Our Weekend Trip - Part I

If you'll remember, I wrote last Thursday night about the trip we had planned for the weekend. You may have wondered why I didn't come back and write about how it went. I have really struggled about whether to write about it at all. But there are certain things that I really want to share that I can't unless I share the whole story.

Before I go any further, let me say right up front that everybody is fine.

Now that I said that, I'm going to start off by saying that the hubby had an accident Saturday afternoon. He's ok, had no serious injuries, but he scared the living daylight out of me...well, all of us. But let me go back to the beginning.

This entry is going to be long, so bear with me.

We had a great ride Friday night. We rode from Hope Mills to the hotel my mom's boyfriend had reserved at King's Mountain. We did have a little mishap on the way there. We came to a traffic light that had turned red in Charlotte. I put my bike in first gear when we stopped. I always make sure before the light turns green that I'm in first. When I put my foot up to tap the shift lever, there was nothing there. I put my foot up again, just in case I had missed it for some reason. Then I actually looked down. The peg had broken off from my shift lever. The hubby was beside me, so I let him know what was going on, and let him know that there was no way I could shift gears the way it was. He pulled up and let my mom's boyfriend know that we were going to have to pull over. So we found a spot where a man was guarding a private parking lot to keep people from parking there when going to the clubs. He did let us pull in there since we told them it would hopefully only take a few minutes. He was such a nice guy! He had a bag of nuts and bolts in his car that he went to get to bring us. The guys were able to use a nut and bolt, as well as a couple of washers, to make me a shift lever to get us to the hotel, and then to the Harley shop the next morning. Worked like a charm. I got so tickled at the guy when he brought us the nuts and bolts, though. He said, "Hey, I watch Orange County Choppers!" American Chopper is one of our favorite shows. I just thought it was so cute that he mentioned that as he was helping us with a temporary fix on my bike! Looking back, I wonder if that was a sign of things to come - mishaps and the wonderful people we'd meet along the way.

So we spent the night in King's Mountain, and got up and had an early breakfast Saturday morning. After breakfast, we checked out and got on our way. We stopped in Swananoa at the Harley shop to get an actual shifter peg for my bike. The makeshift peg the guys had fixed for me was working just fine, but I was definitely having to be careful. If I was too rough on it I could break the bolt or at least bend it. My mom's boyfriend was more worried about it tearing up my boot. He's so funny sometimes! But we found a new peg for less than $10, and the guys put it on before we left the shop. It bugged me a little because it didn't quite match the rest of my pegs (yeah, I'm a bit OCD that way), but I soon got over it and didn't even think about it very long after we left the shop.

After we left Swananoa, we rode on to Maggie Valley. Such a cute little town. We stopped there to fill the bikes up with gas since we planned to ride up to Maryville, Tennessee, and then ride the Tail of the Dragon back down on our way back to Maggie Valley since that was where we were spending the night. Although it was well before check-in time, we thought we'd stop at the hotel anyway, just in case our room was ready for an early check-in. That way we figured we could drop off anything we didn't need at the hotel before we took off for a ride. It just so happened that our room WAS ready, so they went ahead and let us check in early. So we unloaded the bikes and took everything we didn't really need in to the room. It was a beautifully warm day, so I decided to leave my leather jacket at the hotel, although I left my chaps on. The hubby decided to keep his jacket on, because it's well vented. So after we dropped the stuff off, we took off up the moutain toward Maryville, TN.

We stopped at a lookout point between Maggie Valley and Cherokee to take some pictures. It was a beautiful lookout point, and was labeled as the area's most photographed area. I got some good photos that I'll share later on in a different entry after I finish my story.

Then we rode through Cherokee, and stopped there for some lunch. That was my first time in Cherokee, and my first time on a Reservation. I'm not sure what I expected, but I guess I expected Cherokee to be different than it was. I wasn't disappointed by any means, but it was just different. I guess it kind of reminded me of a military base/post - pretty much looked the same as the surrounding area but with additional signs and other reminders that we were on a Reservation. We're going to have to go back some time so I can go to the Casino there.

After lunch, we left Cherokee on our way to Maryville. We rode the Blue Ridge Parkway. What a beautiful ride! We stopped at a point at the NC/TN border and took some photos. I haven't even looked at them yet, but I think I got some pretty good ones. I'll share them along with the others.

After we left the lookout, we continued along the Parkway toward Maryville. We were riding along a typical mountain road, taking our time around the curves. We were averaging between 35-45 mph, depending on what the speed limit was along the Parkway. My mom's boyfriend was leading (with my mom riding on the back with him), I was in the middle, and P was riding behind me. As we came around one of the curves, it got a bit sharper in the middle of it, and it startled me, although I maintained control all the way through. As I came through, though, I checked my mirrors, and I never saw the hubby come through the curve behind me. I got as close to my mom's boyfriend as I could, laying on my horn. He pulled over, and I told him that P hadn't come through the curve, and I didn't know what happened. My mom got off his bike, and he told me to stay where we were and he went back to check. Mom told me to shut my bike down and get off (she probably reminded me to put my kickstand down too) and we waited.

I guess about 5 minutes later (if that) a minivan came by and told us that we were requested back at the scene. "I think he's going to be ok," they said. So my mom and I walked back the way we had come. I was really panicky, and my mom kept telling me to breathe. We got to the curve, and sure enough, P had run off the road on his bike. When we got there, he was sitting up and had ice to his neck and face. This story's already pretty long, but I am going to make it shorter than it could be if I described everything. Some folks went up the road where they could get a signal and called for help. The Smoky Mountain Park Rangers came to the scene and began administering First Aid. There were also a couple of Paramedics that came to the scene to help out until the ambulance arrived.

Once the ambulance arrived, it had been about a half-hour or more since the time the accident happened. Due to that, and the fact that P had lost consciousness for a few minutes, their policy was that he had to be air-lifted to the closest trauma center because of the possibility of a head injury. I asked if I could ride with him and was told that I wouldn't be able to ride in the helicopter. I had another panicky moment there, and had words with one of the paramedics who was less than sympathetic to my feelings. I understand that his first priority was my hubby, but if he's going to continue a career in emergency medicine, he's going to have to learn to be more sympathetic to the next of kin. He was just a complete ass (and my husband pretty much told him so, not in so many words). I honestly think he was new, because the older gentleman was much more understanding and told me he'd ask about getting me on the helicopter. I also heard him explaining to the younger guy, the one who had been an ass, that although it wasn't common, they had been known to allow immediate family to ride on the helicopter if there was room. He asked, and I was able to ride with the hubby on the helo to the hospital in Knoxville.

After X-rays, a CT scan, and being checked by the doctor, the hubby was released from the hospital. He had no serious injuries at all. He did have a fractured occipital bone below his left eye, and has the black eye to prove it. That was caused by his goggles, from whatever they hit when he fell. He also had a laceration above his lip that had to be sutured. It wasn't very deep, but was fairly wide, and I told him they may decide to suture it, and they did. He also had a few abrasions on his face that have already healed. He has an abrasion on one ankle, from where something punctured his boot and cut his ankle. It's also sprained and bruised down close to his foot. So that's pretty sore. He had his sutures taken out on Thursday, and everything is looking great.

