Favorite Comic Strip of the Week

You can see it bigger here.

So, so long...

It's not my fault. Really. This blog has not been updated in a couple weeks for a series of VERY GOOD REASONS.

Ok, first, there was our camping trip. Yes, yes. We actually went camping. Outside. In a trailer. With no showers and vault toilets. It's hard to believe, but the pictures to prove it are coming. So, never having done that before as a family, you can imagine how long it took me to get us all packed up. Don't even ask all the trouble Daddy had getting us ready to get out to door. But the truck runs great now!

Ok, so there was that. THEN when we got home on Labor Day afternoon, we discovered that our modem had mysteriously stopped working over the weekend. It took our phone company a week to send us a new one.

That would be two weeks covered. AND THEN yesterday, I thought one of my children had killed the laptop. It involved water and self-powering down from the computer, then the blue screen of death. I was sure we were about to part ways.

But today...today a miracle occurred. The laptop started working again. So, before it changes it's mind, I'm going to post some pictures. Because it may be a while again, what with Auntie getting married this weekend and never really knowing what the computer will decide to do next.

Here we go. Next post up in about 30 minutes...

Cooking Again

Did you know I have this other blog where I write down recipes that I have tried and really like and want to make again and again and again? Well, I do. And because it's been a year since I posted anything, I decided that now that I have a stove and oven again, I should really be writing stuff down. So I did. And I am. And if you have anything to add, feel free to let me know about it. And look over there on the right...I even made a link to it. Finally. But if you can't find where it says "Down the Hatch" because my new Valentine's Day themed background is a little too busy, I'll give you a link right here.

And There Was Much Rejoicing

After 9 months, we now have a working oven and stove. It's beautiful......and blue. But only on the inside. And it works like a dream.We've already baked fish, roasted veggies, heated bread, boiled water and made cookies. And it hasn't even been hooked up for 24 hours. Can you tell we are excited?

Glad Tidings We Bring

For unto us a child is born.

Let us prepare Him room.

Merry Christmas.

Change of Status

I just changed my Blogger profile name from "pandksmommy" to "threeforme." It's still me...don't think some random stranger is leaving you comments on your blog. Although, sometimes it's really fun when people you don't know leave you a comment. If they aren't crazy or stalking you or something like that. At least now you know who's stalking you...

Nightmare

Last night I had this very vivid dream. It was so real, I had to reassure myself for a long time upon waking (at 3am) that it was only a dream. Or nightmare...

I dreamt that I was as pregnant as I am now (32 weeks tomorrow) AND that I was 11 weeks pregnant with a 4th kid. That's right. I dreamt I had two uteruses. Two.

Twins is one thing, but two babies in the belly at the same time yet born months apart? I'm sure there is some weird animal somewhere on earth who has that capability, but Thank the Lord it isn't us human females. You would be constantly fat and waddling.

What would that birth have looked like? Fortunately, I didn't get that far in my dream.

701

This is my 701st post. Wow. That's alot.

Winter Weather

The girls and I are planning on going to the park this morning, seeing as how it is finally sunny after a week of fog and rain.

Currently, it's 43 degrees at 11am. That would not be so bad...

...except that with wind chill it feels like 36.

Yea...I don't think we are going to the park for a while. I'm a wimp like that.

Living in CA sure does spoil you, doesn't it?

I'm Going to Tell You a Story...

So, you've probably noticed I've been off the blog thing for a while. I have some theories as to why I'm not so interested in writing much, but none I want to share. It's not a recent phenomenon...it started last December after NaBloPoMo (which you notice I'm not doing this year) and has gotten steadily worse from there. I just feel like there are no good stories worth sharing. So I don't.

Well, today I'm going to try to make up for it by telling you a story about my horrible no good very bad day. Actually, it was just the span of a couple hours, and the fault is all mine. It's not a funny story, but maybe in a few years I'll find it amusing. Or, maybe just you will find it amusing.

