While the rest of the world has sung IKEA's praises I have remained aloof. I'm not shopper by nature, both by personality but also due to that thing called; living paycheck to paycheck and never having had money so it may be no surprise that I buy things when I have to and not before. Even cheapo IKEA furniture is out of our monetary reach.

I also have never lived close to an IKEA as by the time they were hitting the USA I was already moved away from some of the major cities they came into. As I've moved around the country we seem to have relocated to smaller and smaller towns until we found ourselves in a 4700 population town (that has grown to about 6200 since we moved here 3 1/2 years ago... but still small with no retail). So over the past 10 (?) years I've perused the IKEA porn that is their yearly catalog and I've browsed online only to discover the things I really wanted weren't available 'online' and must be bought at 'your local store' (as if I had one) so in the end... I've never purchased anything from IKEA. Oh, I've visited their store a couple times. The first time was on a Sunday at 11:00 am in Minneapolis about a year after they opened their first store there. It was... insane? Crazy? Packed with bodies as if we were all cattle being herded through stalls. The throng of people moved as a mass of one, following those damn arrows on the floor through the maze until one by one we were spit out at the end - in a daze and gasping for air.

We decided at that point we never needed to return.

But we did. Of course we did.

And yet... we've never bought anything. I hate the layout of the store, hate the unorganized way of displaying their goods. I hate that I can't buy things in the store and I have to go into the warehouse area to get it as if I'm shopping Home Depot. I hate the long lines. I hate the smug employees. I really just hate that store. LOL.

So in the end? I'm an IKEA virgin. The last remaining IKEA virgin.

I tried to change that this morning.

For about a year I've known the exact bed I wanted to buy for Kat. I also needed a couple storage baskets. This morning was the day. THE day. The day I would not be an IKEA virgin anymore. I decided to go online, see if everything I needed was available and then, damn the money, I would order it and get Kats room 'done' once and for all.

I was frugal and kept it to ONLY the things I needed. Grand total: $268. Cool! Awesome.

I filled the cart. I clicked to check out.

I filled out my personal information.

I got the "REVIEW YOUR ORDER" page only to see my grand total was now almost... $600.

Six. Hundred. Dollars.

There must be some mistake!?

My total was only $268.



Shipping and handling on a $268 order?

$307!

WTF?

No freakin' way. Over three hundred dollars shipping on a two hundred dollar order.

Click the little red x and wave goodbye.

I paid $20 shipping at Christmas for a fricken 500 lbs. POOL TABLE ordered from Costco which was far heavier than a cheapo Ikea bed frame! LOL.

So for now, I'm still a virgin.

Ikea can keep their $307 shipping and handling on a $150 bed and $80 storage box.

Labels: shopping, What More Can Go Wrong

I woke with a start at 3:00 this morning for no reason whatsoever that I know of but with a since of dread (?) in the pit of my stomach. I told myself it was nothing... to go back to sleep but tossing and turning I was too hot and too thirsty and sleep just wasn't going to happen.

I had to peel back layer after layer like an onion to figure out what was bothering me and in the end I think it's because Coffeehusband and I went out to eat for dinner and we really should not have spent the money to do so - and it really wasn't that good so in the end it was a complete waste of money and in hindsight left too big a tip for the service we received as well so basically it was throwing a couple $20 bills into the wind and watching them blow away. We didn't really enjoy each others company either and it seemed a complete waste of time and money. Thus; me waking with regret at 3:00 am.

But on the flip side, we went out to eat after we stopped by the hospital to see my friends new baby! Yes, my very pregnant friend finally had her fourth child; first boy after 3 little girls. He's a cutie too!


It ends up she was in the same hospital as fellow blogger, Jody from Iowa Geek was - so this time around we knew where we were going a little bit better than we did the first time! When we visited Jody we got lost (oh so lost) in that stupid hospital but this time we managed to find available parking in the first lot we chose and got right inside.

