Housewife Life

back from the whatever

2007-02-09T17:30:00.000-06:00

Well, I lost a few months there--nothing worse than starting a post, saving it as a draft, and then finding it a few weeks later, trying to update it, and giving up. So, I'm now just going to publish, even if it is half-hearted and half finished.
To update, oldest turned 4, found out we're going to have a 3rd baby, thanksgiving, Christmas, new year, oldest started preschool, youngest turned 2, and we all have really bad colds. Yep, that's pretty much up to the minute.
I'm currently tuning out the new updated 'blue's room.' I have to say, they had to do something to that horrid show to make it worth tivo-ing. Blue now has a little brother and Joe is on there with them. I was telling my husband how that every kids show that is trying to save itself from Sunday morning 5 am slotting writes in a little brother or little sister or twins (one of each). He was shocked, then I started showing him through the years how this has helped (0r hurt) different shows. I can't remember very many of them anymore (hard for brain to function while being shoved out of the way by my sinuses), but even Dora got a brother and sister set (which she, at 6 or 7, carries in a double sling--yeah, right). Anyway, it can't hurt Blue's Room to get her new baby brother, Sprinkles. And, is it just me, or does anyone else notice that Donovan Patton is gaining weight? I know I shouldn't care, but I'm worried that his girlfriend broke up with him or something. It could be a happy thing like when Michael Shanks (aka Daniel Jackson, SG-1) started gaining weight when he got married and his wife got pregnant. I'm slightly embarrassed that I care enough to write it out. But, I guess with baby 3 on the way, I'll spend at least 5-6 more years knowing more about kids' performers than grown-up tv stars. Oh, and speaking of, what about Greg Page! Really made me feel sorry for the yellow wiggle.
OK, that's enough for now. Must stop now.

Reader Rabbit

2006-08-26T19:33:00.000-05:00

Now there are those who don't believe that you can be super busy and read a ton of books. I know I can, and do. I don't have time to watch a lot of t.v., but I do read. I just finished three books that were set in Genesis, pre-flood, pre-Babel, and Babel era. Very interesting, very easy to read, and finished in 2 days for all three. I will admit, I didn't cook elaborate meals those 2 nights, but I did cook something (I think) and I did manage to get around Hurricane Will and clean the play area mostly. I also read the Biblical accounts of the fictional books I read, went to my Bible study, and read some in the other book I'm reading (non-fiction, "why care about Israel?"). I know I read fast (over 400 wpm when I was in high school), but it's not impossible. It keeps me sane to read, especially when I'm running on very little sleep.

Rants

2006-08-25T20:13:00.000-05:00

What is up with SciFi? If I were Ben Browder and Claudia Black, I'd take a contract with a SciFi show with a few caveats--Like you can't cancel it immediately! From what I can tell, SciFi can only handle producing so many shows at a time. They (the magic they) are going to produce a prequel for Battlestar Galactica set on Caprica during the time of the first Cylons. So they cancelled SG-1. Right after its 200 episode. Thankfully MGM, who owns the rights to all things Stargate, are going to move it to another channel. Farscape (MY show) got cancelled because they (the same magical they) decided to produce a spin-off of SG-1, which ended up being Stargate Atlantis. I like it plenty, but they really stole a lot from Farscape. Except Claudia Black and Ben Browder. But they both ended up on SG-1, so it was o.k. Now, it's not o.k. Run Ben! Run Claudia! Keep away from the skiffy!
Next rant, I almost got ran off the road today by a truck that waved as he pulled in front of me. O.K. the road narrows from four lanes down to two with lots of signage. He races past all the people behind me at the light and gets caught at the narrowing place. I guess I looked like the most likely to yield (mini-van with two sleeping kids in the back) so he just moved on over. I put on the horn and he waved. Like that made it o.k. Jerkity-jerk bad driver jerk. With really bad manners. "Look, I have a big white ford truck, so I own the road." *wave* His mama would be proud, I'm sure.
There you have it, todays rants. Enjoy and discuss.

