A whole lot of a whole lot

I'm such a bad updater!  Is it bad that this blog has pretty much become an update blog?  I don't know how enjoyable it is for others to read, but I really like being able to document the memories here, and I guess that what counts!

So what's new??  I actually had to go back and glance at my last few posts to figure out where I left off!  Work has been really busy, mostly with doing OTHER people's work!  I get tapped to fill in for others quite a bit, sometimes other's that do the same job as me in other locations, and some totally different jobs.  It works out ok, because my own workload has been lower than normal recently, but it can be a real struggle sometimes too.  I think the majority of that is behind me for now, and I'm a little relieved.

So let's see.  As I mentioned, Tyler is back in school and has been doing great!  He got his first report card of the year last week and he got all A's!  He also had some very nice comments from his teachers.  AND he was Top Dog in Art class a few weeks ago and he is Top Dog in his class this week!  Thursday, he's going on a field trip to an apple orchard and I'm going to chaperone, so that should be fun.  After this week, he's on fall break for two weeks, so Adam and I are going to take next Monday-Wednesday off work to try and do some fun stuff.  We're considering going to the state park nearby, maybe to the pumpkin patch, and I think Adam might take Tyler to the Children's Museum, because they are having an exhibit on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  We'd go as a family, but it's SUPER expensive and I think AJ is still a bit young for it, he's not quite to where he will listen and stay with us and not take off running.  

Another big thing happening next week--MY BABY TURNS THREE!!!  How is that even possible?!  I really don't know.  We're having a little family party on Sunday, so that should be fun.

What else?  We close tomorrow on a refinance of the house. We decided to go ahead and do it because our mortgage payment is REALLY High and it's going to save us around $300 in a month, even if we sell the house next year.  We're also going to get some cash back so we can finish our renovations, so I'm sure we'll be getting back to that very soon!

I recently had doctor's appointments with our new family doctor and my rheumatologist as well.  My yearly bloodwork all came back good.  I'd been a little worried about my lupus bloodwork, since I'd been really hurting for a few weeks and feeling run down, but it all came back fine too, so she thinks I just have a hard time with the change in seasons/weather.  That makes sense, I can remember feeling similarly in the spring.

Adam and I have challenged each other to a little weight loss battle.  We "started" on October 1st, but it's been a slow start so far!  I did my Jillian workout Sunday for the first time in ages and although I'm still pretty sore, I did remember why I like her programs!  Doing a move for 30 seconds and then moving on works for me, as does her 25 minute workouts!  Hopefully the scale will show it and I can be consistent about it, and better about my eating habits!

I got on an audio book kick the last few weeks, and when I was working on mindless stuff at work, I listened to audio books I borrowed from the library.  First I listened to "The Help" by Kathryn Stockton, which I actually own in audio and paper versions.  I had read it and listened to it before and I've seen the movie as well.  It's such a great story!  Then I listened to another book I recently read: "As You Wish" by Cary Elwes.  It's all about his experiences while filming the movie "The Princess Bride" and he reads for the audio book as well. It's wonderful, he is very witty and humble and really seemed to have such a great time making one of my favorite movies of all time.  A lot of the other actors and crew contributed too.   After that, I read "On my own Two Feet" by Amy Purdy, the paralympian snowboarder who lost her legs to meningitis at 19 years old.  I saw her on Dancing with the Stars last year and just thought she was a really inspiring person, so I've been wanting to read her book.  It was exactly what I thought it would be, inspiring.  I rounded out last week by listening to "It's not about Perfect" by Shannon Miller.  I happened upon that one while browsing audio books on the libraries website. I've always been a big fan of Shannon's (if you don't know, she is an Olympian gymnast from the 1992 and 1996 games who later battled ovarian cancer) and her book is really beautiful.  She talks about growing up, discovering gymnastics and then competing in both Olympics. I was obsessed with the 96 Atlanta games, with the American gymnastics team, dubbed the "Magnificent Seven" won the gold. Seriously, I nearly wore out the VHS tape I'd used to record the competition.  After listening to her book, I even spent AJ's nap on Sunday watching footage of those Games on Youtube!

