Septic

Since we live in an older house with no sewer service in the neighborhood, we have a septic tank buried in our backyard. Ever since we moved into this house almost four years ago, we have had issues with our septic system every so often. We had the septic tank drained shortly after moving in and found some very interesting items in there (Pantyhose?).

About a year later, we had to have it drained again, so we decided to dig up the drainfields to see if they needed to be replaced. The drainfields were mostly okay. The major problem was that a large root from one of our oak trees had grown through the junction box and crushed it. So, we replaced the junction box and the small section of the drainfield that had also been crushed, and all was good.

Until this past summer came along and we started having trouble again. We were having issues with the toilets overflowing whenever someone flushed because the septic tank was too full for it to drain into. Since we were having Katie's first birthday party at our house in August, we had to pay to have the septic tank drained out again so that our guests would be able to use our bathrooms without incident.

After that, things were good for a little while, but they got bad again over the past few months. It got so bad that we couldn't drain an entire bathtub full of water without it coming up from the bottom of the girls' bathroom toilet and getting all over the place.

So, today, finally, Phil decided to dig up the junction box and drainfields to see if he could find the problem.

Apparently, we're having more root issues. Those darn roots are just so destructive. And of course they're attracted to the septic system. Wouldn't you be if you were a root looking for some good nourishment?

So, I guess things are okay for now, but we'll probably have to do some more digging in the future when the roots grow through it again. These darn trees are such a pain in the @$$. I wish I could just have them all removed, but since there are so many of them, I'd probably have to take out a second mortgage to pay for it all. Oh, well, maybe I can just get that one pesky oak tree that keeps messing up our septic system removed. Eventually...

Update: After looking at my pictures again, I realized that it's actually two oak trees that are the problem.

F*cktard

Following in Julie's footsteps, I have a F*cktard award to give out. This one goes to the stupid cashier at Little Caeser's Pizza last night. I don't know what was going on there, but their pizza's were not "Hot-N-Ready" like their ads and signs proclaim. They may have been hot, but they certainly were not ready. Of course, the stupid cashier did not make this little fact known to any of the customers unless they asked, which was usually after they had already paid and were not immediately handed their pizzas like normal.

While waiting for my pizzas to be ready, one lady with her three or four daughters came in and ordered a couple of pizzas. After paying for them and not getting them, the lady asked how long it would be and was told "a half-hour." She then says, "Oh, well, I can't wait that long." So, the stupid girl rolls her eyes, huffs, and yells in a snotty tone, "I need a refund!" Then her manager had to come up to the front and get the key to give the lady her refund. Then they made the lady write her name and address on her order to get her refund. How f*cking hard would it have been for the stupid girl to tell the customers that it was going to be a wait for their pizzas BEFORE they placed their orders? The sign says "Hot-N-Ready." If the pizza is not going to be "Hot-N-Ready," then they need to tell people and give them the option of not placing an order. At the very least, they could have put up a sign.

Child For Sale

For Sale: One slightly used, 12 year old, female child. Relatively good child, however cannot be trusted with a cell phone.

That's right, I have to put Sarah up for sale in order to pay her cell phone bill. I found out yesterday that Sarah has been text messaging and using internet features on her new cell phone. She has only had this phone for two weeks and these extra charges she has accumulated are going to cost around $600. That's right! $600 in addition to our regular cell phone bill. Right now, I am seriously regretting adding her phone onto my plan. I should have just let my mother get a separate plan for Sarah so I wouldn't be affected by things like this. But, no, I thought I'd be nice and save her some money by adding Sarah onto my plan and letting my mother just pay the difference. What a mistake that was!

