Today in the car.
Rebekah: "I spy with my little eye something blue..."
Jessica: "My eyes."
Rebekah: "Yes. I just love your beautiful eyes."
Can't get the inflection in the voices, but it was priceless. Every time we play I Spy, Rebekah's first one is blue - for Jessica's eyes. So cute. They have their moments. Then there are the other moments. Let's dwell on these ones for now though.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
That Dumb Bed
Okay, it's going back. I won't bore you with all the details. Suffice it to say, I wake up every morning with a backache and it is either so soft my butt is sitting on the bottom or so hard that I am sleeping on a bubble. No matter what number I put it on. Doesn't make for a good night's sleep. Oh well. I think we are going to pack it back up tonight. Now, where did we put all the paperwork?
Happy Freakin New Year!
Should be an interesting year. We'll see what God has in store for us. To all my blogger buddies, have a wonderful new year! Maybe I will figure out how to do more on this blogger thing this year. That would be nice.
Anyway, hope you all have a fabulous new year!
Anyway, hope you all have a fabulous new year!
I Hate My Yard!
We got a letter in the mail regarding the weeds on our side yard. We are on a corner, above the street and there is a twenty foot high slope on the side of our yard. One hundred feet long. The top half was all weeds. Because I had fired the gardener last year when he never showed up. Well, the city told us to remove the weeds. So, as it got near the time of the deadline and I realized I wouldn't be able to do it and the new gardener hadn't showed up to do it yet, I called and explained that we were having a hard time getting the gardener here and could we have a little more time. So the guy looks at the pictures and says, "Once you remove the weeds, you will have only dirt and that is not acceptable. There must be something covering the dirt. You can have until January 2 to remove the weeds and put something in place of it." But he wanted to be sure we would have it done by then. Great. So, I got in touch with the new gardener, Rohan. I explained that I had fired the previous gardener because he never showed up. He thought that was a good reason. Well, he told me, when he came out, that it would be about $100 to remove the weeds. Cool. Not bad. I told him I had a deadline. Not a problem. He'd be back tomorrow. Three days later, I call. What happened? I'll be there tomorrow, sorry. Okay, you'll be here tomorrow? Yes. Two days later he shows up at like 5:00pm. It's blowing ice cubes and he's out there working on the yard. He did part of it, then shows up like two days later. It went on like this until a few days before Christmas. He finished it. We went outside to give him the second half of the money and he was gone already. I called two days later and said to call me so we could finish it and give him his money and he didn't call back.
SO, we go to this nursery on Saturday. Get like forty 1-gal. plants that are supposed to grow into good sized bushes and shrubs, four to five feet wide. At $3-4 each, we get like six of this, ten of that, so we can put them in groupings and make it look nice. Get half a dozen bags of compost and we are off to a good start. Then we ask the guy, do you know of anyone who can help us with this? Sure, he knows a guy named Greg that buys plants here, just moved to the area. We call him and he comes out the next day. Sunday. Nice, easy going, returns phone calls. He tells us he wants to put a cedar hedge at the top of the slope and a bunch of 5-ga. rock pines (not in the Big Plant Book and we don't know what they are) in as well as some mulch. Like $1350. And that is with his discount for the first customer of the year. He has those plants, is even willing to trade for the plants we bought. He makes his own mulch, has his own plants and even when we cut the number of plants in half, half the mulch, I do a portion of it, it still would never be less than $800. His base cost for labor for two days was like $500, plus $300 for the mulch. But he was cool with us calling him in a couple of hours to let him know what we decided. Well, we figured at least it would get done and we wouldn't get fined from the city. So, we call him back. He took another job and can't do anything for us until the 6th of January. Nice. Didn't tell us there was the possibility he would take on another job. Oh well. Probably for the best. That is, if I can get the nice, understanding man at the city to grant us another extension. He wasn't very. But, we removed the weeds, got our trash can behind the fence (it was visible from the street, a possible misdemeanor offense that was also on the citation notice) and we bought the plants to go on the slope. We are much further along than we were. We just have to plant the plants and put the mulch down. Will he be nice and grant us another extension or are we going to be fined $500 because we couldn't get a gardener here during the holidays to finish the job? I left two messages for Rohan and hopefully he will call me back and I can get him out here. I have never planted stuff like this before and it is especially hard on the slope. It is STEEP! It is hard to stand on or walk up, let alone plant anything on! The Hubby still has blood on his knee from when he kneeled down and came down pretty hard on it. He already had an infection in his leg and that made it worse. He will probably need to have it drained. He will not be going up on the slope. Yeah, I've got an extra grand to put into this right now, right after the holidays and all.
