6/28/08

In need of a good diaper deal?

There is going to be a great diaper deal next week at Walgreens.

3 packs Walgreens store brand diapers at 5.99= 17.97

-5/2 instant value coupon in the monthly book (it should take off $2.50 for the 3rd pack) (these are located on a rack at the front of the store)

so -7.50= 10.47 + tax, get back 5.00 in the form of a Register Rebate (good for $5 off your next purchase at Walgreens. If you use it to buy more diapers, it won't spit out another one, so it's best to use it for something else.)

so 5.47 for 3 packs of diapers + tax or 1.82 a pack.
Or if you buy 4 packs it would be 8.96/4= 2.24 a pack

6/27/08

At Dinner

Dixie: You know what was so cute? You and Daddy in the bathtub.
Mommy: Yeah, that was . . . something, wasn't it?
D: Yes. Why did you want to take a bath at the same time instead of a shower?
M: I don't really like showers.
D: But Daddy likes showers.
M: But Daddy likes Mommy.
D: Okay. It was so cute.

Where is Melody during this conversation? Pouting in her bedroom.

Fifteen minutes after the meal is over, she realizes, 'Gee, I'm hungry' so she comes in crawling and meowing to beg for food. Dowlan solves the problem of a hungry cat by tossing chunks of pork chops onto the kitchen floor. It's a good thing she's on antibiotics.

6/26/08

Six days into a 10-day bottle of antibiotics

and the tonsil has only shrunk by half. They're clearly going to have to go. Our health insurance runs out next Monday, so we're going to wait until we can get CHIP to kick in an let the guv'mint foot the bill. (And a big THANK YOU to all my taxpaying readers!)

I'm not crazy about it, but what do you do?

Melody hurt her toe in gymnastics today. She was hysterical about it, so I asked her if she wanted me to have to doctor remove it as well. She was adamant that this was not going to be necessary.

While things aren't back to normal in the back of her throat, she is (somewhat) returning to normal. The kids take turns being my favorite, and right now, it's Melody's turn. I think it is mainly because I haven't had the real Melody in so long. It has been four months since her tonsils ballooned and she has been a miserable shadow of herself this whole time. Some of the things we've tried helped briefly, and I would see glimpses of Real Melody, but the poor thing has been unable to eat, drink and sing without pain. What is a Melody without song?

I used to tell the girls: Charlie is my favorite, because he doesn't talk to me.

This is no longer true. In the past two or three weeks, Charlie has decided it is time to step up and say something. He went from saying 3-4 words reliably to about 50. He is repeating phrases and engaging in 'conversations' like the following:

Daddy: You're a stinker!
Charlie: Yu-u!
Daddy: No, you!
Charlie: Nuh. Yu-u.

See the progress he's made?

And Dixie? Dixie is Dixie is Dixie is Dixie. I'd taken a bath and shaved my legs earlier today, so Dixie helped Daddy 'get the mommy fur out of the tub.'

Which reminds me--today was Daddy's first taste of SAHD-life. I went in for a three-hour training at Sylvan. I came home and he looked a wee bit frazzled and wasn't entirely sure where Charlie was.

6/25/08

Only Melody . . .

(While at my parents' house.)

Melody: Aunt Bethie! Kyland and Dixie are being sooooooo bad.
Aunt B: Tell them to behave, or I'll come up there and wear them out.

(a few minutes later, Melody marches down the stairs, hands on her hips . . . )

Melody: They're not listening. Could you please wear them out now?

6/24/08

I have a job!

I start tutoring at Sylvan Learning Center tomorrow!

This is something I'd planned on doing for awhile, as a side gig for some extra $$, but was never sufficiently motivated. When we found out that Dowlan's job was disappearing, I realized that him taking on a part time job would interfere with his unemployment, but mine wouldn't. So I am going to work as many hours as they'll give me while he's job hunting.

6/20/08

More from Melody

Melody: Daddy, you are not a very good Daddy. Because you are not giving us our medicine. So I guess you want your children to be sick. So you are not a very good Daddy.

