You gotta see this!

Hi, all! Manic Mommies, the only mom podcast I listen to, has posted a hilarious YouTube video on their blog. Even if you're not a mom, you can appreciate it.

Here is the link:

http://manicmommies.com/2007/09/william_tell_overture_for_moms.html

Enjoy!

"Free"?

Rant of the month:

I got a new cell phone a few weeks ago. Since we had been with Cingular a LONG time, I was able to go online and pick out a phone at a reduced rate. Well, I chose a "free" one.

But of course, it wasn't really "free".

It was $30 with a $30 mail-in-rebate. I hate those things. However, that was the best deal available so I did it.

Got the phone, it worked. Sent the rebate form in the very next day!

Earlier this week, I get a "free" text message sent to my phone. It says they have received my rebate paper work (3 weeks late??) and that my rebate will be happily mailed to me in 10-12 weeks.

10 to 12 WEEKS?????????

How can you even begin to call that "FREE"???? If you lose the use of your $30 for 4 months, is it really free???? Will they send me interest? You know THEY are getting interest on their cash balance during that time.

Ugh. I really hate it when companies use misleading tactics to sell stuff.

Cheers!

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

You wanna go where people know,
people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows
your name.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo - Cheers Lyrics

This is how I'm feeling tonight. I won't go into detail. Nobody likes to read that stuff. I just feel lost lately. I'm still looking for work, so that's the main part of my worries. However, the other groups I've joined just haven't felt right lately. I guess I'm just looking for some friends up here who know me, my sense of humor, and whom I don't have to worry about offending with some stupid remark that slips out.

I'm sorry. I said I wasn't going to go into detail.

Anyway, enjoy getting this song stuck in your head! Too bad I can't add an MP3 file in here like I can a video. Well, maybe I can, but it's too late to figure out right now. Plus, I don't own the song so I'd probably have to purchase it on itunes. Which costs money which a non-working girl doesn't have.

Cheers!

Update

Alpha is better! Well, almost. Her temp this morning was 98.6. You can't get much more normal than that. However, when we got home from church, it had crept back up to 99.7. Oh well. That was with no medicine since Saturday night so at least she's getting better.

Beta's temp was 99.2. I hope that's not a bad sign. Everyone at choir today was asking me where I'd been. I explained that each and every one of us had been sick two times over. They all inched away from me after that....

At least the house is clean. I got in a cleaning mood and got all the clutter up yesterday. I vacuumed today after lunch before any toys had the chance to escape their appointed holding places. Ah, carpet! How I love to look at the floor and see CARPET!

Hope everyone else is avoiding illness. It's not any fun!

Almost there.....

Illness update: Alpha has strep throat. Her fever has been hovering around 103 degrees since Thursday morning. I have been having to double up on the fever-reducers, i.e. tylenol and ibuprofen, to get her temp down. It hangs out around 100 after the medicine kicks in. I was going to ask a nurse today if I needed to bring her in, but I didn't realize until too late that the doctor's office closes at noon on Saturdays.

Luckily, though, this evening it was actually 98.9. I think she was still on medicine, but that's the lowest it's been since she came home sick. We're hoping it stays down so we can all go to church tomorrow.

Interesting happening:
We had a visitor tonight. The girls were all done with baths and we were getting them ready for bed. I was walking past our front door and heard a sound. It was almost like singing. I listened more closely and heard....meowing. Yes. That's right. A CAT!

I looked outside and there, right on our front porch, was a skinny cat. It was meowing like it had the starring spot on American Idol. I called the girls. They were ecstatic! A kitten! (it was NOT a kitten) It must be lost from its mommy! Maybe it just got the wrong house. What are we gonna do?

Well, the ending is anti-climactic. I called Jim, who had not heard the noise at all seeing as how he was a whole 15 feet away....He ushered the girls onto their nightly routine and said he'd take care of it. Knowing the dislike he has for cats, I urged him to be nice. Turns out as soon as he walked outside, the cat ran away. That was an hour ago and we haven't heard any more crooning.

So hopefully he was just stopping by to say hello and he won't come back. Neither of us wants a cat, or any pet at this time, for that matter. But, when you see a skinny animal, it's hard not to want to help. But we didn't break the rule: Don't feed the strays!

One last thing:
This past Thursday, we celebrated a birthday! Jim is now ##. Here are the girls singing to him while he blows out the candles and makes a wish.

Keep it comin'!

Ok. So if you're keeping track of the illnesses around here, let's see how our current situation is stacking up.

Beta - 3 weeks ago had an eye infection and ear infections in both ears. Doing ok for now. (knock on wood)

Alpha - 3 weeks ago had an ear infection. This past Saturday had a stomach virus. Today came home from school with a 101.6 degree fever.

Jim - got sick over labor day weekend. Within 4 days or so was feeling better. Started feeling bad again last Saturday. Went to the doctor today and was diagnosed with bronchitis. Now he's on Levaquin, i.e. "the good stuff".

Me - Sick over labor Day weekend. Lost my voice. Took about 7 days to feel better. Was well for the next 5 days and then last week got a major cold. Had a job interview during said cold. Felt better by Sunday. Doing ok for now, but I seem to have some abdominal cramping going on. I honestly don't know why.

They say bad things come in 3's. Well, for us they seem to come in 8's because each one of us has had 2 medical issues in the past month!

So, to forget all of our sickness for a bit, here's a picture of a wreath I made for our front door. I made the bow myself, and I'm very proud of it! I let the girls place the flowers on. The flowers may not be as equally spaced as I would like, but I'm glad they got to feel like they were a part of making it. They call it "our" wreath!

Be healed!

Well, that's what I wish was happening here. We have ALL been sick in one way or another. Three weeks ago, both girls had ear infections and Beta had an eye infection. Those are over, but then I got sick over Labor Day weekend. Jim got sick about a day behind me. I thought I was well, but 4 days after I started feeling better, I got a terrible cold! Jim had a nagging cough which finally went away, but then last night he started feeling bad again, too! Oh, and to top it ALL off, Alpha had a 24 hour stomach bug! YUCK!!!!

I played piano for a healing service at church tonight. When it was done, I went and asked the preacher for prayers for the health of my family. Hopefully God will heal us and not let anybody else get the stomach bug. I'd much rather have a cold. The only thing good about stomach bugs is that they are usually done within 24 hours.

Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print for right now. I am going to try out a new feature on blogger. I can upload videos now!

This video was taken on Labor Day weekend at Grandmother's house. Jim and Uncle Matt are playing Trogdor on Guitar Hero while Alpha dances and cheers them on! Enjoy!

Cute quote!

As I picked up Alpha from school this afternoon, she informed me that the Razorbacks are playing "Alabamya" tomorrow. She then asks, "can we go to the game?"

The game is IN Alabama.

Um, no. I think we'll just stay home.

Some positive news!

I found this article in our Arkansas Democrat-Gazette paper today on page 2B. It's from the associated press about a soldier from Greenwood, Arkansas. (near Ft. Smith, I believe) Here it is in it's entirety:

Greenwood -- Sgt. Kris Logsdon made a surprise trip home to Greenwood from duty in Iraq -- and he arrived just in time to see the birth of his daughter Eden.

Logsdon arrived Saturday, and his wife, Melanie, went into labor a few hours after her husband's plane landed. Logsdon kept his trip home a secret to surprise relatives and had a friend meet him at the airport.

Melanie Logsdon gave birth the next day to their second child, Eden Elizabeth Logsdon. Kris Logsdon said their first child arrived a week early, and he timed his leave so he'd get back to Arkansas one week before Eden's due date.

"I'm happy she did not come before I got home. The important thing was to be here for the birth before I go back," he said.

Kris Logsdon is in the Arkansas National Guard and is on his second tour of duty in Iraq. He returns to Iraq on Sept. 24.
***********************************************************************************

Isn't that sweet?? I bet there were some answered prayers going on in that family!

For more positive news, check out The Positive Press. I've been getting their "Positive Quote of the Day" emailed to me since 1999.

The spiders can stay.

Tooth update: Nothing yet. They don't even hurt her while she's eating. I even fed her an apple today! I figure one day they'll just fall out with no more fanfare than when she sneezes.

Now, on to my current thinking.

Ants.

Lots of tiny, crawly, ants. I do not like them.

We have them. It's been nearly one year since we moved in here, and these are the first ants we've seen. I think the rain from this past weekend brought them in. I've seen them in the kitchen, Beta's room, our bedroom, and our bathroom. I'm wondering if the new construction behind us has disturbed some ant hills in nearby lots.

Anyway, our other problem is spiders. LOTS of spiders. If you look in any corner of any room in our house, you will see at least 1 spider. They are small and brown. Not brown recluses luckily. More like the kinds that make cobwebs.

I have been fighting them for months. Cleaning up their webs, smashing their little bodies.