Baby Boy has no name yet - much to the chagrin of one of my readers (S...) who excitedly emailed me last night to ask. Poor little guy! My friend said all day she had a hard time talking to him because she wanted to call him 'something' but instead found herself saying things like 'baby' 'sweetie' and 'honey' in place of _____. Originally they were looking for a Scottish name that started with an E but never found any that they liked or that seemed right that weren't already used by extended family or she had had as students and ruined the name for her.

I suggested switching to an A name... and gave her one idea. I'm waiting to see what she and her husband decided.

While I was completely in love with my best friends little baby and he had the most adorable little face and feeties and his cry was so cute (!) I have to say that baby fever didn't hit like I thought it might. I've actually been getting over that these past few months and have accepted that we won't be having more little ones... it's rather nice actually. It's the first time in 25 years I've not had that overwhelming feeling that we females get that makes your stomach flip flop, a lump form in your throat and your heart ache with an inner pain with the longing for an infant. I've wanted a baby since I was about 12 years old... LOL. I figure it was Gods way of letting me know I was made to be a Mommy. Now? The urge rarely hits. Whew!

Labels: Baby Fever, Friends, I should be sleeping, rambling

Brain Fart: Pulling weeds in the garden and realizing I planted baby lettuce there. Those weren't weeds.

Proud: Coffeekid calling from school to let me know his teacher says he passed English class. When asked; Are you sure? Teacher assured him he did.

Strange: The family that Kat is babysitting for this summer called to let her know the husband was laid off. Still need her to babysit but he'll be home during the day working on the basement and such. Waste of money when the kids are old enough Dad could watch them and work at the same time.

Lazy: The fact that all I've done all day is weed the garden and 2 loads of laundry. Little else.

Blessings: My Best Friend (the Liberal Catholic) had her baby last night!!!! A baby boy. 9 lbs. 5 oz. (from a woman who is a size 6 with skinny chicken legs!) Ouch.

Glad it's Not Me: Coffeekid is heading to the local minor league baseball game tonight. Glad he's glad.

Speedy Gonzales: Bianca got 1st place in the 50 yard dash, 2nd in the 100 yard dash and 6th in the long jump today at 6th Grade Track and Field.

In the Spotlight: Kat is down town in 'the city' doing a full costume dress rehearsal at a major auditorium for the big recital this weekend.

Labels: Bianca, coffeekid, Friends, Kat, rambling

I don't remember a time that I ever 'wasn't' a camera person.

I've never been one to be in the picture... as a matter of fact you'll be hard pressed to find a photograph of me at any family gathering until I suddenly appeared around the age of 8 or 9 because before that I was hiding behind a door in a back, dark family room, too shy to come out and open Christmas gifts with the cousins and Aunts and Uncles. I liked to disappear from crowds and try to blend in with the doorways and back of closets. (I still tend to try to disappear in crowds and blend in to dark corners... hmmm.)

But I've always loved taking pictures. I have never been interested in taking photography classes nor do I want to shoot earth shattering, beautiful or artistic photos. I actually have just always like documenting 'real life'. Real, every day life. I loved to snap pictures of friends, family, groups, strangers, a car, a house... a cat on the side of the road. Considering my mother never liked taking pictures they are lucky they had me or there might not be any pictures of my third (baby) brother. By the time he was born I was 9 years old. I spent the next Spring after he was born going door to door selling personalized cards and wrapping paper until I had enough to buy a little plastic camera that used 110 film. I was so proud of that camera. I had it with me all the time, even though I couldn't actually take very many pictures with it because my parents wouldn't buy me any film and at the age of 10, I not only didn't have any money, but couldn't exactly travel across town on my own to get to a store anyway. I was at their mercy when it came to film and developing.

All this rambling coffee talk is leading up to the fact that I do, indeed, keep my digital camera with me at all times. As a matter of fact, I don't carry a purse (I'm not a purse kind of girl) so I have a back pack. And I chose that backpack based on the fact it had 2 small pockets on each side that worked perfectly to hold a cellphone in one and the camera in the other. Both accessible in mere seconds.