So - what saved him...

He was wearing a helmet. Thank goodness for that. And his helmet actually seems to have sustained very little damage, although it will be replaced for safety's sake. Remember I mentioned above that he chose to wear his jacket although it was very warm? Thank goodness for that, too. His jacket has armor, and definitely protected him. He had absolutely no injuries to any part of his torso, most likely because of that jacket. The doctor asked him numerous times about pain in his stomach, concerned about the potential for injury to his spleen or other internal organs. We truly believe his armored jacket protected him from any of that. He thanked me profusely for getting him that jacket for Christmas. Also, he was wearing chaps. Yes, he had an injury to one ankle. But if he hadn't been wearing his leather chaps, the injuries to his lower body could have been way worse.

We've always believed in safety gear. Even more so now.

There's more to the story, and I'll write more tomorrow. I'll be writing about the wonderful people we met because of this incident.

More Painting

We finished painting A's room this evening. The name of the color now on her walls is Ballerina Pink. I know that those of you who know her are shocked and amazed that this girl chose PINK for her room! ;-)

Just as I was with the boy's room, I'm really happy with the way her room looks. The pink she chose is a really nice color. She gets to have a pink room without having a "Pepto-Bismol" color room. It's a nice, soft, soothing color, and I think she's going to be happy with it for quite a while. When she told us she wanted a pink room, I was a bit concerned about the color she would choose, although I was determined to let her choose whatever shade she wanted. She was so cute tonight after we finished and as I was taking the tape off the baseboards and stuff. She said, "Mommy, my room makes me feel like I'm in dance class! I love it!"

The border she chose for her room has just enough of the brighter pink and other colors to add a bit more "pop" to her room. The pink on the top and bottom edges is just a bit darker than the color she chose for her walls.
Again, I'm so glad we let them choose their own wall color and help paint. I think it has really made them feel like they're an important part of the whole process. And that's important for kids, especially as they get to the age my kids are and older. I have pictures of each of their rooms as they look now. I'll take more pictures once we get their borders up and I'll share them all then. If I'd known buying a house was going to be so much fun, we'd have done it a long time ago!

Slept In

All that painting yesterday must have really worn the kiddos out. Since it was Friday, and since we finished up and ate dinner so late, it was after 10 before they went to bed. That doesn't usually matter, though. They're usually still up with the sun and the birds. This morning was different, though. The hubby had to go in to work this morning, and he had to be out at Spring Lake by 8:00. They're having a Future Soldier event today, which means that the future soldiers (I think they're those who have done the paperwork but not shipped out yet) get to go and get a taste of what it's like to be a soldier. There are different things they do, and I think they're doing a range and maybe the obstacle course or something today. They did an event with the Golden Knights a few months ago, and I think that one was my hubby's favorite.

There I go getting off on a tangent again. Anyway, it was probably about 7:30 when he left the house this morning. The kids were still in bed. Here lately they've been up before 7:00. I'm not exactly sure what time they got up, because when they did they went into the bonus room and started watching a DVD. This is the first weekend in a LONG time that they didn't come in to wake me up, bugging me about breakfast. The boy thinks he has to eat as soon as his feet hit the floor in the morning - he's been like that since he was a baby. That's definitely a trait he gets from his daddy's side of the family - my family moves much slower in the morning. But even though they were just down the hall this morning, they were quiet enough that I barely heard them. So I was able to crawl out of bed when I was good and ready this morning. And I even had time to get some coffee made and have a little quiet time before they came downstairs to eat. So I was much less snippy with them since they let me allow the fog to clear before bombarding me this morning. Hopefully this will be a new pattern of behavior.

Hey, I can dream, right?

Paint Party

We had a little paint party at the new house today. OK, so it was just the four of us, but it was a party nonetheless. We went over some time between 10 and 11, and finally came home (yeah, the rental is still 'home' since we're still technically living here) around 8 this evening. We did take a break to go get some lunch and run over to Wal-Mart to get a few things (we needed an extra gallon of each of the kids' paints, and we got A's borders for her walls). But other than that, we painted all day.

Although I got an "are you crazy" look from the hubby when I first mentioned it, I told the kids they could help paint their own rooms. Everybody we mentioned it to afterward said we were brave. We planned on putting plastic down anyway - after all, it's a brand new house and we definitely didn't want to get paint on the brand new carpet. So how much harm could they really do?

They did such a great job! For this being their very first time ever painting, they did wonderfully! And they had a BLAST! We taped the plastic to the baseboards to keep it from moving around, and of course we taped along the edges of where we were painting to keep from getting the paint on the baseboards and window and door frames that we wanted to remain white. We had a few little mishaps where one of the kids would get a little carried away with a roller or a brush and get paint beyond the tape, but I told them to be sure to let me know right away so we could wipe it off with the rags we had brought with us. Heck, I did that myself a couple of times, so I didn't really fuss. Well, I did when the boy painted completely over an outlet plug and I had to clean it off. Why did I fuss that time? Because he simply wasn't paying attention. If he had been he wouldn't have painted the entire plug. J's room is now Canary Yellow. I was surprised he chose such a bright yellow, and I was a bit concerned, but I just LOVE it. And he is so proud! We got his room completely painted, so all we have left to do is put all the switch and outlet plates back and put his borders up once they get here. I ordered them last night and I had an email waiting in my inbox when we got home tonight letting me know they had shipped. Cool! But I walk in his room and I just smile. It's such a HAPPY color, and it suits him perfectly! I forgot to take my good camera to the house with me today - I had my sister's baby and I did well to remember to grab everything I did remember. But I did have my cell phone so I managed to get some pretty good pictures of them painting. They're a bit blurry, but not too bad.

Like I said, we managed to get all the paint on the walls in the boy's room. And we got a good start on the girl's. But when we realized how late it was, we wrapped things up and cleaned all the pans, rollers, and brushes, and came on home. We still had to have dinner and the hubby has to get up and go in to work in the morning. She was a bit disappointed that we couldn't finish her room tonight (even started to get a little teary-eyed), but I promised her that we'd get it finished tomorrow. That made her feel better.


The border that J had originally picked out for his room isn't what we're going to use. I pulled it back up last night, and that border was $29.99 for a 10 foot roll. Ummm, all the ones I've seen are 15 feet. I love my boy, but that's freakin' ridiculous! So I started browsing, seeing if I could find one like it or at least similar for less. I found something better. He was ECSTATIC when I called him downstairs last night to show him what I'd found. It was an American Chopper border. We're all fans of that show, and he immediately said, "Mom, I want THAT one instead of the Nascar. That will be PERFECT for me!" Awesome. And that was a 15 foot roll for $13.99. I can live with that. But since his furniture is all Nascar themed, the hubby wanted me to try to find some kind of Nascar border that we could put on one of his walls. So I found one that is a race at Daytona for the same price. Yep...came out much better than I would have if I had gotten what he originally wanted. The Princess is still getting her Disney Princesses border. Wal-Mart had it, so I picked them up there today for cheaper than I could have ordered them.

