Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Daycare Dailies

This summer, Alpha is staying at the same preschool that Beta goes to. They have a school-age summer program. Alpha LOVES it! They are going to start an after-school program this fall, and I hope to enroll Alpha during tax season.

But let me tell you about yesterday......

I got to Alpha's room, and the entire room is turned upside down with chairs and blankets EVERYWHERE! They are making tents! Just like we used to do at my grandmother's house. (and I'm sure most of you have done at your grandmothers' houses.) The teacher informs me that this is all MY daughter's idea! She mentioned it and so EVERYONE decided to do it. I silently called her "Alpha the instigator."

Today, after we got home, Beta was eating a snack. She says "I'm not M's girlfriend any more, but he KEEPS sitting by me!" "I want to be J's girlfriend." Aaahh, young love. AAAAHHHH! WHAT??? My 4 year old is talking about boyfriends????? No more High School Musical for you! My next thought was that this is how life could very well be. How many of us girls had guys keep tailing us long after we'd made it known that we were NOT interested? (Oh, come on. I'm sure you had a least one person who liked you whom you were not the least bit excited about...) I wonder if I should tell her Daddy?

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Score!

My bargain guardian angel is back! For those of you who don't know, I love finding great deals. (it's the cheap accountant in me, I can't help it.) I like to joke that I have a "bargain, guardian angel" who leads me to these great deals. This year has not been a good one for finding deals.

But not any more!!!!!

The girls are at Grandmother's house this week. Yes, an entire week! So this afternoon, I found myself at the mall. I knew I should come home and clean, but it's not every day you get to go shopping all. by. your. self.

So I looked around. Bought a cookie. Looked around some more. And found myself standing in front of The Children's Place. I love that store. Their clothes are well made, colorful, and best of all, affordable. It's a nice alternative to Gymboree.

Anyway, I glance at their fall line. I figure I'll just look at the new stuff and walk out.

Then I see it.

The sign.

"TAKE AN ADDITIONAL 50% OFF ALREADY REDUCED PRICES!"

Wow. Are you kidding me???

So I stop and ask a lady if it's all the sale prices in the store or just the ones on that rack. She says it's everything that's marked down in the store. Oh yes, and there's an additional 15% off for Back to School.

I got the girls some clothes for 65% off the clearance price! Can you believe it?

I bought summer clothes, but a size bigger than they wear now. They have plenty of clothes for this summer.

Here are the pictures of what I bought:

Alpha's is a yellow skort, butterfly shirt, and yellow croc-like shoes.








Beta's is a pink skort, pink tank top, and pink croc-like shoes.








They are going to love them!

Oh, my total bill? $17.67 for 6 items.

Awesome! Thank you bargain guardian angel!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Top 10 Things I've Learned About Weight Loss

10. It ain't easy.

9. It ain't fun.

8. You eat more than you think you do.

7. A good time to exercise is in the morning before life creeps in and messes up your daily schedule.

6. Even if you lose only 1 pound a week, that's still 52 pounds lost in a year.

5. Use a scale. Don't rely on how tight your clothes fit.

4. You will feel silly doing exercise videos, but they ARE effective.

3. Every calorie adds up. Yes, even the tiny 100 calorie pack cookies.

2. You MUST break a sweat. If you are exercising and not sweating, there's a good chance you are not losing any weight.

1. It CAN be done!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Hendrix Night at the Naturals

Play Ball!

Last night we attended our first Northwest Arkansas Naturals game at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale.

It was also Hendrix Night at the Naturals so I got to see some old college friends. I also saw one of the moms of a kid in our Sunday school class. She went to Hendrix, and we didn't even know that about each other! She was about 4 years ahead of me, though.





Here are the teams warming up. I couldn't decide who to cheer for. I guess I was supposed to be for the Naturals. But, having grown up in North Little Rock, it is just hardwired into me to cheer for the Travs. I found myself cheering for them without meaning to!






The Naturals mascot is a sasquatch named Strike. Why they picked a sasquatch, I don't know. I guess that was better than a naked man. (au naturel.....)







The girls enjoyed the game for the most part. They had jumpy things and a playground, which they both enjoyed a lot more. The jumpy thing cost $1 every time you wanted to go through it, though. So they each got to do it once.





There were so many kids on the playground that you had to stand in line to use anything! That didn't stop my girls, though.








Here's Beta on these cool things you could step on and move across. Some were anchored down, but others were just chained so they moved.











Here's Alpha on another thing that moved. She loves to climb.








