Waiting on illness...

Sunday starts Kids Closet week. One of my girls (or me) always gets sick Kids Closet week....last 5 sales in a row! So...I wonder who it will be? Sarah's daycare teacher told me that one little girl in Sarah's class was diagnosed with Strep yesterday.....oh goodie.

I might as well go ahead and make sure I'm fully stocked with childen's tylenol, motrin and all the other ailment medicines/foods/drinks.....

Oh - and its 68 today...gonna be 38 on Sunday, so I'm going to get sick again, too. These big temperature changes play havok on my sinuses.

A cautionary tale...

If you use the same password for all your different online accounts...don't. Change them. Now.

I used the same password for all my accounts, until about 3 weeks ago when my Paypal and Ebay account were "compromised". $825 stolen from my Paypal account...which was linked to my checking account. I was able to get the money back, but it was a PAIN! A friend has had her yahoo.com account severly compromised, which has pretty much led to identity theft. She had the same password for 10+ years.

Moral of the story - use SEVERAL different passwords on all your different accounts. Make your Paypal one different from your Ebay password and a whole different one for your email, too. If you bank online, make sure that password is different from your email password, too.

Ugh....its just such a frustrating situation!

Here we go again...

Kids Closet consignment sale starts in 10 days...thus the chaos begins! March 1-8 will be a little nuts, but a lot of work goes into it before the sale even starts. I've been dealing with newspapers/radio stations for a few days and that is all done, thankfully. Now, I'm dealing with a new aspect of the sale...and "after" sale, you could call it. We just always have so MUCH stuff left over after the sale concludes that our consigners designate as "donate" if the items doesn't sell...so they don't have to come back and pick it up and fool with the stuff again. So, this year we are working with the local elementary schools Family Resource Centers to designate families in need and we will offer them a "private" shopping event. Its just going to be all the leftover clothes that didn't sell that were marked for "donate." All the items will be FREE to these families. The planning process is going relatively smoothly...I hope the "sale" does, too.

I'm personally excited about the Sale, too. Beth has grown so much AGAIN this year. Thank goodness we are almost done with cold weather because her pants and long sleeve shirts are getting too small! I'll probably have to buy her a few pairs of jeans just to get through spring, too!She's' not even 6 yet and already very much in a size 7!! Sarah...bless her heart will still be able to wear most all her 2T clothes from last summer, although she will turn 3 in April....she's such a little squirt!

On a completely unrelated note - I've lost 9 lbs with Weight Watchers thus far....13 more to go!

Walk Like An Egyptian

One of Beth's school projects is a month long study of foreign countries. Each student gets a "passport" and each day, they visit a new country and learn about it and some days, have a snack coordinating with that country, etc.... The culmination of the month long study is a program the children put on for their parents. Each child chooses a country they want to represent. Along with dressing the part, each child (i.e the child's parents!) have to decorate a table with items/pictures/foods from that country. Beth chose Egypt...mainly because that would mean she could wear cool gold sandals as part of her costume!

So, yesterday was the program and she had a lot of fun! She really enjoyed going from table to table tasting all the different foods...which was kinda neat! Here she is during the procession of countries and saying her part: "Shalom. My name is Cleopatra. My country is Egypt. There are many mummies buried in the pyramids all around Egypt"

Here she is by her Egypt table...its a big old palm leaf (straight from Florida, but hey, there are palm trees in Egypt, too!), pictures and books, a sugar cube model of a pyramid, a Barbie wrapped up like a mummy in a "tomb", a wooden crocodile and her food- pita bread, dates and watermelon (yes, watermelon - originally grown in Egypt!)

Here is the whole class...its not a great picture, but I think all the kids in their different countries' costumes were so cute!!

Mountains and Milestones

Bob and I went to Gatlinburg, TN, last weekend. Part business, part pleasure. We honeymooned there and we've tried several times, unsuccessfully, to go back since then. Well, 9 1/2 years later, we made it! We decided to stay "in town" this time to avoid the awful traffic and big parking fees. It was okay...I think we just had a not-so-great condo. (if you go to Gatlinburg, don't ever stay at Summit Manor Condos!). The mountains weren't nearly as pretty as they are in the spring or fall...but nevertheless, they are still majestic and all the half frozen mountain streams were gorgeous!


We did everything we wanted to do - eat a big country b'fast at The Log Cabin, eat a nice dinner at The Park Grill and get a new wood sign with everyone's names on it. We attempted to find the art studio where we bought a print on our honeymoon. It no longer existed. We were a little sad about that, but I think I can still find the artist's prints on the internet! We came home tired and sore from all the walking, but re-energized!!

Secondly, Sarah finally got her "big girl" bed yesterday. Her crib converted to a toddler bed, so tht was done yesterday. She was SOOO excited, but as bedtime approached, she wasn't so sure about it anymore. Honestly, I'm not sure why we chose yesterday to change it - probably because her new toddler bedding had arrived and she was having a FIT to use it. However, she NEVER once said she didn't want her crib...she liked it...it was cozy to her, I think. She never once tried to get out of it. Anyway, I knew last night would take forever to get her to sleep, based on past vacations when she didn't sleep in a crib. She was "in" bed at normal bedtime - about 7:15 and at 8:45, after 2-3 times trips back into her room for reasons ranging from a "wet diaper" that she had so nicely already taken off and discarded for me to her playing with books dressed in her dress-up clothes sitting in bed, I finally got her sleep by rubbing her back for about 10 minutes! Perhaps we have given her too much freedom? EEK! I figure it will take 3-5 nights for the novely to wear off and then maybe she'll settle down and into a new bedtime routine!! Whew!! She's awfully tired and whiny today! Wonder why? hum.....

Here are her new digs:

The room still needs to be rearranged a tad, but I think it works okay for now. She LOVES the mermaids, and frankly, I think they are rather cute, too!! Lots of toys needs to find new homes, too!!

The Circus

A few weeks ago my mom and dad offered to take the girls (and me) to the Circus one Saturday that Bob had to work. It was an adventure, complete with Sarah getting sick just as we pulled into downtown Nashville. Oh joy - talk about a 3-ring circus of our own! Everyone was scrambling to find towels, wipes, anything plastic, new clothes for Sarah....it was a tad chaotic! We made the decision to continue on to the Circus, in hopes that Sarah's "sickness" was a one-time thing, and thankfully, it was!

It was the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey "Over The Top" Circus (and believe me, it WAS over-the-top, especially the prices! Heck, the cotton candy alone costs $12! Thanks Dad!) Anyway - both girl enjoyed the show, Beth more than Sarah. However, Sarah is still talking abou the Tigers!

And the very annoying pink twirly toy that Beth HAD to have...they had to share it. What an adventure!

Movie Review - FIREPROOF

Bob and I watched "Fireproof" on Saturday night. I had heard good things about it and now that it is finally out on DVD, I thought what the heck. After going to FOUR places to try to rent it (it was completely cleared out everywhere!), I finally just bought the movie, thinking I could share it with my friends and/or Church. I had been pre-warned that it was a low-budget movie (i.e. bad acting), but it had Kirk Cameron in it! (yay!) After we were able to get past the acting, and listened and watched the movie, it was amazing. I LOVED the message on marriage. WOW! I think everyone that is married should see it, no matter the status of your marriage - good or bad. Everyone needs a reminder about what is is REALLY important.... I'm a big believer that a marriage needs to be faith based with God as a foundation. This movie touched me....I cried a lot...and it really made me think, too! I'm thinking about reading "The Love Dare" just out of curiousity!

So, go rent it. Netflix it, whatever.....I have it, it you want to borrow it!! Just watch it!