Ramblings of a SAHM

Sunday, May 30, 2004

*fumbles around to find chef's hat*

Tonight I'm grilling for 17 people. Well 7 of those people are us so I guess it's not such a big deal. On the menu: hamburgers, hot dogs, big red smokeys, brats, baked beans, carrots, asparagus. I'm also baking 3 rolls of chocolate chip cookie dough (ha, like I'd make them from scratch!) and 2 dozen banana muffins (from scratch, I know, I try hard not to make sense...). Plus appetizers. And mix up 3 gallons of lemonade. I spent about $75 at the grocery store for 2 meals, eek! (Breakfast tomorrow for 15 is french toast, sausage links, and above mentioned banana muffins). Hope you have a delicious day!

Quote of the Day: "Nobody seems more obsessed by diet than our anti-materialistic, otherworldly, New Age spiritual types. But if the material world is merely illusion, an honest guru should be as content with Budweiser and bratwurst as with raw carrot juice, tofu and seaweed slime." -Edward Abbey

Katie at 8:48 AM

Saturday, May 29, 2004

We've been hit by a drive by!

Greg noticed a long line of something gooey on the driver's side of the minivan this morning (it was parked on the street). So he starts grumbling about glue and rotten luck and why do these things always happen to him. He's pretty funny when he does this, it's hard not to laugh. So I quietly listened to him suggest ways for me to get it off (Goof Off, UnDo, etc). And to test a spot first! Then he drove off in the new van to price a dvd system and running boards (cause this van is like 3 feet off the ground! lol).

Now I pride myself on being able to get rid of stains. Crayon on walls? WD40. Fingernail polish remover for markers. UnDo is awesome for sticky stuff. I love the new bleach gel pens. Spot Shot for carpets and fabrics. Oxyclean for clothes. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser for the walls (when simple soap and water doesn't work). It's rare when I come across a stain I can't remove.

So I gathered up the supplies: Goof Off, UnDo, paper towels and a bucket of water. For the hell of it, I wet a paper towel and tried it on the stain. It came off red on the paper towel. Hmmm... I scratched some off with my fingernail. Ah-ha! As a mom of 5 french fry loving kids, it's easy to recognize hardening ketchup. The minivan is red so that's why I didn't figure it out sooner. A few minutes of scrubbing later and the spot was gone.

What ever happened to TP'ing?

Katie at 11:02 AM

Friday, May 28, 2004

I couldn't decide what to title this post...

Size does matter.

Hauling the Amish.

Oil tycoons rejoice!

What, ya too yeller fer a bus?

Fire hydrants beware!

Mini's are for sissies.

Introducing the Fleck's newest ride:

2004 GMC Savana 12 Passenger 2500 Van

Oh boy, am I going to have fun driving this...

Katie at 7:05 PM

Thursday, May 27, 2004

I'm calling it a day.

Fixed the fridge as well as I can for now (old gasket with a tiny bit of duct tape). Scrubbed out the deep freeze that we are giving my aunt and uncle this weekend. Cleaned the fabric on the kitchen chairs and sofa cushions. Folded towels and washed Greg's shoes. Swept the kitchen floor four times. Replaced the printer ink cartridges. Two trips to the grocery store.

It was a slow day...

Tomorrow I need to do my weekly cleaning, clean out the fridge, wash the walls, clean the kids' shoes, fix the bit of torn fabric on the sofa, and polish the silver.

I can't wait...

< /sarcasm >

Katie at 5:40 PM

First things first, Greg is home safe and sound.

Now huge doses of mommy guilt. Today is Zach's first field trip. And I'm not there. I'm missing his first field trip ever! I feel so awful I could cry. My mom was at my kindergarten field trip, that's what moms are suppose to do. How much do you think the counseling bill will be for this one? "My mom didn't go with me on my first field trip!" Cha-ching! *sobs*

I always told myself I'd be an involved parent in the kids' school. I was so psyched with Zach started preschool. Except they didn't want parent volunteers. Hmph. So I did the best I could, baking cookies, attending the Christmas program and Easter egg hunt, donating supplies when asked.

On to kindergarten... The first obstacle, in order to volunteer, you have to have a $25 FBI fingerprint background check run first. Um... It's probably stupid but I have issues with the FBI having anything on me. I'm okay with a criminal check, I've had those done before for jobs but my fingerprints? What if once in their database, they sort of match up to some huge unsolved murder and I can't prove where I was on the night of June 14, 1999? Eek!

Right, right, it's for the safety of the kids. The criminal check would work just as well. And most schools don't require any of the above. Common sense thinking is that if I'm safe enough to be with my kids, than I'm probably safe enough to be around others. There are exceptions I know and I do want all the kids to be safe but there's got to be a better way than making a boring mom like me jump through hoops to be at the school with my son. So needless to say, I haven't been fingerprinted.

