayed tuned for a college days blog.... :)

I feel smarter....

So, you might remember a month or so ago, I was belly-aching about having to go back to school to get some hours to renew my (currently expired) teaching certificate! Thankfully, the classes are over and life is back to normal. Although, I do still need to get 1 1/2 more hours before I can renew. UGH! Hopefully I can find a one day or a weekend class for that!

Anyways, the second of the two classes I took was actually a wonderful class! It was a writing class and I had chosen to do the nonfiction/memoir section. So, for the whole week, I got to write about me! No research, no scouring the net looking for sources, no harping over lesson plans (that I most likely won't use!).... just stories about me! How easy is that?!

SOOOOOO.... yesterday, I got an email from the teacher for that class.... telling me I got an A!!!!! WOO!! I love A's! I still need to submit two of the pieces of writing to a magazine to complete the class requirements. Wish me luck on that! One of them, I shared in my blog!

Now.... I still haven't gotten the grade for the class from hell that I took first. It was the one where I had to write a ten day thematic unit. I totally procrastinated, complained, ignored it, complained some more, and finally on the due date deadline, it was done. I think expecting an A from that class might be pushing it a bit.

I've been slacking

I meant to do a post all weekend and just never got around to it. :(

So, here I am today! My 20 month old is napping and my four year old is watching Finding Nemo! I'm supposed to be cleaning up my messy room and getting clothes organized for my moms' group kids' equipment sale. It can always wait though, right?!?!

This weekend, the girls and I drove about an hour and 15 minutes to meet an online friend and her two kiddos, who are the exact same age as mine! At first we had planned to meet at the zoo.... that is until we realized it was going to be at least 90 degrees outside, with a chance of rain. Now, I don't know about you, but looking at animals all day in the hot humid outdoors is NOT my idea of fun. So we made a change of plans!

We met at a childrens' museum! MUCH much better idea, I must say!! The museum was WONDERFUL!! So much for the kids to do... block building, water play, climbing, hammering, role playing, shopping, pretending, jumping, running, splashing.... and the list goes on! I can honestly say, the kids did not stop the entire day! They went from one thing to another, tossing balls, stacking things, banging on drums. There was never a dull moment!

Within an hour or so, J and my friend's little boy declared that they were going to be best friends forever and ever! How cute is that?! J changed her mind just slightly after he dumped an entire bucket of water on her head! She almost started to laugh until she realized that her head and clothes were soaked!! OF course, I snapped a couple pictures! It wasn't long before her hair was dried and they were back to being buddies!

C and her friend.... well, they didn't fare quite so well! Most of the day, they barely even noticed the other was around! You know that parallel play thing. They were often side by side but didn't really interact much. The few times they did were the times C decided to push him down or hit him with whatever she was holding. Thankfully, there were no major booboos created! And he was fast enough that he could get away from her pretty well!

One thing that did annoy me that day was when another parent tried to parent MY child!!

J was playing with this toy where you rolled balls over a ramp and they came back to you. This little baby (around C's age or younger) got one of the balls. And I guess J tried to take it back. The mother said to her, "YOU NEED to give that ball back to him." (in a snotty, bitchy voice).

Then she looked at me and smiled and I just glared at her. OK, I don't mind that she was telling my child what to do.... it was the way and tone that she said it.

If she would have said, "He was playing with that. Can you give it back?", (or something to that effect) I would have reacted differently.

As it was, I almost needed my can of whoop ass!



Don't worry.... I didn't have any other interaction with her. We just moved to another activity!

Before we left, we stopped off at the little ice cream parlor and had a snack! YUM!! All in all, we had a great day.... and I am most definitely taking the girls back! Hopefully soon!

Lullabies

When my girls were winky tinks, I did a lot of lullaby singing. Such a peaceful way to put them to sleep for the night.

Sometimes though, I just didn't like the words.... so I made up my own. Anyone else have lullabies they changed to fit their kiddos?!?!

I've always liked the song, "You Are My Sunshine" but I disliked the part about taking my sunshine away. Who wants to sing about their sunshine being taken away?!?! My version goes like this...

You are my sunshine,
My brightest sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are gray.
You'll always know just
How much I love you,
Cause I'll tell you every day.

Much sunnier, huh??

Oh, and the Rockabye Baby! Who in the heck would let their child come falling out of a tree and not do anything?!?!

When the bough breaks,
the cradle will fall
And Mommy will catch you,
Cradle and all.

Much safer, wouldn't you say?!


