Tag, I'm it

I've been tagged by Rachel and Shannon


Here are the rules:

a. Link to the person who tagged you

b. Post the rules on your blog.

c. Write six random things about yourself.

d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blog.

e. Let each person know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.

f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up..



A)
Shannon and Rachel each tagged me :)

B) done

C) Six random things about me
-I have naturally curly hair that I battle with a flat iron after each washing.
-I am double-jointed in 4 fingers and all of my toes.
-I know every word to Jay-Z's "Big Pimpin'"
-I don't like ice cream.
-I still hang out with my high school friends.
-I love to fall asleep with the tv on.

So for (D) and (E), I think from reading all the blogs that I read...everyone has already been tagged :)

Off to do (F) now!

bye bye Sprint

Hello Verizon!

I've been with Sprint for about 6 years. After numerous dropped calls and lots of dead air space on the interstate, I was ready to switch to another company. Originally I had wanted to go with AT&T. We have Dish Network, AT&T landline and internet. I thought we could get a pretty good discount with one of their widely advertized "bundle" packages. Wrong! You only get a 5% discount for bundling your junk. I had my heart set on an LG Shine phone, picked out the plan and everything. I had gone in earlier in the week and spoke with a salesman. I took Chris back with me the second time so he could ask any questions I may have forgotten. This sales guy threw something out like, "to get this phone for $49.99 you have to purchase unlimited text messages for $20 a month for the next six months." Ummm, no thanks. Do you really get a discount at that rate?

We thought we would be better off just going back with Sprint then. We decided to stop by the Verizon store first, just to make sure, before heading to Sprint. The Verizon store was SO FREAKING PACKED! It was insane. Chris put our name on the list, and we "tried" to look at phones. Luckily, I knew I wanted a slider so that narrowed it down a little. I was really turned off while I was looking at the prices posted on the phones. The kids were cranky, since cell phones are the FORBIDDEN toy that they are only allowed to play with in the most desperate of situations, so we were ready to bail. A manager/bouncer-looking guy stopped us at the door. So, to make a long story short, they made us very happy customers!

Some 4th of July pics!

We partied with the neighbors this year. It's pretty sad that we have lived here three years and really haven't gotten to know a lot of the people around us. We were fortunate to meet some really great people!

Everyone pitched in and bought about $700 worth of fireworks. It was quite a show. Bryce loved it this year (unlike last year), and Drew actually fell asleep. Only that child could sleep through explosives going off. Totally a child of his routine.

Got Shirts?

I'm not sure if I'm just in the "shopping mood" or what, but lately I've really been digging the shirts Kate has been wearing on TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8. So I sat down to browse on the computer and see what I could find. I ended up ordering the "Grateful Mom" shirt and a shirt similar to her "MOM8" (to the 8th degree). I can't wait for them to get here! Cheezy, I know. Now I feel like such a stalker ;)

an update is coming...

I know I left you hanging. I'm going to come back to this today, promise.

Blog going private

If you're a reader of my blog, and would like to continue, please comment with your e-mail address so I can send you an invitation to read it. Due to the circumstances we're under right now, it's best that I do this so nothing can be found to use against us in the near future.

p.s. If you don't have a blogger account, feel free to e-mail me at mondickens at yahoo dot com so I can add you to the list of readers.

TO DO - AND ALREADY DONE

TODAY:

-pilates (done)

-drop off stuff at Goodwill (done)

-Meet Libby for lunch (done)

-Shop for new outfit for court (done)

-iron clothes (not done)

-confirm with sitter for tomorrow morning (done)

-swimming lessons (not time yet)

-go by AT&T store to look at phones (not done)

TOMORROW:

-court at 9am

-Zanies for celebration or mourning...depending on how above event pans out


My stomach has been churning today. I haven't been nervous AT ALL about the court thing until I talked to Chris earlier today. He will have to go on the stand. Not that we have anything to hide, I guess I just thought it would be a fairly quick hearing and only the lawyers would be doing the talking. I don't like the element of surprise. I hope he handles the questions well. We are, of course, putting her on the stand tomorrow in return. The paralegal at our attorney's office also said that she has character witnesses to speak on her behalf tomorrow. What! Our attorney told us it wouldn't come to the character witnesses when we met with him initially. Of course we could drag a parade of people in there that could say great things about us and our parenting skills, but I don't know how anyone could miss work on such short notice. Hopefully our evidence and the people we have subpoened will be enough to pull us through successfully. Please say a little prayer for us! I'll post an update tomorrow afternoon when we get home.

Lookie what I found! eak!

It's a black widow spider! See the red hour-glass on it's belly? It's dead now and long gone down the garbage disposal. I found it in a web under my chaise. I was laying out in the sun on Wednesday and there she was. I've been so creaped out since! I hope there aren't any more out there!

If you're looking for something good to read....

then try a book by Philippa Gregory. She writes historical fiction, and has grabbed my attention. My newest fascination is with King Henry VIII. I'm currently reading "The Other Boleyn Girl", and I can't wait to read her others from the Tudor series. (The Other Boleyn Girl, The Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover, The Constant Princess, The Boleyn Inheritance, The Other Queen). I've always been such a light reader and liked the silly, smutty stuff. I've suprised myself with this book! Give it a try!

-livid-

Well, let me start by saying it has been one heck of a week. A very weird, strange week.

My neighbor has officially PISSED me off, so now I'm posing a WWYD situation. I would LOVE to hear how you would handle this....

Here's the back story....

Our neighbor never ever cuts his grass. Well, maybe 3 times a year. Just kidding, more like 10. So, it's always so high. This week the grass on the side of his yard closest to our house came up to my waist, no kidding. He'll mow the front, but never the rest. We have to look at it. Well...he came home yesterday with a brand-spankin' new riding lawnmower. YEE-HAW! I don't think he owns a weed-eater either, so this should be interesting. He gets everything geared up to mow. Chris and I are all excited and staring out the window, thinking the days of the waist-high yard may be a thing of the past. Chris went out to inspect the yard work last night (yep, we're the anal neighbors) and noticed that the neighbor blew his waist-high grass all over our fence. Normally I wouldn't have been SO upset, but we just rented a pressure washer two weeks ago to wash our fence. Last week, we stained our fence and still have another coat of stain to go. Now I'm pissed. I didn't react on it at the moment and I didn't let Chris either. I guess I'm getting a little older and more level-headed. We decided if we were still upset tomorrow and he doesn't clean up his grass (which was piled up literally 6 inches up our fence) then we would say something. I had to go out to work last night and got home around midnight. I walked to the side yard and I guess I was still upset about it. I went into the garage and grabbed a rake. In my rage, I raked all the grass by the light of that big 'ol moon we had last night. I placed the huge pile right infront of my neighbor's car. That's me to a "t". Passive-agressive. Thinking he'll see that we raked the grass and *think* that we don't want it there, and hopefully it won't happen again. Any suggestions on what to do if it happens again? I would like to keep it civil, but....maybe if I piss them off they will move ;)

oh so zen

I went to a new-to-me class today at the Y called Yoga Ball. I loved doing yoga when I was pregnant, and today I decided I wanted to do something a little on the soft side so I jumped on in. Man, oh man. I thought pre-natal yoga was hard! We were doing some c-r-a-z-y poses in there. Here's a picture of one (the one I thought was the hardest) called "half-moon"....

Well, I just about ended up on my head with that one! So much for thinking I was taking the easy way out today!

AUGH!

Well, I have to change the sheets on every bed in the house today! I just changed them a couple of days ago, too! Bryce had a little "leakage" before he made it in the bathroom and then decided to lay down in my bed and watch cartoons while I slept ;) Drew woke up and his diaper had leaked too. YUCK!

