MeanMean Monday

For those of you who don't know, I received the nickname MeanMean at work from a fellow co-worker. It surprisingly(ok, not really) stuck. Today MeanMean was in full force. I don't know what it was but a guy at work has been giving me sh*t on a regular basis about the food I bring in, and that I must be rich since I choose not to eat the food made at work. Today just it just really pissed me off, because #1 I am far from rich, which is why I working at this freaking place and #2 the food at work sucks, is full of white, bad carbs and nasty casseroles, and best of all, #3 made by inmates. Now I will admit to eating the crap when I first started, but truly there are only a few meals worth thinking about eating and I was a bit naive to what goes down in the kitchen. The only things I will even break down to have is the milk which comes in cartons, but is made by the prison dairy, so it still gives me the creeps, hard boiled eggs since what ever nastiness was in the water or pan gets taken off with the shell or things that come still in the package, ie chips, cereal.
From then on, I had my cranky pants on. Needless to say, I was very happy the work day ended. Dealing with crazy people can wear on you. The next 2 days I get to deal with sick and dying people we'll see how that goes. Peanut Butter and I got a short run in, I my knees have been aching and it wasn't what I wanted to do, but I feel much better. Who knows maybe I'll run to the ball fields tonite too, or I might just walk, we'll see.
Almost forgot Natalie is doing a give-a-way from her Paisley Lane Jewelry. She has some beautiful stuff.

Weekend Round Up

Friday, I was hoping we were going to go out for dinner, but J called from work and gave me this crap story about not feeling good, so Peanut Butter and I had Mac & Cheese and ketchup with fries. I think we both just use the fries to eat more ketchup. Thank you Heinz for making your organic version, because I gave up your original yumminess since it had corn syrup in it. J came home and must have been feeling better since he left right away to go to one of the ball fields not once but twice that night for important baseball business.

After work on Sat I requested not to have to cook and J suggests KFC, not my fave, but I say ok. Since we had mac and cheese the night before I really didn't want it as a side, but there isn't much choice but we ended up in an argument over the sides outside the drive through and J took off dumping all the groceries in the back. I said just go home I'll find something there. After another round of arguing we get Jimmy Johns. I hate deciding what to have for dinner. We are very different in tastes and likes. This is one of our biggest conflicts. I said maybe we should just eat separately from now on so we don't fight about it.

Peanut Butter was well behaved for her babysitter yesterday and today. Yesterday she said she was surprised how well PB plays by herself. I don't know if that means I don't play with her enough or she is just independent and that's good. I'm always worried if I'm a good parent or not.
I tried to shop at Kohls today and PB just will not sit in the cart, or any part of the cart. I had an extra %15 off so I just started grabbing stuff and figure what I don't like I'll just return. I just couldn't do it anymore. I don't know why I even tried.

8 is Great.

Jules tagged me for this bit of info about my self.


Eight Things I Have a Passion For:

1. J, Peanut Butter and the Boy
2. Scrapbooking
3. Travel
4. Taking Photos, though I am not very good at it.
   
5. Tivo
6. Brittish stuff, ie Burberry, Crime Dramas, accents and words.
7. Dark Chocolate.
8. Blogging
   

Eight Things I Would Like to do Before I Die:

1. Tour Gernamy
2. Tour Ireland
3. Take Peanut Butter to Paris.
4. Spend a Summer on the Beach
5. Finish my Degree
6. Be able to run 5 miles.
   
7. Lose 40 pounds
8. See all the good stuff in Peanut Butter and The Boy's life.
   

Eight Things I Say a Lot:

1. Seriously?
2. Are you freaking kidding me? (though freaking is usually not the word I normally use)
3. Who's sock's are these?
4. Peanut Butter's Full Name.
5. The Boy's Full Name
6. Sh*t
7. Peanut Butter
8. I am not the maid here.
   

Eight Books I Have Read Recently:

1. Come Back: A mother and daughter's journey to hell and back. -Claire Fontaine
2. The Courage to Start: A guide to running for life. -John Bingham
3. Without Fail -Lee Child
4. The Ghost -Robert Harris
5. One Shot -Lee Child
   
6. The World Without Us -Alan Weisman
7. His Dark Materials Books 1&2 I couldn't finish 3 -Phillip Pullman
8. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows -J.K. Rowling This was the audio book, I had read it the day it came out. If you like Harry Potter, Listen to them on audio they are fantastic.
   

