Never Too Fast To Exercise

...I'm certainly not too fast to exercise; I went running the other day for the first time in a long time and I was so slow! I thought I was running so fast. I thought to myself, Wow, Self. Look at you go! But alas, when I looked at my watch at the one mile marker, I got quickly discouraged. It took me ten minutes to run a mile. That's the slowest mile I've done in a while. And I think I could probably walk that fast...

Good thing my kids are fast. Look at Owen here, doing his "exercises:"

Then there's Drew, who's super strong and loves to "weight lift":

I guess I should follow their examples and start working out more.

Check This Out

I was looking at our electricity bill, which is finally going down for the year (our house has electrical everything, so our bill gets extra high in the colder months--basically October through late April). I noticed our average kWh usage per day is around 51 (92 in the winter!). I got sorta curious as to why it gets that high, and what each of our appliances uses. I came across this site to calculate energy usage. It's pretty interesting. Keep in mind that it only calculates one appliance at a time, so if you want to estimate the grand total to see how it compares to your utility bill, you have to keep track of them all separately. Also on the main homepage are ideas to lower your energy usage. Earth Day Every Day!

Speaking of going green, a while ago I wrote about having to choose between the city recycling and the residential home recycling programs. Turns out the choice was made for me. I got a note from the residential home saying they would be picking up our recycling one final time and they encouraged their contributors to use the city recycling program. They were actually part of the committee to implement the city recycling program. So that takes care of that. It's actually a lot easier for me because now I don't have to sort the recycling. Not that it's difficult or anything, it's just one of those chores I dislike, such as folding and putting away laundry or emptying the dishwasher. And the residential home will collect recyclables from small businesses so they'll still be making money, and everybody wins.

Pop Quiz

Q: What happens when you think the hubby is watching the baby and the hubby thinks you are watching the baby?

A:

Dirt Brownies.

Ninety Bucks Later

What a week. I feel like I haven't been home at all, but I can't think of where I have been. It's all a big blur.

Things got even blurrier from the kids' point of view: Owen woke up Tuesday with super-goopy eyes. Then Samantha woke up goopy on Wednesday, and Drew woke up goopy on Thursday. By Thursday, Owen's eyes looked a lot better, so I thought Drew and Samantha would get better in a couple days, too. But then, Thursday evening, Samantha got all warm and rosy--really warm; 103.5, to be precise. All she wanted to do was sit on my lap, so that's what she did while David called the Nurseline. They suggested we give her a bath. It seems like every time we call them, their answer is, "Give the kid a bath." Good thing there's a nurse in my family. I called my marathon-running, super-mom, cousin Heidi. She returned my call the next morning and gave me some tips for reducing Samantha's fever with Tylenol and Motrin. It helped! Samantha's fever dropped back to normal by noon, and she felt well enough to complain about not feeling well.

I'm big on wait-and-see when my kids are sick, but their eyes just weren't getting better like we thought. Owen's eyes looked pretty clear, but Drew and Samantha's were still grody. So on Saturday David took the kids to the doctor while I went to clean some apartments. Sure enough, they all had pinkeye. Yuck. I feel really bad that we didn't take them in sooner, because they could've started treatment sooner. (I also feel bad that we took them over to the neighbors' to play on the trampoline. Oops.) Good thing we still have insurance. Even with insurance we shelled out $20 for each kid's co-pay, and $10 for each kid's eye drops. Doesn't seem like much, but when you times it by three... It would've cost even more without insurance.

The doc thought Samantha's fever was just part of a bad cold. I wonder if it was all related to her eyes, because once we started the eye drops, her eyes cleared up, her nose has started to clear up, and her temperature is a nice 98.6 degrees.

In unrelated news, I applied for a job as a clerk at the city utility billing office. I think my experience working at Convergys makes me a great candidate for the job; I had to deal with all different types of customers, and I learned all kinds of things about helping people manage their accounts. Hopefully I can score an interview and convince HR that I'm the gal for them.

I Would Love to See This in Real Life

I subscribe to an email newsletter from FamilyFun.com. It contains craft ideas and food ideas, and all kinds of other stuff. Today's news letter had some ideas for outdoor crafts, including this cute little Squirrel Cafe:

For the directions to make it, go here.

Fire Station Fun

Left to right: Grandpa, the Rookie, Drew, Owen, David, Me, Samantha, the Captain.

Drew decided that he wanted to go to the fire station today. Just out of the blue he said, "I want to go see the fire trucks." He's a pretty lucky kid because his grandpa works for the Police Department, and has the hookups. So Grandpa called the fire station and asked if we could come down for a tour. The firemen were more than happy to oblige and about ten minutes later we were climbing into the fire trucks, spraying the hose around and lifting weights in the station exercise room.

