Life

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. School resumed; and we were going 24/7 getting ready. Getting up early, like 5:45 AM has taken it's toll on us all. The royal family was tired. And when I'm tired, I do not go on the computer. I think though I am getting used to the new schedule, so I will be back again. There is a lot of driving for us now, as we do afternoon pickup of the Princesses all over the place. I think the Prince and I drive about 35 miles a day picking up his sisters, and he's cranky for 80% or more of it! Hopefully when he is able to face forward he will be happier, as then he can watch movies. And movies we will have!

The lack of postings has also been due to the fact that our most beloved English bulldog, Winston Churchill, passed away unexpectedly. He was only 2 years old, and in great health as far as we knew. He went to sleep one afternoon, and never woke up again. His death threw us into a tailspin. Winston was Princess Nike's dog, and we have all had to work with her to help her get through this loss. We are all suffering. Princess Nike cries herself to sleep every night. She says the hardest thing for her is that she never got to say goodbye to Winnie as she called him. That is something I can't fix her, and that just hurts me right down to my heart. She loved Winston so very much, and literally would have (& did) anything for him. Princess Nike had completed a project on Winnie last school year. It is a large posterboard with photos and info about him. She kisses his photos everynight before bed, and falls asleep talking to him about her day. I end up crying outside of her bedroom as I listen to her. I wish I could do something to bring that beautiful smile of her's back, but I can never bring her baby back to her so I fail as her protector.

To add sadness upon sadness, the vetrinarians office called me yesterday to inform me that Winston's ashes were available for pickup. I can't go there to get him; I just can't. The unexpectedness of his death still rings loudly in my ears, and I am not ready to see final confirmation that he is gone. I have therefore asked the Duke to go and get Winnie for us. Thankfully he will. Winston was our dog for only 2 years, and people lose family members all the time. I understand that. I further understand that he was a dog, and not a person. You have to understand though, that he was loved and had the most unique personality...so it was easy to think of him as almost person-like. He snored; he slept on my favorite couch, even though he knew he wasn't supposed to; he kissed you when you felt down or when you just needed a little loving; he loved to go on car rides; when you left the car and came back he was sitting in the driver's seat, ready to take on the world; he loved people and all animals and was not unabashed in showing this love with tail wags and kisses, and he was playful with my children. Oh and he was handsome as all heck, if you find wrinkly faces and missing teeth your thing! In time we will heal. The pain is very real now, and Princess Nike faces it every hour.

Am I being dupped?

The dishwasher repairman arrived today. I must say he was rather odd. Best of all he did not repair the dishwasher. Yes, you read right. I am still eating off of paper plates. I have instituted a new rule in the house as well. If you dirty a dish, you wash it. That should cut down on the use of cutlery and dishes alike.

As for the repair man. Well, he's another story. Seems the man had to leave to meet "someone" at 2 pm, and left my home with my dishwasher in pieces. Yes, there it is again. First it was the van in pieces and now the dishwasher is in pieces too. I don't think I like where this theme is going. The repairman also told me that he is not sure if whatever broke the dishwasher is covered under the warranty. Say what?! He then packed up his tools, and left. Said he'd call me next week, and come by when he was in the neighborhood. WHAT?! Did he not notice that the royal residence has 6 residents who all use dishes, and that we like to eat on a regular basis?! Come on fella, let's get with the program. The Duke said I should call the warranty company to complain. I chose not to, as I was trying to use my feminine ways to get this strange little man to fix the dishwasher regardless of whether it was covered under the warranty. You know a smile. Some friendly chit-chat. Whatever it took! Now I don't know what to do. Call and start again with a new repairman, or wait for this guy to show up sometime next week. Did you forget there Mr. Repairman that school is back in session next week? I will be in the van driving to pick up the Princesses every afternoon. When will I find 2-3 spare hours? He obviously thinks I have way more free time on my hands than I actually have. I tried to persuade him to my way of thinking, i.e. scheduling an exact day and time with me prior to leaving, but he would having nothing to do with it. Where did he need to go in such a hurry anyway? Hmmm, maybe I don't want to know the answer to that question.

I'll just be glad when everything is fixed once and for all! I know I am not asking for to much, I just know it.