Eight Movies I Have Seen Eight Times:

1. Gladiator
2. Pretty in Pink
3. Breakfast Club
4. A Few Good Men
5. Saving Private Ryan
6. Bourne Identity
   
7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
8. Shawshank Redemption
   

Photostory Friday

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

10 Years

The Boy and Miss Peanut Butter are 10 years apart. As he is making his way through the crazy world of being a teen, she is exploring the world as a toddler. I was a bit worried about the age difference at first. I wasn't sure how The Boy would take to being a brother, but he has been pretty great. We brought him to the big 20 Week ultrasound, he came up the day after she was born, and he likes to show her off. I think he loves the role of big brother and gets down and plays at her level with her. She can be awfully rough with him; smashing him with her push car, swinging at him with her bat, throwing stuff at him, but he takes it all in stride and I don't think ever gets mad. He does try to discipline her, which I really don't like, but I just have to tell my self its the age difference. She really loves him, he went to camp a few weeks ago and even though he only stays here a couple nights a week, she needed to check if he was in his room every morning. She was starting to miss him. With the summer here, he's not here as often staying at his mom's some days, so when she does see him she gets all excited.

I snuck these two photos when we were at the ball field. She ran up to him and he lifted her up. But she had an agenda, she wanted the hat.

Thoughts for Thursday: Best Laid Plans

I can be a bit anal about plans. I completely plan itineraries for vacations(though I'm beginning to wonder what those are). I go into research mode when planning a project. I am currently in the planning stage of redoing our porch into a playroom. There really isn't a whole lot I need to do, but I just can't start. I am consumed with the little details. Should I, can I fill in the mortar on the bricks, should I paint, what kind of flooring is affordable, yet some what green? Should I make curtains, buy them? It just has me overwhelmed. I know I just need to sit and tackle the really necessary things first, like the bricks. Until I decide what to do there and get it done, I can't move forward. So I am going go to Menard's and tackle this, I think.

Are you a planner? Do you relish in the little details? Do you play it by ear and hope for the best?

Get the Lead Out

Can anyone explain to me how to get the darn lead out of my legs. I tried, really tried, running today and it felt like my legs were lead. Maybe it was all those donut holes I ate today, but I really had to push myself and I barely made it to the ball field, I even took the direct route, which is less than a mile and going home was worse, but I forced myself. Maybe I'm just not a runner. I'm really trying and I cannot break through this plateau. I don't know if it is because I'm pushing the stroller or what. I'm just really frustrated, I thought I would be further along by now. Pity party over.
Did any one see The Outsiders on ABC last night about the Amish and rumspringa when the kids in the late teens decide whether to stay or leave the Amish community. I forgot to tivo it. I hope they air it again. I know there is a documentary called the Devils Playground, but I haven't seen that either. I just thought it would be interesting.
Back to work tomorrow, it was a decent two days off. I think I might try the Zoo again next Thursday; The Boy said he wants to go, but had hunter's saftey this week.

22 Months

Peanut Butter is 2 months from turning 2.
Things she is up to now are:

• Trouble:)
• Learning words especially ones used in Blues Clues. She now loves yelling "MAIL!"
• Climbing fences
• Directions as which way we are going, not listening ones, maybe someday.
• Playing with dolls.
• Pointing at babies, she loves babies.
• Not wanting to have her hair combed.
• Pointing to parts of the body. She is enthralled by the cabbage patch doll's outie.
• Throwing, the girl has an arm.
• Not sitting in a shopping cart.
• Pointing and saying, "wassat?"
• No longer napping with Mama in the recliner on a regular basis, she has to be in the crib.

It is going so fast.

