dinner score

since Monday

menu - 2
laziness - 4

We went out 3 times. Thursday was date night. DH & I went to Bavarian Chef,the boys had PB&J. Friday the boys had fishsticks & spinich salad. I had spinich salad (still full from the previous night). Saturday we went to Waffle House and tonight we had KFC because my allergies gave me a screaming headache. This is not good. Tomorrow night DH won't be home for dinner, so I'm going to do the squash mac & cheese (DH is not a mac & cheese fan). Tuesday I will make the turkey roll ups I was going to make today before the allergies made me cry. The rest of the week is open but we have gove over & above the dining out budget so we MUST stick to the menu.

scrapping news

One of my favorite scrap sites has closed down. Traci decided to close Scrapmommies after another hacking a few days ago. I don't blame her in the least. She's had to rebuild the site several times in the past 6 months due to server problems & hacking issues. But that leaves me without my main source of scrapping challenges. They had about 40 or so a month. They were not designer or kit specific. I love DSP's challenges but I'm not always interested enough in the kit or word art etc required to buy it. I generally like everything but don't have the budget to buy it all so I get picky. So I have been roaming around looking for something new and I came across 2 things.

One is over at Jen Wilson's site. She is doing an 8 week long challenge/contest - A Meaning*ful Contest. More details can be foundhere. She is giving out some cool prizes.

The other is at The Digi Dares Blog. It runs every week, though this first dare runs for 2 weeks. They are giving away a freee kit to everyone who participates in this first challenge & then there are prizes every month.

I've had some time today and managed to knock out both those challenges as well as the Play by Numbers Challenge on DSP.

This is for the Meaning*ful Contest



and this does double duty for the Play By Numbers Challenge and the Digi Dare Contest


**Now for some shameless self-promotion**

I finished a couple sets of 2007 calendar templates that are CD sized, since that seems to be popular now. I also did 2 paper packs to match up, so people can choose from a casual or elegant font calendar and a pastel or bold paper pack. They should be up in the 1hourscrap store by the end of this week and will be 30% for a week after. Here are 2 of the previews I have for them.

What do you like best and least about where you live?

Best: We live in the middle of nowhere. There are nothing but farms around us, low population, no traffic. Nothing

Least: We live in the middle of nowhere. There are nothing but farms around us, low population, no traffic. Nothing.

These things are great when you want to be able to let the kids out to run around & play in the yard. They can strip naked & play with the hose, scream, yell, and have plenty of space to do whatever they want with no neighbors to disturb. I don't have to keep my lawn mowed unless I feel like it. I can paint my house any color I please & if I want to leave a well worn statue of the Muses on my roof for 6 years there is no one to complain about it but the cows. Sound does carry so I can't host a rock band nightly, but apart from that my restrictions are few & far between.

These things are not so great when you need milk, or your kids would like to play with someone other than themselves, or when they want to do something besides play in the yard, or you want a cup of coffee or to show for a new pair of pants. The absolute closest place to buy milk is 10 miles away. Any kid related activity is at least 20, ditto for shopping.

Ideally we want to own 40 wooded acres with a 2 mile long driveway that ends across the street from a shopping mall with a grocery store, coffee shop, B&N and a Target. All the seclusion and easy access as well. :)

What did you study in school, or what was a favorite subject?

Did you receive your education somewhere other than school?

My favorite subject has always been history, followed by English and any language classes. I should probably clarify what I mean by "English". I mean the writing part and some of the reading. I did not enjoy dissecting novels for their subliminal messages or the hidden meanings behing a character type. I'm a straightforward person. Please don't ruin a perfectly good story for me by telling me what the author was 'really saying' I read Animal Farm years before I had to for English class. Great fantasy story about pigs taking over a farm. Imagine my surprise that is was all an indictment of communism. Wizard of Oz, apparently about the evils of the gold standard. Then there was some really boring 'great literature' we had to read. Plus nuns never tell you the more salacious meanings behind some of Shakespeare's quips, so you miss the intended humor. I've never been able to join a book discussion club because of bad school experiences in that area. I'm always afraid I am going to be asked to 'contrast the protagonists experience at the setting with the view commonly held of such things now (please quote examples in your work)' or some such. I adore reading books, sometimes I like analyzing them, especially non-fiction. I just don't like having to do so unless I am inclined.