I locked myself out of the house today-no keys, no phone, and no way to get back in. Trust me...no way. I tried to take windows and sliders off their tracks, but no...nothing. That would not have been so bad except that I had to pick Padyn up from school in 5 minutes and it is too far to walk it in that amount of time. So, because of no phone, I frantically showed up on my neighbor's doorstep. (I really do have nice neighbors). My neighbor wasn't home, but the babysitter decided I was trustworthy enough to let in and monopolize the phone for 30 minutes. I called Daddy so he could call my friend who could call her mother-in-law who was picking up her daughter from school and ask her to pick up Padyn as well. (No phone means I have no one's phone numbers, because really-who memorizes people's numbers anymore?) Then I called the school to give the friend's MIL permission to pick up my daughter. And I'm trying not to break down in tears with the school secretary. Then I left Kate with my neighbor's sitter and went back for more jimmying. Nothing.

Trying not to panic, cry or throw-up, I went back to the neighbor's for the phone. I had to call Daddy again and give him the full story. And bless him...he didn't get upset or impatient. He calmly told me this was easily solvable and then gave me instructions. I really needed instructions at that point because I was not capable of thinking clearly left to my own devices. I did what he told me to do: called information (because the sitter and I couldn't find a phonebook) and got a bunch of numbers for locksmiths. I had Daddy call the locksmiths because, guess what? I also left my purse with all my money and credit cards at my sister's house. Yep. No phone, no keys, and no access to a purse-even once the house was opened. At least I hadn't locked the car. And I had snacks. It could have been worse.

So, Padyn gets dropped off, she complains about having to eat her snack outside, my neighbor comes home, I keep answering her phone because Daddy and the locksmith are calling me back. Finally, Benny comes. Benny the locksmith. I was expecting a truck. He drove a piece of you-know-what Honda. There's a reason he's a locksmith. Oh, and he can't pick the lock. He's never seen a lock like this. (What? It's a pop-lock! Why can't you open this?) So you know what he has to do? SAW IT OFF. Yep. So now my garage door into the house is minus a doorknob. Oh, and it's more expensive than picking the lock, of course. And I had to get the credit card number and all of our secret information from Daddy via phone so I could pay the guy for rescuing me from my stupidity.

The end.

Nope, it's still not funny yet.

I think I'll go to bed now.

Great Find

So, this morning Kate and I went to Ikea to look for duvet covers. As Kate is about to move into a real bed, I now need two matching comforters so the girls' room will look somewhat coordinated. (It will be difficult as it is in direct competition with all the books, clothes, papers and other crap that seem to be attracted to their bedroom floor, but I have to try.)

The duvet covers, they were cute, but they weren't the great find. No no...that was breakfast at Ikea. Seriously, you can get breakfast there. Are you ready for this? For as little as....$1! I got the regular breakfast, which came with scrambled eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, home fried potatoes and these french toast stick things. That came to a grand total of $2.16. That's cheaper than my half caff latte with whole milk. And it was TASTY! I was ready for it to be bland or greasey, but no. It was actually good. I'm thinking this should be our new ritual. Kate and I drop Padyn off at school, come home for a little clean up, then head to Ikea for breakfast at 10. Totally cheaper than Starbucks every day.

(Not that I go to Starbucks every day. That would just be wrong.)

It Looks Better in Person...

...but here are a few pictures of my new kitchen.

Did you notice a lack of refrigerator? J has to do some handiwork to get the water line hooked up so I can have my icemaker again. Hopefully that will happen this weekend.

The layout is essentially the same as before, but my cabinets, counter, sink, oven/stove and microwave are new. Eventually the floor and wall color will also be new, but for now, I'll settle for this.

Ah-ha!

This week is VBS (Vacation Bible School) at our church and once again I am the preschool director. That also means that once again, the week is hectic, I'm tired, and I forget to post pictures for all the fans out there. (And never mind the fact that I still don't have a kitchen and my small small living room is slowly turning into a garage heap.) With that said, here's a few photos (and in the next post) that I have been trying to get up for a week.

