Contest

Okay, so I don't normally do this, but I really, really like this website and I want to win a free handbag. Handbag Planet is giving away 24 handbags on October 15th - one free handbag per hour. Go there and enter to win one for yourself. I entered for the green handbag, so you choose something else.

Helmets

There are reasons that we have helmet laws in this country. It's because they save lives. Even low speed accidents can lead to deadly head injuries when helmets aren't worn.

Today, I found out that my step-son's little brother was in an ATV accident when he wasn't wearing a helmet. He and his little sister were in a go-cart being pulled behind an ATV when the go-cart crashed into a concrete pole. Both children flew out of the go-cart. The girl was thrown clear, but the boy flew head first into the concrete pole. The girl had no injuries, but the boy had severe head injuries and was declared brain-dead yesterday. Though we'll never know for sure, he may have survived if he had been wearing a helmet. Or a seat belt.

My step-son was present for and witnessed the entire event. As I'm sure you can imagine, he's having a pretty difficult time dealing with it all.

Some good did come from this tragic event, though. The boy's organs were donated and helped to save several other children's lives. Organ donation is literally giving the gift of life. If you are not already an organ donor, I urge you to become one.

I Must Say

I am totally loving this new season of Sesame Street. Probably a lot more than Katie is. The guest stars are awesome! Yesterday, Tina Fey was on. But, even better than that, LL Cool J was on today, rapping with Elmo about addition. WAY cool! Click here to watch LL and Elmo.

I can't wait to watch Sesame Street again tomorrow to see who's on then.

Got the Call

They called me. AGAIN. About the overdraft on my account.

Them: We are calling you about the overdraft on your account. Did you know that your account is overdrawn?

Me: Yes. Could you guys please stop calling me about it?

Them: Well, when are you going to bring your account current?

Me: Whenever you guys get around to taking care of it.

Them: Oh, is there a dispute on your account?

Me: Yeah! I've already told you guys this. Now, can you please stop calling me?

Them: Well, it'll take up to two weeks for the fraud dispute to be completed, and we can't stop calling you because the computer automatically calls you as long as your account is this overdrawn. You'll just have to ignore the calls until your account is positive again.

Me: Great! (note the sarcasm here)

So, it looks like I'm in for another week and a half of these phone calls. Oh, joy!

Read, Read, Read, Read

Katie and I just finished watching an all new episode of Sesame Street. It starred Tina Fey as the leader of a band of Pirates who called themselves the "BOOKaneers" because they love to read books. In the episode, Elmo tries to become a pirate and join the Bookaneers. (Andrea, Patrick would probably love this episode.)

Now, Katie is singing, over and over again, "Read, read, read, read. A pirate likes to read," to the tune of "Yo ho, yo ho. A pirate's life for me." Sometimes, she so darn cute I can't stand it!

Happy Birthday

Happy 3rd Birthday to my dear sweet Goddaughter, and Katie's first friend, Julianna.

Long Sunday

We had to get up early to get to church in time for the religious education registration and orientation. Once we finished with that, Sarah wanted us to talk to the youth group director about a planned service trip to New Jersey this summer. I told her that she couldn't go because we couldn't afford to send her. But after speaking to the youth group director, she assured us that whatever funds we couldn't come up with, the church would cover for us.

AND, she invited Emily to join them on the trip. She said that technically, the children who attend are supposed to be at least 12 years old, but that since Emily would only be about a week shy of her 12th birthday when they go on the trip, she didn't see why she couldn't go, too.

So, both Sarah and Emily may be going to New Jersey for a week this summer. Maybe I can send Katie to stay with my mother for the week and have myself a little vacation of my own. I might even let Phil take the week off from work and join me. You know, so he can rub my feet and feed me grapes - but not in that order (eww!). Aah... A girl can dream, can't she?

So anyway, back to my long day. This afternoon, we had to attend my BFF Michelle's daughter Julianna's third birthday party. The party was fun, especially for the kids, and it was good to see everybody that I only get to see on these sorts of occassions, but unlike the past few days, the humidity was back, and I could barely breathe in the muggy heat.

After the party, we drove over to Costco to get a new membership. We had a membership there a few years ago when they first opened the store in our area, but we let it expire since we also had a Sam's Club membership. But since we are trying to cut down on our food costs, we decided that buying in bulk might be the way to go, and it would be worth investing in the membership again.

After we left Costco, we drove the girls home and fed them dinner, and then Phil and I headed back out to search for a new monitor for my computer. My old monitor has been on its deathbed for a while now and has recently taken a turn for the worse. Of course, who could blame it? It was older than all of my children, and we were truly surprised at how long it has lasted.