My Dear Kitty Cat

2006-07-27T08:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning, around 6:30 a.m., my dear Edmund died. He was the best cat I've ever had. He was the first pet Chris and I had--we got him about a month after we got married. He was only 6 and a half years old, but he had a bad heart murmur. It had gone from a level III to a level IV last year and he hadn't been back to the vets' this year to get it checked out. But he went outside around 5 a.m. there is construction going on behind our house and I knew it scared him pretty bad (hide under the couch bad at times). Anyway, construction starts at 6:30 so I started trying to call him back in when I heard the trucks get started. No kitty at the back door, so I went around to the front, shaking the treat can and calling. He was stretched out in the driveway, not quite gone, but definitely not coming back. I picked him up and held him as he twitchy-tailed chased the big flashlight beam into kitty heaven. Chris dug the grave in the back yard under one of the trees and we wrapped Edmund in his favorite baby blanket and gently laid him to rest.
Sleep well Edmund Kitty Trouble Greer, Esq.

T.V. Comments

2006-07-19T17:15:00.000-05:00

I have watched more t.v. in the last few days than I have in a long time. I was struck with two major things--Hummer ads are really selling insecurity and Steve from Blue's Clues is a very professional guy.
first off---Hummer ads. I saw two ads from hummer during some show I was watching. Not my normal discovery channel/history channel/so you think you can dance stuff, but something where hummer felt they could get some eyeballs that would pay. Anyway, I was struck by how demeaning the commercials were. I saw the one with the woman and her son at the playground where an other kid cuts in line to the slide and she tells the other mom "it was *insert kid's name here* turn," and the other mom says "now it's not," or something equally rude. Then the mom goes and trades her car in for a hummer and the write over when she gets in the front seat was, "Get your girl on." Then there was the one with the guy at the grocery store buying greens and tofu and there is a guy behind him with charcoal and a slab of meat. He goes and trades in his car for a hummer and the write over was something like "Reclaim your masculinity." OK, it may not have been that blunt, but it was close. I was absolutely shocked that there were marketers who thought that these ads would make someone say, "Yeah, I need to plop down $$$ because I'm passive aggressive and I need to run over someone or something to prove my self worth."
Second--Steve from Blue's Clues is a true professional.
I don't know how many people out there know about Steve's drama and why he left Blue's Clues. The short story is that he had been on it forever, worked tirelessly for the show and all the stuff that came out from it (The boys have too many toys that start out with "Hi, this is Steve!"), decided to move onward and upward (he was co-producing by the time he quit), and nick Jr. asked some crazy things like could he change his NAME. His name is Steven Burns, but they wanted the rights to "Steve" from Blue's Clues and tried to sue him over it! Anyway, when they transitioned to "Joe" (played by Donovan Patton, not Joseph anything), Steve did a three part transition story arc where he introduced his little brother, Joe, one where he taught Joe how to play Blue's Clues and then one where he told everyone that he was going to college and Joe was going to be moving in and playing with all of them. Watching them with the boys, I was struck by how un-drama-ful they were. It was upbeat, lively, and normal Blue's clues. No rolling of eyes, no lack of energy by Steve, no "free at last" little dance or anything. It was as if it was the most friendly parting of ways that is out there in kids programming. You should check out his partially bitter website to see how friendly the break really was www.steveswebpage.com
And no, I don't have anything better to do.
so there.
And I just realized that Steven Burns reminds me of Gorjus.

How much good am I doing?