I don't know how, but we made it to the Y today at 8am for kickboxing. The usual teacher was out, so we had a sub. It really works me harder when someone else switches up my routine. She didn't do as much kickboxing, it was more bootcamp-ish stuff. We did stair runs and laps, jump-rope and jumping jacks...just throw in a few killers and I would've felt like I was at high school basketball practice again! Whew! I'm beat! We're going back today at 5 for Bryce to start his swimming lessons.


We bought tickets to see Jon Reep on the 25th of this month! I'm so so so excited! My mom's group is planning a night out to Zanies on the 21st, and I was pulling up the calendar to show Chris who the comedian was, and we saw that Jon Reep was coming!!! He was the winner of last season's "Last Comic Standing", and he made us both laugh so hard we could've peed our pants. Chris whipped out the AMEX and bought us some tickets! I got someone to cover part of my shift and we will actually get a night out together! I think the last time we were alone together was either at an attorney's office or getting our taxes done. I can't wait!

Postponed....

Our attorney had a death in the family and had to travel out of state for the funeral. We got a call today that the hearing has been rescheduled for June 25th. Just a couple more weeks left of walking on pins and needles!

Weekend stuff

I worked diligently Thursday and Friday to pull together a yard sale. I had quite a few home decor things to sell, some of my fall/winter maternity clothes and tons of baby clothes. I got everything organized, priced and hung Friday night. I placed signs at every intersection pointing people my direction. When all was said and done (at 11am for me) I made about $70. I really didn't sell but 25% of what I had out there. I don't know what's up. All the yard sales I've had in the past really went well, but Saturday there wasn't much traffic at all. Now I'm stuck with a garage full of stuff that's too good to take to Goodwill, but I don't want to store it anymore. I really wasted a Saturday.

Saturday night, I went upstairs and decided it's time to get back into scrapbooking again. I realized what goodies I still had after going through it for the yardsale. Anyway, I haven't made a single page since Drew's been born. It felt weird to me. I can't explain it. But...here's what it turned out like....
It's a group shot from Bryce's MDO and a picture of him on his first day. The pocket holds a tag for journaling (which I still need to do). Maybe I'll get my mojo back.

On Sunday, we went to church. I was really glad to be there after missing last week. I just don't feel right when we can't make it to church. Drew slept right through as always, and Bryce had fun in his class. Afterwards we went to TGI Friday's for lunch (without tomatoes or lemons..ha!), and to Kohl's for some clothes to wear to court on Wednesday. Home for a nap, and then the rest of the day in the pool! fun!

recent reads

Whew! I've been on a reading binge lately! I just *adore* the library. I'm still in the process of "Good in Bed", but I hope to have that finished pretty soon. I'm on the wait list for the sequil "Certain Girls" and I can't wait!

Green cleaning - take 1

I began researching "green" cleaning methods earlier this week after becoming more aware of the harm that the chemicals in common household cleaners can cause not only the environment, but my family. With Drew at a stage where he puts EVERYTHING in his mouth, I decided that I should better monitor what I'm putting on the surfaces he most comes in contact with.

I'm still somewhat skeptical of the so-called "green" products that stores have on their shelves now. It's becoming so cool to be green, that I'm afraid some manufactures may be using the timing to their marketing advantage. With that being said, I chose to research some recipes for household cleaning using common products that are non-toxic. Today's adventure began with white vinegar, water and baking soda.

I came across several ways that vinegar can be used (I have used vinegar in my prior cleaning experiences, but just not to this extent). I tackled the appliances in my kitchen this morning with "great success" (said in my best Borat voice). I started with my caked-up-funkified can opener. I took the blade apparatus off and soaked it in straight vinegar for about 10 minutes, rinsed it with water, and VOILA...clean! I cleaned the base of the can opener with a mixture of 1 part water to 1 part vinegar that I mixed in a spray bottle. This was e-a-s-y! I used less elbow grease than I normally do with my other cleaners.