BTW, Melody's got an appt at an ENT to check out her massive tonsils.

6/19/08

Makes sense to me

Mommy: Melody, come to the table. Did you wash up?
Melody: Yes. I washed my hands and my lips.

Tip

I'm tired of buying stuff for my Swiffer, so I got a syringe that is for injecting turkeys with spice in order to refill the little jug with 1 part white vinegar and 4 parts water. It is about 95% cheaper and doesnt contribute waste to the landfills.

I finally finished off my last bottle of solution and injected it with the vinegar and water today. It cleaned MUCH better than the solution--didn't leave a film, and got stuff up really well. it aslo doesnt seem to be getting dirty again as fast, because it doesn't have the build-up.

And I got a microfiber cloth to use instead of the disposable ones. I figure I just saved us about $80-100 a year.

6/18/08

Let's try it, and see how it works

Mommy: Dixie, if you kick your sister's chair one more time, I am going to start counting the kicks. And whatever number I get to in the ten minutes until we get home is the number of spankings you get when we get home.

(9 minutes and thirty seconds later)

Melody: Mommy, Dixie just kicked me again.
Mommy: Dixie, remember what I said: when we get home, you get a spanking for kicking your sister.
Dixie: Don't wait, mommy. Just spank yourself and toss that spankin' over my way.

6/16/08

We'll be back home tomorrow

and then I'll get a chance to post more.

I did go to the dentist this morning and got to have this conversation with the hygenist:

H: Do you usually get food stuck right here?
G: I used to have to pick it out all the time after eating, but it hasn't bothered me in awhile.
H: Well, that's because it's full.


Oops.

6/13/08

Our Forever Family is Complete!

We just got out of court! Everything went well. Melody walked in saying, "Where's the judge? I want to be the judge!" and was disappointed that she didn't get to testify as well. Dixie curled up in a chair in the jury box and sneered at me with twinkling eyes the whole time. She really doesn't like to hear people talking about her and she kept giving me her 'I'm happy trouble' look.

The judge looked thrilled for us. I got to answer a few questions and then they looked over paperwork. Her name is officially changed and filed on record with the county clerk's office. We're done! She's ours!!!!

We congregated out in the hallway for a bit to celebrate and I had just made the comment, "We're getting a little loud. We should probably go outside to finish our party" when the girls took off down the hall screaming at the top of their lungs. The people holding court in another chamber came out looking less than thrilled with us. Because of the building layout, we couldn't find the girls! There were so many twists and tunnels that I couldn't figure out which hallway they were down.

So we're celebrating with Sonic Happy Hour drinks and SpongeBob.

Court date starts in 75 minutes!

Keep those fingers crossed! The girls are upstairs with Oma doing their hair and Charlie's napping till the verrrrry last minute.

I promise to come back with pictures!

6/12/08

Surrogate parenting has reached a new low

The girls are 'helping' me pack for the trip. Their priorities are as follows:
  1. Toys
  2. Fluffy dresses
  3. Jammies
  4. Sparkly shoes
They have very specific and unique criteria for selecting what to bring, especially when it comes to the toys. Melody is choosing her toys based on which ones will miss her the most while she's gone.

Dixie is circumventing this problem by placing all of the toys that she thinks will miss her in a little semicircle, facing her picture. Better yet? The picture is imaginary.

6/11/08

What an odd week

I hurt myself Monday, had an enormous party on Tuesday, Charlie spent all of Wednesday wheezing, and tomorrow is Dowlan's official last day of work. Friday is our court hearing, Saturday is a wedding.

I am sure my kids have said and done some adorable things, but I have been on codeine, so i am only vaguely aware of their presence and actions.

6/9/08

So my foot may or may not be broken

They cant really see anything on the xray. So I'm on codeine, off my foot and supposed to try to walk Thursday and if I cant walk on it, go back for a bone scan. Or it could just be a sprain of the ligament in my foot.

I stepped off a curb. Intentionally. But not correctly. I felt something snap and this small pain explosion in my foot. I still had to get Charlie and my stuff loaded into the van, get the cart back in the store and drive home. Did I mention it is my right foot? Yeah.