2006-06-27T08:39:00.000-05:00

We have been overcome by flies. See, there is a lot of construction going on around our house--a new high school across the street and apartments behind us (yeah, we're thrilled). I'm blaming the influx of flies on the loss of local habitat. Anyway...Yesterday Will walked up to me with this terrible look on his face and scraping his tongue. Now, you must understand that this is the kid that will put anything in his mouth and if it doesn't bite back, he eats it. Not only that, he takes food and hides it for later. This has proven quite fun at the end of the day when you find apple slices in the couch cushions and cookies in the blocks, Back to the bad face--I did the finger sweep while trying to avoid losing a finger in the process and came up with most of a dead fly. Like all good mothers, I freaked. I threw the fly parts away and washed my hands and his hands with anti-bacterial soap. But how much good could that do? It was already IN his mouth...For who knows how long. My days are filled with joy. Remember that.

oh, a broken toe

2006-05-30T12:08:00.000-05:00

Here I sit with a broken baby toe. No great story, just chasing kids and kicked the lawn mower (an inactive lawn mower, no less). It has now been over a week, but I'm still nursing it. The swelling is going down, so it looks more like one toe, not a toe and a half. Or my extra toe, as Chris put it.
I have a lot of sewing to do, and am procrastinating. I enjoy sewing, don't get me wrong, but I don't like sewing stuff for the weddings. I have to sew panels for the arbor that Chris and my dad built, and it's boring and going to take a good bit of time. So...I'm procrastinating.

Etiquette

2006-04-27T11:17:00.000-05:00

What is the proper way to respond to a blog for the first time? Should you identify yourself? Let the writer know who you are so they know a bit about you...or just start into what you want to say?
Also, how do you let someone know that you've been thinking about them, but it has been years since the last contact? Here lately I've been dreaming about people I went to high school with and with the ease of the internet, have been able to look them up. Some that I was pretty good friends with, I e-mailed just to say hi, but some...I didn't really know if it would be weird or not. I mean, can you really just say hi to someone that you 'dated' in 10th grade, then were friends with afterward?
I guess this boils down to the can you be friends with anyone you dated in the past category of life. I have several friends that I dated in the past, but the breakup was mutual and the transition from friend to boyfriend to friend again was not that hard. Then I have some that we were friends then dated then we broke up from distance--going off to college, moving, going home for the summer, etc. The last thing in our relationship history was a breakup. It's not like I haven't moved on, and I'm sure they have too, but can I just pop up into their blog or inbox and say hi without looking like a stalker?
One funny that has come of this has been finding out that a friend of mine from high school named his daughter after me. He didn't tell me this, but was telling me about his wife and kids and just happened to write "...and Genniver just turned 9..." So maybe I have nothing to worry about.

my birthday-ish

2006-04-25T05:39:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am awake at 5:30 a.m. again...with the other little guy. I hate this waking up at 3 and not going back to bed until he can tag out his brother.
Anyway, I was going through old cards trying to get rid of some of the enormous amounts of paper that we have in the house. I came across a birthday card from my granny--my dad's mom. We've never been close, I haven't seen her since I graduated high school and haven't heard from her since 1995. So I found this birthday card from when I was turning 16 I think. She had underlined stuff in the card, which is corny, but fine, then she wrote "You are so pretty and sweet and I'm sure you will go far in life." It creeped me out. This is my grandmother writing this. I had pulled it out to throw away, but decided to keep it to show Chris when he got home. Then she called. Yes, it was my birthday, but like I stated earlier, I haven't heard from her since 1995. Not when I graduated college, graduated grad school, got married, and not when I had either of my two boys, but my 31st birthday she calls. She's been in the hospital with cancer again (this will be her 3rd or 4th bout) and from what I can tell, she is worried that she's going to die. It was a stilted call to say the least. But I promised to send her a picture of the boys, so I guess I will send her a card too.

dryer woes

2006-04-11T22:05:00.000-05:00

I was trying to be good and empty my dryer lint holder, when an errant baby sock ran down the lint trap. How in the world do you get it out?! I have tried a skewer and my hand, but have gotten nothing. Now I am stuck waiting to see if the sock will melt and catch something on fire, or just catch on fire itself. It's hard enough to get something into the dryer, but now I have to babysit it too. Woo-hoo. I mean, I knew the dryer ate socks, but this is ridiculous.

First Post

2006-02-23T15:44:00.000-06:00

Hi all,
I have joined the blogger world to put out my little rants and raves that I would share with each of you individually, but don't have the time.
What more is there to say?