Chic on the cheap!

I like things to be clean.

But I have 6 kids.

If things can at least smell nice it's a small comfort. I think I'll be giving this a try.

I Guess I Know What He's Getting for Christmas

When we were first married, we lived in Manchester, CT. Not the nice, bucolic, nearly Glastonbury town line side. We lived across the street from a chop shop. We were only there for a year before we moved to PA. But while we were there, we never had any crime problems.


Now that we are in FL, in a fairly affluent area of a small city, we've had two problems within six months. I want to grab the punky little rich kid who broke into our vehicle and ask him who the hell is he to be going into my car?! Hubby's sunglasses, iPod, old useless AmEx card, and a few cd's also gone. And yes- I say punky little rich kid because these thieves are selective.


There was another break a few doors down from us. The woman happens to work at my son's school. So when I brought him into school late, I explained it was because we were talking to the Sheriff and that's when she said she was also a victim. Her husband's car was broken into- but they took only his sunglasses, despite the fact that his camera was sitting right there on the seat. So if this was in fact kids from a low income area of town, they would take the camera. Anything is usable and pawn-able after all. But they didn't. This is "mommy and daddy don't give me enough allowance to party the way I want so I'm going to be selective in what I take" kind of thievery.

Still skeptical and need more evidence: they took the REM cd but left the Simon and Garfunkel. Brats.

My Job Really Sucks Sometimes

When the pressure mounts and the clock ticks and I wonder what to do, which decision to make. When I feel like I "should" be able to handle something, but the reality is I just may crack and burn out and mess it up big time. When I wonder if choosing one way or another will make my child a better person in the end, or if it will just create a foundation for future problems and lead me to say "if only I". When I realize it's not life and death, but I want the best life and future I can give to my child but I just can't find my crystal ball to know which way to go. Yeah...that's when I think my job really sucks sometimes.

"That" Age

Brother Bear and Carebear are 21 months apart. They are at "that" age that Experimental Child and my 15yo (who are 18 months apart) were at that I remember fondly. How can I forget the chocolate syrup going up the carpeted steps as they carried it to me to open, or the adorable way they mastered the concept of team work as one of them cracked the eggs on the kitchen floor while the other did the scrambling. Let's not forget the creativity they used when they acted out the Disney movie "Pocahontas" and stabbed holes in the back of the couch.

Maybe "fondly" isn't the right word.

The past two weeks have been nothing other than what I can best describe as mutiny. For example:

• Finger painting on the table with yogurt while I cook grilled cheese for lunch
• Coloring on the wall with marker while I think they are using the craft project I bought in the clearance bin at Michael's for them to color on
• Taking out both Spiderman and A Christmas Story editions of Monopoly and splaying them on the living room floor
• The toilet incident

The toilet. Need I say more?

It seems as if the two littles have discovered they work great as a team.

It will not be pretty if I lose my lattes

This is my Starbucks Gold Card. It is obviously well loved. At first I thought I couldn't possibly justify spending $25 on a card just to save 10% on purchases. The average savings for me is $0.42. Do the math- it paid for itself within a couple months. I have no idea how it got this way- it started with the plastic film peeling on the back corner, most likely from being in my back pocket. It actually came completely off and I have super glued it back on. It still works- amazingly. But I fear that may not last long because it's coming off- again. I may try clear packing tape next. It does spark interesting reactions and facial expressions on the part of the folks who work at Starbucks when I hand it to them. The worst part is- it's not registered, because the numbers had worn off before I could get around to registering it. Lesson learned. As I type, I am on hold with Starbucks to see if they will exchange it. I will be totally impressed if they do.

********************************************************************************

Thanks to Greg at Starbucks I will soon hold a shiny new card in my hand that isn't crumbling apart!
He took some info from me that was on my latest receipt and they can apparently extract my card number in their system from that. They are sending me a replacement card, along with a couple of drink coupons to make up for the fact that I will be without a discount card until that card gets here. I am impressed.

Straight out of an episode of Dirty Jobs

Sunday morning I awoke to "Mom, the toilets not working right because there is water coming out".
Ughh...not what I want to hear at any point, especially prior to 8am. And definitely especially since I knew that "someone" (although they were all 'not me') took the plunger outside last week for who knows what. I'm sure it made a cool play weapon, or javelin, or something. But it got left outside and the guy who mows our lawn must be blind because he didn't see the bright yellow handle and mowed it over. The plunger was ripped in two while the handle was made into nice chunky yellow plastic mulch in the yard.

So Most Wonderful Husband in the World goes to get the plumbing snake. I told him I had a sneaking suspicion the missing towel hooks were down there. We had 4 of those 3M brand plastic hooks stuck to the wall, and at some point last week 3 of them disappeared. Brother Bear said Carebear threw them in the potty, but I was sure he was wrong. Was- now at 8am I am sure he was right.

He retrieves a matchbox car, a nail polish bottle and small Thomas the Tank Engine train. No joke.

Yet it still won't flush. Life being what it is, he actually had a crisis to handle at work and had to go into the office yesterday. So later in the afternoon, I had to work at the toilet some more, to no avail. I had two options- call a plumber or buy a power auger. Neither of which I had the money for at the moment. So a third option presented itself- the shop vac.

So I trepidatiously sucked the water out of the toilet, and as the water level dropped really low I held my breath and said "please work". I imagined something going horribly wrong and a plumber having to come out anyways and I would surely be the laugh of the month or the inspiration for the $50 prize for funniest story in some Plumber's Monthly magazine. Well- let me tell you how horrible the house smelled. I know I know- sewer gasses and all, what else did I expect? I knew it would smell but I didn't expect it to permeate the whole house instantly. Experimental Child immediately ran around and sprayed air freshner and lit a few candles. I told him to open a few windows. Brother Bear was gagging- I told him to go outside. Of course, so was I but I couldn't go anywhere. When it appeared the toilet was draining and flushing properly I was faced with a new problem. What the HECK do I do with the contents of the shop vac??? I carefully poured them back down the toilet making sure anything heavy stayed at the bottom of the vac so I didn't just re-clog the toilet. That all done- all that was left to do was mop the floor with bleach, wash the towels that had been used to sop up the overflowing water and oh yeah, wash out the shop vac in the front yard with a hose and hope. to. God. the neighbors didn't notice the smell coming from it. And of course- take a shower. Because even though I don't think I got dirty, boy did I feel it.

Oh- and the 3 plastic towel hooks. Still missing.