It is conveniently the foot that I already have plantar fascitis in, which is nice. It is good to have all the pain confined to one foot, because if I didn't have one good foot, well, I'd be screwed. It is also nice to have an unemployed husband right now. He's been quite useful to have around and someone should watch these kids.

Oh, and if you are one of the 70-80 people coming over tomorrow night--the party is still on.

Can I also mention how delicious the irony is here? Part of the reason we're adopting Dixie is that her grandmother was unable to keep up with her because she can't walk without crutches. I think the judge is going to find this all quite amusing. Or think we're insane.

Yeah. That.

I think I broke my foot.

6/6/08

Yeah, I don't think it's working.

Dowlan has the kids watching SchoolHouse Rock in hopes of them learning the parts of speech so that they can do MadLibs.

Dowlan: So girls, what's an adjective?
Melody: It's a kind of cat.

6/4/08

Did you ever have a dream that came true?

Melody asks Dowlan this first thing this morning. Then goes on to say, "Because I dreamed I was thirsty. And then, when I woke up, I was thirsty."

6/3/08

Random bits

I woke up Saturday to a kissing noise. X X X X X X over and over again. and then I felt Charlie's grubby toddler hands on my head, trying to turn it. So I rolled over and kissed him. He kissed me twice, smiled and clapped, climbed down, and went along his merry way.

This morning, I woke up to Dixie shoving a paper in my face saying, "Mommy, see the pretty picture I painted?" I realized that Dowlan was still asleep too, and began to panic, expecting full-scale chaos in the dining room. I was happily shocked to discover that she had woken up, gotten out paper, laid down a place mat, got out her paints, filled a mug with water, and sat down and painted without spilling or splattering or splashing.

Wow.

So this afternoon, after Bible Class and a trip to the local produce market, the girls wanted to paint some more. Encouraged by the morning, I told them they could, and left them at the table while I did a few things.

Just know that when I claim to have 'caught them red handed,' it is not meant figuratively.

At the local produce place, we had a great time. The kids were sweet and helped me pick out some fantastic fruits and veggies. They *gasp* behaved. Melody had requested that we have more 'money and chocolate' and at first I thought, 'Sure, who wouldn't love an entire budget line specifically for chocolate?' but then I realized that she meant she wanted more of the chocolate discs wrapped in gold foil to look like coins. I thought they might have them in the bulk goods section.

We didn't find them, but we found these little chocolate balls wrapped in foil printed to look like the earth. It was organic, natural sugar, hand made by free peoples with fair trade, good enough for Jesus chocolate and they were clearly quite proud of it, demanding a whopping 12.99 a pound. I could have bought freaking lobster at that rate. (hmm . . . I wonder what the going rate is of the actual earth is, on per pound terms. It probably isn't 12.99.) I got seven tiny balls. Two per child, one for me. It weighed .09 of a pound and still cost me 1.19.

We get in the van and I distribute the first round of tiny planets. Dixie takes one taste and says, "Mommy, this chocolate tasteses like God."

I couldn't argue.

6/2/08

Whew, she's gone.

I should have known it was a bad sign when the social worker arrived while Dixie was in time out.

The visit went well, she didn't seem alarmed by anything, we skirted the unemployment issue. But the kids were WILD. Oh, dear God, they were crazy. Showing off, running in circles, climbing on daddy. Ack. Nothing alarming happened, though, and she seemed happy when she left, so I think we're fine.

And I'd spent all day feeling dizzy and ready to throw up. I just figured it was stress getting to me, but then the social worker came and went and I still felt that way. I realized that I still have water clogging one ear from water aerobics this morning.

Now that I've poured alcohol down both ears (and my throat) I feel better.

6/1/08

Because you needed just ONE MORE THING Gretchen

The social worker is popping in for one last visit before we go see the judge. So hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to clean i go!


Okay, everything is spotless and we have 87 minutes till she arrives. Dowlan is on his way home. The kids are fed and happy.
I feel like I'm going to throw up. I HATE waiting for things that stress me out.