Milestones

This week has been full of milestones. Kyle completed 3rd grade, Emma completed preschool and as of yesterday we've been in our house for one year. Wow, time flies.
Yesterday I spent the day scrapbooking and here are some of pages that I completed. A leftover St. Patty's Day, Emma's gymnastics, a farm themed birthday party and SSL.

Emma

Today was Emma's last day of preschool. She wasn't sad because she doesn't really know that she won't be going back there. We've signed her up for a three day per week preschool in Ankeny next year to save money, time, and driving. We loved Meredith Drive, but it just didn't make sense to continue. They had a short presentation where the kids sang a song and lets just say it's a good thing that Emma is a girl because she is extraordinarily flamboyant. She used jazz hands when no one else was moving and then curtsied at the end. Oh Lord, what a ham.
She also had her final tumbling class last week. It was nothing but a bunch of kids doing somersaults and jumping on trampolines, so it was a good thing it only cost $20. Lesson learned on that one.

$3.29

Gas here in Ankeny is $3.29 per gallon. I have a compact, tiny car and it cost $40 to fill it up this morning. That is fucking ridiculous. I can't even imagine how much people with SUVs are paying. Rob's work van cost $80 the other day when it was still $3.09. Thank God we don't have to pay for that one!
On another topic, our neighbors behind us, the ones with the fucked up fence, are finally fixing it. I noticed yesterday that the fence guys were back and were taking down all the chain link. Rob talked to the fence guy and apparently that was just temporary and they are re-doing the wooden slats because they were crooked. I'm still wondering why they would have gone to the trouble of the whole temporary chain link for two months, when they obviously could fix it in one day. Who knows? My ass wouldn't be paying for such a dumb ass waste of money, that's for sure. I couldn't afford it anyway...I've got gas to buy!!!! ;)

Sesame Street Live

I took Emma to SSL this past Saturday. Aside from disliking the venue, it was a good show. She enjoyed herself, but was pissed that I wouldn't buy her an $8 Elmo balloon. Yeah fucking right.

Uppercase Living

Check out this cool little wall saying I got:



It wasn't nearly the piece of cake that the sales person said it was going to be to put up, but still, I like it and think it was worth the effort.
If you are interested the website is www.uppercaseliving.com

Last week

One of my favorite Emma-isms is "last week". Everything in Emma's life happened "last week" according to her. Regardless if it was really 10 minutes ago, or a year ago, when Emma tells the story it will have happened last week.

Stigmata

This is how I found Emma in bed last night:

Baseball, Dad, and flowers

Kyle has been non-stop baseball-ing lately. They play and then games get cancelled because of rain, so then they play make-up games. Woo, it's wearing him out.

"Run, Forrest, Run"


Last night my dad got into town from Arizona. It was chilly too and he was complaining about his old, thin, Arizona blood not keeping him warm. Bring a jacket, dumb ass. ;) We went out for pizza and then back to our place for strawberry shortcakes (which Emma couldn't wrap her head around that we were going to have dessert and not watch a cartoon). He was staying at the Heartland Inn, so we took advantage of the indoor pool and went swimming at 9:00 last night. The kids sure slept well after that.

Yesterday Kyle came home with flowers for me. It was so sweet as he even knew what kinds they were.

It's been quite some time

I went scrapbooking at my friend's house last night for the first time since Feb. It seems like forever since I usually never go a month in between, let alone two. We had a good time and I got all of Easter done and all but one page of St. Patrick's day. Just in time too, because summer picture taking season is right around the corner.

A River Runs Through It

It's been raining here for 2 days. Good for the grass I suppose, but shitty for everything else. There is flooding going on all over the place and Rob has been to house after house with flooded basements and sump pumps that can't keep up. Here is a picture of what the drainage ditch behind our yard looks like:


Oh and while I'm looking at this picture, check out what the people who live behind us did to their fence. They had a nice, wooden privacy fence and hired someone to take off just the back side and put chain link in it's place. Leaving the rest as wood and using the wooden posts. It looks retarded. At first I was thinking that surely it was temporary and they were planning doing something else, but it's been 3 weeks and nothing has changed. Somehow I have to tactfully bring up the subject without them catching on that I think it looks like shit. That will be difficult for me. ;)

My little left fielder

This past Saturday was Kyle's first baseball game. Ever. Pretty much all of the other kids on his team had played before. Kyle had taken t-ball when he was 6, but showed no interest and we never did it again. Then last summer, when my nephew was playing Kyle asked if he could play this year. He even got a glove and bat for his birthday. Rob isn't really into watching baseball on tv and I couldn't care less, so poor Kyle doesn't really have a lot of baseball knowledge. So of course, when he was put on the field, he was in the outfield, but that was fine with him. They did put him at second base for awhile and thank God for the short stop because Kyle really wasn't sure what a second baseman's job is. It really surprised me that even though I tried to make it well known that Kyle had never played before, the coaches.....including my husband, just expected that he would just know what to do. Kyle struck out both times up at bat. He was embarrassed because he swung at every pitch, but I figure eventually he'll hit one. He throws hard, and hits hard, so when he does hit one, it's going to go way out there. Now he just has to hit one. ;)

