Ho Hum - Yawners from Life

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Jesse watched the Spider-Man DVD a few times yesterday. When I called in the afternoon to check in with Beau, I talked to Jesse and he was very excited about it. My own opinion of this particular DVD is that it’s not quite appropriate for a pre-schooler (it was probably made for Cartoon Network and is dated 2008). We’ll keep it for another day or two, until the latest DVD arrives in the mail.

I sent back the as yet unwatched The Young Victoria (I’ll re-rent it from Redbox later) in order to get one of the Super Friends DVDs that I mentioned yesterday. Once that arrives, I’ll send back Spidey for a much older cartoon version (there’s a series from 1967) that I’m hoping will be better suited for younger kids.

In any case, the boy is happy and there were no nightmares and that’s what matters.

Friday, July 23, 2010

We got a postcard for the National Sheep Dog Trials to be held in Winchester, VA in September. We kind of laughed about it, but I have been thinking about it and I think we should go for the finals on the 26th.

1. Jesse adores Babe. Granted he won’t see a sheep pig, but he’d still love seeing Babe lived out. Come on!

2. It’s not far from The New Homestead. I think Marmie and Pop should come, too.

3. It’s very reasonably priced - $12 per adult. Kids under 11 are free.

I want to go.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

I have a busy few months ahead.

August 23-27 - travelling to Denver for a work conference.

August 28 - Restoring Honor Rally in DC with Beau’s Bro and SIL.

September 4 - Beau’s cousin is getting married in Maryland.

September 11 or 12 - We may do the 9/12 March on DC like we did last year. Maybe. It’s looking less likely. And there are two events that weekend, which makes it more confusing.

September 17-18 - Uncle Sam’s Niece Open House for Bead on a Wire in Manassas, VA.

September 20-24 - travelling to Glynco, GA for work training.

October - may have training in DC.

November 12-13 - Tea For All Reasons Open House for Bead on a Wire in Winchester, VA. This is a good weekend since I’ll have 11/11 off for Veteran’s Day. It means I can use that day to get everything out to Winchester and set up my displays.

November - may have training in San Diego if we don’t do it in October in DC.

December - may have training in Las Vegas if we don’t do it in October or November.

Wow.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Yet another weekend dealing with illness. I have no idea what’s going on, but since we got back from California it seems that one or the other of the kids has been sick every weekend. It’s very baffling and frustrating.

This time it’s a stomach bug of some kind. We thought maybe it was food poisoning, but it lingers and Beau now has it, too. Jesse started puking at breakfast on Saturday. By that evening he was keeping down bread and Fresca (we don’t have any ginger ale in the house, but I’m getting some today). Sunday morning he begged for “real nulk,” which is PediaSure. I was leery of giving it to him, but I did. He guzzled it down and promptly yakked it back up about 5 minutes later.

He won’t drink PediaLyte, so he went back to Fresca and nibbling on bread. He kept that down and by dinner time he was feeling good again. I made plain pasta for him, which he scarfed down. He was hungry.

Meantime, Beau is complaining of the queasies. This dispelled our food poisoning thoughts - we had BBQ grilled chicken Friday for dinner and thought that maybe Jesse fondled the raw chicken when it was on the kitchen counter and Daddy was outside getting the grill lit. Who knows at this point?

I made the mistake of making cupcakes yesterday. Jesse wanted one, so I gave him half of one. He played for another hour and then came bedtime and all was well.

Beau woke up at about 2am feeling nauseous. And then the crying started at 3am - Jesse has puked in his bed. Poor Beau had to clean it up - I still have my SPR despite having borne two children. My mother was wrong - that puker thing does not diminish one iota with motherhood.

Please pray for Beau - I have to go to work today, although I may try to speed through tasks to leave early if things are bad enough here at home. At this point I’m praying that Molly and I don’t get it, too.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

3:00pm, returned from a field trip to HQ. The thermometer in my car read 104F.

Ugh.

It’s really, really hot here this week.

A HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM EDT THIS EVENING.

STRONG HIGH PRESSURE WILL REMAIN OVER THE MID-ATLANTIC TODAY. HIGH TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO BE AROUND 100 DEGREES. THE COMBINATION OF HEAT AND HUMIDITY WILL PRODUCE HEAT INDEX VALUES OF AROUND 105 DEGREES DURING THE AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING HOURS.

It’s 0930 and the current temp is already 90F.

