my free moment

yesterday I purchased tons of toys that were on clearance at Target. Most of them were 75% off!!
I am really proud to say that I paid a mere $34 for toys that originally would have cost $152!! (that's $118 in savings!!)
isn't that great?!?!
I think I'm set for fall birthdays and a few Christmas gifts as well.
I am totally excited. I don't run across bargains like that very often.
just wanted to share my good news.

For several days I have thought about blogging but nothing really comes to mind that I can write about.
I’m really not sure what we have been doing lately. The days are passing without many stories to relate.
Whenever I sit to blog... everything seems foggy in my head. So...

Some miscellaneous things:

The kids and I were able to go and visit our friends earlier this week. T had to fly out of town for work so our visit was extended for an extra day. It’s always nice to see regina and boys. Getting the four boys together is usually quite an experience.

The boys and I also started doing a “letter of the day” in order to refresh D’s mind for kindergarten and in hopes of preparing L for preschool. I’ve got flashcards that we post on a magnetic board and then we hang a picture that accompanies the letter and we spell the word with alphabet magnets. So far so good. We are currently on the letter F… but I couldn’t find any of our “F” magnets (they must be under the fridge)… so we couldn’t spell a word with magnets… bummer. I think I have plenty of Gs for tomorrow.
It’s interesting to see how many words we can come up with each day. We try to think of words while we are eating or playing with sidewalk chalk. D seems to be on a roll with it but L forgets things amazingly fast. Typical for a 3 year old, I guess.

My sis and husband will be packing a moving truck this weekend and I am planning to go down and help. It will be a nice little break from the mommy thing. I’ll leave the kids here with their dad.

Off to bed-

For those of you who checked in on Baby Jack (from our church) after one of my posts...
I have added the link to their family website in my margin. (Saville family)
Jack has since had complications, more surgeries, good days and scary days. He just returned home after a third and fourth surgery, and things seem to be going well the past few days.
so... catch up on their journal if you have the time.
It's amazing to see how God is working in, and through, this family and this special kid.
Remember them in your prayers as well!
thanks:-)

We went shopping for Kindergarten supplies today. Most things were very minor until I came to the glue stick line on the list. They want 12 Large glue sticks (.77oz). These jokers are $1.42 a pop! That’s just weird. I even called the school to make sure that 12 was the right number.
That’s about $17 worth of glue!! And if there are 20 kids in the class… that’s 240 sticks of glue!! And that total rings in at $340 of glue for a school year.
I still find it rather hard to believe.
The secretary at the school agreed that was a lot to ask for, up front, but she went to check on it. She confirmed that it really said 12 sticks. And she went on to say that they use a lot of glue in kindergarten.
Holy cow! What are they making? It seems as though they could glue the space shuttle together with 240 large glue sticks!!
I’m still pondering about buying those suckers. It just seems too weird.
I saw tons of smaller glue sticks in packages…. 6 for $1, etc. That seems more like it. Perhaps I’ll have to chat with the teacher at orientation…. I may just be a naïve parent but it just doesn’t feel right.
What do you think?

On a positive note:
My big guy picked out an X-man backpack (on sale!) and a camouflage lunch tote (on sale too!). Now he’s all set.

I think that the backpack will be big enough to carry the glue.

I’ve enjoyed being “SINGLE” the last few days!!
T left town on Tuesday for a business trip. We had some friends from L’burg come for a visit on Thursday morning and I sent the kids with them back to my parent’s house. My Mom and Dad agreed to watch the kids while T was gone, since I had to work a few evenings.
So….Thursday night I came home to an empty house! I got to scrapbook until I ran out of tape and then I watched late night talk shows till 2am!
Friday morning I slept until 11am!!! Yay!!
I pulled myself together and made it to a 1:45 showing of the Pirates 2 movie. It was very good. I just love Johnny Depp.
I got home around 5pm and proceeded to cut the grass. I was done with that at 7pm so I showered and put on my pjs. Just in time to eat some pizza in front of the TV!! WOW!!
Ahhh… the freedom!!

My sister reminded me that I have never been “on my own”. I lived with my parents until I got married to T. And we had kids shortly after.
Man…look at what I missed!!
I absolutely LOVED having some time to myself!!!
I don’t know what single people complain about. (unless they get lonely sometime).
The freedom is just amazing. It was just so cool not to worry about other folks and their schedules.
What a refreshing experience!!

