To take the dog, or not to take the dog...

One of the bad things about having animals is that you have to figure out what to do with them when you vacation. Anyone that has a Jack Russell knows that you don't have friends lining up offering to watch your "baby". So, anytime you go out of town you have to take them with you or board them which is extra $$, and if you are my sister you would NEVER, NEVER EVER even CONSIDER boarding your dog.

So, we are starting to seriously think about taking a vacation to Disney next year and while thinking about what we will do with, Jack I started looking for Pet friendly Florida Vacation rentals homes and pet friendly Hotels I was very pleased to see that there are quite a few especially in Orlando!!

Now that I know we have the option of taking him...I just have to decide if we actually want to travel with him.

Curious George

What a cute movie..and a CUTE monkey! I love him..I want him to be mine!! Actually, I didn't make it through the whole movie. I kept falling asleep and finally laid down on the couch and succumbed and took a 45 min nap. So, I need to finish watching it tomorrow so I know what happened. I love me a man in a big yellow hat too!! :-)

Oh and Dylan calls George, "cursunen George". ROFL

A little Home Improvement would make it all better

Lately, I have had this "thing" where I think about moving, dream about moving, talk about moving, I even lust after other people's houses. The reality is, that we cannot and are not going to move. Especially since my mom moved 4 doors down not too long ago. (Yeah...I'm sure she be THRILLED if we decided to move. LOL)

I've come to the realization that the moving bug that I have going on would go away if we could simply make a home improvement.....or 10. LOL

The BIG one that I would LOVE to do someday is tear down the wall between the kitchen and dining room and make the living room/dining room/kitchen a great room. Of course we would need all new countertops and I would love to have granite (along with the granite guy from "Home Improvement" LOL). I'd like to have an island and stainless steel appliances too.

Before the dream home improvement can be done we will have to do some of the other stuff that HAS to be done. Hopefully, we'll be able to start doing some of that soon and gain some pride and happiness in our home.

The Wild

We watched The Wild last night with the boys. They stayed up late and are both sick with colds and I am wondering if that was a mistake. Dylan is being SUCH a PAIN this morning. We had a big "to do" over having cookies for breakfast. He is now eating chicken nuggets and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so for the moment he isn't whining..which is always a good thing. Hopefully it STAYS that way. I rented Curious George to watch with them today and I am getting ready to go to the grocery so we can eat something. We are out of just about everything. I hate that and I hate the grocery, but I like to eat...so I guess I better skedaddle.

Rekindled Love for Handbags

I have always had a "thing" for purses. In my younger days, when I had more money I was always in style carrying the bags that were most popular. Then I got married and had kids and traded in the trendy purses for a diaper bag.

2 summers ago my mom bought me a cute purse with matching wallet and my love was renewed. It made me feel girly and classy and I was again hooked on Designer Handbags Right now, I am loving this sweet little blue one in the bottom right hand corner and it has found a place on my Christmas List. Hopefully, Santa knows a thing or two about Designer Purses!!

Asthma Boy

Logan was doing so well over the summer, not one asthma episode and he wasn't even on his meds. Silly me, started thinking that he had outgrown it. No such luck. He has been miserable for about a week now, (even though I started him back on his meds the 1st week of school.) Especially at night, MOSTLY at night. It hasn't kept him out of school at all, but he has had lots and lots of coughing bouts at night. I bring this up now, because he just got done coughing so hard that he threw up all over his bed. I got him cleaned up and K took the blankets down and put them in the wash. I was holding him on the couch and he fell back asleep and wasn't coughing at all. When K came up he asked if I gave him a breathing treatment. I told him no. He asked if I wanted to, I said No. My argument was that he was resting fine now, let's just leave him be. He carried him back to bed and got him all settled. about 30 seconds later he started coughing. K "yelled" down the hall, "yep, he's ALL better". UGH! I hate when he is right.

What a Pretty Little Head

Rita's baby shower for this baby is in November. I would really like to come up with a great gift for her because she is my friend and I love her bunches!! :-)

While I was scouring the internet I saw something that piqued my interest. Mainly because I remember her telling me that Avery's head was an odd shape since he was a preemie and she tried really hard to make sure he never laid in the same spot on his head, but that she thinks it's a teeny bit flat on one part. I think his head looks fine, so I think she did a great job, but if she had had received a baby gift such as this. I can imagine it would have saved her a lot of "grief".