Fortunately, our AC is keeping up with the heat. Unfortunately, poor Molly Ann seems to have the hottest room in our house. Our house faces south so she gets all day sunshine and we think that the placement of the desk over her vent is keeping the cool air from moving efficiently in her room. The vent is not obstructed - the desk is open, but the air is not moving despite the vent being open.

We have a box fan and we set it up last night, but it wouldn’t turn on. Would you believe that is our only fan? It’s a good thing our AC works. *knocks wood* Anyway, Beau is heading to Walmart to buy a fan for Molly’s room, if there are any still to be had.

Friday, July 02, 2010

I’ve been blogging for about 8 years now (the actual anniversary is in August). That’s just cuh-razy. You’d think at this point my readership would be through the roof. However, that is so not the case. I think I can count on one hand the number of regular readers, outside of my family, who still visit ye ole blogge. I can lay the blame squarely at the feet of Facebook. I spend way more time over there, post way more often, and comment on stuff there as opposed to the blogs that I visit. And yet, I still have a deep affection for my blog and the folks who do still read my drivel. There are several of you who have been with me going back to the beginning and you deserve better. So it’s time to make a change and a commitment.

I commit to you, dear readers, that I will post more meaty content here at Lintefiniel Musing. I promise more humor and news commentary. Maybe some politics - that’s a big maybe given my employer and the climate today. Definitely some spiritual stuff. Less complaining (this is something that I need to do in real life, as well). More TV, movies, books? This means I’ll need to watch more TV and movies than I am currently, but I can work on that. I can’t talk about work stuff anymore - frankly it’s way more boring than at the courthouse and I’m not at liberty to share most of what I see or do. And there are no colorful personalities in my immediate daily worklife. I know - sad. (Not really - I’m happy for no drama, believe me.) You tell me - what do you miss that I used to do here? What wouldn’t you miss if I stopped doing it here? [Added Later] More recipes? More jewelry/business talk? Help me help you.

And I commit to commenting more faithfully at the blogs that I visit, too. Because I do visit quite a few, but I’ve been too darned lazy to take the time to say something, anything, to my fellow bloggers.

Also, and this will take a lot more time and effort than my job and family may allow, but I think it’s time for a visual change as well. I’ve been thinking of switching to WordPress, but that’s a rather large job that may mean the loss of years’ worth of posts. In the meantime I hope to work on a new template, a freshening of the look here. A wider format, for sure. Techies, prepare yourselves for questions.

Let me know what you think…

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

I have snippets for you.

1. I am posting recipes to Tasty Kitchen, which is a subsidiary site to Pioneer Woman. My username is jenspeaks. Feel free to “friend” me over there if you wish. So far I have 6 recipes on file over there, including this wondrous crock pot rice pudding recipe that I made this weekend.

In other crock pot news, on Sunday I put 6 frozen chicken breasts into the crock pot with 1 whole bottle of BBQ sauce and cooked it on low for about 4 hours. Then I shredded the chicken and let it stew in the juices for another 45 minutes or so. It’s all kind of easy and awesome. Molly loves it, too.

2. My daughter is in full cling-on mode lately. She wants to be held all the time or just to be with, which is making bedtime a hard thing. My poor friends on Facebook bear the brunt of my venting on this topic every night. I’m so fortunate to have great friends, experienced parents who have offered encouragement, prayers, support, and advice through it all. Just today I received two wonderful messages from friends that really encouraged me and confirmed some decisions we have made as parents. I’m grateful.

3. We’re heading to The New Homestead for July 4th. We’ll spend Sunday and part of Monday with Marmie and Pop. I’m excited to see the progress they’ve made on the house, which continues to be a saga. Note to self: take 2 gates for the stairs. Anyway, it’ll be fun to hang with them and Uncle Bill, grilling meat, eating homemade ice cream (made with coconut milk so that Beau can eat it), watching the DC fireworks on Pop’s enormous HDTV.

We were supposed to go out on Saturday, but I’m kind of glad we aren’t now - I’m hoping to get to church as a normal family, all of us together. We haven’t done that in months because of our vacation, Jesse’s random fevers and subsequent coxsackie diagnosis and then Molly’s fever and fear of coxsackie outbreak. So far she’s good - no sign of the mouth sores. In the meantime, my Chief told me he had it and went undiagnosed for 5 weeks, which seems kind of crazy. And he said his mouth burned like crazy, which makes us feel even more terrible for Jesse. Even my boss said he must be a scrappy, tough little kid to take that kind of pain. Wow.

