Brandon's Puppy

New wheels

Spent the day at the dealer. We got a 2006 Kia Sorento with only 19K miles on it. Got a great rate, considering both hubby's and my credit scores are in the "poor" range. She's a beauty, silver on the outside, gray on the inside, with all the bells and whistles. Pictures, and more blogging, tomorrow as we just got home and it's 10pm. Good night!

Today

- Stayed home with Matty. He had a fever yesterday afternoon while at school, so I left work 30 minutes earlier than usual to pick him up. At 4 this morning he burnt up to 103.2, and he was shivering. We kept him in bed with us to keep an eye on him until morning, and I told hubby I'd be calling in sick to take him to the doctor. He's been getting fevers every couple of weeks, and I was worried it was something more than the flu. I was right, he was diagnosed with a double ear infection, and his chest sounded tight so he'll be on antibiotics for 10 days, and his nebulizer treatment for about 6 weeks.

- After Matty's doctor we went to pick up Brandon at school, then to McDonald's because the baby and I hadn't eaten lunch. I considered it an early dinner, and poor hubby is now making himself a frozen pizza.

- Got Matty's antibiotic for free at Publix. Hurray for free meds! Speaking of free, it's National Pancake Day. Did you know IHOP is giving away free pancakes today? There's still time, it's over at 10pm. GO!

- Picked up two boxes of my contacts for less than $30 at Costco while I waited for the prescription to be filled. Next time I go I'll have to buy 8 boxes (enough to last for a year, they say) because of some new policy they have. That's going to cost me a lot more than $30. Gotta make these last as long as possible.

- I mailed my car title to the insurance today. Soon as they get it, they are overnighting me a check (for more than we were expecting, by the way), and sending the people to pick up the Kia. We hope to get a new (read: new to us) car this weekend. Please send good thoughts that we find a reliable something in good condition that fits our budget.

Mr. Destructo

Come Fall, someone please remind me to buy Brandon at least five school boxes during back-to-school shopping. He broke his third one last week, and we couldn't find a replacement anywhere. We had to get a small storage bin at Target to do the job temporarily. It was either that, or a pink pencil case they had in stock. The choice is obvious, but I told him I'd have no choice but to buy him the pink pencil case next time if he messes up the new makeshift school box.

And let's not talk about the fourth pair of sneakers I bought yesterday because his current pair are about to fall apart. To be fair, that's the only pair of shoes he has, so he wears them all the time, but still...I just got them in November! He lucked out with the new ones because they are character sneakers. They happened to be on sale, and because we were at Payless he got a pair of dress shoes too. I spent the same amount of money on two pairs as we spent on the Spiderman sneakers he pleaded for when school started. I already warned him these better last or he'll go to school barefoot!

slightly annoyed

Now that I'm sort of on the job hunt, I'm stalking a couple of companies that I'd like to work for. These are ideal as they are in my field, and are much closer to home than my current employer. There’s only one problem: those companies are under a job freeze. You wouldn't know that based on the amount of listings that pop up in their administrative careers category on a weekly basis. I don’t get it…why bother approving the job listings if you aren’t going to hire anyone?

Am I really that surprised?!

So hubby, the boys and I went to Costco this evening when he got home from work. There were three things on our Costco list: hubby's deoderant, baby wipes and laundry detergent. That's three, right? Okay, well, somehow an extra seventeen items made their way into our cart. There's a big difference between 3 and 20, especially when we're talking about Costco. Even though I was wise enough to have the monthly coupon book with me and saved us $9.00, the total bill? Not very pretty.

At least I didn't forget to buy either of the three original items.

Book Club and Blogmeet

This week was our first book club meeting at C's house (which is lovely, no need to fret my dear!). Since the book club was her idea, she got to host the first meeting and chose Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster (who coincidentially was a blogger before she was an author) for us to read. Out of seven book club members, four read the book completely, one had three chapters left (me), and two others were halfway through by the time our meeting came around. That's not really a bad average considering we all have busy lives.

No matter, our meeting was less about the book and more about catching up on the last 15 years. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say we had an awesome time! We gossiped and ate cheese and grapes and talked and ate C's yummy tomato pie and drank wine and talked and had brownies and talked some more. By 11pm, all our respective husbands had called to see when we were coming home!

It wasn't just a book club meeting, and a what-have-you-been-up-to-for-the-last-fifteen-years meeting, it was a blogmeet too:

From left to right: Chrissy, me, Claudia and Claudia.

