Double Bomb Part 1

I don't even know where to begin today... Our week has been rather, um, eventful. Paige, our oldest, dropped a couple of different bombs on us this week and we're still trying to mentally catch up so I'll be doing this post in two parts.

James went and picked up the girls Christmas afternoon and we had Paige and Anne all week. Honestly, I love having them here so it's always great when we get them for extended periods of time. We had a house full of people until around 8 o'clock and then everyone settled into their respective spaces. Lena and Anne hauled up in there room to play with the new toys, James headed off to bed shortly after since he had to work the next morning, and I stayed up with Paige to visit for a bit.

I've mentioned before that I think she's a pretty amazing kid and I still think so. She confided in me Christmas night however that her and her boyfriend had done the deed. Or in her exact words "We ummmm... Yeah. You know? That."

In all truth, sex has been a pretty open topic in my household growing up, so it doesn't really phase me much. I've always been honest with Lena about the basics (no gory details), because I believe that when you make something into a huge deal then it becomes a huge deal. I know some parents would probably be horrified that I'm up front with my 11 year old about what sex is and how it happens. But in my personal opinion, I believe that if I make it into something shameful then later on down the road it will encourage her to keep secrets about whatever curiosities may strike her. I'd much rather she'd not be scared to approach me on the subject.

I feel sorta the same way with Paige. There's a huge exception though... I'm not technically her parent. I know and understand that she's 19 years old and that her and her boyfriend have been together almost 3 years now. Hearing it didn't make me uncomfortable because I know she's old enough to make that choice and it didn't happen with some weirdo she just met. Being the only person she told however, that put me in a rather tough spot. Mostly, I just listened to what she had to say and I gave her advice when she asked. All the while I'm busy thinking, how the hell does she think I won't tell her dad?

I let her know that I don't keep secrets from him and that she needed to fess up to him. I also strongly encouraged her to tell her mom. I told her that her dad won't be mad, that we just want her to be safe. However, Paige is scared of almost everything (which is what kept her waiting so long in the first place thankfully). She told me she knew she needed to tell them, but she doesn't want them to get mad at her. Paige does not do confrontation well with anyone, but especially her parents. Instead she hides things and pretends they don't exist. She does exactly what I'm trying to teach Lena not to do.

I gave her a full 24 hours to tell James before I told him he needed to go talk to her about her and the boyfriend.

The moment I mentioned it he already knew what she had to tell him. He looked straight at me and asked "It's sex, isn't it?" Well, I'm not going to lie... So I said yes. As I expected he wasn't mad at all. In fact, he went straight into our room and fished out the box of condoms we'd bought months ago for her when we figured she was getting close to being ready. Even though there was no yelling, no I'm disappointed, no retaliation of any kind, she stayed beat red and tight lipped about it. She admitted that it had happened and that was all he could get out of her. I guess at least it's out there and she knows if she needs to talk to him about it ever, she won't have to worry about losing her head.

Knowing however had now left James and I with some concerns. Usually Paige comes down on Thursday nights and her and the boyfriend spend Friday during the day together at our house while we're at work. Do we continue to allow this or do we put a halt to this now? Do we keep condoms stocked in the house or do we let it be their responsibility to get them? We're not really sure just yet. I'm fairly certain that they'll find a way whether we facilitate it or not, but the question is, if we make it safer her for her to do it or we really helping her or not? I don't know.

Merry Day After Christmas Photo Share

We must have worn the kids out yesterday because it's 9:30 and they're all still sleeping. That's not unusual for Paige, but for the little ones it's a rare occurrence. I would have thought for sure they'd be up and chomping at the bit to play more Disney Infinity. I'm not complaining though, I'm enjoying my coffee and the quiet. Here's a little photo recap of our holiday celebrations this week:

I spent 5 hours on Christmas Eve cleaning the kid's room.
4 full bags of garbage and 3 bags for donation.
But we found some fun things along the way.

Sam thought the tissue paper was the purrfect gift.

Thanks to Gramma, we said goodbye to Dora and the Jonas Brothers!

