Chalk Art

Too dang hot to be outside today.  The girls managed to get in a couple of hours in the pool while I did some budgeting on the laptop.  Then off to the dentist to pick up my appliance; Lowes to grab something to fix the inflatable and put up shelves in the girls rooms; BJ's to grab milk and eggs; and home to relax.  Well, not for long.

The girls are antsy and wanting to do, do, do, or go, go, go.  But with this heat its hard to want to go outside at all.  So to appease their desire to ride bikes in 97 degree heat I bribed them into chalk art for 15 minutes then bike rides tonight when it is cooler.

Now they are happily cutting paper into tiny pieces and I need to get some laundry started and the kitchen cleaned.  Sausage gravy and biscuits for dinner with scrambled eggs and tater tots.  Breakfast for dinner - you can never go wrong with that.  And considering tomorrow I'm not going to want to eat anything for a long time afterwards dinner tonight sounds delish.

What's happening tomorrow you say?  A long, long battle is coming to an end and I am getting two of my teeth pulled and replaced with a long-term temporary partial.  Details on that tomorrow.

For now, enjoy the artwork of the Lee girls.

DONE 

#70 Cover the driveway with chalk art

Finally - someone else gets it.

"A lot of people think demographics alone will bring about change and it won't," said Gail Christopher, who heads the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's America Healing project on racial equity. "If attitudes and behaviors don't change, demographics will just mean we'll have a majority population that is low-income, improperly educated, disproportionately incarcerated with greater health disparities."
 

SUZANNE GAMBOA

Today we are.......

.......cleaning house.  YIPPEE.  NOT.

Yep, the house is a disaster.  Again.  Two young, full of energy, ready to go girls can make short work of making a mess.  Gotta love em though.  At least they don't puke all over the carpet like the cat; or take a dump on the bathroom floor like the dog.  Bonus for that I suppose.

But thanks to whatever is going on with Oscar we are now faced with taking him to the vet because this, being day three of piles of poop on my floors, included blood.  Not good.  Three days of super soft stools and now blood.  What the heck?

At least I think we FINALLY figured out how to keep the cat from up-chucking all over the place.  Seems she likes to devour her food without chewing so when it sits on her stomach she can't handle it.  I started putting soft food in her morning meal and she is now forced to slow down and chew it.  That and I read somewhere that if you give a cat cold food it shocks their system.  So now I wait a couple of minutes before giving her the bowl.  Day five and so far so good.  The only incident we had was when John fed her solid food w/o the soft stuff.  She devoured it then left him, or me since I'm usually the one cleaning it up, a nice big pile of regurgitated cat food.

Okay.  I'm officially sick to my stomach now.

Anyhow; with all this mess going on here lately the house is really starting to smell musty and gross.  So after the girls wake and we've had some breakfast its time to pull out the heavy duty cleaning supplies and scrub the bathrooms, floors, and clean every inch of this place.  The only thing I'd like to do more than clean the stick from the house is clean the clutter from the house.

SO MUCH STUFF.  I hate clutter and it really does make things a lot messier.  Often times I imagine how much easier it would be if we were a minimalist kind of family.  Well, today I may get a headstart on that with the girls playroom.  Since joining these local FB online yard sales I've discovered there's money to be made from our old stuff.  And the girls have lots of old stuff.  I'm hopeful I can make it through the piles of toys and play things in their playroom and go through everything in there to decide if we should keep or sell.  Then pics galore and mounds of money here we come.

Speaking of money - here's hoping Iraq finally comes through for us.  I've never been one to slather well wishes on such a horrific third world country, but considering our financial troubles could disappear as soon as Monday, I'm throwing all my well wishing power their way.  We REALLY need them to come through for us.  Especially now that John is looking at being let go from work.

Keep your fingers crossed and if it happens I'll be sure to update you all on why this event is such an important thing to happen.  For now, lets just say hubs is way smarter than anyone ever gives him credit for.

Catching Up Part 2

Wow.  Its hard to believe its already been one week since we got spoiled at Bush Gardens.  Back to the grind stone it is then.

I figured this week I would try spending more time doing things I used to do - clean the house every day; laundry always done; kitchen always clean.  Yeah.  One can dream.  Aside from the kitchen being clean more often I haven't made much progress in anything else so I thought "Self, you need some motivation."  And my self answered  "Why, yes you do."  So I loaded the girls in the car and headed over to Wal-Mart (I absolutely hate that place but when it comes to cheap fabric WallyWorld is it around here).

We dug through the back to school bins and located some cheap buys in there.  Stocked up on glue, paper, notebooks, etc.  Is it that time already?  Guess so.

Next we headed over to the electronics to acquire a Basic Talk item.  Hubs and I agree - if it wasn't for the security system on the house having to be linked to a land line we simply wouldn't have a home phone.  Alas we must have one so why not make it a cheap one?

On our way to cash out I passed by my Achilles heel - bargain fabric.  Roll upon roll of nice looking fabric for a fraction of the cost and most were not more than $2 a yard.  You'd have to be a fool not to at least look.  And we did.  And we picked out several fabrics.  And we bought way too many.  Well, maybe not.

