Garage Sale Season

I'm having a garage sale! No, no, no. Not today. But it is definitely in my near future. Over the years, my children have accumulated, through much effort of my own, many different toys. Some of these toys are also known as 'junk'. My children are also lucky enough to have 98% of their toys and clothes (and everything else, for that matter) as second hand items. They are too young to know what that means and too young to care so it all works out in the end. Needless to say, garage sale season is awesome and it is once again upon us. Mandy and I went out this past weekend to our annual city-wide sale. Of course we also went and pigged out at a pizza buffet. Which, of course, is at least half of the actual reason for going in the first place. I like to eat. Did you know that about me? No? Well, it's true. And what better way to eat than gorge yourself on super-greasy pizza during the lunch rush buffet, eh? But seriously, the garage sale part was fun too and we made out like bandits.

Problem: We brought home a whole ton more of stuff to fit in our already over-packed houses.

Solution: Have a garage sale of our own and pawn off the old and forgotten stuff to unsuspecting individuals.

I gotta admit that I'm fairly excited for the sale. It's going to be during another city-wide sale so I'm hopeful that many a toy will find new homes where they will be played with and enjoyed. Here's hoping that we find success. Until then, I will share with you my awesome buy/find list.

-A nice computer chair to replace Josh's massively destroyed one: 25¢ Not only has this benefited Josh's posture and overall health when playing computer games, but it's also given our cats a new scratching post. Awesome.
-Two kid sleeping bags: $1 each. The kids are in love. Afternoon quiet time just got a whole lot quieter.
-Reclining lawnchair covered in spider egg sacs (now cleaned off of course): $1
-Wooden Garden bench: $2 Now I can seat more than two people in our backyard. But really it's just another place for the kids to put sand.
-Halloween costume of The Thing: 50¢ Alex is lovin' the muscles! Because everyone needs a Thing costume.
-Board games out the wazoo! The kids can't stop playing them.

Checkin' Up

Is anyone as tired of going to doctor and dentist offices as I am? No? Well, that's probably because you haven't spent as much time as I have in them in the past few months. I think I'm on the slow end of the doctor visits now so I'm happy about that. Miss Abby had her three year well-baby/kid check-up today and I am happy to say that all is well for her. She woke up this morning with some ear and neck pain and the doc says that it's more than likely stemming from the swollen lymph nodes in her neck on that side due to the nasty little cold she can't seem to shake just yet. But otherwise, she's still measuring in at around the 60th percentile for height and weight, etc, etc. Other than the fact that she screamed like a banshee during 97% of the exam, she did fine. The doc said no shots this time as she was still a bit too sick for them at the moment. I gotta be honest. I was totally fine with that.

On an Alex note, I was a sneaky little rascal and sneaked in some asthma and allergy questions without the worry of being charged for them. Turns out that the doc feels it's best to have him tested for allergies by a pediatric allergist. He'd do an in office food challenge, but with there being multiple allergies to test for it would be best to get a skin test. I'm cool with that. I can't say I'm thrilled at the idea of yet another doctor bill being shoved into my already too full mailbox, but hey. At least we'll have that marked off of the 'to-do' list before preschool. That appointment is June 13th so lift him up in prayer for that day. All prayer is appreciated. The doc also proceeded to tell me that the amount of asthma preventative that he is on is incredibly minuscule and that in one month (after peak allergy season) that we should take him off completely to see how he does. I'm not entirely certain how I feel about this as I already use my massive worrying skills and paranoia by checking him with a stethoscope nightly. Doc believes that Alex's asthma is mostly just an infectious asthma (only flares during infections). All around, it was a good doctor appointment. Glad I've got a good doc.

Happy Easter!

Today is the celebration of our Lord's resurrection! And what a wonderful day it was! We had a great weekend. Between the decorating of the eggs, the friends, the family, and the beautiful prayer my four-year old son gave at Easter dinner, I couldn't have asked for anything more. We actually went two three egg-hunts this year. Two city ones and one with Mandy and her kiddos. The city egg hunt was fun, but lasted a whopping two minutes. I have never seen so many eggs disappear so fast. It was almost unnatural. I didn't want to have another year of just having my two kids hunt for eggs alone. Ever since the big egg hunt at Abby's 1st birthday with all of their cousins, Alex can't wrap his mind around why his cousins (Jamie, Linda, Lauren, Linsey, and Kate) can't be here. That kid loves, loves, loves his cousins! So despite the fact that all four of our kids had snotty colds, we decided that egg hunts are more fun with more kids. Mandy and I hid eggs in her massive back yard and the kids had a blast! I was also thrilled to see Mandy's parents there today. John is reading my book right now so it was great to get his opinion on it. I'm so thankful for all of our blessings and like my son said in his prayer today, thank you God for a great Easter! I hope you all had a great Easter too.

Abby's my little artist. She could spend hours coloring things...eggs included.

Alex remembers coloring eggs from previous years. He was super pumped about this.

And the final products were...slightly damaged...but not too shabby.

This was from the town Easter egg hunt. I will never have to buy plastic eggs


Easter egg hunt at Aunt Mandy's house. How fun is that giant backyard?

Little miss Greta was actually a pro at this. She b-lined for the eggs.

Alex and Wesley. Those two were a bit...well...competitive.

Abby sure loved this. And with a stuffed animal in tow, true to form.