We'll see what the guy at the city says. Hopefully he had a nice holiday and won't throw the book at me. I can hope, can't I?
SO, we go to this nursery on Saturday. Get like forty 1-gal. plants that are supposed to grow into good sized bushes and shrubs, four to five feet wide. At $3-4 each, we get like six of this, ten of that, so we can put them in groupings and make it look nice. Get half a dozen bags of compost and we are off to a good start. Then we ask the guy, do you know of anyone who can help us with this? Sure, he knows a guy named Greg that buys plants here, just moved to the area. We call him and he comes out the next day. Sunday. Nice, easy going, returns phone calls. He tells us he wants to put a cedar hedge at the top of the slope and a bunch of 5-ga. rock pines (not in the Big Plant Book and we don't know what they are) in as well as some mulch. Like $1350. And that is with his discount for the first customer of the year. He has those plants, is even willing to trade for the plants we bought. He makes his own mulch, has his own plants and even when we cut the number of plants in half, half the mulch, I do a portion of it, it still would never be less than $800. His base cost for labor for two days was like $500, plus $300 for the mulch. But he was cool with us calling him in a couple of hours to let him know what we decided. Well, we figured at least it would get done and we wouldn't get fined from the city. So, we call him back. He took another job and can't do anything for us until the 6th of January. Nice. Didn't tell us there was the possibility he would take on another job. Oh well. Probably for the best. That is, if I can get the nice, understanding man at the city to grant us another extension. He wasn't very. But, we removed the weeds, got our trash can behind the fence (it was visible from the street, a possible misdemeanor offense that was also on the citation notice) and we bought the plants to go on the slope. We are much further along than we were. We just have to plant the plants and put the mulch down. Will he be nice and grant us another extension or are we going to be fined $500 because we couldn't get a gardener here during the holidays to finish the job? I left two messages for Rohan and hopefully he will call me back and I can get him out here. I have never planted stuff like this before and it is especially hard on the slope. It is STEEP! It is hard to stand on or walk up, let alone plant anything on! The Hubby still has blood on his knee from when he kneeled down and came down pretty hard on it. He already had an infection in his leg and that made it worse. He will probably need to have it drained. He will not be going up on the slope. Yeah, I've got an extra grand to put into this right now, right after the holidays and all.
We'll see what the guy at the city says. Hopefully he had a nice holiday and won't throw the book at me. I can hope, can't I?
Lies, Deceit and the Tooth Fairy
Well, Jess lost her first tooth. The replacement had already grown in behind it and looked like the beginning of a second row of teeth! We put it under her pillow and I checked later and sure enough, the tooth fairy has brought her a shiny golden dollar! She was so anxious to go to bed so the tooth fairy would come. Roy. You know, the Moleinator. The guy from the Santa Clause II movie. She watches those movies like they are the guidebook to how this all works. A big part of me feels really guilty. What happens when she realizes we are LYING to her? Is she going to think that God is not real either, since you can't see Him either? Rebekah was in the car with Scott. "Santa Claus isn't real. The Devil isn't real. Neither is God." What was going on in that head of hers? She must have been thinking about it for a while. Jessica has no questions. She just believes.