Next obstacle, those other 4 kids... They couldn't go with me, not that it would be a good idea to have them all there anyway. And my darling husband travels a lot. When the school asked for volunteers, I had no idea if Greg would even be home today. And I don't have a day time sitter, just a high school girl after school one.

So here I sit, feeling very guilty. Zach didn't even mention me going with him because he didn't know that moms could go. It's his first field trip, he doesn't know what to expect. And I'm sure he's going to have a fabulous time and I won't be there to see it. It'll be his little memory and I won't be a part of it. This sucks.

Katie at 9:29 AM

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Isn't it ironic?

After 3 weeks of above average temperatures (80+ degrees) and humidity, today it is barely 60 degrees and windy.

And the new air conditioning unit is being installed as I type.

*bangs head on keyboard*

Katie at 12:20 PM

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

ARGH!!!

*deep breath*

My plan was to hop on here tonight and tell you all about the lovely new dining room light I installed today. It's so much better than the old one with a short in one socket, three burnt out bulbs, and a missing glass hurricane (which I um, accidentally broke). Although the new one was the cheapest Greg could find at Lowes so don't think dozens of pretty crystals hanging around candles. The best part, I didn't burn the house down with my novice electrical skills! So I was feeling all proud of my great do-it-yourself project and still on that accomplishment high, I decided to tackle the replacement fridge door gasket.

Our fridge door hasn't been closing properly for a few months now. The magnet has worn its way through the plastic seal and doesn't stick as well as it should. So I ordered a new gasket online because no one seems to sell them in stores. I waited impatiently for 2 weeks for it to arrive by snail mail. And then waited another week to put it on because Greg doesn't like to be home for my do-it-yourself projects. (no idea why...)

I measured twice, cut once, measured twice again, and cut one more time to customize the new gasket. It took me a few minutes to find the right size thingamabober for the socket wrench (at least I think that's what it's called, the funny metal thing that makes noise when you twist it) to begin removing the 100 or so bolts from the fridge door. The old gasket came off easily and I started fitting the new one in. Which wasn't too difficult but it hurt my fingertips prying the inside shelving piece away from the door frame and then squishing the new gasket in. After an hour fitting the entire thing (which was sized perfectly!) and putting back about half the bolts, I tried closing the door. It didn't close properly. What the *#&!?

ARGH!!!

*deep breath*

So I called Greg in a panic (he's in Seattle still) and of course not being able to actually see the fridge, he didn't know what was wrong either. We decided the best course of action was to put back the old gasket. So I removed all the freaking bolts again (and I suck at using a socket wrench) and took off the new one. Remember how I said the old one's magnet was coming out of the plastic? Even though I took care taking it off, it got worse in the process. Which meant it was that much harder to fit back into place.

ARGH!!!

*deep breath*

Finally after a total of 2 hours of messing with the stupid fridge door, I gave up and duct taped the old gasket into place. About half the bolts are back in but I just couldn't stand there sweating to death (still no AC here) and being extremely frustrated with it for another hour. The funny thing is that the door actually seems to close a little better. But just in case, I pushed a 25 pound bag of dog food and a chair against it.

Tomorrow I'll finish putting in the rest of the bolts. And then hang up my "Mrs. Fix-it" belt for awhile. *sigh*

Katie at 10:12 PM

I didn't accomplish as much as I had wanted yesterday because I ended up sitting at the computer most of the day and writing. I forgot how much I love to write. And also that I easily forget big parts of my novels after a few months away from them. So I spent about an hour rereading the Kierana trilogy. For those of you new here, I originally started this blog as a part of NaNoWriMo. The novels I began (ha, you think I've finished them? oh no... hehe) for NaNo 2002 and 2003 are fantasy stories based on a character I created when playing the online computer game Everquest. I totally suck at titles (hence no titles on 99% of my blog posts) so the stories are currently called Book 1, Book 2, Book 3. Catchy, I know. hehe

So I thought I'd share a bit. Cause I'm always reminding the kids to share so I should be a good example, right? *winks* Genuine has a great set up with his romance novel and I debated setting up another blog for the Kierana stuff. But laziness won out since I'd have to go through and change all the " and ' in my stories because Blogger does not like Word's formatting. Instead I went through all my old posts to find excerpts that I had posted previously (which still may have issues with " and '). So some of you can completely skip this entire post because you've read everything already.

A bit of background, Kierana is a female wood elf warrior whose entire family and village was destroyed by a dragon. She lives most of her life on the outskirts of a human town before joining Lord Gitter's warriors to slay the dragon (which is where Book 1 begins). Lord Gitter's other warriors are Jalask, Minolan, Caiden, Butu, Quetear, and Thedoff. So the stories are Kierana's adventures with the warriors and also her trying to find her place in the world and learning to accept who she is.

I'm the first to admit the series needs a lot of work. Especially since none are finished and I keep jumping between them all. I need to flesh out some background on the other characters and how magic works in this world. Although since Kierana stays to the physical fighting side of it, the lack of magical explanation hasn't cause too much trouble. Anyways enough rambling (can you tell I'm stalling?), here's a summary of what I've written with excerpts. Since they are mixed in with regular blog posts, just ignore the intro and scroll to the italics. There's more from Book 2 since that's the one I began in Nov 2003. And Book 3 was started for 2002 NaNo. It's all backwards, I know...

Kierana Book 1, 66 Word pages (single spaced) 38,674 words
Skaven Hunt

Book 2, 128 pages 73,242 words
Opening to Book 2
Lesson Over
Snowball Fight
Intro to Swamp
Caiden in Tent
Horse Stable
The Closet
Gift Giving

Book 3, 80 pages 47,670 words
Not Most Women

Anyway there's some of my ongoing writing. Now I need to get back to folding the laundry and playing electrician. haha

Katie at 10:29 AM

Monday, May 24, 2004

I'm in such a good mood that I wish I could bottle it up and share with everyone! This morning I finally bought myself a pair of sandals (half price) and a pair of khaki shorts (also half price). I spent $85 at the grocery store and Kyle was only rotten once. For lunch I'm eating a grilled brat (boiled in beer first, yum!) and chips and dip. And double dipping cause I'm the only one who likes french onion sour cream. hehe I also managed to find a gas station under $2. Well, it was $1.98 and 9/10ths but that's under $2! And it's so beautiful outside, 70 degrees and sunny with a good breeze. Definitely a "roll down your windows and drive with the music loud" type of day. My CD of choice this morning: Eagles Greatest Hits Volume 1

The only downside is that Greg is flying to Washington State today. But he'll be back early Wednesday afternoon. I have several projects to do (replacing dining room light fixture, replacing fridge door gasket, and a few more things) so it should go by quickly. Happy Monday!

Quote of the Day: "Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad." -Norm Papernick

Katie at 12:15 PM

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Hi all! We had a great weekend, spending most of it in air conditioning! Mr.A grilled kabobs for dinner (he's an awesome cook) and Mrs.A and I caught up on all the latest. The kids played baseball and in the dirt. I swear my girls can get more dirt on them than all the boys combined. *rolls eyes*

Quote of the Day: "We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love." -Author Unknown

Katie at 9:27 PM

Saturday, May 22, 2004

I love big families. I always wanted 5 kids, I even wrote that in my high school Senior Memories book. I'm the oldest of 5, my dad is number 5 of 14, and I have over 50 first cousins. I guess you could say big families run in my family. hehe Even Greg's family is big, his mom is the oldest of 9.

There's just something indescribable about big families. There's always someone to talk to, someone to play with, someone to cause mischief with, someone else to take the blame. *winks* If you get tired of playing with your sister, you go play with your brother. Or your other sister. There's always enough people to play a board game, tag, or hide-n-seek. It's a built in play group, no phone calls and driving necessary.

"Family get togethers" always have a minimum of 30 people. I've never understood how anyone could celebrate Thanksgiving without at least 15 people crowded around the table. Think My Big Fat Greek Wedding without the lamb. hehe

Cousins are the best people in the world. They are like your siblings, only cooler because you don't have to fight with them over the one bathroom in the house every morning. Since my kids don't have any first cousins their age, the A family pictured above seems to be our substitute. Hold on to your hats now, they have 6 boys, the oldest 7 1/2 years, the youngest 6 months. Their 2 cousins (ages 6 and 3 years, both boys) are also in the picture. So when we all get together, there are 13 children 7 years old and younger. It's a bit crazy, especially at meal times. But the amazing thing with that many children is that the adults actually have some peace and quiet. The older ones watch over the little ones to an extent and fights hardly ever start because if A doesn't want to play with Z, he plays with B instead. It's probably something you'd have to see to believe.

All that said, we're off to A's house for the day. Have a great weekend!

Katie at 8:27 AM

Friday, May 21, 2004

From Weather Underground:

Current Temp: 88F/31C
Heat Index: 98F/36C
Humidity: 66%

Now I know why people live in Canada. If gas prices weren't through the roof, I'd go drive around in the minivan with the AC on full blast. I've been seriously considering a trip to the grocery store so I can stand in the dairy aisle for an hour (bonus, several minutes spent in the air conditioned minivan). But I'm too hot to move from in front of the computer. Plus loading all the kids into the minivan would make me more hot and sweaty. So here I sit. *melts*

Katie at 4:24 PM

So 2 strong margaritas (with like 4 shots of the good tequila) and some um, you know with Greg last night, and waking up to a list of very funny jokes on my blog has put me in a much better mood this morning. Plus the Evil One is back! (well at least in Comments...) And it's Friday! Woohoo! Not that my weekends are much different than my weekdays but hey, I'm being positive here. *smiles* Be back later with more.

Quote of the Day: "I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose." -Woody Allen

Katie at 9:35 AM

Thursday, May 20, 2004

Blah... Anyone hear any good jokes lately?

Katie at 4:27 PM

Grump, grump, grump...

Don't you hate those days when you wake up in a bad mood? I didn't even get a chance to decide to be grumpy, I just am. A few reasons...

I hate being woken up before 8am. But I deal with that better than before 7:30am and I'm pretty sure the kids were awake and making noise at 7am today (I didn't roll over and check the clock until 7:20). Note the time of this post. And I already have the kids dressed and fed breakfast. *grump*

The furnace/AC system needs to be completely replaced. We have one quote and another couple of companies are coming out today. But spending a few thousand dollars on this means we may not be financially able to move this summer. Not to mention that it's 80 degrees and humid here with no AC. *grump*

Greg and I haven't um, you know, for two weeks. Two weeks! *grump*

I hate having a project to do and then not being able to do it. For example, replacing the fridge gasket on the door. I'm calling the company again today to see why the piece I ordered 2 weeks ago hasn't arrived. Another is the gardens, we have them all dug up and I'd love to put some plants in. But money doesn't grow on trees. It really should. *grump*

The kids have been driving me nuts more than usual as of late. They want to go outside and then are back in within 5 minutes, tracking in dirt and grass that takes me 10 minutes to clean up. They want to play Nintendo and Play Station and then fight over who's playing (2 controllers and 3 kids is bad math). They want to color and then abandon the project so Kyle and Kelly start coloring on the walls. They want to know when we are doing stuff (Disney World, school field trip, swim classes, camping) and then they can't remember the answer for more than an hour so they ask again. And again. It hurts my brain answering mundane questions repeatedly. *grump*

And there's a million other stupid little things making me grumpy: I need a hair cut, I haven't scrapbooked in ages, the forums I used to frequent have gone to hell in a hand basket, the black printer ink cartridge is empty, Kyle popped the patches out of the window screens, I have to buy shorts and sandals but have no desire or money to do so, Angel ended forever last night, Survivor is over for the summer, and on and on. *grump*

Quote of the Day: "Good morning, Pooh Bear. If it is a good morning. Which I doubt." -Eeyore

Katie at 7:40 AM

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Whew, 2 hours later and I'm caught up on my Blogroll. So what have I learned?

Perpetual Blonde has always been blonde and liked pink. Love the dress!

Erynn has officially moved!

If you like romance novels, go here: Genuine

DMouse's cat's ideal job is Satan. hehe

The Arrogant Sage is new to blogging but her great sense of humor shines through all her posts. Go check her out!

Today is Anti-Procrastination Day according to Heidi. Hmm, I was planning to procrastinate today in the first place, does that mean I'm required to procrastinate now? hehe

Miss Doxie is never allowed to join AA, she's too darn funny when she drinks.

My sister Erin has a new job, congrats! And her husband has a new knife... Hmm...

I want Pez to plan my next birthday party!

Piss and Vinegar seem to be keeping their mom Judi away from the computer. Let her go so she can entertain us again!

Tracy is in love! Good for you, it couldn't have happened to a better person. :)

The FlyLady 15 minute rule worked at Chris's house. Way to go and enjoy your clean house!

e has a great parenting style that I want to emulate.

Stacy runs in reverse. I could see this being a helpful trait.

On a sad note, Mindy is taking a blog hiatus. I will really miss her writings.

To anyone I didn't mention, I'm reading! But a little man named Kyle is demanding me keep him company while he pottys so I'll make sure to include you in my next "blog it forward" type post. Have a great day and happy blogging!

Katie at 1:57 PM

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Ai yi yi... Just a few things before I crash on the couch for a power 10 minute nap.

Credit Report companies suck. What's the point of a "contact us" or "dispute" phone number on a website if all you get is a recorded message saying "please visit our website for more information" with no possible way to reach a live human being? If the information I wanted was on the website, I wouldn't be calling the number. *sigh*

My sister and brother are on their way home as I type. They had to spend 2 extra nights here while the brakes were replaced on the truck. Thanks for the help and I enjoyed your stay! :)

To all you great bloggers on my reading list, I promise to catch up and comment soon. And reply to emails. My computer time over the last few days has been reduced to checking the weather radar to see if Greg needs to put the top up on the Jeep or if I have an hour to mow the grass before the next thunderstorm rolls in. *sits drenched because there was only fifty minutes before it rained*

Quote of the Day: "Time is what prevents everything from happening at once." John Archibald Wheeler

Katie at 2:27 PM

Monday, May 17, 2004

Wow, where did the weekend go? Greg declared it Yard Work Weekend and my sister and brother came over to visit. So between being cheap yard laborer shoveling dirt and Martha Stewart grilling steak/mushroom/pepper kabobs, I didn't have any time to update this. It was a productive and fun weekend but let me get to the important stuff...

Ladies, you must go see Troy now! Oh...My...Goodness... *drools* I don't even think I can do the film justice. Brad Pitt is so hot, it should be a sin. And who knew leather kilts on men were so darn sexy? It's too hard to describe, my sister and I were both like "Uh... Brad Pitt... Uh..." *wipes up drool* There's one scene where he starts stripping off his armor and you could feel all the women in the theatre leaning forward, ready to start throwing singles at the screen. Thank you Brad for not signing a "no nudity" contract for this film! I suggest leaving the men at home because there's no women flesh in return. Just Brad. *happy sighs* And if Brad wasn't enough, Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana are quite often shirtless and gorgeous. *more happy sighs* I highly recommend this movie.

Oh and the plot is decent too. hehe

Katie at 12:36 PM

Friday, May 14, 2004

Happy Friday y'all!

I have a zillion things to do but Kelly's being cuddly so I'm here. Although I suspect she just wants my breakfast. She does the little birdy mouth and when I give her a bite, she smiles the biggest grin ever and shakes her head yes. Which probably means "yes, I have you wrapped around my little finger." But she's so cute. hehe

Quote of the Day: "Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." -Victor Hugo

Katie at 9:30 AM

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Ah, the joys of cleaning the toy room...

You may be wondering how spoiled the kids are to have a whole room dedicated to their toys. Well, it happened by default. We live in an odd tri-level home with a 4th bedroom next to the family room on the lower level. There wasn't much else to do with the room. Plus the upstair bedrooms are really too small to hold furniture and toys. And the best part of having a toy room is that it keeps toys out of the rest of the house. Well in theory it's suppose to...

I should add that the toy room has a futon so it moonlights as a guest room. Our guests feel so much hospitality sleeping on a futon in a bright red, blue, orange, and green painted room with beheaded dolls and 643 Legos to step on in the middle of the night.

Back to cleaning this room. The kids are suppose to pick it up every evening. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. If you don't believe that time can stop, just yell "Kids, clean the toy room!" And then they go from moving at the speed of light to slower than a no legged sloth. Their little hands which can hold 4 cookies, a juice box, an ice cream cone and 2 cupcakes all at the same time are now only capable of picking up 1 toy. Which they hold for at least 3 minutes, contemplating where it belongs. We don't have a complicated system here either. Put in a bin or stack it on a shelf. It's so simple, I could teach a sea monkey to do it.

You may know this already but let me repeat it: Left to their own devices, toys breed. Like bunnies and closet hangers. I think this is to guarantee that I will always have something to trip over no matter how many toys I throw or give away. The girls' Barbies have a wardrobe to rival the Royal Family's. We have 4 used car lots of Hot Wheels cars. 643 Legos. The State of Indiana's entire children's library. Every Fisher Price Little People set known to man (okay, this one is my fault, I love them!). A zoo's worth of stuffed animals. More baby dolls than my grandmother had children (she had 14 by the way). In other words, a lot of frickin' toys!

The funny thing is that Greg and I have probably bought 10 of these toys. The kids are the only grandchildren on both sides of the family. With 7 aunts and uncles and countless great aunts and uncles. And if you haven't noticed there are 5 kids, 2 of which are twins. Which means we often given 2 of the same toy for Em and Ally, so not to cause fights. Ha! We could have 10 of the same toy and they would still argue over one. "That one has the melted plastic handle and the torn sticker, she has it and I want it!" We take two vehicles when we open Christmas presents at my in-law's house. Seriously...

So about once a month, I do a toy room clean up binge. I shut the kids out of the room and pile all the toys into the middle of the floor. First retrieving toys from under the futon, behind the shelves, out of the light fixture, and removing the 6 toys out of the storage bins. Which are only there accidentally because they fell in during the last Barbie versus Little People war with elaborate Lego towers.

My strategy is to sort, regroup, and put or throw away. I'm ruthless when it comes to the throw away pile: anything chewed, torn, missing pieces, or from McDonalds is gone. Besides like I said above, the toys will reproduce themselves overnight to make up for their missing comrades.

One full trash bag and an hour later, the toy room was decent this morning. The Legos were in the green bin, My Little Ponies in red, cars in yellow, the books stacked neatly on the shelf. And then I let the kids back in.

Oh well, there's always next month. *sigh*

Katie at 1:22 PM

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Oh my goodness! Kelly just said her first sentence! My little baby is growing up. *sighs*

The inspired words?

"I want a nana!" (banana)

I'm so proud. hehe

Katie at 3:15 PM

Quote of the Day: "There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Katie at 8:22 AM

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

They say invention is the mother of necessity.

Well then, as a mother I need someone to invent a self cleaning house for me.

The walls have to be ding proof when legos and hot wheel cars start flying through the air. They also need to absorb sticky dirty fingerprints.
The floors can eat crumbs and pet hair. They will automatically clean muddy footprints and various stains.
The windows will always be sparkling and the screens will have insect repellent built in.
No appliance is ever allowed to break. And if it does, the broken appliance must immediately call the proper repair man itself and order a replacement to be installed at convenient time to me.
Toilets will never smell or have splatter stains. Sinks will wash away facial hair trimmings and tooth paste spit.
A special system will clean the dust out of the air and off furniture. It will also prevent cobwebs and dust bunnies and leave the house fresh smelling.
All trash disappears as soon as it is dropped into a trashcan. Unless it's my inlaws' theatre tickets.

I think that's it, am I missing anything? And now... You guessed it. I have to go clean the house. *sigh*

Quote of the Day: "Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing." -Phyllis Diller

Katie at 1:14 PM

Monday, May 10, 2004

Um, hi, I'm back...

In case you missed the drama, I deleted the whole blog Sunday night. Having been pregnant or nursing for most of the last 7 years, I forgot how stupid insane I can be when my hormones spike PMS style. Plus toss in a less than perfect Mother's Day and several other factors (Greg being out of town, bad cell phone reception in the Montana mountains, an escaped gerbil, no AC and it's 85 degrees, oh and 5 wild children), it's a hop, skip and a jump away from men in white coats. But I think we are under control now and I pried the delete key off my keyboard. (Well not really but you get the point: no more drama!)

I think the contributing factor yesterday might have been that I misplaced my sense of humor. Because today hasn't been much better. But I'm still in a half way decent mood because I've been able to laugh at all the stupid things that have happened. Like Emily pooped her pants at Meijers when we tried to go grocery shopping. So we bought the few things that were in the cart and went home. Which means I have to trek back to the store with all the kids another day for groceries. Uh, what else? I totally forgot Teacher Appreciation Week this morning and I don't have the "recommended" gift for tomorrow (which I would have bought if Emily hadn't pooped in her pants). Kelly dumped Coco Puffs on the carpet I had just vacuumed. Kyle spilt milk on the sofa (thankfully the one with the washable slipcover). AC is still broke and it's still 80+ degrees. But it's okay, I'm able to see the irony of it all, c'est la vie. *shrugs*

A few good things to note: the loose gerbil is back in its cage and I installed a new garbage disposal all by myself. *makes manly "Tool Time" grunting noises* Well okay, with half a dozen calls to my dad. (Thanks Dad!) My blog is back and Greg says he actually likes reading it. No offense dear but you might have tried mentioning that before I went all looney tunes for a few hours and deleted it. But it's back and I'm eternally grateful to the Blogger people. Cause I almost felt like wearing all black today to mourn its loss. hehe

Thanks to all of you who expressed concern when "I" disappeared. I'm sorry to have put you through that and I'll try to keep my wits about me from now on. Thankfully Mother's Day only comes once a year. *winks*

Oh and special thank you to my very sane and very cool sister Sarah. She's great with irony and perspective and making me laugh at how silly and stupid my life can be. Thanks!

Katie at 8:50 PM

Friday, May 07, 2004

You all already know I'm weird so this shouldn't come as a surprise: I love to do laundry. There's something satisfying about sorting the clothes, adding the proper amount of detergent to the wash, moving the clothes into the dryer where they come out smelling so clean and fresh. I like folding laundry even more. It requires me to slow down and rest for a few minutes as I lovingly put the kids' clothes into their piles and transfer them back to their closets and dresser drawers. As I fold, I like to remember the kids wearing the outfits: where we were, what we did, how cute they look in this color.

As a mom of 5, the laundry basket is often overflowing. I only have the blue basket pictured above. I've thought about buying a system with several bags so the kids could sort their dirty stuff themselves but oddly, this one basket works for me. I limit myself to doing laundry every 3 days and make myself complete it in that one day. The "get it all over at once" method works better for me than the "one load every day" way. Today's sorted loads were jackets, whites, jeans, darks, pastels, and towels. My sis and her husband actually have a black load. lol I plan to do the sheets/bedding on Monday which is another 3 loads (boys, girls, ours).

So I'm enjoying the empty basket. Because in 4 minutes and 30 seconds, it'll be full again. hehe

Katie at 7:56 PM

Friday Five is calling it quits. I finally jump on a meme bandwagon just to get rudely kicked off. LOL So I'm shopping for a new meme. I like my one day off with already made filler for the blog. *sigh*

Quote of the Day: "Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine." -Robert C. Gallagher

Katie at 7:36 AM

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Quick! What's everyone getting their moms for Mother's Day?!?!?!?

Uh, I'm just asking cause, um, in case anyone has any uh, good ideas that I could um, borrow since Mother's Day is uh, 3 days away! *panics* I didn't forget exactly, I just didn't remember until now...

Katie at 4:01 PM

Oh hum...

The computer took 12 hours and 14 minutes to defrag itself last night. Someone said that running it in safe mode makes it go faster, maybe I'll try that next time.

The gerbil is not completely lost, the kids and I saw it this morning in the corner cabinet. But then Kyle got in the way and it went behind the dishwasher. Who knew I had so many hidey holes in the kitchen?

I'm still so bummed that Angel is ending. It's been an awesome season and I hate to not have some form of Joss Whedon's slayer/vampire writings to watch on TV. And Survivor only has a couple episodes left. I think I need to put together a reading list for the summer.

I should be cleaning. The toy room needs a major sorting before I start touching up dings and painting it white. Right now it's red, green, orange, and blue. Great for a children's play room but I doubt the future owners will appreciate it as much. The red took 6 coats, I hope Kilz primer will cover it in less.

Quote of the Day (for Greg): "In America there are two classes of travel - first class and with children." -Robert Benchley

Katie at 9:21 AM

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

I've decided that being a mom requires a huge sense of humor. My life is so amusing. Not only do I have Kyle who likes to scream in Target stores, I have Zach who has the memory of an elephant and the routine requirements of Rainman. Em and Ally look alike and enjoy driving each other (and me) nuts because they both want to wear the peach/pink striped shirt and neither the pink/white striped shirt. Kelly speaks some strange language and feels the need to always be on my lap if I'm sitting down. But she doesn't sit, she climbs and wiggles and stomps. Ouch.

So today's humorous events include an escaped gerbil and an escaped dog. I swear the gerbil must be able to go through glass. As for the dog, he has no magic tricks, Kyle opened the gate. The dog was caught, the gerbil is still loose and may be gone forever because the kitchen door to the garage and the big garage door were open for awhile earlier. I guess I should be glad I haven't had any escaped children. Although there are several hours left in the day...

We were 15 minutes late to swim practice this morning. Which actually made it more bearable for me because I was only in the water for 25 minutes instead of 40. The kids have chalked the swingset that I'm suppose to stain today and I've already made 4 phone calls, way over my limit of 0. Tomorrow is the girls' kindergarten screening, oh boy. Greg's on his way to Fresno which just sounds fun. I plan to defrag the computer and watch Angel this evening.

See? Funny stuff. Don't bother to ask what I'm on, I'm not sharing. *sticks tongue out*

Quote of the Day: "A great name for a new country song: If I'd Shot You Sooner, I'd Be Out of Jail by Now." -Author Unknown

Katie at 2:31 PM

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Okay, not to bury Greg's post (hehehe) but I should reiterate that this is a blog about my thoughts, my life, the way I see the world. It's not a polictical blog or sex blog (as fun as both may be but they bring up too many heated discussions... pun intended). It's not really a baby blog because I don't often talk about the kids. It's all about me! *winks*

So I'll leave Greg's post since he doesn't have a blog of his own but don't expect posts from him to be common place (nor political ones because I obviously don't care much for facts). And I'll go pay HaloScan $10 so Greg can post in Comments without a 1,000 character limit. As I told Greg earlier when he wanted to post his response, LostInNY and Greg are the only ones who seem to have a problem with the limit and I probably don't want to read what they have to say anyways. *sarcasm*

Quote of the Day: "An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it." -Mahatma Gandhi

Katie at 12:34 PM

Warning - rebutal rant from Greg who despite his best efforts couldn't just let this topic go.

The problem with pie in the sky idealism is that it sounds good on paper and gives everyone a warm fuzzy feeling when discussing it but the reality is we live in a dangerous world where evil people do evil things and don't think the way we do thus often times eliminating the lets all just sit down talk it out and get along options. How do you negotiate and talk peace with people who have trained their entire life to eliminate you and who view you as an abomination to their god and religion, people who jump at the opportunity to die themselves killing just a few for the great rewards that await them in the after life. Everyone seems to forget that we tried 10+ years of diplomacy and talking with Iraq and all it yielded was empty promises and deceit. All the time while more people were tortured and killed, the mass graves filled with men women and children, more children were ushered into prison camps, women were kept from getting the education you advocate and more terrorists were trained to do harm to America and Americans. You say Iraq wasn't much of a threat, to me that is a very naive statement, and fortunately the odds are due to the action on the part of the US and its allies we will never know exactly how much of a threat they were.

The facts are there were WMD's in Iraq, they were being used and tested on Iraq citizens (the UN, the Clinton administration the global community and the Bush administration all agree on this, hence the 18 UN resolutions), terrorist training camps operated throughout the country and Saddam Hussein's goal in life was to destroy America and Americans. The fact that no WMD's were found shouldn't cause us to question our actions or deny the threat; they should make us more diligent about finding out where they went. Again their prior existence is not in dispute and if Saddam woke up one morning and saw the error in his ways then why not comply with any of the 18 resolutions and give them up of show proof of their destruction? Just doesn't make sense. And not I will not just get over 9/11. To stick you head in the sand, ignore what happened, extend an olive branch and hope everyone just gets along only gives those who seek to do us harm more opportunity to do so and who knows how many will die next time.

You ask "If we could just give these people a chance to have the good things in life (food, health, home), they would be able to toss the few bad apples out on their own." What do you think we are trying to do? That is exactly why we are there. Accomplishing that task is impossible when the people your trying to help are being oppressed and killed by a dictator who rules with an iron fist and does not hesitate to kill mass numbers using guns and chemicals when he is opposed. Do you have any idea how much of the aid and relief the US, the red cross and other humanitarian organizations try to get to people in war torn countries is intercepted and taken by the dictators and warlords that dominate the countries and people we are trying to help? How do we do what you're saying with those people in power?

With regards to your references to Africa. Again you say we aren't helping ignoring the fact that President Bush just within the last year approved the largest AID's relief package the US has ever granted to Africa. It is so easy to sit back and play Monday morning quarterback, ignore facts and spout oversimplified ideals but we live in the real world where time and resources are limited, we cannot be all things for everyone. All we can do is do what we can while trying like hell to protect or freedom, ensure the safety of our children and our homes so that we can continue to help where we can and provide the land of opportunity that so many give their lives to try and get to for a better life.

With regards to Canada, boy I'd love to just let that one go but I just can't so I'll only say this: It's easy to be passive, neutral and play the good guy / friend to all when you're protected politically, militarily, geographically and economically by the US.

To answer your last question, yes your statements are too simple and ignore too much reality and fact. I wish that wasn't the case but it is. Over time we need to work more toward global cooperation and avoiding / eliminating the need for military action but we cannot flip a switch and make that possible overnight unless everyone on both sides agreed and that is not going to happen today. In fact removing people like Saddam Hussein from power makes what you're advocating more possible and has already had a dramatic effect on the actions of other leaders in the region.

Greg

Katie at 12:14 PM

Monday, May 03, 2004

Back to your regularly scheduled blog...

Long weekend, drank too much wine, stayed up way too late, slept in a freezing basement, and woke up way too early. But it was fun and the kids had a blast with their cousins (my first cousins, for my kids they're first cousins once removed. I'm not an aunt yet *pouts*).

This morning I woke up and could not get warm. Two shirts, pj pants, heavy socks, shoes, a jacket and a quilt later, Greg told me to take some tylenol because I probably had a fever. Who knows, I never took my temperature. I'm sort of warm now but my hands are still chilly. Therefore we skipped swim lessons today. Darn... *rolls eyes*

It's been a whole day of the kids not listening. Which is terribly frustrating. I hate repeating myself and even after I repeat myself, they are not comprehending what I am telling them. Ugh...

If you haven't noticed, my writings haven't been up to their usual par (which is set really low too). I've been feeling a bit off lately, maybe due to the overwhelming task of getting the house ready to sell (I know, I know, look at the little steps and not the big picture) or school ending soon (it has for the girls and it hasn't been a picnic *sigh*) or swim lessons (can you tell I really hate these?) or playing way too much Pogo (*sarcasm* Thanks LostInNY and The Wife *winks*). Hmm, I wonder how many more times I can use () before I reach my daily limit. haha Anyway what I'm saying is please hang with me here, I bought pizza rolls and Mountain Dew at the grocery store today so my writing muse should be riding back into town any minute now.

Katie at 6:23 PM

Warning: Rant Ahead

I'm pissed. I'm pissed at the whole world. Why can't everyone just get along? How are Americans torturing/killing people because they tortured/killed some of our people ever going to solve anything? It seems to me that they will just be more pissed off at us and we'll be fighting forever. Maybe I'm too ignorant to understand all the intricate details of warfare, foreign policy, and politics but when it comes down to it, we are all humans. It's a fluke of birth that I'm sitting here typing this rather than dying of AIDS in Africa or hoping my home doesn't get bombed in a war torn country. And it pisses me off that "the powers that be" can't see that we are human no matter where we live, what color our skin is, what religion we follow. And we all need to be treated as humans, with compassion, understanding, forgiveness. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Again I may be dumbing this down too much but it seems to me that the entire world would be much better off if we took the 450 billion dollars we are spending on one war with one little country that wasn't that much of a threat anyways and instead feed a few billion people. Give them medicine so they can live and work to make their countries a better place instead of watch their families die and resent the hell out of the US. Educate a few of them, just because they come from a country that bore a few terrorists doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to get an education at one of our colleges and then go back to their countries and make a positive change in the lives of their people. Denying them the opportunity to make their lives better because we are "scared" breeds more contempt and hate.

I know thousands of Americans died on 9/11 and I'm going to say something very unpatriotic: "Get the hell over it." Thousands of people are dying of AIDS because we aren't helping them and you don't see Africa invading our country (*sarcasm* probably cause they are all sick, convenient, huh?). Instead of fighting wars, we should be trying to help these people not hate us. Show them some compassion instead of the barrel end of a M16. From my viewpoint as a mother, if someone gave me a way to keep my children alive and healthy so they wouldn't need to fight for their lives in one of those countries, I can only see positive things coming from that. I have to believe that the good in the world outweighs the evil. If we could just give these people a chance to have the good things in life (food, health, home), they would be able to toss the few bad apples out on their own.

Is it too simple? Can we possibly make that great of a change in everyone's thinking? I don't know and it frustrates the hell out of me.

Katie at 3:53 PM

Saturday, May 01, 2004

I'm taking the weekend off from the computer. We're doing some home improvement stuff and traveling out of town to visit family. Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Katie at 9:44 AM

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