We started our search for a monitor at Walmart because Phil was convinced that we could find a really cheap one there. He was wrong. Their cheapest one was nearly $200. Then we went to Best Buy because we had seen a couple in their ad today for $159.99. They had two for that price, but the one that we liked better didn't have any boxes underneath the display model. Luckily, I noticed that there were several of them underneath the display model of the other one, so I was able to get it.

On our way home from Best Buy, we stopped at Super Target to pick up some Coke and milk because we were out of both. While we were in the store, we stopped in their computer section to see what sort of prices they had on monitors. They only had two different models, and one of them was the same as the one we had just purchased. Of course, Target's price was $70 more than what we paid at Best Buy, so we were very happy with our deal.

So, yeah. Long day. Even longer when you factor in me having to wait for Phil to set up my new monitor and install my new keyboard (can you believe my keyboard went on the fritz yesterday, too?!) so I could finally check my email, and blog all about my long day. But now that I'm finished, I'll be able to go to sleep soon.

Goodnight, John-boy.

Much Better

I went to Super Target tonight after dinner. I decided to check their Halloween section to see if they had any less-scary candy pails that would go well with Katie's costume. And this is what I found.


This is SO much better than carrying around a decapitated head. I think Katie's really going to like it.


In other news, I finally got the big, fat check from my medical flexible spending account that I've been waiting for in the mail today. What a relief it was! I figured out a couple of months ago that Sarah's dental office hadn't been billing our insurance company for her orthodontic visits since they hit the maximum orthodontics payout. They figured, "Why bother since they're not going to pay anymore?" So, I told them why they needed to bother. Just because they aren't collecting anymore money from our insurance company, didn't mean that I didn't still need them to file a claim.

You see, the way our FSA works is that once a claim is denied, or partially paid, by our insurance company, the FSA then cuts us a check for the part we had to pay out of pocket. Since Sarah's braces cost WAY more than what the insurance company covered, I still have to pay her dentist about $100 per month. If they don't file a claim for the visit, our insurance company doesn't deny it, and our FSA doesn't reimburse me for what I spent.

So, the billing lady said that she didn't think it would work, but she would try it anyway, just to make me happy. And after a couple of months of waiting for something to happen, and me deciding that it probably was a lost cause, the check came in the mail today. Hallelujah! I will definitely be thanking the big guy upstairs big time tomorrow in church! I should probably thank the billing lady, too. That way she won't give me such a hard time the next time I ask her to do it for me.

Is It Just Me?

Is it just me, or does the idea of your child carrying around the head of the character they are dressing up as for Halloween seem just a little bit morbid? Or any character's head, really?

I saw this candy pail at the party store this morning, and I just thought it would be way too weird for Katie to carry around while she was dressed up as Abby Caddabby.


Then I considered letting her carry around Elmo's head and telling everyone that Elmo had seriously pissed Abby off! LOL!!

Guess Who

Guess who called me again today. My bank's overdraft department. Here's how the conversation went.

OD Guy: Your account is overdrawn $707.xx.

Me: Yes, it is.

OD Guy: We were just wondering when you were going to make a deposit to cover your negative balance.

Me: I'm not.

OD Guy: Uh....

Me: Look, dude. Someone fraudulently used my account to make unauthorized charges. I filed a fraud report with you guys yesterday. Once you guys fix everything, my account will no longer be negative.

OD Guy: Oh. ... Well, uh, thank you.

Me: Bye. (click)

If these OD people call me again, I'm really going to mess with them.

Bad Mommy

I took Katie to a playdate this morning with some friends from my Moms group. The weather was beautiful - low humidity with a nice cool breeze. Since we were already out and about and feeling good due to the weather, I decided to take Katie to the party store to get her Halloween costume. BTW, How sad is it that we have to purchase our kids' Halloween costumes in September if we don't want to get stuck with the crappy leftovers?

Anyway, I knew they would have a bunch of scary decorations in the store, but I guess I didn't realize just how they would affect Katie. My poor baby was so scared of some of the decorations. I had to carry her the entire time we were in the store, and she had her head buried in my shoulder most of that time. I felt so bad, but figured since we were already in there and she had already been exposed to it, we may as well go ahead and get that darn costume for her.

And, that's just what we did. We got the costume and tried it on. It's a little big since the smallest size they had it in was a 3T-4T, but it's not so big that it'll fall off of her. I may have it taken up a bit before Halloween, but it really isn't necessary. And Katie just LOVES it, which is really all that matters in the end.