And so it continues

I guess the parts for my van are coming to the service bay via snail. In this day of overnight shipping, and instant messaging it seems that customer service has gone the way of the buffalo. I don't feel quite so bad now, seeing as I have a free rental car...but still you would think this could be done in a day. We have now finished day 6; albeit 2 days were the weekend. I'll give them that much.

The Prince, Princesses and I attended an open house for high school this morning. Princess Hollister is going into 9th grade in 2 weeks. I can not believe it! I am certain that just about every parent of a child entering high school says the exact same thing; and I shall be no different than any of those wise parents. She is our oldest child. It seems like yesterday she was rolling around in a diaper, and now she's off to high school with 2,200 of her closest friends. When did high schools get to be so large?! I graduated with a class of 52, and no, I did not live in the middle of no where. That is like the size of a small town, never mind a high school.

While I am dealing with the shock of high school, my baby girl will also be starting Kindergarten in 2 weeks. Princess Splish 'n Splash is officially leaving me. She has never attended daycare, so we have spent many an hour together these past 5.5 years. I quit working 4.5 months before she was born, and have never regretted it. It will be odd for me not to have her around. For the Princess it will be splendiferous, as she will be meeting new friends. I know she will love it...at least that's what I'm telling myself. So it will just be the Prince and I home together during the school week. We will be home for about 4 1/4 hours before we have to go and pick up Princess Hollister. I am looking forward to going to the park and other outings with him.

Tomorrow the dishwasher repairman comes. Alleluia! No more paper plates, and no more washing ten thousand dishes.

It doesn't get better than this...

So as you may know, my dishwasher is broken and my van was sent in for repairs. The van went in for said repairs last Wednesday morning. I never realized how unattached I would feel from the world while being vehicle-less for 3 days. The assistant manager at the service place finally took pity on me late Friday afternoon, and provided me with a free loaner car. He offered the car to me because my van is currently in "many pieces," and if he gave it back to me he would only need to take it apart again come Monday. Great, a free car. Never realized how much fun it was to drive a car versus a van until I got into this car. Although I do strangely feel as though I am scrapping the road, being so low and all. I naively thought this was the start to my fantastic weekend.

I attended a scrapbooking class on Saturday. It ran most of the day. I arrived home around 4, only to be informed by the Duke that he had made some repairs to my computer. Say what?! I never said there was anything wrong with my computer. What would make him think he needed to repair it?! As the sad story was told to me, it appears the Duke was sitting next to the computer and decided that it was making too much noise for his liking. He then opened the CPU up, and extracted the fans. He had decided that the fans were making it too noisy at my desk. Getting the theme here...my computer, my desk. Oh and did I mention that he is a self-proclaimed computer geek; and a software engineer! Might think this has a happy ending, but for me and my computer it does not. Well what happens when a powerful computer runs without fans, you might wonder? Let me tell you, as I now have real-life experience with such a situation. Do NOT remove the fans from your CPU. What the Duke accomplished was to eliminate the noise from my computer; as he fried the video card and thereby rendered my computer useless! Yet something else to add to my list of broken items. Broken cable box; broken dishwasher; broken van, and now a broken computer.

I do not ask for much in life. I enjoy my royal life. I scrapbook for fun, and love it. Do I go to the Duke's office and mess with his computer? No. I leave his life to him. Did he grant me the same? That's a big fat no. And through all this my computer was just blowing off some steam, and he killed it. It is as dead as a door nail. Maybe I'll just have to pay a little visit to the Duke's desk this week. You know, pay him a little favor back! I mean come on, is there no sanctity to this job of being a SAHM. My 30 minutes a day that I sneak in some computer time is all I need. He looked at me oddly when he detected my displeasure. Said I don't have a job, so why do I need a computer?! Don't think he'll be asking that question again anytime soon. I also won't be asking him to fix anything anytime soon either.

What next?!

