Lands' End Sale at Sears

We were totally blessed with the Lands' End sale that Sears was having this weekend. We got coats for the boys that are usually $59.50 each for $22.50 each. Dirty didn't want to spend more than $30 for each of their coats, and he has been pretty excited that we got them each quality coats for the price that we would have originally spent on one. The boys got new coats which were definitely needed. White Belt's coat had a broken zipper pull for a while and then a broken zipper. He also didn't like it from the moment that we made him wear it. We had gotten it free last year when my auntie V. who works a job at Value City gave it to him for Christmas. As soon as we mentioned that it was his new coat he told us that he just wanted a green coat. Monkey's old coat also had some teeth broken out of the zipper so each time we would go to zip it up all the way it would skip those teeth then come undone. I also don't know how warm it really was. It used to have another shell that went inside but that we have yet to locate possibly in the house. Each of them wanted a specific color. White Belt wanted green like I said before and Monkey wanted blue. Blue was the one color they had his size in.

Oh so frustrating...

Since dropping our home phone we have not had internet for a week. Now this isn't to say that through other devices we are not able to access the internet which is why I've had posts in this last week. I was using a laptop with a wireless card which let me update my blog. I was also using Dirty's handheld wireless internet device to just check e-mail, but typing anything on that is a pain because you use a stylus to point at letters which is time consuming on such a small screen. And then to top it all off the laptop that we had been using, who's hard-drive had been getting louder and louder over the last month or so, finally crashed. I spent 35 minutes on hold with AT&T today for them to tell me that they haven't found an answer to the problem we have. This problem has something to do with everytime they try to connect us remotely it comes back with an error. The error has something to do with the fact that wherever they are trying to connect us is the incorrect place to connect us. The man that I talked to said that we won't be charged for this time that they are trying to work out our issue. That is the light at the end of that tunnel.

One more thing that is frustrating...Monkey is not taking a nap. For some reason, where he used to fall asleep in the car on the way to pick up White Belt from school, he is no longer falling asleep. Now this wouldn't be a problem except that when he is tired, like after not taking a nap in the afternoon, he is even more rambunctious than normal. For those that know him you may be shuddering with disbelief that anyone could have more energy than Monkey. But, my friends, indeed he does have that much more energy. I believe it has something to do with trying not to be still because it could cause him to fall asleep. Now the upswing of this is that he will be going to bed around 7 p.m.

Tomorrow's a busy day. We have White Belt to drop off at school. Then we have a field trip to the SLPD stables in Forest Park with Monkey's preschool. Then off to the R.'s for Valentine cookie decorating. We will probably be there for quite sometime because that's how playdates go there. And depending on how long we stay there we will come home and hopefully get some of the weekly cleaning stuff done. (i.e. sweep, clean toilet, clean mirrors, wipe fingerprints off of doors, vacuum, dust.) Now to be realistic since this is at the bottom of the list it will most likely get pushed to a later date. I need to go look for recipes for a friend who needs a good room temperature appetizer for a trivia night. Actually I think I will give her a roasted pepper terrine recipe that I have been wanting to try.

One good thing about today...I've gotten the laundry caught up. YAY!!!!!

while eating dinner...

Monkey laughed telling Dirty, who was working on White Belt's bicycle, that, "Dad, you look like a bicycle." Then after Monkey was finished with dinner, I was still eating, and he came up to me trying to get into my lap. I told him I didn't want to hold him because I was still eating. But then he looked up at me and said, "Pretty please. I want to hold you because you're so soft." And really at that point I couldn't say no.

I must write about voting...

Apparently almost everyone that I know who blogs wrote about voting. Unfortunately, my internet was/is down while they work out us not having a landline anymore. I was only able to check e-mail and browse the internet through a handheld wireless device. So I will write a little something about voting. I went thinking, "No problem. I will be in and out in five minutes." It ended up being ten and the ladies working the check in were a little frustrated and taking it out on us the humble voters. When I came in there was only one lady working the table checking people in. There was a guy sitting there as well but apparently he was just on his lunch break and another lady but her only job was to hand people their ballots. So the lady working was trying to explain to someone the protocol for change of address and giving very confusing directions how to get to the correct polling place. The second lady was apparently checking people in for curbside voting. I did not know before yesterday that there was such a thing.

So once she came back in the lady that was already working the table went into a story about how exactly she was helping the change of venue voter...which took about three minutes. There were two ladies in front of me. (Three if you count the lady on her cell phone that I cut in front of because I figured she couldn't go through the process while talking on the phone. That would be rude of her, right?) Once the lady who left for the curbside voting came back in things started going more quickly.

Although after waiting so long the lady in front of me was asked to remove her Obama pin from the lapel of her coat. She said that's fine. Then she turned around to us, her fellow voters, and opened her jacket to show a large Obama head across her torso. The lady working said, kind of rudely, that it's the law and it would be illegal for the lady voting to keep the pin on in the voting area. Thus concludes my voting story. I know that 10 minutes is not that long in the grand scheme of things. I was still slightly early for preschool pick-up to get Monkey and his friend MR. It was a little tough trying to explain to her why I was picking her up, which was so her mom could go vote with only one child.

Even though I'm not well versed in anything political and really I just went on intuition I was still excited about voting. I feel blessed that we get to vote even if sometimes it doesn't feel like it really matters. I have the probably naive view that somehow it does. Every time I vote I think I should really make my vote count and be more informed. I think I'm getting slightly better. It's just not something that I'm extremely interested. If it were a firsthand account of one of the biggest disasters on Mt. Everest, at this point in time, I would have been more interested in reading up on the topic. More on that later perhaps. Anyway I hope everyone, especially any ladies out there, used their right to vote. And now before the cheesy music starts playing...

Art Hill and the Bo-tangle Gardens

Tay-Tay came for an overnight visit and we filled the time with all sorts of fun things. Friday night, shortly after arriving, she and the boys went swimming. This swimming trip wasn't as long as usual because well...they were all hungry. I had a little trouble with the oven and it didn't heat up as quickly as I was expecting so dinner was still a little bit of a wait. Saturday morning as quickly as we could we all got bundled up and went to Art Hill for sledding. We went early hoping we would miss the crowds. It worked. The hill wasn't too crowded. We all took turns going down and it was one of our better sledding experiences. The snow was packed and we were able to make it down the hill with minimal effort. Aside from the fact that Monkey had to pee about 45 minutes in causing us to have to leave didn't hinder the fun time. It's a B.I.G. hill and it's fun going down but a haul to get back up. Four or five times down really can be enough. :D

After Art Hill we came home and had a potty break, ate some lunch, then headed back out to make it to the Bo-tangle Gardens (as Monkey calls it) before noon catching their free admission time. We planned on walking through the Climatron as the main event. There was a bird exhibit where we were able to see an American Kestrel, a Screech Owl, a Barn Owl, and a Red-Tailed Hawk from the World Bird Sanctuary. White Belt suggested we get a Red-Tailed Hawk for our attic to keep the squirrel problem we have up there under control. Then we headed to the Climatron.

White Belt has been a little off today and I think he must also have the cold that I have. So the first picture we weren't able to get him to pose with Tay-Tay and Monkey. The second picture was a rare moment when White Belt, Tay-Tay, and Monkey were all clustered together looking at the sensitive plant. This plant, when you touch it's leaves, closes up hence the name sensitive plant. Tay-Tay was hoping to find more plants like that as well as the meat-eating plants which we never found. Then I was going to lead us to the Japanese garden only to run into a dead end because of the snow and construction on the Victorian Garden. After hitting a dead end we decided against going any further really and went through the Camellia exhibit before leaving the Garden. Leaving so soon wasn't a big deal since we did get in for free.

After the Garden we came back home. Tay-Tay and the boys went out back to play which lasted about 20 minutes. Then they came in and had a snack, and we're all sitting around waiting for the time when we have to leave to take Tay-Tay home. All in all it's been a lovely visit from our "pretend sister/daughter".

Pinewood Derby 2008

White Belt had his first Pinewood Derby this year for Cub Scouts. He was so excited to race and absolutely sure that he was going to win a trophy for something. To start with every boy weighs in his car, and it has to be judged to make sure that it is under five ounces. Once the official weigh-in was over each den took turns racing each other. Every scout got four chances to race on four different tracks. White Belt's car wasn't really doing so great. He did win one race but the race was disqualified because one of the other cars jumped the track. Dirty, who was a judge, said that if that race hadn't been disqualified White Belt could have gotten second place for his den. BUT the race didn't count so White Belt didn't place. This was his first real brush with competitive disappointment. When he tested for his white belt in Tae Kwon Do he got it. When he takes spelling tests, the only real tests he has in school right now, he never misses more than one which gives him a one hundred because his teacher gives them a "bonus" word.

So the Pinewood Derby was a great learning experience. Every boy does walk away with a Pinewood Derby badge but, I'm sure to the boys, it's not the same as a trophy. It was our chance to really emphasize to White Belt the fun that he had designing the car and the time he got to spend with his dad and Grandpa C building it. We also got to talk about everything that Dirty learned from being a judge and what he can do to help his car go faster next year. He really liked his design and when he had the chance to vote on best design he chose his own...smart boy. His is the bright green car in the middle of the picture.

SNOW DAY!!!!!

I stayed up late (found out later that I didn't really need to) to see if White Belt was going to have school today. When I found out I decided to make him a sign that he would see as soon as he came out of his room. I taped this message to the floor right outside of his door. He opened the door and said, "Oh." Then he read aloud, "White Belt no school today. Love Mom." Immediately after that he said, "Yes!!! Monkey, I don't have school today! Let's go watch tv!" This sign bought me an extra half an hour to sleep since I stayed up late.

After an easy wake up this morning. The boys wanted to play outside. So we bundled up and went out. I figured I needed to shovel the walk anyway. Luckily our snow is pretty powdery and therefore easy to shovel. BUT I heard John from next door with his snowblower. I will say that John is one of the neighboriest neighbors one can have since the PGs have moved away. John pushed his snowblower toward me then turned it off and said, "How much do you want to shovel?" I said, "None of it." He said, "I can do it. This thing has no problem with it and I like doing it." I asked if we could get him some beer or something. And he said, "Well you guys do what you want. I just like doing it." I guess this statement really is true since he did half of the block...ON BOTH SIDES!!! He also made a path from the sidewalk, that he cleared, to the street where he also cleared a space around my car. JOHN ROCKS!!!

So I abandoned my snow shoveling and went to stand in the back and watch the boys play. I would have thought that it would have zapped some of their energy...I was wrong! And yet, my energy is zapped, and I don't think I'll be making it to the grocery store today. Oh well, at least I can tackle some housework.