And who will my dear Katie be dressing up as for Halloween?


Why it's Abby Caddabby from Sesame Street, of course! Katie fell in love with Abby when we saw the Sesame Street show at Sea World back in July, and since we are taking her to see Sesame Street Live in a couple of weeks, I'm sure her love for Abby will not disappear before Halloween.

Now, I just have to figure out where to take her trick-or-treating this year. We've tried our own neighborhood the past few years, but only a couple of our neighbors participate and it's a really long walk for a little girl to only go up to a couple of houses.

New Baby

Congratulations to my friend, Heather, who gave birth to her second son this morning. I'm so happy for you, Heather! Jason is beautiful, just like his big brother, Tyler!

Fraud

I was out of the house all morning for a couple of reasons - 1. Sarah's Ortho appointment, and 2. We had no water, so I went to my mother's house. When I finally returned home this afternoon around four o'clock, I set about doing everything that I normally do in the morning, like checking my email and reading blogs. And since I hadn't been home all day, I also checked my voicemail.

One of the messages was from one of my banks (yes, I keep money in multiple banks). It said that they needed me to call them regarding an urgent matter. I didn't have a clue what it could be about since I am the only person on that account and I haven't used it in a couple of weeks. So, I pulled up my account on the bank's website as I'm calling them back, and what do I see? Negative $700+!

How the hell did that happen?! So, I scroll down the page and find four POS charges on my account that I did not make. How could I have made them when the charges were made in Miami, Key Largo, and Tavernier? I've never even heard of that last one, and I haven't been anywhere near the other two in nearly two years (and I certainly didn't stop and make any purchases when I was driving through there). On top of those fraudulent charges were the insufficient funds charges for each of the four fraudulent charges. All of which left me more than $700 in the hole.

Funny thing is, the bank wasn't calling me to ask me about the fraudulent charges. No, they were calling me about my account being overdrawn. It's nice to know that those four HUGE charges, in three different towns that are at least four hours away from here, made all in one day, didn't set off alarms for their fraud department. Their overdraft department is sure on the ball, though!

So, I had to drive all the way to my bank to file a fraud report so that, hopefully, in ten business days, my account will be back to the $.72 that was there before all of this craziness. That's another thing, too. I only had $.72 in my account. Like I said, I rarely use this account. How did the bank authorize all of those charges, totalling nearly $600, the smallest of which was $50, when I only had $.72 in my account? It's like these banks are TRYING to make you go negative so that they can charge their NSF fees.

I am grateful, though, that this happened to my account that didn't have much money in it and that I wasn't planning to use any time soon. I don't know what I would do if I had to wait two weeks for money that I needed (like for bills or groceries) to finally reappear in my account. I was really lucky in this regard. Thank you, Jesus, for looking out for me and my family.

More Pink

Did you know that Publix is currently selling PINK green bags? They're doing it in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness.


Phil saw these a few days ago, but they do not have them in our local Publix store. So, this evening on his way home from Sarasota, he stopped at the same store he had seen them in and bought me a couple. Aren't they pretty?

Not Happening

I've had this intense need to purge lately. No, I don't mean in the bulemic way. I mean clearing my house of all the clutter and excess crap we don't really need. I've been slowly getting rid of things through eBay and Craig's List, but it hasn't been enough to really see any difference.

Last night, I sold a crib to someone through Craig's List and made $100. That little profit, coupled with the gorgeous weather we've had today, prompted me to want to have a garage sale this weekend to continue the purge and increase the profits. So, I went out to the garage to get started on organizing all of my stuff for my garage sale.

After working in that hell hole for about an hour and a half, I came to the conclusion that a garage sale this weekend is just not happening. There is absolutely NO WAY that I am going to be able to weed through everything that is in there all by my self. Phil has got that place stuffed so tightly, with crap just shoved any place he could fit it, that I can barely move one thing without ten other things crashing to the ground (or on top of me).

So, whether he likes it or not, Phil is going to be working with me in the garage all day on Saturday. If we can get it all organized this weekend, then we can have our garage sale next weekend instead. Let's just hope my motivation doesn't disappear before Saturday.

Just Like Daddy

New Fishies

Saturday, Phil and I went out to buy some more fish for Katie. We decided to skip Walmart this time and go to PetCo. We looked at a bunch of different fish and decided on a few that we liked. But then the weird PetCo fish guy said that because we only have a three gallon tank, we could only get guppies. He said the other fish needed more water and he couldn't guarantee them if we bought them.

We eventually picked out two little guppies, the most colorful ones we could find, and we also decided to buy them a new tank decoration. Take a look.