Anyone have songs to share?!?! Post them here and maybe I'll borrow them one night! Feel free to do the same with mine....

What Kind of Coffee Are You

Borrowed this from a fellow blogger, Mrs. Fun...

You Are a Frappacino

At your best, you are: fun loving, sweet, and modern At your worst, you are: childish and over indulgent You drink coffee when: you're craving something sweet Your caffeine addiction level: low

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

If you're lookin' for me....

Don't fret... I'm here.... just up to my eyeballs in totes! UGH!!

Can someone rescue me!!!

I've got totes full of clothes my 18 month has outgrown that I can't seem to part with, totes full of clothes that she will fit into this fall and for the next two years, a tote of clothes I've been picking up at garage sales for Jenna for this fall, not to mention a tote of larger sizes I've gotten at great deal. I've got totes of maternity clothes that I need to go through and get rid of, totes full of stuff for the clothing sale my mom has coming up, totes full of stuff I need to ebay, piles of stuff that needs to go to Goodwill, and totes that have junk I have no clue what to do with!!

And that's not counting the rest of the clutter that is taking up this room! Confesssion time. I'm a messy packrat! My computer table looks like a cyclone ran through it, as does my table that is *supposed* to be my craft table! There's only a couple inches of space to actually do crafts! I have a shelf that is completely unorganized. If I moved half the unneccessary stuff, I'd probably have some hope of actually having a place to put the clutter! But who has time when I'm busy trying to keep my girls' clothes organized!

I sware if my husband walks into this room while I'm working on this mess, he's probably not even going to be able to find me! If my 18 month walks in here, I might not find her for a week! I'll have to leave feed out for her!

Does anyone else have an impossible time keeping their clothes, kids' clothes, and clutter organized?? Please tell me I am not the only one!

Seems like everytime I think I'm pulling ahead, I look around and I'm behind again!

Ok well.... I guess I better get back to the insanity....

There's always a good side...

I would be remiss if I neglected to post an addendum to my last entry.

While I might have been burned by some of my internet relationships, I've also been blessed beyond compare by others. The board I posted about yesterday still contains some ~~wonderful~~ women whom I consider my friends. There are still about 10 of us and after the split, we vowed to be stronger than ever. And we were for a while but then we lost a bit of our steam. When the split happened, it made those of us who were left question a lot of things. Mainly trust. Who was to say it would not happen again... that someone else wouldn't become disenchanted, recruit a few followers, and we'd go through it all over again. Eventually, we realized that that was not going to happen. We refuse to let it.

The posting now is less frequent but we are still there for each other. I feel like I can call on these women if I need a smile or a laugh or a bit of cheering up. And I hope they feel the same way about me. Our lives have changed a lot since we first started posting together and now our kiddos are our #1 priority, as they should be. We still have days where the board is hopping again and I love it.... it makes me remember WHY we were all there in the first place!

I also post on a couple of other boards. Boards which I've made some great friends on! One of them, I've been on since I was pregnant with J! It's still a pretty active list but the conversation has definitely shifted over the years. We've been through the baby stage, the potty training stage, the toddler stage, and currenty, we're in another fun stage... All of our babies are now in preschool and will be heading to kindergarten next year! Unbelievable! We don't only talk about our kiddos though! Actually, one of the members of this group is the friend who introduced me to blogging in the first place, Indigo! Thanks Indigo.... I'm having fun! And a few others from our group also entered the blogging realm when I did.... Beanhead and Mimi! Hi girls! I *know* you'll check in soon! :)

Another board I post on is a bunch of December moms, with kiddos born the same month as my 20 month old. I've only been on this group for about 6 months or so.... but boy, do we have some fun! If I miss a few hours on that board, I definitely have some catching up to do! In the short time I've belonged to this group, I've grown to really enjoy spending time with these ladies. I hope we're still posting together when these kiddos are in preschool!

The internet is an amazing place. The amount of people who meet and form relationships over a cable or telephone wire just astounds me! I have some friends who aren't internet junkies.... I try to explain to them what they are missing, but they just don't get it.

I'm not even sure I get it. But I know that I can't do without it! Even if I have been burned a couple times. Like they say, it's better to have surfed and lost, then never to have surfed at all. Ok, ok, I might have changed the familiar saying a little, but you get the gist!

How about you all? Have you met any of your best friends sitting in front of your computer?!