When I haven't been listening to books I've been writing one!  My friend Kelly and I have been working on a project all year and I recently finished my first draft of revisions.  We make an interesting team!  The main idea and the characters are her creation, but she claims she's an idea's kind of writer, but not a great technical writer. She doesn't care about grammar and structure.  I've been calling what I've done something between authoring and editing.  I'm definitely bringing ideas and evolution to the characters and their stories, but the concept is really her baby.  I've got one more set of her edits to do and then I really just need to run through it again, to catch anything I missed grammar and formatting-wise.  Then?  I'm not really sure. I think she's going to pass it on to a friend of hers that knows something about publishing, so we'll see where we get from there.  It's a real true novel in terms of length and storyline.  It's geared toward a mature young adult and I think it could have potential, so we'll see!

So that's what we've been up to! As always, I leave you with photo evidence of our busy-ness!

Brothers riding in style!

AJ decided this was his throne

Monkeying around at the park!

"Again!"

Seriously, my kids are the CUTEST!

Riddle me this

I stumbled upon a link on facebook to a set of riddles and thought they were really fun!  I thought I'd share them.  Real content soon, I promise! 

What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?

The letter "M"

What has 4 fingers and a thumb, but is not living?

A glove

Which word in the dictionary is spelling incorrectly?

Incorrectly

We hurt without moving. We poison without touching.  We bear the truth and the lies. We are not to be judged by our size. What are we?

Words

Give me food and I will live, give me water and I will die. What am I?

Fire.

What flies when it's born, lies when it's alive, and runs when it's dead?

A snowflake

What gets wet when drying?

A towel

I am always there, some distance away, somewhere between land or sea and sky I lay, you may move toward me, yet distant I'll stay.

The horizon

I have keys but no locks. I have pace but no room, you can enter but can't go outside. What am I?

A keyboard

I can only live where there is lights, but I die if the lines shines on me. What am I?

A shadow

Every night I'm told what to do, and each morning I do what I'm told. But I still don't escape your scold.

Alarm clock

Excuse me while I brag

I am such a proud mommy!! Tyler had his first tests at school and he didn't miss one question!!! Math, spelling reading, and sight words, he got them all!  He's such a smart boy!!!

The State of the Fair

Shew, we are feeling the heat in the midwest!  Or maybe it's just because I'm coming off a weekend of yard sale and State Fair?  Well, it's hot, regardless.  We did a 3 day yard sale and then the very next day we spent the entire day at the State Fair.  I learned my lesson, we were almost too tired to enjoy the fair this time around.  My feet hurt after about an hour.  Still, we had a good time, especially the kids, at least until AJ's naptime came around, then he MELTED DOWN big time, so we called it quits.

I'm feeling short on words today, so I will default to pictures! :)

Pony Rides! (I want to crop myself right out of these pics)

AJ is excited for his turn.  Daddy is excited watching Tyler ride, I think.

Ach, he's so big!

He LOVED it!  Grinned and chattered the whole time!

AJ running, free of the stroller for a moment

Farmer Tyler--This tractor had a TV screen inside that simulated the view from a real tractor, so cool!

Goofing around at lunchtime

This was a remote controlled robot-thing.  AJ was terrified of it.

Another type of horse!

Tyler and Daddy take on the Ferris Wheel

AJ loved the train! Until it was over, anyway.

First Day of First Grade! And stuff

You guys, I have a First Grader!  How is that possible?  Tyler went back to school on Wednesday and he did great.  He was excited and full of news. I know he cried a few times, but that's just Tyler!

I got him dressed early Wednesday before work so I could take the obligatory First Day of school pictures.  He's so darn cute!!

Family photo!  Sorry it's blurry!

So big!

Notice Coconut the monkey hanging from his hand

#1 for First Grade!

Bye Gaga! (Don't worry, they aren't moving, therefore, no car seat)

Go Tyler!

Unfortunately, just like last year, he got sick by the end of the week! Friday night after school, my mom discovered he had a fever of 104.  Not good!  He spent a quiet weekend with a yo-yoing temp, but no other symptoms.  He finally has a normal temperature today, but the school says no school until he's been fever-free for 24 hours, so I had to keep him home.  Hopefully it's not a sign of a repeat of last year's absences!