Our cable outage continued on today. I have had to resort to googling Big Brother 8 spoilers, just to keep up with the show. I know, lame right?! What can I say, I'm addicted. At least it's a healty addiction. Now to add insult to injury the dishwasher is broken. When you go to push the on button; it just blankly stares at you. If you listen closely I think it may even be laughing at us. The Duke and I were both looking at each other, like this can't be happening. I can't even think how long it has been since I have my arms up to my elbows in dish detergent. Yuck! And just as with the cable company, the repairman can not come out until next Tuesday. Excuse me! You would think I lived in the middle of nowhere, instead of in the heart of paradise/vacationland. I am completely dumbfounded as to why it takes so long to get items fixed. Oh and lest I forget, my royal van has been in for service now for 2.5 days. Again, parts needed are no where to be found. I think if I started up a repair business for cable, dishwashers and vans that promised service within 24 hours, I would make a fortune! I know things come in threes, but come on this is a bit much. We are now using paper plates, and trying not to dirty anything that needs to be washed. How sad is that?! Now if only the stove would break, I wouldn't have to cook!

Big Brother 8

My daughters and I are HUGE Big Brother fans. Season 8 is no different for us. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday nights we are glued to the TV. Only problem is our cable is down. It went out this afternoon, and we have no idea when it is to be fixed. It seems the cable company doesn't give a fig that we are in need of a BB fix. They are completely oblivious of the effects we will suffer as a result of not seeing the show. We recorded last nights episode, but lost the cable while watching it. AAGGHH!! Why do cable companies have no heart?! Aren't these the very same people that gouge our pocketbooks each and every month for $150+? I believe we should receive immediate service when we would otherwise suffer withdrawal. How can I sleep when I have such burning questions on my mind such as will Eric be saved; will Jen be tricked by Evil Dick's plan, and will Nick's family send another plane overhead and spoil anymore of the show?? I need my cable, and I need it by tomorrow night. Please Mr. Cable Man, fix whatever you need to fix and make it quick!

Organization

I have this nifty system in my house of writing all of the appointments on a main calendar in the kitchen; one that the entire family has access to. Nothing gets missed that way, as we walk past the calendar 900+ times a day. Oh but wait, the Duke did miss an appointment. I called to reschedule his blood test today, and was informed that if he misses another appointment he will be fined $50. If he misses a 3rd appointment, the doctor will drop him as a patient. Well there's some great besdie manners for you! Now don't get me wrong. I understand the frustration with patients missing appointments; however, in this case it was not an appointment with the dr. that was missed, this was with a tech. The Duke missed a blood drawing appointment. I do not think this merits the same punishement, nor should it be remembered by anyone. I tried to train him to put his appointments on the calendar, but this seems to require too much effort on his part. I also suggested he give me his reminder cards, and I could enter them on the schedule. That too requires too much effort. I am not going to chase after the man to remember his appointments. I don't see him doing that for me. Hey, don't look at me like that. I'm not being tough. He's a big boy, why can't he remember his own dang appointments? I do. So I told the Duke to go to his rescheduled appointment tomorrow, and to schmooze the nurse so as to have the missed appointment not count. Why you ask? Because he's going to miss another appointment. He's a man. He can't help it...or so he tells me. This way he won't be charged $50, nor will he lose his wonderful doctor. Next time I'll have the doctor's office tatoo the appointment on his forhead, then he won't forget!

Time out for Fisher Price

Fisher Price needs to be placed in time-out for a long while. I'm not sure how old they are, so I don't have the exact minutes worked out yet...but I'm thinking a good month out to do them. Selling toys made in China that are covered in lead paint. I mean come on now guys. Where was the quality control on this one, or were we too busy lining pockets with profit to notice toddlers would be chomping on these toys?! Fortunately for this family, the Prince is too young to have any of the effected toys so we are safe. I worry about the other families that weren't so lucky. Hearing on the news today that there are no discernable signs to lead poisoning, was very scary. It also made me think if these are the better quality toys that China was shipping over here, what are they sellilng to their own countrymen? Now Chinese families not only have to limit their size to one child only, and God help them if it is a girl...but they now have toxic toys for their one child to play with. Doesn't look so good for the future generation in China does it?! This is one of those times that we all have to be thankful that someone somewhere in the deep recesses of our government did the right thing, albeit a tad late but at least it was done. So go throw away all of those Sesame Street and Dora toys that your preschooler loves so much, they'll thank you some day. I say we send the company emails by the thousands letting them know just how unhappy the kids are, and maybe boycott their toys for a while anyway. In my opinion it is only when someone's bottom line is hurt do they take notice. So go out and buy a Discovery Toy and feel good about yourself!

