Random Things

I was just told to write about how much I love my husband.  THIS much! :)  And because I think this embarasses him, I'm not going to erase it.

It's snowing and I think creatures are still stirring upstairs.

I found a ladybug in my bathroom tonight.

My refrigerator is making the same suspicious clicking noise it made about 18 months ago when the refrigerator repair guy said he could "patch it" (or whatever) for cheap, but that the part that really needed to be replaced would cost as much as a new fridge.  The patch would last about, oh, a year, year and a half.  Perhaps new fridge time, people?  Woot!!!!  (5 years ago I was separated from my beloved shiny new french door/freezer drawer fridge;  I have been awaiting our reunion since the day we closed here...).

If you've never checked out PeopleofWalMart.com, you have to check it out.  But only if you're the sort of person who can't look away from a show like Toddlers and Tiaras.  THIS is what's wrong with our country, people!

Speaking of WalMart, I was surrounded by about 40 WalMart associates singing the WalMart store cheer this morning, all while I was trying to simultaneously pick out printer ink and sink into the floor (I have not committed my HP printer model number to memory, thus I have to study packages and model numbers and make a guess about what to buy.  Today I guessed wrong, so I have to do a return at WalMart.  Boo.  But maybe more intersting if I have my camera in hand and keep an eye out for PeopleofWalMart people).

There are no sleds left for purchase in the triangle area.

Today was report card day:  "Hi-Hat is a very interesting little boy." :)

"Rella, are you going to build a snowman tomorrow?" Rella: "No, I'm going to build a snow[insert 2-year-old BFF's name here] with a carrot nose!"

At 9:15 the kids down the street were outside building a snowman and playing in the snow.  We are not the fun parents on the street.

My computer battery power is low (9%).  If I don't plug in my computer soon, it wi

Prolonging

So you know we have the three kids.  And you probably know we have a naughty little dog.  You might not remember that we also have Timmy Thomas, our beloved blue beta fish that has been swimming among the mess on my kitchen counter hot zone for about 2 years now.   Like any fish, he arrived as a starter pet for Hi-Hat and Fancy and quickly became my project.  I clean his bowl, feed him, hold my finger above the water to make him jump (that's really about the extent of beta care, in case you're considering one).  In a strange way, I enjoy that he tracks me when he senses movement and I am tickled by the jumping. 

Well, T2 is not well.  It seems that something infested his bowl, and literally overnight last week something green bloomed and took over, even creating this kind of film over the surface of the water.  T2 was still kicking (or whatever the equivalent for a creature without legs might be - finning?), though sluggish.  I cleaned the bowl and was careful to gradually ease him into the new environment so as not to totally shock his system (I mean, I would probably have a heart attack if I just walked into my bathroom and found it clean, white, shining, disinfected, no laundry, no gook in the sink, no stains on the grout, no toys in the tub . . . you get the idea. An utter shock). 

T2 has been limping around the bottom of the bowl for about 3 days now.  He pitifully tries to get to the surface, but he can only get about halfway there, so he can't eat.  We had the brilliant idea of trying to gently raise him to the surface in his fish net and feed him in the net when he got close to the surface, but he kind of FREAKED OUT and was more concerned about thrashing his way out of the net than finding the tiny color-enhancing nutrifin pellet.  So much for that idea, and it probably took an hour off his life. (And actually, I'm thinking now that maybe I could lower the water level for him and maybe he could get to the surface to eat.  And then he could start regaining his strength... when did I become the medical director of a beta ICU?).

*Just checked on him, and he's still laying on the bottom near his big rock, gills pulsing and fins flapping, but looking pretty straggly.

So every trip into the kitchen fills me with a little apprehension and a little sadness.  Partly because I really like T2 and will miss him if he is indeed on the way out.  And partly because I will have to break it to the kids (Fancy is pretty aware of his decline and she talks to him with encouraging words in the kind of voice reserved for pets and small babies; and Hi-Hat gives a good tap on the bowl whenever he goes by, just in case T2 might be thinking of leaving and needs to be shocked back to life).  But mostly because he looks terrible and seems to be really struggling. 

*Let's break to remember that he's a $2.49 beta fish that has been kicking (or finning) for 2 years now.  But precious nonetheless.