Yes, I know. You can barely see them because their colors blend in so well with the new tank decoration. Here's a better view of them.


We haven't decided on names for the new fish yet. One of them is garnet and gold in color, so I'm leaning toward "Nole." I still have no clue about what to name the turquoise one, though. Of course, Katie's just going to call them both "Fishy" so we may just skip the names altogether.

And for those of you wondering, our pleco is still with us.

Not a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Wouldn't you just LOVE to live next door to this? I know I don't! Sure, it makes for a nice bit of blog fodder, but I'd give it up in a minute to never have to look at this again.


And they keep their back yard just as neat and tidy. This is the view from the sidewalk looking into their backyard through their always open gate.


Aren't those old mattresses and pieces of wallboard leaning up against the fence just LOVELY? I know I just LOVE (smell the sarcasm) looking at them every time I drive by. And those big old tires on the right side of the photo are perfect for breading those little mosquitoes I've come to LOVE so much (little bastards!). Here's a better view of the tires, so you can get the full picture.


Yes, I just LOVE having these people for my next door neighbors! Lucky for me, it looks as though they are moving again (YAY!). Yes, I said again. You see, they weren't making their house payments after refinancing their house for WAY more than it was worth, and they went into foreclosure. They moved out in anticipation of being foreclosed on, and then for some unknown reason, the foreclosure didn't happen, and they moved back in. So, now they have been taking truck loads of their furniture and stuff away again, and Phil said that he doesn't think anyone slept there last night.

So, now we are hoping and praying that they do not come back, and that we'll finally get some decent neighbors there. We're hoping for a nice couple around our age with a couple of well-mannered children, preferably girls. If you or someone you know fits the bill and would like to live in the suburbs of Tampa, please let me know. The house really could be nice with the proper maintenance, and the yard is definitely on the larger side. And of course, there would be the most wonderful next door neighbors imaginable - me and my family! What more could a person want?

Volunteering

I volunteered again this morning. When I told Phil that I had volunteered for something, he just glared at me sideways while clenching his teeth. Why would my loving husband have such a negative reaction to me volunteering for something? Well, I used to be somewhat of a volunteering addict, that's why.

When Sarah and Emily were little, I started volunteering in their schools. I started out just reading to Emily's preschool class and helping out with parties for Sarah's class. That led to volunteering for picture day, becoming the Class Mom, and becoming a Girl Scout leader. From there, I took on more positions within the Girl Scout service unit, I joined the PTA board and the School Advisory Committee, and I became the soccer Team Mom.

Eventually, with the help of my family, friends, and doctors, I was able to see that I was doing too much and needed to step back. I cut most of it out right away, and by the time Katie was born, I had cut it all out. It was actually pretty liberating. For an entire year, I didn't volunteer for anything. My family had me all to themselves.

I have since only volunteered on occasion for temporary things - chaperoning field trips, working picture day, driving for Girl Scouts. But this morning, I volunteered for a more permanent gig. I volunteered to teach the kindergarten/preschool religious education class at my church. I figured that it won't be too much work for me because the curriculum is provided by the church and the class will be very small. I've also worked with groups of children this age before.

Of course, my volunteering isn't completely out of the goodness of my heart. Sure, I like to help out whenever and wherever I can, but the main reason I volunteered to teach this class is so that I won't have to pay for my own children's religious education classes. And Phil can't argue with that!

I'm Saucy!

Woo-hoo! I've been chosen by the SITS girls as one of this week's Saucy Blogs. I'm so excited about all of the new visitors I'll be getting this week!

To all of you newbies out there visiting me for the first time, I must warn you - I've been sick for the past couple of weeks, so there are, in my opinion, a few boring, illness related posts in my recent history. However, I'm sure if you read back a bit, you'll find something that you'll enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by!

Riddle Me This

When you have no idea who the guest host or musical act on Saturday Night Live is, does that mean that you are officially old?

Competition

Why do some people feel that they are in competition with other people? Like those people who see that their neighbor just got something new, so they have to go out and get something better than it. Where is the sense in that?

Then there are those parents who like to compete with their children. No, they don't compete against their children. They use their children to compete against other parents' children. For example, little Susie takes tap and ballet, so my child has to take tap, ballet, AND jazz so she can be better than little Susie.

There are also those parents whose child has never shown any interest in doing a certain something, but as soon as the parent sees that someone else's child is doing that activity, suddenly their child has to do it, too. The terrible thing about this sort of behavior is when it gets passed on to the children.