Paige had to chew on her gifts to get them open.
James thinks it's funny to tap all the corners shut for her.

Best part... There's left over pie!

You can check out the some video clips here.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We certainly did and I'm so grateful!

How to Transfer a Photo onto a Glass Block... Forget the Mod Podge!

I made several of these personalized glass blocks for my family last Christmas and they were a huge hit. I wanted to share my results for anyone looking for a unique and relatively inexpensive gift idea.

Originally I had started this post with a step by step process on using Mod Podge Photo Transfer Medium. Turns out, you're required to own a laser printer in order for this to work properly. Sorry Mod Podge, but all I have is your standard affordable inkjet kind. It would have been nice if they put it on the bottle that it was necessary instead of just recommended.

 In the beginning I was extremely excited by this project. Getting gifts that my family doesn't just go and out and get themselves is hard and I thought putting a photograph on the square glass craft blockwas something no one in my family would ever think of (because no one in my family is exceptionally good at crafts, especially me). Two days in I was ready to be done with this nightmare!

See, it takes a little over 48 hours for Mod Podge to dry after application. And that's IF the temperature of your home is perfect. It can't be too cold, too hot, too damp, or too dry or it takes even longer (that should have been my clue right there this crap was tricky). But of course, I'm nothing if not determined so I applied it to my printed inkjet copy and waited for grass to grow for it to be completely dry. After the 24-48 hours waiting period you then dampen the paper and "simply" peel it off.

First of all, there is nothing simple about getting the printer paper off the damn block. It sticks like glue, peels the Mod Podge medium if you rub to hard, and drys too quickly which necessitates wetting it repeatedly which results in over saturation and smeared ink (this is probably why the "recommend" using a laser printer).

After a good 20 minutes of peeling off the soppy paper, my end result looked like this:

The photo isn't the least bit clear and if you look close enough you can see where not all the paper fibers came off. It took a total of 3 days just to get that and all I had to show for it was blue fingers and a foggy photo. I was more than disappointed, I was pissed!

After seeing this, I ended up researching alternatives well passed midnight. Some people recommended a product called Liquitex Professional Gloss Gel Transfer, which essentially is a different type of Mod Podge. There was no way I was doing that again! Other people recommended printing on vellum paper. However, after looking into it more closely printing on vellum is tricky. Not all printers will actually do it, since it's basically a water resistant tracing paper that's not actually meant to be printed on. That didn't seem like a really good idea to roll the dice on.

Time was running out, since we're leaving today and it took me until Wednesday to figure out Mod Podge is a joke. In the end, I went over to Office Depot on Thursday and found a wonderful printer friendly product.... WINDOW CLING! If I had just been smart enough to visit my local office store in the first place, it would have saved me a ton of time and a migraine.

So if anyone is looking to do something like this, please just order yourself some printable window cling sheets and save yourself a boat load of stress. You'll actually get the results you're looking for with essentially no hassle...

Sorry About The Future Therapy Kid... Mom's a Little Nuts!

Last night was Lena's choir concert and like all moms, I was extremely proud of my little girl. I'm kicking myself right now, because I already transferred all the videos on my phone over to my external drive last night and forgot to upload them to my YouTube Channel.

My mom wasn't able to make it since her car is broken again, so the moment I got home I hurried up and loaded them onto my regular Facebook page for Gramma to see and completely spaced out everything else. That's okay, I'm certain no one other than Gram wants to see an hour of a children's choir anyway. It's just one of those things that mothers love... When it's their own child. But here she is before we rushed out the door...

I made sure to get there super early, like 45 minutes early, this year to make sure I got good seats. Last year, I ended up stuck at work a little late and by the time I arrived I was seated all the way toward the back and could hardly see my munchkin. Both James and Lena thought I was being a bit excessive (and maybe I was) but there was no way I was not sitting in front this year.

As it turns out, even with all of my over-zealous seat obsession, I watched in almost utter horror as my daughter walked out and promptly walked all the way to the opposite end of the stage from where we were sitting. How could I let this happen? I was on the wrong freaking side!