Up near the playground, there was an impromptu kids ballgame. They had about 4 or 5 1st basemen, 3 or 4 2nd basemen, and about 20 kids lined up to bat. It was really neat to see! I thought it captured the spirit and heart of baseball much more than the playground or even the real game down there did. Just a bunch of kids with a ball, a bat, and some dirt. Paul Greenberg, of the Democrat-Gazette, should see this.



The scoreboard was built so you could walk right in front of it. The girls loved seeing how big it was up close.







Now for the outtakes:

Before we went, I put bug spray on both girls. As we were passing the beer garden on our way to the playground, you could smell the beer pretty strong in the air. Beta says "I smell that bugspray!"

We wanted sprite to drink. Alas, they have a contract with Pepsi. But even then, there was no Sierra Mist or Slice. So Jim got us all lemonade ice cups. Very yummy, but they kind of made us thirstier than we were before. They also turned our tongues yellow!





As Alpha and I were walking back to the playground, she says she's finally figured out why they only sell drinks with caffeine. "It's so you can stay awake to watch the game!" (and I found this to be true. The first 5 or 6 innings were no-hit no-run innings for almost both sides. )

We all had a wonderful time!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

I can't believe it......I did it!

You won't believe what I did tonight. I exercised! I'm talking, really, truly, honest-to-goodness, sweaty exercise! See, I need to lose, oh, 5 pounds. Or so..........

So began my I'm-going-to-start-exercising-again decree. So two weeks ago, I did a small, 20 minute video. No sweat.

Then, an entire week later, I did another small, 20 minute video. No sweat either.

Hmmmm. Not looking too good. I've GOT to figure out how to start. To make this a habit.

So last week, maybe Thursday, I pulled out an old, old tape. Yes, I have exercise videos on TAPE! It was an ab video with five approx. 10 minute segments. I did one and a half of them. Wow! I can still do it! This isn't so bad! I'll start with abs and work up to cardio......

The next morning......ow, ow, ow. Let's just say, those exercises are nothing if not EFFECTIVE!

So I skipped exercising for 3 days.

I have a multitude of excuses. I don't have space to list them all. But tonight, I had no excuse. And for some reason, I WANTED to exercise. I mean, REALLY. So I pulled out Christi Taylor's Hi-Lo Heaven. It was made in 2001, I think. (And it's on a VHS tape.)

I started the tape. Ah, yes. I remember liking this one. Christi Taylor's videos have intense, crazy choreography. That's what makes them so much fun! They are hard to learn, but once you learn them, they are very fun to do.

AND I COULD STILL DO IT!!!!!!

I made it all the way through the first 25 minute section. You can cool down after that or go on to another 25 minute section. (You have to be crazy to attempt that, but some people do....) :) It was like riding a bicycle. I remembered the steps! They were still fun.

Now I feel great! I hope I can exercise tomorrow. My main enemy is time. But I want to see some results, and I KNOW this is the best way for that to happen.

Yay, me!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

The office

Finally! After nearly 2 years of living here, we have an office!

With a borrowed Sam's card and a little bit of elfin magic (we brought it home in the Honda), we have a nice bookshelf. It is 6 feet tall and has drawers on the bottom so we can hide all our junk.....









Ah, the Master at Work. Wow!

(new desk from Sam's as well......)

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Odds & Ends

I couldn't decide what to post about tonight. So I thought I'd post about everything.

I took the girls to the doctor today. Beta needed an update on her asthma treatment. I told the doctor she has had no symptoms whatsoever. He said it was ok to stop the Pulmicort and see what happens. He listened to her lungs and said they were perfectly clear!

Alpha went because she has a short frenulum. There is a more specific term for it, but I can't remember it right now. The frenulum is the piece of membrane that connects your tongue to the bottom of your mouth. In short, (haha!) she's slightly tongue-tied. Her dentist noticed it, as well as her speech therapist. The solution is to have it clipped so that she can speak better. It's not as bad as it sounds. I hope. The doctor started to explain and I told him there was no need to get too detailed. He said it heals quickly.

I took Mark's advice (Holly's husband) and created a new character in World of Warcraft. I've got a Mage who's up to Level 7, and a Priest who's up to Level 6. I shied away from priests at first because I was afraid they'd be somewhat sacrilegious. However, they have the powers to heal people. In fact, one quest I'm about to go on has you going to find an injured "person" (computer player) and heal him. I told Jim that someone needed to create a Christian version of this game. Then I can be the priest and kill 'em with kindness! (kind of an inside joke)

My right big toe is aching. I have no idea why. I thought it was because it needed to "pop", but I've done that and it still hurts.

Jim is having a "Guys Night Out" right in our very own office! He's been on a raid with his guild for the past 3 1/2 hours. They've only got 3 big guys to kill, out of an original 13. Maybe he'll make it to bed before midnight tonight.