I bring this behavior up today because of what transpired when I took Sarah and Emily to our church for the youth group's service day field trip. Today was Emily's first time participating with the youth group. Sarah participated a couple of times last year, and when I asked the director if Emily could participate this year, she said she could.

Then while I was getting Sarah and Emily all settled in and giving them their money for the bowling trip tonight, another girl there (whose mother is one of these competitive types, and has passed it on to the daughter) asked the director why Emily was allowed to participate and her little sister wasn't allowed. The director said that she didn't know why, that she didn't know her sister was even interested in it. No one had even inquired about letting the other little girl participate.

Now, I know this other little girl, and I really don't think that these service projects and sleepovers at the church are really anything that she would be interested in. She's very insecure and immature for her age, and she doesn't like being away from her mother for very long. That being said, I can just about guarantee you that this little girl will be there for the next youth group service day. And not because she wants to go, but because her mother will insist that if Emily is involved, she should be, too.

So, if any of you out there are one of those competitive parents, please take a look at your behavior and just stop it. Constantly bragging about your kids or trying to one-up another parent when she comments about something her child has done or is doing (You're kid did that? Well, my kid did this.) is not going to make people think that you are the great parent that you are trying to make yourself out to be. It's just going to make them dislike you and not want to be around you. And sadly, it will make them not want their child to be friends with yours because they don't want to have to deal with you.

Getting There

Well, it seems that Katie is getting over this thing a lot quicker than I am. She is no longer running a fever. YAY!! She woke up with a little fever this morning, but after one dose of ibuprofen, her fever went away and never came back. Words cannot express how thrilled I am about this.

As for me, I still have that nasty cough and drainage, but it does seem to be lightening up some. Hopefully after a nice restful weekend, I'll be all better by Monday. Please cross your fingers that this actually happens.

I had been hoping to take Katie to Busch Gardens on Saturday for a little while to see some of the animals, but Phil went and dashed those plans for me by decided to go get his son for the weekend. Since I don't feel up to taking Katie anywhere on my own yet, we'll have to try it again some other time, I guess. It would have been perfect to do it this weekend, though, because I already have to drive Sarah and Emily to our church in Tampa on Saturday morning so they can go on a youth group service project trip. Our church is only about ten minutes away from Busch Gardens (yes, we do drive quite a way to get to church), so by combining the two trips, into one, we could have saved money on gas. Oh, well!

A Little Better

I had another rough day with Katie today. I was up all night last night coughing, so I had a very difficult time staying awake today. Katie's fevers were still coming back faster than she could take her ibuprofen doses, so we were quite miserable several times today.

Eventually, when Katie took her nap, I was able to catch up on my sleep a bit, and was able to function well enough to take Emily to her Girl Scout meeting this evening. When we returned home, it was a bit past when Katie could have her next dose of ibuprofen, and even though she hadn't had it yet, she was still in a good mood. I took her temperature, and it was only 100.3.

Yes, I know that 100.3 is still a decent fever, but it's not so high that it makes Katie miserable and whiny. This is such good news! Hopefully, she'll continue to improve tomorrow and we can start to get back to normal again. Whatever "normal" is anyway!

Poor Baby

My poor little Katie is so sick. I feel so terrible for getting her sick. Her fever suddenly rose up to 103.1 this morning, so I called and got her an appointment to see Dr. Bob after lunch.

At 12:30, I was able to give her another dose of ibuprofen, so by the time we got to the doctor's office, her fever was completely gone and she was back to her normal sweet self. I doubt she would have been so cooperative for Dr. Bob if she still had such a high fever.

Dr. Bob said that Katie's little throat was very red, but that the infection hadn't moved anywhere else yet. And her strep test came back negative, so he just gave her an antibiotic Rx (which was FREE at Publix). Hopefully, she'll be good as new by the weekend.


On another note, Phil had his annual check-up this morning with our doctor, and he asked him about me not getting much better yet. The doctor pulled my file and saw that the doctor who saw me last Friday hadn't given me anything for the drainage I'm now having. So, he sent me some sample meds home with Phil. Maybe now, I'll start to feel a little better.

Passing It Along

I think it's Katie's turn now. Not that my turn is over, but she's getting it, too. She was sneezing yesterday, but not a lot, and that was really all she was doing. But when I was holding her this morning, she felt a little warm to me, to I took her temperature. 99.8.

I didn't do anything about it then, because it wasn't that high, and she had no other symptoms - even the sneezing was gone. But after a little while, she started getting whiny. Then she barely touched her lunch. Then she started complaining that she needed to go take a nap. So, I took her temperature again. 100.4. Time for ibuprofen.

