Accomplishments

1. Five loads of laundry. Thought I was done. Then the kids brought down their laundry hamper. Three more loads. Crap.

2. Bathed the dog. Pleasant doggie smell didn't last five minutes, unfortunately. Bailes went out to poop and came back smelling like doggie sweat. I should be thankful she didn't smell like crap. Okay, I am thankful for that.

3. Found cool Easter craft project for P to do. It's a cute little sewing project (pre-punched holes; felt bunny; plastic needle), but it's apparently frustrating. The yarn is too long; it tangles too easily; the bunny's ears keep flipping backwards...you know, the usual stuff that keeps us up at night.

4. Blogged twice today. My only self-complaint is that I wish I could remember all that I want to say. My posts are frustratingly short (to me, anyway). One day I'll sit down and write that All-American Blog Entry; just you wait.

5. Made a scrapbook page for my sister Tnk. If I do say so myself, the page came out beautifully. I think I'm going to frame it so she can hang it in her house. As some of you know, she bought the house we grew up in, and we've been working on it for months now. During our demolition projects, we've come across a bunch of small pieces of wallpaper that somehow remained on the walls after all these years (usually behind curtain rods, which explains the nail holes). Some pieces are better than forty years old. I've been collecting all the pieces, and here's the page I made:




Oh yeah, the Monopoly card. I don't know why, but that one card never seemed to make it back into the box, no matter how many times we played the game. Years after I was grown and gone, I could still find it sitting on Mom's bookshelf. It may seem silly, but to me, it represents our childhood and the fun the five of us kids often had.

Musings for my own amusement

So I renamed all my blogger peeps today - see left sidebar. I couldn't bring myself to say that Pez is sour, nor could I come up with a good "F" word that went with "Fishbowl." "Fishbowl Fanatic"? "Fishbowl Flippancy"? "Fishbowl Food"? None of those seemed to "work," so I went the boring route. If I think of anything cool later today, I may change it. But maybe not, as it's my "prerogative." And I do solemnly vow to try and cut back on my use of the "quotation mark."

As I type this, I'm preparing to take K to school for math tutoring. My niece's school has a cool name for it - "Math Club." Once you get to junior high, it's just tutoring. Sometimes K thinks it also means "help for the dumbass," but of course it doesn't. (And by the way, he never said that D word - that was just me making up cool phrases again.) He's way too hard on himself.

Things have been scooting along here at the Pl3ytime household. I could type more, but then K would be late for tutoring. So I'll see y'all later.

Tagged by a Pez!

Four Jobs I've had in my Life:
1. H&R Block receptionist
2. Leasing agent
3. Executive secretary
4. Transcription supervisor
Four Movies I'd Watch Over and Over
1. The Wedding Singer
2. Shanghai Noon
3. Grease
4. Steel Magnolias
Four Places I've Lived:
1. Houston
2. Homestead, Florida
3. Austin
4. Spring, Texas (hmm, I'm seeing a rather strong pattern here)
Four TV Shows I like to Watch
1. Olympics (granted, this is … um, seasonal, lol)
2. Desperate Housewives
3. DIY Scrapbooking
4. America's Funniest Home Videos
Four Favourite Places I've been on Vacation:
1. Belize
2. Lowry City, Missouri
3. Miami
4. Florida Keys
Four Web Sites I Visit Daily:
1. My own blog, natch
2. SAHP Forum
3. Delphi Forums
4. Comics
Four of my Favourite Foods:
1. Nachos
2. London Broil
3. Oreos
4. Chocolate-covered peanuts
Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. On the beach
2. Spending the week at the Omni Hotel in Austin with my hubby
3. At the thrift store
4. Under the covers
Four People I feel sorry for because they're getting tagged:
EMTsis, Tnk, Evil Amy, Snapper

Updates!

Forgive me, bloggers, for I have sinned. It has been over a week since my last blogfession.

So without further ado, here's a recap of the past weekish's events:

Rain Rain, Go Away

The weekend of the 11th found the greater Houston area deluged with the wet stuff. As a result, K's first soccer game of the season was cancelled. As he was supposed to be at the cold, godforsaken fields at 7:30 a.m., Mom was not exactly heartbroken.