Well, that went off on a tangent I didn't intend when I started this.

I originally studied journalism in college because I like English but wanted to avoid having to dissect To Kill A Mockingbird or The Red Badge of Courage and then basis a thesis on the motivation of the secondary protagonist with regards to his view of women. But I am not really journalistic material. I can't interview people to save my life. I'd been minoring in history all a long & loving those classes much more than my journalism ones. So with no job prospects in sight as graduation approached I decided to go to grad school and focus on what was then called Medieval & Renaissance History, Tudor England specifically (I think they now call that period 'Early Modern'). I qualified for a scholarship based on my GRE scores & then got an assistant post as well. I really loved being a TA & if I hadn't been so burnt on learning when I finished my MA I would have looked for work teaching at a Community College. But I was burnt out, took a general job as an office assistant, discovered I am clever with computer hardware & software and my career went in a different direction.

The short answer to the question is I loved history & English in school & studied them in college. But I received my education in my ultimate field of telecommunication on the job.

2 week menu

DS1 starts school Thursday. His school is 40 minutes in the opposite direction from the grocery store, so it is important I get back on the ball with the menus. Groceries now require more effort & planning. I got 365 No Repeats by Rachel Ray recently & am going to try out a couple new recipes from it.

Broiled salmon with cousous
salmon cakes or fish sticks
pasta to be determined
veggie soup & sandwiches
Scotch eggs & spinich salad
calzone/deep dish pizza or PapaJohns
Squash mac & cheese (365 No Repeats)
braciole with 'oven fried' zucchini
apple cider chicken (365 No Repeats)
Chicken salad
meatloaf w/hidden veggies
Turkey roll ups (365 No Repeats)

I've been going through my pantry to make my grocery list & have discovered that I need to keep up with rotating my stock. I am making veggie noodle soup for dinner (not on the menu) & need 2 cans of broth for that. I grabbed 2 from the shelf & then as I was opening them I glanced at their 'use by' dates. One was Feb 2007, the other was Sept 05. The other cans are all still good, so I assume that one got overlooked. I've had that problem with Couscous & flavored rice sides lately too. Everything seems to have expired in mid 2005 and I never noticed. I guess I must have stopped rotating things around then & just put the new purchases in front. Makes me wonder how old the cans of beans & tomatoes are. They don't have dates on them. I buy them sporadically so I can't say if they have been there for 3 months or over a year.

What are the last 10 things you did last night before bed

I'm going to have to do this in reverse order

10. read a couple chapers of SPQR
9. put away clean laundry
8. took sleeping pill
7. brushed teeth & aligners
6. filed down rough spots on new aligners
5. changed clothes
4. cleaned up snack mess
3. watched Mythbusters
2. had a snack
1. put the kids in bed

now for the good stuff

We had a really good time visiting my family, despite the car woes. My folks rented a cabin at Oglebay Park The boys got to know their cousins again. We only see them once a year. The girls are each about 5 months younger than the boys. Plus they have an older brother who DS1 just adores. DS1 was shy at first but warmed up as time went on. I was able to mostly convince my family to just leave him alone & let him decide in his own time to say hi. They are all outgoing people & think the shy just need lots of 'encouragement'. I hated that as a child & am doing what I can to shield DS1 from it. Yes, Grandma thinks DS1 should give Uncle a big hug but Uncle is really a stranger to DS1. Would you encourage a child to hug a stranger? Grandma seemed to get the point, kinda. But left alone DS1 warmed up just fine to everyone within an hour.

We took all the kids to the Zoo on Saturday. They saw the new kangaroo exhibit, got up close to deer, pet the goats, saw the huge model train display and rode on the tour train. My brother & I talked about how empty the ride had become. When we were kids it circled the whole zoo and had these anamatronic Old West scenes in parts, in addition to going through or past most of the animal exhibits. Now it goes through the ostrich area, passes the wolf sanctary turns around, goes back through those areas, passes the station, goes off around the barnyard area, turns around & comes back to the station. But the toddlers loved it. They wer riding on a train after all. DS2 fell asleep in the middle of the ride & even the train whistle didn't wake him up. Dh & I also went to Gabes (a discount 'overstock' clothing place) to get stuff for DS1 for fall and some things for DH as well. I got a really cool pair of purple pants I later saw at Old Navy for $10 more than I paid. I think the sizing must have been off on the pair I bough at Gabes. They fit me fine, but the same size at ON was too small. I also got a dozen smiley cookies from Eat N park. These 2 stops were as much about nostalgia as shopping.

