We Survived

We survived the Lock-In. Jaquelyn made it until 5:30 am before she crashed. Teresa only laid her head down on the table for about 10 minutes during breakfast. I made it the whole night and lived to blog about it. I will be adding some of the hundred and something pictures I took sometime after I get some really good sleep!

It's An All Nighter

Tonight is the Annual Lock-In at the YMCA for our girlscouts. You all know how those go...tons of girls laughing and having fun...ALL NIGHT LONG. Jaquelyn and Teresa are attending...with me! I will post tomorrow to let everyone know just how exhausted we are and how much fun we had. (And how many kids I hollered at because of lack of sleep...hopefully none)

It's Coffee Time!

Well here I am again today working the morning shift at Dan's coffee shop Just Plain Joe. There is a lot of sickness going around our little town and it seems to be our employees turn to be getting it. I don't mind too much and Rebecca actually enjoys it since she gets to sit and watch DVDs all day. Ours is a small little kiosk about the size of a backyard shed so there's not a lot of moving around room but she sits on the floor in a beach chair and has a grand old time. I keep trying to get Dan to let me work here more often but he doesn't like Rebecca hanging out here all day. I say she'll get over it. Anyhoo, that's what we're up to today. TTFN

Wordless Wednesday

Messy Fingers

Here's what happens when you assume the Cars stamp set your child is playing with has a washable ink pad. This is after some severe hand scrubbing. I suppose it will come out eventually.

Friend Makin' Mondays

It's time for Friend Makin' Mondays again. You too can meet new and interesting people through your blog just by heading over to Kasey's blog and checking everyone out.
You can go here to learn the rules of Friend Makin' Mondays.

Today's task is to share 10 of your favorite things:

1. The Harry Potter series. - Only the books, not the movies. They are soooo awesome! The Goblet of Fire is my all time favorite.










2. Vanilla ice cream. Plain. I know I have mentioned this one before. And I prefer Edy's brand (Dreyers for you west coast types) slow churned. Nothing with tiny gross specks of "real" vanilla beans in it. Plain!











3. My kids. Duh, even as annoying as they are. One of my favorite things to say to them is they are my favorite , insert age here, kid in the whole world. Since I don't have any multiples, whatever age they are, they are my favorite and that makes them feel special.

4. My computers. I have two, a desktop and a laptop and they sit right next to each other. Sometimes I am using them both at the same time, playing a game on one and working on the other. I don't know what I would do without them. They are so fun.

5. Shoes. I have a definite weakness for shoes. I don't have as many as I used to when I was a kid,(I had enough so I could wear a different pair every day for two school weeks and those are only the ones that fit in with our uniforms dress code) but I still have way more than I wear. I only wear Reebok tennis shoes, white and navy blue, pretty much every day.

6. Shopping. I love to shop. For anything, groceries, clothes, toys, nothing, everything. It's a very good thing I am also a bargain shopper since otherwise we'd be totally broke.

7. The pool. I love going to the pool all summer long. Our community pool is walking distance from our house and their membership prices are unbeatable. Their shallow end is a zero entry so there is always a spot that Rebecca can stand. We spend 3-5 days per week there and just hang out and play.











8. Tortilla chips. I adore tortilla chips of all shapes and flavors. My absolute favorites are the ones that Chevy's makes but since I get those rarely, I am happy with Tostitos. I like them plain, with salsa, refried beans or a cheesy bean dip that I love.









Seriously, this is hard. I have been working on this post since 7AM. Too many interruptions. To include having to work at Dan's coffee shop today since someone called out sick, dragging Rebecca there since she was too sick to go to school, Jaquelyn's orthodontist appointment, and last but not least, selling cookies around town. It is truly amazing how many business will let you go around to their employees and sell cookies. We hit up a Dodge dealership, a Ford Dealership, Jaquelyn's Orthodontist's, her Dentist's (which was next door to the ortho) and of all places, hit the jackpot at Jiffy Lube where one guy bought 10 boxes of Thin Mints. Very cool...now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

9. Heat. I hate being cold. I can't wait until it's warm and sunny all the time and I don't have to bundle up to stay warm in our freezing house.

10. Professional pictures. I totally love getting the kids pictures done. I am at Sears at least twice a year and more often if we can afford it. I always spend way too much but I just can't help it. They are too cute. I have been putting Rebecca's 4 year old pictures off for ages since she's been so sick. Hopefully it won't be too much longer.