Samantha hasn't had much in the way of new clothes this past school year.  Most of what she did get was hand-me-downs and presents.  Occasionally I would find a sale worth hitting up and I managed to score some pretty sweet deals but those sales were few and far between.  And poor Jessica; what clothes she got was nearly all hand-me-downs.  Its a rare event that my littlest angel gets something new to wear but when she does she is all smiles, so when I scored a major bargain on all that fabric I just couldn't resist making something new for both girls.

First - Tinkerbell shoes for Halloween.  These aren't quite done (they need a ribbon to tie the backs up so the girls don't trip in them) but they are cute.

Second - Jessica needs an interview outfit for her pageant at the end of the month.  I'd been toying with some ideas in my head as to what to make her, and I have to say when hubs insisted on an all white dress I was not very enthusiastic; however, this little beauty is a show stopper.  The dress or the girl you ask?  BOTH.  Of course little miss is all to happy to pose for pictures.

Third, and probably last for tonight - Samantha got a new dress.  I started with an older tank top she had in her drawer.  Something plain white and a tad large on her now but perfect for what I was wanting to do.  With a couple of hours and less than a yard of material she traded in an over-sized tank for a perfect fitting dress.

Its a start and hopefully by the end of next week I'll have even more items to post.  In the meantime I'm off to clean the kitchen so the cat doesn't get into anything since she's gotten accustomed to roaming counters at night.  Ugh, how I hate that.  Can't stand the thought of cats on my counters and tables.  Makes me want to gag.  What I really want to do is put her in a cage so she can't roam at night but of course hubs won't have any of that.  Maybe he'll let me get her a shock collar and I can randomly press the button at night just to keep her on her toes.  Bet she wouldn't jump on my table and try stealing the girls lunch then.  Well, at least I can dream.  LOL.

And until my dreams come true I have two little monkeys who have learned how to climb walls.  Literally.

Love those little monkeys.

Catching Up Part 1

Wow.  It seems like forever since I've had time to sit and update this blog but at last - here goes.

Of course the 4th of July ended up being a late night with the girls.  Who can sleep with so many fireworks going off at the same time accompanied by a background of patriotic music?  Not my girls.  And if they don't sleep; mama doesn't sleep.  Oh well.  The fireworks were beautiful (and free to watch) so thanks goes to our neighbors who put on one hell of a show for us.

The next morning wasn't as bad as anticipated - considering I couldn't rouse the rest of the family to get a move on, but when we finally did hit the road it was much later than expected.  We arrived at Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg around lunch and was pleasantly surprised to find we were allowed an early check-in.  Sweet.  The room was more like a small apartment - one bedroom, one bathroom, full kitchen, dining room and living area with a pull out sofa bed for the girls.  Worked out very nicely.  Of course since we weren't paying for the room hubs ensured we enjoyed freezing weather while we were there.  And he slept like a baby both nights.

After getting unpacked we chose to head over to Bush Gardens for a late afternoon of fun.  First, and most impressive ride if only because Jessica, still 4 yrs old at the time, rode it several times, was Escape from Pompei.

 Seriously, she impressed the hell out of me being so very brave.  Of course she wasn't super excited about it like Samantha was but still.....

We managed to make it through about 1/2 of the park on Friday hitting up rides like The Elephant Run, Da Vinci's Cradle, Battering Ram, Flying Machine, and Curse of Darkastle.  Jessa was a huge fan of the Elephant Run but was completely terrorized by DaVinci's Cradle and Battering Ram, and not such a huge fan of Darkastle even though she did them all.  So very proud of how brave she was.  Although I'm pretty sure she won't be on them again for a number of years I also know she got a huge boost in self-confidence (a plus for her upcoming pageant).

Samantha on the other hand fell in love with the thrill of bigger, faster, and scarier.  She cried buckets on day two when we didn't get to do Darkastle again but was thrilled getting to ride the roller-coasters with her daddy.  Day two Samantha and daddy tackled Verbolten and Loch Ness, and don't think she wouldn't have gotten on Griffon if she was tall enough.  That girls is an adrenaline junkie.  Just like her daddy.

Since we opted for two days at Bush Gardens we had to at least spend one day at Water Country USA.  Jessa and I rode two rides together while Samantha and daddy enjoyed a few of the bigger rides.  A little mis-communication to begin with but when we finally met up again with each other our final hour or so was spent in the kids pool watching the girls swim and cross the water logs.

Here's where the differences in the girls was really apparent.  While Jessa would allow me to help her learn how to swim and float on her back Samantha would have nothing of it.  Its like her brain was in panic mode the entire time and I just could not get her to relax enough to even listen to what I was telling her.  I have a feeling a few years from now Jessa will be an avid swimmer while Samantha is still struggling to learn.  Thinking swimming lessons for both would be a good thing, but we have to wait until John's job issues settle down again and we are assured of a financial future without struggling.