Back when I was first trying to have a baby, I found a website that had bulletin boards for pregnant mommies, expecting mommies, and mommies who were hoping to be expecting soon. I was in the latter category for a pretty long time. And so were a lot of other ladies. Month after month, we started recognizing screennames and eventually, started posting in a group together. A group of women whose biggest wish was to have a baby. We'd start a new thread daily and spill out details about ourselves and little tidbits about our lives. We became more than a screen name to each other. We became friends.

Several of us decided to break off and start posting on a private board, away from the public one where we'd met. There, we got to know each other even better. Over the next year or two, we became more than just a board.... we became an extended family. We shared more with each other than we shared with even our friends and family. These were the women I went to first when I was finally expecting. Before my mom even knew, these friends did.

We continued posting together through all the ups and downs in our lives. There were miscarriages, deaths in the family, family troubles, sicknesses, birthdays, a few fights, and thankfully, a lot of births. Everyone on the board eventually got their dream of a family. And the board continued. It had become my sanity. My outlet. I often told my husband he was lucky I had this group because they were saving us a lot of money I'd be paying out to a therapist! :)

When I was pregnant with my second child, again, this was the first place I shared it. These ladies knew the frustrations I'd gone through, trying to get pregnant again. And they were so supportive and happy for me when it happened. When C was born, a friend on the board was giving the rest of the board play-by-play details as we talked on the phone and I couldn't wait to get home and share pictures of my sweeties with these ladies who had come to mean so much to me.

A few months later, the board changed. I'm not really sure what happened... I think it was a combination of a number of things... but the comraderie we had shared for almost five years became stiff and uncomfortable instead of welcoming. People posted less and bickered more. But the board went on. We still continued sharing tidbits of our lives but they were less frequent.

Several months later, we found out why. Several of the ladies on the board had jumped ship and started a new board, all the while still posting with us. No big deal there. But on their new board, they spent a great deal of their time ridiculing and making fun of those of us who were left on the original board. It all came to light when one of the members of the new board decided to rat them out to get even with another. Whatever her reasons, I'm glad she did it.

To say we were hurt is an understatement. The things that were posted about us were cruel and vicious. Here were these women who on one hand were pretending to be supportive and on the other hand were anything but. There are a lot more details that go along with this story but I imagine you're already getting a little tired of reading. Suffice it to say, the women were removed from our board and we picked up the pieces and tried to continue posting like nothing had happened. Today, that board that used to get around 100 posts a day is lucky to get 10.

It's been close to a year since we found out about the other group. And for some reason, I am still very angry at these women. There's a letter that's formed in my head that one day I would like to send. But I imagine I won't. Maybe I'll just write it, seal it, and burn it. Just like they burned us.

Our First "Birds and the Bees" Talk

The other night, I was putting my four year old to bed. And we had the following conversation....


J: How does Jesus makes babies?!

ME: Ummmm..... Oh, that's something you'll learn later.... it's kind of confusing.

J: With tape and glue?

ME: Yeah.... yeah, that's it

J: Oh. (silence).... (rubbing her arm) but I don't feel any thing on my arm. I don't feel any tape.

ME: He must have used a special kind of tape then, huh?

J: Like skin tape?!

ME: Yeah, that's it. Skin tape.

J: Oh.


Cool. Dodged that one pretty well huh?!?!

Finished!

Ahhhhhh..... what a great feeling.

I *just* emailed my final pieces to my professor from the writing class I took a couple weeks ago. We had to do three 5-7 page memoirs and two 1-2 page memoirs of events or periods in our lives. I ended up doing one on my four year old, one on camping as a child, and one on the neighborhood where I grew up. My shorter pieces were on Jenna's fashion choice I posted a week or so ago and a piece on feeding a newborn in the middle of the night.

I think I did a pretty good job on them. At least enough that I should get a B in the class. And possibly even an A!

Last week, I turned in my class project that I complained and complained about on here. Unlike my writing pieces, I'm not sure how good it was though. But after over 20 hours of working on it, I just didn't care anymore! Great attitude, huh?!?! :) Hopefully I'll do well on it though. Cross your fingers for me if you think about it!

I am just soooooooo happy to have both of the classes totally finished and out of the way!!! It'll mean more time for blogging... YAY!

Except of course, now I have to jump in feet first on organizing the clothing sale my moms' group is sponsoring! Somehow or the other, I am pretty much in charge of it. UGH!!! Not sure how that happened but I will give it my all. It's still almost two months away so I've got plenty of time to get it all together. Especially since I've already done a lot of the work before my classes started!

Ok... I'm off... I promised J I would play with her while C is napping!