I saw part of a reality show tonight and it bugged me. Well, it also amused me. It's called "The Baby Borrowers". They have 5 teenage couples who move into these people's houses and take care of their babies for a couple of days. Then next week, it's toddlers. Then middle schoolers. Then teenagers. Now how teenagers are supposed to "take care of " teenagers is beyond me. Anyway, they showed excerpts of last week's show where they took care of the babies for the first time. I was amused and appalled. What parent in their right mind would let two silly teenagers take care of their infant? These babies were little. Not newborns, but none of them looked more than 6 months old. So of course, the baby won't stop crying, won't sleep, the "parents" argue, cuss, storm out, etc. etc. One couple had the mom step back in and yell at the poor girl for doing everything wrong. I didn't see what she did, but I actually felt sorry for her. Imagine someone behind a hidden camera watching you take care of a baby for the first time. No thank you!

But that's why I blog and play World of Warcraft. And also why the girls and I went to the playground. How I miss the good ole Cosby show days.

We FINALLY bought furniture for our office! I'll post pictures in a few days once we get time to actually fill the shelves. (raids and blogging, you know.....)

And that's about it. Hope everyone's week is going well. I wish it was another 3 day weekend. Oh, well. Two days will have to suffice.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Boom! Swoosh! Sparkle!

Happy (belated) 4th of July! We all went down to mom's house this weekend and had a grand ole time! Our weekend included a trip to Build-a-Bear, (grrrrrrr....., marketing!) lunch at a new Mexico Chiquito, and a fireworks show viewed from Dickey Stephens ball park in North Little Rock.

The fireworks part was my favorite. In years past, we would all go down to the NLR side of the river. You would pick your spot of levee and sit down. Then you would be bored and beg for snow cones for the next 2 hours waiting on the fireworks to start. The people on the Little Rock side would be treated to the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra while waiting on it to get dark. Then the orchestra would play in time with the fireworks. (or vice versa) Meanwhile, on our side, it was quiet except for BOOM! SWOOSH! CRACKLE! etc.

Well, this year, we got to hear some of the music because it was piped over to NLR! How cool is that! And we didn't have to sit on the ground. We got to sit in the stands. And the kids got to play in a kiddie area.

And I got on TV!!!!!!!!!

I feel like I committed fraud since the TV station that interviewed me was not the one Matt & Robin work for. Of course, THEIR TV station was nowhere to be seen! (Sorry, guys!) So, at the risk of embarassing myself further, with the extra 10 pounds (I'm SURE the camera added that......) and my hick-like voice, here is the link to me on TV! Once you get there, the video I'm in is "Pops on the River".

Enjoy! (and if you're laughing at me, please don't tell me!)

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Almost.......there............

Congrats to me! I have now officially worked 2000 hours towards my CPA license.

Big whoop.

I called the state board today to request a license application. They informed me that people in my situation must show that we have taken 120 hours of CPE (continuing professional education, continuing ed, etc.) OR take the exam again.

Let me explain. I'll try to be brief.

When I found out I had passed the November 2002 CPA exam, I called the state board and asked how long it was good for. I was a stay-at-home mom at the moment and didn't want to go to work yet. The lady I spoke with said it was basically good forever. Your 1 year of experience (full time, or 2000 hours) had to be within the past 3 years. But the exam was good forever.

Fast forward to Nov. 2006. I find out that the law changed on me. Now, anyone passing the exam AFTER August 2005 must apply for their license within 3 years or end up with a void license. Void license means you must take and pass the CPA exam AGAIN.

Well, seeing as how August 2005 was already 3 years after I passed the exam, I don't believe I ever really had a chance to satisfy that requirement once I found out about it. I am not "grandfathered in". The board has decided that people like me can either take 120 hours CPE or take the exam again.

It was.........a bummer.

I wasn't totally surprised. I knew I had "special circumstances" and was only slightly hoping for a miracle. (Why, yes, Mrs. Kane, don't even bother applying! We'll send your certificate right out!)

And taking 120 hours will be more expensive than hard. My boss told me once that if I ever attend a CPE course and come back saying it was fun, I will be highly suspect.

I'm waiting on a call from someone higher up at the board, but I really don't expect it to change anything.

So, pray that I keep my sanity and find some cheap CPE. I'm still very very close to having a license. And to look on the bright side, at least they offer the CPE option. Otherwise I'd be studying for the CPA exam for a SECOND time! Also, I don't have to wait 36 months to complete the CPE. I can get it as fast as I can. My only drawback is money and time off at work. (Most classes are 8 hours)

I'm sure I'll get there one day. I just hope my grandkids aren't out of college before it happens. (Ok! Ok! I'm kidding!)