So, we went and took our nap. It was two hours long, but still not enough for me since I had been up so late reading. But the nap and the ibuprofen worked their magic on Katie and she's now fever free and back to normal. But, I see a visit to see Dr. Bob in our near future.

Twilight

This book is so freakin' ADDICTIVE! I was so into it last night that I just couldn't put it down. I tried putting it down and going to sleep, but my mind just kept going back to it. I finally had to take my sleeping meds and wait for them to kick in so I could go to sleep.

Pink

I love this time of year. No, not because the leaves are changing and the weather is getting cooler. Lets face it, that doesn't happen here in Florida for quite a while still.

What I'm talking about is Breast Cancer Awareness season. Technically, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but all of the pink stuff starts rolling out onto the shelves in September.

Do you know what I saw in Super Target the other day? This.


You have no idea how much I wish I could afford to ditch my ugly yellow Dyson for a brand new Pink Dyson.

Then, of course, there are all of these wonderful pink KitchAid Cook for the Cure items that I'm also drooling over.


Seriously, if I had the funds, I would buy all of it and totally redo my entire kitchen in pink. I don't know how Phil would feel about that, but I really wouldn't care. I love PINK!

My Little Joiner

Sarah has surprised me this school year by wanting to get even more involved at school. She just recently joined the Student Council, and today she is turning in her application for the National Junior Honor Society.

She was invited to join the NJHS at the end of sixth grade for the following year, but she didn't even tell me about it because she "didn't know what it was." When I told her what it was, she decided that she wanted to join. She went to the sponsor and asked for an application. I'm pretty sure she'll get in since she gets good grades, wrote a nice essay, and had great letters of reference from one of her teachers and one of her Girl Scout leaders. Please send positive thoughts to help her out anyway, though.

Bananas

If you can't read the sticker on her forehead, here it is:

Faker

Apparently, this little Pleco is a fighter. Yes, he's still alive.

Now, Phil will only be charged with four counts of fishicide.

They're All Dead

I don't know how Phil does it, but he sure knows how to kill fish fast.

Dead Fish

While he did last for quite a while, Fishy Version 2.0 has passed away. I really loved that fish, too. He had quite the personality and I could tell he loved me, too. He would always get so excited when ever he saw me with his fish food. And I loved the way he would sleep in the little plastic plant in his tank.

Since Fishy V2.0 was gone, and Katie was very unhappy with the empty tank, Phil decided that we needed to replace him right away. But he didn't want any more Betas. So, we picked out a couple of glo-fish and guppies, and threw in a pleco for good measure. After getting them home, Phil put them all into our fish tank.

I have no idea what the problem was, but our green glo-fish started acting crazy and died within the first ten minutes he was in the tank. Within the next 10-15 minutes, his pink counterpart was also dead. We'll be returning them to Walmart first thing tomorrow.

So far, the pleco and guppies are still with us and seem to be doing well. Hopefully, when we wake up in the morning they'll still be with us.

Oh, and for those of you who are wondering about how I am feeling today, I'm not feeling any better yet. I really shouldn't have gone out of the house at all today, but I was afraid to send Phil to pick out the fish by himself, or worse, with the girls. It was a completely miserable experience for me since I was running a fever and was achy all over from that.

I really want to go to Mass in the morning, but I'm just not sure I'll be up to it. Please pray that I'll wake up feeling great in the morning so I can make it to Mass. I would assume that if God really wants me there, He'll make it easier for me to get there.

Woomp, Woomp, Woomp, Woomp

That's the constant sound I heard along with the pounding in my head. It doesn't stop.

I've been getting sicker and sicker as the days have gone on. I finally made it to the doctor today. I probably should have gone in sooner, but I had to wait for pay day to have the $20 for the copay. I could tell by the way the doctor was visibly taken aback when he looked into my throat that he thought I should have come in sooner, too.

The verdict? Nothing really out of the ordinary, at least not for me. A major case of sinusitis, a bit of bronchitis (made worse by my asthma), double otitis media, and some nasty pharyngitis to round it all out. If you're not up on your medical jargon, that means that my sinuses, lung, ears, and throat are all infected. That's basically my entire respiratory system. Fun times!

Now, I'm going to go beg Sarah to stop banging out "Axel F" on the piano so I can lay down and wait for the headache drugs to kick in.

Say It Loud, Say It Proud

I love my God. I love my family. I love my country.

Today is September 11th. It's the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Let us never forget.