Which Way Do We Go

Peanut Butter seems to have this uncanny sense of direction. After dinner we got ready to go watch The Boy play baseball. I told her where we were going, but failed to tell her that we had to stop at the library first to drop off some stuff. As soon as we turned the "wrong" way she started screaming and threw her nuk, cup, and sunglasses out of the stroller. I picked them up and kept going, but she was still upset. After dropping said things in the drop slot we headed the direction of the field, but instead of going up a block to the street we usually take I kept going straight in the direction of the grocery store. Again, she starts screaming and throws her shoes out. I stopped and pick them up and explained that we were indeed going to the "ball" fields and that she needed to chill. She shook her head yes and we were on our way. As soon as she saw the fields she got all excited. I made sure we took out usual way home. She somehow remembers where everything is, it is crazy sometimes.
I wish I would have had my camera tonight. PB and J were sitting in the scorebox eating popcorn together, it was something. I said to myself that would've been the perfect photo. But in my harried state after spending 20 min to get out the door I forgot it.

A Rummaging I Go.

I never was much of a rummager, I have issues with the whole used clothes thing. I now have issues with money, so hey, if I can save a buck and it isn't all worn out I will purchase it. That being said, I am very selective when it comes to clothes. I don't normally buy character clothes, so I won't buy them at a rummage. I can't believe how much character crap is out there. I also hate when people throw a blanket over a big dirt hole and throw stuffed animals on it, who in their right mind is going to walk through the mud to look at the crap. I don't like when clothes aren't arranged by size either, I hate digging. I normally won't even give a second glance to any toy if it is dirty, how hard is it to clean of a piece of plastic. Yes, I did give in on this gem, but it was 5 bucks, had they put 10 min of cleaning in I might have paid 20 for it. I promise to keep this in mind when I have mine, I keep putting it off.


I took the day off today because J had all sorts of baseball stuff going on. I figured I should probably get a run in today and that I should do it before it heats up. Before Peanut Butter and I took off, I slipped some cash in my change purse just in case we came across anything good. We took off and lo and behold we find a treasure, a bag of old school fisher price little peeps. I was so excited, I'm nostalgic like that. This sale obviously was run my some grandparents who no longer had grand"kids" the funny thing was one one table they had Playstaion/xbox games and I had to laugh when I saw Grand Theft Auto, I kept imagining Grandpa at the controllers.

Around the corner we went off running and had to put the brakes on. I bought a couple of clothing items and remember when stores couldn't keep cabbage patch kids on the shelves and if they had one they retailed for like 50 dollars, well I bought one for 50 cents. Peanut Butter really wanted it, she's starting the doll/baby phase. This is driving J batty, he wants PB to be a little tom boy and never play with dolls. I had to break it to him that even he probably played dolls at some point. He is in denial.

We were off again and I knew were a sale was supposed to be and I'd actually have to kick it in gear and run more than 5 blocks, unless we stumbled upon another one. I rummaging usually isn't an agenda for me I don't look up the ads in the paper, I just look for signs. At our next stop, they apparently had been running this thing since yesterday and it was pretty picked over, this is where in fact, it would be handy to look at ads. I got a shirt and should have bought this other outfit, but it had Minnie on it and well, I couldn't do it. I got 3.3 miles running/walking done and also a bible study from some girl. I must have atheist written on my forehead and people feel the need to convert. I thought she needed directions when she stopped me, darn the luck, I'm too nice to not listen. I washed up our toy purchases and I set the little peeps on the table outside to dry. Peanut Butter decided it was too nice a day not to play with them out there, so we did.
I had to include a photo of my little peeps compared to today's little peeps. Two sheep, who'd of thought they were made by the same company. The new ones might be a little cuter, but I still love the old school ones.

Photostory Friday

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

This is a photo of the painting Berthe Morisot by Manet it is in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Yes, I have been lucky enough to have been to Paris not only once but twice. On my second trip my only request was to see the Musee d'Orsay since J and I missed it when we were there for our honeymoon, back when the dollar was worth more than a euro. I just found out I was pregnant before I left for the second trip.
My whole desire to go there was I had wanted to see paintings by Monet, and this beauty by Manet struck me. I was in absolute awe and didn't know why. I stared at her and she stared back, I took her photo in case I couldn't find something of her in the gift shop. I'm glad I did, I only found something in a Museum book, which I of course bought.
I hadn't thought much about her until I was looking through my Paris photos for todays post, when it hit me. When she caught my eye was she giving me and insight to what was to come. Was she giving me a glimpse of who Peanut Butter might be before she was born? Is that why I was so taken with her?