Which is how I was able to grab it out of my purse earlier this week when I... wait. Let me go back just two steps.

Earlier this week I had to take my daughter and her friend to track practice which was held at a school about 10 miles away in an itty bitty, teeny weeny little town. I was driving to pick her up took a little side street when I saw something big and white catch my eye.

"What is that?"

I grabbed the camera and shot a picture as I drove by.




Drove past. Turned around and drove back to get a better shot.

Ok. Weird. LOL.

It's not every day you'll see a big (huge!) old stuffed dog in the back of a pickup truck.



Funny that my quirky picture taking is rubbing off on my husband. Oh, I think he held out as long as he could but he's coming over to the dark side.

On Monday we ran an errand that included going to a hardware store. As we were getting into the truck to leave my husband said, "There's a blog picture!"

"Where?"

"Did you see the redneck who parked next to us?"

"No...."

So I walked around the truck to his side and glanced at the car parked next to him.

Bah ha ha ha.

The entire car was filled to the top of the seats with trash, empty soda bottles and more but that wasn't the funny part.

Can you see the row of Camels lined up across this guys dashboard?

And peek down farther at the absolutely overflowing ashtray!



You just never know what you'll see when you are out running errands.

And for that? It's always good to have a camera.

Labels: rambling

This week I've been coming down hard on Coffeekid to get every bit of his missing work in, get his final grades up and do a good job on his 'final projects'. He's worked hard, including being un-officially grounded from friends all week as he had to come home immediately from school and either study or do homework or read his book for a book report.

Last night I insisted nothing else comes before the final book report. He struggles (!!!) in school so when I told him that putting time into a really good outline would all but write the report for him he asked me how to write a good outline.

I went online to a high school home school site and printed off a book outline form. It takes you step by step to answer questions and then when you are done shows you how to use the answers you filled in to write your report;



Example:

2. What did this character look like? _____
(example: large head, thick body, heavy brown and black fur)

3. What kind of personality did the character have? _____
(example: fierce, fearless)

4. Give an example of one of his or her good traits.
_____
(example: loyalty to his master)

5. Give an example of one of his or her faults. _____
(example: reckless, easily distracted)



Coffeekid took it upstairs and filled it out. He then used my husbands computer to type out the report all by himself with no help from me - and as a matter of fact I never even read the report. I skimmed the first couple sentences, was impressed at how well the outline helped him - said "Great Job" and left it at that.

Well, Coffeekid came home today and said he handed it in and the teacher called him to stay after class. He asked my son if he really did this work?

Yes.

Was it a book he read before back in Junior High?

No.

Are you Sure?

Yes. The librarian suggested this book last year when she came into the classes to try to get them interested in reading and suggested book titles.

The teacher asked AGAIN if he was sure he didn't already review this book last year?

No. He said he just read the book now, it's a thick novel and there is no way he'd read something that big in junior high.

Then the teacher asked if it was his work.

Yes.

Did your Mom help you?

Nope. She just went on the internet and ran off a paper to show me how to write an outline.

So she wrote the outline?

No. She ran off the paper and gave it to me.

Did you use a website to get this report off?

No! My Mom gave me the outline form and I sat and answered the questions and then I wrote the report.

Well... I'll check with her (last years teacher) on that.

Labels: coffeekid

Stars and moon are out of alignment for me. The earth is off it's axis. Clouds are hanging overhead. It's just 'one of those days'.

Had I known it would be this craptastic time after time after time today I would have started to document it earlier.

You missed me getting splattered with latex paint all over the left half of my face, my eye and globs stuck in my hair.

You missed me dropping twelve million things today.

You missed over drying the laundry.

You missed me 'missing' about 5 different paid/sponsored posts today and not making money.

You missed me trying and trying and trying to submit a sponsored post but the site has a problem with their coding and it won't take it. I about pulled my hair out and cried over that one.

I decided to give up on computer and make peanut butter fudge.

Mmmm... creamy!

Now it must slow boil for 3 minutes. Just enough time for me to try to submit that darn post again...