The Cage Review: Gaurding Tess

I haven't gotten the opportunity to watch Ghost Rider just yet. These past couple of weeks and weekends have been just crazy. I'd watch it this weekend, but sorry Mr. Cage. Harry Potter trumps you. It's nothing personal. I'm just that kind of geek. So, thanks to Netflix and it's beautiful instant movie option, I watched Guarding Tess (1994). I'd heard of this movie many a time, but never really had the proper motivation for actually watching it. It's about a secret service agent named Doug Chesnic (Nicolas Cage) who gets the not-so-honor of guarding the ex-first lady, Tess Carlisle (Shirley MacLaine), who just so happens to be...um...a bit overbearing. He longs for the action and importance of gaurding the big dog himself (Mr. President), but instead has become a glorified butler to a cranky older lady who used to be quite the political figure. Tess has somehow chosen Doug and become attached to him for reasons he has no idea of and requests his employment via the president himself much to Doug's annoyance.

I gotta say, I'm not a political movie fan. They are usually a big snore-fest for me because I'm not exactly savvy to the political realm. But this movie kind of threw me for a loop. I really enjoyed it. There were a few times when it moved a bit slower than I prefer, but it was all relevant to the story so wasn't really a problem. They fight and argue a lot which got me laughing. The guy who plays the president's voice made me laugh out loud more than once. Despite their frustration with each other, they find common ground. There wasn't a massively over sappy ending where they hugged and became BFF's but it was just the right amount of emotion played out beautifully by two really great actor/actresses. The ending (not revealed here) was just touching enough to not gag me and left me smiling. The relationship between the two was really interesting going from loathing to complete respect and devotion (non-romantic here folks). Mr. Cage...ya done me proud again, sir. It was no Con Air, but I can't give it lower than a four star rating on the Cage Star Chart. Four stars for sure. I'll be watching it again someday.

I'd gladly take a rejection

So tonight I get to send out round ten of the dreaded agency query letters. Maybe it's round eleven. I've lost count. I usually don't send out my next round until I've received the rejections of the last round, but I've waited long enough. I don't know what has happened, but I haven't even received rejections this time around. And they were even from agencies that guaranteed a response regardless of their views. To be honest, I don't mind the rejections so much. It's the waiting that drives me crazy. Will they, won't they? The question can only be answered by the agency you query. I check my e-mail every day in high hopes of seeing that next email with the subject line beginning with the glorious RE:. I love the RE:. It means that someone responded. Negative or positve. The RE: response sends happy joy-joy feelings throughout my system leaving me with a temporary fifteen second high on life. Oh sure. When the RE: is a rejection, it still kind of sucks. But one day my RE: will come that will leave me sending a RE: back to them along with my manuscript in tow. For now, I just can't stand the wait. I'd gladly take a rejection over the silence any day of the week.

Identification please?

If anyone in the world can identify this freaky little creature, I'd be thrilled. I found this creeping along one of the kids toys the other day...in the house. At first glance, I was certain it was a tick. Upon further investigation, I found that it was nothing of the sort. That cocoon-like shell you see is actually as hard as wood. The moment the little freakish creature sees anyone, it retracts at warp speed back into it's shell and refuses to come back out until the coast is clear. When it does come out, it drags the shell behind it's body like a ball and chain that it's not willing to leave behind. The thing inside is a yellow worm-like creature and to be honest, the blasted thing gives me the eebie-jeebies. My geeky sci-fi/writer brain naturally sent me into a mad mental chaotic storm of the dreaded 'what if's'. For example: My brain, not recognizing the insect as any known identifiable species, wondered where exactly it came from. What if it's an alien creature that uses it's cocoon to blend into a rocky environment only to leap from it's shell onto the first unsuspecting host that it's chosen to inhabit. The host is unaware as the worm burrows it's way into the spine, taking control over the poor soul that's unwilling partaking in such an exchange. The tiny creatures are everywhere and if I don't properly dispose of it, then the world is doomed to suffer a complete planetary takeover. Hmmm....what if?...

Seriously folks...what the heck is this thing??

One Crazy Week

I just realized that I haven't blogged in a week. To be perfectly honest, it feels like I just wrote Abby's birthday blog yesterday. This week has been, without a doubt, one of the craziest weeks I've had in a long time. As much as I would love to say that I had ample time to whip up a Geeky Moment or watch a new Nicolas Cage movie for the Cage Review, I can honestly say that I had almost zero time to do anything of the sort. After Abby's birthday, the week got sucked into a crazy, spiraling vortex of insanity that left me searching for my nerves. Have you seen them? I'm still looking.

Thursday Alex had his sedation dentistry appointment. I've been fretting pretty much non-stop about this since I scheduled it. Will he get there before his worst tooth abscesses? Will he be okay during the sedation? Can I keep him well so he's not sick and has to cancel? Will I...What if...Will he...? The questions wreaked havoc on my (potentially unstable) mind. Anyhow, it's a story that I plan to write about. Just not today. He's doing fine now if you can't stand the suspense of it all. :-) (Yes. I just wrote a smiley face in my blog.) I just spent the better part of my night decorating a bunny cake for my neice's birthday and haven't spent any time just relaxing in quite a long while. And as much as I'd like to be playing Farmville right now, I'm just too darn tired. For the first time in a looooooong time. I'm going to bed before 1:00 in the morning of my own free will. Tomorrow we're off to visit my brother and sister-in-law and their family for a birthday party. So I hope you all have a great weekend. I'll be back next week. I'm outta here.