Ok, I suppose these will have to do cause I'm getting sleepy and since Jaquelyn and Rebecca are sick yet again, I won't be getting too much sleep tonight. Gotta love those 104-105 temps. Totally freaky! One of these days I'll actually finish this post in the a.m. hours....and not in Tuesday's a.m!

Not Me! Monday

It's that wonderful time of the week again. MckMama's fun little carnival called Not Me! Monday. That time when we all mention all the things we did not do this week for everyone else to read about and join in our laughter and tears. If you want to join in the fun, head over to her blog and go hog wild!

While doing laundry a pair of overalls did not mysteriously lose part of a buckle. I am not completely baffled as to where it could be. I haven't checked the washer, dryer, under both machines and inside other clothing from that batch and still haven't found it. I did not actually try to put Rebecca in said overalls later that week and try to buckle them before I remembered it was that pair.

I did not forget that it was a holiday and set my alarm for the wrong time to get up Tuesday morning. If that had happened, I'm sure when my husband called to make sure I was awake at the right time I wouldn't have gotten upset with him for waking me up. (until I realized he was right)

I did not spend 3 hours at Walmart one day because I was wandering around looking for all their clearances. I am not super excited that our store is getting remodeled and there are clearances everywhere. I did not snag tons of great material for 75% off.

While making rice last week, I did not grab the wrong part of the steamer, the steam basket, and try to fill it with water instead of the rice bowl. It did not take feeling the water dripping on my foot through all the holes for me to realize the mistake I made.

I was not thinking about something so intently that I drove right past Rebecca's school and had to turn around. I am always focused on my surroundings and drive safely.

I did not finally return 2 movies to Blockbuster over 2 weeks late. I am not so happy they don't have late fees anymore. I do not take full advantage of the new policy regularly.

I did not spend 30 minutes searching the house for list I made for Not Me! Monday, unable to find it anywhere. I was not totally bummed. I did not end up finding the list sitting on my desk by my computer. I'm not that scatterbrained. I do not desparately need lists like that to remember anything that happens during the week for Not Me! Monday. I am not getting old!

Bargains Galore

I am a bargain shopping, penny pinching, Thift store shopping, coupon using, clearance sale loving kinda gal. That being said, I will always look for things being marked down at the grocery store. (Heidi, you might not want to read any further, this involves expiration dates) I don't hold much to the dates they put on foods and will regularly freeze items and use them months past their expiration dates. So far, none of us have died, gotten horribly or even mildly ill so I guess it's all okay.
Now the story behind all the explaining. We were in dire need of milk on Friday so I hopped in the car and drove over to Safeway. When I went over to the milk section, lo and behold, they had milk marked down to $1.50/gallon. Well I went and bought all 4 gallons they had marked down even though the expiration dates were for the next day. (they are already finished) I noticed a sign off to the left "clearanced for quick sale". All kinds of yogurts and such. I was sensing a trend here. So after loading up my cart with the milk and several yogurt items, I started on a treasure hunt around the store searching for more. I found several items in the meat department that I snatched up as well. Some Hillshire farms bratwurst and some Tyson already cooked chicken stripsfor a mere $.99. Oh Happy Days! All of these aforementioned items had expiration dates between the 20th and 23rd. The milks and yogurts are either finished or will be finished by tomorrow and all the meat is in the freezer. I love, love, love saving money on anything but especially food. I am such a cheap skate. And I love it!

Booths, Booths, Booths

It's cookie booth time! With three girl scouts, our weekends are jam packed with cookie booths. We had four last weekend, at least two this weekend and only one so far next weekend but I'm sure they'll add some more in before too long. This is the time when I really wish we sold cookies at a warmer time. It is very hard to sit outside for two hours straight when it's in the twenties and thirties. Sometimes we are lucky and the sun is shining on us but most of the time our locations are not very sunny since we are right next to the stores. Jaquelyn is doing very well in her sales this year. She is already over 200 boxes and is close to reaching her goal of 250 boxes. She is very excited because then she will get the elephant slippers she wants so badly. We'll just see what we can do with only two weeks left.

This Is Fun...And Educational

I found this site on Minnesota Mom's blog. She posted about it ages ago but I must have missed that post.