I immediately leaped up and dashed to the other side of the gym. I'm pretty certain I embarrassed the living daylights out of Lena with my lightening reflexes, since no other parent moved an inch when the kids filed out and Lena had her face buried behind her hands.I suppose leaping like a gazelle across the isle and almost sliding across the gym floor wasn't the smoothest move I could have made. I'm also guessing that either A) the other children were kind enough to inform their parents of what side to sit on or B) that I'm really the only freak parent out there who doesn't care what other people think. I'm going to go with A, if for no other reason that to make myself feel better.

I was full on prepared to sit squarely on the floor (again, there was no way I wasn't sitting in the front). Thankfully, there was a kind old Gramma who took pity on me and had a spare seat next to her that she was kind enough to share with me. I thanked her and said hello to the mom on the other side who literally rolled her eyes at my greeting and proceeded to ignore my existence for the remainder of the evening. Sheesh... Someone's a GRINCH.

The only moment through the whole concert Lena smiled was when her Auntie Ma'mie got there during the second song, otherwise she was busy giving me dirty looks between songs.

But I don't care. I got a front row seat. I tapped the whole darn thing. And we kept the tradition my family has had since we were little and celebrated with DQ afterward.

I'll Be Getting Crafty

Is it just me or do the weeks just seem to be flying by lately? I can't believe that the weekend is already over (sigh).

So thanks to Pinterest, I have now discovered the wonderland that is Etsy. I had come across a t-shirt for Paige a while back that I knew the moment I saw it, she was getting it for Christmas. See, she has a bit of a Harry Potter obsession and you can't just stroll into JC Penny and expect to find the contents of Diagon Alley on the shelves. Etsy however, is a whole different ball game!

They had more Harry Potter stuff on there than I could have ever imagined. Over 250 pages worth in fact! I did order her Make Love Not Horcruxes shirt off there last week and I've been browsing ever since. I even went and installed the app on my phone and have already created a decent sized list of favorite items.

Now, I've never really been good at arts and crafts despite having an over abundance of crafting supplies. We have glitter literally coming out of every nook and cranny of the house (even when we've vacuumed 100s of times between uses) and enough glue and stickers to put back together the London Bridge if need be. Owning said craft supplies, does not however, make one good at being crafty. The attempts have always been there in spurts over the years though. Yesterday, we pulled all of this out because Anne had a project to make Naked and Thankfully Un-Anatomically Correct Santa a new suit.

Ultimately she only asked for my help with this because she wanted me to decorate Santa for her. I did help her cut things out and did the gluing, but all the decorating was her responsibility.

Once the craft supplies were scattered around the living room like a vast array of glittery landmines, it did spark that urge to get creative. I had seen these awesome photo transfer blocks on Etsy this week and now I've got it in my head that I don't have to order them, I can simply make them myself.

I found a video on YouTube that seems like it will be simple enough to follow and went through 1000's of pictures yesterday and picked out the one's I like for each person in my family. Last year, I did goodie baskets because frankly, if my family wants something they just go out and get it. It makes Christmas maddening sometimes, so it seemed just the thing I was looking for this year.

We don't have any of the girls this weekend since Lena is headed to my sister's house and I will be taking over the kitchen in an attempting to pull this off...

My Amazing Teenager

I am incredibly grateful for Paige this morning! She really saved our rear-ends. Lately, she's been coming down to our house on Thursday nights since she has to work weekends. When we take her to work on Saturday she goes home afterward since she has to work again on Sunday. Living an hour from James' girls is extremely less than convenient (I can't wait till we move closer this summer), but we've managed to find a way to make it work.

This morning, it was seriously a life saver that she was here. Lena is currently on her choir tour today to all the schools in town and the library. I made sure she showered last night, I blow dried her hair so it would be easier to straighten in the morning, and we laid out her required outfit. Literally as we're getting ready to walk out the door, Lena freezes in her tracks, and tells me "Oh mom! I forgot! I need a lunch today." Most people would think this was obvious, however she's a hot lunch kid. I don't ever make her a lunch really. I just deposit money into her account every payday and then it's one less thing I have to worry about. Well... She won't be at school today for lunch, i.e. she needed a sack lunch. Ummm... SHIT!