Sunday we took the kids to Cabella's. They loved the giant aquarium and the huge mountain animal display. DS2's favorite thing was the elephant. DS1's favorite thing was getting to shoot at the laser gallery. You use a laser rifle to hit various targets ina western farm setting& it makes the coffee pot dance, the snake hiss, the chickens cluck etc. DH sighted the rifle and DS1 pulled the trigger. We also took the opportunity to go over the Eddie Eagle warning about 'stop. don't touch, tell an adult' if you see a gun someplace. DH looked at camping stuff & I bought a long denim skirt I had been looking for. The cousins were over in the afternoon and we went to the Lebanese Picnic (SIL's father's family are Lebanese) & took a long walk together.

Monday we went boating on the lake. Peddle boats . I used to love those things as a kid. I remember speed peddling in races with my friends & feeling like hardly any time had passed when they called us in. OMG! it HURT to peddle those boats. Especially by yourself. (i had DS1 with me he is too short to reach the peddles) I pulled some muscle in my leg & could not believe how long 15 minutes could last! The boys loved it! I let DS1 steer & he had us going all over the lake. we spent some time at the playground & then since it was clouding up we went to the indoor pool rather than the outdoor one. The boys had a blast. They both were brave enough to jump off the side & be caught by one of us. They did it over & over. No kiddie pool for our boys. They wanted to be in teh big pool. But since neither can swim & we had no floaties that meant they had to hang on us the whole time. DS1 could stand in the 3ft area & I did get DS2 to do some kicking while I held him.

Tuesday morning we went back to the indoor pool. DS2 decided he was afraid of jumping & just wanted to be glided around by one of us. But DS1 evenually reached the point where he would jump into the 3ft end without needing one of us to catch him. He ended up underwater a few times but came up every time all excited "I went underwater!!!". We all went for another long walk in the afternon & spent some time watching road workers pave a section of road (the boys were thrilled to see machines up close).

grocery list

this is the list I took to the store today...just stuff I need to fill in until my big grocery shop on Sunday, plus stuff I have to take to DS1's school orientation tomorrow.

fish sticks
buttoni ravioli
alfredo sauce
veg - random
spinich
milk
yogurt
bananas
grapes
peaches?

4 pack of toilet paper
Paper towels
2 pumps of antibac soap
2 things of baby wipes
coloring book

well thank goodness that is over

It was a nice vist with my family. I'll write about the nice stuff later. First lets get the stress out.

Almost $1500 to fix my car, plus an hour spent just hanging around the lot of the repair place because even though they said "Yes it is ready" when we called, it was not actually ready. Fortunately the boys were napping in my folks car so we didn't have to keep them out of trouble. Car evenutally is actually ready, we pay the money & drive off. As the boys napped for an hour before we ever left town they naturally wanted out to run around about an hour into the trip & didn't fall asleep again until 10pm. So it was a long, slow, whiney drive that ended up being 90 minutes longer than it actually is. Then there was this point about 2 hours from home where we kept hearing a metalic rattle coming from the front of the car. It sounded like a loose chain occasionally banging against something. Naturally it is well dark and we are on a lonely stretch of road in WV, a good 45 minutes from someplace lighted to pull over & look. We wondered if it was the semi trailer in front of us, but we'd slow down so it would get some good distance & we'd still hear the chinking. This is stressing me out. what the hell is wrong with the car now? we finally reach a point where we can pass the semi & we don't hear the chinking anymore. It must have been some sound carrying, night middle of nowhere thing that was making us hear the clinking just as loud no pmatter how far the truck was away from us.

So we drive the last 2 hours, make the turn onto the road that leads to our road and run into a "ROAD CLOSED" sign. 7 miles from our house. I knew there was a sign at the other end of the road saying the same thing but I hadn't realized they were shutting the whole 10 mile road down. So I drive in a 20 mile circle to cross over the road 3 miles from where we had been. And I do that on faith alone that we are not going to encounter another ROAD CLOASED sign there. Fortunately we didnt because I would have gotten out & moved the damn sign gone across it anyway at that point.