Thoughts for Thursday: Planet Green

Yep, you are all in for another of my fine tree huggin' posts. So there is this new channel, Planet Green, and I have been watching quite a bit of it. J went postal about it, saying something along the lines of,"You mean to tell me these pot smokin' hippies have their on damn channel now?" I asked him if he considered me one of the pot smokin' hippies, and he said, "no, you just get way more into the "crap" than you need to be." That being said, I am in love with Living with Ed.

Ed and Rachelle are almost exactly like J and I only I am more Ed in being green, but I sound a lot like Rachelle attitude wise. In one episode Ed gets on Rachelle about a bag she got with a purchase and went round and round with her,"When they ask paper or plastic what do we say? Neither!" it made me laugh because that has been our big battle lately, the stupid plastic bags. I also asked if we could get solar panels when we redo the garage roof and J just shakes his head.

The nice thing about this show is it also shows some of the little things that we take for granted that are so easy to do. I live about 5 blocks from a library and a grocery store, I cannot tell you how many times I got in my honkin suv and drove to these places ran in, ran out, and drove home. I now walk, and yes I'm sure they get sick of me in the grocery store since I'm there everyday, but I can only fit so much in the stroller basket and I rarely plan meals more than one night in advance. I love seeing how Ed is going to get somewhere.

Another cool show is Wa$ted. It shows families how they can reduce their carbon footprint and save a bunch of cash in energy savings. I thought today how desperately I wanted to be on this show, only to look around to see I already do most of their suggestions: cfl lights, recycling, no plastic bags, programmable thermostat, and if I could my honkin' suv would be downsized.

If you get Planet Green try and check out these shows, hey it's rerun season anyway. Since there isn't a whole lot of programming yet on P.G. these shows are in fairly heavy rotation. Maybe you'll find a little thing you can do.

ratatouille, running & rheumatic fever

What is it about this darn movie? I swear, I am sick to death of it, and J puts it on all the time. I ask him how he can stand to keep watching it and he says, "I like it, I think it's pretty good." No more than 5 min later there I am sitting there watching it not wanting to leave. Darn that rat.
I got out running today. I barely got a mile in going to the ball diamond. Peanut Butter ran around a bit and had to stink up her pants so we had to head home. Bad mommy didn't bring a back up. J said you'd better run home and get there quicker. Whatever, was my reply, but I did the whole way, so I actually got 2.2 miles in.
I got a email from my mom today concerning the hives. (hi mom) She had to tell me about hives and Rheumatic fever and scare the bejesus out of me. My brother had it when he was younger.
I don't know if anyone watches deadliest catch or not, but last night was the night for one liners. I cannot get enough of that show.

Daddy's Girl

J actually is home for one evening and Peanut Butter is taking full advantage of it. She wants nothing to do with me and screamed at the top of her lungs when I took her from dear o daddy for a change. And then made me carry her all the way back upstairs to daddy when she can get up those stairs just fine by herself. And just as I'm typing my pity party she runs in her with a big smile and says hi. How can you not love that, even though she just wants me to turn a Blue's Clues on.

Hives

Miss Peanut Butter woke up at 5 this morning, thinking nothing of it, I handed her her nuk and went back to sleep and so did she until about 7 when J brought her into our bed and she was full of hi's. I took her down stairs and changed her to realize she probably needed changed at 5 and had the runs again, but not only that, she then broke out in hives all over her body. it was crazy. Her nose looked like someone broke it; it was purple. I'm in a panic and ask J if I should take her to urgent care, or wait til the dr's office opens in 15 min. He says wait and call. I take her in and by the time we get in, it has pretty much subsided. The Dr figures it's food related, but I have no idea to what. And she had this before when she had the runs. I'm racking my brain to think of a common food it could be, I know it's not strawberries or peanut butter. (she didn't eat either yesterday.)
I then attempted to shop with her and man o man I don't think this is going to happen very much anymore. Why I try to keep an on the go kid in a cart is beyond me. I even tried the huge, monster cart at target and that didn't work. Thankfully all the food samples at whole foods kept her busy in there. She was double fisting strawberries.

