Thursday, December 31, 2009

Teen Girl Hell

Yes, I am in teenage hell!!

Yesterday, in my attempt to be a good mom I let both of my daughters have a friend come over and spend the night.

What was I thinking?! In the words of my husband, "Whose bright idea was this again?"

First off, we know now the new house is not made for teenagers. Being built back in the 60's, it just does not have the sound proofing. I could hear every single giggle, whisper, every thing. They were downstairs in the lower level, and I could still hear them in our bedroom that is upstairs.

The loud mouth culprit? My oldest daughter, Kate. In her defense, she gets it from my side of the family. We could drown out NASCAR. We start out talking in a normal tone of voice and just gradually get louder and louder. Yeah, we're real fun at restuarants!

I don't know how many times I went downstairs and called out" Let's keep it down."

Midnight rolled around, 1AM, 2AM, finally 3AM, they were still up! And it seemed like they were purposely getting quiet and then just as soon as I was just about to fall asleep, the mute button would come off and I would hear the girl laughter. And of course, when they did that both of the dogs would start whining and pawing at the door to the lower level. (It's not a basement, so the best I know how to describe it is a lower level)

Just what in the sam hell could they still have to talk about at 3 o'clock in the freakin morning?!

Finally, it went quiet. SWEET BLISS!

I got about 5 hours of sleep. Mary, my youngest,her friend actually came upstairs and slept in Mary's bed. As she told me, she was tired at 1AM and went to bed. She was also up at 9.

I got up because I didn't want her all alone while everyone else slept. But I went down and woke up Mary. This is her friend that she invited over to spend the night. She decided to stay up till the crack of dawn. If I didn't get sleep, guess what chickie, you ain't goin to sleep either!

Oh and guess what is the cherry on top? The hot water heater is on the fritz! And I still have a house full of girls!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Knock Knock... It's 2010 Calling!

Can you believe that it will be 2010 in less than 2 days? It seems like it was just yesterday that we were all a panic about the year 2000 arriving.
Supposedly all the machines would come alive and try to kill us. Only Emilio Estevez could save us.
Oh wait... that's Maximum Overdrive. Not a bad movie and I totally had a crush on Emilio back in the day. Now.. not so much.
But anyways... It's hard to believe that 10 years has come and gone in the blink of an eye.

In the year 2000, I was only 24, married to my husband, Dennis, the geek. But back then he was my hottie in the Army. (he's still my hottie) We were stationed at Fort Sill, OK. We had only been married 2 years then.

Flash forward to now- we've been married almost 12 years, have our 2 girls, have moved more times than I can count. He's no longer in the Army, been out for almost 8 years now. Our girls have left the toddlers years behind and are entering those dreaded teen years which incidentally are just like the terrible twos. without the diapers and sippy cups.

We've survived almost getting divorced, moving, losing jobs, loved ones dying and loved ones being ticked off at us. We have a little more gray hairs and in my husband's case a little less hair.

We still have the love, the sense of humor, and even more wisdom. The wisdom that when the wolf is at the door, we can look at it and say, "we've seen bigger wolves than you."

In the end, it all comes down to what you learn from the decade you are leaving behind. And yes the old saying is true.... None of it will matter in 5 years. You'll look back at it and laugh.

I hope all of you have a very very Happy New Year. May the new decade be filled with lots of love, laughter and good health.
Monday, December 28, 2009

Shhhh.... It's Nap Time!

I swear now that my girls have become teens. (Well one is a teen now and the other is almost one) They take more naps than they did when they were little. Right now the oldest girly is asleep in the recliner. The youngest is stretched out on the couch with the Chi pup. Both sleeping.

YAY! I don't have to hear any arguing, griping or complaining! Maybe it was the hour they spent outside playing (trying to nail each other with snow!) outside. Or maybe its the teen syndrome. You know where they do nothing but sleep, eat and text. With a few grunts mixed in when you ask them any questions.

There is not much going in this house today. Still have lots of snow. Doing the usual laundry ( a never ending process.) I think little trolls dirty more clothes while I sleep.

I do have a little review to do. A few months back I got some cleaning supplies to test out. And needless to say I never got around to doing the review. Lots of things happened in between getting the product and reviewing them. (I'll blog about that later.)
Better late than never. So without further ado... here it is.

http://www.ecostore.co.nz/ contacted me months ago wondering if I would be interested in testing some of their products. And then write a review for them.
I love house cleaning products... cleaning itself I'm not a fan of.. But the products I love. go figure

A little background on the company from their website: They are a leading New Zealand retailer of household and personal care products. We promote safer healthier alternatives to conventional everyday products.

The nice lady that contacted me let me choose what I wanted to try. Full size bottles.
I picked the Ultra Concentrated Laundry Liquid and the Spray Cleaner.