There are 5 main ways to get to our road. 4 of them involve the driving on or crossing over the road that is closed. The 5th would force us to make a 35 mile circular detour from our original encounter with the sign, backtracking up 15 miles of road we had just driven. It would haveadded about 20 more miles to the drive from the road I was hoping to take. And midnight is just not the time to be meandering down twisty country lanes looking for roads you think you remember the names of. But we got home. And most wonderfully, as the cats are at a kennel, the house was not full of cat poop in every room. The boys went right back to sleep when we carried them to bed.

So far this morning I have washed 2 loads of laundry & dried one. Trimmed both boys' hair. Done a grocery list, cleaned out the fridge, stripped the beds and had some coffee. We have to pick the cats up at 1pm so we'll be leaving for the grocery store soon. Hopefully DS2 at least will nap in the car while we get the cats as that is a 40 minute drive home. we have a sitter coming at 6pm to watch the boys while I go to a MOPS committee meeting & DH goes to a Board of Supervisors meeting to request special permission for the company to put up towers (that'll be a wrangle). I should get home right at the boys bedtime & then I am going to be myself I have been completely drained by the last 5 days, even the good stuff was exhausting.

unbelieveable!!!

And no, I don't mean that there is an internet signal in the cabin (very poor often times out, but an unexpected blessing)

What is unbelieveable is this...we drive 6 hours to get here, cross the Appalachian Mountains, get to the bottom of the very last hill that we have to drive up to get to the cabin & suddenly the engine starts making a whining noise & the car won't get in gear. Due to past unfortunate experience with my previous car I know what is wrong - tranmission. We get the car up the hill. The whole time I am swearing because not only am I going up hill with a car that won't stay in geear (and therefore drifts backwards from time to time) and not only is the road well travelled enough I am sure I will either hit someone while drifting or they will whack into me as they round a blind bend, and not only because the road is too narrow to actually pull over, and did I mention it is midnight?, but mostly because I know this is going to cost me $1000!!! Pardon my language for a moment but A THOUSAND FUCKING DOLLARS at least, after we just paid (and are still absorbing) the $780 it cost to fix DH's truck last month.

So we get the car eventually to the Lodge, pull into the parking lot, call my folks & they come get us. Fortunately they are only 5 minutes away. That is the blessing of the whole thing. The transmission could have gone on Sidling Hill (3 hours away from my folks & our house) or up by Cooper's Rock (almost 2 hours from my folks) where there is *NOTHING* for miles & miles & God only knows who we would have called or what we would have done, or even if there would have been a cell signal to call. So if the damn transimission had to die it at least picked a good spot to do it.

Dad called around a few places this morning, someone came & towed it, the guy said it sounds & moves as if the whole transmission has to be rebuilt. He's going to pull it apart Monday & let us know for sure. He also says he canhave it done by Tuesday. We're supposed to leave Tuesday. DH has a major meeting & presentation with the County Board of Supervisors at their monthly meeting on Wednesday night. So he *has* to be back by then. Last time my transmission died (Jan 2000) it took a week to fix and it was a Cavalier so it's not as if it was that hard to find parts. Hard to say how long a PTCruiser could take. Worst case scenario is DH rents a car one way & goes home Wednesday & I get the joy of a 6 hour trip alone with the boys whenever the car gets fixed.

but at least we have a place to stay rent free while the car is being fixed and DH is close enough to do that. In Nov 2002 we drove to FL (18 hour trip spread over 2 days) when we had an accident, bent the frame all to hell hitting a giant rolled up tarp that fell off the back of the tractor trailer in front of us on the highway. We were in the middle of nowhere in GA on I95. Had to stay an extra night in a hotel, rent a car to get to FL, get a taxi to the car rental place, then had to stay an extra 4 days in FL beyond the 7 we had planned while they fixed the car, rush back up to GA to pick up our car & return the rental by 6pm to avoid another $89 day charge and pay $500 in deductible plus almost $1000 in auto rental because our insurance didn't cover that. And we had a 6 week old with us.

we're supposed to drive to FL in December, frankly I'm not thrilled with idea. But I am certainly not flying down there either.

3 items for a desert island

The laptop. I'm assuming there is electricity and a super fast internet connection already available (after all this is paradise:D).
The 21 yards of cotton fabric I have in the sewing room. I can make clothes, sheets and shelter out of it. (I am making a set of quilts)
My current cross stitch project. Maybe I'd actually finish it.
Assuming no electricity I would swap the laptop for a box of books, chosen at random from my bookshelves.