My friend Cathy is coming to visit today and I’ll go to work again tonight. T will be home tonight too. The kids return tomorrow and we’ll have to go back to “playing house” again.
But I sure enjoyed my days of singleness!

Little L is somehow learning that being cute often lets one “off the hook”. I’m not sure how this has come about because his lovey-doveyness has always been appreciated but I didn’t think it let him get away with much. He’s a little rascal just like the older one and I try not to let his mushiness change how things go down around the house.

The boys had a rough afternoon with fighting, irritating each other, and me. I was giving a pre-lecture of what was expected as we visited the Taco Bell play place. After I stated my first expectation, L slyly says, “I love you mom”.
As if that were going to stop the lecture and we were all going to have a group hug?!?! Hmmm… what is he expecting here?
I did stop briefly for a giggle (to myself) and returned my love for him but then continued to talk about our evening.

Is it true that the cute kids always get the breaks?
When I taught preschool, those were the kids that annoyed me the most! I had an assistant teacher who drooled all over the cutsie kids and let them get away with murder. It really annoyed me and it encouraged me to give all of my attention to the ones that lacked some of that social pizzazz. I think it’s the cutsie ones that we should be looking out for! They seem to have something else up their sleeves.
Perhaps I am glad to have boys that don’t really fall under the “cutsie” meter. Usually the little girls are guilty of being so cute that they can do no wrong. As for my boys… They’ll have to live in the real world where people have to take responsibility for their actions.
I have no idea where I am going with these thoughts.
Just random wonderment of how this weird world works.

T and I have a bet going on.
We are going to see if he can finish the basement laundry room first, or if I can loose 15 pounds first.
I think it will be a close call.

I’ve put myself on a water diet. I know it sounds completely stupid. But, I haven’t been drinking enough water each day. So on top of my normal orange juice, etc I have been drinking a 2 Qt. pitcher of water every day. So far I’m feeling much better and full during the day. I’m hoping that it will cut back on my portion sizes.

In support of my water diet:
I was recently taught about “soft addictions” while watching 20/20. The doc who was talking gave examples of soft addictions such as biting fingernails, messiness, tardiness, and compulsive shopping. I think that my soft addiction must be food… I love it.
Anywho: To beat a soft addiction they say that you have to ADD another activity while SUBTRACTing amounts of the bad activity. So, in my case, I’m adding the water and subtracting the amount of food. It makes total sense to me. We’ll see if it works.

I’ll keep you posted with both of our challenges…

Imagine walking through the store and hearing:
“Attention Target guests- would everyone who shopped for curtains tonight please come to the front of the store- where I will personally break each and every one of your fingers. Thank you.”
I was REALLY close to making that announcement tonight.
I must have refolded and re-packaged every single curtain in that store tonight!! People can be so dumb!! Ahh!!

Here is a warning for all: DO NOT remove curtains from a package at a store. Or sheets, or blankets, or pillow cases, or shams, or socks, or underwear… you get the picture. It’s completely ignorant.
Thanks for letting me vent.

Night night.

I’m back from the beach and I’m finally getting back on track with emailing, blogging, etc.
It’s been great to read about what some of you have been doing over the past week. I was especially excited to read and find out that the triplets are boys!! That made my week.
The vacation was nice except for the fact that we passed around a stomach bug… starting with me on Sunday morning. I was back in the swing of things by Wednesday but the bug traveled to both of my kids, my niece, my mom and my sister. Being sick was totally not on our agenda for the week. Who would’ve thought!?!?

It was a relaxing week. We hung out around the beach house, played in the sand, “bobbed” on the waves, rode the ferry, visited the aquarium, watched movies and played lots of Scrabble (my favorite!). And we probably did lots of other stuff that I’m just forgetting right now. (I want to keep this brief.)
Overall it was a nice week away.

I was back at work last night after having to leave a 4th of July party, early. T and the kids stayed for fun and fireworks. This was the first 4th of July that I think I’ve ever missed. I heard lots of fireworks while I was working but that certainly doesn’t count. I sure hope that the holiday pay will make it worthwhile…. Haha!!