Happy Early Heart Day

Hubby came home with a dozen beautiful pink roses tonight. They smelled SO good. I love you, hubby.

Happy Heart Day

Despite the fact that K had soccer practice tonight, Valentine's Day was actually fun. I'd bought a bunch of little things for the kids (like storage cubbies for their rooms - SO cool, by the way; I'll post pictures later) and hubby ("Truth or Dare" card game; chocolate...ahem, there will be no further update on that). I had also picked up a bunch of helium-filled heart-shaped balloons at the dollar store. [Aside: Dollar Tree is THE way to go for balloons. Seriously.] Anyway, after soccer practice we ordered pizza and sat around opening our little gifts and just enjoying being a family. Hubby had gotten the new Collective Soul CD from Amazon that day, so we were serenaded by "live" music, too.

What a great night.

It's Green!

This was my week for our sisterly workday get-together, and I decided we'd paint my master bedroom. (My sisters love me.) Tnk and I went to Home Depot so that I could force her to choose what color my bedroom should be. (She's so good at that.) She chose "Surrey Beige," which is greener than it sounds. It's gorgeous. Hubby and I love the color, and our bedroom looks a million times better than it did before. Best of all, I think my sisters and I are all over having sore muscles by now. Right, sisses?

Well, we'd better be not-sore - tomorrow we're painting Tnk's office. Payback's a bitch, y'all.

News on the job front

Hubby was flown to Dallas for a job interview last Friday. Weird, since the job is in Houston, but whatever. It sounds like they really want him, so now we're into the "fill out this application; how much money do you want; haha, you're funny, no seriously; etc." process. Fun.

Rain Rain, I thought I told you to go away!

The rains returned on Friday, and continued through most of Saturday. K's soccer game was rained out for the second week in a row. At this rate, we'll be playing Spring 2006 soccer games in December 2008.

P had her first Girl Scout camp this weekend. The weather couldn't have been worse. It rained almost constantly, and the high temperature Saturday was a balmy 39*. Their cabins had electricity, but no heat. The girls and leaders called it quits a day early, so I found myself driving out to pick them up Saturday night. That was pretty miserable in itself. But I don't blame them one bit for wanting their nice warm beds. Brrr.

K's Sunday soccer game did end up being played. It was cold there, too, but at least the fields were fairly dry. They won 3-1, so the season is off to a great start. Congrats, K!

Mmmm, Food!

Last night we went to dinner at hubby's parent's house. Hubby's sis and her hubby were there, too. MIL made lasagne with garlic bread and two great salads - one green; one fruit. She also made brownies and homemade hot fudge sauce for dessert. I was pretty proud of myself. I had one small serving of lasagne, one decent-sized salad, and a lot of fruit. And NONE of the chocolate, which is a feat in and of itself. The patting sound you hear is emanating from my back.

And now we're up to today. Not much to report at the moment, but give it time. I'm sure I'll come up with something exciting for you. Eh, who am I kidding.

Toodles!

Public Service Announcement

The following Girl Scout cookies have been tested by a panel of experts (my kids and me), and have been found to be tasty and addictive:

Lemon Pastry Cremes
Thanks A Lots
Peanut Butter Patties
Peanut Butter Sandwiches

This has been a public service announcement from your friend in Houston. Be warned: If you value your waistline, avoid the above-mentioned evils at all costs. Straight from the devil, they are.

That is all. Have a nice day.

Bad mommy

Yesterday I received an e-notice from R's school that he was in the hole $1.10 on his lunch money account. As I always send in the same amounts for all three kids, and K had $4.00 left at the time, I was curious as to why R's account was so low.

He'd mentioned before that he liked to buy "extras" after lunch - generally fruit rollups and the like - and that those cost an extra 50 cents per day. Apparently that adds up quickly, so this morning I fussed at him and told him to stop buying extra things at lunch, that we couldn't afford it, and basically that he was bleeding us dry. (Not exactly true, but I had to make my point.)

R looked sheepish, which made me think, "Aha, he IS buying fruit rollups every day! Well, I'll put a stop to that!" That's when he told me about Akhilesh, the new student in his class. Akhilesh just moved here from India, and he had had no lunch money for two days. On his own, R was buying extra food so his new friend would have something to eat.