 I've mentioned several times before that neither Lena nor myself are exactly morning people and that she's also terribly distracted constantly. We're always rushing out the door at the last possible moment and pulling up to the stop as the bus gets there (or sometimes after the bus gets there and then we rush two more stops up and do a drive-by shove out let her get on with Luke instead). Even with all my preparation the night before, this morning was really no different than the others. There simply was just not time to make her this lunch that she failed to mention to me in the last two weeks. Coincidentally, she had also lost the sheet that came home with all details I would need. Frankly, she's lucky she had pants!

But I'm getting off track here... At that moment, I was faced with either A) being late to work to make this lunch and then drive her into school OR B) I could wake up Paige and ask her to drive Lena into school. Keep in mind folks, were talking about a teenager here, and her ability to sleep is one that I envy and miss greatly. Typically, we don't have her help out with the kids because she does enough of that at her other home (there are 6 kids in total there). We believe in our house she should be the kid and not a co-parent. I did end up waking up Paige though, this was an emergency after all, and thank the freaking gods she was willing and hell, even happy to help me out of this jam.

I kissed both my girls goodbye and dashed out the door. I made it to work with two minutes to spare thanks to Paige. She's one amazing kid and I'm grateful for her always, but especially today!

There's Never Enough Time

It has been an extremely busy week here in the Nowhere household. We've basically been running nonstop since Saturday. We got our Christmas tree, made cookies, and have been getting ready for the upcoming Nifty Notes concert that Lena is in next week. This required new shoes, new pants, new tights, and she was in serious need of a haircut.

I've spent every lunch break this week running errands trying to get everything put together and by the time I have been getting home, I'm just exhausted. We've been in bed by 9pm every night this week so far.

So instead of going on and on, I'm just going to share some photos instead today.

Saturday we hit up Luer's Christmas Tree Farm in Crown Point. This will also be our
Christmas card photo this year. Speaking of which, I need to get those ordered.

We cut down our own tree. And by "we" I mean James.

The girls decided to fight over who got to haul the tree.

So naturally, we made them take turns.

I don't have a lot of photos from decorating.
We finally learned how to use Skype and had the
Great Grandparents from FL join in the festivities.

And we ran out of lights when we got to the top.

Sunday we made cookies and they promptly ditched me
when I wouldn't let them keep eating the dough.

Sam has decided to help encourage Lena with her reading.
This seems to be working very well, because she doesn't
want him to leave her bed, so she reads longer than required.

Oh, and he wants to go to school.

How to Tell Dad Was in Charge

Thursday morning Lena and I went to Meijers to get a few last minute things for Thanksgiving dinner and then the remainder of the day was spent quietly at home. There was no huge family meal, although I did make a Thanksgiving dinner. It was just Lena, James, and I. My family was scattered about with their various commitments with their significant others. Anne and Paige spent Thanksgiving with their mom this year because it was her turn, but they did come down late Thursday night since it's our weekend with them. Plus, we had already celebrated with James' family a couple weeks ago since that's what worked with everyone's scheduled. All and all though, Thanksgiving was not very eventful, which was nice. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my family, but it's a good feeling to just stay home sometimes.

Friday I did have to work. James was off though, so he got to stay home with our girls which basically ended up being an entire day to himself (sorta, he is on call this week and spent a decent amount of Friday on the phone). Paige and her boyfriend wanted to head out for Black Friday and she decided to take her two younger siblings along since dad was answering call after call after call. Now, I do understand that he was most likely distracted during the hustle and bustle of the girls getting ready to leave for what turned out to be an entire day's adventure, but you would think he would have noticed a couple small things...

For instance, what they left the house wearing would have been a worth while observation...