So, we put some Baby Orajel on her tooth, right at the base near the gum. This idea came from my friend, who used to work as an RDAEF, or Dental Assistant with too much training to get a job. After about five minutes, she said she couldn't feel it. So, I got a tissue, held onto the tooth and pulled. I felt it pull away, but it didn't come all the way out. She let out a little cry and she saw the blood on the tissue. Scared more than in pain, though, she let me try one more time and out it came. She was amazed. A second later, she had her tongue in the little hole in the front of her mouth. You can't tell me of any kid who doesn't stick their tongue there! She was so excited. She had to call her friend (who is nine months older) and she yelled into the phone, "MY LOOSE TOOTH CAME OUT!" Her friend Melanie exclaimed, "WOW, AND YOU'RE ONLY FIVE!!" She was impressed. Jess was pleased. So then, she gets into her jammies and says good night and Scott told her not to go to bed yet. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! So, she waited about ten minutes and gave us hugs and kisses again and trotted off to bed. Where Rebekah was making too much noise and Jess was getting upset because she couldn't get to sleep. She went to our bed, but not without saying, very anxiously, "But the tooth fairy will not come if I am not in my bed!". Daddy assured her that the tooth fairy wouldn't come while we were still awake and we would put her in her own bed when we went to bed. So, she went and was asleep within a short time. That is when the tooth fairy went rushing around the house trying to find a golden coin. Probably should have located one when the tooth got loose. Dumb tooth fairy! Anyway, a golden dollar was located and placed in the box. The tooth was removed and the whole kit and caboodle finished before she was placed in her bed.
We did a little research. Apparently here are the guidelines:
1. The going rate is a dollar. Sometimes paper and sometimes coins. But the preferred tender is a $1 coin. Just depends on how many kids lose their teeth that night.
2. Nobody knows how the tooth fairy gets in the house.
3. The tooth fairy always takes the tooth with him/her.
4. It is a good idea to put the tooth in a little box to be sure that it doesn't get lost. Ours went in a ziploc bag inside of a little box. Seemed to work just fine.
We'll see how excited she is when she finds all this.
I still feel a little guilty. This being our first tooth, I think we all got through it okay. There's another one that is loose next to where this one was.
I feel old.
So, we put some Baby Orajel on her tooth, right at the base near the gum. This idea came from my friend, who used to work as an RDAEF, or Dental Assistant with too much training to get a job. After about five minutes, she said she couldn't feel it. So, I got a tissue, held onto the tooth and pulled. I felt it pull away, but it didn't come all the way out. She let out a little cry and she saw the blood on the tissue. Scared more than in pain, though, she let me try one more time and out it came. She was amazed. A second later, she had her tongue in the little hole in the front of her mouth. You can't tell me of any kid who doesn't stick their tongue there! She was so excited. She had to call her friend (who is nine months older) and she yelled into the phone, "MY LOOSE TOOTH CAME OUT!" Her friend Melanie exclaimed, "WOW, AND YOU'RE ONLY FIVE!!" She was impressed. Jess was pleased. So then, she gets into her jammies and says good night and Scott told her not to go to bed yet. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! So, she waited about ten minutes and gave us hugs and kisses again and trotted off to bed. Where Rebekah was making too much noise and Jess was getting upset because she couldn't get to sleep. She went to our bed, but not without saying, very anxiously, "But the tooth fairy will not come if I am not in my bed!". Daddy assured her that the tooth fairy wouldn't come while we were still awake and we would put her in her own bed when we went to bed. So, she went and was asleep within a short time. That is when the tooth fairy went rushing around the house trying to find a golden coin. Probably should have located one when the tooth got loose. Dumb tooth fairy! Anyway, a golden dollar was located and placed in the box. The tooth was removed and the whole kit and caboodle finished before she was placed in her bed.
We did a little research. Apparently here are the guidelines:
1. The going rate is a dollar. Sometimes paper and sometimes coins. But the preferred tender is a $1 coin. Just depends on how many kids lose their teeth that night.
2. Nobody knows how the tooth fairy gets in the house.
3. The tooth fairy always takes the tooth with him/her.
4. It is a good idea to put the tooth in a little box to be sure that it doesn't get lost. Ours went in a ziploc bag inside of a little box. Seemed to work just fine.
We'll see how excited she is when she finds all this.
I still feel a little guilty. This being our first tooth, I think we all got through it okay. There's another one that is loose next to where this one was.
I feel old.
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