Sunday, October 23, 2005 - Dates and Deals
Well what a fun date DD5 and I had! 
We went to the show, which she just loved (except for the parts with the lion and with the witch - they're scary!) It was a very long show. It went from 8pm to 10:45. So, despite the late hour, I'd promised ice cream afterwards, so we went (Mama yawning the whole way) to Denny's. Once there, she decided she wanted dinner, THEN dessert. So, I obliged and we had dinner, then ice cream. She wanted to do "four fun things on our date." I asked her what else she wanted to do and all she could think of was go to the library and visit her best friend. Considering the house, neither was an option, so we came home at about 12:20. She zonked out immediately, as did I, and that was that. What a nice time :-)
Now, about Joann's..... Whew. I'm still recovering! My sister and I met up at 10, drove to Greensburg PA (about 2 hrs from here) and spent 4 hours there. It was a Superstore, which I've never been to before. We were in awe. Almost everything was 50% off this weekend. I got really cool-looking snaps (full price) for a denim jacket I'm planning to make myself (and soon! or it'll be time to drag out my winter coat and I'll miss out on wearing the denim one!) bobbinsb(full price), needles (full price), one pattern (99¢), a candle (50% off), 2 cones of serger thread (50% off), a cutting mat and rotary cutter (both 50% off), and 36 yards of fabric. Whether you're interested in specifics there or not, I'm listing them anyway! lol Their clearance fabrics were 50% off, so that's what I hit first. I got some peach-ish colored cotton with white polka dots for a dress for DD, 2 different boxer plaids for DH, a great thick flannel for an at-home work shirt for DH, some grey knit for DstepD, flannel-backed satin with butterflies for DD, 2 different luscious striped knits for me, 2 colors of broadcloth for at-work work shirts for DH, ivory broadcloth for a blouse fo rme, some beautiful black knit with glitter-type-stuff for me for a special occasion, and 2 cuts of denim. That was the best sale - one of them was $14.99/yd on sale for $5.99. It was a patchwork denim, which will make at least a skirt for me, and probably one for DD as well. The other was $9.99 on sale for $5.99, so I used my 50% off coupon, making it $5.00 and got enough (hopefully!) for a pair of jeans and a denim jacket. I also got really cute lining for the jacket. As I finish them, I'll try to remember to post pictures. So, all of that for $122.02. Here's the best part: It was a birthday shopping spree, and on the way there, my sister gave me $100. So I only had to pitch in $22 for all that stuff! Once we got to the car, she said, "Now add up what you spent on stuff JUST for you, not stuff you'll make for other people, JUST for you." So I did, and the total was $100.33. I was amazed. Without any planning or adding in my head, I ended up spending almost exactly what she gave me, on me! What a great sister! Then she let me choose where to eat, so I chose a local-looking Mexican restaurant. It was 4:30, so we were pretty much the only people there. Excellent food. mmmm. Mexican's my favorite. Yummy! Then we went to Pier One (definitely out of my budget) so she could browse (definitely NOT out of her budget - lol) Then we came home. I got home at 8, so it was a 10-hr day, which was so nice. DH was home with the kids, and I'd made a mac-n-cheese casserole for them, so I didn't have to think about their dinner or worry about what they were doing. It was just us, and it was so fun!
So today's been a day to relax. What a crazy weekend! Gotta get back to our regularly scheduled week to recover... It was all worth it though. Good quality time :-)
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Friday, October 21, 2005 - Forever...
Wow! Two weeks... I'm glad you all have been feeding Lucy her carrots, or she'd have starved to death by now! I was just reminded that I've been away too long, so I thought I'd give a quit update. I feel like I've been awfully busy, but I can't really think what's been keeping me busy.... Let's see: school's really using up a lot of time these days. We didn't finish until after dinner this evening!
We went to an estate sale last Saturday and I bought nearly 500 sewing patterns for ... are you ready for this??? ... ONE dollar! So I've been spending hours poring over them and sorting and categorizing and selling them. Oh yes, and planning and dreaming of actually SEWING some of them!