Until the other day.

That's the day I saw nature in action and decided the spiders could stay. The ants were getting caught in the spiders' webs! There is a web by our front door that has probably 15 ants in it. The spiders near our back door aren't doing as well, but we've still found ants caught up there.

I'm wondering if there's any way to transport some spiders from other parts of the house to the back door. Or outside. We had a huge spider that kept spinning a web near our hummingbird feeder. I'm not sure where he went, but I wish he were out there on the ground now.

So now I thank God for the spiders. They are helping to keep the ants at bay. We've still had to kill a few, but I think the spiders are deterring rampant ant exploration. At least I hope they are.

Plus, their webs will make cool Halloween decorations!

To tell the tooth

Ok. So now that Alpha is on her way to losing her first teeth, I have a question. How should I handle the tooth fairy? She already knows about the tooth fairy from her friends. When we discovered her loose teeth, she started asking me questions. She wants to go spend the night at the tooth fairy's house when she loses her teeth. Um..... Then, she asked if the tooth fairy lived at our house and I told her yes.

So, how far do I take this tooth fairy thing? I honestly can't remember exactly what my parents did. I know we had "the tooth fairy", but I don't remember there being a big "reveal" when I found out it was my parents. The tooth fairy wasn't as big as Santa Claus.

How did you find out the TRUTH about the TOOTH FAIRY?

Special Announcement!

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

This special announcement comes courtesy of Alpha.

Alpha has TWO loose teeth!

These are her first ever loose teeth. She is SO excited.

She says they don't hurt her or anything.

The only thing I'm concerned with is pulling said teeth. My recollection of losing teeth is that it was not pleasant. Thankfully, Jim only remembers loosing his first tooth, and it wasn't traumatic for him.

I think Alpha will be fine. Now when Beta hits 6 years old, we may have some difficulties. But I've got awhile before that happens.

Anyway, I will keep you all updated as the days progress. Wish us luck!

Fizzy Lemonade

Hi, all! We've been getting soaked up here in Northwest Arkansas! I'm sure the LPGA tournament hasn't liked it, but we sure do need it! Everyone's lawn will be lush and green now. Maybe our trees will quit dying as well.

Friday night, we decided to stay in rather than go out. Rain being one of the reasons. Money, the other. I have two recipes I'd like to share with you.

Chicken Burritos
Ok. This isn't really a recipe. It's just a way to put things together ala Sandra Lee's Semi-homemade style. To add some oomf to burritos, I cooked Rice-a-Roni Mexican style rice. This added lots of flavor and bulk to our burritos. They were delicious! I sprinkled some cut up chicken tenders with Julio's seasoning (It's from Mexico) and then cooked them in the skillet.

We then assembled the burritos using the chicken, rice, sour cream, salsa, and cheese. YUM! Qdoba, watch out!

Fizzy Lemonade
This is a modified Sandra Lee recipe. In fact, it's so modified, I'm not even sure I'd call it the same recipe. Sandra Lee has a recipe for Lemon Drop Champagne. It looked so good on her show the other day, that I wanted to try it. Well, we had no champagne, and I'm not that big a fan of it anyway. So, I bought the lemonade concentrate, like she said. Then, instead of sparkling water, which I couldn't find (thanks WALMART!), I used sprite.

All I did was mix the concentrate with 3 1/2 concentrate cans of sprite instead of water. Voila! It was fizzy, tart, and refreshing! I seriously think it could be used as lemon punch. We had the rest of it today at lunch and boy, was it SOUR! Maybe a bit more sugar would help. Or some actual water. But it was still delicious! I can't wait to serve it somewhere.

Oh, and I tried crushing Ferrara Pan lemon drops, like her recipe says, but they didn't crush that well or look as nice as hers.

So those are my two home-tested recipes from our rainy weekend.

Tune in tomorrow for a special announcement!

Labor Day Weekend

Here are some pics from our trip home this Labor Day Weekend.

Beta is at Gramma & Pop's house. She learned to walk across the cattle guard, which she referred to as "the horse steps."







Pop helps the kids on the rope swing. They love stuff like this! It's so much better than TV or video games.







Jim and his brother, Collin, show some brotherly love. It MUST be a guy thing...









Alpha practicing to be a doctor. Grandmother got some hospital gear donated at her school. She got a set for each girl. We showed them pictures of their daddy wearing this type of gear when each of them was born.








Beta has to get in on the act as well. Isn't she cute???