I tried it out and got an 92% with an average error of 12 miles. Some of them are pretty tricky if you get a middle state early on. It was fun and I am going to have my kids try it out and see how well they know their geography.

Let me know how you did when you comment. Good Luck!

http://jimspages.com/States.htm

I Love Free Stuff

I belong to a multitude of survey companies. I don't remember how I got into it but it has been several years now. I of course only do it for one reason...free stuff. There are several different types of companies out there so you just have to know what you are interested in to decide which ones you want to try out.
Some companies mostly just give chances at their many drawings as rewards. I don't like those as much and will usually not take long surveys from them. It's not worth my time. They will occasionally have surveys that give away actual money but they are few and far between and usually fill up quickly.
There are ones that give away money for every survey but there are not too many of those out there that I have found.
Most of the companies work on a point system. They award so many points for each survey you complete or partial survey. They then have a reward catalogue that you can redeem your points through, some of which offer actual cash, usually through Paypal.
Quite often I will get items in the mail to try for different corporations who want opinions on new items getting ready to debut. Sometimes it's things that have been around for ages and they want to try a change in the formula. We've been the recipients of cereals, crackers, cookies, shampoos, and garbage bags to name a few. It's usually pretty fun.
Over the years, I have accumulated various points with the different companies and enjoy trading them in every so often. It's so fun to go through the catalogues and see the new items that come in every so often. One year I cashed in with several companies for cash and ended up with some extra spending money for our vacation. They are all different in regard to how many points per survey and per reward. Some deal in the fives and tens and some in the hundreds.
One company in particular is called Homescan powered by ACNielson, which I think is also involved in the tv ratings. They have an ongoing shopping tracking program that I am involved in too. I have been doing it for about 3 years I think. It is a bit more involved that some of the others. Everything we buy is supposed to be scanned into the scanner they sent me using the bar codes that everything has. Doesn't matter what it is, groceries, clothes, gas, fast food, film, prescriptions, etc. I forget occasionally but I have been doing it for so long that it is really just second nature to scan everything while I am putting it away.
They are the best at reward points. I usually earn about 500 points a week from them depending on how many surveys they have at any given time. They do not exchange their points for cash which is too bad but they have some pretty great rewards so it's not too bad. I am not very good at saving up for big items. I usually cash in once or twice a year. We have gotten a small vacuum/sweeper that works great in the kitchen, a baking stone to make pizzas on, a T-ball set for Becca and most recently, a Lasso Golf game (ladder golf to some).
This is something I have been wanting for ages. We first played a few years ago in Wisconsin and really enjoyed it. I found one in a different survey companies rewards catalogue and I was saving up to get it but I knew it would take ages and they change their rewards often. I was so excited to find in the Homescan catalogue. It just came in the other day and I can't wait to set it up and try it out.
Anyhow, now that I have completely bored you, I will wow you with some amazingly cool pictures....ok not really.

Chili Day!

I am not sure if I have ever mentioned that I am not much of a cook. I like simple and quick. We eat lots of Hamburger Helper, Lipton Rice & Sauce, Spaghetti, etc. I rarely make anything from scratch. My daughter Taylor wants to be a chef when she grows up so she does more cooking than I do anyhow. Of course she can only cook with what is actually in the house so she doesn't do much more "from scratch" cooking than I do. (Although she does have this Cinnamon roll recipe she got from her Culinary Basics class that is to die for)
That being said, I have never, ever made chili that wasn't from a box and that was only once for a specific diet my husband was on for his diabetes. So when Heidi put her Blogstyle Iron Chef post together I didn't really think I would taking part in this bit of fun. Until that is I read a comment from my husband that happened to mention to her, in a round about way, how much he wanted me to make chili. So I finally decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. I checked out all the recipes on Heidi's blog that were up for her Iron Chef award. I decided to try the one I felt was easiest, it only called for hamburger, no other meat. I went to the King of Cheap (Walmart) and picked up the items I was lacking and printed off the recipe.
I decided which night to make it, luckily figuring out it had to simmer for an hour or two before we left for ballet so I threw it together right before we walked out the door. I decided to make rice to go with it since the recipe I picked (Lauren's) mentioned it. We had it with cornbread and peas. (because there always has to be a green vegetable at the table...because I said so)
Well I was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone enjoyed it quite a bit(even me and I am the pickiest eater in the house). I guess we have something new to add to our same, old, boring menu ideas. Thanks Heidi and Lauren too!

