Gotta get this body moving

I feel fat. I need to move. The one thing about our house I hate is that I cannot walk out the front door and walk around the block. We live on a very short street that is at the top of a very very very steep hill. I would have to walk the length of the street back and forth about 15 times to get even a very little workout. And the hill is just way to steep. I seriously have to take two or three breaks on the very very rare occasion that I do have to walk it. So I have decided my next major purchase after the dining room furniture, will be some exercise equipment. Yes, I will be among the crowds probably right after New Years, looking for a deal on a treadmill or some such beast. The next task, is to figure out where I can put such said beast, where I'll actually use it and not have it become a clothes hanger. Pffft.....

Halloween costumes

So do you have your kids costumes all set to go? We are almost done. We still have to get some type of animal costume thing for my oldest who wants to be a werewolf. My middle daughter will be a purple spider witch, and the youngest stole my plush pteradactyl costume I found at the thrift store to sell on Ebay and decided she must have it as her own costume this year. I'm just praying it's not too cold and dry!

Sweet Babies

Seems that lately I've been seeing a lot of tiny little new babies around. I miss those days cuddling with a sweet new baby! My youngest is 6 now and in first grade, my how time flies. Don't get me wrong, I am certainly happy to be done with that phase! I don't miss the baby gear that needs to be lugged around, the baby sling and the baby ON me all the time, the diapers, etc.

So I'm back!

Did you miss me? It's been just an insane few weeks here, and I'm finally back. My middle daughter Shannon fell off the monkey bars two weeks ago and broke her arm. It's was just a small buckle/greenstick fracture thankfully, could have been much worse, but it is her right hand, which has made writing difficult.

Then my oldest is struggling in school again. Trying to figure that out has been very stressful to say the least. We have a conference scheduled this week to address that and I am so nervous about it! On top of that, she has been playing volleyball for school, and she has practises or games everyday of the week except the weekend, so we are spending a lot of time in the car running to pick her up or watch the games.

THEN, my darling husband, seems to be hitting his midlife crisis a few months early (he turns 40 next March) and decided that he must acquire a motorcycle, something I absolutely loathe the idea of. He spent most of this weekend at a beginners training class to learn all the rules of the road, etc. Blah. He's trying to convince me it will save money in the long run because now I can drive his New Beetle instead of my Suburban, which will save on gas. Yeah, um, HELLO? We live near Seattle and it's October, the rainy season has JUST begun!!! Plus, it was my turn to get the next new vehicle, my Burb is 10 yrs old! I guess because he just got a really nice promotion/raise, he's feeling he deserves a treat or something, and yeah, I get that....but I so would have preferred a nice vacation somewhere or something. Oh well. There's a peek into my life as of late.

budgets smudgets

I wish there was some kind of financial reporting software that eliminated the need for us to keep track of our budget. Something that would be tied to our debit cards, and let us know what was left in each budget category right there on the spot. OK, yes, I would probably hate it, but I hate trying to stay on budget too. Just seems like a menial task that only serves to remind me that there is NEVER enough money, so I'm supposed to just accept that and deal with it. Hmmmm...I just remembered, I have a lottery ticket I haven't checked on yet from the other night. Gotta run!

Ahhh...the beach!

No, I think if I were to go on vacation, I'd choose the beach. Maybe the Outer Banks. I've always loved the beach. Something about the reptition of the waves, the sand, the neverending horizon. I guess it's just calming to me. Of course I prefer the beach when it's hot out, with my ice cold diet pepsi and some Lay's potato chips. Oh wait, usually the beach requires a bathing suit. That thought just destroyed my fantasy. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

Las Vegas

I've never been there, but would love to go. A little vacation would suit me fine right about now. The Tropicana Las Vegas looks like a lovely place to stay. In fact, I don't even think I'd need to leave the room. Just give me some peace and quiet, and no household/child related tasks to do, and that's all the vacation I need! Room service and housecleaning are just extra bennies as far as I'm concerned!

We need a new PC, or three.

The girls are getting older, and fighting over the one they have. And it's old, and doesn't even run a lot of the stuff they want to use on it, so I fear it is time. And we have to buy pc here, no other computer will do in my husband's eyes, and I fear I would be lost on anything that is not a pc. And not only do we need to replace the ancient computer, but getting one each for the girls would be ideal, but not likely to happen anytime soon. Hearing them fight over it, is just mind numbing, so yes, one a piece would just do us fine.

What I need is a windfall, actually, because I wouldn't mind a new one myself as well. So there you go. Four should do. Now I just need to find some outrageous pc deals AND win the lottery, and we should be good to go.

How could I forgot to mention this!

How could I have forgotten earlier to mention the REASON we left and had a nice Saturday out?

Here it is: Something has died in one of our heating vents. Yep. And the stench is just foul. I put the heat on for the first time Thursday morning for about an hour. That night, after watching Survivor, I went up to bed and when I opened the bedroom door I didn't notice it. But when I walked across the room and set the laundry basket down on the bench, right next to the heating vent, the smell was just awful! We opened the windows, put on a fan, put my incense ring on and buried ourselves under the covers.

Then yesterday, my husband took out his shop vac and attempted to use it in the vent, but no luck. Then last night at dinner time, I noticed the stench was now in the kitchen. So out came the shop vac again to hit the vents in there, no luck again. This morning, it was so bad, we just had to leave. We left all the windows open and when we came home late in the day, it was much better, but we know it's probably not gone, and will be back in the morning.

So the questions is, what do we do? My only thought is to call those places that clean out all the ductwork in the house, but we don't have the money to do that, and we don't want all the ducts done, just the line that goes through the kitchen and up the wall to our bedroom above. Will they do that? If we just ignore it, how long until the smell passes?

The Real World

I think I've posted before about how sad I find all these stories of celebrities going to rehabs. It's hard to fathom what their lives must be like, but I certainly can think of so many things I'd rather be doing with my life, than boozing up and doing drugs. It's just so sad and such a waist. I think a lot of them don't really know what they are getting into when they start, and just don't know how to find their way back to the real world on their own. It's a shame really. I hope they find their way in the end.