So... Just so you know, this is going to be a long one

You saw the title right? Okay so you have been warned. This post consisted of all of the things we've been up too this month.



Gotta Have Those Shoes

I saw these shoes on pinterest a few weeks ago, and immediately wanted them

Since they are nike (clearly), I started my search on Nike's website, and found nothing. :( I tried a few other websites that I know to have shoes, but I come up dry. Does the shoe even exist?

About a week later during a skype call to my sister-in-law Jessica, I explain all of my shoe woes. Jessica is a shopping guru, so she volunteers to help me in my search. She finds them on Buckle's website, the only problem is, they don't have my size. Jessica then suggest that I look and see if there is a Buckle near me, the actual store may have my size.

Turns out there is one really close to me in the little mall 10 miles away. I start to get really excited at this point, and can't wait to go shopping the next day.

We get to the mall and once I walk into the store, I know there is no way the shores are here. The store was mostly clothing and a few pairs of shoes here and there, so I just pull up a picture of the shoes on my phone and show it to the sales associate. He tells me that he can look at other stores inventory and get the correct size and shoes sent to this store. Yay! Once again I get really excited until... "Did you say you were a size 7.5?" ... So it turns out they don't have any in that size, or in an 8 (yes I asked). I guess that means all of the stores don't have my size? None of them?

At this point I ready to admit defeat, pick up Jeremy's PS4 (that's the reason he's out), and go home, but Jeremy insist that we check a few more stores. To make a long story short after checking five stores and finding nothing, we pick up the PS4 and go home.

On our way home Jeremy looks over at me and says "When we get home I am going to find those shoes for you."

"But you just got your new system, and I don't think these shoes exist anymore."

"Oh I'll find them, don't you worry."

At this point I felt like crying. It was a very loving thing to do, to put my wants before his. :)

So Jeremy searches and like Jess and I, he doesn't get far, until he starts a chat session with a nike sales rep (yeah I didn't know you could do that either). It turns out the shoes were discontinued some months ago, which is why they are so hard to find. This is when my husband decides that the only place they would be in on ebay... "Hey honey I found a pair in your size, but it's yellow is that okay?" Yeah he really didn't need to ask (yellow is my favorite color).

The kid needs glasses

About a month ago at co-op, all of the kids had a basic eye exam. All of my sons passed except Zachary. So I schedule him an appointment and the only time they had available before December was last Wednesday. Zachary it turns out is nearsighted and only need glasses for distance. I let him pick out a pair at Wal-mart. This of course makes Olivia jealous. They had Hello Kitty glasses there, and she wanted a pair. Of course Hello Kitty really isn't Zachary's style, so he picked out these...

I think they look great :)




Hey I Need Those Nilla Cookies

So last monday (a week from today) I made a list of what I was going to make on thanksgiving day. I was going to go to the commissary the next day, and pick everything up. That night I remember having a dream that I went shopping and had a great time, but when I got home the boys ate all of the nilla cookies (which I need for a pie), and so I have to go out and get more. Yes all of this in a dream.

The next day while we are all out shopping (the kids and I), I tell them about the dream, and we all have a good laugh, but when we get home, guess who I find getting into the cookies. Yes right when we walk through the door. Yes I should have pick up two boxes.




Olivia Discovers Where I Hide My Nail Polish, and Catching Fire

So yesterday Jeremy and I spent the first part of the morning cleaning the house. We were going on a date that night, and having a sitter watch the kids (first time this year). I was doing the dishes, and the house was quiet... to quiet. So I tell Jeremy to track down Olivia, and make sure she isn't getting into trouble. After about 30 sec Jeremy tells me that he going to let me get this one. I get with-in 10 feet of the door to my room, and I know immediately what she's gotten into. Yup the nail polish. The first thing she says to me is "I'm coloring mommy, get out." Really, it's my room. Jeremy took this picture...

It was all over her though. She decided that painting her nails wasn't enough. Her legs, feet, and hands were a big nail polish mess.

This added to the list of things to clean before the sitter gets here. Luckily we got the house and Olivia looking perfect and we were able to have a really good time at the movies.

We saw Catching Fire, and it was awesome. At no point in the movie was I disappointed, so yes I will be buying the blu-ray. The Huger Games is one of my favorite book series, and I enjoy reading them over and over again.




The Van Is At The Doctors

Alright, so lastly. Our van needed some work. The heat hasn't worked any this season, it's been awful having to drive it (also driving 2 hours to go hiking in a van with no heat is a bad idea... just so you know) and the check engine light came on the other day. Yikes! So today I take it into the dealership and the guy mentions that their are also some recalls on it, and that if we want to get that taken care of as well it may take a few days, but we would get a rental car for free. Well okay that doesn't sound to bad, but before we could set this up they had to find out what was wrong with the car, to see if they could fit everything in, and if they had the right parts. So we wait 3 hours (I'm not joking). The dealer ship did have this...

But this only kept us entertained for an hour. They said that the check engine was easy to figure out, but the heat took forever. Turns out the coolant cap was missing, and I was out of coolant (yeah I have not idea how that happened, and nether do they). So they get me a rental, and set the rest of the repairs up, and then we went home. Yes we were so grateful just to go home. The rental car is a Chrysler mini van. The siding doors open and close at the push of a button... yeah ... wow... I've never had a fancy car. Jeremy is trying to convince me to get a new van (or maybe a new used van), he found an E series at a dealership two hours from here (and included a ferry ride). It looked like a nice car... 2008 only 50,000 miles, but the dealer was not willing to wheel and deal over the phone, and I told him there was no way I was going over there just to have a salesman talk me into a deal I don't want to make.