Tonight, my 15-yr-old step daughter is playing in the band at the public school's homecoming football game. Hubby and son(2) are there, freezing. DD5 and I are leaving any minute to go to a local playhouse on a "date" to see the Wizard of Oz. She's very excited. I made her a new shirt for the occasion, which I also did last October when we went to see Alice in Wonderland. I'm seeing a tradition developing here... So she's anxiously waiting for the bread to come out of the oven so we can get going. Her bedtime is currently 8:00, so she thinks it's pretty exciting to get to LEAVE the house for a date at 7:30 and know she'll be out until 11 with her mom. Ahh. it's times like these that make me absolutely LOVE being a mom. She and I have such fun girl times together. I gave her her new shirt, which is dark green velvet, and I sewed a gold rosette at the top. Her first words were "A flower! Why didn't you make it purple??" That provided the perfect opportunity for a lesson on gratefulness!
Tomorrow, my sister is taking me fabric shopping at a Joann's Superstore for my birthday (which was in August, but we'll not talk about that.... LOL) I've not ever been to a Superstore, and Joann's is having really great 50% off sales this weekend, on almost everything on my list! So that'll be exciting. She hasn't told me yet how much I get to spend, but that's ok. I'll enjoy spending and spending anyway :-) Then I believe we're going to Olive Garden for lunch too. Her birthday is on January 1, and for her last birthday, I gave her a "membership" to my made-up scrubs-jacket-of-the-month club. Each month, we went and picked out fun seasonal fabric and I made her a jacket. At the time, I figured we'd get cheapie fabric at Walmart for $2 a yard, which worked out to about $75 for all 12 jackets. Well... of course not. She only liked the 5 and 6$ a yard fabric, so I think I've got at least $150 in this project. But that's ok. It's been fun, and it was spread out over a year. It wasn't like I just dropped $150 on a gift for her. It was little bits at a time. I'm excited about our trip. I'll be sure and post all my great purchases!
While I'm shopping, DH, martyr that he is, is taking both the little ones to McDonald's for the neighbor girl's birthday party. He wanted to hunt tomorrow, but since it'll be raining, he's doing the bday party. What a great dad! (and husband!!)
Better run ... almost time to haed out for our show! (And Denny's afterwards for ice cream ... mmm!)
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Friday, October 7, 2005 - My New Bunny
Please forgive the incoherence of my previous post. I was really mad...
When I was dating my 5yo DD's biological paternity person, and before I got pregnant with her, I noticed a strong mothering urge. I was single and 19, so, rather than have a baby, I bought a bunny. She was a brand new baby, soft fuzzy grey - beautiful! I called her Lucy, and she was adorable. A week or so later, I got pregnant. Whoops. A couple months later, BPP and I split and I kept the bunny.
I still had her when I married DH, and she unofficially became DDs. Lucy lived in DDs room, but I tended to her, fed her, cleaned her, etc. Then I realized I just didn't have time to do that, so I started paying DstepD to clean her 2x a week. That turned into a hassle, because I had to constantly nag at her to do it. So, I found a family in my church that wanted a bunny. I packaged her all up and took her to church with me Wednesday night, and while I was in choir rehearsal, they took her and went home. I didn't even get to say goodbye to her, which is probably just as well. I'd have bawled all through it. (I'd had her for 4 years by then.) Lucy loved her new home. She was well tended to, well loved. They were able to litter train (?) her, so she ran around the house freely. She sure sounded like a happy bunny. A few weeks ago, the girls let me know that she'd died. They think she had cancer, but they told me she'd been a wonderful bunny and they'd really loved her.
So, where am I going with this? EvlHmSchlMom has adopted a virtual pet llama. I thought it was cute, so I went to the site to see what else they had, and they had a bunny. So, everyone, meet Lucy, my sweet dead bunny. (Ack - that was a morbid thing to say - lemme rephrase that!) Everyone, meet Lucy, my virtual bunny that I adopted in remembrance of my REAL sweet Lucy. (That was better...)
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Thursday, October 6, 2005 - Was I a terrible teenager too??
Ugh... Ok, brief background: We found out that 15yo stepdaughter was dating a 20yo boy. Obviously, that's unacceptable at her age. Don't get me wrong... DH is 15 years older than me. But for 15 and 20, that's um... illegal. Anyway, this boy lives in the motel room beside 20yo stepdaughter and boyfriend that moved out a couple months ago. (Yes, aspiring high...) So, 15yo started calling 20yo anytime DH and I left the house for awhile and having her bring over 20yo boy while we were gone. So I've been very suspicious of her every move, but her dad just doesn't think that way. So I was constantly pointing out what 15yo said she was doing, and what I thought she probably really WAS doing. So DH would check up, and I'd be wrong. 15yo was being completely innocent (in isolated situations). So tonight, she had to work concession stand at the JV football game at the school. Right before she left, she called her sister for 2 or 3 minutes. That made me suspicious (big surprise - I'm Queen Suspicion) So I mentioned it to DH, we drove up there an hour later, and sure enough, there they were hanging out in the parking lot. I know, with such a brief overview, that this is probably going to sound petty. But anyway, 20yo stepdaughter came running over and said "This wasn't preconceived. She just called us when the game was over and asked us to come up and hang out. We were on our way to get groceries. There's nothing going on between the two of them. There was, but there's not anymore." Ok, let's dissect this: #1 - She called you when the game was over, instead of calling us and telling us it was time for us to pick her up? #2 - Regardless of whether there's anything going on, you've still broken rules. #3 - What's grocery shopping got to do with anything?
