Super day!!

Well today was a great day!
We finished the electrical. Since we moved in there were capped wires in one of the closets, we didn't go into that closet so it wasn't that big of a deal but for the FHA we needed to put a fixture or something on it so that the wires wouldn't be exposed. Arwen and I sat in the closet with the flashlight while Chris shut off the power, when he came back he opened the existing fixture to find that the wires weren't hooked up to anything and there wasn't any power. We both looked each other, Chris pulled the wires out and put the cover back on. That was the easiest fix of the whole house, right up there with replacing the batteries in the smoke detectors (yeah that was one of the buyer's requests).
Anyway. Tomorrow my dad and Chris are going to replace the main water valve. We've planned it for when the kids are napping, can you imagine watching 5 kids with no water?
After the main is finished we'll replace the valves under the kitchen and main bathroom sinks.
There's more to do but I'm excited with today's progress so I won't go into it.

Good enough

I find myself with a lack of interesting stories.
Chris and I accepted an offer on our house and are planning on closing May 15th. The fellow who's buying will be getting and FHA loan which means Chris and I are working our tails off to bring the house up to the lofty FHA standards.
This past week has been a whirlwind of repairs including but not limited too scraping, priming, painting the outside of the house, repair the roof, up-date some plumbing and cut a hole in the wall to move some dirt in the crawl space.

I'm having an inward battle doing all these projects. The perfectionist in me would really like to have it just right, the paint, the electrical, all of it. But as it is I don't have the time or motivation to make it all that it could be.
I'll be leaving this home at "the standard" but not excellent.
How good is good enough? According to the governments FHA standards no cracked or peeling paint, no exposed wires, grass and whatever else the appraiser can think of.

A word to the wise

For all you folks out there who have wood siding let me take this moment to encourage you to just save up and buy some kind of metal siding. Low maintenance, lasts for a long time, good stuff.

And guess what, I love pancakes!

I think this Denny's commercial is so funny, I don't know why but it gives me joy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlSmQYKhrF8


^You can call me "Nannerpuss, Nannerpuss. And guess what, I love pancakes!^

Movie food

I love how great food looks in the movies. I'm a very picky eater but some movies really made me wish I weren't.
My favorite foods I saw in a movie, show or commercial:
-Best Foods real Mayonniase where the lady is making a salad while singing the tune to "take me out to the ballgame".
-The scrambled eggs on the made for t.v. movie "The Leftovers".
-The cold pizza and cold chicken on "Fluppy Dogs". I would have my mom peel my apple and put in on a plate and I would eat it on the floor like a dog. Good memories.


-The brownies on the movie "Help Wanted: Kids"
-The sandwich that Kathleen Kelly is eating with a fork on "You've got Mail", well, pretty much all the food in that movie.


-The hot dogs on "Superman II"
-The Crunch bar on "Flight of the Navigator"
-The cracker thing that Leia gave Wicket on "Return of the Jedi"
-And whatever that stuff they had at the Christmas Festival on "Steel Magnolias"

I once saw a show that explained how they got food to look so good on screen. They would use Crisco for ice cream, use red lipstick to color in strawberries and chase butter down an ear of corn with a hair dryer. Keep up the good work, I love food in the movies.

Date night

Tonight Chris called a friend of ours to see if she would be willing to watch the baby so we could go to a movie, which she was, so we went. (I'm so thankful to have a husband who will make childcare arrangements.)
We saw "Paul Blart: Mall Cop". It was a pretty good movie. I don't know that I would buy it but I don't have any negative feedback. I love Kevin James. I love it when an actor gives everything he's got to a role.
Sidenote.
Before the movie we went to Sonic. I had the $.99 chicken strip sandwich and then just ate the chicken. Take note, because the chicken strip (2) meal is almost $5 but you could just get the sandwich, small fry, small drink for $3 and it would just about be the same thing and since the portions are smaller it helps with the waistline.
Someday I plan to take a group of geeks to a movie and have them all sit around me so that I don't have to listen to the weirdos I usually get at the movies. But the plan is flawed because we geeks don't usually have a large group of friends to surround us, we tend to travel in groups of 3 or less. And you can't take the cool kids because they're the ones chatting or texting through the whole movie. So alas, I will be content to go with my few friends and endure the conversations around me.

Umm... nevermind

I had started this post as a annoyed rant about my hotmail account.
Long story short, hotmail kept telling me to create an account and I kept telling it I already had an account. Lame.
Well, I'm not sure if it was the note I sent to hotmail or just the time that past but halfway through writing the post hotmail was back to normal. So then I deleted all that I had wrote here.
Hmmm...
So here I am yet again, blogging with no purpose in mind.

Early memories

I remember...
I was about 3 years old and I had spent the night at my friend Peter's house. For breakfast I had Cocoa Puffs and he had AlphaBits without marshmallows. I asked him why he would have that when it didn't taste good without the marshmallows and he said because that's what he wanted. I still don't understand it to this day, I mean come on, it's Cocoa Puffs, no question!