Crazy Dreams

I had a crazy dream a last week involving my life-long love, Johnny Depp. I was sitting in a theater, in the middle of the row (which is so unlike me), when an usher asked me if I would be willing to push Johnny Depp’s wheelchair up to the stage so he could accept an award. Of course I agreed (Duh!), and when they brought Johnny to me in his wheelchair, he was completely naked except for a pair of plaid boxer shorts. His tattoos were even missing.
Anyhow, I wheeled him up to the stage, and he got up from his wheelchair and walked up to the podium to accept his award. While I was waiting with his wheelchair, I noticed that his body was quite a bit more muscular than usual. (Why my mind did this to him, I don’t know, because I really don’t like guys who have bulging muscles.) When he finished accepting his award, he came back down, sat in his wheelchair, and I wheeled him back up the aisle. I couldn’t figure out why he was in the wheelchair or why he hadn’t been clothed, because the next time that I saw him, he was fully clothed, hat, glasses, and all, and walking around just fine with Vanessa on his arm.
Oh, and Johnny decided to give me his goody-bag (you know how all the celebs get a goody-bag at awards shows?) to thank me for helping him out, and it was filled with cool things from Pampered Chef. But that pesky Vanessa had taken out the best stuff before he got a chance to give it to me, which was a bit upsetting to me because, seriously, she’s rich and can afford all of the Pampered Chef stuff she wants, so why did she have to take mine? She’s already got my man, so why does she have to be so greedy?
So, yeah, crazy dream, right? You don’t even want to hear about the one where Sarah and I were both suddenly pregnant. Must be all of those Lifetime movies I watched over the holidays creeping into my brain.

My Kind of Organization

OMG! I just found this article on the internet and was simultaneously thrilled and shocked. This guy must have OCD (yeah, takes one to know one) or no children. I no longer have any Legos in my house, but I so could have done this when I did. However, I would NEVER, EVER let the kids play with them ever again! Not if I put that much effort into organizing them.

I do, however, love plastic ziploc bags for organizing toys. I can separate toys into baggies like no one else. Then all you have to do to keep them neat is to place the baggies into neat little stackable bins. The hardest part about it all is that the children don't quite seem to "get" the concept of keeping their toys nice and neatly organized. Especially that Katie. She keeps unalphabetizing her books, and I can't tell you how many times I've put her tea set back onto the tray the way it's supposed to be.

Al Gore is a Big Fat Liar!

Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE cold weather? I am a born and bred Florida Girl, and I was just not made to withstand temperatures below 70 degrees. Most of my northern-transplant friends are just loving this cold weather, but I am miserable.

When it gets cold like this, I can’t get anything accomplished, which is really putting a damper on starting on a few of my New Year’s resolutions. I am so cold, even with the thermostat set at 70 or 72 degrees, that I just bundle up and wrap myself in a blanket and wait for it to pass.

My father holds my mortgage on my house, and I usually have lunch with him on the first or second day of the month so I can give him my mortgage check. I had to call him Wednesday morning and beg him to let me come on Friday (the 4th) instead because it is just too darn cold for me to leave the house. Sarah had an appointment scheduled for this morning and I called to reschedule it because I can’t bring myself to brave the freezing cold temperatures this morning.

Hey, Al!! Whatever happened to all that Global Warming you’re always yapping about? How about sending some of it my way?

Sunny Day, Sweeping the Clouds Away

This morning, I let Katie watch Sesame Street for the first time. Her eyes were glued to the television. She primarily likes Elmo, but what kid doesn’t? There were a few parts that she wasn’t much interested in, but for the most part she was in love with the show. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of Sesame Street around this house.

Crappy In-Laws

Phil’s family situation is odd, to say the least. The man he calls “Dad” is really of no relation to him at all, unless you count the fact the he is the father of Phil’s half-brother. However, he used to be married to Phil’s mother and is the man who raised him, which is why he is called “Dad.” We get along wonderfully with him, and he is very good to us. He lives in Utah, but he makes sure to visit us at least a couple of times a year.

Phil’s mother is no longer involved in our lives. It’s a long story, but I’ll just say that she made her bed and now has to lie in it. And I no longer have to deal with a manipulative, meddling mother-in-law.

