Google Wave and a Birthday!

It is the last day of November and it is official...I sucked at the blog every day thing. I was doing pretty good until the last ten days. Then I just feel apart. I'm going to blame my three kids and the holidays :). So today I got Google Wave. I've been coveting this feature for about two months and finally I have it. I watched the movie on what it can do. Ten minutes, not the 80 minute one. I was so excited to try putting it on the blog. The picture upload was awesome. I posted about ten pics in a few seconds...pictures of me as a baby and pictures of Peach along with a quick survey to see if people thought she looked like me. Then I tried to figure out how to post it to the blog. Um it was definitely not as easy as those little wave people made it seem. I searched around a few places. Finally found what I think was reliable code and decided I just was up for the ten or so steps necessary. So now I have cute pictures of Peach and cute pictures of me, and a survey on Google Wave that only four of my friends can see. Isn't it funny when life doesn't quiet reach expectation.

On a completely unrelated note, something that surpassed expectation, Happy Birthday Dr. J! My sweet hubby is 32 year old today. I know he is going to hate this picture and the fact that I posted it but I couldn't help it. Who pulls their socks down and their pants up like that and flexes their toes on the coffee table. It was just too five years old to me. He was probably checking basketball scores as well. Pretty much my whole adult life has been spent with this man. I love him! Eight years ago on this night I took him out for Italian and sealed my fate with a kiss. I guess the lesson is if a man ask you for a birthday kiss you had better be sure you are prepared to be all in before you give it. He has given me three great kids and a life that I love. He has given me the security I desperately wanted as a kid. He keeps me on my toes and busy. Here is to a great 32 years! I love you honey!!!

Thanksgiving

I suck at blogging every day. I can't help it I just do. Lets just say Thanksgiving was good...and I give up on blogging every day!

Home

Someone in my home is itching to go home. On a related note we will be in Utah over Christmas. Hurray!

Sunday Walk

In the summer we enjoy walking after church. With our one o'clock church time and winter there really isn't enough light left to do much walking after church. Today we decided to walk the 1.75 miles to church. It was fun. Partly because we have a heavy duty stroller that can handle such urban jaunts with ease. Thanks to our Mountain Buggy's air filled tires, pushing two little girls is no problem. Even with the extra weight of their older brother (he jumped on when he got bored with walking) the handling was still a breeze. We left at 12:15 and got to church with plenty of time for copy making and a bathroom break. The walk home was even more enjoyable because mom wasn't worried about time. The girls slept, E had an adventure, and the parents felt good. Normally after dinner on Sunday I have this horrible post dinner slump where we get really tired. Not so today, lots of energy left. I wish we could walk every Sunday.

New Moon, Opening Day

Last night my sweetie watched our kids and I went with seven girlfriends to see the nine o'clock showing of New Moon. Personally I think it was quiet the sacrifice he made, but I saw my friend Sara and her hubby coming out of the seven o'clock show, and I'd like to say I think Larry made an even greater one :) It was fun to be out with the girls. The group ran the spectrum from Jenny who had not seen the first movie or read a single book, to me who hated the two books I read but liked the movie, to April who not only was planning on crying in the movie but was also proudly wearing a "Team Edward" shirt specially designed by her baby brother and varying layers of fans between. Here were my feelings on the movie.

• I still hate Bella. She is intolerable. I think if you can relate to her in some way that makes her more enjoyable. I can't. She watches a whole group of people go to their deaths and doesn't say a word. It kind of makes the whole in love with a vampire thing just not worth it. This is nothing against Kristen Stewart, just the character of Bella. I think Kristen is adorable in a sort of brooding, chew on your lower lip kind of way. She really is cute. It did my heart good to see she wasn't quiet as cute when she comes out of the ocean wet. People should only be allowed a certain amount of cuteness to be fair to the rest of us.
  
• The special effects were slightly better than the first movie but still left a lot to be desired. Why not hire the guys who did Benjamin Button. If you've seen what they do to Brad Pit in that movie you'd agree.
  