Wordless Wednesday

Friend Makin' Monday Here Again

It's Friend Makin' Monday time again. You can learn all about it at Kasey's blog. You can also go here for more information and the rules. Today we will be doing a game that she is calling the this OR that game. Please pick the one that you prefer (it doesn't necessarily have to be what you have just what you would prefer):

1. jog or walk: walk
2. coffee or tea: hot tea with lots of sugar
3. pepsi or coca cola: I do NOT drink cola...dr pepper or mt dew
4. flats or heels: flats
5. fries or onion rings: fries
6. cats or dogs: dogs
7. skim or whole: skim (but really 1%)
8. small purses or large: I guess small but I have used a fanny pack for about 6 years now and really prefer that.
9. van or suv: van
10. winter or summer: summer
11. 1 piece bathing suit or 2: 2 (tankini style with NO skin showing..top and bottom have to touch!)
12. Sit down restaurant or fast food: sit down
13. McDonalds or Burger King: Mickey D's
14. White Gold or Yellow: Yellow
15. Fish or Chicken: Chicken...I do not eat seafood at all.
16. Edward or Jacob: I haven't read the books yet but my kids are Edward through and through.
17. Pizza or Burger: Burger
18. apple or orange: apple
19. Spend or save: Spend but I try to save so I can get more for my money
20. 1 story or 2 story house: 2 story

That's all folks. If you want to join in the fun, head over to Kasey's!

Not Me! Monday Yet Again

This week's Not Me's are going to be a bit short. I have been very bad about writing anything down and of course can't remember most of them now. If you want to read some more interesting things that people have not been doing, check over at MckMama's blog.

Rebecca was not sitting on my lap and submit a comment while I was still typing it. I always pay attention to where the kids fingers are when they are on my lap at the computer.

I did tell Rebecca on the way home from dropping Jaquelyn off at school that we would go to the park. I did not then spend the next 3 hours blogging and installing photo explosion on my computer instead. What kind of mean mom does that. Not Me!

When I did finally take her to the park, I did not agree to a picnic lunch...in the car...since I felt bad about putting her off for so long. After we got there and started playing, she did not want to go home after about 10 minutes because it was so windy out.

When getting ready to go to a cookie booth, I laid Teresa's sash down so we wouldn't forget it. When it was time to go, I did not have to spend 10 minutes trying to figure out where I could have possibly put it. I did not make a comment to Dan that I wouldn't be surprised if Teresa hid it. He did not stop, think about what his sister Linda would do, walk out to the van where Teresa was and send her in to get it. She did not immediately walk over to where she had indeed hidden it. We are not considering sending her to live with said sister to punish them both.

I do not still keep Rebecca in a onesie. She is 4 years old and potty trained for 2 years already so that would just be totally mean. I do not really, really dislike seeing the crack of her tushie everytime she bends over. I did not have to special order from Gerber to find them big enough to fit her. I am not already thinking about looking for the next size up.

I am not so late finally getting around to my Not Me! post that I am up in the 400's.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello all.
I hope everyone is having a nice day today. We were pretty laid back around here. Dan and I both had things to do in the morning and he let me nap in the afternoon since I wasn't feeling well. Taylor had Paul come over to spend the afternoon/evening. We exchanged a few gifts after dinner and that was pretty much it. I received a new scented oil burner and gave Dan some Lottery scratchers. (They were pretty much a bust and didn't even earn as much as I spent...bummer)

A Windy Day At The Park

Since it was so nice the last few days, Rebecca has been really nagging asking about going to the park. We have to drive by a park that is near our house any time we are coming or going and she asks pretty much every time, except maybe not every time when it's dark out. Doesn't matter if it's pouring, snowing, -10 degrees, she still asks to go to the park. she is truly crazy.
So I finally gave in to the pressure and Rebecca and I went to the park today. Oh. My. Goodness. I know they said on weather.com that it was going to be windy today but seriously...O.M.G. was it windy. We could barely see between the wind bringing tears to our eyes and whipping our hair around. Luckily, she decided after about 10 minutes that she had had enough (she was shivering). I managed to get a few pictures but you can't see her face in most of them since her hair is going every which way.