4. Did I mention that I get to go to Georgia in September for a week of training? Woo.

5. Here’s some real random for you. So there’s thought that we’re descendents of Stonewall Jackson - not direct, but maybe through his sister because we have a Jackson woman who married into the family. But I did some research on Stonewall’s family and discovered that he only had one living sister and her name was Laura Ann (our family member is Alma). And the married names don’t match. The only possiblity is maybe a cousin of his, but I think that rumor in our family is just that. There’s nothing I have found that would confirm our relationship to Stonewall.

Monday, June 28, 2010

I think the time has come. I knew it was coming from my early years. I knew it was coming soon based on familial trend. I knew it was coming sooner based on my spouse. I think the time is here.

Bifocals.

I see close up stuff better if I lift my glasses up and away from my eyes. I think it’s a sign.

Dang it.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

I’m still struggling with my hair, even after the good hair cut a couple of weeks ago. Now that it is fully humid most days, I have the opposite problem of most wavy/curly haired people. My hair seems to reverts back to straight traits and goes flat in the humidity. *sigh* Oh, crazy pregnancy hormones that switched up my hair after 40 years. It is still the weirdest thing. I would much prefer for it to go more curly. And because of the specific cut I got to emphasize the curl, it won’t look right it I straighten it out. I think. I’m not willing to test my theory and end up with a result that would be embarrassing to be out of the house with all day. Of course, I work with mostly men, so they won’t notice.

Anyway, I have tried several different Hair Care products - curl enhancing gel, wave enhancing mousse, anti-humidity hair spray (that one is actually a keeper - it does work for the most part), wave enhancing shampoo and conditioner, etc. I recently bought a curl enhancing and conditioning cream and I’m still unsure about it. I like the conditioning part - my colored hair appreciates that and it does feel softer, but I think it bogs down the curl.

I saw an infomercial for Wen. Has anyone tried it? I’m thinking about it. Thinking hard about it.

Monday, June 14, 2010

To recap from Friday’s post:

1. MIL is firmly ensconced at the casa. The kids are overjoyed to have Grandma in the house, especially Jesse, who pesters with the best of them. I loved listening to her read Peter Rabbit to him yesterday - she took the time to explain the definition of certain words to him, which I never think to do. His new favorite word is “thief,” which he hollers at Molly constantly now.

2. My hair cut was wonderful. The stylist understood what I was trying to tell her about what I wanted. She even made a great suggestion for a tweak while she was working. I went home very happy and plan to go back in 8 weeks.

In new news, Beau’s Mom is going to babysit tonight so that Beau and I can have a date. We are going to see Iron Man 2 and I am very excited - not just to see the movie but to get a couple of hours alone with Beau.

On Friday we’re taking my Dad (and Mom) out for dinner for Father’s Day. We’re headed to Columbus Grill, which they have been to before and say is really good. I’m looking forward to it.

Long range plans:

July 4th weekend - we plan to hang at The New Homestead for a couple of days to enjoy grilled meats and fireworks with Marmie and Pop (and hopefully Uncle Bill, too).

Late July-Early August - I have a work conference in Denver. No firm date yet, but it should be fun. It’ll be nice to meet the folks from around the country in our group.

Late September - I get to travel to lovely Glynco, GA, for a week of training. We were planning to visit the Cooties in September for a weekend, so we may try to coordinate that for after my training.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Not much to say lately. I’m thinking that I won’t have much to say now, but I know that my fingers will find words as I type and we’ll end up with some kind of random post here. So let’s start listing, hmmm?

1. My friend’s memorial service was quite lovely. She was a remarkable woman and beloved by all who knew her. It was testament to her faith and Christ-centeredness that the folks who eulogized her all mentioned her deep love of Jesus. She is missed.

2. Jesse spiked a random fever Saturday night that was gone by morning when he woke up. His sleep has been weird ever since. He took a 4 hour nap the other day, but he’s been waking up at 0330 the past couple of nights.

3. In other Jesse news, he’s pretty much potty trained during the waking hours. He still sleeps with a diaper/pull-up, but I think he’s close to done with that for naps so it’ll be overnight we work on next.  We’re thinking of potty training Molly now to see if we can get her done early. Not paying for diapers will free up a large chunk of change each month. I’m leaving that decision up to Beau since he’s the one who’ll be doing it.