We're going to a resort cabin for the next 5 days (no internet so it isn't paradise:D, but the food should be ok and the insects minimal). I'm bringing the laptop, my camera, clothes, some toys for the kids & a book. This sounds like hardly anything but somehow fills 2 suitcases, a dufflebag and 2 laptop cases (DH & I are each brining our own laptops) and takes up the entire back end of our car. DH complained we were taking as much stuff for 4 days as we take to FL for a week. That is because we are. There is a washer & dryer in FL so I pack 5ish days worth of stuff & do laundry there. We don't take toys to FL so they are taking up the space the the additional day or so worth of clothing would have taken. If we didn't need to take diapers & sippy cups we'd be almost one bag less.

healing

When I have been sick or just through an operation the one thing I need to do to help me feeling I am healing is take a shower. I need to wash away the illness, the hospital scent, the 'icky' aura that lingers around me. That was really the hardest part of my c-section. They wouldn't let me shower for almost 3 days because I had a reaction to the waterproof pressure bandage. It made me all grumpy & out of sorts that I couldn't wash the 'ugh' feeling off of my skin. My appendix & gall bladder were removed with laparascopy & I was able to shower in 24 hours. A nice hot shower with some good smelling soap & a loofa works wonders. I remember I was always shopping for the 'right' bath scent in 2004. Being sick & sweaty so much I wanted to smell good, even if only temporarily. I went through a lot of loofas too, scrubbing myself off so often.


what is my ISP doing today? everything is timing out on me.

I finally bought the case to make my old secondary HD into an external HD. I did not realize I bought one that needs it's own power supply.... So now I have to find 2 plugs, not just one, when I take the EHD with me. And if I copy all my scrap stuff to it, I can't scrap on the sofa. Not that I scrap on the sofa much, but the fact that i now can't makes me want too. That problem can be solved though. I can buy a new wireless router that has a USB hub, which cna make the printer & the EHD wirelessly networked. But that will have to wait until next month.

As I suspected there is no internet in the cabins, but there is a station in the lodge. I can see myself bunking off to the lodge sometime on Sunday or Monday to upload layouts for challenges that end on the 14th. :)

OMG!

It just occurred to me! I'm going to have to spend 4 solid days with no internet! we're going to visit my family Sat-Tues. They have rented a cabin at a local park for everyone to stay in. I'm nearly positive there is no internet in those cabins. Maybe at the main lodge but our cabin is no where near that. Sure, I will want to spend time with my family but I know how that goes. There will be chunks of time where everyone but me is napping or reading or in pursuit of other solitary activities. Time I could spend on the internet. I suppose I will just scrap. That might be nice.

serious illness

I've been blessed, there have been very few serious illnesses among my family & friends. The worst illness I have ever had hit me about 7 weeks after DS2 was born. It started as a cold. Just a slight cold, but then I had to go into the hospital to have my gall bladder out. While I was there I must have picked up something because three days after the surgery I had bronchitis & walking pneumonia. I also had anemia from blood loss during DS2s birth & my immune system was weak. The pneumonia cleared up after a week but the bronchitis lingered, and lingered and lingered. I'd feel better for a week or so & then be floored again with coughing, an inability to breathe deeply, chest congestion, & fever, for couple weeks. I couldn't sleep, which made things worse. Nothing seemed to stop it. Various meds would work briefly but it would come back. My doctor kept insisting I needed plenty of rest to let my body recover. I had a newborn & a 1.5 year old. No family nearby & none that could come & take over for a week or so. DH had used up his sick leave after DS2s birth & the gall bladder thing. I couldn't just spend a week in bed recovering. So I didn't recover. The bronchitis lingered until well into November. I was on another round of meds when we went to Florida to see my folks for a week. They were super mega meds. Between them & a week where others could do things for the boys, I finally recovered.