Trying to keep a sleeping baby on it's side, but not in such a way that it could flop over to end up sleeping on it's tummy is hard! There are all kinds of gadgety type wedge thingies that are supposed to help with that. But I think this one looks like one of the neatest I have seen. I wouldn't be surprised if this shows up on a "must have baby gift" list soon.

BRRR...RRR....RRRR....RRR...RRR!!!

BRR!! Darn it!! It's cold. The temp dropped 32 degrees night before last...THIRTY TWO!! good grief!! I actually hda to turn on the heat for awhile to get the chill out of the air. Then I got hot. LOL So, the heat is on and if it stays on too much it gets quite hot and stuffy in the living room, so we keep it kinda low. But back in my bedroom where my office is. I FREEZE. I am wearing sweats, 2 shirts, and socks right now. I think I need a space heater in here. Actually, I think we have on in the basement, maybe I should have Kyle bring it up for me. Of course using space heaters jacks up the electric bill. My mom keeps a scapce heater on just for her dog (a 3 lb yorkie) to lay by to stay warm and her electric bill is always high. The electric co. (HEY, YOU GUUUYYYYSS!! LOL) told her that space heaters use a lot of electricity. SO, maybe I will just stay bundled up and work with icicle toes and fingers. :-)

I do love the changing seasons though. The air is cold and crisp and the leaves are changing and the wind blows and I can hear the dry crunchy leaves blow down the street and sidewalk.

ah! it's fall!! maybe I'll make some potato soup this weekend. mmmmmm!!

Vonage info at your fingertips

You know, I am amazed at the people (like my mother) that just don't know what great info there is "out there" and can be found literally at the tip of your fingers on the internet! It excites me when I simply type a word or two into a search engine and multiple results come up to help me with whatever issue I have going on.

I work from my home office. What enables me to do that is our work phones are connected through Vonage. It is so nice, because as long as I have my vonage router and laptop, I can work from virtually anywhere!

Working from home, if my vonage should decide to act wonky or I have a question about certain features, etc., I don't have a cute techy/geeky guy to come to my rescue. But WAIT! I don't NEED a cute techy/geeky guy for that. I'm a smart girl I can figure out wonkiness and research features on my own. I can take a quick trip over to the Vonage forums and find any answer to any question (vonage related of course) I have. Really. The forums there are chock full of News, Reviews, Help, Opinions. It's a really great site and if you are a vonage user like I am, it's a wonderful aid. Definitely check it out soon!!

The theory is

We have started a new points/reward system with the kids. Hoping to encourage good behavior and focus on the positive to try and steer them away from the darling little brats they are becoming. *big GRIN*

I went online and found some behavior charts and ended up figuring how to make my own on a spreadsheet in some program my computer has. I even entered images. (Yay me).

The theory of the plan is that we keep track on the chart and then on Friday nights we count out all the stars and for each star they get to put a marble in their jar. For so many stars they get to choose something out of the grab bag. At the end of the month they can cash in their marbles for money and buy something or save it up to buy something bigger/better the next month. That's the theory anyway. ;-)

So far it's not going that great. They seem to care about the chart for the 15 minutes after we chart their progress and that's it. Maybe it will just take some time.....

I'm also implementing a 1 day a month family fun day and a some mommy/Logan Daddy/Dylan and vice versa time. I think they crave one on one time and don't get enough.

Hopefully it will work and I can write a book on my theory and make a bunch of money!

Hankerin' for some POKER!!

Last winter we were in Columbus meeting friends of ours. They weren't getting in until late that night so Kyle and I took the kids and walked around Target buying things we didn't REALLY need. :) We bought some playing cards and a Texas Hold 'Em set. I was SOOOO excited!!

We put the kids to bed and sat up LATE eating and playing Poker. It was SO fun especially because I ROCKED at it!! We haven't played again since, and I am a little scared my good luck, was beginner's luck because really, I had NO idea what I was doing. Kyle was annoyed because he said there was no rhyme or reason to what I was playing. LOL WHATEVER! It was working for me!!

Well, I came across that Texas Hold 'Em set again while digging in the closet looking for yarn. and I got a strong Hankerin' to play me some POKER!! I decided to look up some how to's of the game and I found a really great site, explaining the various poker rules, types of poker games, etc. It's a great site and I feel so prepared for our next game of poker--Kyle won't know what hit 'im!! hahahahahahah!!!

She's doing it again!

