What a nice week this is! We have so much going on, it's exciting! This past weekend was really nice, we had my mom and sister over on Saturday for what is my family's pumpking carving tradition. The girls get together and carve pumpkins, and now we have added Ardyn and Marek into the mix. It was lots of fun. Ardyn had spent the night at Grandma's, so when Grandma and Aunt Liz came over, it was great because they just brought Ardyn right along with them. I had made Crock Pot Lasagna and we all ate a late lunch and sat at the big dining room table together. Then We got started on carving. I cut open both of the big pumpkins and let Ardyn scoop each of them out. She needed NO direction, I just sat it in front of her and told her to scoop the guts out and she started digging right in! It was awesome to watch! Then when she had finished both pumpkins, her attention started to wane a bit, which was perfect. She started playing and running around while Liz and I transferred out patterns and carved the pumpkins. Knives really aren't the best for 2 year olds anyway, so it worked out perfectly.
Then my dad stopped over, and he sat and held Marek for a bit. Before long the kids were ready for naps. Mom and Dad went home, and Liz took a snooze on the couch while I uploaded photos to Facebook. I also did some research to figure out WHY Facebook uploader is not working, discovered that MANY other people have this same repeated issue, and also decided that I could download Picasa for free and use the Facebook plugin to seamlessly and easily upload pics from Picasa to Facebook. It also has a Flickr Uploader built in, but I am having issues with that. I think that the Flickr Uploader on this PC needs reinstalled, because it doesn't always initiate if you have a large batch of photos that you are sending to it.
So while everyone else (even the dog) slept, I got sidetracked with Picasa, and face recognition (happiness and joy) and then I cropped and prepped all the pics from pumpkin carving, and uploaded them all.
When Liz and the kids woke up, we started making Rolled Out Sugar cookies. We mixed and rolled and baked. Actually.... I mixed and rolled and baked. I got all but two batches made. I found a recipe online that was for "No Fail Sugar cookies" that was supposed to be good for using intricate cookie cutters because the cookies don't swell as much when baking and they retain the true shape of the cookie. I wanted to try it. It called for 6 cups of flour, and I only got 4 cups in before the mixer (A Kitchen Aid Artisan Mixer!) started grinding and by 5 cups it was smelling hot and wouldn't stir anymore, so I gave up and decided that was enough flour. And they still turned out well. Although, I should mention that I **Sometimes** have issues (since having children) with remembering what my count of cups was as I am measuring and pouring. Someone ALWAYS Distracts me and I am like "wait, was that 4 or 5? Shit." Happens all the time. I hate it. I used to be so much better at things like that. But now I just go with it and if it looks like it needs more, I add more. LOL. I am horrible with actually measuring things when I cook. I like to estimate.
So I had all but two batches measured, kids were in bed, Liz and I were watching TV, and I was crocheting a poncho that I am working on for myself. Then I started to feel tired (it was about 1am) So I started to get ready for bed and Evan came home and said "Do you want me to finish these for you?" and I was like YES! And so he cut out the last couple of batches himself and did a FAB job, didn't burn a single cookie. In fact, his crescent moon's were better than mine!
Sunday we didn't do a whole lot. I have been doing MAD dishes around here, because Sears is in the process of screwing me over again.... as we have a dishwasher with a full master protection agreement.... that had some issues, pretty much since we bought it. but finally I could prove and pinpoint what was happening so we called them out four weeks ago and they came for a service call. The Tech told me that the machine definately was not moving water around properly, if at all. He wanted to replace the Pump, the Heater, the Spin Arm, the Filter, and one other part. So he had to order the parts and would be back in 1 week to install them. The dishwasher was sporadically working, and in 1 week he came back and spent LOTS of time trying to get the thing working right. There was an issue with the parts, he needed a few more, and he left the dishwasher completely non-functional, with the water turned off to it so that no one would accidentally try to use it. He said he ordered more parts and that I was to call when they arrived and make my appointment for service again, because it was going to take TWO Service Tech's to repair it (at the same time.) So the parts arrived and I called Sears to schedule my repair appointment, and low and behold, TWO WEEKS until they could service it. No matter who I talked to, and how I phrased it, and how polite and begging I was.... two weeks. So then Evan called and spent FOUR HOURS being transferred and hung up on and then finally told that someone would call us back (he was told that twice) and sure enough, no one ever did call us back... and here we sit with a non-working dishwasher, under full master protection agreement, waiting for repair service and accumulating dirty dishes that are multiplying like rabbits. It's insanity. We have a Kenmore Washer, Dryer, Upright Freezer, Fridge, Dishwasher, Microwave, Water Heater, AND Water Softener.... and there it sits.... broken. Just writing this makes me irate and sick. And if I walk into the kitchen and see the dishes that I don't have time to keep up with, it's even worse. That's what I am SUPPOSED to be doing tonight, but I wanted to do this first. Really. I will do them. I think.