Geof's suggestion was that perhaps we need to put him out of his misery.  Send him to that great big fish bowl in the sky by way of the City of Raleigh's sewer system.  Fancy was interested in finding out what that meant, so we explained that people usually dispose of dead or dying fish by flushing them.  This was APPALLING to her, and she said there was no way she was going to flush her fish.  Totally understandable.  I really hate the idea, too.  I started picturing The Cosby Show scene with the whole family dressed in black paying homage to Lamont the goldfish around the porcelain throne (Rella has a nice black velveteen outfit, Hi-Hat would have to wear black sweatpants and his Tobymac shirt, and Fancy would be the one wearing her leotard and tap shoes).  Do you remember the scene?

[I have no idea how to insert the video clip, but here's the link.  An amusing diverion.]

Wow, have I gotten off track.  The whole point of this post was that I told Geof we would not flush T2 to put him out of his misery because we would never consider doing that with one of our kids!  Pretty much as soon as I said it I realized the argument didn't hold a tank full of water. He kind of looked at me like, "seriously, you think I would consider flushing one of our sick and ailing children?" Sheesh - I'm too attached to that little fish.

So let's all root for Timmy Thomas today, and if things don't turn out well, let's root for a sale on beta fish at the pet store.

Ballet Class

Rella takes a ballet class for 2 year olds on Tuesday mornings.  Her class has just three girls, so they all get lots of time and attention with the teacher, Ms. Cory.  Rella loves it!  Today I got to hang out in the studio with my camera and take pictures of all the cuteness. 

BFF

I'll be cooking dinner, and Rella will walk by me and say out of the blue, "[insert adorable 2 year old brunette's name here] is my best friend."  Or I'll be changing Rella's clothes and she'll say, "[Adorable Brunette] is my best friend."  Or I'll be reading stories on the new racecar bed and she'll say, "[Adorable Brunette] is my best friend."  I believe Rella thinks about her all the time.  And speaking of racecar beds, if you don't follow my status updates on facebook, this is what Rella said to me about her BFF and the racecar bed last night: "When you are sleeping, I open my door and drive outside and get my best friend [Adorable Brunette] and we go driving and then we come back. Then we get our jammies on and we see you in the morning." The teenage shenanigans are being formulated a bit too early...

But back to the original post.  Today Rella got to play with her BFF at the kids museum (and the big kids got to play with their buddies, too).  Made her day, until BFF had to go home to take a nap and Rella had to stay and keep playing.  Pitiful cries of "I'll never see [Adorable Brunette] again!"  Oh, the drama.  Even a trip to the Cupcake Shoppe did not cure her woes.  At least the cupcakes were good! 

Here's my layout of the kids at the museum today:

Here's a closeup of the two buckos:

and some fun building with recycled materials:

and painting their own faces (beware: if you go and do this, the pink face paint stains the skin.  So far it's not washing off!):

and building a fully enclosed fort with giant Legos and being annoyed that Mom wants to intrude and take pictures:

And now to figure out why Hi-Hat is down here in the living room at 11:30pm complaining that his ankle hurts after a couple of hours reading in bed (and watching Geof try to make him feel better by making Hi-Hat give him a piggy back ride up the stairs - laughter is the best medicine!).

For those keeping track...

Fancy lost another tooth last night.  Actually, I believe she yanked it out against the tooth's will.  It was loose, but I would have given it at least another week and a half.  I guess she really wants that stuffed lion.  No pictures - her proud bloody grin appearing in my kitchen late last night was quite startling and there was much rushing about to clean her up rather than grab the camera.  Now I must go hide all the pliers in the house because last I checked, there were no more loose teeth in her head.

Kid Stuff

First, let me announce that I have cleaned out three drawers.  Our home now has a drill drawer.  None of the three clean drawers are my bathroom drawer mentioned in the previous post.  Right now I'm just considering that a time capsule.  Because that's not clutter.  That's cool and creative!

A few kid updates.  First, the girls around here are trying to grow up!  Rella requested a new big girl bed.   When we moved Fancy to her big girl bed when she was also about 2 1/2, she ended up with a Vera Bradley upholstered queen sized bed, which is one of the nicest pieces of furniture we have.  It's lovely.  Just lovely.  So I was envisioning a difficult search for something comparable for Rella (VB furniture is no longer available and was never very affordable!).  Seems Rella had her own idea (shocker!).  "I want a red Lightning McQueen bed!!!" That sounds just like Rella, doesn't it?  I think it's perfect.

