Random Things

I'm sitting here bored out of my mind, two kids watching a movie for quiet time in the living room, and I still can't come up with any given subject to blog about. So I figure it's time for a nice random blog about nothing particularly specific. It's been what? Two weeks since I blogged last? I can't even remember. Perhaps blogging was merely a fad for me. A temporary phase. I suppose when I go a month without blogging, I'll know it's officially died, right?

Tax Time: True to form, tax refund time is a time for most people to rejoice about the awesome refund of money that will temporarily flood their bank accounts. Unearned money. Isn't it wonderful? Sadly, in our house, tax refund time is a time for things to break and/or die horrible deaths. This year was the microwave first. Not overly expensive, but an annoyance. A week later came the untimely death of Josh's computer. Not a cheap replacement and every bit of annoying. And then, naturally, Josh's car broke. Literally. Smashed. One year ago, Josh smashed a deer, all but totaling his car. This week, due to what the police call 'inattentive driving', Josh rear-ended a very unhappy SUV owner at a stop-light. *sigh* All that work and money from fixing the blasted car up and we are right back there again. A smashed up car and borrowing my parent-in-law's car for the time being. Thank God for their generosity or we'd be in a pickle. That's three vehicles Josh has destroyed in four years. I'm considering sending him to a driving school for ungifted drivers. Tax time. Go figure.

Kindergarten Round-up: Alex is officially enrolled in Kindergarten. I took him to the school for round-up and he was super excited. The kid, despite his mother's inability to socialize, is quite the socialite. He loves school and making new friends. I'm still scared to death to send him away in the care of others that are, well...not me. But the people I talked to took some weight off my worries. They will let the teachers carry a hip-pack with his meds in it. They will all be trained how to use the meds and look for the signs. We live a whopping three blocks from the school so I can walk him straight to his room and pick him up every day. And to make it even nicer, I'm allowed to eat lunch with him every day. They even said that other parents do this with their allergic kids and bringing siblings to eat there as well is A-OK. I of course, realized that my baby boy will be away from me for seven hours a day. *sniff* I'm gonna have to bring a few tissues that first day of school.

Pre-school Round 2: Abby is on her way to pre-school this fall. She'll be going to the afternoon class at 12:30 so I'll be without both my babies for a three-hour block, three days a week. *double sniff* They just grow up too fast, you know? She, unlike Mr. Alex, is not excited. She doesn't want to go so this should be entertaining. Not real sure what her first few days will be like, but it's going to be good for her. (I hope.) I'm sure the guilt of prying her kung-fu grip off of my legs amongst massive tear-flow, will leave me in turmoil.

Trampoline dilemma: To get one, or not to get one? That's the question right now. I told the kiddos that I would get them a trampoline to jump on, but now that I'm at that point, I'm not entirely certain I want that giant thing in my back yard. Oh, don't get me wrong. It will get used. It will certainly become a worn out pile of old material years and years from now much like the one we had when I was younger. It's inevitable. We'll get one. So I suppose the real questions are when and how big?

Reunited: I've spent months on end without my trusty laptop. The laptop I bought over a year ago, became my good, little, electronic buddy that I used all the time. So when the screen fizzled out months ago, I was left without my electronic right hand. I had my time of mourning and tried to move on with a lap-top passed on to me from Josh's family. Unfortunately, it wasn't the same. It didn't fit my hands right. So after a visit to a really awesome small-business computer dude, I am officially reunited with my old pal. Mr. Laptop and I are back together and so my hope is that I'm off to the races again with Mr. Book. Mr. Book was put on a back burner when Mr. Laptop bit the big one. So it's back to pointlessly weaving my words into a fantasy adventure that is ultimately going to be published via the e-reading market. If every family member I know that I'm on good terms with purchases my 99cents book, I should make about...oh...say...$3.00. (before taxes). Go E-books!

Summing it all up: Beautiful weather we're having. So naturally, spider season is upon us. Black widows are waiting to rear their ugly little beady-eyed heads. So let's hear it for the bug-guy! Three cheers for bug-guy!

Selling the Farm

First and foremost, if you notice a strange pattern in my typing that looks like I may or may not be experiencing an overly shaky hand, then you should understand it's part of my withdrawal symptoms. Having the 'shakes' from withdrawal is perfectly normal. My addiction isn't a secret. For two years now I've been addicted to playing Farmville on Facebook. Well, that not-so-little obsession doubled when I started playing Frontierville, one of the sister games. One game took up way too much of my time so naturally two of them became a mess. I was spending more time on facebook playing games than I'd like to admit to. Well, long story short, the company that makes these games has made playing so complex and overloaded with work that the games quickly became a chore. Which, of course, naturally morphed into what felt like a job. I noticed that I wasn't really enjoying the games anymore. I just played because....well...I was addicted. For so long, it's been how my night goes. Put kids to bed, shower, play games for X amount of time. One day, in the middle of playing Frontierville, I just stopped, turned it off, and never looked back. I finally got over my post-Frontier jitters and apologized to all my stranger-friend neighbors (who totally understood). A week later, I logged on to Farmville (as I hoped one game would be better than two) and realized that I just didn't need it in my life anymore. So this weekend was the real test. We went to Josh's Grandma's 91st birthday party in Oklahoma and I...*gasp*...didn't take my computer. I'm proud to say that I didn't get on at all this weekend. I believe that I'm on the way out of my addiction to the game. I still feel the urge to play but, strangely enough, I feel healthier without logging on every day to play. The problem is that merely being on facebook makes me want to hunt through the million posts on the feed to click on things from fellow neighbors. So taking the weekend off of being on that blasted thing has helped. I fear I may relapse if I'm not careful. So here I sit, avoiding the whole world of facebook by blogging about it. Not sure this is helping my farming jitters. I'll admit I miss the cute horses and random worthless junk that I've spent years collecting and saving up to buy with my fake money. (wow. that sounded pathetic.) So ;askldjfapio;fha;...sorry...big jitter there. :) Anyhow...so wish me luck folks. I'm selling the farm. *sniff* I shall miss you tiny little avatar that looks nothing like me. It's been fun.