I have no pictures of the new kitchen yet because it isn't quite finished. I'll wait until the floor is clean, the furniture is returned, and the contractors tools are removed before I show it. I did not take a before picture, but I pulled this one up from the archives. You can get a sense of what it was.

Here is my current "kitchen." What you don't see is the coffee maker in the bathroom and the dishes piling up in the sink in the garage. Nice.

And here is the kitchen after it was demoed. Suddenly it seemed much bigger!

Unfortunately, even when it's done, I'm going to be living with that two-toned paint for a while, but oh well. You can't have everything, right?

Procrastination

Currently I'm sitting at my kitchen table in the midst of boxes and packing material. No...we aren't moving. That might be happening soon, but not this week. This week I am getting a new kitchen. Very exciting, yes, as I have been wanting a new kitchen since the day we put an offer in on this house. And now I'm getting it. Because eventually we will be moving and we have to make the house more attractive to potential buyers. Hopefully I'll get to enjoy it for a little while.

Kate is down for her nap and Padyn is asleep on the couch. She has a fever of 102. Funny thing...we didn't find out until we went to the doctor this morning for a follow up ear appointment. How embarrassing is that? I had NO IDEA she was sick until the nurse took her temperature. She was cranky this morning, but I thought it was because she didn't want to go to the doctor's. I felt like a very neglectful momma. I immediately starting treating her more nicely.

Anyway, back to my boxes. I'm almost done. I just have a few breakable things left, plus the stuff under the sink. So why am I sitting here typing instead of finishing?

Because I hate it.

Thank goodness it's just the kitchen. I can't even begin to think about packing up the rest of the house. UGH.

New Blog

I started a new blog yesterday. I know, I know...I don't have time to be doing silly things like that. But it's been something that I've been thinking about for a while, and I wanted to give it a shot. It only has a few posts at the moment, and you might not find it very interesting. You see, it's about one of my favorite things (my first favorite being my family...)

It's about food. Well, cooking to be more exact. I know. There are a bunch of food blogs out there. (You didn't know that? There are. And eventually I will have some of them linked to mine.) The internet doesn't need another one. Maybe not, but I needed one. I needed something to help me keep track of what I am doing in my kitchen, and motivate me to try new things.

You don't have to look, but if you want to, it's called Down the Hatch. You can find it here.

Please please please feel free to comment and leave ideas. I love ideas.

The Lengths We'll Go To to Protect Our Kids

These are classic. Of course, I own one of two of these items, so don't think I'm above these.

http://www.banterist.com/archivefiles/000548.html

If you've never read The Banterist before, you should. Find his eBay sale of his leather pants. That's the best.

Can't Do Much With No Power

Sorry about the lack of Photo Friday yesterday. I know I haven't posted pictures on Friday for the last 3 weeks and I really intended to get back on track yesterday. The other two weeks I have no excuse for except excessive laziness, but yesterday I have a terrific excuse.

My power was out. All day. Until the wee hours of this morning.

I know what some of you are thinking...but you have a laptop. With an extra battery.

Yes, yes. That's true. And technically, I should have been able to post pictures because I still have some in my camera. But, it's hard to use your laptop when it's locked in your house. A house you can not get into.

You see, since the power was out, I couldn't get the garage door open. And, due to a broken deadbolt lock, our front door is permanently looked with a hotel-type lock. I could have scaled the fence in the backyard, opened the back garage door with my key, pushed and climbed past the pile of junk blocking the door, and then gotten into the house, but with two sleepy kids in the car, it wasn't worth it. We went to BonBon's house.

We actually stayed the night there as at 10pm there was still no prediction of when our power would be back on. The girls loved it. Such an adventure.