So with a fun-filled weekend done we figured it would be a good idea to head home a tad early to ensure daddy got some rest before Monday morning.  Mistake - never travel on a Sunday of a holiday weekend - especially on I95 North.  What should have taken us three hours tops to complete turned into a parking and rubber-necking fest for nearly 8 hours.  At one point we departed ways with the interstate and chose to go by the side roads.  While normally that would have taken us longer to make it home we actually ended up shaving nearly two hours off our travel time.  Yeah, 95 was that bad.

I guess now would be a good time to take a break and update our 101 list.

DONE
#3 go swimming
#23 visit a candy factory
#33 ride a carousal
#39 go to a swim park (wasn't Signal Hill but one just like it at Water Country USA)
#65 ride a roller coaster
#66 visit an amusement park


One last note: we'll have to revise our list to exchange some costly adventures with some that are free or cheap just until we figure out what's going to happen with John's job situation, so watch for an updated version in a few days.

I'll try to post part 2 later tonight or tomorrow.

No.....

....I haven't disappeared.  Just been super busy.

I'll have lots to post, hopefully tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

Clear the road

On our way !!! Bush Gardens here we come.

Independence for everyone

DONE

#57 Watch fireworks.

Every year our neighbors put on a show of fireworks, and every year it gets more and more elaborate.  In four years they have graduated from 100 or so small rockets to a full one hour fireworks display worthy of professional presentations accompanied by an ensemble of patriotic music.  So even though I really NEED the girls to be in bed asleep so I can do my cleaning and packing taking them outside to watch the show, chat with neighbors, and make new friends was well worth it.

Happy birthday America.

Its a super secret awesome place.

Months ago hubs company decided to put together a summer event - they do it every year but most years, actually every year we don't attend.  Honestly, I have no desire to sit around and hob-snob it with a bunch of petty women with whom I probably have extremely little in common.  And with hubs back surgeries we really couldn't attend even if we wanted to.  So when this summer's event list comes around for some strange reason hubs decides to sign us up.  Why?  Still not sure but I'm chalking it up to a free hotel and entrance fees for 3 days to ..........wait for it.............

After more than four years I finally have to put on a happy face, learn how to hold my tongue, and smile even when what I'd rather do is be home watching the DVR, or reading a book, or doing something with the girls, but alas, this year I have to suck it up and learn to play nice.  And for hubs sake I can do that.  For a short while anyway.

The girls still don't know where we're going although I have managed to bribe an entire day of house cleaning out of them in exchange for going to said super secret awesome place.  Today they helped me by putting away all their toys - well, almost.  The toys that got moved from the main level did make it upstairs to the playroom, however, they didn't make it much past the door to the playroom.  Oh well.  Tomorrow I'll be bribing them to help clean that up.  What fun.

So Bush Gardens and Water Country USA it is.  We almost decided not to go considering recent events but that would not have been very fair to the girls, so even though John has a pending job loss hanging over our heads, and I am faced with more major dental work, we are going to BG for a few reasons - 1) Hubs compmany is paying for the entrance fees to both parks for three days, 2) they are also paying for a room at the KingsMill Resort for two nights, 3) because if the pending income loss, this may well be the only really outstanding thing the girls get to do this summer.

That said, we do get to mark a few more things off our list
DONE

#21 Dance in the rain
#74 Do a leaf rubbing
#97 Make snow cones

Tomorrow its making cookies, doing laundry, packing, cleaning the upstairs, and doing some more homeschool lessons.  Oh, all that and we're headed out to MamaLue and Papa's for a cookout.

Hope everyone else enjoys their 4th as much as we will.

The Grocery Game

Well, after years of trying to figure out how to save bookoos money on groceries on my own I've finally caved in and got a membership with thegrocerygame.com.  And considering I just spent less than 1 hour finding deals I would have missed out on other wise I'd have to say I think the 4wk free trial will be worth every penny saved.  As a matter of fact, today I stand to save $99.84 buying on those things we really need, using coupons I already have.  How's that for smart?

Of course I have coupons on hand that I'll use on top of the deals I found online, so that'll change how much I actually save but it should be interesting to see what kind of total savings I walk away with.

I'll update later after I get back and unload the car.  Happy shopping everyone.

OH YEAH...before I forget....want to earn $5?  Click on this link http://www.TheGroceryGame.com/ref/28-vbkw/   and sign up for the 4wk trial.

Trust me.  It's worth it.  If you decide to keep it then when you sign up for membership you and I will both earn $5.  And if you don't want to keep it just cancel before the 28th day of the trial.  How's that for saving and making money?

Enjoy.

UPDATE:

Some things are really nice about thegrocerygame.com.  Some are not so nice.  For instance, she is missing one major grocery chain - Safeway, Walmart, and Target for my area.  Why?  Not sure.  And when I took her list to the local Giant I found two of the items listed at other stores on sale were still more expensive than the ones at Giant at regular price.  Also, one of the meat sales wasn't even in the Giant store - that particular brand, the manager told me, was located in their New England locations - not here in VA.  So what gives?

I'll be doing some calculations tomorrow to see if the program is worth the monthly fee.  After all, I'm looking to cut corners on everything possible and while it may be a hassle to do the leg work to find the best deals, it may boil down to a $5 savings or breaking even.   Will let you know tomorrow.