Brakes 101

I mentioned in my Not Me! Monday post that my brakes were way beyond needing to be replaced. I had been told many times through the years that changing brakes is fairly easy on a Caravan. I was not willing to try something like that without someone showing me how to do it the first time though. I finally found someone who was able to teach me how to do it a few years ago so now it is something we save a ton of money on since brakes themselves are soooo inexpensive. Somehow getting them done at the local auto shop costs hundreds of dollars. Not really sure how that works. Just to give everyone a heads up, a good set of semi-metallic brakes run around 50.00, super nice ceramic ones around 80.00. Most auto parts stores, such as Auto Zone which is where I go, have lifetime warranties on their brakes. So this time around, I replaced my brakes and calipers for the cost of new brake fluid, brake lubricant and the clamp I needed to buy. I did have to replace one of the brake hoses on each side too but that only cost 50.00 for the pair and was something I would not normally have to do. So essentially, I replaced everything except the rotors, which I replaced last time, for about 60.00. Well worth the time it took. So here is the story in full detail.

I finally got around to starting them on Saturday. After I got the driver's side finished, with a side trip to Lowes to buy the right size clamp, it was really too late to start on the passenger side. So on Sunday, i attempted to do the passenger side. When I got the caliper off, I was unable to get the piston to squeeze in. So I had to go back to Auto Zone to buy two new calipers, since you should always replace them in pairs. Of course, that was easier said than done. They only had the drivers side in stock. So with the promise that it would be in on Monday by 1pm, I headed home with the drivers side. By this time I was too discouraged to do anything else. So I got out of my grungy clothes and Jaquelyn and I went off to deliver Girl Scout cookies.

Monday I went back to Auto Zone to pick up the part only to find out that they totally fibbed and it would not be in until Tuesday. By now I was a bit perturbed but since the person who helped me yesterday was not there, I figured it wasn't fair to blame someone who wasn't even involved. I headed home and did all the work on the drivers side. Just once, I wish when I was replacing my brakes, if something has to go wrong and cause me to need to replace other parts, it could happen on the side I start on. It was frustrating to have to take everything I was finished with on the drivers side back off and do it again.

So I was finally able to pick up the part on Tuesday and replace that side. E.J., a guy from the garage we frequent, came over to help with the bleeding of the brakes. (the one part I am not very good at) It was a very good thing he did since he is the one who figured out the hose on that side was collapsed. So another trip to Auto Zone and we now have new hoses on both side.

So now that is all finished and there is a very good chance I will never have to replace them on this van again since I don't know if it will last that long. While E.J. was here, he listened to my starter which has been acting up and said it really needs to be replaced. This van is going to nickel and dime us to death. (but I still love it and will cry when we do finally have to put it to rest)

Wordless Wednesday

Pay It Forward!!

I got an awesome gift in the mail from a blogger!


Another Heidi sent me this. . .









Thanks so much Heidi.


I am always in need of note cards to say thank you to someone. And who doesn't like candy!!! (my kids all thank you too)


I won these note cards and the candy by participating in the "Pay it Forward" blog challenge that Heidi played on her blog. Let me tell you this is a really fun blog game and I can't wait to see who is interested in playing it with me. It is kinda funny to get a card that has Heidi in the to line and the from line.



And now it is time for me to pay it forward.
Here are the rules:
Be one of the first three bloggers to comment on this post. You then agree to share your snail mail address with me so I can send you a small gift. When you receive your gift, you then blog about this game & link back to my blog in that post. You ALSO AGREE to "pay it forward" and send a small gift to the 3 people who comment on your blog post.....



Remember NOT to post about this game until AFTER you have received your gift!

Friend Makin' On Mondays

Now that Kasey is back from all the trials and tribulations of the horrible ice storm they had in her neck of the woods, we are back to Makin' Friends on Monday. The time of the week where we get to know one another.

Here is this week's task:
Answer the following questions:

1) My favorite book is: Harry Potter Series. I am a HUGE fan. I had the last book finished in less than 10 hours from when I purchased it. I also like Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books.

2) I drive a: Dodge Grand Caravan with over 200,000 miles on it. You can read about it here.

3) My favorite type of food to eat is: It's a toss up between Mexican and Chinese. (although pretty much anything is good if I'm getting to eat out!!)