Crap. Crap. Crap.

Smoke billowed. The smell of burnt sugar filled my house and I wasted a pound of sugar and a can of evaporated milk. Do you realize how expensive of a screw up this is?










I've tried three different things to get this burnt crap off my pan. I think I just ruined my pan for good. I did this once before and we never found anything that worked to get it off. We had to throw it away. Grrr to me.

Went on to make some homemade Wild Rice and Ham Soup for dinner so I opened the windows and the patio door. A light summer/Spring rain started. I was in the back of the house in the kitchen, dining room and family room. It was a gentle rain, coming straight down and I could even keep the windows open! It wasn't coming in on the wood floors.

Wrong.

It was a VERY DIFFERENT KIND OF STORM IN THE FRONT OF THE HOUSE!










CRASH!

The wind was whipping and knocked down the wedding picture of my Great Grandparents, sopped the picture of my Grandparents with rain, covered the console table and window ledge with rain, knocked over a vase of dried flowers and worst of all? That entire corner's carpet is sopping wet.


Closed the window and picked up the mess. Thought I'd have a soda.

Got a glass of ice but forgot and immediately flipped the switch to fill with water.

Shoot! Oh well, I'll drink the swallow of water really quick so I can fill it with my diet soda.

OUCH!

DANG IT!!!!!!!!

Stupid ice cube stuck to my freakin' lip. I had to run warm water over it to get it to let go.











Believe it or not there have been about 5 other screw ups today that I didn't even mention... and it's only 3:30~!!!

Labels: What More Can Go Wrong

This morning's news had the 'big' announcement that Ashlee Simpson was pregnant. Hmmm. We were just coffee talking about her wedding last week (remember?) and my husband brought home last weeks People magazine for me to read a few days ago.

Well, it only took one GLANCE at the photo spread in the magazine to have a major "Yep, that's a baby bump" moment.

I mean really... her sister has her freaking hand ON her stomach! And that is one giant bump.



Who with half a brain in their head wouldn't know she was preggo from this photo??? (But of course they were still denying at that point.)

Rolling my eyes.

Labels: News

Will be drawn at approximately 7:00 am on the BudgetBarbie.Com blog!

***** This is the end of the story... You can find the beginning of the story Here. *****
*Updated to remove one recent photo as usual for personal photos

It was the summer before our Senior year in High School started. We had been dating about two years when talk of 'college' and what we wanted to do with our lives was coming up often in conversations.

The basic plan was that I would be applying at the University about 2 hours away from us and going to school to be a Kindergarten teacher.

Coffeehusband had received offers to play football at a couple small colleges in our state but his best friend wanted him to go to a tech school with him and room together instead. Being easily swayed and not a very strong personality he gave up the football scholarships and said, "Uh.... ok" and he and his friend started to stockpile things like toilet paper in anticipation of rooming together at college. (I'm not making that part up... his best friend is weird like that. LOL.) Our schools were less than an hour from each other.

So... there ya go. I would be a Kindergarten teacher and Coffeehusband was going to pursue Commercial Art and room with his best friend.

Except...

As we talked about college plans I noticed my 'Boyfriend' Coffeehusband was not real excited about any of it.

I asked him, "Is that what you really want to do?"

"No."

"What do you want to do?"

"Well, I'd really like to go to this music school called M.I.T. for guitar....."

"Why don't you apply?"

"I don't know...."

"Come on! If this is what you want to do then do it! You should at least try..... I'll help you!"

Labels: Baby Fever, Coffeehusband, Kat, kids, Useless information

Coffeehusband: "I can't believe it took this long but I was finally asked something today I've never been asked before."

I couldn't imagine what it might be but I was soon enlightened.


Apparently he was talking to a co-worker who was exasperated that he has a daughter that just turned 17. My husband nodded knowingly and the co-worker said, "You have a daughter about that age right?"

"Yep. She's 17."

"You got married young though didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"So... was it a shotgun wedding?"

Labels: Baby Fever, Coffeehusband, Kat, kids, rambling

Remember all the times I've referenced Anne Taintor products like this one?