• The relationship with Charlie was weird. Last movie Bella's dad was so awkward...which fit well with a relationship where the daughter hasn't been around for years. Now this movie he is a loving, caring, good joking guy. His character is extremely likable, which was just a fast jump for me.
• There was a lot of cheese. The guy sitting next to me would literally choke when it got a little heavy and most of the time I had to agree. At one point most of the audience actually laughed/groaned out because it was just so silly. If you've seen the movie think a dress, a vest, and running. I guess though it is to be expected and if you like the books it surely will not bother you.
• Personally for me the most romantic moment in the whole movie came with the wrong guy. Anytime someone is telling you they love you in another language...well I'm sorry that is just dreamy. He might just be seventeen but if I had to pick a t-shirt mine would say "Team Jacob".
  
• Finally this isn't a problem with the movie so much as it is a problem with the books, but what is the deal with the vampires and the werewolves hating each other so much? I mean come on, you're both supernatural, which makes you way more cool then humans. Why not hang out instead of having this little brawls. It is just a little to west side story for me :)

So that's my listed, and I figured I'd unload it so maybe I could think about something else today :) I totally had fun with the girls though. I love my hubby for watching my kids, and yes I probably will go to the next movie.

Morning Games

I'm part of a carpool for drop up and pick up of little E from school. One week I do both, the next week my friend Erika does both. On the weeks she is driving, the girls and I stay in pjs and I only have to get E out the door. On the good days it gives us a few minutes between when she gets here and when he finishes breakfast. I try to utilize this time in thinking games close to the door so he will be ready to walk very slowly out when she gets here (seriously he practically crawls like a snail). We play eye spy or rhyming games. Now that it is getting colder we've started writing words on the foggy window. He loves it. We take turns. I write a word I know he can sound out. Then he writes one of the sight words he has memorized, or a number. It helps him with letter recognition, writing, sounding out...all and all it is a fabulous game. Plus we can see Erika the second she gets to the our door :)

Busted

Dr. J came downstairs and I switched the TV off. "Hey what is the deal," he asked. "You are just itching to kick me out of the room aren't you." "No," I told him. "I don't want to distract you from your homework." And it is true. The man doesn't do homework and then I feel responsible. I mean seriously it should be normal to eat dinner with your family or help put kids to bed but these are things that I feel guilty when he does them. There are some 3rd years with kids, but not many. When it comes to having him watch TV with me, certainly I don't think he has the time for that and I don't want him getting sucked in...but if I'm honest with myself there is also a part of me that likes the alone time that comes after bed time. It is such a rush, after E gets home from school, getting dinner done, homework, baths, bed, night time nursing. By the time all three kids are in bed I do enjoy the silence of the house, being able to read or watch what I want...and yes sometimes my husband disrupts that silence. Busted!

Regret...the wheat from the tares

Life if full of regret. I find this to be especially true of motherhood. My oldest child is only five but I already feel like I have a basket full of guilt. There is the regret of places or choices I didn't make. I still regret not buying those U2 tickets. Four times they've come close, why haven't I gone to see them? I've given up regretting my O Chem grade. I'm the mom of three. No one cares. I guess regrets are just part of life, you pick some up, you let some go. Regret is just something you learn to live with. There is one moment in my life though that I just can't get over. I think on it at least once a week. In my mind I see it as a test that I failed terribly, and there is no going back. My sister and I were exploring Chicago, the Windy City. We'd left our car in a parking lot at the peer and had walked several blocks into the city to eat at the Grand Lux. The meal had been particularly enjoyable but the kids were tired, the wind was blowing, the sun had gone behind the sky scrappers, and it was getting quiet cold. We were rushing, wrangling our kids down the magnificent mile, trying to get across the street before the light changed and then I saw him, this guy, a kid really, sitting, slumped down next to one of the grand buildings. He was in clean jeans and white t-shirt on a cold fall day. He wasn't begging, he was just sitting, but something about his face just struck me. I wanted to ask if he was ok. If he needed some help. If he needed a jacket. I tried to look back at him as we crossed the street, but a car honked, and the light turned and I just kept going. When I looked back he was obscured by hurrying pedestrians. It is a moment I will always live to regret. Why didn't I ask if he was ok? Maybe he was perfectly fine. Maybe he needed nothing. Maybe he would have looked at me like I was crazy, answered me he was fine and I would have walked off with my kids and sister, feeling stupid but I would have forgotten the experience. Maybe he really needed help though. Maybe I walked passed someone who needed me and I missed it. Maybe some day I will have to answer to God for that one. I think of that moment when someone ask me for money in a parking lot. I think about that when I look at the extra coats in our closet. I can't go back but I hope to never miss another moment like that again.