Notice how it says "0 Grams of Sugar per serving"
Really, why even bother?


My mom tells me my two first words were cookie and He-man.



"By the power of GraySkull"


I can remember going to get into the van to go to church and wanting my mom to pick me up and she wasn't able too because she was too pregnant with my younger sister. My dad came around the van and helped me in.
I used to chew on the seats of that van. They were very tasty.

I remember when we got a brand new couch. It was the first time we were aloud to jump on our old one, which we did until the new one arrived and the old taken away. There's just something special about jumping on furniture.

Wet day

Today was a wet day in doors and out.
Let's start at the beginning.
I've made up my mind to spend Arwen's best part of her day with her, which is when she wakes up between 6:30-7:00am. For those of you saying how great it is she sleeps that late let me tell you that I would prefer to sleep much later. I've been both the early bird and the night owl and to tell the truth I accomplish much more as an early bird but with Chris working the graveyard shift I'll stay up and chat on-line with him.
Anyway. Arwen woke up at 6:08am this morning and I was able to tune out her morning song (yeah, she sings to her fingers or pacifier)until 6:45 when I decided to get up and play with her. It was raining outside and it seemed that it would just be a beautiful April day. Little did I know what was waiting for me.
Being Friday it meant that I would need to go and do the bookkeeping out at my parents'. Fridays are usually tough on Arwen because she doesn't know that environment as well and won't put herself down for a nap. Kale, the 2 1/2 year old I watch, comes along as well and that's where our story takes off.
We arrive at my "office" and as usual the first thing is that I put Kale in the highchair and fix him his oatmeal. After he finished he played on the floor with Arwen.
Mistake number 1: I didn't take him to the bathroom as soon as he finished eating.
While I was arranging my paper work for the day I hear the all too familiar cry from Arwen and turn around just in time to see Kale take Arwen's toy from her hand and start to sword fight with the remaining toy in her other hand. I was going to take him to time out and noticed his pants were soaked. Off to the showers and a change of clothes. Cleaned up the carpet. Back to playing for him, bookkeeping for me.
Mistake number 2: I assumed by the incredible wetness of his pants and carpet that he had nothing left to give.
15 minutes later he was wet again. Shower, potty, clothes, carpet, playing, bookkeeping.
Mistake number 3: I assumed that since I had just taken him to the potty with success he would be fine for a little while.
Meanwhile, my sister's Friday baby-sitter was sick and I said sure I'd watch the girls. Arwen's morning nap is around 9:30am. It was 10:30am before I got her settled and sleeping. It was quite the task since she was so tired, she got up at 6:08 remember. My nieces arrive and I instruct them to play in the office quietly while Arwen's sleeping. Long part of the story short, I put Kale in the highchair so he would stop taking toys from the girls and pushing them over, the girls not the toys. Arwen woke up and it was time for lunch. Yep, you guessed it, when I got Kale out of the highchair he was wet again. On the up-side I had already put his first 2 outfits in the laundry. Shower, potty, pull-up, (clothes not done yet), lunch.
Mistake number 4: I forgot that no matter how long you've been potty trained accidents happen.
When we, me, Arwen (8m), Kale (2 1/2), Allie (2 1/2) and Sammie (3 1/2)arrived at my house Kale went right to bed and I sent the girls to use the potty before their nap. Sammie went first but took a little longer than Allie, who's been trained for about a year now, could hold and wet her pants. Thankfully, I had just washed all of Kale's spare clothes so Allie was not without clothes for her nap.
All in all it was a beautiful April day. For real, not sarcastically.

Teachers

I was thinking about my old Sunday School teachers today.

My earliest memory was when I was about 3 years old and I wanted the nursery worker to put me in the top crib so I could see the whole room (the cribs at church were the stacking wall ones). Despite my instructions to her she continued to put me in the bottom crib. Later on after church was over and everyone was visiting I sneaked back up to the nursery, blocked the door so no one could get in to stop me, I climbed up to the top crib and shut the gate. After enjoying my victory it was then that I noticed that I couldn't lift the gate and the door was blocked so no one could come to my aid. Long story short, the nursery door was a dutch door and a gentleman from church was able to wiggle the latch to open the top half.
I'm still not comfortable being somewhere if I don't know where all the exits are.


What really got me to thinking about teachers was one of them passed away this week. I really can't remember her teaching alone, her husband was always there. Not because she wasn't capable, but because that's how it was, they were always there for each other.
My teacher passed away before she had any grandchildren. My heart is sad when someone young dies. I think about the things that others will miss. My grandmother died before I was born and I really wish I could have met her. My mom tells me stories about her but it's not the same thing.
We'll meet someday. My hope is in the Lord, He's my Savior. When I die I'll spend eternity in heaven with Him along with the rest of His followers including my grandmother. No worries.