Weekend Round Up

Friday night we spent some time being looky-loos. J is a looky-loo fanatic, he will follow police and fire engines all over. It seriously is crazy, he now lies and say he needs something and run out to find out what's going on. Anywho, the city is worried about these building's foundations giving away and falling in to the river. You can see on the lighter tan building the top is leaning in. They had someone in a bucket checking out the roof to see if that was caving in. All the businesses on this side of the street were closed and the power was cut of to them. On Saturday they were worried that the dam in a city over would breech and send all that water here, so they closed the whole downtown now. They are hoping the water will crest tomorrow, but we are expecting thunderstorms tonight.

Peanut Butter got her fair share of playing outside this weekend. She was on a tear. Unfortunately the park we usually play at was under water Friday and still pretty soaked on Saturday. It is so funny watching her run as fast as she can go with her little legs moving 100mph. She must think the jogging stroller is pretty comfy because when I pulled out our other one she cried and screamed and ran up to the jogger. Of course I gave in and took the jogger and to J's dismay I bought new nuks because all of them disappeared and I just cannot take the screaming. I am hoping she sleeps past 5:30am tomorrow morning; I would like to sleep in on at least one of my days off. Yesterday she fell back asleep when we laid in the recliner, but today I think her tummy was upset and she stayed up from 5:30. I changed 4 diapers in less than 2 hrs. We went out to breakfast for Father's Day. After we got home Peanut Butter and I napped from 11-2. It was a lazy day. I usually like to do that on my last day off, but we'll have to go shopping tomorrow. I am going to try and do it as fast as I can, since she will not sit in a cart for more than 5 min.

I did post my layouts too for you scrapbookers.

Photostory Friday

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

I have a collection this week detailing the last two days.

Yesterday, I was sitting at the computer when all of the sudden the Tornado siren goes off scaring the bejesus out of me. I look out the window to see what's the deal and it starts hailing golf ball sized chunks of ice. Those white spots are hail stones. For those of you in non-tornado areas, generally speaking if the sky is green, there is no wind and it starts hailing like a mother, it is not a good sign.

This is some of the stones on our deck. Peanut Butter and I sought shelter at this point and wait for the all clear. It continues to rain. I should add it rained about 8 inches last weekend.

This is the sky out our back door before the second siren went off. The clouds were swirling and swirling. It was incredible to watch how fast they were moving, yet there was no wind. Peanut Butter and I took shelter again. J called about every 45 min from work to ask how much water was in the basement. Not nearly enough to call every hour asking about it. We ended up getting a couple big puddles which is minor considering we live 5 blocks from the next photo.

Today I went down to a bridge 5 blocks from our house. You might have to actually click on this one to appreciate how far the river has flooded. There normally is about 4-5 feet of grass and another 2 feet of rocks from the river to the what I believe is a 5 ft tall chain link fence. You can't see it from this angle but one of the houses has an above ground pool in their yard and well, the water is lapping at the top of it. On Tuesday after all the rain we had last weekend the yards were just starting to take a little water, and there were people fishing on the rocks of the building side.

This is the other side of the bridge. The building that is in the middle of the photo which looks like the river is running right into, which it is, is actually on these pylon structures and the river normally flows underneath it. All of the businesses that these buildings hold have now been closed by law enforcement which think the structures may be compromised by all of the water. The front of the building in the middle is starting to buckle inward. They have blocked of the road in front of that building tonight, and I think it may not be there tomorrow. I believe the first brick one on the right was on the news tonight having been deemed unsafe before any of this happened.

Thoughts for Thursday: Faking it til you Make it.

On one of the message boards I frequent there was a discussion about "faking it 'til you make it" which essentially is by telling yourself positive things and affirmations especially when things are bad can get you out of the funk. I do believe in the power of positive thought, using it is another thing. The fabulous Cassandra gave a woman a list of things to at least try, I figure at the very least I can try her first suggestion which was post 10 good things about your life.
1. I have a happy and healthy daughter and stepson
2. My husband loves me, and is not making me go to gooberville and is not mad about it.
3. We have a roof over our heads and it isn't a total shack.
4. After another monsoon of rain today, we only have puddle in our basement. Our house hasn't floated away.
5. I can run a mile further than I could 2 months ago.
6. I actually find my self wanting to exercise, maybe it is having Peanut Butter throw my shoes at me.
7. I don't mind my job as much now that I have a different post.
8. I still have money in my checking account.
9. I have the next 4 days off, in which I will do another of Cassandra's to dos which is post 3 scrapbooking layouts. And spend time just me and PB.
10. I have brownie mix in the cupboard in case of emergency.(they can't be all serious)