Other updates:  Got our car back!  YAY!  It ended up costing us about $300 total, which considering our deductible was supposed to be $400, I'm saying it's a win!  They dealer was able to offer an appearance allowance for leaving some minor scratches and things.  We would have saved even more, but we opted to buy the insurance on our rental car, because we weren't feeling lucky.  Oh, and they fixed our broken wiper and we got a new battery too, since they said ours was going bad.  I'm ready to put it all behind me.

Last week was crummy.  I was tired and really busy at work and everything was just getting to me.  This week is shaping up better, although I'm not feeling great today, hope I'm not catching what Tyler had.

As always, thanks for reading, friends!   Here's one more pic of my boys!

*heart melts*

BOO-HISS!!!

I consider myself a decent person.  I'm not a saint, but I try to be nice, to do the right thing, to treat others fairly.  Sometimes I fail at these things, but I'd like to think, on the whole, it all averages out to me being a pretty okay human being.

Some people are NOT decent human beings.

And one of those decidedly NOT decent human beings HIT my car over the weekend.  And drove off.  No note, no knock on the door. NOT a decent thing to do.

Some background before I tell the tale...We have a very narrow driveway, only big enough for one vehicle. You see, we live on a cul-de-sac and so our property is like a slice of pie, narrow in the front and quite wide in the back.  Our one car garage is used for storage, so we park our van in the driveway. My sister has been parking to the right of the driveway, in the grass, and we park our car on the street in front of our mailbox.  This is totally legal and there are others that do the same.  There are five houses on our cul-de-sac, three tri-levels in the center and a double on each end/corner.  One of the doubles is under construction, putting on a new roof and new siding.

I left work early on Friday to take Tyler to the dentist (No cavities--YAY!!!)--Michelle (my sis) drove Tyler up to Adam's work in the van so I could leave the car for Adam to drive home.  He got home around 5:45 pm and parked in his usual spot.  Michelle went out for a bit in the evening and go home around 8:30.  She didn't notice anything strange at that point.  So, fast forward to Saturday morning.  Mom takes the car to work at the bookstore on Saturdays. We were all getting ready to leave at the same time, around 9:00 am, because we had appointments to get the kids haircut.  Mom left first, but she called right after she left and said that something was wrong with the car, that it looked like someone had hit it.  She came back to the house and we could see that the front drivers side had been hit by another vehicle.  At first glance, the damage didn't look too bad, dents, scrapes, and a plastic underside of the wheel well was broken and pressing against the tire.  We took some photos and Adam was able to move the pieces away from the tire, so since mom needed to get to work, we decided it was probably okay to drive it and we'd get it looked at later.

She did manage to get to work in it, but it seems as though the damage is much more extensive than we thought.  When the tires are straight, the crossbar on the steering wheel is not straight across like it should be, but at a sharp angle.  It's very hard to make the car turn and the brakes are squealing.  It's definitely out of alignment (remember I JUST got the car aligned along with 4 new tires and a new rim like a month ago) and who knows what else. I'm really worried that the axle or frame is bent.  It's a 2008, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that there might be more damage that the amount the car is worth. 

I spent Saturday afternoon filing a police hit and run report, starting a claim with my insurance company, scheduling a repair shop to come get it for an estimate, and setting up a rental car reservation (which I had to do again on Sunday, because something wasn't done right in the system).  They picked up the car this afternoon, so we'll see what they say when the estimate is ready.  I'm dreading the phone call, honestly. 

When we saw the damage, we did approach the contractor working on the house on the corner, because it seems awfully coincidental that something like this happened on the same day that many trucks, vans and trailers were taking over the street and backing in and out of the small area. They claim to know nothing about it, both the contractor and his team, and the group of roofers (though most of them didn't speak English).  I certainly can't prove that they did it, I suppose it could have just as easily been someone doing doughnuts in the middle of the night, but it certainly seems suspicious to me. We didn't hear anything and so far none of the neighbors have reported seeing anything.  It could have been during the night or early in the morning, we just don't know. The police officer said she would hand the report over to the hit and run detective and he might give us a call, but it's unlikely they'll find out who did it.

