****Please don’t forget about the Pediascribe contestgoing on right now! Don’t pass up your chance to win!****

I’m having a bit of blogger’s block. Or rather, I’m just pretty busy right now and am having trouble coming up with an interesting topic to post on. So I thought I’d pick up a blog meme from Don’t Try This at Home. This one involves my iPod. Here were the instructions given:

1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn’t make sense. NO CHEATING! (I also included the artist because it was interesting to see the wide range of music I have on my iPod)

How do you feel today?

‘s Wonderful-Rod Stewart
What’s your outlook on life?

Victory Chant-WOW Worship
What does your family think of you?

The Proud Rebel-Pastorale (The Wild West soundtrack)
What do your friends think of you?

Wayfaring Stranger-Wee Sing Sing-A-longs
What do your exes think of you?

The Cowboys-Main Theme (The Wild West soundtrack)
How’s your love life?

On the Run-Richard Elliot
How will your love life be in the future?

Captain Jack-Billy Joel
Will you get married?
Walk the Plank-Pirates of the Caribbean
Are you good at school?

Malaguena-OSU Marching Band (TBDBITL)
Will you be successful?

Fight the Team-OSU Marching Band (TBDBITL)
What song should they play on your birthday?

When I See an Elephant Fly-Jim Brickman
What song should they play at your graduation?

Say, Has Anyone Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose-Tony Orlando and Dawn
The Soundtrack of your life?

The American Adventure/Golden Dream-Walt Disney World’s EPCOT attraction
You and your best friends are?
Quiet You With My Love-Rebecca St. James
Happy times:

Answer to Our Life-Backstreet Boys
Sad times:

Hot Hot Hot-Buster Poindexter
Every day:

Boy From New York City-The Manhattan Transfer
For tomorrow:

Christmas in the Caribbean-Jimmy Buffett
For you:

Father I Adore You-WOW Worship
What does next year have in store for me?

Pump Up the Jam-Technotronic
What do I say when life gets too hard?

Look at Me-Buddy Holly
What song will I dance to at my wedding?
Deck the Halls-Christmas Grass (bluegrass Christmas songs)
What do you want as your career?

All Aboard for Jesus-Dulcy Delcamp (VBS song)
Your favorite saying?

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring-Josh Groban
How will I die?

Freddie My Love-Cindy Bullens (Grease Soundtrack)

My favorite is “How will your love life be in the future?” Captain Jack. As in Captain Jack Sparrow? Hmmmm, I wonder what Cowboy will think of that.
If you’re reading this and would like to do the meme on your own blog, consider yourself tagged. Post in the comment section letting me know you’ve done it so I can go check out your answers.

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****Please don’t forget about the Pediascribe contest going on right now! Don’t pass up your chance to win!****

You may have read here in the past that we’re trying to adopt a healthier lifestyle. We’re trying to exercise, drink more water, etc. The problem is, it’s too easy for me not to do what I’m supposed to do. I need motivation. I need to keep track, visually, of my progress. I’ve tried writing things down on paper to show my progress, but like most things that get jotted down and put on my desk, it was constantly getting buried by other things. Then it wasn’t there, in my face, to remind me.

I found a website called Joe’s Goals. It’s like a grown up sticker chart! It’s pretty easy to set up your goals and then keep track of your progress. I’ve even made it my home page so that every time I boot up the internet, there it is staring me in the face. You can have as few or as many goals listed as you want. Currently, I have three goals: exercise, drink 20 oz of water, and no snacking after 7:30 pm except for fruit. On a good day, I can get 5 stickers if I exercise, drink 60 oz of water, and resist snacking. With the chart, I can see easily how some behaviors go hand in hand. For example: the days I’m not exercising, I’m less likely to drink a lot of water, or I’m more likely to snack in the evenings.

Goals can be anything you want them to be. They could be for any area you want to track! They can be positive goals (to DO something better) or negative goals (to avoid doing something bad). Maybe you have a vice you’d like to quit. Make a goal and give yourself a sticker for every day you DON’T do that behavior. Joe does have a link on his site to get you going on identifying goals. It lists hundreds of possible behaviors.