Never felt so small in my life.

Way to go, kiddo. I love you so much.

Today I made 15-bean soup

And boy, was it good. I got up at 1:30 a.m. to put the beans on to soak (I'd forgotten to do so last night), then started cooking them at 6:30 this morning. By 9:00, the house smelled great. I could hardly wait until lunchtime. In fact, I am still not sure how I held out until 11:00.

My sisters were supposed to come over today and help me with some stuff around the house (we've been alternating weeks at each other's houses), but neither of them could make it. Tnk's dog got very sick last night, so she didn't get much sleep at all. EMT fell yesterday and hurt her knee again. It's pretty swollen, and she's going to the doctor tomorrow. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers - she's been struggling with her ACL injury since last summer, and this setback is discouraging for her.

Take care of yourself, sis. And let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I'm always here for you. Hey, do you need some soup? ;)

Today I saw the inside of a police station

Intrigued? Heh. Well, fortunately for me, my visit to the station was not under duress. I ran an errand with my sister Tnk today, then she drove me out to where she works. It was pretty cool seeing all the police cars and police scanners and such. I even met one of her bosses - a big bear of a man with a heart the size of Montana. It made me happy to know that she's being watched over by the good guys.

It also made me happy to run errands with Tnk today because our main purpose of driving out to BFE today was to pick up her Kevlar vest. Finally. I can't tell you how relieved I am that her heart and lungs will be more protected now. She pooh-poohs my concerns, but I hope she knows deep down that I only nag her because I love her.

If you haven't seen the latest police vests, they're really pretty cool. They are much thinner than the Michelin Man vests of the past. In fact, I kept poking Tnk's vest and asking the sales guy if he was SURE it would stop a bullet. He assured me it would. Then he laughed at me, which I didn't appreciate much. I'm sure I seem like a goofy little civilian in that big ol' policeman store.

Tnk tried on her vest, it fit, then she had to sign over her firstborn in order to take it with her. Okay, not really, but they did make her write down her social security number before she could leave. I've heard that security measures have been stepped up, but this was the first time I'd seen it in action. Wow. I guess it makes sense, though - they only want the good guys to have that kind of protection.

After the policeman store (sorry, police "person" store), we drove out to the station. Turns out Tnk drives a long way to work every day. She doesn't mind, though, because she loves her job. And hearing her bosses talk about her, she's also good at it.

Proud of ya, Tnk. Keep up the good work. And hey - let me know when I can do that ride-along. I'd love to see you in action!

Yoga is real exercise. Who knew?

Did y'all know? Did I miss a memo?

Yesterday hubby and I discovered that one of the benefits of having digital cable is that you get some "free" channels (of course, we pay a hundred bucks a month for the freeness of cable and internet, but whatever). Anyway, among the freebies are exercise channels. There's a channel for cardio, one for toning and sculpting, one for yoga, and even one for underwater basketweaving, if I remember correctly. (I probably don't.)

So yesterday morning, hubby decided to watch one of the yoga programs. Me, I thought yoga was wussified (and watching yoga even more so) and decided to get down on the floor and do the exercises. Eleven minutes later, I had not broken a sweat and I felt no different. This was supposed to be "exercise"? Suuuure. Yoga, I was certain, was for girlie-girls who couldn't handle a "real" workout.

Today after the kids left for school, I did a different yoga program. This one was only nine minutes long. I'm thinking, cool, I can now tell everyone I'm "exercising." This easy exercise thing rocks.

A couple of hours later, I'm sitting at lunch with my sister and reaching for the pepper when suddenly my forearm muscles started to scream. I first thought, "wow, that pepper shaker is heavy." It weighed twenty pounds, I swear.

Thinking I'd just shake it off, I flexed my arms a little bit.

Yeaaaaah, I won't be doing that again soon.

M'kay, yoga, you win. You are actually a real form of exercise. I apologize for ever calling you wussified. May I please have my non-achy muscles back now?

Why is it so hard?

To come up with a topic to write about, that is. Maybe I need to come up with a list of things to write about, then I can pick one every day and blog away.

Ideas, anyone?