He Can Do It!

I went to church and left Dr. J at home with three sick kids yesterday. I also had rising dough on the dryer. I said, "Um if Peach wakes up can you give her a bottle, and by the way that french bread dough is going to need to be made into loves." Then I started laughing. I couldn't help it. The laugh just rose out of the pit of my stomach and before you know it I was practically in hysterics. "You don't think I can do this, do you," he asked. I think the laughter answered that question. When I came home two beautiful loves were sitting on the table ready to put in the oven, the two older kids were happy and feed, and the baby was back asleep after a bottle. He not only did it, he did it well. What I learned, my husband actually would be quiet helpful if he actual had the time to be around. I guess retirement will be nice :)

The Beatles

There is a tiny little children's museum in our town. The museum is basically housed in the lobby of an old theater. We bought a year pass last year with Christmas money and have enjoyed going ever since. The displays are small, and there are really only two main parts but my kids are small and more rooms would only be more places for them to run away and hide. Veterans Day I went there with the kids, my Swedish friend Katrin, and her three kids. While we were eating lunch on the balcony that looks over the theater I noticed they had pictures of acts that had played the theater before it was shut down. (Later is was saved to become the museum). Out of the corner of my eye I saw four unmistakable mop tops. I couldn't believe it so I had to get closer. Sure enough it was the Beatles. The Beatles played my po-dunk town, in a dinky little theater (think no bigger than a small movie theater). There are pictures of the girls screaming and the boys plugging their ears. It must have been incredible, and yes I am jealous! I can assure you nothing that exciting has happened since.

Rated T for Toddler

I have a son who loves rap/rock music. Even as a fetus in the womb he would get especially active during the weekly top 40. This recently came to a head when he found an old radio alarm clock. He thought it was so fun that he could change the stations. Dr. J and I didn't mind for about two minutes but then we walked upstairs and heard the word erection crackling on the weak little speakers. That was it. The radio alarm clock had to disappear. I felt sort of bad for the kid. He just wanted to listen to some music and I'll admit lots of stuff has great beats. Not everyone wants to listen to five little speckled frogs every day. It made me wish that musicians would drop records with a T version, as in rated T for Toddler, sort of in the way they have the "clean versions" and the adult only versions. I saw this Jay Leno and thought, hey maybe I should petition Jamie to lead the way. I also had to grab Dr. J's favorite, Baby Got Bible.

more about "Jamie Foxx Performis "Blame It On The...", posted with vodpod



*Big E also loves classical. He definitely has varied taste.
**This is my Saturday Post an hour and half early. I'm just going to have to deal :)

Integration

How long does it take to integrate into a family? I love my darling third daughter. She truly is a peach, a joy to have around. She is a smile girl, always giving off big smiles, laughing, blowing bubbles. She is extremely curious and is always trying to get around. She loves her sister and brother. In the morning she doesn't cry to be feed, instead she wakes us up with "talking". She will giggle and coo until someone comes to pick her up (this person is usually her dad, and she rewards him with a big smile. When he hands her off to me she gives me a big smile as well). Since about a month old she has slept through the night, and because of her easy disposition we have come to call her peacemaker peach. Sometimes though I'm still surprised that she is here. It's like she's some jolly little visitor, and I'm having difficulty wrapping my mind around the fact that she is staying forever...well at least eighteen years, and then she will probably leave for college putting me and father in a state of tears that could last a few months. Maybe it is part of being the third child but I feel like I never really had the opportunity to dwell on being pregnant, to come to grips with the fact that I was having a third child. We weren't trying to get pregnant, in fact I was fairly certain I wasn't pregnant and only found out that I was the day after her father left for a 35 day trip to Amman, Jordan. For the sake of good video I then tried to keep it a secret from everyone. I thought it would be awesome to surprise him at the airport with a T-shirt that said, "Welcome home father of three." So for a month I had no one to talk to. This of course was blown when he asked to stay another week with four days left to go. I broke down and said, "But I'm prenant." Still the damages was done. Being home alone with the two kids it was just go, go, go. Even after he came back it has been run, run, run. I bought a pool pass for the summer and we went up until Peach was born. In fact the night before I went into labor my friend Erika and I had a swim race across the pool. Within two days of her birth I had family in town and that visit was quickly followed by more visits. We were back at the pool within just a few weeks, running errands at the library, and going to the small children's museum in town, trying to enjoy the last bits of summer. Within six weeks of her birth her older brother went off to full day kindergarten and that threw mom for another loop. Even now between helping at school, church callings, G bear's speech, keeping up the house, car pool for school, trying to keep up with a husband doing his third year of medical school, well the child has to catch most of her naps on the run. I love this little girl, I just wonder when it is really going to sink in that she is really mine :)