A Climbing Fool

Peanut Butter and I went down to the ball field for The Boy's game. She runs all over the place, but she especially loves the concession stand. She is addicted to popcorn and tonight as a special treat one of the women who run the stand was handing out lollipops for her birthday. PB got through most of the pineapple one before she dropped it in the sand, to which she ran back to the concession stand saying,"More! More!" She got a grape one and didn't care for that and J took her back for a 3rd one, cherry, which she ate quite a bit of, then it was on to the popcorn. She was a sticky mess. It would be nice if she could sit still for more than a couple minutes so I could actually watch and know what is going on in the game. Her new thing to do is to run over to the dugout slide between the fence and the dugout and climb all the way up the fence. I don't know how she does it, but she is a strong one. We left early since it was a late game and PB needs her beauty sleep, but The Boy's team ended up winning.

Gooberville, A Perspective.

Since there is interest in where/what the hell Gooberville is I will give you my take. My Gooberville is Hurley, WI. I grew up there and have since move far away, well 4 hrs. I went to school there, The combined towns of Upson, Iron Belt, Pence, Montreal, Gile, Gurney, Saxon, Oma and Hurley make up one school which since my Senior year is now a K-12. Yep we all fit in one school and our mascot, the Midgets. I will admit for the most part growing up there wasn't too bad, except for everyone being in everyones business. It is small and while it is beautiful it is pretty much cut off from everywhere. It is 2 hrs from Duluth,MN, Wausau,WI, and Marquette,MI the closest "bigger"cities. For the most part it is know for its debauchery, ie drinking and whoring, and that still rings true, there are at least 20 bars in a 4 block stretch and the 4th block, known to locals as the lower block because it is at the bottom of a slight hill that runs into Michigan, is basically strip joints or as refined establishments call themselves, gentleman's clubs. This was all fine and good in my drinking days, but alas, I have given up the sport due to the pounding it has already taken on me. That being said there isn't a whole lot for me to do there anymore. I am not in touch with any of my friends from high school and my parents no longer live there. We do however own land there for J's deer hunting. He owns it with a guy that my brother graduated with who happens to work with us. It really can be a small freaking world. This said land is adjacent to the guy's parents house, which is where we end up staying. This is in the middle of no where. J is basically feels like one of the family, I however do not. They are extremely nice and generous, but I don't have the family fuzzies that J does. And our friend is the one that came up with the name Gooberville, because he, like me know the nostalgia wears off after a day or too. I am really craving Bell Chalet pizza, so I'm on the side of going and they are having the Third Annual Snake Hunt this weekend. Our weekend is to consist of dinner at the Bell on Friday, out to the campground on Friday after dinner to meet up with the guy's parents. I hope Peanut Butter isn't drawn to fire. Sat the boys are working in the woods all morning, I have to find a way to amuse ourselves I hear the new super walmart in Ironwood is the place to be. And a graduation party Sat night. I hope I haven't given too much fodder for Tranny's T.I.T. whenever she decides to do WI.

Just Ducky

We walked to the park the evening, thankfully it wasn't full of water. Peanut Butter has been couped up for way too long. On our way we walk by this house that has a little pond and fountain all decorated in their front yard. PB squeals every time we walk by it. They even have a fake little beaver on one of the rocks. Today I said look they have a duck now, J says, " yeah a couple of real ones." I said, "Oh my god they are real." They had a male and female duck eying up their pond as a love nest. I wish I would've had my camera with me.
The count down to Gooberville is on. I told J today I was having second thoughts about going since there really isn't anything for me to do but keep the girl out of trouble. He got all pissy and said everyone wants to see PB and you could have said something sooner. I told him I was just getting second thoughts and he was fine don't go, I don't want to force you and have you throw it in my face like you did with thanksgiving. I'm torn on what to do.

Here Comes the Sun

And I say its alright. Thankfully we have been given a respite from the rain. We got 7.5 inches of rain over the weekend. Luckily our basement wasn't too bad, just a few major puddles along one wall. You would've thought we had a foot if you talked to J. I heard one family just redid their basement into a rec room and ended up with water to the windows, bye, bye 52 inch big screen tv. Our basement is just a nasty old basement where all of our crap gets stored and houses our washer and dryer. I'm sure some of you saw on the news about a whole lake draining and washing away some houses.