Well....



Look what I found on the net!

(You all know) I love the humor of Anne Taintor. Napkins, notecards, magnets and more, I've blogged about her for 2 or 3 years now and have even bought a certain blogger (my 'Dear Uncle Bert') some of the products as a gift.

Just now while surfing the Current Stationary website I saw these; Anne Taintor Checks.

Love them.

That's all.

Carry on.

Labels: shopping, Useless information, websites

*photos of me looking at the camera removed after 1 day as usual for personal photos. I left the 'frog' face and sneezing photo though as you can't see my eyes. LOL.


It's a good thing I can laugh at myself.

This morning, since I was up bright and early at the crack of dawn before the sun even thought about rising, I decided upload the pictures I took of the kids and my husband and The Boyfriends parents as we hung out and played horse shoes.

I started to laugh when I saw that my daughter had at one point, grabbed the camera and captured me attempting to blow bubbles with a dollar store variety (read; cheap and useless) bottle of bubbles from a multi-pack that I bought and got like, 8 for a buck.

To start with, the stick was so skinny and short that I couldn't get it out of the bottle!

Then I realized it had the smallest opening I've ever seen in a bottle of bubbles in all my 38 years.

Once I got the stick out and dipped it into the solution, it still didn't work well.

The opening in the stick was approximatly 1 centimeter in diameter. The solution was weak.

Bubbles were few.

I finally started to get some good Lawrence Welk bubble action going when.... I had to sneeze.

She caught that on camera too.

She was sneaky. She was holding the camera at her chest nonchalantly, and when I looked up to talk to her and voice my frustrations at the cheapo bubbles I bought I had no idea she was snapping photos.



This morning as I uploaded them I laughed. At myself. And now you can too.

Labels: Friends, kids, rambling, Useless information

I woke at 3:30 am in a panic wondering how we were going to pay for Kats college bills when she graduates high school next year. My mind swirled with thoughts of college in general - not knowing how to maneuver through these new waters. My husband and I didn't attend traditional colleges. I have no idea where the process even starts. Is there a "sending your child to college" book for dummies? I mean... real dummies? Because I haven't a clue how to start the process. I've never even 'visited' a college except to attend United Nations Delegations back in high school and they were held in an auditorium on a local college campus. That's it. That's pretty much the extent of what I know. Don't know how to pick a college, don't know if you are supposed to apply first and then try to find financing, or how to find financing, or anything about it. Nada. Nothing. That's what we know.

And for that... I lost sleep.

From 3:30 - 4:00 I fretted. Everything is scary when it's the unknown.

From 4:00 - 5:00 I read my book. At 5:00 it was the magic number of decision making. Five o'clock. You can either turn the light out and try to sleep or admit defeat and get up and make coffee. I opted to turn the light out and close my eyes.

I relived a lifetime of thoughts in my brain. My thoughts were scattered from one topic to another and million inbetween. I did so much thinking, tossing and turning that I was sure the alarm would be going off to wake the children for school.

I opened my eyes. A glance at the clock saw the numbers turn from 5:10 over to 5:11.

11 minutes had passed.

Yes, I admitted to myself that I would indeed, be getting up.

So here I am... coffee just finished brewing. The sun is rising and the birds are singing.

Let me get some caffeine in me and we'll see where the coffee takes me.



Remember everyone; It's Tuesday... not Monday. (I'm going to be 'off' all day thanks to the holiday).

Labels: I should be sleeping, rambling

How funny that we should wake this morning with no plans whatsoever in place. After a leisurely morning find ourselves deciding at 12:00 noon that we should hold 'something' here tonight.

So The Boyfriends parents have been invited over as well as an open invitation to the kids to have one or a few of their friends to join us. And although my due any second now pregnant friend was invited she suggested that by this evening her huge lumbering body will be able to do little more than sit at their kitchen table and finish writing report cards which are due for her little classroom children.

And me? Laughing at myself.