I then cleaned out my washing machine (nasty, but easily done), coffee maker and toaster oven. For the toaster oven, I mixed baking soda and water in a small bowl until it was pasty and scrubbed the pan with a sponge. It rinsed off so well. No grit, no grime.

You know those stubborn lime stains around your kitchen faucet? Soak a paper towel with straight vinegar and wrap it around your faucet. Let it soak there for a few minutes and wipe the scum away!

I also found a tip for cleaning the microwave. Now, my microwave was mostly clean from a Spaghetti-O mishap yesterday at lunch, so this didn't get fully put to the test. Mix 1 cup warm water with 1 tablespoon vinegar and two drops of dish liquid. Heat in microwave for 3-4 minutes and let stand for 15 minutes. Wipe down with a damp cloth.

This entire experiment cost me around $3. I got a gallon of vinegar for $1.48, a small box of baking soda for $0.38 and two spray bottles for $0.96 each. I'm looking forward to playing a little more with lemon juice and some essential oils!

Just a swingin'

The baby swing has by far been our best purchase in awhile. Drew absolutely loves to swing and so does Bryce. I guess that's about the only thing these two yahoos have in common. We've added a mandatory "swing session" to our daily routine :)

Drew @ 7 Months!!!

My big guy is still growing so fast! He's sooo close to crawling now that I expect he will be all over the house by the end of the month. He's such a social baby, which works out in my favor. He loves to go. We can be anywhere. The more people that are around, the more he loves it. Chris got a swing for him yesterday and put it on the swingset and he loved it. I'll have to get some pictures of that today!

The Gift of Kindness

I get daily devotionals e-mailed to me and this one really stood out so I thought I would share :)


Suggested Bible Reading

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

-Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2 (NRSV)


Today's Scripture

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

-Ephesians 4:32 (NRSV)


AFTER placing several items in the grocery cart, I headed for the check-out line. Since several customers were in front of me, I found myself people-watching. Soon I noticed an irritated man in the next line. He was waiting behind a young woman with a fussy child. She was beginning to count change, and she looked worried. "Don't tell me you don't even have enough for the groceries!" the man said loudly. "How can you come in here without money?"

The young mother was $20 short when all her change was counted. What the woman had was food for a meal, food for the child, and diapers. She had no frills that I could see. I found myself passing a $20 bill to the cashier. The young mother was embarrassed but looked genuinely grateful.

As I walked out of the store, the irate man came past me and said, "You know she probably does this all the time. You've just been taken."

My immediate response was, "God knows my heart. I am not worried." Despite the feeling that I had no money to spare, I had given freely. And I realized God had given me this opportunity to test my faith.

Barbara A. Smith (Ohio, U.S.A.)

Can I get a do-over?

I need to rewind and start my morning off on another foot. If you don't want to hear a down and depressing story, then go back now. I got paged for work at 5:40 this morning. It was Labor and Delivery. They don't play, so when they call you know it's usually an emergency. When I called them they let me know they couldn't find heart-tones on a baby. This happens alot on patients that have a larger body habitus than their equipment can penetrate, so I just figured it would be a quick scan to calm their worries.

Man, I was wrong. I got there and received the story from the nurse. This girl had shown up early this morning to be induced. Totally normal pregnancy up to this point. After the nurse told me she was 99% sure this baby had passed, I asked her to come in the room with me while I scanned to run interference. The expression on my face can sometimes give way to what I'm seeing on the screen, and I didn't want to be the one to break it to her. The nurse was really helping to distract her while I did the ultrasound, so the "Is everything okay?" question didn't get asked to me.

I feel so horrible and sick. I'm imagining the excitement and anticipation they had when they arrived at the hospital this morning, and the extreme reverse of emotion they are probably going through right now. She talked about what she was going to name her baby, how the nursery was decorated and how all of the family was in town for his birth. Please say a prayer for this family.