I'm so glad we decided to let them pick out their wall colors and help paint their own rooms. We have all had so much fun. I told the hubby this afternoon that it was just so cool to finally be ABLE to do it, without having to worry about painting it back in a couple of years before moving out.

It's OURS.

I keep reminding myself of that.

It's OURS!

It doesn't quite seem real yet.

Goofy Kids

My son came downstairs a little while ago.

"Mommy, I wrecked a BUS!"

Monday they went to school with my Mother-in-law. She's the librarian at her school, and they were having a book fair. She spoiled them with all kinds of books and other goodies. My kids LOVE books. And if she's gonna spoil them, books are a good way to do it. She could buy them books and educational games all day long and I won't fuss. Toys, they don't need. We need to thin out the book collection and get rid of the ones they've long outgrown, but you won't hear me fussing about the kids getting books. I love that they love books, and I don't ever want to discourage that.

Anyway, the boy also got a computer game. Hot Pursuit 2 is the name of it. He's been pestering me to play it since Monday evening when they got home. I finally told them last night that if they behaved at dinner (the hubby took me out to Carrabba's for some great Italian food and good wine), I'd let them play their game. They were so good at dinner, so I went upstairs when we got home after dinner. It took me like 30 minutes to get that game installed and started up on that slow-ass computer. I remember now why I upgraded to my new laptop. That one's an old Dell laptop that we've converted into the kids' computer. So he was playing his game tonight and I guess as he was racing along, he ran a bus off the road. It just cracked me up how excited he was about it. He is so funny. Then he was telling me that because of the bus, the cops busted him. Where does he hear these things?

SOLD!!

Well, it's official...we're new homeowners!

How exciting! I wanna move in NOW!

I still can't believe it's really ours. We met at the attorney's office this morning at 9:30. It took us about an hour to go through and review and sign all the paperwork. And that was it. After that we went over to Home Depot to find a mailbox and to look at some lighting for the outside. We want to put a flag pole up in the front yard, and we want solar spotlights on it because I'm terrible about forgetting to turn the outside lights on in the evening and off in the morning. Home Depot actually has a set of three lights that will be perfect for around $30. We also found nice solar walkway lights and lamps to put up by the driveway. Those aren't things we'll buy right away, but eventually we will. We did find a mailbox we liked and the plate for the address.

After we left Home Depot, we went to Walmart to get the paint for the kids' rooms as we have been promising them. We grabbed the little sample cards with the colors they chose and took them to the counter to ask for the paint in those colors. The kids got to watch him mix their paint, so they thought that was pretty cool. Then we had an errand to run for the hubby's dad after lunch, and we finally went over to the new house this afternoon. It was the first time we'd been over there since we had the walk-through Monday morning, so our refrigerator had been delivered, and we could tell some of the errors that had been corrected by the builder's folks as well. We took all the packing materials out of the refrigerator and got it all set up, and we dumped the first binful of ice it had made at the builder's suggestion. Now we just need to run a couple of gallons of water through the dispenser and it should be good to go.

When we got the kids' paint, we didn't get the rollers or pans or brushes, because my mom had a bunch of that stuff over at her house. We didn't see any point in buying it when she had all that left over from when the inside of her house had been painted. So we went over there to get that stuff this evening. I also got her old sewing machine. Her machine doesn't work, but it was the table that I was most interested in. It's the kind that the machine folds down into for storage when it's not being used. I figure I can take her old machine out of there and replace it with mine. That way I'll have a place to sew - maybe I'll be more motivated to do so if I don't have to take the machine and everything out every time I want to do something. But I digress. I figure we'll probably get the kids' rooms painted tomorrow and we'll start getting stuff moved over. The phone and internet were connected today. When we got to the house this afternoon, there was already a mailbox up, although I think we're still going to use the one we bought because the one up there is pretty flimsy. I had a notice in the mailbox from Embarq saying they had been over there and we had service. Cool!

So we own our very own home for the very first time. It feels great. I know it will feel even better once we're living there.

Almost Finished!

I talked to our mortgage specialist this afternoon. She called to give me the final, official amount that we needed to bring to closing tomorrow morning. It was almost 3:30 when she called me this afternoon, because she was waiting to hear from the attorneys, so I was getting pretty nervous. After all, I needed to go to the bank and get the cashiers check this afternoon. Our appointment is at 9:30 tomorrow morning, and I didn't want to have to deal with morning traffic in Fayetteville to try to get to the bank and then wherever we're supposed to meet on time.

The good news (GREAT news) is that our actual closing costs are well under what I was preparing myself to pay based on our Good Faith Estimate that we got from Wells Fargo when we first applied for the mortgage. I'm talking like $500 less. I've been setting the money aside for the past month in our account at the local credit union since we don't spend money out of that account very often. I knew if I left it in my checking or savings account at my normal bank I'd spend it. I was really excited when the mortgage specialist gave me the total amount. So I guess all that's left to do now is sign all the paperwork tomorrow morning!

Walk Through

We had the walk-through on the new house this morning. It went very well. I sent P's list of things last Friday so they could get started on it before we had the walk-through. The man who oversees the construction in the area where we're buying the house didn't get the list until Friday afternoon, though, so he wasn't able to get started on it as early as he would have liked. They had already fixed a couple of the things we had on the list, though, so that was good. He was so nice, and I have no doubt that he'll do his best to make sure everything is taken care of. Our refrigerator should have been delivered today as well, but they didn't bring it while we were over there. I should hear from our Mortgage Specialist within the next day or two with the final figure we need to be prepared to pay at closing. I'm really excited, though. I can't believe we're so close!

Weekend Trip

I'm supposed to be writing a paper right now that I've been putting off and putting off. But I need a quick break and thought I'd write over here for a few minutes to get this off my mind so I can focus on my paper again.

I don't know if I'll have a chance to come and blog before we leave for the weekend. My mom and her boyfriend decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather we're supposed to have this weekend and ride to the mountains. They called yesterday and invited the hubby and me to join them. Heck yeah! So we're going to leave tomorrow evening after my mom and my hubby get off work and head to the mountains. An entire weekend of riding! I can't even begin to describe how very excited I am! I would love to take the kids along, but am still not quite comfortable with the thought of riding long distances with them yet. So they're going to spend the weekend with the in-laws. I guess I'm going to get a chance to ride the Tail of the Dragon for the first time. I've read about it and my mom and her boyfriend have told us about it, so I'm excited and a bit nervous. It should be fun, though. Lots of curves and twisties...I LOVE curves! I need to charge my camera battery so we can take lots of pictures!

Back to the Weight Loss

With all the stress of my job and the decision to quit over the last couple of months, my weight loss efforts sort of fell by the wayside. It just became too much to focus on all at once.