Then there’s Phil’s biological father. Phil has a very odd relationship with him. It’s more like that of a distant relative. He’s someone that Phil shares blood with, but not much more. I have always sort of had to push Phil a bit to include him in our lives. Phil didn’t even want to invite him to our wedding, but I had to encourage him to go ahead and invite him.

Anyhow, Phil and I have been married for six years now. Every year, for the past five years, his bio-dad and step-mother have included my daughters in the Christmas gift giving. They usually send the kids gift cards for Christmas. Last year, they sent all four of the children gift cards, but for some reason they sent a larger dollar amount to Colin (my step-son) than to the girls (and no, they weren’t the ones that are already a set figure). This kind of pissed me off, because they were obviously showing favoritism toward Colin.

But this year was even worse. This year, they sent a measly $15 gift card to Katie and TOTALLY STIFFED Sarah and Emily! They got zilch, nada, nothing. Not even a card saying “Merry Christmas.” Oh, and get this, Katie’s card that the gift card came in was addressed to “Kathie.” That’s some grandfather that doesn’t even recall his only granddaughter’s name.

So anyway, I am no longer going to be encouraging Phil to keep in touch with these people. I am done with them. They have obviously decided that my children don’t “count,” and that is just something that I cannot put up with. If Phil decides to keep in touch on his own, that’s fine with me, but I am certainly not going to be the one who is facilitating everything. Not my job anymore.

New Year's Dinner

Many cultures have a traditional New Year's meal. Over the course of my life, I've been offered the traditional "corned-beef and cabbage" and the traditional southern "hog-jawls and black-eyed peas." To which I say, "Yuck!" to both.

A few years ago, when once again offered some hog-jawls and black-eyed peas, Phil and I decided that we needed to come up with a new, tastier meal for New Year's Day. And so, the traditional Harbaugh Family New Year's Day dinner of steak, mashed potatoes, and corn was born. Supposedly, what you eat on New Year's Day will foretell of your year to come. So we figure that the corn kernels look a little like gold nuggets, so they must symbolize prosperity. The steak also symbolizes prosperity since good steaks aren't cheap. And the mashed potatoes are there because, well, we all really like them a lot. That and they're all mushy like the way we feel about each other.

So tonight we had our traditional New Year's meal for dinner. My brother and his children, including my nephew from the previous post, stopped by while Phil was cooking, so we decided to include them in our wonderful meal. It was a very nice dinner.

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!

So, the last time I made a New Year's Resolution was two years ago when I vowed to "lose ten pounds." I found out two days later that I was pregnant, so that was quickly replaced with "try not to gain more than 20 pounds." I almost kept that resolution, until the preeclampsia hit and I suddenly gained several pounds which put me up to a 25 pound weight gain. Oh well, it was all worth it.

Anyhow, I decided to sit down and type out a list of New Year's resolutions for 2008. I'm hoping to be able to keep a few of them. Some will be easier to keep than others. Wish me luck.

2008 New Year's Resolutions:
1. Get more organized.
2. Clean out closets.
3. Get rid of unneeded stuff.
4. Win BAMs Blog contest. Oh, yeah!
5. Lose weight. Aim for 135.
6. Break Katie’s pacifier habit.
7. Drink more water.
8. Try to clean more.
9. Don’t do crack.
10. Remember to take iron pills more often.
11. Organize recipes and get rid of bulky cookbooks.
12. Cook dinner more often.
13. Get a family portrait taken.
14. Take charge of recycling. Set up a recycling center.
15. Organize refrigerator magnets.
16. Make “To Do” lists and try to stick to them.
17. Stop buying stuff we don’t need just because it is “cute” or “neat.”
18. Have children pick oranges and give them away to the needy.
19. Get trees trimmed.
20. Take time for myself. Get out of the house by myself at least once a week.

I'm 100% positive that I'll be able to stick to at least 5-10 of these. The rest will be a challenge, but I'm going to try my best. Do you have any exciting resolutions?

Oh, and before I forget...
Happy 8th Birthday to my dear nephew, Bradley!