I might be mistaken, but I'm fairly certain I've put this shirt in the donation pile more than once. Not only did Anne not match, every time she lifts her arms even slightly, it exposes her whole mid section. A whole 5 extra seconds of looking in her closet and she would have found the shirt that actually came with the pants. When I asked James about it he informed me that he didn't even notice. She's old enough to dress herself and therefore it translates in his male mind that whatever she should happen to put on is sufficient. Oh dear... Just because she's 7 and physically able to dress herself, it doesn't mean she isn't in need of a little guidance at times. My sweet child walked around Toys 'R Us, Walmart, the entire mall, and out to dinner at Baker's Square dressed like a piece of spin art gone wrong. Lovely!

That's not all though. He also failed to have them brush their hair and their teeth before sending them on this shopping adventure. Lena's hair is already a labyrinth of tangles when she wakes up. The child honestly sleeps like a mini hurricane and somehow manages to get all of her hair mated to the point of looking like some sort of mental patient with a fear of hair brushes... Every. Single. Morning. Again, this is something that James is well aware of. Yet somehow, it slipped his mind as she slapped a pony tail holder in her hair and jettisoned out the door. 

When my girls got home Friday evening and I saw this all I could was shake my head and grab the camera. Maybe I'll write up a list of instructions next time it's his day to watch the girls. You know, with the basics?

1. Have the children brush their teeth: while Lena does believe that is part dragon or part werewolf, please make sure she does not smell like one.

2. Have the children brush their hair: this may require some assistance on your part. Neither child is very skilled in this arena and they tend to leave gigantic knots on the undersides of their heads.

3. Make sure they where clothes that match: it is only cute when they dress themselves in mismatched clothes when they're toddlers. Once they have passed that phase, it just looks tacky to send them out in clothes that are too small and in wonky colors.

4. Feed them before they leave the house: we already know our teenager is addicted to all things fast food. If you fail to feed them prior to sending them off with the oldest child they will eat nothing but french fries and chicken nuggets for all three meals with ice cream in between.

5. Please text me if you have any doubts: in this wonderful day and age of technology, you can send me a picture if you're just not sure. Believe me, I will help you.

You Can Be A Real Mermaid Too!

Picture found here.

Grab your seashells ladies and Sebastian cue the music! Percussion, wind, words...

As I was snuggled up on the couch this evening under the comforter with my Kindle in hand, Lena came rushing from her room "Mom, you need to see this!" Forgive me for not leaping up immediately, but the number of times I've needed to see some commercial the Disney Channel is kind enough to shove down our kids throats has left me just slightly numb to the endless string of crying wolf over some toy that would collect dust in the corner 24 hours post purchase. Plus, we simply do not disturb His Majesty during cuddle time. It's against the rules.

Normally, my reluctance to rush in to view the latest infomercial she is being suckered by has stumbled upon is greeted with a stern look, crossed arms, and a bit of low growling noises. However, she usually putters back to her room without too much protest. This evening that was certainly not the case.

"Mmmoooommmm! (insert whining noise here) You NEED to see this!" She scooped up Mr. High and Mighty and set him aside like a used sock and damn near yanked my arm out my socket in an attempt to drag me from my reading spot. At this point, I'm well aware that I will get no peace until I go with her and find out what all this fuss is about. Sorry Green Gables, you will have to wait.

I sit down on Anne's lower bunk, fully expecting that I'm going to be berated for missing the commercial. Nope, my child has recently discovered YouTube holds a whole lot more than hilarious cat videos (thanks mom for sending home the dinosaur laptops) and has stumbled on the following using the search term, and I quote, "How to be a real werewolf." See the connection to the growling noises? And yes, that worries me. My child is now searching the internet for people to bite her... In retrospect, I probably should have made this incident into a larger conversation, but I guess there's always tomorrow... Anyway, back to the tale at hand...

Lena makes sure my full attention is on her laptop before pressing play on this little snippet.