Family fun

Today we spent the afternoon enjoying the Isle of Fun at the beach. There were fantastic waves today; so the time at the beach was spent splashing around in the water. The extra level of excitement was evident today, because generally speaking there aren't many waves to be had on the Isle of Fun. It is generally a calmer sea than was evident today. I guess Mother Nature threw me a belated birthday present, for which I am most appreciative. There is nothing funner than watching your family members trying to get atop a float, as they are being pumled by wave after wave! Prince Bite 'n Screech even managed to fall asleep on the Duke's shoulder, all the while getting doused with salt water! He didn't even flinch. Amazing! At home one little noise can awaken him from a deep sleep, yet at the beach the boy is gettiing slammed with very salty water and he continues to snooze away. That's Murphy's Law for you right there.

Speaking of very salty water. I don't understand why the water here is so darn salty. When you get a mouthful of it; you want to reach for a cup of water to rinse out with. It's like being in St. Thomas or somewhere like that. Just amazing. The ocean water in the northern half of this country is not like this at all...it will take some getting used to.

Sunscreen. Very useful. Not enough used today. Need I say more? Ouch. The Duke has to go to work in his work duds tomorrow. Not something I would want to do, seeing as he looks like a lobster. Remember when you were little and wore wool and you itched and itched? Well that will be the Duke tomorrow. I can't wait to hear how his workmates will tease him!

Meet the family

Have you been to the M&M's website yet? They have a "Character Creator" area, where you design yourself as an M&M. Very similar to the Mii feature on the Wii. A lot of fun...I highly recommend it. In order to introduce the family to the world at large, I decided the M&M site would be a great way to do it. So here we are. You see the Duke with his briefcase. I am right next to him, with the lovely crown on. Then there's Princess Hollister, Princess Nike, Princess Splish 'n Splash, and the Prince. Each of us looks somewhat accurate, believe it or not. I love selecting everyone's favorite colors for their bodies.

OK I know that Princess Hollister is the oldest child; however, I can not make her bigger. I have tried numerous times to get her larger than her baby brother; all to no avail. Additionally, Princesses Nike and Splish 'n Splash are not huge. I am giggling at this, finding great humor in it. The Duke however thinks it is the highest insult, and that I should get into the code and fix the error. Come on, it's just a game! So as my disclaimer, Princess Hollilster is not a wee little thing. In fact she is almost as tall as me, and is taller than her Nana. Go and check out the sight. See what kind of an M&M you are. It's a lot of fun! Now if only I could make the dogs into M&M's!

Cool contest

5 Minutes for Mom is sponsoring an awesome contest. You can win 37" Flat-Panel LCD HDTV! If that isn't enough consonants for you...get this the contest is free! Yep, you heard me right...free. All you have to do is spread the word about how great Best Buy is, and link back to 5 Minutes for Mom on your blog. So get posting. Here's the url: http://www.5minutesformom.com/2032/insignia-37inch-flat-panel-lcd-hdtv-contest/trackback/

As soon as I learn to use Mr. Linky these posts will be so much better. Give me time, I'm getting there!

It's my birthday!

Happy birthday to me, I say! I love birthdays, even my own. I can't wait to see how my day goes. I am dreaming of breakfast in bed, and a chorus of "happy birthday to me!" Now when I wake up, I know that none of that is going to happen. Princess Hollister has 2 friends sleeping over, and they are not getting picked up by their parents until 8 o'clock tonight. So she's out of the picture, as I'm sure she will be off to the mall with said friends. So I shall make my own birthday fun!

I went online this morning to my favorite scrapbooking store's blog. I learned there are to be several classes in October, taught by the one-and-only Tim Holtz! I am soooo excited. I can't decide which class or classes to attend. I want to select classes that will enable me to make things I can then sell. The Duke says I can't go to one until I finish a project I learned in a Donna Downey class. Phewy on him. I will finish that today, and photograph it...just to show him. No, he's not the boss. He just likes to think he is motivating me. How silly men are.

Togetherness

Well the Princesses have made it back home from a month long trip away with the grandparents. They had a thoroughly awesome time, and want to return there for Thanksgiving. Now it is time to get back into the swing of activity. I had such a slow month, with just playing with the Prince and his Fisher Price toys...now I don't know where to begin. The Prince seems to love having his sisters back, but at the same time is a little off his schedule. He can't seem to go down for a nap ( or sleep through the night cough, cough) because he hears too much activity occuring in other rooms. Hopefully he will settle back into his routine, otherwise I shall have to ship the Princesses out again!