Ugh ... so long story short, she's grounded until further notice, which means we'll have to babysit her every minute. No phone, no internet, no contact with her sister, who has repeatedly enabled this behavior. No more DH and I going out alone. We'll have to drag her along with us everywhere we go. Ugh. And she's not going to let it drop. She'll just get sneakier and more deceptive. Ugh.
I hate teenagers.
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Thursday, September 29, 2005 - *Insert Boring Title Here*
Currently Reading: Acts, Law for Business, Family, The Tie That Binds...and Gags by Erma Bombeck
Currently Sewing: A scrubs jacket for my sister, with scarecrows on it
Currently Cooking: Nothing - Hamburger Helper for dinner. Whoopdee-doo.
Sigh. I'm a terrible updater! It's astonishing to me how bad DD5's vision was before she got her glasses. She couldn't read a math flashcard from 10 feet away without them. After she got them, I tested her again and she was reading them at about 25 feet away. She probably could have read from even further, but I ran into a wall. It's amazing to me that she didn't realize her vision was bad. I guess she wouldn't have known any better.
DH worked last night. They say only 3 more nights, and they'll be done. To quote DH, "Lord willing, after these 3 nights, the longest two-week job in history will finally be over!" It's been 2 months... Anyway, after DS2 went to bed, DD5 and I stayed up extra-late for a girls' night. We watched Meet Me In St. Louis, because one of her VeggieTales movies has that song in it. She made it the whole way through. It was 11:30 when she finally went to bed. I ate popcorn with the movie. We made fresh bagels earlier in the evening, so she had 2 bagels with the movie. We had a good time.
Tonight, DstepD15 is staying after school to work in the concession stand at a soccer game. There's an all-school dance afterwards. I don't at all think it's a good idea for her to go, but her dad said fine. Who am I to butt in? We're having a REAL problem trusting her right now. She's been sneaking around with a 20-yr old boy, against our express wishes. So it surprises me that DH would allow her to go to the dance. My suspicious nature immediately makes me wonder if she's in fact going to the dance...
My diet's a disaster. I did really really well for the first 2-3 weeks. Then I made the mistake of not writing down everything I eat. It sure is easy to lose track of what you're eating when you're not writing it down. So, I'm going to try something new, that will probably be so much harder than the low-fat diet, but so much better for me: portion control. I need to stop cooking such yummy dinners! That's my own fault. I need to get back into the habit of not taking seconds. After that, I can get into a better habit of making my firsts smaller.
I don't have a scale, so I have no idea if I've lost any weight, or *shudder* gained any.
Anything else? School... I had a lightbulb moment today. It's usually a matter of about 10 minutes before DD5 and I start fighting during school. Today, I realized it's always during math. She seems to really dislike math. I'm not completely sold on the math we're using. It's boring, it assumes she's learning instantly, it's repetitive (a LOT of flashcard drilling). So today, to avoid a fight, we decided she could do math with Daddy tonight. Maybe he'll have a better idea of how to make it better for her. If not, we're going to have to look into something else.
I lost a piano student this week. He was a trouble-student. He'd show up without his music, saying he couldn't find it, which obviously meant he wasn't practicing either. His voice teacher (a good friend of mine) was having the same problems. So she wrote his dad a letter. His dad then called me and asked if he was cooperating with me, and I told him no. So I suspect he made him quit. So I'm down to a whopping 3. I've printed fliers that I'll be hanging in libraries and bookstores. I've got to get at least 3 more students by Christmas. 5's an "ok" numbers, but I'd prefer 6 or 7.
Sorry I don't often have any insightful or inspirational thoughts. It's all I can do to get my concrete thoughts typed.
Have a great afternoon, all!
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