Now that things are finally settling down some and I'm getting into a routine here at home, I've started the journey back up. I haven't actively been counting points, but I've been conscious of what I eat and how much. Today I opened the Weight Watchers website back up again and started tracking my points. So I guess I'm officially getting back on track. I've also decided to try to make it a little less overwhelming for myself. Yes, I have an overall weight loss goal, but I've also decided to set mini-goals for myself to make it a bit more manageable. Maybe as I succeed at the mini-goals, I'll keep up my motivation to keep going to the end.

I don't think I've mentioned this on here yet, but we have plans to go to the Outer Banks for the North Carolina HOG Rally the last weekend of April. I completed the registration and got our hotel reservations made before Christmas. It was part of the hubby's and my Christmas present to each other. So the registration is paid, the hotel is already paid for, and one meal is paid for. But I'm really excited about it. The point of all this is I plan to reach my first mini-goal in time for the rally. I want to have lost 10 pounds by then. Considering the weight I've gained back since falling off the wagon and the little bit I've lost again, I think this mini-goal is more than attainable. I might even surpass it, which would be AWESOME! I'm also trying to stay away from the scale except for once a week. That has been a huge source of stress for me, because I was stepping on it almost every day. Even though I KNOW that my weight will naturally fluctuate day to day, it still didn't make me feel any better if I weighed more on Wednesday than I had on Tuesday. It's been a mental and emotional battle for me, but I know I can do it.

The hubby told me the other night he expected to see me in a bikini this summer. Yeah, right! I don't know that I'll ever wear one of those again!

Inspection

Today our property manager came and inspected the home we're renting. They only do this process twice a year, and we've been in the house just under a year, so this was only the second time I've gone through it. But it stresses me out! She comes in with her digital camera and takes pictures of each room. She takes pictures of the room from every angle, I guess to show what all we have on the walls and such so they know how many holes we've put in the walls. It's not like we won't be filling them in. She also looks for marks and damage on the walls and floors and takes photos of every little thing she sees. We've always rented houses or lived in Government quarters since we got married, but I can honestly say this is the first time we've had to have inspections like this. Well, this is also the first time we've rented through a property manager, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Don't get me wrong; I think it's a good idea, and when we have to move again and consider renting our house out, I will probably want a property manager that has a similar inspection policy. I know that although we treat every home we live in as if it's our own, a lot of people don't take care of homes they rent. At least with these periodic inspections, there is much less of a chance of there being major damage to a home when the tenant moves out. I completely understand why a landlord would want a property manager to do this. It's just a pain in the rear for me because I stress that they're looking at the cleanliness of my house too. My house isn't DIRTY, it's just messy more often than not. After all, I have two kids, and up until just under a month ago, I was also working more than full time hours. So I'm just finally getting caught up on all the housework I had been neglecting. Oh well, since I'm always trying to look at the positive side of things, the timing at least makes sense. I'm spring cleaning at the same time we're preparing for a move. And now I pretty much have the house cleaning up to the point where now all I have to do is get on a maintenance schedule that I can carry over to the new house.

New House Update

So I hit my first snafu today. No big deal, really, just an inconvenience.

Right now we have our phone, internet, and cable all through Time Warner. We pay less for all of it that way than some of my phone bills were before we went to Germany. A couple of weeks ago I called TWC to schedule transfer of the services. Since it was a new construction, they were going to have to send someone out to make sure service was available. This was going to take three to five business days, but she gave me a reference number to call back in case I didn't hear from them. Today I realized I hadn't heard from them yet, so I called them back. Come to find out, cable construction hasn't been completed in the new section of the subdivision, so we're not going to be able to keep our service with them after all. Bummer! So then I was on a mission to find a suitable alternative. One of the best things about TWC besides the savings was the fact that I paid everything on one bill.

As I was searching, I found out that Embarq also offers bundled services. They also have unlimited long distance available (another thing I liked about TWC). So it looks like I'll still really be able to save money on my phone bill after all. They also have a partnership with Dish Network, so I'll still be able to have all three services included on one bill. Yay! And the best thing is that it might end up being a bit cheaper than TWC. We'll see. I was on the phone with the girl for almost an hour today getting it all set up. It wouldn't have taken so long, but the new address wasn't registered in the system yet. It wasn't in the 911 system, either, but it is now.

I met with a guy today about beginning monitoring on the alarm system that's already in the house. I had to call him back to let him know about the phone issue, because since we're not going with the same provider we won't get to keep the same phone number. Well, we could have, but it was apparently going to be a month-long process. I'd rather just change my phone number than deal with waiting a month for my service.

Well, although it may have been an inconvenience to begin with, it looks like I may come out better with changing service providers after all. We shall see!

Oh! On a positive note, I got a call from our agent while I was on hold with Embarq. That was quite a sight...a phone up to each ear. Especially considering the fact that I'm not a big phone talker. Anyway, we have an appointment time for our closing locked in now. She said she'd call me back with the address once she had it. I can't believe it's coming up so quickly!

Oh My!

I've been meaning to create a ticker to count down our days till we close on our house. I finally got around to doing it today. Only 11 days already? I can't believe we're that close.

I get more excited every time we go over there. My mother-in-law called us today and asked if we wanted to go to lunch with them...they were coming to Fayetteville. Since they were down here in our neck of the woods, I called our agent and asked if she would be able to meet us over there so we could show the MIL the house. Today was the first time that I've been over there and haven't found anything new that I hadn't noticed before. I got all excited when we went over Wednesday with my father-in-law because we could tell they had tested the jets in the tub in the master bathroom. There was still water in the bottom of the tub, and the side panel had been placed. They had also installed the shower door on the separate shower in there. There are now just a few details that have to be completed, like the mirrors in the bathrooms. We have our walk-through with the builder on the 26th. The hubby has been making a list of things we've noticed when we've gone over there so he can address them with the builder during our walk-through. There's nothing major, but definitely things that need to be taken care of.

I just can't believe how time has gotten away from me. The next 10 days are going to be busy, too. The kids are out of school for three weeks, and our property manager is coming to do an inspection on our rental on Wednesday. So I'm trying to get most of my spring cleaning done before then. Not to mention the fun I get to have with my niece on Thursdays and Fridays!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yeah, I know...the day's almost over. Better late than never, though, right?

We've had a pretty quiet day around here. Definitely nothing like last year. I told the kids to remember what day it was, and they made sure to put on something green. I was wearing one of my 1ID T-shirts for a while today when I first got up, which fortunately has green in it. The hubby had not a stitch of green on for a while, though, until we got ready to go out for a while. So the boy gave him a pinch, and so did I.

We went and had some lunch in Fayetteville today, and then rode over to the Harley shop and another motorcycle place called Steel Dreams to look around a bit. We came home and the kids played outside for a while and I rested on the couch for a bit. The hubby cooked dinner tonight, which was nice.

I've been sitting here reminiscing about last year. The hubby and I joined our best friends at Yesterday's in Vilseck (the club on post there) for the St. Patrick's Day Beer Crawl that the Community Club sponsored. We had a great time. Good music, plenty of green beer, and great friends. I won a bar light in the raffle, which unfortunately got busted in the move. I was pretty disappointed about that. But it's times like this, thinking about the good times we had, that I miss my friends the most. I can't believe that was a year ago...sometimes it seems like just yesterday.