So I encourage you to go check it out. Looking at my goals right now has reminded me that I should fill that tumbler with water and get drinking.

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****Please don’t forget about the Pediascribe contest going on right now! Don’t pass up your chance to win!****

When KT was 2 1/2 years old, I attended baby shower. One of the gifts intrigued me. It was a simple recipe box decorated with stickers and jammed with index cards. The gift giver explained it was a place to jot down memories of cute thing your child did. It can also be a convenient place to write down milestones achieved. Parents of one child have enough trouble getting those events written down in the official baby book. Parents of more than one often fail miserably. Case in point: if 10 year old Nick’s baby book is completely accurate, he has only cut 3 teeth! I never got around to writing down the dates he cut the rest (or when he lost them for that matter!)

But back to the boxes….
After that baby shower, I bought simple plastic index card boxes at the local office store. I also bought a few packs of multi-colored 3×5 index cards. To decorate, I bought some brightly colored zoo animal stickers. Ta-da, I was in business.

From then on, I tried to jot down those little things that happened I didn’t want to forget. Many of these things I had forgotten about it until I went through their boxes today.

KT had a knack for messing up the lyrics of songs. Flipping through her memory box, I see several examples of that. One was her ending of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Instead of “you’ll go down in history,” KT sang, “you’ll go down and read a story.” Or her alternate lyrics for Winter Wonderland. You probably know it as “in the meadow we can build a snowman, and pretend that he is Parson Brown.” But KT, having no clue what a parson was, sang, “….and pretend that he is part of the ground.”

Nick had his share of lyric mess ups too. One that was cute was when he was singing the National Anthem. At the time was fascinated by rockets and space. So he sang, “and the rockets blast off…..” Awww.

These boxes also make a great place to file stories of cute things kids have done. KT was big into ice skating when she was a preschooler. During her first ice show (shortly before she turned 4) we watched as her group took the ice in the dim lighting. KT was in a group with two other girls, and suddenly the spot light was on this group of three. One of the others must have said something about not being able to see into the audience. My little KT with the big voice yelled out, “I can’t see my mommy either.” The crowd laughed! And then there was the time when we were driving at night. KT asked, “How can you see? It’s dark!” I replied, “I’ve got my headlights on.” KT incredulously said, “You’ve got lights on your head!?!?!?”

And then there is Nick….Nick, at the tender age of 18 months, was afraid of the crack between the floor and the elevator. When entering or exiting an elevator, he would approach the crack, bear walk on his hands and feet across it, and then get up and walk out. Or how about this… He and Mike were walking along a beach hand in hand. Nick had just turned 4. After strolling along quietly for some time, Nick looked up at Mike and with all seriousness said, “Dad, what’s potato salad?” Too funny. If you’ve potty trained a child, you know sometimes it can be frustrating. At the age of 3, Nick had a unique approach. After sitting on the toilet for awhile, he folded his hands, looked up and said, “Dear God, please help mine poop come out. Amen.” Try not to bust out laughing when your 3 year old does that! After he had a successful poop, he folded his hands again, looked up, and said, “Thank you, God.” Definitely a story I don’t want to forget!

And then there are the cards that chronicle the baby talk. Kids don’t always pronounce things correctly, but eventually they learn. Sometimes I miss those cute things they said. Here’s a few examples from KT’s word lists.
helicopter was heli-topter
Emily Elizabeth (the girl in the Clifford books) was Emily Buh-niz-ness
stethoscope was test-a-scope
lumber yard was yumber yard
undressed was un-naked

Nick hardly talked until he was 3. He communicated more by grunting. When he did talk, these are a few of his mispronunciations.
kiddie cone (at the ice cream shop) was a kitty cat cone
bless you was bah shoe
hot tub was hot cub

And the last category of cards is shown in the picture above. I would give a simple instruction, in this case “draw a man,” and the kids would draw it on an index card. It was interesting to see how much their fine motor skills progressed over time. There are far too few of these cards in their boxes, but I do have a huge plastic bin of their artwork, so I think I’m good.