The house is a mess, the backyard patio is empty and forlorn. But suddenly I've got burgers and jalapeno brats to thaw, cupcakes are baked, but must be frosted, salads to make, drink mixers to buy and I'm rolling my eyes at myself that I never 'got around to' staining or painting the patio furniture yet this year so it's looking AWFUL. Gray, weathered and bits of espresso colored stain from last year peeling off. I'm going to be running to the hardware store in a bit to buy... cushions. LOL.

Why didn't I think of this... oh... yesterday perhaps?

I just showed my son and my husband a watch I stumbled upon on a website. It was a nice looking watch, but nothing that was glitzy or could jokingly be called 'bling'. As it was, it was a simple, nice looking watch that a businessman could wear. It wasn't full of diamonds, it wasn't even gold. What caught my eye was the price. I guess I can't wrap my brain around the fact that I would have to sell my home and car to pay for it.

Oh, I'd be homeless and living in a box under the freeway, but I'd have a nice Roger Dubuis watch on my wrist to show for it. That led my brain to instantly think; Angelina Jolie could buy this for Brad without batting an eyelash. They just dropped 60 million bucks on a 1,000 acre estate in the South of France. Dangit. I want to be that rich. How did a small town boy with pretty blue eyes get so lucky to have the lifestyle he does? Sigh.

Too funny: My 15 year old saw there was a free "Turbo Racer" in the box of Cheerios. Was uber excited.

Has played with it for over 15 minutes now. Getting a laugh at making the cat chase it.

I don't think he's played with a little car in about 10 years.

I love it.

Labels: coffeekid

I hear the garage opening.

I think it's my 17 year old but it *could* be my husband if he got off early.

I hear the door open.

I hear a shoe being 'kicked' out of the way.

I smile and call out; "I knew it was you when I heard you kick something!"

It was the 17 year old of course.

Without so much as a smile or hello she tosses her bag on the counter and walks to the refrigerator.

I am still smiling and in a teasing, sing-song voice I said, "You can't be grumpy!"

And... all hell breaks loose.

The B.I.T.C.H. has entered my daughters body again.

Oh no you don't.

Up in 2 seconds and in her face with my finger pointing and punching towards her chest I let her know in no uncertain terms that I was TEASING her with a FUCKING SMILE ON MY FACE and she was to get OUT of this house and come back in and this time to LEAVE THE ATTITUDE at the door.

Damn.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

Why do they have to be so fucking hormonal and full of angst at 17??????????

And: How come this child brings out the worst language in me?

Reading the news and sipping coffee....

• Couples having multiple marriages or sexual partners and not staying in monogamy.
• Men jumping from one relationship to another always looking for younger, more pretty (?) wife.
• Women having multiple children with different 'Baby Daddies'.
• Young, uneducated girls getting pregnant when they should be focused on school and learning.

The thing is... you can't tell if I'm talking about the normal, run-of-the-mill media news in our everyday morning paper, morning newscast or your neighbor next door.... or if I'm talking about the raid on the LDS ranch, can you?



Actually, the only differences are that one group is self sufficient and not doing it with money from my pocket to raise their 7 children with free health care, dental care, school fee's, free lunches, free food stamps and WIC and government subsidized housing.

And one group has had their children stolen from them and are being judged and the other is accepted as commonplace in todays society.

But they are awfully similar aren't they?

Labels: News

Sunday Morning. A day I would have loved to have slept in as I was up quite late last night thanks in part to the late night pot of coffee I made and then the ice cream drumstick I ate which gave me a sugar rush. I was also half heartedly waiting up for Kat to get home from babysitting and my husband from work. But anyway; the point is I was up late and would have liked to have slept in.

But at 7:00 am I was woke up for the fourth or fifth time during the wee morning by my husbands snoring. UGH! It's amazing how many ways you can come up with to murder someone at 4:am when they are snoring. Truly. Amazing.

I also remembered my son would be coming home bright and early from his friends home as his friend must be to work by 8:00 on Sunday mornings. I am usually up to unlock the front door for him and knew my husband would have locked it up tight last night. Another UGH as I got up, went downstairs to unlock the front door and then back to bed to continue to read the book I started last night.