Crazy stuff.
Peanut Butter's new word of the week is 'mart, as in "you're really smart." from Blues Clues, she even points to her head.

On the Storm Front

It is J Birthday today, we didn't do much, I took the family out for dinner and we had cake, which was divine. I know it must be horribly bad since I want to eat the whole half sheet.

Around 1pm today I hit my breaking point with the dog hair, Peanut Butter's toys strewn about the living room and I was past being ready for a nap. I laid PB down for her nap and surprisingly she only screamed for about 5 min. I feverishly pick up and vacuum while J keep asking what is wrong with me. What's wrong? I am a control freak on a mission, picking up all this crap every couple hours is driving more insane than the insanity of the messiness. The fact that no one else gives a damn that our house is in shambles, the dog won't stop shedding huge hunks of fur all over and no one but me will brush the hairball, and the excuse I get is this is how it will look 10 minutes after she gets up anyway, so why pick it up. After our huge blow up, I go lay down, then for some strange reason I go lay down in Peanut Butter's room. AHHH nap time.
J and The Boy come upstairs searching for me and start telling me I need to get up, I give them the shush, you'll wake up PB and they said no, can't you hear the sirens. I become aware that it is practically night time dark in the room that was blindingly sunny when I laid down. I brought PB downstairs and went out side for a gander. It had the weird clouds moving in all directions and soon the small swath of blue/green at the bottom of the sky in the photo was racing towards us and I thought it was beginning to hail. Normally I don't go to the basement, I like to watch and never think a tornado will hit us, but I decided we'd better go and j manages to get the darn dog down there too. J, the nervous nelly, who wanted us in the basement keeps running back and forth outside and in, up and down the stairs. We come up after all is clear carrying the 75 pound dog that scratched the hell out of my legs. Thankfully no tornado, but it will not stop raining, our basement is going to be full of water. Someone called in to the radio from about a block away who already had 6 inches in their basement this afternoon.

Photostory Friday

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

This is my Peanut Butter in July of 2007. She is just a little over 10 mos. We are at a Little League tournament that her brother is playing in. This weekend she really gained her walking legs. She had been walking using the walls and pushing her car around for a quite awhile. But the whole world opened up to her over a couple days. I was amazing to watch her wonder and excitement, but exhausting chasing her all over the place. I haven't been able to watch a game of her brother's in its entirety since.

Thoughts for Thursday: A Complete Blank

I have nothing for you peeps but some rambling. I can't believe I cannot come up with a freaking thought to actually post about. I thought about talking about these scam artists and their fly by night mortgage companies and how they have put the housing market in the crapper, but I didn't want to just lay the blame on them. I thought about talking about how I'd take a murderer as a neighbor just about any day(exclusions are serial killers) over some of the other lawbreakers in society, but Kristi did one on neighbors and Helmet did thievin' bastards. I thought about talking about can't always getting what you want in the sense that it is beginning to be babypalooza, all these ladies getting pregnant and I want to join in, but know in my heart of hearts there is only going to be Peanut Butter. I got what I need and should be happy with that. I should have wrote about Guitar Hero, it seems to be all the rage. I'm not sure I get it, but when Lesle posted the following on her blog I had to laugh.

Wednesday Wonderings

I wonder why Blue's Clues is like crack for Miss Peanut Butter, all day long "coos, coos." She even know we have them tivoed and grabs the remote and points at the buttons "coos coos". There are worse shows, but the love I have for Blue is turning into loathe.

I wonder when I'll get of my arse and run again. I just haven't had it in me. I have done my prerequisite walking in place of the running. Jessica's talking about rollerblading has me itching to rollerblade. My Dad said he is going to send me mine.

I wonder what I should get J for his birthday on Saturday? I have no idea.

I wonder what my dog would look like shaved? I am sick of the dog hair. I may have to have him groomed at the kennel next weekend.