So if you, like most parents I know, are having trouble keeping up with the recording of special things your kids do or say, consider this approach. The boxes stay handy and ready to accept a quick note. Just make sure you date it and write an age. And if you have more than one kid, it may not be a bad idea to write whose card it is so they don’t get mixed up. I guarantee, you’re kids will love looking through the stories when their older. And it’s always good to have something to threaten to read to their girlfriend or boyfriend!

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On this Memorial Day, I want to thank all of those who have served our country. Special thanks to those who have paid the ultimate price.

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****Please don’t forget about the Pediascribe contest going on right now! Don’t pass up your chance to win!****

*stock photos, not my house.
Yippie! We finally went out and bought a dishwasher to replace the one that hasn’t worked in close to 6 months! Remember the old song by Katrina and the Waves? “Walkin’ on Sunshine?” That’s been my theme song today! The dishwasher will be delivered tomorrow. It will need to be installed at some later date, but I’m giddy just knowing it’s on it’s way.

Like most other things in our lives, there were some problems purchasing it. We went to Sears. I already had done some research online, so I pretty much knew what I was looking for. When we stepped into the appliance department, I saw an associate there who we had dealt with in the past. Let’s just say she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Just our luck, she was the only employee in the department (and probably all of Sears) who wasn’t busy with a customer. So she was the only one available to accost us and ask if we needed help. Shucks. We played the “we’re just browsing” card. It stalled her momentarily, but she was back quickly, eager to earn her commission. As we looked over the dishwasher, we noticed a small, round vent. You can see it in the second picture on the open door. Not having ever had this on any previous dishwasher, we asked “Not the Sharpest Tool” (NtST) about it, and she himmed and hawwed and finally said, “It looks like it might be some sort of vent thingy.” Ya think? This ain’t rocket science, it’s a dishwasher. That you’re trying to sell us. To earn a commission. Maybe you should know a bit about it.

To protect her self esteem by making it look like she knew something, she pointed out the sign by this dishwasher. And then she proceeded to read it to us running her finger under every line of it as she read. Word for word. The entire sign. Wow. Thanks.

We started to act more aloof. Hoping she’d go away. Finally she took a hint and wandered off. Quick, now was our chance to find someone who MIGHT be able to help us. Ah, there, near the refrigerators. So we non-chalantly wander over there. This new associate sees us and approaches us. She says, “Thinking of buying a refrigerator to match your dishwasher?” Ha. Smooth. We indicate we just have one question about the dishwasher and wondered if she could help us.

She says, “That’s not my department, but let me get you someone who can help. Oh, look, someone is available now.” Mortified at being sent back into NtST’s care, we turn, and there is new girl. This associate yells out across the appliance center, “Amanda, can you help these folks with a dishwasher?” NtST snaps her head around and glares. Amanda quickly comes over, informs us of the current rebate promotion, and promptly sells us the dishwasher. In the meantime, NtST is fit to be tied. She is bopping from associate to associate in the appliance department, talking wildly and waving her arms. Our little spy, KT, wandered over to play with the controls on one of the stoves, just to get a better listen. She returned to tell us NtST was, in fact, talking about us and telling the others how she really DID try to help us.

After the transaction was done, delivery was scheduled, and payment was made, we started toward the car. Looking at the receipt and the rebate form they had given us, I realized Amanda must actually have been NtST’s twin, separated at birth. Our rebate form was outdated. We were two days late to qualify. Back to the appliance section. We find out that promotion had indeed ended, so we got a form for the new promotion (which is actually $10 better than the original deal). But then, from a totally unrelated salesman, we found out we qualify for not one, but TWO, rebates. Instead of getting the $50 rebate Amanda had told us about, we’ll receive $110 in rebates.

Another thing we realized only after we were home. NtST’s twin, Amanda, had failed to offer us the extended warranty package. I don’t believe we would have purchased it, but usually they are pushing that sort of thing.

And something I realized after admiring my dishwasher’s specs on the internet last night. Well, it doesn’t have a heated dry cycle. Yup, just air dry. So I’m trying to tell myself it’s a good thing and that I’ll save a ton of money in energy bills.

After all of this, I’m still giddy. I’m still looking forward to having a dishwasher again. So much so that I’m not doing dishes from now until it’s installed! After all, I’ll want to have something dirty to put in it.

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