While this is admittedly brilliant and a small piece of me halfway wondered if she made them in adult sizes (she does by the way) I have no intention of ordering Lena a mermaid tail for Christmas. I'm certain this will cause her utter disrepair, permanent scaring, and loads of therapy bills down the road (oh wait, that was going to happen anyway) I just can't see spending over $100 for my child to have a tail that would only fit her for the next 6 months if I'm lucky.

Hats off to the smart and crafty mom who figured out how to make her little girl's Ariel dreams come true, but sadly, my daughter will not be joining the under the sea gang because it's just too many clams for this mom.

James asked what she would do if we even did get her a tail and I immediately started making flopping motions with my body and said she'd flop herself all over the house. He laughed at me... A lot... But, we agree I'm right about that. I guess Lena will just have to deal with living Ariel's dreams of having legs. That's just the way the coral crumbles.

Maybe It's A Grandma Club?

When the weather starts to get good and cold, I tend to go on a little bit of a soup binge. There's something about hot soup on a super cold day that helps warm you from the inside out. Since it's a whooping high of 32 degrees today here in the lovely Midwest and the snow flurries have started to fall, I ran over to Meijer's today and grabbed a few soup cups to stash in my drawer for lunch this week.

With Thanksgiving just a few short days away they were completely packed! Even the express self checkout lane had a rather significant line. As I stood their waiting patiently to purchase my lunch items (I may have accidentally grabbed some Little Debbie Christmas Trees to hide here at work as well) I noticed a bit of a trend among my older fellow shoppers. They all had short hair.

It got me to thinking about my own grandmothers. Most of them have passed away, but I have distinct memories of my grandmothers, my great grandmothers, and even one great great grandmother. They too all had/have short hair. I'm slightly curious, is this some sort of grandmother initiation or right of passage? I can't really recall at what point my Gram's made the decision to part with her long locks and sport what appears to be the honorary Grandma Do. All I know is that now that I think about it, I can't remember my Gram's having long hair. I've only seen pictures.

I'm wondering, am I the who has noticed this odd coincidence?

She was a knock-out... And to me, she still is.

I'm On My Way to Nerd Heaven!

For the past couple weeks now, my manager and I have been discussing upgrading our office programs to the new Microsoft Office 365 Enterprise package. While I'm fairly certain it would bore several people to tears, the idea of getting my hands on this new software makes me drool like a kid who just walked into Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory!

The features and abilities of this glorious cloud based office suite is putting my inner geek into overdrive at the moment. I can feel the adrenaline levels rising at the thought of getting my hands on such a marvelous toy sophisticated tool to help aid in our overall production. It's not only the upper crust of Word and PowerPoint, but an entire management system to integrate the whole office seamlessly... Simply put, we're headed into nerd heaven for me!

While my co-workers are looking at me like I'm some sort of strung out junkie on the verge of getting her fix, my manager and I are buzzing like little bees about it. We share that special bond that only two tech obsessed super geeks can really understand. It's one of the things I love about working here. It finally brought me to someone who is not stuck in the technological stone-age!

I won't bore you all with the details, but it looks like that's the route we'll be taking sooner rather than later. My joy was overflowing and I just couldn't help myself!

Sometimes You Just Gotta Go Mom

Ummmm... Did you think I was going to be someone else today?

Lena returned to school today and needless to say after two days on hiatus, she came home with plenty of make up homework. When she called to check in I told her to get started on it. Not really what she wanted to hear, so I had to pull my parent card out.

It got me to thinking about the whole fact that being your child's best friend while they're young is really nothing short of a delusion. Don't get me wrong, I will be the first person to say that my daughter is my friend, but I'm also not afraid to draw the line and slap my mom card on the table whenever I see fit.

I love my daughter. And that's just it... I love my daughter.

I love her too much to let her walk all over me. I'm a big advocate for allowing my child to make choices, to assert her independence, to be who she wants to be... Within reason.

I have one friend in particular who has adopted the whole parenting through friendship concept and personally speaking, I think she's nuts! I love her, but her daughter sorta reminds me of this...

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little (or maybe I'm not). Either way, I refuse to let Lena end up like either of those two brats! I will continue to "go mom on her" whenever she's getting a little too big for her breeches. I'm the parent and at the end of the day... What I say... Goes.