You know the best part? Our street was the border of the power outage. The border. The next street over in our complex had power. Our pool had power. But our street? Nothing. The neighborhood behind us? Nothing.

We're back today. Joel thinks it went back on around 4am. (He figured this out with some complicated math and the oven clock.) The winds have died down, so we should be fine for now.

All that to say...Photo Sunday, people. Photo Sunday.

Wagon? Minivan? Econobox?

Actually, it's all three...

I feel compelled to answer Angie's question about what the heck our new car is. Ok, Ang, here you go.

Oh wait. I already wrote about it. Never mind. Just read this.

For my day to day usage, it stays a wagon with 4 seats. Those few times a week where I lug other kids around town with us, I just have to make sure I don't have too much crap in the back when I pull that 3rd row up and make it a mini-minivan.

So far, we love it. Even Padyn loves it. I don't think I told you, but she was very against getting a new car. After we test drove the 5 for a day, she was always talking about how she didn't want a new car. She wanted her car. Who knew a new car would be that traumatic for a 4 year old? (I hate to think about how she'll feel when we move.) We had actual tantrums that stemmed from not wanting a new car. In-her-room-screaming-for-10-minute kind of tantrums.

Even when we went to the dealership on Saturday to pick up the car, she was still complaining about it. All our reassurances about all of her stuff getting transferred to the new car did not appease her. She was adamant. This was not o.k. with her.

Then, the second she stepped into the 5, she said, "I LOVE our new car, Mommy!"

Man, those 4 year olds are fickle.

But, after 3 days, she still says she loves her new car, so it must be true.

We love it, too.

Fire! Fire!

I alluded to being on the scene of a house fire on Saturday morning. It was quite a surreal experience. The house was a few blocks from ours, and when we pulled out of our street, we could see the black smoke. As we turned down the next street, we could see flames from over a block away, coming out of an open garage. Here's the strange part...we saw no emergency vehicles. No one had responded to the scene yet. So what do we do? Well, when you have two people formerly trained to respond to emergencies in the same car, one of them jumps out while the other calls 9-1-1.

You can guess it wasn't me that jumped out. I'm the mommy. I stay with the kids. I get us out of the way. Joel, he's the responder. He goes up to the house, then around the back to see if anyone is still in the house. He gets the older woman out and takes her a house away, where he makes her use his cell phone to call family members. He's the one that tells the cops and the fire fighters (when they arrive 3 minutes later) that no one is in the house and any other facts he knows. He's the one whose adrenaline was pumping so hard when he returned to the car that he could not drive to Oakland.

It's been interesting talking to Padyn about the incident. I pulled around the corner and kept her strapped in so she could not see the garage window exploding and the flames licking the roof. But, she knew what was happening and wanted to watch, so once the firemen got there, I let her unbuckle and watch the fire fighters do their job. I figured she should see that they would take care of it and that it would be ok.

I just remembered that this was the second fire incident she's had experience with. The first was a year ago when a townhouse down the street caught on fire. She and Daddy walked over the next day and saw what the house looked like. She didn't talk about that one as much. Actually seeing the fire this time made it much more real.

She's asked me a few times a day how the fire started and if we'll have a fire in our house. So far, no nightmares or fear associated with it, thankfully, but I'm waiting for that. We just talk about it calmly and how the fire fighters were there to put it out, and that everyone was ok. Not really a scenario you think you'll be dealing with with your preschooler. Not one you are readily prepared for.

WHAT?!?!

You Should Be a Politician

Confident, assertive, and dedicated - you know what you want in life and how to get it. Stubborn and opinionated, you can stand your ground... even if it's unpopular. And while you have strong views, you never overwhelm people with your opinions. A true charmer, you subtly influence people into seeing things your way. You do best when you: - Work according to your own rules - Can change the world with what you do You would also be a good lawyer or talk show host.

What Should You Be When You Grow Up?

Maybe I should stop taking this silly quizzes.

But actually, doesn't that match with being a teacher, too?