So that's all for now. I'll write again soon :)

What are your days like?

Hi everyone, I'm doing something a little different today, so bear with me. This is going to be a log of a somewhat hectic but typical day for me. I'm sure most of you moms can relate. Weather you have one child or more... does this sound like you?

At 6:30 am I am woken up 30 minutes before my alarm goes off, to a crying like girl who can't find her bracelet. Most mornings I wonder why I even bother to set the alarm. My sons are up and fixing breakfast in the kitchen. Even though they know they can sleep in until 7am, they never do. They are all grumpy and irritating each other, as I walk in and grab a bowl for Olivia, who is at the television asking to watch Wreck-it-Ralph, and she would also like juice and milk please. By the time I find the movie, fix her breakfast, and get her dressed, the boys are ready to start school. I myself am hungry, but I'll eat later when things slow down.

I set down with Nathaniel and we go over his spelling words this week, while my older two work on their math. Ten minutes into this, I am interrupted by my three year old, who apparently needs help going to the bathroom. After following her upstairs however, I find that she doesn't need or even want my help at all, she just wants me to be there. This is when I notice my throat is dry and I have only enough time to grab a glass of water, before I am called back downstairs by Zachary, who needs help with a problem in math.

After helping Zachary with math, getting Nathaniel start on math, and taking the dog out (yeah almost forgot to do that), I go back upstairs (I should mention that our schoolroom is in the basement) to the kitchen. I'm about to get a bowl of cereal, when my three year old tells me that she would now like to watch Cinderella. So I put that on for her, but by that time Nathaniel needs me. So I decide to grab a glass of milk instead of fixing a bowl of cereal. I get Nathaniel back on track, and start the laundry. This is when Olivia comes to tell me that Zazzles (our new kitten) is in the Christmas tree again, and won't come out. All of this and it is only 9:30am. I pry Zazzles out of the tree, finally grab some breakfast, and sit down to grade some papers. Of course ten minutes into that, and the three year old has to use the bathroom again. She is refusing to go with out me there.

I hear the washer ding, and rush back downstairs to switch the load over to the dryer, and start a new one. This is when I notice that the cats are out of food. I look all over the laundry room, only to remember that the bag of food is upstairs in the kitchen (of course it is, because putting it up there made perfect sense at the time). While upstairs I notice Olivia has a different dress on, and ask her about it. Apparently her last dress wasn't as magical as this one. Okay whatever at least she has closes on.

After feeding the cats, I go back to my disk, to finish an e-mail to our homeschool supervisor about our progress last month. The dryer dings along with the washer, and it's back to the laundry. I hear my phone ding, reminding me to put on my eczema cream. It goes off everyday at 12pm, and the boys know that, so I hear them cheer and rush upstairs to get some lunch. After about a minute I yell up to them reminding them to help Olivia if she is hungry. This is when Darien tells me, that she has the box of Captain Crunch and has been snacking on that, so she may not be hungry. Yeah I know, that's not a meal. The boys are nice enough to fix her a sandwich and peel her half an orange anyways, and she eats half of both (yeah typical three year old).

At this time I have the laundry folded and sorted into piles. I call my sons downstairs to put away their share. By this time in the day, Darien and Nathaniel are already finished with their school, but Zachary has a few pages left. I walk upstairs in hopes of grabbing a book and having 30 minutes to myself when Olivia tells me she is hungry. "Well where is your lunch? Eat the rest of that." But she tells me she can't because the dog ate it. After getting her a snack, I notice the dishes need to be done, so I unload, and reload the dishwasher.

I finally sit down and I am so excited to start reading. YAY ME TIME! After fifteen minutes of reading bliss, Darien pops his head into my room to tell me that the dishwasher is leaking (yes ours is temperamental if it gets a little dirty it will clog and leak). I stop the dishwasher, mop up the puddle, and clean the whole thing out. Yes during all of this I am interrupted by Olivia needing another supervised bathroom break. After all of that Zachary tells me the dyer is finished, and he is also finished with his school work. Awesome! So it's back to folding and sorting.

Nathaniel finds me after I am finished with the laundry, and asks me if I would read his Nemo book with him, so he could play video games (we have a rule where you have to read for a set amount of time, before being allowed to play video games). We read together and I am very pleased with his progress. This is also when Darien tells me that he has also read, so he and Nathaniel start to play minecraft together. By this time I remember that I haven't had lunch, and it's almost 3pm... already...

I fix myself a sandwich and settle back down in my room, and begin to read again. I get a hour, a whole hour of reading bliss (it was wonderful), then it's time to start on dinner.

Yes I'm going to stop there, because I'm sure you can imagine what the rest of the night was like, with the fixing of dinner, Jeremy coming home, more dishes to do, and baths to be given (well just to Olivia, I'm so glad the boys a very self sufficient). I sure a lot of you moms can relate weather you work, or stay at home, weather you send them to school, or teach them at home, weather you have one child or ten, yeah you know the feeling. ;)