Back Pay, Verminators and a Menagerie of Other Stuff

I verminated my little spider since it was freaking people out, believe me I hate them as much as you do. I do NOT know how you peeps can watch Verminators. I would be squirming the whole time, the promo for it gave me the creeps on Deadliest Catch. It flew by as we were fast forwarding through the commercials and I was like what the hell was that, stupidly made J go back. Yuk. It is like a train wreck though you don't want to look but you have to, I may have to.
Working for the State has its quirks. Our contract was just signed and goes into effect retroactive to July 2007, which means we get back pay for the raise we received all on one check. My plans for my payback check is to fix up our front porch to make a play area for Peanut Butter. It is a fairly big space, like 8'x24', it just needs cleaned up, some new flooring, curtains and some paint. I'm not sure if I want to paint the bricks, I am going to panel off the ones below the window. I wish I had never found this site, it has all those cute Japanese fabrics that everyone is using on etsy. I wish they weren't so expensive. I may get a couple yards to use for pillows or something. I kind of wanted to make curtains out of this one, but I would need like 10+ yards. The flooring is already going to kill me. I think I'm going to use flor tiles of some sort.
Panera, what are you thinking? Why did you take the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad off of the menu? I know you need some rotation, but mandarin oranges and blue cheese? Ok gorgonzola, same thing. I see we have taken the milk from the kiddie meal and made it a separate charge too, yes, I noticed.
I may be giving away a money maker here, but they should put harness straps on the freaking shopping carts. My little Houdini will not be held back by a measly waist strap, she wiggles out of the harness straps of the car seat. I must look like the worst mother shopping with PB, because she will not sit for more than 5 min. It is from the front seat to the basket, back to the seat, standing on the seat, standing on the seat trying to strangle me, sitting on the handles of the cart hugging me(my personal favorite). While I was trying to bag my groceries like a mad woman at Whole Foods today, she must have gotten up from the seat, was teetering between the seat and basket, and a cashier caught her and put her in the basket, NICE. Shopping is no longer a my biweekly pleasure.
And finally on the tree hugging front, I know some of you like Tranny Head, actually use the whole diaper pail thing, and you can skip over this, but for disposable users, there is a newish brand called Nature Baby Care and they are 100% biodegradable, so are their wipes. They work great too. J makes fun of them, but any little bit counts right. They are available at Target and 1800diapers. they are more expensive online. At target a pack of 30 is $9.54, pretty much the same price as huggies.
*Tranny Head has informed me she does not use cloth diapers, but I like her blog, so the linky is still there.

Spiders

I don't know if it is because I smushed a couple of these suckers yesterday or what, but I had a weird dream about them. It wasn't a full on arachnophobia house full spiders like a lot of my spider dreams are, but they popped out of no where. It was winter one moment and the next J was walking though a bunch of webs to get in the door our vacation home in gooberville. We don't even have a vacation home in gooberville unless you count the deer camp, and anyplace without running water doesn't count in my book. I was complaining about paying people to clean and the darn spiders still take over. YUK I hate it, it was all I could do to not think about J having a face full of spiderwebs all day. The other grossness I got to witness today is seeing the aftermath of a guy, who is older than Moses, get his skin wrung off his arm and have it just hang there. It was so gross.

Wasted Day

I wasted a perfectly beautiful day. As I get closer to my Friday which is tomorrow, I get more and more worn down. It gets harder for me to get up and to stay awake in the afternoon. After J told me that Miss Peanut Butter had slept in to 9:30 I know there was no way this girl was napping. When I got home from work she had managed to destroy the living room again. I really need to get working on making the porch a playroom. I tried to lay her down, but it wasn't happening. I laid down in her room and just didn't want to deal with anything. J sent her back up and she came over and tried to open my eyes by pulling on my eyelashes. J came up and sat with us trying to get her to lay down which she must have since I fell asleep and when I woke up over 2hrs later she was napping and the boys were gone. What a wasted afternoon. We did walk on over to the park this evening, but she managed to stink up her pants and I forgot to bring reinforcements so we had to head home a little early. We passed by this house that is up for sale. It had just been completely gutted on the inside because the previous owner had and indoor swimming pool and was away in florida or somewhere warm when the husband died and she decided not to return home, so place was completely covered in mold. I looked it up online and I had to laugh when it said a well cared for home. Ha, maybe for the last 3 mos since it has been completely redone.