a whole lot of randomness

1st- break my heart
last night jeff was in the mood for a campfire so we got the fixings for s'mores and headed out to the fire pit. due to poor planning the fire was a little weak, jeff did not take into consideration all the rain that had fallen the day before and had a hard time finding dry sticks or really any sticks that would burn. We got the fire going, enjoyed our s'mores and got ready to call it a night especially since the fire didn't look like it was going to last much longer. When the boys were cleaning up Lance grabbed the metal s'mores fork (the rotating things from restoration hardware) which was still hot and burned his thumb and fore finger. We got an ice pack for his fingers and tried to call him down. Every few minutes or so he would turn to me and lift up his blistered thumb and say "vroom, vroom." I tried explaining I had no idea what he was talking about and tried unsuccessfully a few times to figure out what he was talking about and then convince him to just sit with the ice pack. The third time he asked for "vroom, vroom," I asked him if he wanted a band-aid during out "try and guess what he may want through sounds and gestures", he immediately lit up and said yeah, and that is when it hit me, we have "Cars" band-aids and for the last half an hour he had been asking for one, but I didn't realize that "vroom, vroom," meant a Cars band-aid. Oh, how I wish this child would learn to talk, it would save so much time. We got him a band-aid, got pjs on, and then my heart broke to pieces. Lance is a thumb sucker, but he only sucks his thumb when he has his blanket. After getting him ready for bed he climbed up on the couch to get cozy, Jeff asked Lance if he wanted to his blanket and offered it to him, he shook his head, said no, and lifted up his hurt thumb. He couldn't suck his thumb and thus had no use for his special blanket, it was so sad, he was quite pathetic. Fortunately he was exhausted due to lack of a nap and fell right off to sleep without his blanket which is usually a go-to-sleep requirement. My heart was so heavy knowing that Lance's source of comfort at night was taken from him.

2nd- walmart looks more like harris teeter
I am not a big fan of Walmart, but I do shop there for groceries often due to their low prices. The Walmart that I frequent is currently getting a renovation and some of the areas are already finished, or at least they look very different. I didn't realize today how much appearances really does make a difference. This Walmart's renovation gets rid of the really long, ugly, grey (or is it white) shelves of groceries that are the typical Walmart grocery display and changing them for black shelves of various shapes and sizes. Many of the aisles reminded me more of a Harris Teeter or Fresh Market than Walmart and I have to admit it was a much nicer shopping experience. I would have never thought that my opinion of Walmart would change just based on their grocery shelve appearance, but it really has. Now I hope they will not raise their prices now that the store looks more like a high end grocery store and less like cheap Walmart.

3rd- i had a third, but I totally forgot it

on a rant

Yesterday the cell phone bill arrived and whoever took my phone racked up almost 400 dollars in downloads, they were very busy in a very short amount of time. Four hundred dollars in downloads plus at least a hundred dollar phone is five hundred dollars someone stole and guess what is going to happen?

Nothing!

The phone company fortunately removed the charges and said to contact the police.
The police well they aren't going to do anything because it was probably a juvenile, the juvenile system is so messed up nothing will happen so they won't bother to even investigate situations like this because nothing will show for it and it wastes their time.

And we wonder what is wrong with kids today?

Here's another one.

Someone I know was charged for DUI twice, in two different locations so two different court systems. They basically got off on both. One was dropped for lack of evidence (though they confessed to drinking and smoking an illegal substance) and the second one was considered a first offense since the 1st was dropped. So they are getting off with barely a slap on the hand, what kind of lesson is they learning?

No wonder people steal, drive while under the influence, do whatever they want with no regard for other people, there isn't aren't any consequences.

It is really frustrating, we have had a rough year and have hardly gotten a break, we lacked insurance and our store burns down and we were left with very little, a consequence of bad judgement and timing. But, here are two examples of people being selfish and lacking judgement yet walking away free, sometimes life is just not fair.

Done ranting right now.

it's bad enough you steal my phone

but you answer it when I call? really?
two weeks ago, or was it 3, yikes, it was 3 weeks ago I lost my cell phone, well I thought I lost it.
it was practically dead when I lost it so I couldn't call it to find it.
I have searched all over the house, the store, my car, jeff's car, everywhere and anywhere and didn't couldn't find my phone. I really did think it was somewhere in the house, Lily is the queen of taking something and hiding it, I thought it was show it self any day now. Well I don't know what possessed me to do so but I called my number yesterday and I got someone.
Someone answered my cell phone!!!!!
I was so shocked I hung up.
And immediately they called back, I was even more stunned.
me "hello."
them "who is this?"
me "this is my cell phone, what are you doing with my phone?" i then recited to them my cell phone and told them once again, in case they didn't know that they were answering my phone and they shouldn't have it.
they of course hung up
I was floored, I thought for sure it was somewhere in the house and it would show up any day, one reason I hadn't suspended the service. Well I immediately when to my mom's house and suspended the service. I also found out that whoever has my phone had used 110 minutes and sent and received 30 text messages, so not a lot, I was expecting a whole lot more, if I was evil like that I would rack up the bill. I was tempted to call the number before I suspended the phone and tell them next time they use a cell phone that isn't there's they should keep the numbers in the contact and list and don't answer when someone familiar calls!!! Oh well, I am curious though whether they were surprised or not when the phone was unusable 15 minutes after my phone call. The crazy thing is the phone was practically dead when it was taken/found so they either found a charger from a friend or paid the thirty dollars for one, hope it was the latter.
So now I have given up the hope that I am going to get my phone back, bummer, it was a nice phone, I just got it in July, and now someone will probably just throw it away, since they would not do the decent thing and return it.
Part of me wonders if the kid who has stolen two ipods and two ipod car adaptors and who knows what else out of our car took it. How do I know it is a kid? Well a police officer came by the store this week and returned Jeff's old ipod, the one that was stole in April of 2007. A minor got in trouble for something, the police asked his mom if they could search his room, found all kinds of stuff including Jeff's ipod (it was engraved). According to the police, this kid and maybe some friends go around checking cars on a regular basis and if you forget to lock the car they go through and take anything valuable. This kid grabbed something from someone just a week ago, but he is getting to be quite the professional since he took our stuff in 2007 and didn't get caught until now. We asked the officer if my cell phone was found in his room and unfortunately it wasn't, well now we know why, he didn't have it, but that isn't to say he didn't take it, since he did take my ipod and that wasn't recovered. I don't know why he didn't want to keep something that had "princess" engraved in it?
So now I am out a cell phone and someone has mine, but fortunately no one can use my phone right now.
Just one question: how much stuff am I going to have deal with? life is just too crazy, I am ready for the easy life right about now.

