Chicken

This post is coming to you from chick fila, where I would love to say that my boy is not a chicken and climbs those steps with reckless abandon, crawling through tubes and sliding down slides but alas, that is not the case. If there are any other children around he will happily watch them play, and if there are no other children he will march up those three steps... And then back down. We've tried meeting friends, thinking if he knew someone it would encourage him, but to no avail. You'd think a kid so intent on being crazy (especially on playgrounds) would be braver, but no. He loves the IDEA of playing at playplaces, but something about the enclosed space just doesn't work for his sensitive nature. Although right now he's alternating between stuffing chicken nuggets in his mouth and jumping three feet off the bench seats.

I bought a gift certificate for our favorite Mexican restaurant today for a birthday present, and I suppose I should tell you that I find it to be a good thing that it took 3 people who understood "gift certificate" in English. Even if it was a little annoying. One guy thought I was asking for seating for 25.

And I stopped by Joann's to get supplies to make wings for Spencer's semi-homemade buzz lightyear costume which he is seriously excited about. If it works out how I want, pictures are to come later today - I'm even excited.

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Not how I wanted to meet my neighbors.

Last weekend, there was a leak. It was a bad leak in the sprinkler system between the new neighbors that I wanted to befriend and our house. Mr. New Neighbor alerted me to the fact that it was in fact my sprinkler system and not his, and helped me turn off the outside water so that Hubby could repair it.

So Tuesday night Hubby looks at the leak, and buys the stuff he thinks he needs to repair it.

Then Wednesday night, he starts working on it. It turns out, there was a root about 4" wide wedged between the sprinkler pipes and the main water line. One little tap and there's water water everywhere. We don't even know how to turn OFF the main water line, much less repair it.

Enter our neighbor on the other side. P is actually one of the few neighbors here that I know, and he's such a nice guy. He's almost 30 years older than us, but he has so much more energy than anyone I know. He's a professor at DeVry University, which apparently gives him the freedom to bike ride and work on his xeroscaping and all sorts of different things. I ran over to P's house to see if he knew how to turn off the main water, which of course he did. Then he proceeded to stay at my house with an assortment of tools from his house and mine working on getting that root out of my pipes. It took 4 hours, late into the night. Then he thanked my husband (!!!) and asked when we wanted to start in the morning fixing the pipes.

What did I do? Had a glass of wine, took care of kiddos and baked oatmeal chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies for P, which I sent home with him still warm last night.

Here's to hoping for water by noon.

****edit: Here's hoping for water by two?

Don't know what to say

A friend of mine's son is dying. I've known that it was a possibility for awhile, but I really didn't think it would happen. She had problems with the pregnancy and he has had problems since he was born. There have been ups with his health, hopes. And there have been downs, setbacks. He's 4 months, 10 days today.

His latest blood work shows liver failure, and hospice is coming. I'm not sure how to deal, how to help. I've never met him even though they only live about 45 minutes away. It's just never been a good time for both of us at the same time, and now ... now I have a healthy 2-month old and I'm scared to offer an in-person shoulder because Henry will be on the other shoulder.

If it's in you, please pray for them. Pray he's not in pain, pray that she gets more time with her beautiful baby boy. Pray for their daughter, who turns two tomorrow and loves her baby brother. If you're not the prayer type (and I'm not), please just keep them in your thoughts.

The epitome of a boring post

I can't believe I wrote a whole post on cleaning my closet.

And I can't bear to delete it.

I'm sorry.

Fall cleaning

Yesterday I spent more than four hours cleaning my closet.

It started out that I needed to hang my new purchases up, and figured that I would pull out some of the things that were either a) to small and not going to fit in the next month when I go back to work b) seriously not my style and what was I thinking and c) seriously worn out and I haven't worn since six months before I got pregnant.

Therefore I decided to try on every pair of pants, every skirt and every dress in my closet to decide what fit and what looked good. And I put all my blouses in color order.

Then I decided to clean the bottom of the closet, which houses all my dress shoes (43 pairs) and my slippers (3 pair) and an enormous amount of clothes that I pulled off the racks in frustration that I didn't like and all my sweaters which didn't get packed up last season because it was the winter that didn't want to end.

Then I decided to clean the top of the closet, which has my sneakers (8 pair) and flip flops (7 pair) and all my purses, as well as various crap that I didn't know what to do with.

And now: clean!! (note: this was all about my side of the closet. While my husband cannot actually hang something straight on a hanger and misses the hamper more times that he makes it, his side is relatively clean at all times.)

Also, I managed to (generally) come clean about how much I purchased and the fact that I opened a credit card without fainting from the pressure of it. It's usually not a problem - he's usually there for my purchasing (what can I say, my husband likes to shop) but I really went overboard the other day, but when I looked at it all I couldn't find anything to take back. So instead I cleaned.

His only comment? "I guess I'm glad I'm working all this overtime." Works for me!

Ten on Tuesday

1. What does your work out schedule look like?
Non-existent. I planned to start working out on the Wii Fit and walking three days a week, and then start running, but, um... yeah. Hasn't happened yet.
2. What is your favorite machine to use at the gym?
It was a certain eliptical that had long ski-length strides. I could be on that thing for an hour easy, as long as I could get through the first 10 minutes. And it burned the most calories of any of the other machines.
3. What is your favorite class to take at the gym?
The only class I was man enough to take was Zoomba and I didn't do that very long either.
4. Where do you shop for work out gear and clothing?
Target.
5. If you can’t go to the gym, do you have a favorite outdoor activity?
It used to be bike riding, but I can't do that again until Henry is a year old so ... walking, I suppose. To Target is nice.
6. What about a favorite work out DVD? If so, please share!
nope!
7. Are you more active now or when you were in high school?
I was in marching band in high school, and that was actually pretty active. So then.
8. How has your dieting/working out philosophy changed since high school?
My diet is better, but my working out is worse.
9. What do you do while working out– (i.e., day dream, read, listen to music, gab with a friend)?
Read or listen to music/watch Oprah. If I had a workout buddy I wouldn't mind gabbing.
10. What working out resolution would you like to make for yourself this year?
I didn't make one this year. I just want to lose 30 lbs. If this could happen magically, I would be most pleased. Anyone know how to make that happen?

Visit Roots and Rings for more 10 on Tuesdays.

Bounty

I may or may not have gone on a bit of a shopping spree today. I may or may not have spent too much money today. This may or may not include a newly opened Loft credit card (actually, it does include that).
BUT I got so much stuff! A pair of shorts, two pairs of jeans (needs alterations but there is a local place that does a discount on denim alterations on Tuesdays - A does not mean average length, it means Amazon length), NINE tops! Two pencil skirts! A pair of brown slacks! (those might go back, I always feel like a 60-year old teacher in brown pants, but they fit really good) Knee boots! Two new bras! Four pairs of panties!

And a partridge in a pear tree.


This also does not include that last week I spent also too much money on four sweaters (it was the one chilly day last week) and a pair of heels.

BUT I think I'm done. And really, I did need new clothes to go back to work next month, and I really did get a lot for my money. But I feel really bad about it. And I think I'm going to try to stop spending money. After I get Spencer's Halloween costume, that is, especially since that was ultimately what I went out for today.

All this deserves a sideways smiley face. :)