It depresses me. DS2s whole first year of life is mostly remembered by me as a miserable time for me. What I can remember of it. Illness & lack of sleep blur everything. When I think abut 2004 I remember DS2 birth & first couple of weeks. I remember the gall bladder surgery & then it's just a blur of feeling miserable. DH & I were stressed & tense with one another. I was so tired all the time. And the boys were growing up. Certain things stand out & I can look at photos & remember moments, but overall nearly that whole year is fog.

meet the in laws

I met my future MIL about a month after I started dating her son. His family was having a 4th of July party & he brought me with him. (He needed a ride) My first impression of them, remained a lasting one. They were *loud*. He has 3 older siblings, all were married & had 5 kids between them. It was a lot more people than I was used to at a family gathering. They were nice, a little distant & a bit tactless, but decent people. I liked them on our first meeting & they seemed to like me. I was just DH's latest girlfriend, not that he had had a bunch but no one attached any significance to my being there. I liked his mom. She was a very nice, down to earth person, who chain smoked & drank endless cups of coffee. It was a nice time

favorite clothes

what would we be wearing if someone dropped by?

Well, at the moment nearly everyone is in shorts & tees, but that is unusual. Normally I am weaing PJ bottoms. They are the only pants I own besides my 501s that fit me properly & it is too hot to wear jeans. My shorts are all too big, most of capris fit in the hips but not the waist or are too tight in the waist. So I wear drawstring PJ bottoms most of the time. Loose, cool, comfy.

DS1 is normally fully dressed but often is only in his underwear beacuse he likes to play in the sink & if a drop of water gets on his clothes he *must* take them off.

DS2 is usually missing his pants because I am lazy & never put them back on him after changing his diaper, unless we are going out.

DH is almost always found in his 'business casual' work clothes - tan pants & polo style shirt with company logo.

6 places of my life

If you could tell the story of your life by taking someone to a half dozen places, where would you go?

First to the house I grew up in. My parents lived there for over 25 years & I lved there for 18. It was the center of everything for me growing up.

Second to the park. The local park in my hometown is a large place with lake, miniture golf,a playground, a pool, tennis courts, etc. They do daycamp every summer for ages 3-12 and hire kids starting at age 13. I spent every summer there from ages 3-19, (minus the summer I worked at DisneyWorld). Some of my best childhood memories are of that place. I grew up there. I love taking my own kids there when we are in town.

Third to WVU. So much happened to me in college. I loved it. I saw & did & learned so many things in the 7 years I was there.

Fourth to my last job. I grew a lot at this job. It was not my first 'grown up' job but it was the one where I felt most mature, capable & confident.

Fifth to the hospital where my sons were born. Life altering moments.

Sixth to the house where I live now.

indulgence

Right now my indulgence is solitude. Time alone to read. I can be on the computer withthe boys around but it hard to sit & read a book with them underfoot. So whenI am feeling indulgent I wil shut myself in the bedroom (lock the door) with some chocolate & a good book.

How would I like to indulge myself? well, this is only partly for me, mostly it is for DH. I would love to have a night nanny. Someone who works midnight to 8am and deals with all the middle of the night wakings and the up for the day 5:30am wakings. DH does it now because I am drugged to sleep & am usually too groggy and out of it to cope, though I have staggered back to the boys room a few times & blearily changed a few diapers, mostly it is all on DH. I would like us both to be able to sleep in together. So my big fantasy indulgance is a night nanny.

childhood games

I don't remember playing specific games when I was a kid, apart from things like hop scotch and jumping rope. I played with dolls with the other little girls, making up stories about them. When the boys played we played with Weebles or those plastic army men you can buy by the bag, or with cars. i remember having a lot of adventures in the woods behind our houses too. There was an old tree that fell over and created a sort of bridge between 2 small hills. Lots of action went on there. It made a great pirate ship and was perfect for "None Shall Pass" (1972 I saw my first Monty Python episode. None Shall Pass was from a skit that later appeared in the Holy Grail as the Black Knight) The fall was relatively short from the tree & the dirt was as soft as loose dirt can be to land on.

Most of our non-all girl games invovled some sort of physical risk. I think a lot of mom's I know today would freak out if thier kids were playing a game that involved deliberately trying to throw one another off of a tree. Our parents didn't much care. We spent our days roaming around the woods & the neighborhood, playing whateveer game came to our imagination. Only the mock swordfights ever got us a warning, the famous "You'll poke your eye out" one. But they didn't stop us. They just warned us to be careful & left us to it. When I actually did break my collar bone, falling off the monkey bars, I was under full parental supervision. So there you go.