First up the laundry liquid. They have since changed the bottle design it now looks more like a regular bottle of detergent.
It only takes a tablespoon or two. It soaps up rather well and has a very light smell. No floral or perfume smells either. It has a eucalyptus smell, not overpowering . I thought it cleaned just as good as the store bought variety.
It cost 8.95 for 500ml- that might seem a little pricey. But the bottle lasted me over a month. And I do alot of laundry.

Next up the Spray Cleaner.
It is another plant based cleaner. This one has a light citrus scent. Just like the detergent it is not overpowering either.
It costs 6.95 for a bottle with a trigger or 5.95 for just a refill.

I really liked the products and looking at the website they have lots of other home and health products for the eco minded person. So check them out and see what you think.




*I was given the 2 bottles of cleaner for free in exchange for my honest opinion. Just because I am sent a product to review does not mean it will receive a positive review.
Sunday, December 27, 2009

Book Review

I started reviewing books for Thomas Nelson. They send you a book for you to read and then post a review on your blog and public site.
My first book was: The Gospel According To Lost by Chris Seay.

It is a good little book. Nothing too deep or anything that would make you feel like you are reading a Sunday sermon. You just feel like you are sitting down with a good friend and talking about the TV series. Seay examines the characters and how they relate biblically. He goes through all the characters in one way or the other. Of course, Locke, Jack, Kate and Sawyer all have chapters dedicated to them.

Seay examines how all of these characters have done things that would make them unlovable. Ben Linus ranks right up there. But Seay shows us just how that doesn't matter to God, that he loves us anyway despite our flaws and the bad things we have done. Jack's need to control, John and his pain, Kate and the murder of her father and even Eko and his "Bible Stick" the book even tells you what all those verses are!

If you like Lost, this is a good little book for you. No need to worry about spoilers, because there are none in this book. Just a refresher course on the characters and how they relate to the Bible and God's love for us.

That's not snow, that's Satan's phlelgm!

I am officially sick of snow. I hate snow as it is, but getting this much just makes me physically ill. I have no clue how much we really got. I've heard anywhere from around 6 inches to just under 9. Either way, that's alot of snow!

All of my southern family and friends say how much they would love a white Christmas or to get alot of snow. Trust me on this one, you don't. You really don't. I haven't been out of the house since the day before Christmas Eve. And I'm slowly going insane. Just how did our prairie ancestors do it?

We missed going to the Geek's parents for the annual Christmas Eve family get together. There was just too much ice/snow mix on the ground by the time he finished work, and too many newscasters screaming " Stay home, stay off the roads!!!" and when they upgraded us to a Blizzard, (yes my southern self just went through a blizzard!) he was not going anywhere.

Thank goodness, the moment I heard there was going to be snow over 2 inches, I bought us a turkey and some goodies to make our own little Christmas Eve party. Turkey was good except it was bipolar. (nice and juicy on one side and dry on the other) Our stove really sucks, I think it came from the prairie days.

The Geek did make it out yesterday. He needed a haircut, we needed some more provisions and the roads were cleared a little. Enough for some of the crazy shoppers to get out and for him to hit up Wal-Mart and Great Clips. He asked if I wanted to come along, but noway was I getting out there. I am a chicken when it comes to ice and snow. Too afraid we'd be the ones on the news in the ditch with the news reporter saying how "this was the reason why people were asked to stay home"

He did pick up movies for us. Star Trek, Julie & Julia and The Ugly Truth. I'll have to come back later and give some reviews, 2 were good and 1 was kind of good.

We had a Christmas, even though it was a cold and snowy one.

And where did the title phrase come from? What I said to my oldest teen daughter. She asked if they could go out and play in the snow. To which I replied the above.

yeah... she said, with a curl of her lip, "Mom, that's not even funny."
Monday, December 14, 2009

And She Returns

And she's back...... Just in time for Christmas and the New Year.

I've been dealing with some really intense health issues. I quit smoking back in Feb. and have not had one since then..... but I guess that just wasn't good enough.

I went to the hospital a few weeks ago with chest pains and feeling short of breathe. After a chest X-ray and a CT scan, and a visit to a pulmonologist, I found out I have COPD and emphysema. I'm going through a lot of adjustment right now. Dealing with finding out about this condition, we moved to a house with fewer steps. Stairs had been a struggle for me lately. I would get half way up and feel like I was drowning. And just with anything health related, it is really scary.

Compound that with being very homesick. I've slowly been missing my Mississippi roots. I really thought I could just go for visits and be fine. But it's not fine. I miss seeing my family and I want to see my old friends and catch up. I miss warm winters (warmer that what we have here) and just all the familiarity of my surroundings. I really pray that either the company my husband works for decided to open an office in MS or he finds a job there. Wishful thinking on my part I know.

Just if you can please keep us in your prayers.