I hope you all had a great St. Patty's Day, however you chose to spend it.

Bingo Night

The kids' school has started having a Family Fun Bingo Night sponsored by the PTA. Last night was the second one. I think they were originally going to try to do it every month, but it ended up being so much work and so time-consuming so they decided every two months would be the most often they'd be able to do it. We missed the first one because the kids were in trouble and didn't fulfill their responsibilities here at home. They really wanted to go this time, and their rooms were clean (mostly), so off to Bingo Night we went after dropping my niece off with my sister and grabbing some McDonald's for dinner.

The President of the PTA was the one running the function and calling the Bingo numbers. Let me say that I totally respect her for all the hours I'm sure she puts in to get things done. But by the time we left (about 45 minutes before it was officially over), she was just about to get on my nerves. The combination of the pitch of her voice and the volume of the PA system in that room was not friendly to my ears. She was really easily distracted too. Every time someone would walk across the room (which is called the Multipurpose Room - it serves as the cafeteria and auditorium) from the kitchen to the hallway, she'd have to talk to them and thank them. I firmly believe in giving folks the recognition they deserve, but it would have made more sense (at least to me) to call them out and thank them all at once between games or something. Then she'd carry on sidebar conversations with the people at the front table. Oh well, there's my gripe about the whole thing. Got that over with.

Each of the kids won a prize. I won a game of Bingo and sent J to choose the prize. Then a little while later, A won a game. So she got to go pick a prize. J got a 100-piece Shrek puzzle. A got a cute ponytail holder with a heart charm hanging from it, and it also came with a lipgloss in a strawberry-shaped container that is on a keychain. She immediately attached it to her beltloop on her pants and said, "Look, it's on a keychain so I can keep it with me all the time!" Lovely!

They also had Fayetteville Fireantz hockey tickets for sale for $5 each. The kids said something to me about it when they reminded me about Bingo Night yesterday when they got home from school. They've been really interested in going to a hockey game, and we've been wanting to take them to one. So of course I got four tickets at that price last night. So we'll be going to a hockey game next Sunday.

We let the kids stay up a little later than usual last night since it was Friday. Oh - did I mention that yesterday was their last day of school for the third grading period? They're now out until April 10th. Yep, they're in year-round school, and I love it. I really like being able to spread our vacation out over the year instead of having to take it all over the summer when everybody else is taking their vacation. I also think it's better for the kids. They have more frequent breaks, which keeps them from getting burned out. Also, their summer break is only six weeks long, instead of three months, so they don't have to spend as much time at the beginning of the school year playing "catch up" and reviewing material from the year before. But I digress. In spite of going to bed a little later than usual, they were still up at 6 a.m. this morning. Ugh! So of course they were cranky and J was doing everything in his power to make his sister whine, and was being very successful at it. So after a late breakfast of yummy muffins, they're lying down for a nap. I'm not gonna put up with an entire day of fussing and whining simply because they're sleep deprived when that problem can be solved with a nap. And maybe my sanity will be preserved.

I was hoping for continued nice weather this weekend so we could ride some more. But it's supposed to be pretty chilly, and while I don't mind riding when it's in the low 50s, when it's windy like it is today, that's a little bit too cool to ride with the kids. Maybe tomorrow...it's supposed to be a bit warmer. Oh well, I guess I won't have an excuse not to continue with my spring cleaning today.

Baby

I have a baby in the house again two days a week.

Since I stopped working, my sister asked me if I would be willing to keep her baby girl part time. Of course I agreed. I'm grateful for the chance to spend time with her while I'm here. Her mother-in-law keeps her Mondays, Tuesdays, and half a day on Wednesdays (my sister gets off early on Wednesdays). Then I have her on Thursdays and Fridays. I love it! The first couple of days were kind of challenging. It's an adjustment to get used to having a baby around when you're used to having "big kids." But this is my second week, and the baby and I are starting to settle into a comfortable routine. She is an incredibly easy-going, sweet baby. I almost think she enjoys me almost as much as I enjoy her, judging from the grin I got from her when I went to pick her up this morning.

I can't express enough how much I LOVE the opportunity to spend this time with her. I feel more fortunate than I could ever tell you, especially considering the fact that this is the first time the hubby and I have been able to come home to live in the entire twelve years we've been married. So, yep, I'm gonna take advantage of it. And I just love that my sister asked me to. The only bad thing will be the withdrawals I'll have when we leave.

For those of you who are wondering if this makes me want another of my own (because I'm sure someone would think of asking me that question)...nope. I'm very content with my little family, and I honestly believe we made the right choice to stop after two. But I sure enjoy having babies around when I get to play with them and spoil them (and then give them back to Mommy)!

TV Censorship

The hubby and I were sitting here the other night pondering the logic (or lack thereof) of television censorship regarding profanity. Why is it that certain words are allowed but others aren't? And what's the logic behind the words that are allowed versus the ones that aren't? Why are people allowed to say 'G-D' on TV (which in my opinion is THE worst one) but can't say 'shit'? One day I was watching a movie that had been edited for TV and a guy was calling someone an asshole. They bleeped out the 'hole' part of the word. Why?

I know this is a weird thing to blog about, but it's just something I've been curious about for a while. After all, this blog does consist of my random ramblings. ;-)

My Stinkers...

Something I forgot to mention...

While we were at my mom's house yesterday, the kids were playing "Home Depot." J has a little workbench that has been at my mom's for quite some time because we weren't able to take it back to Germany with us on the plane. They were in there banging around on it, and A tells me that they're having a big weekend sale. Then she says "You can do it; we can help." I lost it! I was laughing when I went back out to the room where we were working and the hubby asked if he even wanted to know what she had said. I told him, and he chuckled about it too.

Yep, my kids are commercial junkies. After all, they were deprived of real commercials for five years!

Beautiful Sunday

I was going to write this entry last night, but got tied up doing school work. Then by the time I was finished with that, I wanted nothing more to do with the computer so put it down and relaxed with my current cross-stitch project. Man, I forgot how therapeutic that can be.

Anyway, we had a wonderful day yesterday. Apparently I did manage to get through to the kids at least to a point on Saturday. Yesterday when I told the kids it was supposed to be another perfect day to ride, they went upstairs and got their rooms cleaned up in about 20 minutes. Yay! So we got ready and went for a ride. We decided to go have lunch at Hooters. We absolutely love that place...the food is great, and the kids eat lunch for free on Sundays. And to make it even better, we got to watch the game between UNC and NC State...not much better than a Tarheel/Wolfpack game. And I'm happy to report that UNC won! Double Yay!!