I Could Never Be Amish!

I never thought the sight of my kitchen light being on could fill me with so much joy! I was like a kid on Christmas morning jumping up and down for joy when I pulled into the drive last night. Call me spoiled, but after 3 long days power has finally been restored to our house and I have no idea how the Amish do it! Let me tell you, you don't know what a hot commodity running water and lights are until you don't have it!

Sunday we had spent the day downtown at the Museum of Science and Industry. We knew there were storms, we knew they were bad (James and my brother-in-law were grumbling about the cancelled Bears game), but in all honesty we were really none-the-wiser about just how bad they were. While massive tornadoes were leveling parts of Illinois and Indiana we were safely nestled inside the museum enjoying the Disney Archives exhibit. If I have internet at home restored later today, I will upload all of the photos to my Facebook and Google+.

When we had left our house it was clear out and when we left the museum it was clear out. However, we came home to the power being out. Now, I'm fully aware of the fact that we live in the sticks and this does tend to happen out here. Usually we lose it for about half a day to a day and then we're good to go again. Knowing this, I wasn't overly concerned and I actually rather enjoyed our first evening without power. Since no one could zone out with the TV, James couldn't get internet on his iPad, and we weren't messing around on our cells phones to conserve the battery just in case (they double as our alarm clocks) we dusted off a good old fashion board game and played by candle/lantern light. I may have been the only one who found spending an entire day unplugged thrilling, but Lena and James didn't complain too much. We went to bed that night figuring we would wake up to the power being on.

Well.... No such luck. Even then, I wasn't really concerned, I assumed it would be back when we got home. Lena on the other hand was a little stressed out about it. "Mom, how am I going to charge my new Kindle??" Plain and simple... You don't. Not exactly the answer she was looking for, but she sucked it up all the same. Monday afternoon, I received a call from a Nipsco technician following up about the pole down that I had reported the night before. He assured me that they were in route and that they would get the problem fixed. See, no worries right?

After speaking with him, it didn't occur to me that I should have arranged additional coverage for Lena after school. She's okay to be home alone for a couple of hours until either James or I gets off work. When I got home, I fully expected to find Lena glued to her Kindle with a kitty in her lap. I did not expect to find a dark house with a terrified tween freezing in the dark with a lantern. (There goes that Mother of the Year Award... Again.)

It took me all of 5 seconds to decide she simply could not stay here. I called my parents and let them know I was bringing them a grand baby immediately. Lena packed her bag quickly and then we hit the road for the 50 minute drive to Gramma's house. Now that the powers returned, she'll be coming home today. She's not going to enjoy the make up homework she'll have, but at least I knew she was warm and fed and could flush the toilet (it's the little things that matter).

I am beyond thrilled to have power back, because I was downright freezing my ass off! But I do have one thing to say about how no power messed up my usual routine...

HOLY LAUNDRY BATMAN!!!

Maybe the whole no power thing wasn't so bad after all. Oh well, back to the grind I guess. 

Sorry I'm MIA

Thanks to the storms that came through the Midwest on Sunday, we're still without power. We're going on day #3 without lights, heat, and water. Took the little one up to Grandma's house for the time being. At least she's safe and warm, which is all that matters. Not sure when I'll be back up and running, but I'm crossing my fingers that it will be sooner rather than later!

Basic Car Maintenance is Worth The Time to Learn

For weeks now I have been asking James to take a look at my car. It was being rather picky about wanting to provide heat and here in the Midwest that's not really an optional function. Heat and AC are absolute requirements if you want to avoid things like pneumonia and/or heat stroke. For someone who used to be a mechanic, he sure hates working on any car but his own. When his car wasn't working right over the summer you bet your bottom dollar the moment he got home he was under the hood tinkering with it. When my AC wouldn't work and I needed him to recharge it, he waited through 2 months of my non-stop nagging before he took the whole 10 minutes to do it.