4. See? I knew that I’d find things to say once I started typing.

5. Beau’s Mom is out visiting the other grandkids and great-grandkids. She’s going to come spend a couple of days with us on Sunday - Beau will take her to the airport on Tuesday. It’ll be fun to have her with us - I know Jesse and Molly will love having Grandma to play with.

6. Our AC leaked in our basement last weekend. So where we were looking into spending some money on a TV-computer monitor we’re now looking to spend that money on a dehumidifier for the basement. It needs to be done, but is so not the fun spending of the money to which I was looking forward.

7. We’re planning to go to the Restoring Honor Rally in August. I think we’re nuts - it’s going to be HOT and crowded. But Beau’s Bro is coming down for it, so we decided to do that rally instead of the 9/12 March again. I’m not sure we’re up to doing both with the kids.

8. I’m getting my hair cut tomorrow. This is mentionable only because I haven’t had my hair cut since March and I’ve had a hard time finding any salon that doesn’t charge more that $40-50 for a simple hair cut. Alas, my Facebook comment about it garnered several responses, one of which was the recommendation of Ulta. They charge $35 for a simple hair cut so that’s where I’m going.

And that’s about it from my fingers for today.

Monday, May 31, 2010

We’re no where near ready to spend the dough yet, but I’m starting the market research for minivans.

We debated going the SUV route, but decided the minivan is more practical for our family, especially since we’ll be schlepping to my parents’ new home that’s an hour away for the holidays. We need the extra seating and the cargo area.

We had planned to rent an SUV for our vacation, but when we did the online check-in the day before we flew out, we were offered an upgrade to a minivan at no extra charge. Since we thought that there might be a time or two when we wanted Beau’s folks along with all of us for some outing, the van made more sense for avoiding having to take 2 cars anywhere.

When we picked up our car at the airport, we were given a new Dodge Grand Caravan. I have to say that I was impressed with it. It seemed to drive well, the dash was easy to figure out and manipulate. We did have a slight problem figuring out the key, which is the lock fob, but once we figured that out we were golden. And the manipulation of the seats in the back was super easy, too. With the bench in the back-back folded into the floor there was quite a bit of room for hauling stuff. When the bench seat up and in use, there was still a good sized, recessed into the floor cargo space that worked well. I liked it a lot.

I had been leaning toward getting a Toyota Sienna because I’m a Toyota person, but we may have to do a tight comparison before we just head to the Toyota dealer when the time comes.

Please allow me to bore you with the rest of the slide show of our California travels.

Day Four - Sunday - we have no pictures. This was a quiet day. We went to church with Beau’s parents in the morning. And then we spent the afternoon at their house. And then because I’m selfish, we headed home after dinner so that I could do laundry (not the selfish part) and also watch the LOST finale (this is the selfish part). I think I cried through half a box of Kleenex in that 2.5 hours.

Day Five - Monday - Beau wanted us to attempt a hike to/thru Hazard Canyon, but this didn’t work well with an 81 year old grandmother, a 43 year old mother wearing a 14 month old, and a 3 year old who likes to touch everything, including the poison oak that was growing abundantly. However, in the 20 minutes we trekked I managed to get a few pretty shots of the woods with my Blackberry.

We decided to head straight to Montana de Oro beach instead, where Grandma and Jesse poured through the seaweed strewn sand for seashells.

After naps, we headed to meet up with Beau’s cousin, Karen, and her family for dinner. She’s cousin Linda’s sister. We had a great time catching up with them, although Molly had a mini-meltdown in the restaurant. We spent most of our catch up time in the parking lot after eating.

Day Six - Tuesday - We headed back to LA for our afternoon at Knott’s Berry Farm. This was Jesse’s second favorite day of the trip.

For the record, Molly was there, too.

This ride is called Huff ‘n Puff. Jesse was very excited to ride it by himself. However, he had to power the car under his own steam - by pushing/pulling on that handle. He was less enthused about it by the end. Heh.

Molly was getting bored. Her favorite thing right now is peas. So she got a pea break, so to speak.

Days One and Seven were our travel days so no fun pictures. Mom and Dad were stressed out trying to get 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 car seats, and 4 carry-on bags through the airport without worrying about chronicling it all with the camera.

I will say this though - Dulles is much easier security-wise than LAX. It is much better organized, much more spacious, more polite staff. LAX is a nightmare from start to finish. That said, baggage claim at Dulles needs help and while the train system from the gates to the terminal seems nicer, it’s a lot more walking, especially if you have to use the elevators.

All-in-all it was a good trip. Too short, though.