In the end I was up early, dressed complete and sipping coffee and peering at my sprouting garden in the backyard by 8:am.

Yawn.

More coffee needed... will return. Are you up yet??????

Labels: I should be sleeping, rambling

Warning; I've had coffee tonight. I cannot be held responsible for the rambling post that will, most likely, commence.


Tonight I had an urge to watch Xanadu. We don't however, own it. And I have no money to rent it (I doubt my movie rental store would even have it... and now that I think about it the clerk behind the counter is so young they've probably never heard of it and would say 'what?' 'Zana-what?'). All three of my kidlets are gone; Video games, babysitting and a bonfire. The husband is working. Me? Well, I'm home obviously. And before my urge to see Xanadu I had a wicked, wicked craving for a mango smoothie. I had purchased a case of mangoes this week from Costco but only one was even half way close to being ripe. I couldn't be put off though. I had to have mango. Had. To. So I cut it up, added 1/2 cup water and blended it and then poured into a container and told myself to wait for it to freeze.

Couldn't do it. I was like a vampire that needed blood. I felt the pull of the mango calling me from the freezer and had to stop, open it and drink. Telling myself to stop at one drink, I replaced it only to be pulled back about 5 more times within the hour. At this point my insatiable urge for mangoes is actually sated, but I laugh at myself because there is about 1 cm of mango left in the container at this point. What am I freezing that last 1 cm for? LOL.

Tonight I amused myself for a bit while watching the toddler (perhaps 15 months old?) that lives behind us. I have this little game called; "Guess whether it's a boy or a girl" that I've played for the last year.

No, I don't know my neighbors well (obviously).
No, I don't know if it's a boy or a girl.
No, you can't really tell.
Yes I could find out by talking to them.
No, I don't want to.

This is much more fun.

Last year I remember blogging about the fact that I suddenly saw the Dad out on the deck with a 5 month old baby in his arms and had a "Oh man! Did they have another baby?" moment. (Because remember 2 other neighbors suddenly had "IT'S A GIRL" signs outside and dude, I had NO IDEA any of them were pregnant. One of which I had seen speed walking 2 weeks before, pushing her son in a jogger stroller and dude, she did not look pregnant.

Ok... where was I?

So about a year ago when the warm weather hit the upper Midwest and all the little people started to come out of their toasty warm homes I noticed my neighbor had a baby in his arms. This baby had on a pink onesie. I said, "Awww, they had another little girl!" Because they had a 1 1/2 year old girl already that admittedly, looks more like a boy but has been dressed in pink and flowers and little skirts and her name is "N_____" so I know she is a girl.

New baby was in pink, white or red pretty much every time I saw it in Dads arms. (This is the family that Mom never seems to have anything to do with the kids... remember them?) So; pinks, reds and whites. Cool. Another little girl.

Winter came. Didn't see them.

Spring came. Two weeks ago the warm weather found us and the child is walking now. Child was wearing a blue t-shirt and gray shorts with blue stripe down the side that looks precariously like a little boys outfit. Croc shoes can either way.

I've seen them about 3 times in the past two weeks. First in blue. Second in red. Third in blue/gray.

So I'm perplexed.

Boy? Girl?

I'll keep watching. And listening. Maybe one of these days when I happen to be outside I'll hear them call out his/her name.

It's kind of a fun game I'm playing with myself.


Now... I'm going to take a break as one child is on her way home to grab some stuff and then go back to a friends for a sleepover.

I'm wondering if anyone else is out there in blogger world? Did everyone have something to do this weekend? Some place to go? :)

Labels: rambling

My brother has been active in the military since he was 17 years old. Honestly, his heart has been there since he was about 6. From the age of 9 on up you would find him in camouflage every moment he wasn't in school clothes or church clothes. Christmas, Birthdays and any other gift-giving appropriate holiday would find him asking for more 'army men' in which he would built huge war scenes complete with burning buildings and vehicles (thanks to shoe boxes, firecrackers and such...) and we have numerous video and photographs he took during those years when he was too young to be in the real Army.