So the whole thing is horrifically frustrating, but there isn't much we can do.  We have a $400 deductible, which means the chances of us being able to pay that, plus the extra charges on the rental car (We have an allowance of $20 per day from the insurance company, but with tax the car is slightly more than that, plus we opted for the $16/day insurance coverage, because we're feeling anything but lucky right now), and continue to work on the house and move this fall are slim.

We spent the day Sunday moving Michelle's stuff from her storage unit to her new place. She's renting a half double from a really nice lady and it's not far from our house, so that is good. It was hot, but at least it didn't pour rain on us.  When we moved her last time, it was snowing and sleeting.

So that's the goings-on here!  More to come as this story develops LOL!

Staycation 2015

Thanks for the comments on my last post ladies!!  You're so sweet!

Last week, Adam and I took off work to spend some time with the kiddos (before Tyler goes back to school NEXT WEEK) and to accomplish a few things on the house.  The weather wasn't exactly cooperative (rainy, stormy at times and HOT) but we did manage to paint our bedroom (which included the walls, ceiling, and trim) and Tyler's room (just the walls). I feel pretty good about that, as I wanted to tackle two projects and that qualifies, although I would have liked to tackle something bigger that will be more of a challenge on a weekend.  We went with a warm tan/sandy color in our room and although I'd planned to do white in Tyler's room, he convinced me to let him pick a color (with guidance) and chose a light blue, which I ended up being happy with.  I was very sad to paint over his stamped paw prints, though!  It broke my heart a little bit! We did leave one behind, at his request, and I'll just paint it over before we move.  Oh, I did have a bit of an issue when we were taping off Tyler's room.  I was finishing taping the ceiling and had just one piece left to put up. I was trying to reach, using a three step step ladder.  As I was reaching, I thought "I'd better just get down and move over, or I'm going to fall.  So I started to get down. And the ladder tipped over and I fell.  Oops.  I actually cracked my head pretty hard on the door frame as I went down, which was a little scary.  Luckily, aside from a bad bump and a headache, I felt okay, not dizzy or anything.  I had put my hands out though, and the pinkie on my left hand got sore pretty quickly and swelled a bit.  I sat down for a few minutes to make sure I was okay, and then we went ahead and painted.  I felt fine, just a little sore and then a lot sore the last few days, pulled muscles and stuff. My head is still tender and muscles in my upper arms and neck are pretty sore.  My pinkie is still swollen, stiff, and aching, so I am wearing a little splint on it, which makes typing interesting. My backspace button is getting a workout!

Other than painting, I tried to take the kids to the park, but it was too muddy, so I let them play a few minutes at the indoor playground at chick fil a, but that was pretty awful--crowded and the lack of manners of the kids there made me crazy.  Instead, we took the kids to to Monkey Joe's on Friday, which of course they loved.  And they are still young enough that they are tired after about an hour, so that works for me!  Adam and mom both go auctions, so they spent some time on that.

Friday was our 11 year anniversary (can't believe that) so we planned to go out, but it was really storming and literally POURED for like 5 hours, so we stayed home and went out Saturday night instead.  We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then drove around for awhile, looking at houses for fun.  Then we got some fro yo at Orangeleaf (YUM).  After that we hemmed and hawed over what to do and ended up at Goodwill, where Adam found some awesome deals to sell on Ebay.  Then we stopped at Walmart to get a curtain rod for Tyler's room and got AJ some socks (I swear, he has dragon claws, he gets holes in all his socks) and got the kids some PJs.  We laughed at how dull the evening probably seemed, but we had a really good time anyway.

So there you have it, our staycation!  I leave you with pictures!

AJ got ahold of my phone. He also erased all my pictures. Thank goodness for auto back up!

Tyler at Monkey Joes

AJ getting ready to slide!

Whee!

Farewell Pawprints! (And our initials, which Adam put there way back when)

Painting-Adam, you're doing it wrong

Bedroom color-it's actually a bit lighter than this. The other pic I took, you can't even tell it's not white

Tyler's room--it's blue, I promise. #bad lighting Also pictured: Coconut the Monkey's whole family and my old friend Whiskers the seal

My boo-boo