exposed

and the waiting game has begun. . .
Right before dinner last night the phone rang, it was my friend whose child comes to play when she is in town and her son had been over at our house Friday morning. she apologized and said that her son had exposed my children to chicken pox. At first I wasn't concerned at all, I get my kids vaccinated so they should be fine, and back in the day we all got it. But then she explained that she too vaccinates, but the vaccine isn't 100% effective especially for children who haven't gotten the booster shot at age 5, and you can still get the chicken pox even with the vaccine, usually a milder form. She went onto explain that most children get vaccinated around a year or 15 months, so Lily might not have gotten her vaccination, the news kept getting better and better- note heavy sarcasm! She finished off the "good news" with the best of them all, children are contagious 3 days before they show symptoms and until the last sore scabs over which could be 2-4 weeks!! 2-4 weeks, I don't want to be stuck inside and away from people for 2-4 weeks!!!!! First thing this morning I called the doctor to see if my kids, Lily especially had been vaccinated since I am a slacker mom and don't have my vaccination card up-to-date, if I even know where it is. So I sit and wait, waiting for the doctor to call me back and waiting to see if this weekend will bring the chicken pox to our home, I sure hope not, but if so, at least my kids will have had it and we won't have to worry about getting it again, at least if it still works that way these days.

fall is in the air

Summer seemed to have disappeared and fall has arrived.
I use to hate fall, but I am starting to really enjoy it, in fact I am excited this year. I can't wait to go to the apple orchard, carve pumpkins, make soup, enjoy being outside without soaking in sweat, and being outside without getting eaten alive by mosquitoes (they have been horrible this summer). I am also excited about fall clothes and getting my warm clothes out of hiding and seeing what I have to wear, especially since a lot of things I couldn't wear last year since I just had a baby and didn't fit into anything. I am not look forward to it getting dark earlier and getting cold. I am really ready for a change, probably since this summer has been really rough with the fire destroying the store as well as our finances, I hope that we will be able to recover and be better than before. Ready for change, bring on fall!

political polarization

All over the tv, internet and facebook people are going crazy about President Obama's address to school children. Parents are having a fit and don't want their children to have to watch. They seem to be under the impression that Obama has an hidden agenda to brainwash their children and incorporate healthcare and politics into a speech about setting goals and staying school. Is a Republican rebuttal really necessary to a motivational speech? Come on, give me a break. People seem to think Obama has a hidden agenda because it has never been done before, yet is has, I had to listen to Bush (the first one) tell us to say no to drugs in middle school, no brainwashing or life changes (then again he was republican and not into socialist brainwashing). Stop and think a second, are your children really that gullible and impressionable that they will listen and believe everything that the President says on tv, heck, will they even pay attention long enough to become socialists themselves? Does Obama really have that much power???? I know some think he is the anti-Christ, but is he more influential then GOD??? One comment I read, said it wasn't the President, it is actually the teachers who will be pushing the liberal, socialist agenda and the President is just opening the door for that conversation to begin. Really?? the teachers??? they also noted it was the teachers with their union agenda???? (note this was written by someone from the great state of VA which is a right-to-work state that doesn't have unions so their whole argument didn't make a lick of sense). Does anyone see how ridiculous this whole situation is becoming??? Though my children aren't in school yet, I am not concerned about the influence the President or teachers have over my children, I am concerned with their friends, they will have a lot of influence and that has been supported through research.

For me, the issue is respect. I am completely surprised how people have TOTALLY lost respect for other people, especially authority figures! Despite where you fall in the political spectrum, the President of our United States deserves to be shown some respect just like other national and religious leaders do, regardless of their beliefs. What lesson are we teaching our children when we make such a big deal out of a motivational speech and don't give the President the respect he should be shown by listening to him? Why does it seem people only get respect if their beliefs are the same? The President has a right to speak to children in the public school system because he has been elected to the be the highest administrator of the public school system, don't like it, go private.

Bottom line- I am absolutely floored by how ridiculous this whole situation has become and afraid for what the future holds for this country when a permission form is to listen to one television address.

when am i going to have time to breathe?

I was just thinking about my graduate class that starts today, eek, and how I am going to have time to study and it hit me, when am I going to have time to do anything?
Let's see:
Monday- small group Bible study in the morning
Tuesday- Lance school in the morning
Wednesday- speech or Carson (he comes over to play every other week) in the morning and my class in the evening
Thursday- school and speech in the morning and walking with a friend after nap
Friday- every other week Carson in the morning
and I feel like I am forgetting something. . .
speech twice
school twice
graduate class and small group once,
i still feel like i am forgetting something


that is something almost every day (there are some off weeks)