Soon enough he was of age to join the Army National Guard and he's never looked back. He's now 28 years old. After serving in Egypt he went on to be the longest serving unit in Iraq, just shy of a two year deployment (they don't do those anymore). Thankfully, he came home on his feet and not in a box although there were dozens of close calls where he was bombed and shot at and he did lose 2 soldiers from his unit. 'Lose' - that sounds like such a pansie-arsed word. They weren't lost. They didn't lose them. They were killed.

So this morning when I read about Project Compassion I decided to blog about it help spread the word of this awesome woman, Kaziah Hancock, who was a simple artist and goat rancher living in Utah. She was moved to create a portrait of a Utah soldier who had been killed. She asked permission from the family and they loved it. She went on to create 23 more portraits (for free) before she resolved to do so for as long as her time and financial resources would allow and ended up incorporating Project Compassion Soldier Fund, Inc. in 2004.

Now she and a group of volunteer artists will create a painting portrait for the next of kin of American military casualties who have died in service since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Their sole mission is 'healing' of their loved ones through these gifts of art.

Labels: News

Guten Morgan from the Coffeehaus!

Ha, you would think I'm German or something! Ok... I am. I'm heavy German mixed with a little Luxembourg (although there has always been a family squabble between some that exclaim, "just say 'We're Dutch!' the others reply, "We're not Dutch, we're Luxembourg!" Hmm. I may have to do some history digging on that one now that that generation has all but passed away) on one side and Swedish and English on the other. I have a couple other nationalities thrown in there but golldarnit can't remember what they were.

Basically I'm a heavy mix of German and Swedish. We'll just let it go at that.

My household is waking. The Boy Child is up now (Coffeekid) and I hear him feeding the cats. I have 2 extra girls overnight with Bianca and of course Kat and Coffeehusband are still sleeping as well.

The rain is pouring down and I'm thankful that the camping plans we had with Iowa Geek were canceled. Can you imagine being over 2 hours away from home, stuck in a tent in the freezing cold rain? Wait... I've had that happen. No need to imagine. My family actually camped in tents when tornado's ripped through the campground once... ahh the joy of childhood memories.

Last night I was reading the news... did you see this story about the baby diapers on the lawn? Apparently a Mom helped her daughter and a friend buy baby diapers and threw them into the yard of another girl. She's been arrested and charged with harassment. Wow, times have changed. As a matter of fact I know someone who did this and someone who had it done. Reason? A supposed abortion. So 3 others bought baby diapers and threw them on the lawn to basically say in a non-verbal way that they didn't support her decision and that she was a baby killer. No arrests were made in the 80's for it though.

I keep glancing at my coffee mug and watching my coffee get cold. So I'm trying to type quickly and realized that my mind is on sipping coffee and watching the rain for a bit out the patio window so let me just end this rambling post and go drink a little coffee. I'll be back!

Last week one of our Coffee Talking topics was Ashlee Simpson's 'quickie' wedding by her oh-so-weird father. This week the photos all over the internet are of her honeymoon in the Caribbean. The big question persists; Is she or isn't she?

I don't know... and part of me really doesn't care.

But the 'mommy' in me loves to talk about babies, pregnancies and such and that part of me saw this picture and said; "That's exactly what I looked like when we went to Laguna Beach and I was 2 1/2 months pregnant with Baby Girl! I have some bikini shots that look just like that - boobs and baby bump. Ok, admittedly I look like that now and no, I'm not pregnant... LOL. Just let me know when you find diet pills that work and we'll talk.

What do you think?

Labels: News

Well... in a nutshell, she is going to stay elsewhere tonight.

A little bit more of that nutshell is; It's not nearly what she made it out to be.

And although I don't doubt that her Dad may have hit or slapped her at one or some point, there are reasons (that I mentioned previously that I don't want to blog about on a public blog) that I had