He cracks me up

I try to leave the blogs that I regularly read in my blogroll on the side of my page without advertising them directly in a post. However, I really think that if you enjoy humor, you should go see Geese Aplenty. I can't remember reading a post of his that I haven't at least chuckled at and most of the time, I laugh outright.

I hate it when that happens

Don't you hate it when you silently complain about your husband's lack of attention to detail when he parks the truck right on the edge of the driveway so that you have to walk in the dew-covered grass and get your shoes wet and then he forgets to unlock the passenger side door when he knows that you have to put the carseat in there tonight and then you remember that he didn't go to work today and that you were the last one to drive the truck last night and park it on the edge of the driveway and leave the passenger door locked? Yeah, me too.

Freecycle

I've posted previously about freecycling but I recently threw my hat back into the ring attempting to get rid of a few things without having to just send them to the landfill. Now, I understand that nobody wanted a broken freezer. Crazier things have been taken on the local freecycle list, but I'm ok with people not stampeding in a mad rush to come get our broken freezer.

I wasn't so ok with nobody wanting to take 2 brand-new Fram oil filters. They were FREE, people. Many would argue that Fram is top of the line and these were SureGrip style, with the rubbery grippy part so that your hand doesn't slide around while trying to twist it off the engine. I expected people to stampede in a mad rush to come get our brand-new Fram oil filters.

I told Andy of my bafflement and our conversation went like this.

Me: How can nobody want 2 Fram oil filters for free?

Andy: People don't change their own oil anymore.

Me: Oh, come on - I can't be the only person.

Andy: Probably not, but how many of those people also use the Internet?

I think he's onto something.

Soccer series

Ahahaha, this is fun!



Yeah, this is *really* fun!



Man, that was tiring.

I'm King of the World!

Comprehension

How is it that when Kevin is playing with his Leappad and eating an apple in the backseat that he can pick up on the words to, say, AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long" but when he's doing nothing but dribbling a soccer ball around the field and the coach yells, "STOP!" he keeps going? Every time?

Left home without it

Today I was a rebel... we went out for a few hours without the diaper bag. Granted, I knew we wouldn't need the diapers but I didn't even have any extra clothes for Kevin. I probably won't do that again anytime soon, but it was my way of saying to the world, "My son has had 4 non-disastrous days in a row wearing underwear!" Not that anybody but I knew that I was out sans diaper bag, but still.

In an unrelated note, the poor kid is sick with what seems to be a cold. We're hoping that's all it is and that it doesn't get much worse. We don't want him to have to use the nebulizer again.

In another unrelated note, I dropped the digital camera we've been borrowing from one of Andy's coworkers and now it doesn't work. I coulda done without that.

They grow up so fast these days

Another trip report

I went scrapbooking with 16 other women this weekend from Friday through Sunday. Had a fun time. Got enough done to feel productive. Got too little sleep and still feel drowsy today. I need to replenish my creative stores as they seem to have been used up by the vellum, stickers, fibers, eyelets and brads I used this weekend although by looking at the pages I did you'd wonder why I call it creativity that created them but hey that's all I've got and I also went to work today which used up some of my creative stores because our email server was down and so was our connection to the internet off and on so I had to come up with ideas of how to spend my time so that I didn't waste it working.

Trip Report

So last weekend we were in Cape May, NJ, from Friday through Monday. It was our "annual" trip there with my parents for the huge bird migration. Last year we knew we wouldn't be able to go so we went in the spring instead. We didn't know if we'd make it back anytime soon but, lo and behold, Kevin likes watching and identifying birds and being outside so we went again this year. It rained a lot but we went out anyway. Didn't see much in the way of migrating birds (they either didn't stop there or were hidden in the cover to stay out of the rain) but we had a good time. Kevin really was superb - whenever he got tired of what we were doing, he'd occupy himself with something like playing in the dirt or sand or whatever. We ate all of our dinners at restaurants and he remained on excellent behavior there as well. We played miniature golf and he had a good time. He still talks about it and says that he wants to go again.