Disneyworld and Oobi

I can't believe I forgot to post this...I'm going to Disneyworld! I guess with field trips, projects, preschool, baseball, and tumbling, my brain is overloaded. Anyway, my sister called and through her job she got 2 trips to Disneyworld. My BIL can't go because of his job and she invited me. About 4 days over labor day weekend. Just us girls, no kids, or husbands. This is going to be so sweet!
On an unrelated note, Emma loves the Noggin show "Oobi". It's wacky and Lord knows what she sees in it, but she loves to do Oobi impressions. If you aren't familiar, here is what it is:

And here is Emma's version:

Frightening, isn't it? ;)

I have a huge ass crack in my windshield

That's pretty much it. I have a crack that I get to watch spreading daily. Knowing that I don't have the extra $250 I'd need to get it fixed.

I was sitting here trying to think of something to add that wasn't grumpy or depressing when I ran across someone with the screen name "Queefer Sutherland". That is good for at least 10 seconds of laughter.

Spring time, my ass

It snowed yesterday. About 4 inches according to the news. Some of it melted, but some is still sticking around annoying the shit out of me. I planted tulips last fall and they were just starting to come up when all this cold weather happened. I hope they aren't dead. :(
On a happier note, last weekend I went to see two movies....well three actually considering that one was the Tarantino/Rodriguez double feature, Grindhouse. It was full of raunchy, disgusting gore and was great. Rose McGowan had a hilarious machine gun leg. Classic. I've read that most people liked the zombie Rodriguez film "Planet Terror" better, but I was partial to the Tarantino "Death Proof". It was funny and had kick ass women in it. The fake movie trailers they had in between the movies were great too, especially the one called "Thanksgiving". At one point they showed the serial killer fucking a turkey. God damn, I was laughing my ass off.
I also saw "Blades of Glory". Typical, funny Will Ferrell stuff. I'd recommend it.

Local business names that I find funny

"Miller the Driller" and "Doug's Plugs"

Quick Easter pics

We had a fun, windy, busy weekend and here are some highlight Easter photos:

Emmastopheles

Emma has been quite the 4 year old devil lately. While we were at my mom's she had her biggest tantrum ever. While at the video store, of all places. She was pissed off and tossing movies off shelves, screaming, flailing and pounding her fists on the floor. She bruised up my legs from kicking me while I was carrying her out to the car. Then when we were in the car she kept smacking me in the face because I had my hands busy keeping her seat belt on and her in her car seat. She even made my glasses fly off. I put her in my mom's spare bedroom and she was throwing picture frames and even cracked a hole in the sheet rock on the wall. She got a damn good spanking that night. Later on, hours after the commotion, I showed her the bruises on my legs and asked her how many times she thought she had slapped me. She batted her eyes and said all sorrowful "Like, 10". Ohhhhh, what a beast!!!!
Then the other day while I was at the store, Rob had put her in her room for a time out. Unknown to him and to me until we were putting her to bed, she had broken, purposefully, her "Growing up Girls" figurines that my mom had given her every year on her birthday. She broke off their heads and arms and then hid them under her
blankets. So when I turned down her bed, I found them. I was so angry that we took everything out of her room...toy box, bookcase, shelves, clock....pretty much everything but her pillow and blankets for her bed. We even took away her blanket and baby. So she was mighty pissed off. It took her about 45 minutes of screaming and yelling about her stuff before she finally fell asleep. Luckily I was able to glue the figurines back together, but they don't look right. My mom is coming this weekend for Easter and I know she is going to be upset about it. Emma was grounded yesterday, which was no fun as she had nothing to play with and couldn't watch TV. Plus we missed a playgroup, so all day she was carrying on about not being able to see her friends.
Here is a "proof of parent abuse" picture I took of one of the bruises on my leg:

Easter egg hunt and a neutering

Today was our Easter egg hunt with our playgroup friends. Unfortunately it was rainy and yucky so we had to have it indoors, but the kids still had fun. I also took the kids to see the Easter bunny at Walgreens beforehand. Rob didn't go because he was still a little sore from his vasectomy yesterday. It was a sad sight....swollen, bruised, and with a few stitches. I've been affectionately referring to it as "Frankensack" ;)
I've got some pictures to share of the Eastering fun, but none of the balls. Sorry.

Home again!

We got home this afternoon and it feels good. The weather was really warm....like 80 degrees and it was nice to come home and have the windows open and such. I gave up on trying to post pictures on my mom's computer. It just wasn't working. So I'm going to have quite a few today. The first is is one that I took today on our drive home. This was what someone wrote on the back of this semi:

I just thought it was a wacky thing to write and had my camera handy.
The next ones are from the St. Patrick's Day parade in the Quad Cities and the Irish Heritage festival.

St. Patty's

We got to my mom's on Friday and had a busy weekend. We took the kids to the Quad Cities on Saturday and Sunday. Once for the parade and once for the Irish heritage festival to watch the Irish dancers. I don't have the proper plug for my camera here to upload my photos so that will have to wait until I get back home but here are a couple that my mom took at the cold-ass parade on Saturday:

I can't get the photos to post at the time so I'll try again later.

