Monday, December 31, 2007

Wow! It's Been a Crazy December

Hello everyone!!! Hope all is well with you. I sit here wishing you warm holiday wishes from TORONTO, Ontario, CANADA. Yes, you read that right. It is now 2008 in Toronto!! and I spent it browsing the internet and listening to my now 4 year old SNORE~~

We are in Toronto for a hockey tournament, but it's over now! We stayed a couple of extra days to do some site-seeing, and boy do I have some great pics to show.....but not now. We leave tomorrow afternoon to go home -- to WARM DFW! so I need to get some stuff packed and get to sleep....the hotel guests are beginning to wind down from the sounds of it, so maybe I can sleep now....

I'll write more in the next few days and get some pictures on here, too. I just wanted to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! and I've missed you during the month of December. See you back in the States!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Car Maintenance

I'm going to take this moment in time to grumble about CARS!! I HATE CARS.....I wish we still lived in the horse and buggy era, and before you say anything negative about that era of time, please read on for my reasons.

When I was a teenager and first learning to drive, back in the dark ages according to That Kid, my dad taught me many valuable lessons -- not just learning how to drive, but some of the basic maintenance things like checking your oil, adding oil, changing out wiper blades, raising the car up on the jack, changing the tire, etc. I found it all boring and tedious, but as the dutiful daughter who wanted to drive her own car someday I listened. My first car was a '66 Chevy Impala (Maroon) and it was the BEST car. It was well built and had been taken care of by previous owners. I paid $500 of MY OWN HARD EARNED MONEY on that car and I thought it was the BEST....till the day I decided to skip school and WRECKED it...try explaining why you're not in school nowhere near your high school to your parents and you need them to help you call a wrecker cuz you just wrecked your car! Trust me it's not EASY!
Anyway, I digress. My parents bailed me out, grounded me, and made me pay for the repairs on my car. Fortunately, my cousin was a mechanic and did bodywork on cars for fun! He repaired it for $100!

From that point on, my car LEAKED OIL something awful! The day I got rid of it, about a year later, I had added 2 1/2 quarts of oil when I left home and 3 hours later it was EMPTY! I'm lucky I didn't blow the engine before I sold it off to the used car dealer!

My dad was adament about me caring for my own car....so I got used to it. About 2 weeks before dh and I got married he blew his engineby running it out of oil and driving on the highway, so when dh and I got married MY car was our only car for the first 2 or so years. Since I was used to caring for MY car I just kept doing it. I made sure the tires had air, oil was changed, inspections were done, registrations were done on time, etc, etc, etc,. Well some 20 + years of marriage the trend has continued. I am the one to take the cars for routine maintenance and I am the one who deals with mechanics when something needs repaired. I am the reason we have windshield wiper blades, tires, batteries, state inspections, annual registrations, etc.

And when something goes AWRY I am blamed! Even on the CAR that I NEVER DRIVE and don't like driving!

This happened this past week and I am grumpy about it still! Why am I responsible for maintenance on a car I NEVER DRIVE??? About 2 weeks ago dh got in the "hot rod" and realized the rear tires were low, so he aired them up. A few days later he drove it again and they were low again. He called me saying the tires need checked out, take care of it asap. Ok....I say...I forget about it since I never drive it. Then this week he drives it again and the tires still need air. Fix it he says...so I go to fix it, and the Firestone people can't do anything with the tires cuz they have wheel locks on it and we can't find the key! 2 days later That Kid gets in the car to go somewhere and the tire is FLAT, and I mean FLATTER than a pancake, but he doesn't realize it till he is a mile from home. He calls me and says my tire is flat! HELP!! He gets a ride...and I get to deal with a flat tire....over $400 later we have a new tire and no more wheel locks on our hub caps. Gee, what a bargain, huh?
Now, I will be teaching my son how to care for his car the way my dad did with me...and hopefully we won't have to have another experience like this again!

Now I ask, who cares for your cars?? I'm a little disgusted that I was the one that had to deal with all this mess. Soooo I ask, who handles your car maintenance??? Just curious.....

Thursday, December 6, 2007

My Baby's Growing Up

When That Other Kid was still within the womb I had wonderful friends who offered to host baby showers (yes, you read it right-- I had 4 of them!). So I went to Target and BabiesRUs and registered for all the cool stuff available for babies! I had a BLAST with it. I didn't have this luxery with That Kid, baby registeries were new at that time and I didn't know that you could "ask" for the stuff you wanted! I decided long before That Other Kid was born that I wanted Winnie The Pooh stuff....I am a BIG Pooh Fan and I knew this would be my last chance to have cute Pooh stuff...soooooo I asked for and received TONS of POOH stuff, including a WONDERFUL home-made Quilt by my mother-in-love and a nice big fleece blanket by her best friend, whom I still have never met. I was in POOH HEAVEN. DH told me to enjoy it while it lasted cuz one day That Other Kid would decide that he didn't like Pooh anymore.
I've been moving along in Pooh Heaven for the past almost 4 years, until recently. I started looking for stuff for his room to make it more like a little boy room instead of a baby room. He LOVES the Car's movie characters and one day at Target he saw some Car's stuff...a pop out laundry hamper, and trash can. I bought them for him, thinking ok we can start moving toward the Car's theme for his room - slowly, of course, since I didn't want to lose the Pooh theme. He was ok with this till this weekend when I decided to look for sheets and blankets that fit his bed, (he's still in a toddler bed) and don't look like they are for babies. That is VERY hard to do, btw. But.....Wally-world had lots of new character sheet sets for KIDS....in Toddler-Bed size!! I was soooooo impressed. I never find anything I like at Wally-World and rarely even walk in the doors, but needed to pick up a couple of things there this weekend. Wow!!! Anyway, I found Car's, Diego, Dora, Princess Barbie, and SPIDERMAN.....Guess which character he chose!!! Yes ma'm SPIDERMAN!!! I told him we should get the Car's stuff, cuz he already has some Car's stuff, but doesn't have any Spiderman stuff -- he told me, "I will, when you buy this for me"!! He had a point! So, now he has Spiderman sheets, blankets, and pillowcase on his bed.
Tonight I washed and folded and put away his Pooh stuff, except for Grandma's quilt which we will use for a snuggle blanket. I was SAD....my baby is growing up. But....I guess I should have known it was coming. He will be 4 in less than 2 weeks and he is having his first birthday party with friends -- Lunar Mini Golf!
At least he still gives me hugs and tells me he loves me and wants to snuggle in the mornings and again at night before bed.

Monday, December 3, 2007

I Had High Hopes

A couple of weeks ago I talked about the exciting possibilities of actually being ready for Christmas well before the big day. Let me tell you IT AINT GONNA HAPPEN! It's 22 days till Christmas and 16 days till That Other Kids birthday and I have barely touched the edge of Christmas/birthday purchases. The house is not decorated, Christmas cards are not addressed, the Christmas letter I had hoped to write this year still isn't even in the draft form. I also want to get the boys' picture taken again this year...the list goes on and on.
The days just seem to fly by....you know. I get up about 8 every day and I lay around till 10, cuz I can't function that early, then I have breakfast to fix, shower to take, laundry to start, and whatever else is on the agenda for the day and the stuff for Christmas just slips on past me.

So... how are you doing on your Christmas preparations???