Remember my friend, Rita? Well, she's doing what I said she was doing in that post..AGAIN!! Yes, her 2 precious babies will be only 11 months apart!! YOWZA! She is nervous, and stressed, but happy. As a bonus this baby is a girl..so she'll have a boy and girl (awwwww) and can be done with the babymaking. Which she is glad about. LOL Baby #2 (tenativly named Alayna) is due February 3 (I believe). I'm excited to buy GIRL stuff!! Pink stuff, dresses, cute little jelly sandals, BIG hair bows!! yay!!!

Congrats, my friend...love you!!!

Vacation Dream Believer

Well, I am feeling a little better now. Could be the fact that work is over and I am done dealing with the diaper problems of the world or it could be that I have spent the last hour dreaming about Florida Holidays. I was born in Florida, (Ft. Lauderdale to be exact) (Broward Co. General Hospital to be REAL exact!!) so I think my "roots" are calling me back there. That or I just REALLY wanna take my boys to Disney World. I really want to go while they are young enough to appreciate the magic of it all and old enough to not be a complete whining pain on the trip...I believe we are almost there!

You're driving me NUTS!!!

UGH!! I have been SO irritable the last 2 days and it's making me miserable. The customers at work are making me a little nuts and I'm just not in the mood for it. I think I MIGHT be on the other side of it now...so HOPEFULLY, tomorrow will be a much better day.

Mission:Totally Possible

So, I posted about my newest money making venture, Pay Per Post, but didn't share that you, yes, YOU (!) can do it too!!! woohoo!! The mission, should you choose to accept it, is as simple as posting in your blog with a strong desire to make money. Easy Peasy!

You can also make some extra $$$ by referring others to join. PPP has an awesome referral program, paying $5 per referral...talk about easy money!!

Hopefully, I have succeded in MY mission and you are on your way over to PPP right now to sign up. If that is indeed the case, I would be thrilled if you would list my e-mail address as your referral. (tricia1103@gmail.com) THANKS!!!

October 30??

I heard from the GI dr. yesterday. The earliest they can get me in is Oct 30th!! I don't know that I can live like this for another 29 days. Kyle suggested I call my dr. and tell her that I can't wait until then and ask if she could refer me elsewhere. I think I might do that. Of course there are no guarantees I will be able to get seen any sooner somewhere else. and maybe the dr's with the longest waiting times are the best drs??? oh well..I don't really care. I'm just tired of being miserable...have I said that yet?? ;)

Joining the rage that is PPP

A few weeks ago, Cindy told me about Pay Per Post. I signed up and left it alone. Now, I wish I had started posting then. I could be $1,000 richer right now. But noooooo.....I was lazy. Better late than never I guess. So I signed into my account, entered the info about my blog and waited to get approved. While waiting for approval, I scoured the site and the blog, determined to learn how to advertise on blogs and be THE BEST Pay Per Post-er EVER! I'm thrilled to finally be on my way with this awesome oportunity!!

Criss Cross Applesauce

When did sitting Indian style stop being called that? I guess when the political correctness thing came into play.

anyway, Dylan is slightly pigeon-toed. When K took him for his 4 yr check-up he asked her about it and she said that he would grow out of it as much as he could, but to make sure that when he is playing, watching tv, etc that he is sitting with his legs straight out or "criss cross" (although she said Indian style). He usually sits with his knees bent and sits on his feet..he sleeps that way too...he pulls his legs and feet under him and curls up in a little ball. I feel bad, because I should have paid more attention to that. I just didn't have that problem with Logan...he never sat that way. Now that I think back, I remember it being discussed on my message board a long time ago. I just wish I had been more aware with Dylan. *sigh*

Halloween

I'm pretty sure Dylan is going to be a cat and Logan is going to be a "floating jack o lantern". They should be pretty easy and cheap costumes to come up with. I just couldn't stand the thought of spending $70 on costumes this year. It's nuts! Dylan has wanted to be a cat for awhile so I knew his costume would be easy and cheap...Logan was another story it took a lot of talking and convincing. It may change, but we are not spending $40 on a costume. that's fo sho! ;-)

The results are in...

I talked to the dr. this morning and she said my blood work all came back perfect. (My sugar is on the high side of normal and she threw in that I need to lose some weight, blah blah blah) So, the next step is being referred to the GI doc..that should happen some time this week. I hope it happens SOON because I am miserable. MISERABLE!