We're outa here!

We are off to eastern Iowa to visit my mom for spring break. Kyle gets out of school early tomorrow and we'll be leaving right from there. Rob and my brother are going to paint the master bedroom, bathroom and the kids bathroom while we're gone. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of the kids playing in the backyard the other day when it was 80 degrees.

Outside

Ahhhhhhh, warm temperatures. The snow is almost all melted except for the huge mound that was at one point covering our mailbox. The past couple of days have been so great. We've gone on walks, bike rides and just been outside. It's supposed to get a little colder towards the weekend, but still nothing like last week. I even sat outside in the lawn chair and read while Emma played. We have a trail by our house that leads to a pond/marsh area and a tree had fallen over covering the path about 3/4 of the way. So Emma and I just left the stroller in front of the tree and she and I walked the rest of the way. She was loving jumping in the puddles, picking up sticks and throwing them in the water and pretty much just getting messy. Last summer we rode our bikes over to the marsh/lake/pond thing and that was all there was to it, but since then they've added a lookout area with benches and a parking lot. So it's a little more user friendly.

Dragonlance

OK, so I admit it. I am a reader of sci/fi fantasy novels. I have been reading Dragonlance since I was about 15. With over 150 books in the series, it is possible to read them for 2 decades. I am a little embarrassed about the whole "I must go play D&D" (spoken in Conan O'Brien geek speak) nerdishness that is associated with sword and sorcery type books, but I can't help it. I love them. If a book takes place on Earth, I'm just not interested. Middle-Earth, yes...Earth-Earth, no. ;) And being female the stereotype isn't so bad....I still got laid in high school. Guys certainly don't care about what books you read, just that you said yes to their pathetic attempts to "woo" you.
Anyway, my point is that they are making a Dragonlance movie. Something I've been waiting for, for a long time. It's animated, but that's OK. So I was looking at the official movie site today and holy hell if they haven't got Lex Luther (Michael Rosenbaum) and Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) doing two of the main character voices. Oh and Zena, warrior princess (Lucy Lawless) doing another. I guess I should reserve judgement until I've seen it, but none of these people would have even crossed my mind for those roles.
Sorry, I'm sure this means nothing to anyone who has never read these books, but I was really quite surprised and felt like bringing it up.

http://www.dragonlance-movie.com/

A tag

I don't normally get into that kind of thing, but the blond chick tagged me and I guess....since I don't have anything else pressing to talk about, that I'll comply:

Five Reasons Why I Blog

1. I like to toot my own horn
2. I like to write
3. I like to make people laugh
4. I like sharing pictures/stories about my kids
5. I like knowing that people who don't even like me still care about what I have to say. ;)

Money

I fucking hate money shit. Especially since I'm the one who does all of our book keeping/finances. So if anything is awry it's my fault. I yearn to blame things on others. ;) We got our taxes back a few weeks ago and I'm totally anal about not having bills, so we paid off everything. Then, the bill for our car insurance came in yesterday. Shit! We pay every six months so it's a pretty large bill and I completely forgot about it. Now we are scrambling because on top of it all, Rob has been dead at work and not getting his 40 hours in per week. Ugh, one thing on top of another....I hate that. Anyway, so today I go to the bank to deposit a couple of cleaning checks and the chick tells me I'm overdrawn by $.71 and that I'll have a $26 finance charge because of it. ARRRGGG!!! Apparently a check that I'd written to Kyle's school on December 19th was posted today. Of course, I forgot all about it as it's been over 3 months since I wrote it, and I immediately started yelling at the bank girl that there must be a 90 period or something for checks that hadn't been cashed, etc. And then she referred to me as "ma'am" and told me that checks had 6 months to be cashed.
So there I sat in the bank drive up wondering how I was going juggle things around after this, pissed that the bank girl thinks I'm old enough to be a "ma'am" and really pissed that I had no one to blame my money issues on but myself.
I fucking hate money shit.

Star Jones

I haven't thought about her in quite a while, as why would I?....but I ran across this picture of her on the internet today:

Can anyone say "Gehehe-ross". What is up with the long boobs? Did she not look at herself in the mirror before leaving the house? Those things start at her neck and end.....I can only imagine, where no boobs had ever gone before. I never thought I'd say it, but she looked so much better when she was a fat ass.

Ugh, more winter

So I'm tired of it already. More snow, more being trapped in my house. Kyle missed the first 2 days of school this week because of his strep throat. Then he went back on Wed. for a regular day, and yesterday they let school out early because of weather. Today they had off for teacher in service but that got cancelled too. Rob was supposed to have "snippety-snip" surgery today which got postponed and Emma was supposed to spend the night with Grandma and Grandpa. So here we sit, bored, waiting for our satellite go go out again, getting tired of each other's company. We would have never survived back in the pioneer days. Our poorly constructed wagon would have never made it across the "mighty Mississip" and we all would have drown. We were born in the correct era, I think. ;)
Being cooped up did give me a chance to finish up some of my winter/snow scrapbook pages. It is good that I got them out of the way because now the thought of looking at snow makes me gag. Supposedly by next week we'll be in the 40's. I am so ready for spring!