While we were having lunch, my mom called. She's selling her house. This is the house I grew up in, so I'm kind of sad about it in a way, although I completely understand and think she's making the right decision. Anyway, she got an offer on the house last week, so although she doesn't have a contract with a buyer yet, that could possibly happen this week. I didn't think she'd have any trouble selling the house, but I'll admit that I was surprised about just how quickly she got an offer. Anyway, she told us that we needed to go over and go through the boxes of things that she packed up after Daddy died. I had been putting it off, figuring that would somehow delay things, but I couldn't put it off anymore. Since the hubby has a busy week this week, we decided we needed to go on over there after lunch yesterday. So we came home and traded the bikes for the pickup truck and headed over to Mom's house. Once we got there and got started going through things, I actually started to enjoy it. There are so many memories in that house...almost 23 years' worth of memories. And I found so many things that mean so much to me...the scrapbook I made when I won the spelling bees - I realized this year is the 20-year mark since my trip to Washington, D.C., for that. I found the album my mom started for me with all the awards I ever won at school, the horses I collected when I was a kid. So many things. And I sat and thought about how my life has gone in a completely different direction than I ever thought back then. But I don't regret anything. I'm content. After all, I have a loving husband, two beautiful children, and have experienced more than I ever thought I would have.

Anyway, after that we came back to the house and unloaded what we had brought back from the truck. Since the time changed the night before, I knew we had over an hour of daylight left. So I asked the hubby if he wanted to go for another ride before it got dark. After he asked me if that was a trick question and I assured him it wasn't, we geared up, got the kids ready, and rode down to St. Pauls and treated the kids to McDonald's. Yes, we have a McDonald's closer than that, but it wouldn't have been as fun to go to the one just down the street! After all, the whole point was to RIDE! So we ate dinner, let the kids play on the playground for a bit, and headed home before it got dark. Then the kids got their showers and went to bed, and I got busy on my school work.

I just love days like we had yesterday. And we're supposed to have even more beautiful weather this week. It's supposed to be 81 degrees tomorrow, and 84 on Wednesday. Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE the South?

One of Those Days...

I love my kids more than I could ever express here. And I try to express to them that even on the days when they frustrate me beyond belief, I love them more than life itself. Today was one of those incredibly frustrating days.

LL, I was hoping to be evil and blog about riding today, but it just wasn't in the cards.

The hubby had to go in to work this morning. I wanted to sleep in, but since he had to go to work, I had to get up with the kids and make sure they didn't destroy the house. So I got up, had my coffee, and gave them their cereal for breakfast. Then they played upstairs while I tried to catch up on my school work while also chatting with a friend of mine.

About 1:00 p.m. I called them down for lunch...they had a late breakfast after all. While they were eating lunch, the hubby came home. He had ridden his bike in to work this morning, and wanted us all to go out riding together this afternoon. The kids acted really excited, so I told them that they needed to hurry and clean up their mess upstairs while I took a shower and got ready to go.

To make a long story short, they took a minimum of 4 hours to do what should have taken a half hour to do. So we didn't get to go out riding this afternoon. Yeah, we could have gone anyway, but they HAVE to learn to clean up their messes if they want to do fun things. I tried to explain to them that the 4 hours they spent cooped up in their rooms cleaning were 4 hours we could have been out riding the bikes having fun. I'm not sure whether it sank in or not.

So the time "Springs Forward" tonight.

We'll see how the monsters adjust...

Finished Project

Remember the cross-stitch project I mentioned a couple of times? I finished it last weekend. It's the first project I've worked on in I don't know how long. I think it's really cute, though, and helped me remember why I love this little hobby of mine. I need to have the hubby frame it for me...I think it will be perfect for what will be my craft corner in the new house.

The Princess has started to become interested in my cross-stitch. She really likes sitting next to me and watching me. One weekend when my mom was here with them, she had a project she was working on with her. I guess A was fascinated by hers too, because A told me that Nagga said she'd have to find something simple for her to try to stitch. I think I agree with her. A and I will have to go to Michael's or Hobby Lobby or somewhere and see if we can find a good age-appropriate, beginner's pattern.

I started on my new project as soon as I finished this one. I haven't been able to work on it as much as I would like though, with school and everything else. It's called "Antique Teddies" and is adorable.

New House Update

Things are moving right along with the new house. Again, I'm amazed at how smoothly the whole process has gone to this point.

Sunday we went to Sears to see what kind of refrigerators they had available. Our builder has an account there and with one other company in the area. Well, the other company's hours of operation are from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., which doesn't exactly mesh with the hubby's work schedule. So we found one at Sears that we liked, but the folks we needed to talk to are only there during the week. That's ok, though, because since we picked out the one we wanted, I would be able to go back later to place the order. I took care of that on Monday. The gentleman I worked with was really nice. He applied the best rebates he could to bring the price of the refrigerator down as much as possible. In the end, after sales tax and delivery were added, I only ended up having to pay $45 and some change out of pocket. The fridge is scheduled to be delivered the Monday of the week we close, so it will be installed and ready to go by closing.

Monday I also called USAA to get the homeowners insurance in place. That was one of the other things I had to take care of before closing. Wells Fargo gave us an estimate of what the homeowners would be, but I was pretty sure we would be able to save money through USAA. Sure enough, we're saving almost $200 a year. So of course, that helps with the closing costs since the homeowners is one of the things we have to take care of then.

I also called the cable company on Monday to inquire about having our services transferred. We have our cable, internet, and phone (digital) through the same company...saves us lots of money. I'm glad I went ahead and called them. They can schedule transfers as little as a week in advance, but it turned out that since it's a brand new house, they have to go out there and make sure everything's there for us to be able to have services. That is going to take three to five business days itself. So, like I said, it's a good thing I went ahead and called them. We should be able to have our services transferred by that weekend. We'll see.

I got our acceptance letter from Wells Fargo today. It even has the loan account number on it. I refused to really believe this was official until I had that acceptance letter in my possession. Well, I guess it's official now. I drove by the house after I had lunch with the hubby today. The sign out front has been changed. Instead of "For Sale" it now says "Contract Pending." Whoa! One more thing that makes it seem real. Excitement had started replacing the anxiety the week after we signed the contract. I think I'm gonna start getting anxious again for a bit as reality is hitting me. This is such a huge step for us. I think in a way, home ownership represents actual adulthood for me. Yeah, I've been married for 12 years now and have been an adult for longer, but purchasing a home to me signifies that I really am a grown-up now.

I'll continue to share updates as they develop.

Back in Business!

Several months ago when I was cleaning my house (no it hasn't been that long since I cleaned), I tossed my Pocket PC into a box or something that got taken upstairs and put in the bonus room (i.e., junk room!). I could not for the life of me remember which box it was and have been missing my handheld something awful! I keep everything in there (as those who really know me could tell you), and love having my contacts, calendar, and notes at my fingertips.

Today I was up there printing some stuff for my class - all the reading I have to do gets tedious when I have to read on the computer, so sometimes it's easier for me to print out the materials. As I was sitting up there printing out all this stuff, I saw my handheld lying on the desk. YAY! My Baby! So I snatched it up and brought it down to plug it in and charge it. Then after it was charged, I got it synced back up with my laptop. All my contacts and appointments are now once again right at my fingertips. I'm very happy about that right now, like the geek that I am!

My Head is Spinning!