4) My favorite dessert is: That's a tough one....I love plain vanilla ice cream soooo much but I also love rice krispie treats like nobody's business. My daughter makes these treats called Reese's ball that are to die for. I am a dessert freak.

5) My favorite movie is: National Treasure. I can't even count how many times I've seen it. Not only do we have it on DVD but if it happens to be on TV I will drop everything and watch it.

6) When I go to Starbucks I get a: Are you kidding? My husband owns a coffee shop. We never use the "S" word in our house. (and I don't actually drink coffee)

7) My favorite vegetable is: Broccoli all the way...raw or cooked it doesn't matter.

8) My favorite thing to wear is: Jeans and a polo shirt (preferably navy blue).

9) My favorite color is: Navy blue hands down.

10) I decorate my house in this style: Whatever is inexpensive or free...I really don't care.

11) Right now I am reading: T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton. I own all her books and just love a good mystery, especially when it's a series.

12) If I could vacation anywhere I would go to: A Disney cruise has been my dream for soooo long. I haven't decided whether I would want to bring the kids or have it just me and hubby. It depends on whether Dan would let the kids do their own things while we did ours. (within reason)

You can read the rules at Kasey's blog if you are interested in playing.
Now what you need to do is copy and paste the questions and answers from here onto your own blog. Once you get it to your blog you will then erase my answers and insert your own. Have fun, and I can't wait to get to know each of you better!

Not Me! Monday #19

Hello...it's that time once again. Time to unload to strangers what kinds of things did not go on around here this week. If you like what you see and want to read what other people didn't do, head over to MckMama's blog and you can spend the next three days trying to read all the different links!

I do not keep our house so cold that the butter that sits on the counter top was too hard to spread on my bread. I am not shivering as I am writing this and struggling to keep my hands warm. I would never keep our house that cold. (this one is from earlier this week, it's finally warmer now)

I did not blow off going to the Y to work out again this week. I do not do that far too often. I am always ready to go work out so I stay healthy and fit. (I did use our recumbent bike instead)

We are not at the Y 4 days a week for afterschool activites such as swim lessons, ballet, tennis and basketball. I do not keep the kids that busy. It's not going to get worse when softball season starts in just a month or so. I know they need time to relax too.

We did not have a snow day with so little snow that it was gone before noon. I am not getting irritated by the amount of snow day's we are going to have to make up already. (3)

Between snow days and sick days, Rebecca has not only been to school for 6 days out of 14 this year. That's ridiculous even for her.

I have not been putting off fixing my brakes for way too long. They are not grinding now in addition to the squeaking. I am much more responsible than that and always make sure that my vehicle is in perfect working condition.

I did not post a picture of my husbands perfect score in the Wii bowling game. That's just silly, who does that.

I did not finish Teresa's girl scout work because she had a meeting Friday night and hadn't finished it. That would be wrong and enabling her to think she can continue doing nothing. I would never do that.

I did not get excited because I thought I caught MckMama's blog shortly after she posted Not Me! Monday only to find out that she had posted it ages ago and for some reason refreshing it all morning just hadn't worked. I was not upset that I was into the triple digits again on her Not Me! Monday post. Not Me!

Thinking Day

Last weekend was Thinking Day for our Girl Scouts. The older girls troops did not participate but Jaquelyn's did. Basically Thinking Day is a celebration of Juliette Low's (founder of Girl Scouts) Birthday. Each troop picks a country to research. They put a display board together with interesting facts about the country. They pick a craft or a game and a food or drink from the country. Then all the girls gather and rotate through the booths and learn about all the different countries. It is pretty cool and Jaquelyn always enjoys it. As you can see from the picture, Jaquelyn's troop picked the Bahamas this year. I made some banana bread for them to hand out to the other kids. Jaquelyn really had a lot of fun and came home with lots of neat facts about the other countries.

Jaquelyn's Basketball

Jaquelyn is playing basketball this year at the YMCA. She had the choice between indoor soccer and basketball and she had some friends playing basketball so that's what she chose. She has never really played the game before and it is fun to watch her trying so hard. She is so much smaller than the other kids that it looks like she should be in the younger age group. But I guess it doesn't matter because she is really enjoying it and having fun. I included some pictures but they are not very good since I am in need of a new camera soon. It just doesn't do action shots well at all. I am never going to get one as nice as MckMama's but I am hoping to get a decent one.

