What's Going On...

Sophie and Keegan are playing their new favorite game where they take off all the couch cushions and romp around like banshees. It's my favorite game of theirs to watch, they have so much fun and there is so little clean up!

Jacob is packing for a work trip. He'll be gone two weeks (home for the weekend) to learn to be our city's D.A.R.E. officer. So he'll teach kids not to do drugs and I'll teach kids not to have sex. Are we a fun couple or what!?

Keegan is peeling. His rash is already clearing up nicely, but is coming off almost like a sunburn. It's pretty gross.

Isaac the dog is back at my mil's house in the country. He kept running away here. I think he was just used to having a big yard to run free in and he missed that. And it was irritating as all get out to have to get two babies out in the cold to go chase a dog. I think he's probably happier, and I don't have to worry about him getting hit by a car while I'm getting kids into car seats. Win-Win.

I might have a new job working at a local greenhouse in the spring and summer. It will be a big change but we can't go another summer without me working, and that's that. So I manned up and went out and got a job. Luckily, I think I'll like it a lot and I found it on the first day I went looking for one. Actually, it was only the second place I asked. That's an easy job hunt.

The weather is cold and miserable. I miss the sun and the sun misses me.

A good friend of mine just found out she is pregnant. I'm so excited for her, and a little jealous. But just of the pregnant part, not the baby that follows being pregnant. But I just thought that pregnancy was so cool, even though my body wasn't that great at it, apparently.

I'm trying hard not to get overly emotional about Jacob leaving, but I doubt that's going to happen. Emotions are my thing. I know once he leaves I'll be fine, I know I can function without him- it's all this waiting for him to go that makes me melancholy. Part of me wishes he would just leave already and get it over with.

And on that note I'm going to go be pathetic and mope for a while. Then a cup of tea and a few quiet minutes later I'll get over myself and have a good week.

The Peer Pressure Quiz

Can be taken here.

But just so you know, when Mom took it and answered #10, she put in the right answer, but it showed she had the wrong answer, YET, it gave her a 100 -- it's crazy, man.

Andi, the Anti-Salesman

So I've got to sell some stuff. I am terrible at selling things. I hate to sell things. I DESPISE selling things. It embarrasses the crap out of me and it just is not something I can do without a marginal amount of self loathing. I don't get it, it's just how I am made. Right now I am selling TWO things, Krispy Kreme Cards for church and I'm collecting pledges for a skate-a-thon for derby. This is not a good time for me. But here is the info for you, should you decide to take pity on my pathetic soul.

Here's the low down on the Krispy Kremes Cards. No pressure here, but I need some severe help selling these things.

The Skate-A-Thon is where I take pledges for how many laps I can skate in two hours. You can cap your pledge so that you don't end up giving a ton of money, or you can just make a flat out donation. Half of our proceeds go to our local humane society, and the other half go to help with the costs of our upcoming bout. This should be a lot of fun to do, and if you want to come watch it is March 16th.

If you are interested in either of these things just let me know and I'll get you more info.

Running Behind

I'm behind. Way behind. I've not caught up on blogs, I haven't blogged, I just today checked my email, and I have no excuse. I'll try to be better.

And onto the news...

- Sophie is way stubborn. Really, I mean this in the most loving way when I say that she occasionally drives me up a wall! Then at other times it just makes me laugh and I have to pretend to be choking and coughing to cover it up. I love that kid.

- The derby name I am submitting is Franklie Scar-lett. My number is 4:7, as in 2 Timothy 4:7 "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith". Hopefully that will all be approved soon and I'll be an official roller girl. I am having a great time doing it and love the girls I skate with. I am hoping to make the alternate list for the bout in March, which means I won't start, but will go in as needed. Baby steps, er, rolls.

- Keegan is growing by the minute, rounder, not longer. He is so unlike Sophie that it seems I have to relearn all my Mommy lessons. Not much memory lane here, it's all new!

- My friend Meagan sent me the coolest link to a site that helps infants learn to survive in water. I thought it would be interesting to many of you, it is really very neat.

- We officially made the switch on the computers, and I forgot to copy my favorites and my bloglines, so if I don't check in for a while, send me an email with your link so I can get back up to speed.

I promise I'll be more attentive in the next few days, I've just got to get off my butt and get going!

Valentine's Day

Jacob and I do not have what we call the "romance gene". It's just not in us. For Valentine's Day we did nothing. Not a chocolate, not a flower, no movie, no dinner, not even a $.94 card from Wal-Mart. I just fail to see the big deal. I don't like holidays where you have to create the magic yourself. Christmas makes its own magic, so does Easter and Thanksgiving. Fourth of July is fun to look forward to, maybe even New Years, but V-Day does nothing for me. I did get Sophie a Tyrannasourus Rex. He can REALLY eat your heart out. She loves it. I ate a piece of chocolate for K-man and that was his present- he got it eventually.