Giving

I made a donation tonight for Parker. It was a wonderful feeling to help someone else. A random act of kindness that I would not have even been aware of, had it not been for the wonderful world of mommy blogs. The Duke regularly looks at me with a wink in his eye, when I have been surfing the blogs for hours at night. He does not understand that this is my link to the outer world. For while I am a SAHM I have little idea to what others are doing, inventing, creating, suffering, enjoying. If it was not for the fact that I was reading 5 minutes for mom this AM, I would not have become aware of Parker. I was touched...no, amazed by how many women are helping this family out. I am not sure how many know the family personally, but I'm betting most do not. So many stories in the newspaper or on TV stress the bad aspect of today's society. These donations for Parker put all that to the side. There is plenty of good out there, and it is not that difficult to find! I wish Parker and his family all the best. I will pray for Parker and his family, and more importantly when I am having a bad day I will remember there is a world of good out there to be proud of. Thanks blogging moms for introducing me to your world, and for being such a great place to "hang out" in!

Decisions

I am attempting to determine the best road to travel. This is not a map question, but rather a life changing moment. I want to be a teacher. I have long wanted to be a teacher, but it was never the right time. There was not enough money for me to obtain my MEd, or there was no daycare for the child/children at home at the time. Whatever the reason, including thinking I wanted to travel down other roads, I never made it...until now! Now is the time. There can be no more delays. This is too important for all of us.

Now my decision is how to I get there. Do I pursue the MEd? Do I apply for a 3 year certification in the subject area of my BA? Or do I attend a one-year certification program? My BA is not in education. I have no teaching experience. Well, I played a great teacher when I was little. I also taught Princess Nike how to read prior to her attending Kindergarten. Oh, and I have also been a GS leader, and attended what has seemed like 9 million parent-teacher conferences. I know what I like in a teacher, and I know what I don't like...as all parents do. Which path to take to become a teacher? I am stumped. I have asked educators what they would suggest, and they all say the MEd. Great on paper, but that takes 2 years and the most amount of money out of the 3 possibilities.

If I choose the alt certification program, that would allow me to work in the elementary level (K-4/5). By pursuing immediate certification, I would be teaching social studies to grades 5-9. I like all of these ages, especially since I have children in those exact grades! I just don't know which stage I want to teach more.

I just decided. I am going to apply for certification for Social Studies, and see if I can earn that based on my college courses. If I can not, then I am off to the one-year certification program. Thanks for listening, and thanks for helping me to make up my mind! I couldn't have done it without you.

Birthday happiness

Princess Hollister is 14 years old today. Happy birthday to you! I will now regale you with the required I can not believe 14 years have passed already...it seems like just yesterday you were a baby in my arms. OK, none of that is true. Well maybe the 14 years passing by in a heartbeat, but just yesterday? Heck no. We have lived those 14 years together as a family, and had the pleasure of watching you blossom into a lovely young lady. I remember how shy you used to be, and how we introduced you to cheerleading to get you out into the public...to force you out of your shell. Well, I guess it worked! You are a regular chatterbox now...something I believe your teachers would attest to as well. You start high school this fall. Now that is somethig I can't quite wrap my brain around. All of those people, and all of that work. We know you will do well, you are an amazing student. We worry about the other stuff, but that's a conversation for another day. Enjoy your day in the spotlight, you deserve it!

The Prez

I was listening to our President this morning. He was trying to be funny. It wasn't working. It's sad really. Every time I hear the man's voice, especially on the radio, all I can think of are the skits yet to come from SNL. I therefore can not take a word he says with even the smallest amount of sincerity, because I am already laughing at him. Here GB is, the President after all, and I can only laugh at him. How many days does he have left in office? Far too many for me!

I can't wait for the campaigns to get into high gear. I have signed up for Hilary's (I think that is how she spells her name. I better check on that if I'm going to support her.) I have signed up to receive emails from her staff, and I quite enjoy what I have read thus far. The Princesses and I want to volunteer for her campaign. I believe it would do them good to learn at a young age just how important the electoral process is, and how we females need to stand tall in support of someone we know could do the job far better than any man has thus handled the office.