This weekend I'm going scrapbooking with a bunch of friends. I'll leave tomorrow and return on Sunday afternoon in time to throw my stuff into the house, scarf down some dinner and then head back out for a volleyball double-header. I am considering taking my bike with me - I can't remember the last time I rode my road bike without the trailer attached. That would involve taking all my gear, too, so I don't know whether I will or not.

Let's hope that I get some scrapbooking done this weekend - some progress would be nice. I don't work on my scrapbooks at home anymore and I can't recall the last time I made a card.

Cape May, NJ (October 7-10, 2005)

What Dianne Needs

This is so good that I'm posting it before anything else interesting such as a description of our very rainy and non-birdy birding weekend in Cape May and pictures from said weekend.

This is most recently from Betsy. The task: Google "[your name] needs". Here's what came up first for me:

• Dianne needs to understand also the struggles of African-Americans could be helped and I say,could be helped,by marriage.


• Dianne needs lots of reassurance that she is worth loving.


• Dianne needs state President reports for the year by June 6


• Dianne needs to know about lifestyle changes


• Dianne needs to get her facts straight, dumb chick


• Dianne needs a healing and God's strength.


• Dianne needs support and not discord


• Dianne needs to start getting some idea of how many people may show up

Changing the Oil and Filter

Yesterday I attempted to change the oil in the van but needed help finding the drain plug so I consulted the owner's manual. I was pleasantly surprised that it actually showed a picture of where the drain plug was however I also found this:

Changing the oil and filter requires special tools and access form underneath the vehicle. The vehicle should be raised on a service station-type hydraulic lift for this service. Unless you have the knowledge and proper equipment, you should have this maintenance done by a skilled mechanic.

I'm sure if I worked for the Honda legal team I'd understand this as more than just a blatant ploy for more money from their customers. Changing the oil REQUIRES a hydraulic lift??

Bribery works

Kevin is officially toilet training. It still boggles my mind that we as intelligent, upright-walking beings with opposable thumbs have to train to use the toilet.

What method are we using? Bribery. We're not calling it our "incentive plan" or "reward plan" - it's plain old bribery and we don't feel cheap because we're doing it. Why? Because it's working. It's the only thing that has worked so far.

I won't go into details because, well, it's toilet training. It's not like it's fluffy bunnies training or happy wet-nosed dogs training. Who wouldn't want to hear about those things? But toilet training? Not so much. I will be sure to let you know when it's done and maybe a milestone or two in the middle but I promise to keep it clean. Haha.

One year ago, we met Kevin

It was a year ago tomorrow (Oct 2nd) that we met Kevin. It kind of seems like yesterday which is weird because the first 6 or so months felt like forever. My first post after we returned home is here and it includes some information about our trip.

We couldn't figure out what to do to celebrate our anniversary (and we don't know what to call it... Family Together Day? Family Unification Day? something that can be used for future kids' celebrations, too.) I found on the Web a Guatemalan restaurant in Silver Spring but the day got away from us and we couldn't get down there in time for dinner. We ended up eating at a Mexican restaurant near us and Kevin filled up on milk and tortilla chips and didn't eat any (I mean ANY) of his meal. Andy and I reminisced about our trip to Guatemala and told Kevin about it and there was no mistaking either of our recollections of the ginormous amount of food that Kevin ate while we were there. Times have certainly changed and that's a good thing. Kevin knows (consciously and subconsciously) that we will continue to provide him food and that there will be more food available. So, he felt perfectly fine not eating a single bite of his dinner even though in Guatemala he ate more than any of us adults could even dream of eating. That behavior continued until about the 8th month he was home when he started to feel comfortable leaving food on his plate if we said that we'd save it for him.

Kevin is now sleeping in his bed all comfy and snug. It's nice that he likes to fall asleep when he needs to and that we don't have to carry him until he grudgingly falls into unconsciousness. And although it's tiring to hear "Mama!" or "Papa!" in the middle of the night, it's better than seeing him as we did in Guatemala laying in bed at 3:00 am wringing his hands and compulsively scratching his arms but not saying a word.

We look forward to many more Family Something Day celebrations in the years to come when it will be even harder to remember the way things used to be, when we met Kevin.