Life is moving right along. As I type this, hubby and the boys are playing an XBox game called Battlefront II. It's a Star Wars game. Anyway, they play a few rounds of this game a couple of times a week. I like it when they play because they're making memories and bonding. Heh. Actually, I like it because I'm left alone for a little while to piddle around on the computer, take an uninterrupted bath, or scrapbook.

Okay, that's a lie - I haven't scrapbooked at home in months. I did go to a crop a couple of weeks ago, and did about 50 pages there, but at home I have no motivation. I always think it sounds cool to crop, but I guess I'm too lazy to drag out all my stuff and get busy. Well, that, plus it makes a mess and I hate having a messy room - particularly since the room I craft in is also my formal dining room, which is very open. There are no doors to close it off in case someone stopped by.

Again with the messiness. No one cares, really. But *I* do, so my feelings are justified. Wow, I think I just psychoanalyzed myself.

This weekend has been fun for P. Friday night, she went to movie night at church with her best friend J, then J came over to spend the night here. The girls had a good time, and believe it or not, P's room was NOT a disaster area when J left. You could have knocked me over with a feather; I was so impressed. Then I discovered that the girls had put all the stuff from the floor on top of P's bed so that the dog couldn't get to it. Not the same as "clean," but it's a start, I suppose.

More weekend fun: Last night P went to her cousin's (my sister's) to spend the night. She was SO excited because she and E are the only girl cousins in the family. They're a year apart, and are very close. I hope they always stay that way. When I left, they were playing with E's air hockey table. Hmm, wonder why the girls like it so much better there than here...?

In a little while, we're going to my sister's house to watch the Super Bowl... wait, can I say that here? I've heard the NFL is anal about people putting those two words together. Like they don't have enough money. Good grief.

But I digress. We're going to sis's house for the "big" "game" and also because it's stepdad's birthday. It will be good to visit with family for awhile. Too bad Tnk has to miss the party - she's on duty tonight, keeping the streets safe for all the revelers. (Be careful, Tnk!)

One more thing: doggie update. Bailes is cute, and just like with babies, it's a good thing she is. She tore up the carpet the other day, and I was ready to toss her out with the dishwater. Seriously. Okay, not really. But I was pretty damn mad. There's a reason I didn't want another child, and having a dog, as it turns out, isn't that different.

At least there aren't diapers to contend with.

For Evil Amy, with evil love

You are not alone. I despair over things all the time. Sometimes I get so depressed that I resent the sun rising in the morning. I feel like a complete failure because (a) I have quit school, (b) I have lost the will to attend church, (c) I need to lose weight, (d) I bitch about things that don't matter, (e) all of the above, every.single.day.

Unlike your concerns (abortion is certainly a valid one), the things I get worked up over don't matter one iota in the real world. *gasp!* Someone made a flippant remark that annoyed me! Like *I* have never done that? And so what if someone left a mess behind when they left my house? If I wanted perfection all the time, I'd never open the damn door. I'd also get rid of my spouse, kids, and dog, which is not likely to happen, and I'm not sure cleanliness would be a good trade-off anyway.

What is my problem?

I live in a beautiful home, I have beautiful children, and I have an awesome family (including my in-laws; go figure). My biological father is a bit of a question mark, but I'd better not get into that here ... for many reasons. Anyway, big picture: I should spend my days counting my blessings, not complaining about everything else.

And I can assure you, that will never happen.

Whatever my problem is, I may never know. But I want you to know this, Most Evil One: you are NOT alone.

Dog days

The newest member of the family has arrived. Please give a warm welcome to our recent addition, Bailey!

We officially adopted Bailey on Monday, January 16, from a Scottie rescue agency. She is a Brindle Scottish Terrier who had been found wandering the streets in a town outside of Houston. She was obviously loved and cared for - when the rescue worker took her to the vet, they found that she had already been spayed, and had no heartworms (or fleas, yay!). They vaccinated her, so she is current on her shots. (Side note: I do hope she's not over-vaccinated - as I said, someone had obviously been taking care of her. Can dogs be over-vaccinated?)