Other than that I spent the day with my brothers and sister for gotcha day. We attempted to take Sophie to the theater to see the Veggie Tales movie. Notice the key word there...attempt. I ended up staying with the kids and Mom took Sophie to the grocery store. They had a great time, the kids watched the movie and I took some time to just relax. It was nice. Later that night I forgot about my painting class (really, I just got my days mixed up) and Mom and I ended up watching a Hallmark movie. I figure if I can't have my own romance, I can dig on someone elses. It works for me. What did you do yesterday?

And does anyone else have spell check? Mine still doesn't work.

You can take that to the bank...

You know that I am nothing but honest about things here, so let's talk about money. The whole bed rest, maternity leave thing really sapped our savings account to almost nothing, and for the first time in years we have credit card debt. Things have been tight. But every time it seemed like it would be TOO tight God would step in and do his thing and here we are on the other side. Sure we still have debt, but....

Jacob got his first paycheck yesterday. I swear I was in a bill paying frenzy, my fingers were probably smoking from writing so many checks. (Yes, I still write checks. I just don't trust myself to do it any other way.) I probably sounded like I had asthma because I was letting out a huge sigh of relief every time I stamped an envelope.

AND- I filed our taxes yesterday so we should get our return soon. Within 8-10 days if the IRS is to be trusted.

AND- I get paid this week.

AND- Jacob should get his bonus from his old job in a few weeks.

Things are looking up around here, money-wise. I'm glad to see the back of this. Even though it's not been a real worry, it has been a distraction, and I love eliminating distractions.

And I lost another pound. 13 more to go.

Autism Speaks

I got an email from a friend with a link to this video. The idea is that everytime someone watches this video the band Five for Fighting will donate $.40 to Autism Speaks. I ran it through Snopes and it checked out okay, so I watched it... and bawled like an idiot. Grab a tissue and spend three minutes doing a little good today.

Pictures coming soon... my camera just isn't cooperating with me.

My Quirky Car

I like my car. We have an older model Jeep Cherokee and it suits me right down to the ground. We have hovered on the brink of thinking we need a van- it would be much easier to get around with two kids in car seats and the occasional little brother or sister, but frankly- mini vans just really don't scream "We're still young and cool". So for now we'll settle with "We're cramped in a too small car for the sake of a worthless self image". Pitiful, isn't it?

Lately my car has been less than stellar. It just has Murphy's Law embedded in it's little, tinny soul. Here are some examples:

It seems that...

-- my dome light only works during the day. It has a short in it and never seems to work at night.

-- my passenger window only works when it's too cold to roll down the window.

-- my check engine light only comes on when I have a long list of places to go.

-- my interior is only clean when no one sees it.

-- there is a pterodactyl in my neighborhood that only poops on my car when it has just been cleaned. I'm sorry I just said poop. (Twice.)

-- my windshield wipers always need replaced while it is raining. This one is probably my fault.


Another thing about my car is that it is always filled with odds and ends from the house that my Sophie carries to the car with her. Currently the back seat has the back of a smoke detector, a mesh kitchen strainer, a manila folder, a full sized football, a pair of green socks and a pacifier that she uses for her doll. If there were a game show like "Let's Make a Deal" for automobiles- I would so win.

The Soap in my Sheets

Oh yes- you read that correctly. And I shall explain. The other day while perusing our local paper, I saw where a lady had written into the medical column extolling the virtues of soap... in the bed. Now lest you think this is going in the gutters, let me assure you that it isn't. The bar of soap is placed under the sheets at the foot of the bed to ward off leg cramps. Normally I do not have this affliction, but when I am pregnant, it is something ferocious that I deal with nightly, so I was intrigued. I mean, who wouldn't be? So I did what any girl my age does-- I googled it. I came up with TONS (312,000, to be precise) of sites all proclaiming that soap in the bed, though it has no medical reason to whatsoever, prevents leg cramps at night.

Normally this is something I would definitely scoff at, mocking these poor, mislead saps in my head for their gullibility. But this time, no... I was sucked in like an infomercial for the Magic Bullet food processor. (If you've seen that one, you tell me you weren't tempted. I dare you!) But what is this.... to my dismay, Dove soap will not work. Why? I have no idea and neither do they, all I know is that Dove is the only brand I use, I have none other in the house. But am I dissuaded? NO!! I am on a mission to cure my leg cramps using this seemingly useless old wives remedy. So I grabbed an old sock whose mate had long since been devoured by the dryer, stuffed a bar of Dove in it and shoved it between the mattress and bottom sheet of the bed, forming a very bizarre lump near my feet.

That was over a week ago. I have not had a single leg cramp since then. I've started to get them, but snaked my foot over to my magical bar of soap and it went away before it clenched into that all too familiar ball of fiery pain. I'm pretty dang sure that the only way that this works is in my head, that there really can be no explanation other that I have convinced myself that it works, so it does. It's all psychosomatic. I can deal with that... I can deal with that way more than leg cramps. So there you have it- my little plug for soapy sheets. You can mock me, Jacob does relentlessly, but then, he doesn't get leg cramps either.