It was so nice to step away from the kids and hubby for a while and have some girly time. We're meeting again in late March. and honestly? I.Can.Not.Wait. And who knows, maybe next time I'll read the whole book before the meeting.

Aesthetically pleasing

You may recall me complaining about the building I work in. I'm somewhat happy to report that while the building itself is still disgusting, at least now it looks nice. For the last month or so a team of painters has been working on both the inside and outside of the building. I do not like the outside paint (at ALL), but our hallway is a nice combination of beige, brown, and sage green. It's completely revamped, the only thing lacking a new coat of paint are the emergency exit signs. Even the elevator doors were prettified. I'm curious to see how long it lasts.

V-Day

Been busy today getting ready for our grupito Valentine's Day get-together. We're all broke so we decided to have dinner together, and the locale of choice was our casa. I'm making stuffed shells, The Simos are bringing bread and salad, and The Rs are bringing dessert. No matter what you're doing and who you're doing it with, we wish you a Happy Valentine's Day!

There's good news, and there's bad news

The good news is, my car was declared a total loss by the body shop. Yes, this is good news. Once we get the payout from the insurance company, we can use it towards a new car. If my car hadn't been declared a total loss, we'd still have to fix the power steering, the A/C, and all the other stuff we needed to tend to before my accident. And, we'd still be driving a 9-year-old car that could have other problems at any time.
The bad news, however, is that I'm looking for a new job. Not the best timing, I know, but a situation has arisen that I need to get out of before it gets worse. Therefore, we'll have to see how things pan out before jumping into another car payment. In the meantime, my car is still drivable enough that hubby can continue going to work in it while I use his car for my longer commute.
Please y'all, prayers and good thoughts are requested that this all gets straightened out. Soon.

Meanderings

I had a "DOH!" moment this morning: I filled up my gas tank, $20 worth, right before I realized that we're taking the car to the body shop tomorrow and it is quite likely that I just threw away that money (if my car is declared a total loss).

I just ate half a loaf of Cuban bread with butter, and am following it with a little bowl of Apple Jacks with milk. I'd like to say that I just won't have dinner tonight, but that would be a lie.

Ikea is having a big President's Day weekend sale, including free breakfast until 10:30am Friday-Monday, and I can't go (aforementioned car issue). *cry*

Matty may only be 2, but he swears he's 6 like his brother. Last night he climbed into Brandon's bed and fidgeted with the covers and pillow until he was comfortable. It was all very cute, until he had a tantrum when we tried to put him in his own bed to go to sleep. I don't think we'll be waiting much longer to build the other bed and set the two up as bunks.

In limbo

It's been almost two weeks since my accident, and we're still not sure what our next step is going to be. Hubby is taking the car to the body shop my insurance referred us to on Thursday afternoon, and I guess we'll take it from there. Part of me hopes that she is declared a total loss and we get a payoff. Then we can get a rental for a short time, which thankfully my car insurance policy covers at 100%, and that will give us a bit more time to decide what to do. My credit score sank and we can't afford any car, new or used, without that payout, so please think happy thoughts for us!

Dreaming = no charge!

My mom is going to start turning her garage-turned-office into an efficiency soon, so we were browsing through a recent sales circular from the home improvement store today. She was drooling over the Kohler sinks while I got all giddy about the laminate flooring and the cabinet resurfacing deals. Too bad we can't just twitch our nose or blink our eyes and poof, our remodel dreams come true (without a penny spent, of course).

A few Grammy observations

(not in any particular order, just however I remember them)

- Whitney looks great, but she was definitely a little....off.

- I feel terrible for Jennifer Hudson's loss. She looked and sounded great!

- M.I.A. should not have been jumping around like that! Then again, today is her due date, she's probably trying to evict the kiddo!

- Stevie Wonder is the man!

-Carrie Underwood kicks booty!

- Ironic that Led Zeppelin never won Grammy's, but Robert Plant wins a bunch by way of his collaboration with Alison Krauss, and with a song he co-wrote with Jimmy Page! (Please Read the Letter)

- T.I and J.T, Dead and Gone...excellent!

- Paul McCartney is awesome!

Perhaps more tomorrow, when I watch it again with hubby, who fell asleep halfway through.

Funny how the mind works

In high school, I had a classmate who loved horses, and she'd go riding just about every weekend. She and I, and few other faces from the past recently made contact through a social networking site, and we've had a bit of fun catching up on the last fifteen years. The other day I passed a little place off the highway that sells all sorts of "country" stuff, from fruits and veggies to homemade knick-knacks, even horse supplies. My thoughts went straight to her when I saw the grooming brushes and saddles from a distance.
That was last Sunday, and every dream I've had since then (the ones I remember) has revolved around either being back in high school, friends and classmates from that time, special events I went to during, and even the possible 15-year reunion we'd like to put together.
Isn't that something?...