News Flash...eye drops sting ;)

With three kids in the house I found myself at the pediatrician no less than six times in three weeks. There was the typical four month check up, a speech referral, and Big E getting croup (It happens multiple times a year). Then there were the extras. The steroids weakened the immune system letting a bad ear ache take hold. I'm positive it was the steroids because this is the first time in five 1/2 years that a single one of my three kids has had an ear ache. A miracle I know. Then there was a sever cough, more croup, the flu, and my personal favorite Peach got some sort of pink eye conjunctivitis. I'd heard that breast milk could clear it up so for two days I squrited her in the eye when we'd nurse. Maybe it works for some kids, but for Peach it just got worse. Her under eyelids got so swollen it looked like she'd been punched in the face. I went in and the doctor gave me drops the clear it up. They were a nightmare. For a week I'd have to hold her eye open as she wiggled and screamed, mad beyond belief. I'd have to nurse her immediately after to calm her down or we'd have a screaming child for hours. Then a week into treatment I lost the drops. I put them down after nursing her and couldn't find them anywhere. It should have been fine, the infection should have been gone, but it wasn't. The next day her eyes were puffed up and her last gunked up. I called the doctor and took her back in. He said, lets try a gel to see if that will stay better, and proscribed Erythromycin in a gel form, the same stuff they put in babies eyes when they are born. I was worried beyond belief. If putting drops in her eyes caused a near freak out, what would gel do. The first night I had Dr. J help me. We pulled her eyelids open with her wiggling and squirming and put a huge line of gel on both her eyes. Nothing happened. She blinked a few times and then gave us a huge smile. This continued every time we had to put the gel in. I felt like an idiot! The kid wasn't screaming because I was putting stuff in her eyes, she was screaming because the Garamycin burned. Good job mom!

Since when do guilt trips work?

New Moon and Hulu

I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of the Twilight books. They were so just over the top sappy. They made me want to vomit. I do happen to be a fan of the movie. It is embarrassing to admit but I thought for a teen drama, it wasn't half bad. That is why when a friend mentioned she was going to see New Moon opening night I mentioned I might be interested in going with her. Tonight I got word the tickets were bought. The last time I went to a movie opening night was Harry Potter when I was 21 years old. Now as an almost thirty year old I have tickets to an opening night teen flick. I should be embarrassed but I'm actually just excited, although a little worried about the teen drama in the theater. I saw the preview and all I had to say is wow Taylor Lautner. Nice swim scene. I just looked him up...his birthday is February 11th, 1992. Wow that makes me feel dirty. I'm not a Saturday Night Live fan, but I love the site Hulu and caught this clip there. It made me laugh. Wow they put some time into this.



Speaking of Hulu I found a new show to watch. Its called Intervention. There have been quite a few people in my family affected by addiction and this show really opened my eyes. The cases are emotionally involving. You hurt for the families and when the people go in for their interventions, sometimes I shout out, TAKE THE INTERVENTION...GO...GO! DON'T SAY NO! I think this is the image we should be giving our kids of drug use. I guess though that is the problem with being a teenager. People can tell you about consequences but it is so hard to understand consequences when you are young. Anyway check out Hulu.