4 good nights with no fussing about going to bed, or waking and wandering the house at night! (and really, she's still a baby, isn't she.  Look at that sweet face...)

Fancy had big news this week, too.  She lost her first tooth!  She went to bed at 8 on Monday night and wiggled it for 2 hours before finally managing to pop it out.  She was so pleased!  She got to add her name to the tooth chart at school, which is apparently a VERY big deal. :)

All set to leave under her pillow. A conversation overheard between her and Hi-Hat at the museum today: "I know this won't happen, but if you lose all your teeth at the same time, do you just get one dollar, or do you get all the dollars?"  I might need to sneak up there and make sure she's not attacking her chops with a pair of pliers... She's saving up for a life-sized stuffed lion and needs "all the dollars."

Today at the "Rockeum" (what the kids all call the Life and Sciences Museum now.  Rella's baby way of saying Rocket Museum that has stuck), Hi-Hat went to town on the outdoor hanging drums. 

I just hung back and watched, and was secretly tickled to watch as a people gathered around to listen and ask him about his drumming. I think he was a little tickled, too, that people wanted to listen. He was trying to play it cool and was definitely not showing off, but he had this little smile on his face that, as his mom, I could completely read as "tickled." His first "public concert." :)

To Clarify...

The comments have been made to me that my house doesn't seem cluttered.  I deeply appreciate these words of encouragement!  I don't mean to imply that I'm overwhelmed in clutter all over the house.  I think in general we do ok with keeping on top of things so that if someone pops by, we aren't overly mortified.  I'm more concerned about the clutter that you won't see, but that makes my life stressful.  Cases in point:

1.  My sewing machine resides in a cabinet above my washing machine, upstairs on the second floor.  But my measuring tape and straight pins are kept in a basket in a cabinet above my desk in the basement.  That makes no sense, makes me run all over the house, and stresses me out.

2.  Tools are kept in three places with no rhyme or reason.  So if you need a screwdriver, chances are you have to look in three different places and it will always be in the third place you look.  Same goes for batteries, cleaning supplies and medications.

3.  I have a stack of ziploc disposable storage containers and a stack of blue lids.  The lids appear to go with the containers.  I have tried 8 gazillion times to match the lids to the containers (because they are not ALL ziploc - there are store brands mixed in there), to no avail.  And yet they are still taking up real estate in my cabinet and falling on my head when I search for sandwich boxes for packing the kids' lunches.  Why are they there?  Why is the cabinet above the fridge filled with odds and ends of mismatched, often chipped or cracked demitasse cups, saucers, creamers and fruit bowls?  Sure, they were essentially free from the Replacements Ltd. yard sale a couple years back, and sure, they were meant for Fancy to use in tea parties, but let's face it.  They're ugly, they're broken, she doesn't want them, and they take up space.  Every cabinet has issues like these.

4.  Why does a drawer in my bathroom contain the following: an unopned pack of Gerber onesies, a box of vintage Strawberry Shortcake birthday party invitations leftover from my 5th birthday, a much nicer flute cleaning rod than the one that actually resides in my flute case, a Michael Kors canvas bag meant for storing my hot orange purse in (um, does anyone find that useful?), the dust jacket to Madeline, two footies (you know, for when guests come over and want to try on my shoes), a plate stand, a Grover Washington, Jr. CD, tissue paper, a pattern for drapes, a 3x3 framed Anne Geddes print (baby lost in purple lilacs), RugRats temporary tattoos, stay-at-home-mom business cards that do not have my email address printed on them, a Master Cuts promotional punch card, a necklace I'm pretty sure Geof picked up in Hawaii that I'm pretty sure he needs to start wearing again, eyeliner, a tuner, green ribbon, two framed pictures of infant Hi-Hat, post-it sight word flash cards, a tape roller left over from when we had cats (we've never had cats in this house), light bulbs, 1 book of checks with our Maryland address printed on them and one book for an account we no longer have, a butterfly clip, 4 pens, an interesting faux mother of pearl button, and a step-by-step guide to English Smocking (because, remember, I am a do-it-yourself-er, and I will need this guide to use for looking up questions I may have along the way as I figure out how to do English smocking all on my own).

This is the clutter I'm talking about.