Re-focusing

I haven't been in the best of moods lately, there are a couple of things going on that are currently bringing me down, If you know me you know this is nothing like me, so I decided that I'll focus on the positives and try to get back to my usual cheery, happy-go-lucky self. Focusing on the good vibes instead of dwelling on the bad ones will turn things around, and it will make things a bit less droopy around here. What follows are just a few of the things that have been putting a big ol' smile on my face lately:

(in no particular order)

The upcoming book club meeting I'll be going to in less than two weeks. It's a bunch of old girlfriends from high school and I, and I'm really excited!

My boys' giggles.

Anything I find on the web about Twilight.

Looking at my living room and finally (FINALLY!) having something that resembles an entertainment center.

Good friends who treat me to coffee and let me vent about this, that and the other.

The silly status updates some of my friends have on Facebook.

People around me mentioning that I look skinnier.

ABC's Thursday night line-up, which I'm going to go see now.

Birthday browsing

The countdown to hubby’s birthday continues; there are just 46 shopping days left! I found out that the replica of the watch he wants doesn’t come with a medium face, so the search continues for a watch that he'll like but won't break my wallet. I found a couple of Swiss Army watches that are similar to the model he wants, but the price is not more than I want to pay.
Anyone know where I can get a good watch for, oh, I don't know...ten bucks?!

Better, and a Brandonism

Brandon came home with a "Whiz Kid" sticker, and note from the teacher that said, "much better today!" I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I'm not surprised. He went to bed at 7:30pm last night. His Pre-K teacher and I had theorized last year that he misbehaves when he's had a long night the evening before. We did have a non-stop weekend, and he went to bed later than usual on Monday. I am not making excuses for him, he needs to learn to behave whether he's tires or not. But we will continue to test out the theory by putting him to bed between 7:30-8pm for a while, and see if the pattern holds.

Yesterday was the 100th day of school, and they had some sort of celebration. We were talking about it before I dropped him off, and I explained that it means that he's been in school for 100 days. He said, "Mommy, I've been in school for a thousands of days, because I was in school in Pre-K!"

An evil clone among us?

Brandon has been behaving terribly. Today I got another note from the teacher saying that he both pushed a little girl and kicked a boy in the groin. He's also managed to lose school supplies for the fourth time since returning to school after winter break.

I don't know what to do anymore. I told him last week that if he lost any more supplies, we'd be taking away one toy for each missing thing. Today, we made him throw away six toys (no, we're not really throwing them away, we pulled them out of the garbage and hid them when he went to bed...we're not that cruel!). I also told him we are now longer going to Orlando, and I plan on cancelling our Westgate reservations tomorrow. There's no way I can reward him with that trip if he's not earning it (never mind we can't really afford to go right now anyway).
His report card does show improvement since the last grading period, so I know it's not frustration with the work. Conversations with the teacher aren't very helpful. Punishments have no lasting effect. I'm at a loss...

feeling blah

Stolen from Lukie, because my brain is mush right now:

I say....you think...?

1. Take :: me away

2. 350 ::

3. Stand :: up

4. Raspberry :: tea

5. Turnstile :: Billy Joel

6. Infomercial :: Sham wow

7. Dejected :: I plead the 5th

8. What’s the word? :: anxious

10. Awestruck :: my boys

11. Smashed :: pumpkin

Shopping is a sport, too.

Hubby, the boys and I will be going to hubby’s best friend’s house to watch the Super Bowl this afternoon. They bought their home a little less than a year ago, so most of our group’s gatherings are at their house these days. It really is a lovely home. There wasn’t much to do to it, but they made it their own by putting in laminate flooring, painting the walls to their taste, and changing light fixtures…things like that. They made a few inconspicuous changes as well. The previous owners had dial-up internet and basic cable. Our friends upgraded these antiquated services and got a great package that goes above and beyond their media needs, including Verizon high speed internet, Verizon phone and Verizon satellite TV. It was the best deal available in their neighborhood, and they are very happy with it.
Combine the clear digital picture from Verizon’s fiber optic power with our friends’ brand new high definition LCD TV, and the guys are going to feel like they are on the 50-yard line at the game. In the past, they've hardly notice when we pop into the living room to watch the commercials. This year, with the new set-up, we're sure they won’t notice when we round up the kids and sneak out during the game to go shopping (shopping trumps commercials!).