Creativity

Being a SAHM creativity, or what I deem to be my creativity, is my time. Once a week, I attend a 1/2 hour scrapbooking class. Well it's not really a class, as it is only 30 minutes but it's the closest thing I am going to get to a class at this point. A sample 2-page layout is provided, along with the necessary supplies for one of the pages, and away I go cutting, gluing and positioning to my heart's content. This may not seem like much to others; however, with the Princesses away for another 2 weeks this is the only break I get from the Prince. Don't get me wrong, I cherish every moment we have together as he will only be young once. But after we have played, and walked for 9 hours I am ready for a little creativity that extends beyond which shape fits in which hole. I do not wish to become the brain equivalent of Sponge Bob Square Pants, so I consider this weekly venture to be my equivalent to others doing the NY Times crossword puzzle every Sunday. A little brain exercise, and it does the heart good!

A quiet house

My home seems so quite now. The 3 princesses of the family have gone to stay at the seaside with their royal grandparents. The won't return home until later this month. I now hear every little noise this house makes; which is many more than I was aware of just 2 weeks prior.

I am kept busy through the days by entertaining Prince Bite & Screech. That mostly means bending over, and assisting him as he learns to walk. I had forgotten how painful that was. I have also come to notice that my name is not that of a typical parent, e.g., Mommy, but screech. He screeches, and I jump to attention. How sad is that?! His older sisters weren't screechers, so this is all new to me. I'm also not really sure how or when it happened. It seems to me that he began to screech about the time he started to get teeth. In this instance that was far too early in his young life. He is just 9 month old, and already has 10 teeth. I am giving him a lot of slack with this screeching bit, because I figure he is too young yet to understand the teething pain. But give him a few more months of this, and I may not be quite so sympathetic.

I have begun teaching the Prince sign language. I am fluent, or somewhat so, in American Sign Language, so I thought he should be too. I had previously taught the Princesses, but they can only recall their names, numbers, water or bathroom. Hopefully sign language will soon replace the screeching, and my ear drums will be happy again. I now wonder if I am suffering any hearing loss due to his shrills, which seemingly always occur right next to my ear. At least I can be happy that the Prince's screeches fill what otherwise would be VERY quiet days in this house.

Who are we?

I thought I would take a moment to explain our names. Some are obvious, but others may need a little clarification...so here goes. My husband is a computer/techie geek, and garnered his name after consistently having his nose glued to his laptop. it was only yesterday that he realized how fast his children were growing up, while he missed out. Princess of Hollister, age 14 - almost, is a shopping diva and an awesome student. If there is fashion out there to be purchased, you will find her there. She is at the top of her class, and has been selected to attend a prestigious conference due to her leadership abilities. Princess Nike, age 10, is incredibly athletic and has unlimited potential in whatever she does. She is a straight A student, and a perfectionist like you've never met. Princess of Splish 'n Splash, age 5, was quite obviously a mermaid in a previous life. She loves to be in the pool or at the ocean, no matter what the temperature. And I am not kidding about temperature, she loves water no matter what! Prince Bite 'n Screech, age 9 months, is at that lovely stage where he shreeks when I leave the room or when he wants your attention for some other reason. He also has this annoying penchant for biting me, especially on my shoulders and lower arms. I have the bruises to prove it! It is just a stage, mostly due to teething, so no I am not worried about him. He's so darn cute all you can do is love him to pieces all day, every day!

Rounding out the family are our 2 royal dogs. We have a 5 year old Golden Retriever, we'll call him Sir Bark-a-lot; and a 2 year old English Bulldog, whom we'll call Sir Crazy. Sir Bark-a-lot barks at everyone and everything he does not know. The only one who can make him stop is Duke Bits 'n Bytes, but he's not home enough to do that...so we foolishly tell the dog to stop barking to no avail in the meantime. Sir Crazy recently escaped from the royal homestead, and did not return for a few days. Princess Nike, the true owner, was beside herself with grief. Fortunately, for whom I'm not sure yet, we had Sir Crazy installed with a chip when he was still a puppy. He was therefore returned to the royal family, albeit a little crazier than when he left. We theorize that he had too much sun exposure or was inhaling too many pesticides while he was away. He now darts around the royal house at break-neck speeds for no reason.

As you can see we have plenty to keep us busy, and busy we are. Come along with us on our adventures in life. I'm sure you won't be disappointed!