Bailey is just over a year old. Her birthday is December 1; at least, that's what the Scottie rescue paperwork says. She's hyper sometimes, but the kids love that. Heck, hubby loves it, too. She sleeps on a blanket in our room at night, and is already housebroken (and yes, we know how lucky we are! LOL)

Welcome to the family, Bailey!

Today I learned electrical stuff

Hey, what's up, yo homey dogs? (That's "hello" to my children, in case you were wondering. They're so ghetto. And no offense intended, just in case my little joke is not P.C.)

So today I went to Tnk's house to help her with some more house-stuff. It's been a long road, but man have I enjoyed it. Tnk is all moved in to the house now, but there is still much work to be done. Today's chores included caulking the baseboards in her bedroom and changing out all of the old, yellowed, grungy electrical outlets and light switches with shiny new white ones. MAN did that make a difference! If you want to improve a room, just follow these steps: paint it; caulk the trim; change the outlets. Voila! Taj Mahal, baby.

Anyway, I learned how to change out a light switch - not just the plate, mind you; the whole wire-y thing. I felt so studly when I was done and the light actually came on! Go me. If you need help with this stuff, just let me know and I'll come over. You'll have to fly me to exotic locales like Washington and Michigan and Florida, of course, but I'll definitely come help you change your switches. Chances are, I'm cheaper than a real electrician.

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In other news, you may have noticed that my blogger friends' links have changed. I had a little fun with the names. It all started because Fish created a new blog, and I couldn't resist referencing the great Steve Burns when I linked her. Hey, don't laugh. The man behind Blue's Clues rocks - and not in a "hey, what happened to the cute green striped shirt he used to wear?" kind of way. He really does ROCK.

Anyway, Fish was the catalyst behind the fun little name changes. If you love your new nick, let me know. Evil Amy, I know you hate everything, but if you want to say something anyway, well, I can't stop you. Fire away!

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Last weekend we went to Austin for a day trip. It was so much fun! I'll blog more about it when I've got the pictures developed and I can post some here. Pictures make things so much more interesting, don't you think?

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Want to know what I think is stupid? Car dealerships who promise that if they can't beat a competitor's deal on a new car, they'll give you a car for free. Actually, I suppose the stupid one here is whoever believes that dumbass ad. Let's do the math: Car dealership either has to lower the price on a car by a few hundred (maybe thousand) dollars, or they give away a $15,000 car. Yeahhhhhhhh, that's gonna happen.

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I start school next Tuesday. I can't believe the time is here already.

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That's it for now. I'll try to get the Austin pics developed tomorrow so that I can make a uber-cool blog entry next time.

Ta ta!

De-lurk!

This is National De-Lurking week. Please post a hello in my comments section. And yes, you're allowed to say more than just "hello." But play nice, okay? ;)

The word is "definitely"

That's d-e-f-i-n-I-t-e-l-y. Not definately. Not defiantly. The first one is not a word; the second is how I act when people try to tell me it's spelled "definately."

While I'm at it...

• MOOT point.
• A Lot. Not Alot. NOT Alot.
• Voila. Not waa-lah. Not viola - which is an instrument, not an exclamation. At least not the last time I checked.
• Sincerely has a second "e." Sincerly is not a word, unless I've missed out on the sincer-ing trend. I didn't get the memo...
• Supposedly. Supposably is, as it turns out, a real word (gag). But it's almost never used correctly, so stop using it until you can use it in its correct context.
• Pregnant. Pregnate is not a word. It's stupid.
• Y'all. Y-apostrophe-all. Not ya'll. Unless you can tell me what "ya" is short for.
• Your - of or relating to you. NOT short for "you are."
• You're - "You." "Are." For cripe's sake, stop saying "Your welcome." My welcome...what? Mat?
• Too - Also. Or to an excessive degree. "I'm too tired." "I like that, too." If you say "I like that to," you're missing a word. You like it to what?
• It's means "it is." "It's the moose's hairpin."
• Its means "of or relating to it." Clarified: "The moose loves its hairpins."
• You could NOT care less. Saying you could care less is meaningless.

Most of all, though, definitely remember "definitely." My new quest in life is to rid the world of all definatelys and defiantlys. Mercy. It hurt just to type those out.

So I Google'd myself...