OK, so I'm at the end of the first week of my current course, which is Economics in Health Care. I'm a bit behind already, and am currently trying to catch up on my reading. I just finished reading a chapter and talk about some DRY reading! Now, I like math...it was one of my favorite courses in school, but economics is different, although there are mathematical formulas involved. But you know, when it takes nearly an entire thirty-page chapter to tell me that when the price of health care increases, the supply is going to decrease, the author is using TOO MANY WORDS!

Tarheels Basketball

I don't usually blog about sports, because to be perfectly honest, I don't usually follow sports.

This week is different. When we picked up the kiddos from the in-laws, we stopped on the way home for dinner at Hooters. My kids love Hooters, and so do we. Their roasted oysters are yummy!

Well, when we got there, they had the UNC-Duke basketball game on. My friend Marc blogged about the game and the effect it has had on the standings for the ACC tournament. We were watching the game and saw the incident between Tyler Hansbrough and Gerald Henderson. Let me just say right now that although I don't follow sports, I've always been a Tarheel fan.

Here's a story about what went on between Hansbrough and Henderson. I'll have to see if I can find a video later, and then see if I can figure out how to add it to my blog. I watched replay after replay after replay of this incident, and I don't understand how anyone could think it was an accident.

I'll have to do some research later on the incident. Henderson was ejected from tonight's game (which only had a few seconds left on the clock), and was suspended from one game. I personally think he g0t off easily. I think he should have been suspended for the rest of the season. It's one thing to try to block a shot and accidentally hit someone, but it's a completely different thing to blatantly attack someone. If Henderson had truly been trying to block the shot, he could have chosen to try to avoid hitting Hansbrough when he realized the ball had already left his hands. Yes, he probably would still have fouled him, but it wouldn't have been nearly as bad.

NC Drivers...

OK, so here's the first of two rants that I promised.

The stupidity of some drivers around here never ceases to amaze me. I mentioned earlier that we rode the motorcycles up to the hubby's parents' house yesterday. Well, at one point, we were turning left from an intersection with a traffic light. It wasn't one of those where we had a green signal. We had traffic across the intersection from us, and I was trying to figure out where they were going. Every single of one of them turned left at that intersection, and not a single one of them used a damn turn signal. I was pissed! After all, here I am on a motorcycle with my daughter on the back with me. I wasn't about to turn left in front of a pick up truck when I didn't know which way he was going.

Then when we were coming back without the kids last night, we were driving along down a street, and there was another road that merged with the one we were on. I saw two vehicles coming to merge, so at least I was watching for them and slowed down a bit. It was a good thing I wasn't any closer than I was, because the first car didn't even slow down, much less look! It was some kind of compact, sports type car. A minivan was behind it, and I was closer to it. He did at least stop at the intersection, although he pulled out practically on my tailpipe. I was watching him, though, so I sped up enough to keep him from being right behind me. When the hubby and I came to the next red light, I told him it was a darn good thing I was watching for those other drivers, because they sure as heck weren't watching for me.

Then today when we were riding over to the mall, the ultimate in stupidity happened. We were sitting at an intersection, and the road we were traveling on had three lanes going one way. As we pulled to the light, we heard emergency sirens, and when I looked to my right, there was a Fire Chief's truck approaching the intersection. Right about that time, the light turned green. The hubby and I were sitting in the center lane, and our lane and the lane to our right stayed still. But we sat and watched as a MINIMUM of four cars continued through the intersection while the emergency vehicle was trying to get through it. Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhh! I'm sitting there yelling (as if they can hear me), "stop, stupid!" It's a darn good thing the emergency vehicles have to slow down and/or stop when approaching and going through an intersection. It's just too bad people can't drive the way they should.

So, the moral of this story? Pay attention for emergency vehicles and get out of the way. Second, use your damn turn signals! It won't kill you, I promise!

My Current Desktop Image

I have to change the picture on my computer desktop every so often or I get bored with it. Today I changed it. This is what I changed it to.

We spent a week traveling Italy over Spring Break last year, and Pisa was one of our stops. We spent a couple of hours there. What a neat place! One year in high school I did my Social Studies project on the Leaning Tower of Pisa, so it was really neat getting to see it in real life. The kids were fascinated, and still are.

Man, I miss living in Europe! So much history and culture at our fingertips...

Our Weekend

I haven't written in a couple of days, but I've been pretty busy...well, sort of.

Friday I didn't feel very well. I had a headache most of the day and felt queasy and just completely run down. I had absolutely no energy at all. The hubby called me a little after noon and asked if I wanted to go have lunch. The weather was beautiful and he had ridden his motorcycle to work and figured I would want to go ride with him to lunch. Even though I didn't feel very well, I did want to go to lunch with him and I thought the ride might make me feel better. Well, I enjoyed the ride and lunch, but didn't really feel better. I came home and laid back down for a while. Fortunately the kids were pretty good and played fairly quietly so I was able to rest at least long enough to get rid of the headache. The hubby hadn't slept well the night before, so he took a little nap here in his chair when he got home from work. Fortunately we had enough leftovers for dinner since neither of us felt like cooking. We watched a couple of movies and that was pretty much our evening.

Our boy did entertain us a bit Friday night. We were trying to decide which movie we wanted to get for them to watch with us. The Movies On Demand channel plays previews of several of the movies they have available for purchase. By the time we had decided what we wanted to watch, the previews had played through several times, and he had learned most of them and was mimicking them. At one point he had us laughing so hard that I was crying. The preview was for a movie that totally would not be appropriate for them to watch...heck, the preview wasn't even necessarily kid-friendly. But he was mimicking it and it was so doggone funny, I was practically rolling. I did instruct him never to do so outside our home though. He's a mess.

Saturday we went to visit the in-laws since the hubby's brother and his wife were visiting. The weather was gorgeous again, so we decided to ride the bikes up. It was a bit windy, but we had an awesome ride! The kids love riding with us, and I'm getting a bit less nervous every time I ride with one of them on the back. While we were up there, the hubby gave his brother's wife a ride on the back of his bike when they went up to the house his dad's restoring. I think she really enjoyed it. Then when they got back, he took his brother for a ride. He was laughing later, telling me that his brother probably had bugs in his teeth because he was grinning and laughing the whole time. Later he was talking about how fast the hubby's bike was and how awesome it felt. I told him I hated to tell him this, but my bike is faster than the hubby's. They thought I was kidding until P verified it for them. Plus, my motor is rubber-mounted while the hubby's is mounted to the frame, so I can feel a constant vibration with mine. :-) It just FEELS more powerful. I might have to take them for a ride on mine next time.