So, on Monday Marek had his 6 month appointment at the Ped. He is actually just shy of 7 months, but whatever. We were scheduled for right after lunch, and I had a thought that I should call the health department to check on their supply of flu shots, as we had been planning on going to our local clinic on thursday and all get the shots. Even getting them from the health department, Flu Shots were going to cost us $80 for our family.... and if we wanted H1N1 that was another $80. $160 is alot to come up with on a budget. So when I called, sure enough, they are running severely low, and don't think there will be enough to last till Thursday, let alone enough to give our kids the booster that they need in 1 month after they get their first dose. So I call the Ped and luckily they had one for each kid.... which was awesome because I had been trying to get shots from them for over a month and they were constantly out of them. So instead of leaving Ardyn with Daddy, I decided to drag two perfectly healthy kids to a doctor's office to sit and then get flu shots.
I was whole-ly undecided about the H1N1 vax, and the last time I had been at the ped, he had said that he was not recommending it at this time because there hadn't been enough vax's done already to judge reactions, and because he hadn't had enough research presented for him to make a decision yet. Well, this time I was prepared to ask more questions, and he told me right away that the shot was something we should be getting, and that they had received their first batch in their office just ONE HOUR before we met with him, and that if we wanted, he could give it to the kids today. Wow. I knew that because everyone was running out of regular flu shots, and this H1N1 was going to be no exception, that if I wanted them, it was then and there, now or never. We had some discussion and he told me that the pandemic is REAL and that he is seeing a pandemic situation in his office right now. We decided to give Marek all 3 of his 6 month shots, and each child got a seasonal flu shot in addition to the H1N1 vax. I couldn't get either because of the shortage, and because I am not in the top or first tier of those needing to be vaxed, since Marek is over 6 months old and can be vax'd himself. So, it was an exciting ped appointment, with 7 shots and regular weigh ins and discussions. Marek was 18lbs 5oz and had gained over 2lbs since his last appt just two months ago. Go baby Go!
When we got done there, we went to Dairy Queen and had Hot Fudge Sundaes for getting done with our shots and being brave. Then we went home and lounged a bit before I had to leave to go to Mom's night out with my MOPS friends. Now THAT was fun! Except for the part when My dear husband called me frantically searching for "Wendy"- who is Ardyn's current stuffed animal obsession and who she had left IN the van. Oh well. What's a girl to do?!
We ran through hobby lobby and Target afterwards and I got some adhesive (40% off thanks to Chanda's coupons!) for the scrapbook night I have upcoming this weekend.... and also a couple of skeins of yarn on sale to make some crochet dishcloths. I also got salt and pepper shakers for us, because Ours have been broked for a few weeks now, and not having them is driving me nuts. I don't mind the salt so much because I don't use it much, but the pepper, drives me bonkers!
Today I didn't do much. I did accomplish a few things (which I can't talk about here just yet) and then got us through naptime and took a bath because I had some shaving to do.... tonight was our first swimming lesson of the season! We have both kids in one class, so it takes both Evan and I in the pool with them. I can say that I am LOVING this year, because the baby is BOY so he gets to go into the guy's locker room with daddy, while Mommy gets to take Ardyn into the ladie's, and I love it. So much easier to get myself ready with her in the room than with a baby. And that also means that we can split the load of things to carry and it's just fabulous. More than I could have ever hoped for :)
Lessons went well. I believe that the class Ardyn is in is actually below what she needs. It isn't exciting enough for her and she is bored in about 15 minutes and therefore she is ornery as all hell and starts throwing tantrums and screaming that she wants to go swim with the big kids. but I believe you have to be 3 to move up to that class? I don't know, but another girl from Ardyn's preschool class got out of the pool in the infant/toddler class and moved up to the next level during the lesson. I don't know what's up with that. Barb, are you reading this? What's a mamma to do? I don't know if Ardyn is well behaved enough to stand on the platform with the next age group? I am a little worried that she will not wait her turn (Who am I kidding. She won't wait her turn) and then she will end up half drowning and making the lifeguards feel bad. I dunno. I told her teacher tonight that she needs to talk to Ardyn and tell her what to do, because Ardyn will more likely do something that the teacher tells her to do than something that mom tells her to do. She did well, as long as I constantly kept her moving and kept distracting her. I also let her jump off the side of the pool into my arms alot, which I don't know if it's a no-no or not, but she was SO bored and that's what SHE wanted to do... and I know that she is learning and enjoying herself... so I thought we'd just do it and see if anyone said no to us. Afterwards we went and grabbed McDonald's and ate in the dark at the park, because it was so nice outside. Then we took a nice long drive home in the country, where I saw a deer pooping along the road. i had never seen a deer pooping in my whole life, and I have seen LOTS of deer.
So there you have it, in a nutshell. I am sure there is much more that I could be saying, but you know I am dying to get to those dishes, right? Ugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment