Dear Diary…
Public shares of news and rambles
Smiley has updated their website to a new dashboard format that I’m really liking. If you are a Smiley user, go check out the new site. If you aren’t, go think about signing up for free stuff. http://h5.sml360.com/-/35lq
Oh yeah, and I get 1 point for each person that clicks that link.
He says it was great!
From my Facebook Sunday night:
At bedtime the night before, Lucas brings up for the first time that he is scared of going to school tomorrow because he is scared that the other kids won’t like him or be his friend.
Now I’m totally stressed and worried about him. Not about his fears because I know those aren’t founded at all, but about him being anxious going to school. I too much know where he is coming from and i just wish he had my perspective to know that that particular worry will never happen for him.
I ended up laying in bed with him for an hour talking about school tomorrow and still didn’t feel the issue was resolved but it was too late to do anything about it.
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Monday:
I drove him to school this morning and walked him to class. I could tell he was nervous because we saw Josh in the hall as we were heading in and Lucas would barely talk to him. But then we got to the classroom and when he walked in his friend Isaac from church said, “hey Lucas!” and Lucas ran right over to his seat and started working on the coloring sheet there.
He definitely is sensitive to what other kids will think of him. Since the end of last year he worried about if his clothes were cool, because some punk kid in his class I suppose would say stuff. I had to constantly tell him that some 5-year-old kid didn’t know what was and wasn’t cool. Well, today he didn’t want me to take his picture in front of the other kids or give him a hug goodbye. Uggghhh how dare he be too old for hugs.
Arianna had gymnastics in the morning, then we both took a nap, and finally it was time for the school bus to bring Lucas home. I was surprised how anxious I was waiting for him to get off the bus. But there he was and he said his day was great!
On the way to his gymnastics class I asked him all about his day. He told me more than usual, but I still didn’t get much detail. He said recess was short and so was lunch because there were a lot of kids to all eat at once. He said he was good and lay down on his mat and didn’t get up at rest time, but of course he didn’t sleep (and who knows how much he jabbered). They did circle time and read a book and did a chart about how everyone was feeling about being in Kindergarten– happy, sad, scared, excited. He said he picked happy. They went to another class for “technology” where he said they played Starfall on the computers. Landon is in that class with him (yay) but they were busy and they didn’t get to spend any time together. America, a girl in his preschool class last year, is in his class. She told him she had special powers and he asked me if that was real or if she was lying. I said it depends on what she considers to be her ” special powers” but that she was probably pretending.
I asked him if he liked riding the bus home and he said, “no, I loved it!” He said the kids lined up and held hands and walked to all the buses and each kid got on a different bus. None of the kids from his class were on his bus. He said he sat in the front seat. He told me the bus driver asked him which stop was his stop and he told her, “at my house.” When I asked him how he knew when to get off the bus he said he saw his house (the bus stop is in front of our house).
After gymnastics he and I went to Sweet Escapes, the local ice cream shop down the road, and got ice cream for a first day treat. When we got home, Landon and Jillian came over and played in the backyard until dinner time.
Our day was busy and exhausting, but it went well and he now seems to have no qualms about going tomorrow. Yay!
So I never liked the idea of cremation. I don’t like the idea of just not existing anywhere anymore. I would have no base for my ghost to haunt. But i hate the idea of my dead body rotting and falling apart. I don’t want to be raised as a zombie to shamble around in rotten bits.
Tonight I learned on Beauty and the Beast that cremation doesn’t immediately burn you to dust. I knew a regular fire cant burn a body…its not hot enough. I just figured cremation had a super-duper heated fire. Buuut turns out cremation uses its super-duper heat “until there are only brittle, calcified bones left, which are then pulverized into “ashes.” ”
My dilemma is solved! I’ll just have them do half the process and bury my bones.
The kitchen wall behind where my kids sit is disgusting. There is splattered food, play-doh, crayon drawings, and who knows what else graffitiing the wall. It is a half-wall topped by a high-top counter (aka misc junk collector) which luckily shadows the mess a bit.
In a rare occurrence of craft project follow through, I’m painting the high-top counter’s wall with chalkboard paint. I got a pint from Lowes and had them color it white. All the colors it comes in were bright or dark and not what I wanted for this project, so they made it bright white and we will see how it works out.
I painted the first coat, set the lid on top of the paint can, and carried the paint brush to the sink for wrapping. My sweet, helpful little girl took the initiative to bring me the paint can as well. *Luckily* it did not spill everywhere despite the lid just balancing on top of the can and not pushed down at all. Unfortunately, the paint around the rim got all over her shirt and it is now ruined. I instantly pulled it off and took it to the sink for washing, but no amount of soap (I also tried vinegar) is getting it all out. Every time they ruin a piece of clothing I immediately think, “Darnit, now I can’t resell this.”
Lucas: Mommy, is anyone coming over today?
Me: No
Lucas: Then why are we cleaning up?
Waiting for the paint to dry, I’m in an accomplished mood. Luckily for Paul, he is gone all day at a Bando seminar. I decided to tackle another project. Our doorbell has been busted for awhile now, and I picked out a lovely pewter colored scrolly looking one to replace the tacky yellowed plastic one the builders used. Having zero electrical experience of even the smallest kind, I decided to replace the doorbell myself. I did manage to get the old one off, but ran into an issue of the new one needing a large hole drilled for it. But that’s okay, I have the interwebs! Oh, I guess it is a good thing I just looked it up instead of just going ahead and doing it, because “Always always, always check for any electricity cables running through the wall before you start drilling. Catching a live cable when drilling is potentially fatal so it’s worth taking the extra time to check.” ….Probably not an issue with the doorbell, but I think I’ll leave this project for Paul to finish and stick to crafts.
I’m really lazy, so I use disposable travel razors all the time. A couple of times in the past I have tried having a real razor that you buy replacement blades for, but I never stick with them beyond a single refill. The problem with the refillable razors (pre-Amazon days) was that I had to remember what kind of razor I had when I was at the store. That requires preparation by noting the brand and razor type to put on a list. I know, that sounds really easy, like no big deal. And if they ever lasted into multiple purchases I would probably remember what razor I had and not have to figure it out each time. But I never get that far into owning it because by then I’ve already gone ahead and bought a bag of cheap, disposable razors.
My new Bzz campaign is for the BIC Soleil Glow razors. These seem to me to be a crossover, hybrid type razor. (You can seem my razor expertise coming out here, because I doubt this is a new product…but I’ve never paid any attention to razors before). They are disposable razors, but not the cheapy, harsh kind. They have a curved, easy to hold handle. I think the handle shape makes me less likely to just bash at my leg with the razor like I do with the straight handled razors. I don’t know if it’s ergonomics or perception. They have a rounded outer edge (COMFORT SHIELD™ head) around the blade that makes it feel softer against the skin. And they come in pretty, girly colors. It has three blades, a protector strip, and a swivel head. My old razor had two blades and a strip.
I don’t know the price value of the razors since I got mine for free through BzzAgent. According to the Target website, the 3 pack goes for $7 ($2.33/razor). More than I paid per razor for the cheapo ones I had before this, but still not expensive so totally something I would buy.
Today’s campaign is about Kroger’s store brand, Private Selection. Specifically their desserts in a jar and their burgers.
The desserts in a jar are these small (single serving) mason jars of different fancy desserts that Kroger is selling in their bakery or prepared foods sections.
No they aren’t healthy, but they taste good and I like that I don’t pig out on a dessert because it is just enough for one.
They come in a bunch of choices. I’ve tried several and liked all the ones I tried. The chocolate types have been my favorite.
The only thing I don’t like about them is the packaging. The glass jars are nice, but I don’t like the tops at all. For one thing, they are not sealed in any way. There is no “tamper proof” packaging. Also, they don’t have a real lid so their reusability is limited. The lid consists of a paper label under a thin piece of clear plastic that sits inside the metal ring. Obviously this little piece of plastic isn’t really reusable and all you have to do to open it is unscrew the metal ring.
We used to get the prepackaged Bubba Burgers. This was our first time trying the Private Selection brand instead. They seemed to have some kind of extra spice to them that made them taste better. Unfortunately they seem to have more crud in them. I sometimes have to pick out tiny pieces of bone or inedible meat bits. They’re also a bit cheaper than the Bubba Burger boxes.
Really I need to join a 12 step program.
My latest neurosis – organising my books. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but if you give a mouse a cookie…
So I discovered PaperBackSwap.com where you can ditch your old books and get something else instead. Ya know…a used bookstore online. Sure you can get $4 used books from Amazon which is great for buying, but not for trying to get rid of your personal library. And does anyone really use ebay anymore since the mass-resellers and bot buyers took over?
Now while I might not be the ideal customer since I reread most my books and like to hold onto them (as I do everything else), I did find about 60 to get rid of. I just signed up a couple of days ago and have already sent out 12.
This exciting development came two months after a complete reorganization of my bookshelves literally and virtually. That was when I discovered i owned 62 books that I’ve never read (not including book sets). It doesn’t seem like 62 when I look at the actual books, but I keep rechecking the Goodreads list and yup, I have bought 62 books that I’ve never even read. I set a goal to drop that number to 40 before I was allowed to purchase any books (excluding new releases of series I’m already vested in). I did decently well getting them down to 50 by either reading them or moving them to the “never gonna read” pile. But now I have 12 book credits for free books on the bookswap…so you guessed it…I’m back to 62 unread books.
In addition to the time I’ve spent calculating and comparing book costs (which involves researching and tracking data in spreadsheets – remember how I said I’m neurotic?), I also started making my own Kindle book files. See, a lot of authors of series write little short extras that they post on their blogs. So they are all floating around in cyberspace. One particularly annoying author posted her short story in separate paragraphs on **12** fan blogs. So yes to read that story you have to follow 12 different links for one short story. Obnoxious. So I taught myself last night how to make ebooks and started gathering up all these loose stories and converting and transferring them to my Kindle. Nice and neat all in one place.
I have some kind of Goodreads addiction. It makes it too easy to pick out new books. I just add and add and add to my growing pile of books to read. Seriously, 153 on my To-Read list, 47 of them I already own and haven’t read! I’m pretty sure heaven is endless, uninterrupted book reading time.
We got this new campaign from BzzAgent in the mail today. Lucas was SO excited when we opened the box and saw that they had fun character tops for the fruit drinks. Our package came with Thomas, Scooby, and Snow White, but I see on their website there are a TON of characters and are all the really super popular ones. AND they had Hello Kitty, so yeah, I’m totally going to be getting these drinks for me, too. Since there are so many tops, there is a fun collectors aspect to it, too.
The ones we got to try were apple juice and fruit medley. Apple juice is apple juice, but the fruit medley is soo yum! And these are really healthy drinks, too, so I don’t feel at all guilty giving them to them. They come in 4, 6, and 8 oz bottles so you can match the amount your kids typically drink (although in Lucas’s case I would need them to come in gallon size).
You don’t have to buy the character top every time; they’re reusable. You pick out a character top single serve, and then buy refill 6 packs of the juices for the same price and capri suns, etc (but healthier than capri sun).
I used to get the mini apple juice bottles to carry around in the diaper bag, but I’m definitely switching to these!
My latest freebie from BzzAgent, the Fiber one meal bars. I received two boxes: chocolate peanut butter and strawberry greek yogurt. Surprisingly, I liked the strawberry ones best even though I don’t like greek yogurt. These are hearty granola bars and come in at 190 calories which make them a decently filling snack (although I wouldn’t eat them on their own for an actual meal like the title suggests).
I packed mine in my backpack for Disney World and loved having them along to keep me going with all the park walking. I’d give these 4/5 stars for having a good taste, a good size, and healthier than a lot of snack alternatives.
ally-cat 