46 Chromosomes and One Fat Toe

In a former life I loved science. I majored in zoology, with a human biology emphasis. I came into the major my junior year of college. I'd been a chemical engineering major who burned out, turned to anthropology for solace and interest, but returned to science because I'm just not the kind of person who enjoys an easy A. Give me a struggle for a B and I'm much happier. My core classes taught me many things. In my former life I could assay fruit flies to test for genetic variations. Frozen flies happen to be just as disgusting as live flies. I could isolate caffeine out of a cup of tea. It's white by the way, and looks just like some other drugs that are white powders. I could name all the bones in the human body. I could open a Tupperware full of embalmed male genitalia and not vomit. I used to be able to explain the Krebs Cycle. Those days are gone. It has been years since I've been in a lab. Over a half decade since anyone has called upon my scientific knowledge. What has never left me though was a great appreciation for the human body and all the marvels that go into one single being. Take a chromosome for example. That single piece of DNA can be upwards of a million nucleotides long, and in the variation of those nucleotides holds all the information necessary to make all the difference in the world. It is what makes me, me and not a chimpanzee or a sheep. It is what makes me, me and not my neighbor Julianne. The normal human gamete holds 23. When two gametes meet and fertilization occurs a 46 chromosome zygote is born. That cell contains all the information needed to create a human being. It is fantastical. Nothing we've created on this earth nears this in simplicity or complexity. These gametes are created by a system of meiosis. It takes one cell, doubles the genetic material, and then splits it twice so that four daughter cells with half the genetic material are created, giving rise to genetic variations in future generations. Take two individuals gametes together and you have mounds of possibilities . It makes it fun when children are born, trying to pick out the pieces of them, guessing, where they got their nose, where they got their eyes. Some traits are recessive and so they are a big surprise to see. Some traits aren't. Dr. J and I both have very bushy eyebrows. No surprise all three of kids do as well. I have brown eyes, and Dr. J has blue. Thanks to a recessive gene from my mother we have two with blue and one with brown. Today when I was nursing my daughter Peach I noticed she has an incredibly fat big toe. This is not the case for either of her parents but my sister has a fat toe as well so I'm guessing somewhere in my gamete there must be a fat toe gene :)

Sleep Issues

Why is it so hard to remember to write every night? Shesh, I'm definitely lousy at this challenge. Well forgive and forget let's move on. Every night is the same. My five year old son insist he is not tired. We get him ready and he lays in bed saying, "Mom I can't fall asleep." "Mom, I'm not tired." "Mom are you watching anything on TV." This goes on for at least a half hour. Every morning though the story is the opposite. "Mom I'm to tired to get up." "Mom I'm to tired to get dressed." "Mom I'm cold and tired." When you have three kids to get ready before carpool it can be maddening. I got an alarm clock for his room that has a beep that speeds up until you turn it off. He now jumps out of bed, turns it off and jumps back in. How do I get him to go to bed so he can wake up when he is suppose to?

Visitor?

I'm sitting on the couch watching a little TV and what do I hear...stuff moving in the closet. Do I have a visitor? YUCK. I yell up to Dr. J. "Um honey, I think we have a mouse." "I'm not surprised he says. The kids leave crap everywhere." What do I want...I want him to come down and find the thing and kill it, kill it with his bare hands if necessary. In the least I want him to put some d-con out or some traps. I hate rodents, and I spend almost all of my day in this house. I can not feel safe thinking there are mice here . Does he care. Nope not one bit. Looks like I'm going to be wearing shoes everywhere I go. I'm so grossed out I want to throw up. I hate vermin.

Already Messed Up

Well that is a shame. I already missed a day. Last night I came up stairs to nurse a sick baby, she has some kind of eye infection. While I was in bed the kids finished their movie and came up and feel asleep in bed with me. When I woke up this morning I had all three kids in bed and hubby was still asleep on the couch. Nothing got done last night. I left the salad on the table and I certainly forgot blogging. Bummer!

Night Out and two veggie dishes

Some girlfriends and I went out tonight...WHAT A BLESSING! I was starting to just feel a little worn down. It is amazing how great it feels to eat a meal you didn't cook, and then to leave the dishes on the table knowing you don't have to worry about the pans. An awesome feeling. Thanks girls, and to hubbies that watched kids and made it possible!!!

We at at this local restaurant most of us love. They have a good variety of pretty much everything and because they are on the more liberal side of the two towns they have quiet a bit of vegetarian fare. I'm not saying liberal = vegetarian but we have noticed that people that identify with the title of liberal often enjoy local places that sell local fare...often with lots of veggies :) This is not a hard fast rule. Anyway my friend Erica and I shared two veggie meals (these were not vegan).