Chris Isaak

Phil and I went to the Chris Isaak and Lisa Loeb concert last night. Phil and I went to see Chris Isaak almost nine years ago and thoroughly enjoyed his show. We knew we wanted to see him again because his show is just SO great. I had been to see Lisa Loeb about ten years ago, and I love her music, so the fact that she was opening for Chris Isaak was just icing on the cake.

If you have never seen Chris Isaak in concert before, you really should try to catch one. He is just so darn funny that his shows are like a concert and a comedy routine all rolled into one.

Lisa Loeb's set wasn't very long, but she was as beautiful and gracious as always. She played a few of my favorite songs, as well as a few songs from her new children's CD Camp Lisa. I wanted to go meet her after her set, but I didn't want to risk missing a second of Chris Isaak's set.

As expected, Chris Isaak did not disappoint. He was as amazing and funny as always. And he must have some of those Dick Clark genes, because the guy has not aged a bit over the past decade. And I should know. I got up close and personal with the guy.



Chris came out into the audience a couple of times during the show, and the first time he did, he came into my row. Not only did he come into my row, but he stopped right in front of me!!! Unfortunately, he grabbed the drunk-ass old woman sitting next to me, instead of me, while he was singing.

However, that did leave his posterior free for the grabbing. Yes, since I didn't get a full-on hug from the guy, I made up for it by grabbing his behind one good time!

At the end of the song he was singing while out in the audience, he went back up on stage and Lisa Loeb came out to finish it out with him.


So after getting up close and personal with Chris Isaak, I was on a natural high and I enjoyed the concert even more. His hot pink rhinestone suit was awesome, too. Take a look at these pics that I took.






The last time Phil and I saw Chris Isaak, he came out onto the stage at one point wearing a full mirror-ball style suit. We were hoping he'd wear it again last night, and we were not disappointed. Chris donned the suit for the band's extra long encore.









You've just got to love a man who can pull off both a hot pink rhinestone suit AND a mirror-ball suit!

I must also mention that Chris's band was as amazing and hilarious as usual, too. Those guys really seem to have so much fun together on stage.




Edited to Add: Believe it or not, these are not all of the photos I took last night. You can click here to view all of them.

Concert Tidbit

I'll put together a more detailed post for you when I wake up in the morning. But until then, this will have to tide you over.



And for my dear Ashley.Unscripted, you're going to be even more jealous when you hear what happened!!!

Date Night

Phil and I are heading out to the Chris Isaak and Lisa Loeb concert. Details to come...

Library Frustration

I have been trying for over an hour to log on to my girls' library accounts on the library's website. I can't even get to the page to try to log on. It's driving me nuts!

Sarah and Emily have overdue library books. I tried taking them to the local "branch" library down the street today to put in the drive-thru book drop. I say "tried" because I was unsuccessful. Why? Because unlike the less local "regional" library, the local "branch" library locks their drive-thru book drop during business hours. I'm sorry, but it's just not convenient for me to park my car, get my cranky toddler out of her car seat, drag said toddler and the library books into the library to return them, and then strap the cranky toddler back into her car seat.

Did I mention that the toddler was also hungry and demanding "chicken nugget fren-fries" at the time?

So, back to the whole library website thing. I need to find out how much the late fees are going to be for these overdue books. That's all I want. Why must they make me suffer like this?

So, I'll try again tomorrow to return the books. My mother will be here to watch Katie for me, so going inside won't be as much of a hardship then.

Sharing

This morning, a couple of friends came over for our book club meeting. Not many members were able to make it to the meeting, so there was only one other child, Scarlett's son, Isaac, here besides Katie. Usually when Isaac is around, there are plenty of other little boys for him to play with, so he and Katie don't usually play together. Since there were no other kids around, they had only each other to play with.

Well, I don't know if it was just because Katie's not that close with Isaac, or if she's just becoming this way, but Katie was not very good at sharing today, AT ALL. Everytime Isaac would try to play with one of Katie's toys, Katie would take it away from him and say, "Mine." Obviously, this is not behavior that I want encouraged in my house, so I had to keep scolding her and trying to replace the toys that Katie was refusing to share with Isaac. We're going to have to work on this.

Dumbo

A couple of weeks ago, Dumbo came on TV and Phil and Katie watched it together. Katie LOVED it. Once Katie found out that we own the DVD, she has been asking (actually demanding) to watch it several times a week.

Tonight, she was so dead set on watching it, that she found the DVD, figured out how to turn the DVD player on and put the disc in it. She also turned the DVR/cable box off. The only thing, apparently, that she doesn't know how to do is change the setting on the TV to view what's on the DVD player. Once I took care of that part for her, she was in heaven.