Video Games

We were very lucky this Christmas and Santa decided we had been good boys and girls so he brought us a Wii. We are all enjoying it very much. I think Rebecca plays it more than anyone else which is very surprising since she has almost no video game experience. We have the Mario Kart game and she just loves driving around.
Dan and I enjoy the sports games and usually play some tennis and bowling before bed. As you can see from the picture I posted yesterday, Dan bowled a perfect game yesterday. I just had to take a picture to document the occasion.

Wordless Wednesday - A Perfect Game

Another Snow Day

Updated: We have to make up all snow days because our school system does not build any in to their calendar. Sometimes they take days off away, like at Easter, but mostly they just add them to the end of the year.

So we are having another snow day here. I tell ya it's getting ridiculous.
I just looked at the calendar and in the the last 4 weeks, Rebecca has been to school 3 times. That's out of 12 school days. Three have been snow days, 1 holiday and 5, yes that's 5, sick days. Now today was supposed to be the day we were bringing cupcakes in to celebrate her birthday, since it was a snow day on the actual day. Luckily, I was thinking ahead and hadn't acutally made the cupcakes yet so I am not stuck with extra sweets in the house.

Doctors Results

Yesterday's doctor's appointments went fairly well.
Rebecca did great for her 4 year old check up. She was in the 70% for height and weight which I am pretty sure is bigger than all of her sisters for height. She did have to get 3 shots which she did very well with. She didn't cry at all and just gave the nurse a bad look for hurting her. She was not the least impressed with the tweety bandages and was asking to take them off almost immediately. I think she thought taking the bandages off would make them stop hurting.
Jaquelyn didn't fare quite so well. She was diagnosed with a bad sinus infection and a bit of bronchitis...is that like being a little bit pregnant? Who knows...anyhow, she is on an antibiotic again and oral steroids too. She is using her inhaler much more than usual. Normally she only uses it once a month at most. I think she used it about 5 times today. We attempted basketball practice tonight but she didn't last 10 minutes before she was coughing and gasping, and that was after using her inhaler right before we got there. Hopefully she will be ready for the game on Saturday since she missed last weeks due to Girl Scouts.
Today was the first day in 2 weeks that everyone actually went to school. It was soooo quiet around the house...I had forgotten what that was like. I am hoping it will be the same tomorrow but we might get the snow that was supposed to be here today. We'll see. :-)

Not Me! Monday

Please join us once again as we celebrate the glorious Not Me! Monday! After reading about all the things I did not do this week, you can head over to MckMama's blog and read all about what everyone else didn't do. Have fun!

I am not taking Jaquelyn and Rebecca to the Doctor's again today. They are NOT both sick again. I am not spending far too much money and time at their doctors office.

I did not give Rebecca yogurt that expired a week ago. That is disgusting and I would never do that. Responsible parents always check the date before they give their children perishable foods.

I did not find a pair of footsie pajamas at Target on the clearance rack for under $4 and totally snatch them up. They were not a size 6x and fit my daughter perfectly. I am not betting you all think I am talking about the 4 year old and I am so not. My 9 year old is not wearing size 6x jammies. She is not THAT petite.

I was not so psyched to leave Target, check my receipt and find that two of the clearance items were even less than I thought. I did not get a pair of sweats for 30 cents. I did not find a digital camera for a birthday present for $5. I do not adore Target's clearance racks.

I am the parent of a Girl Scout who was selling cookies last weekend and going door to door. One particular door took a bit longer to open. When we finally got a response, the man was NOT shirtless. The woman who came after him was NOT adjusting her shirt. I do NOT feel we might have interrupted a little "afternoon delight". Jaquelyn was totally clueless. (thank goodness)

I was not very bummed the night of Rebecca's birthday because it finally really sank in that she is 4 and growing up and there's nothing I can do about it.

I did not go to Safeway 3 times in 3 days because they were having such a great deal on 12 packs of soda. I do not have about 15 packs stacked up in the laundry room so I will not have to shop for soda for the rest of the month. We will not go through them probably before the end of the month. We (my husband) do not drink that much soda. (In his defense, all of them are not his only about 1/2)

I did not let Rebecca stay in her pajamas all day on Saturday. I am certainly a responsible parent who makes sure her children have clean fresh clothes on every day.