The first was roasted artichokes on a whole wheat bagel.

On whole wheat bagel, open faced. Cover with roasted artichoke hearts. Add a chopped olives and grated carots. Place a slice of cheese on top and roast until cheese is nice and melted. DELICIOUS!

The second was a pesto pita. Why have I never thought to do this. We eat pitas and pesto almost every week...just not together.

Take a pita. Spread pesto on it. Put down some Swiss cheese. Toast. Cover with chopped tomatoes, lettuces and a little bit of red onion. Also supremely delicious.

Bad Dreams

Little E occasionally has bad dreams. It isn't often but the child is prone to anxiety (like his mama) so it occupies a lot of his thoughts before he goes to bed. Every goodnight prayer has to include, please help me not have bad dreams. He has also started a ritual where he wants to talk out ideas for potential dreams. "Mom give me some dream ideas," he ask from his top bunk. Okay I say, "How about you dream about going to party and all the games you would play there." "No mom, that is too complicated." "Alright how about you dream about playing with your sister." "No," he yells. Apparently he gets enough of that at home. "OK what about being WALL-E flying around in space with EVA." "Yes," he says with a big smile, "That is a good one."

Dentist

I took Little E to the dentist today. When we walked up to the doors E said, "I'm feeling a little nervous. This is a new place. Also do they have prizes here?" I reassured him it would be fine and there would be prizes. The hygienist was great. She let E try out all her tools. He actually shot her and the window with the sprayer. Nice. They had sun glasses to keep the light out of his eyes. Really a brilliant idea. I'm thinking about bringing some to my appointment on Thursday. She let him pick what flavor of toothpaste he wanted. When he picked grape she said, "Wow grape is my favorite too." I'm sure any flavor picked gets that response but you should have seen him smile. He was putty in her hands after that. As for the fluoride treatment, she painted it on with a tiny little brush, after she told him she was painting vitamins on. Totally painless. It maybe me think back to the misery of swishing when I was a kid. My mouth would start salivating immediately and by the time the dentist would come in to tell me I could spit, I looked like a frothing rabid chipmunk. Really this way is much better. When the dentist came in I had a stutter moment. I'd met a dentist in the lobby. He was an older, balding, Indian guy with buggy eyes. Our dentist meanwhile looks like some character off a CW show. He was young, unmarried, good looking. I thought about mentioning I had single sisters. It wouldn't hurt to have a dentist in the family. The best part of the appointment, new toothbrushes, flossers, sand timers, and prizes. G bear scored double, no appointment but they let her have all the booty :)

Public Broadcasting Service

I love PBS...so much so that when the TV signal went digital and our converter box wouldn't work well enough to pick it up I insisted we get basic cable. So now we spend nine dollars a month to watch "free TV". It is totally worth it. What I love:

Sesame Street-I watched this show as a child. Now my children love it. ELMO drives me nuts. That little voice is so annoying but everything else is great. Murry Had A Little Lamb cracks me up every time.



Word Girl-Teaches awesome vocabulary.

The Electric Company-Both my kids love this show. A lot of language art skills are still above their pay grade but it amazing what they pick up. The story lines are silly but tolerable for parents and I love seeing the different ways they introduce topics.





Masterpiece Theater - Um everything. I love everything. To many jewels to mention. The same goes for it's sister series Mystery. Many of these productions were produced in England and they are of English works. I love English writers, especially mystery so this is a treat for me. BBC produces many of them. Who doesn't love BBC for their news. Just one more reason PBS is the best. Dr. Who is another personal favorite. Do we see a trend emerging. I tried to tell Dr. J we need to spend some time in England. He doesn't get it. I might be obsessed.

Nature is awesome. Last night we were watching a special on babies...mama lions trying to prevent their babies from being killed by the new king of their group. It was intense. I could go on and on. But I think I've made my point :)

Mac Book...I wish!