...and several different things came up. Most intriguing of all was this: Link to weird thing.

Anyone know what the heck that is? "Pl3ytime" (that would be me) has charts and graphs and "shares" and "B" money, oh my. But as it turns out, KatieFleck's site is worth oodles more dinero than mine. (No shocker there; I need a larger readership...how do I upload me some porn?)

Anyway. Oh, then there's Miss Doxie, who is off the charts with this B-money stuff. She's got like $72,000 B-dollars. That might be enough to buy some new elf-tights. (Inside joke; see her December posts.) Me, I've got about three grand B-bucks. Barely enough to buy a vowel.

So what does this all mean? There's a cyber donut in it for the first one to give me a decent answer. Don't laugh - cyber donuts have no calories, sugar, or fat, but they are ten times better than Krispy Kreme.

Hey, does Krispy Kreme know about B-dollars?

Three Words

Hook

'Em

Horns!

The University of Texas pulled off a fantastic comeback in the National Championship game last night against USC. UT quarterback Vince Young was un freakin' believable, although in a believable kind of way, if you're familiar with the way he works. He makes the unlikely likely.

Hmm, I'm having a hard time putting this into words. I'm still on cloud nine, so I guess my mental processes are goobered at the moment.

It was a great game. My heart was pounding the entire time, no lie. Then when Vince scored the touchdown to put UT ahead in the final seconds, I cried. Good grief, I cried over a football game. What a girl I am.

Guess I do bleed burnt orange after all.

Freaking me out to see myself staring back at me

So I'm going to post a quick howdy-do in order to get yesterday's post off the top of my screen.

Howdy-do!

How was everyone's holiday? Mine was great. We got to see several family members, and everyone got very nice gifts. P received a new sewing machine (she's 8...what was Santa thinking?), and the boys received the Lego Millenium Falcon as a joint gift from mom-in-law. It had over a thousand pieces, but somehow the boys were able to get it put together in record time. And without killing each other, if you can believe that.

Han Solo would be proud.

I received several wonderful gifts from my hubby. He took my Christmas list to heart! I received two Kelly Clarkson CDs (Yes, I am in fact 17. Shut up.). I also got some Anais Anais perfume (hubs calls it Anus Anus; ain't that funny?), some scrapbook supplies, a subscription to Rachael Ray Everyday magazine, and some essential oils to make the house smell scrumptious. Today's scent: Oh Christmas Tree. I like the pine smell around this time of year. As soon as the tree comes down, I think I'll switch over to the Christmas Memories oil. Get it? Since Christmas will be a memory? Ha, me funny.

Speaking of haha, did you guys know that Dollar Tree has Christmas stuff at half-price? Everything in the store is already just a dollar, so it seems funny to me that they'd drop it all down to fifty cents. I don't know why, but that just makes me laugh. Tuesday I laughed all the way to the bank, because the kids and I stocked up on little Christmas trees and silk poinsettia bunches and miniature light sets for fifty cents a pop. Man, I love deals.

That's about it from this little 'burb of Houston. We have no plans for New Year's Eve, darn it, so I don't foresee a cool "here's how drunk I got" post next week. But if things change and I do imbibe a bit, at least I won't freak myself out when I come here to post and find myself staring back at me. Yikes.

Little ol' me

Hey, it's me!


Yep, that's really me - in all my wavy-haired, smiley-faced glory. I'd just bought the teeniest little digital camera (five bucks on Target clearance rack - SCORE!) and was playing with it by taking pictures of, well, myself. I took about three thousand shots before I got one that I was willing to share on the Internet. Meaning: The picture looks like a version of me that *I* think I look like most of the time, and not one of the eleventy kajillion pictures that absolutely do NOT look like me. (Why oh why does smiling give you wrinkly eyes and double chins? Unfair, I say.)

So, there ya go. Howdy, world.

Hubby's Christmas gift

Well, the big one anyway. (Sorry for the crummy pics):





He's been wanting a grandfather clock for a l-o-n-g time, and I came across a great deal on one back in November. It's really nice looking, and the chimes are great, too. Best of all, it's powered by winding - no batteries. (Apparently battery-operated grandfather clocks are the root of all evil.) heh