A couple weeks ago, we went to the environmental fair (Drew calls it the "unfair-o"--not sure where he got that). The Fire Department had a truck there for people to climb in and look at, but Drew would have nothing to do with it. For the next week he kept saying, "'Cause I'm scared of the fire truck. 'Cause I don't want to get in it." I haven't figured out why he starts every sentence with the word 'cause, but he does.

Anyway, because of his previous experience with the fire truck, I wondered how he would act at the fire station. At first he was a bit wary. He was excited and running around talking about the trucks, but every time we asked him if he wanted to get in, he would say, "No thank you!" and run off. Then, he saw Samantha get in, and he must have figured it would be okay if the baby was doing it. So pretty soon he was sitting in the fire truck all by himself with a seat belt on and the door closed and yelling, "Bye, Mom! I'm driving to the fire!"

Owen and Samantha loved the fire station, too. They had no qualms from the very beginning about jumping right into the fire trucks and pushing all the buttons and turning the steering wheel. Samantha did get scared by the fire hose, though. We ended up hanging around the station for about two hours, just chatting with the firemen about what it's like to fight fires, and what they do when there's nothing going on (like today when we were there).

And for Drew's bedtime prayer tonight he said, "Thank you that we went to the fire station and I'm not scared of the fire trucks anymore. 'Cause I was scared of the fire truck at the unfair-o. But I'm not scared anymore."

Whole Buncha Stuff

I went to clean a rental property for my friends yesterday and they asked me to take pictures of the house while I was there so they can put them on their website. It turned out to be a good opportunity for me to finally upload all the pictures that have been sitting in my camera's memory for about a month. And lucky you, dear readers, because that means you all get to see them. Without further ado:

We had a few gorgeous days in April (just a few, though. This was the first year when I really understood the saying, "April showers bring May flowers." I had to chant it over and over to keep from going crazy). The boys and I pointed out animal shapes in the clouds and the boys rode their trikes around the driveway for hours.

I was actually able to get some good photos of Drew; usually he's saying "cheese" so fiercely that it doesn't even look like he's smiling. I had to be stealth to get this one.

I love this picture of Owen. That's about all I can say about it. I love it, love it, love it.

Here's Vito. Notice that little smile on his face. He was so glad to get outside. I think he gets cabin fever even worse than the rest of us.

Remember the doll I mentioned yesterday? It's from the Only Hearts Club, and it's not entirely made of cloth; the hands and face are actually the same kind of rubbery stuff Barbie's face is made out of. (Botox? I mean, the lady never ages!) The reason I know all this about the dolls is because our friend's little girl, upon hearing how much Samantha liked the doll, gave it to her! Tonight was our last soccer game of the season, and our friends hosted a pizza party at their house. Their little girl had the doll wrapped in tissue and in a little gift bag, and she couldn't wait to give it to Samantha. It was so sweet! All you can see of the doll in the above picture is her long, flowing locks, but she really is a cute doll.

Samantha has been very patient with me while I girl her up. She actually seems to love having her hair done, and when I'm all done she says, "Theekyooou." She says that all the time these days. It's so cute. Anyway. This is a little half French braid I did. I left the sides out because I think they would've caused me grief trying to get them to stay. And her hair does cute little curly stuff in the back, so I left it down, too.

These are three little braids I stuck together with one tie. Samantha looks really cute with a comb-over, so most of the styles I try on her are parted on the side and swept over the top.

Freedom!!

I took my final final today. It feels so nice to be done! One semester down, 5 (at least) to go! Now I gotta go get a job. I'm thinking I'll just bite the bullet and go to Convergys. They're currently paying $10.50 an hour, which is more than most places in town (at least the places that are hiring), plus they offer an employer match stock program (I still need to look up their stock and see if it's worth investing in. But as long as it's making money, that's free money from Convergys!). They also offer health insurance, which will be good if it takes longer than 5 months for David to be picked up at the railroad, and tuition reimbursement so I'd have help paying for school. And, there are rumors of a $2000 bonus upon completion of their training. They're making it awfully tempting! I guess I'll head over there tomorrow and sign myself up.

We've had two soccer games this week and we have one last game tomorrow. So far we are undefeated (because a tie doesn't count as a defeat)! I'm just now feeling like I'm getting good at soccer again, and the season is over. It's been a fun season.

My friend's little girl left her doll at the soccer field today. It was a way cute doll, made of cloth, no plastic anywhere, and Samantha loved it. I let Samantha hold it while we drove to my friend's house to give the doll back. Samantha just giggled and chatted with the doll the whole way over. It was so funny, and unexpected because so far she's only been interested in toy cars (wonder where she learned that from?). I'll have to make up some special occasion so I can get her one of those dolls.