Our laptop is on its last leg. We bought it the summer before G bear was born. At almost three, G bear is doing great, not so for the three year old computer. Each day she gets faster the laptop gets slower. More knowledge increases her abilities...not so for our little Dell. Dr. J and I have started hinting around to each other that maybe it is time to move on to a new computer. At Sam's while we peruse the shelves we talk about how laptops today have more memory than our desk top. We talk about speed. We talk about nifty options. We mention the fact that decent memory is actually very affordable. At our home computer advertisements are being looked at and left out for the other spouse to see. Each day involves a yelling session at our dell about how slow it is. Secretly I hid my birthday money and a cash back visa card and figured that after Dr. J's b-day we'd add his loot to mine and go out and get something new, fast, and sleek...something that can handle life more like our daughter. What I had not anticipated would be the Apple Dilemma. You see I come from an Apple family. I can still remember our first Apple computer. My mom bought it used from some business park when I was in first grade. It had a tiny screen, maybe ten inches diagonal and the only colors were green and brighter green. There was a writing program and some sort of drawing program. I swear it was called kidpics but that is probably just my imagination. It had a printer that used reels of paper. It had this awesome little rainbow apple logo. I thought it was the greatest ever because I could typed out my cub reporter articles rather then turning them in hand written. I could use spell check, although I rarely did. That computer was probably the only cool thing my family ever accomplished. My mother recognized computers were going to be household objects long before the rest of the public did. Since that time my family has had many different computers and during my mom's second marriage we even had a long stint of PC use, but since her divorce she has reverted to her Apple loving days. I think it has something to do with her being a teacher. These are the people in my immediate family who own a Mac Book. My mother, my sister JoJo, my sister Flo, my brother David, and my brother Danny who actually owns two. Meanwhile my sister Ang and I, the two married ones, are using Dell computers. For the most part I haven't minded. In fact for years I got irritated at Apple for their obvious branding (stupid white) but in the interest of good research I decided to check them out again. One of the most disappointing feature with our laptop has been it's battery life. Enter the Mac Book....I feel like angles should be singing. Their computer has a seven hour battery life. Add to that the fact that it is suppose to last five years...well seriously lets shout a hallelujah! Have you ever paid to replace your battery? It is not pretty. Another irritation has been our susceptibility to viruses. Even using our firewalls we've been hit a couple times. Apple, because of it's smaller market value has been largely left alone. Apple also has cool features like built in web cam (although most new PC have this feature as well) and great programs like garage band and movie making software. And then there was the whole Windows fiasco. Did I really want to join the Vista crew? Was it worth it to switch everything over to Windows 7? The thoughts are just exhausting. I actually decided I was going to opt in to the fruit business my family so fully enjoys. Then reality struck. For your money Apple is just so much more expensive. How did my family afford to go this path. Have they picked computers over food? My mother says if you love something you are willing to make sacrifices, but seriously folks, the thing is like three times as expensive when you add everything you need. How depressing. So here is the Apple Dilemma. Now I'm itching to take a bite but realize I'm going to need a whole lot more birthdays to be able to afford it :(

Coolest House On The Block

Four words: Full Sized Candy Bars

I was standing in Sam's looking at my Halloween candy choices. There were bags of fun sized bars. I think a bag of 120 was close to ten bucks. An aisle over I could get a box of thirty full sized candy bars for 11. I contemplated the decision for all of about thirty seconds and then grabbed the box. When I came home Dr. J (the cheapskate...it can't be an insult if the term is self bestowed) asked me if I was nuts. No honey I told him, "I just want to be the coolest house on the block." It was worth it. While Dr. J took Little E and G bear around in the wagon, I waited for unsuspecting tricksters. They would walk up to my door, admire my four awesome holiday pumpkins, and then ring the bell, giggling with anticipation. I'd open the door to a chorus of "Trick or treat". Then they would see the bucket. "Oh my gosh! You're awesome. Mom, dad they have full sized bars." the older ones would yell. The little ones would just get big eyes and gulp. There were a few set backs. At one point after Dr. J was back, I heard him tell one quick little trick-or-treater to please put the second, third, and fourth bar he'd grabbed back, but overall it was a huge success. At one point after a particularly grateful crowd went through little E excited yelled, "It is a contest to pass out the most candy and we are winning!" Had I bought the fun sized bars I probably would have tossed three or four in each kids bag and the end results of sugar and calories would have been the same but something about seeing those large bars just captured the imagination. I guess I just love adoration and am willing to buy it...with full sized candy bar love :)