Growing

Katie is in desperate need of a hair cut, but since we are so low on funds, I've been putting it off. So, since she has all of this hair right now, I decided to put it up into little pony tails this afternoon.


Back at the beginning of the year, my mother did the same thing with Katie's hair, which is actually what prompted me to go ahead and get Katie's first hair cut.


What a difference eight months makes!

School Nurse

Emily got a headache at school today. She gets frequent headaches and has been treated by a neurologist for migraine headaches since she was in second grade. So, Emily went to the school nurse with her headache and the nurse took her temperature. The nurse said that she had a fever of 99.9.

Between the headache and the fever, it sounded like Emily might be coming down with something, so I took her to the doctor. While we love, love, love Dr. Bob, it was a big waste of time and money (which we are short on to begin with). Emily did not have a fever, and while her throat was slightly red, there was no strep and no other sign of infection at all. A couple of ibuprofen tablets later and Emily was good as new.

Do you think I could convince the school nurse to reimburse me for the $20 copay I spent because she said my kid was sick?

Thank You. Goodnight.

My little performer has been putting on quite a few shows today. While we were at the doctor's office today (next blog post), Katie put on a little show in the waiting room. Of course, to signal that she was done with a song, she would tell me to clap each time.

But the funniest thing she has done by far, happened this evening while she was performing for Phil. When she finished a song, she actually said (and I'm not making this up), "Thank you. Goodnight." Next thing you know, she'll be reminding us to tip our waiters! This kid is a real trip!

Naked

Lately, Katie has really been fighting wearing clothes. At night, even if we can get her into pajamas, she usually has torn them off by the time she goes to sleep. During the day, if I turn my back on her for a few seconds, she takes all of her clothes off.

This morning, she was serenading me sans clothes.


Then this afternoon, not only had she removed all of her clothes again, but she also removed her diaper so she could be completely unencumbered while she watched Noggin.


I may as well put Katie's entire wardrobe up for sale on eBay since she obviously isn't interested in wearing anything.

I'm Katie

In a moment of frustration when Katie was ripping a wipe to shreds, I asked her, "Why are you being so naughty?"

She answered, "I'm Katie. Yeah!"

Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Even when she's bad, she's cute!

Lipstick

Caylee

I am so sick of hearing these people lie, and lie, and lie some more. Especially the grandmother, Cindy Anthony. She's the one who called the police to tell them that her granddaughter was missing and it smelled like there was a decomposing body in her daughter's car trunk. Now she claims it was an old pizza box that she smelled. Right... Because a rotten pizza and a dead body smell so much alike. Sure.

And now the FBI has tested the trunk and the evidence they have found in it, and determined that the smell was caused by a decomposing body, and Caylee's DNA was also there. There is also tons of other evidence that they have not released to the public. Based on the evidence, the FBI has determined that Caylee is dead. And Cindy still denies that Caylee is dead or that her daughter, Casey, had anything to do with it. Is she delusional or just flat out lying? My bet is that she is lying.

This whole thing just makes me sick.

End of Summer

Though the weather may not reflect it, summer has officially come to an end. All of our regularly scheduled non-summer activities are starting back up now. Tonight, I took Sarah to her Girl Scout meeting, and Thursday night I'll be taking Emily to hers. My evenings are no longer my own.

My weekends won't be my own for much longer either. Besides the girls having CCD on Sunday mornings, they'll more than likely start having GS field trips on Saturdays, too. Thankfully, we didn't sign Emily up for soccer this year because she plans on being on her school's team, so that's one less weekend activity to deal with this year.

Laundry Day

As most of you already know, Phil does most of the household chores around here. However, his laundry skills are not up to my OCD standards. Truth be told, most of his cleaning skills are not up to my OCD standards, but if I were to do everything myself the way I want it done, there wouldn't be enough time to get it all done.

Anyhow, back to my point. Because I want all of Katie's clothes to remain pristine and worthy of being sold or handed down, I have forbidden Phil from doing any of Katie's laundry. So, after a few weeks of me not doing Katie's laundry, she finally came close to running out of clothes to wear, and I had to do her laundry.

Now the last load is in the dryer, and all I have left to do is iron and put everything away. Speaking of ironing, that's another area where Phil and I disagree. He thinks that you should just hang up wrinkled clothes and then iron them when you want to wear them. I think that you should iron the clothes before you hang them up, that way they are ready to be worn when you decide to wear them. Plus, why not iron when you do the laundry and you have several articles of clothing to iron, rather than iron each item individually as you prepare to wear it? What's your opinion on this subject? Maybe you can help us settle our argument.