The kids stayed with the in-laws last night, so the hubby and I rode home without them. I love riding with them, but feel like I have just a bit more freedom without them. At least I'm a little less tense right now. I'm a little more nervous riding at night, but I kind of enjoy it. I got a new jacket and matching chaps for Christmas. I was trying to find a photo online, but can't seem to. Anyway, the set is black with pink tattoo accents, and black and pink fringe. Fringe - yes, I know, very girly, but I LOVE the way it looks. If I can't find a photo I'll just have to have the hubby take a picture of me I guess. Anyway, when we were coming home last night, we came to a light that had turned red, and P pulled up beside me and said "your fringe looks AWESOME!" The light turned green before I could ask him to elaborate. So when we got home, I asked him about what he had said, and he told me that the fringe was reflective. Whoa, really? I really didn't know that when I got the outfit. Well, the jacket and chaps are both fringed, so I guess I'm reflective from my shoulders down to about my calves. How cool is that? Riding a motorcycle is all about visibility, and I guess you can't quite beat that. He said it was really cool-looking. He said the jacket looked like a big pink Thunderbird and the chaps looked like a swallow-tail, or something to that effect. I was afraid in the beginning it was a bit too much, but if it makes me more visible, especially at night, that can't be a bad thing. Way cool!

We went over to Sears today to pick out a refrigerator for the house. We rode the motorcycles over, and it was pretty cold. Lots cooler today than it was even last night when we rode home. I didn't put my chaps on today and was wishing I had. After we were finished at Sears, we came home and traded the bikes for the Volvo. I can handle riding when it's a bit nippy, but don't want to ride with the kids unless it's warmer than it was today. But I noticed when we came back from the mall that I'm getting a lot more confident in my riding abilities, and it feels so good. I just love that this is a hobby that the hubby and I can share with each other, and can also share with the kiddos.

Spring is on its way...lots of great riding weather coming!

I have some other things to blog about, but have to get some school work done first. But just a hint of what's to come...my gripes about drivers around here and a very rare sports entry.

This and That

So last night I complained about the next door neighbor and the drums before I went to bed. I had to open a window this afternoon because I had the oven on and the house was hot. The hubby and I were sitting here after dinner tonight watching TV and heard the drums start up again. The window I had open was the one facing that particular house. Then we heard the music start and I recognized the song right away. The hubby muted the TV and we sat here listening to them. They played Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" a couple of times. Then I heard the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand." We looked at each other, and he said, "Well, at least they're playing some good stuff." Yep. Really, my only gripe about the drums last night was the fact that it was so late on a week night. Fortunately my kids will sleep through just about anything, so it didn't bother them.

I mentioned having the oven on this afternoon. I made Lasagna for dinner tonight. I called the hubby and asked him to pick up some garlic bread and wine on his way home. He fussed a little bit, which I think is just a man obligation or something, but took care of it for me. I don't make Lasagna that often, but I might just have to make it more often than I have been. The Little Man ate three helpings! Granted, we didn't give him really big pieces, but still...pasta of any kind is filling, and I couldn't believe he ate three helpings of it plus two pieces of garlic bread. The Princes only ate one piece, but she said, "Mommy, I don't usually eat Lasagna, but your Lasagna is better than regular Lasagna." Hmmm...I'm not sure what exactly that meant, but I was flattered anyway.

They both lied to me tonight. They were playing this afternoon and I asked them to clean up what they'd been playing with before we ate dinner. So I heard them playing right before their daddy got home and asked them if they'd cleaned up their mess. Both of them assured me they had. I chose to trust them. I sat them down to dinner and took a basket full of clean laundry up to my room, and looked in their rooms on my way down. J's room was ok, but A's room was a disaster. Not only that, but she had taken the top parts of her bed posts (which her daddy has to repair since she decided to swing on them) into her room and was playing with them. We've told her time and time again to leave them alone. They're not toys, and they can hurt her since the bolt part of the connection is on them and the nut part is in the bottom part. So I came down and lectured her about that and told her that she would be cleaning the mess up when she was finished with supper. J asked if he had to help. I asked if he'd made the mess. He said no. A contradicted him. So I asked if he was playing in there. He said no. Again, A contradicted him. So J said, "We weren't playing together, but I was playing a game at the same time she was playing a game." Hmmmm...ok, once again I asked him if he was playing in her room and reminded him of the importance of telling the truth. Once more he said no and A insisted that he was. So I said that since he chose to lie to me he could have his mouth washed out with soap. "OK, OK, he said...I was playing in her room." Too late. He had already lied to me three times in a row. So after supper he got a taste of liquid soap. Since A had lied to me as well, she got a taste too. They complained for a few minutes, so I told them to think about that next time they considered lying to me. Yes, I know I'm a mean mom, but that was an experience they're not likely to soon forget.

Heidi blogged today about UFOs. I wrote yesterday about resuming my long-neglected hobby of cross-stitching. My current project, which I'm actually almost finished with, is a pre-packaged project, meaning that all the necessary materials (fabric, needle, threads) are included in the kit. However, I'm somehow missing a color. It was probably there when I unpacked the kit and has gone missing in the chaos that is my life. I'll probably find it when we move to the new house. Anyway, I have lots of patterns and threads in a craft basket which has been in the bonus room upstairs. I got to a point tonight where I have to find a thread that will work to finish this one. Usually the pattern includes the number code (DMC) of each color, but of course this one was the exception, so I had to take the one I had (light coral) and find the thread in my collection which most closely matched it. Then I could decide which one would be best to use for the one I was missing (medium coral). Anyway, my boxes of threads are, of course, at the bottom of the basket. So here I am pulling stuff out of the basket, with the hubby reminding me that if we're getting ready to move, unpacking is not the best idea right now. OK smart aleck, I'm putting this stuff back when I find what I'm looking for. Anyway, as I'm going through the basket, I'm finding long-forgotten patterns and UFOs (UnFinished Objects) of my own. Many of my projects don't require a lot to finish...mostly outlining stitches and cleaning/ironing of the finished product...hopefully they're not irreversibly stained. And the long-forgotten patterns? While the hubby was in Iraq I found a place (I think it was militarywives.com or something like that) where I got all kinds of cool patriotic patterns and booklets with several patterns. I'll do them eventually.

Oh, the Princess got sassy with us tonight, too. I already mentioned that they were supposed to be cleaning up the mess after dinner that they had fibbed and told me they had already cleaned. We heard running and jumping upstairs...clearly not cleaning. So I asked why they weren't cleaning. The hubby answered, saying they weren't minding, and called them downstairs to give us goodnight kisses for bedtime. As I kissed A, I asked her if she had gotten her room cleaned up, and she told me no. They'd been up there for about a half hour, more than enough time to get it done...it really wasn't THAT bad since they'd gotten their rooms cleaned last night, and they could have had it done in about 10-15 minutes. I should also add here that when we told them it was bedtime, she said, "thank goodness." When I asked her why she said that she said, "I'm tired." I asked her why her room wasn't clean. She said, "Like Daddy said, we weren't minding." Oh, I don't think so. Well, at least she learned something from the soap incident earlier and didn't lie to me, so in a way, I was a bit amused, but tried to hide it. Her daddy, though, let her know real quick that she wasn't about to get off that easily. He told her to get her little butt back upstairs and get her room cleaned up, and she had 15 minutes to do so. I told J that his had better be done, too, although his wasn't the mess hers was. Funny, because usually it's the opposite.

Don't know what I'm gonna do with my monsters. Never a dull moment in this house. Like I told my sister the other day, though...my life is definitely not boring!