When the colder temperatures started creeping in a few weeks back (keep in mind I'm always freezing when it's below 75 out) I noticed that it would take longer for my heat to kick in even after having warmed up my car. I knew based on the whole AC fiasco that I better bring it up now so that maybe, just maybe, he might look at it before the first snow. No such luck!

We got our first dusting of our inevitable winter wonderland a few days ago and still he's not so much as opened my hood. Instead he saw fit to joke about how great it is to have remote start now (his old car didn't make it past July) and that he'd look at it this weekend for sure. Meanwhile, I've been scrapping frost off my window all week, shivering and shaking like a Parkinson patient, and swearing profusely while beating the hell out of my dashboard trying to will my heat telepathically to work.

Last night at 2:30am my sister called and needed a ride back from a party she was at. She was completely hammered and the person who was supposed to be the DD for her group had not held up her end of the bargain. First, let me say, I'm incredibly proud that my sister is smart enough, even when drunk, to not get in the car with some idiot and to call me instead. Getting up and rescuing her did not bother me one bit, the fact that it was below 30 and my heat didn't come on at all in that hour and a half span that I was in the car however made me furious! I decided right then and there at 3am that I was not going to wait around to see if James will maybe look at my car this weekend between our upcoming Thanksgiving/Birthday dinner on Saturday with his family and the Museum of Science and Industry trip we have planned on Sunday to see the Disney Archives exhibit.

Since today is my late day in due to the monthly sales meeting, I dropped Lena off at school and went over to the mechanic shop that I've been using in town for the past 3 years. (Yes, I work at an auto place and my boss would probably be terribly disappointed that I take my car somewhere else.) When I arrived I explained what had been going on with the car and he said it sounded like my blower control valve could possibly be sticking, but before he ordered any parts he wanted to just double check. He pulled my car into the garage and less than 10 minutes later he had my heat working and I was good to go. Want to know what was wrong? My coolant was empty! That's it! It cost me all of $8 to have him fill it up again for me and my heat is working like a brand new sauna.

I'm thrilled my heat is back, but I'm a little perturbed at both James and at my guys at work. For starters, I just got an oil change not all that long ago from work and they're supposed to top up all my fluids when doing so. Washer fluid, coolant, etc. None of which was done. I will be having some words when I get into work today to let him know that the general service guys are half assing the oil changes. Second, if James had ever bothered to so much as open the hood of my car like I've been asking, he would have spotted it right away and it could have been fixed already!

Ladies, never assume a man will take care of that kind of thing for you. If it doesn't effect them directly, it will end up on the back burner. Educate yourselves on basic things like coolant levels and you can avoid making the mistake of freezing unnecessarily like I just did!

When You Try To Snuggle a Dragon

This is what happens....

Happy 11th Birthday Baby Girl!

It was a great weekend! We finally celebrated Lena's official 11th birthday on Saturday. Her and I went to breakfast, just the two of us.

James was sweet enough to stay home and clean the house for her sleepover later that evening. Honestly, I think it's because he didn't want to go to the mall, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. 

Mostly we just window shopped for a little while. And found the most disturbing candle ever created...

Don't get me wrong, I love the smell of bacon cooking on a Sunday morning, but I wouldn't want my house to smell like frying pig 24/7.

When we got home, James had tackled the entire house which left me free to help Lena clean her tornado. When I say help, I basically mean I cleaned her room myself while she watched. 

Her little girlfriends arrived right on time at 5:00 and James headed out to his friend's house for the evening while I chaperoned 5 giggly squealing tweens. They had a blast though! A little Wii Dance party, pizza, and the remaining Halloween candy went over with much enthusiasm. 

I ended up spending a good portion of the night in my room watching Fried Green Tomatoes because once the necessity of mom was done (i.e. pizza), I was promptly dismissed...

I finally tossed in the towel around 11:30 because I couldn't keep my eyes open much longer. However, I was informed that they will still wide awake when James got home from boys night out at 3:30am. 

I woke up to this the next morning, which melted my heart.

Happy 11th birthday baby girl!

P.S. You can stop growing now.