Can you smell it??

It's a smell I've never experienced before. It's delightful! It's intoxicating!

It's new car smell. And it's in MY car. Wow.

I like it. What have I ever done to deserve my blessings?

Welcome me back to...

...the ranks of those with car payments!!! I'm trading in my 12 year old Geo Prizm that has almost 130,000 miles on it. The Prizm is a great car, but it's to the point where it needs new tires, new brakes, a new timing belt that I kept putting off, and it would soon need new exhaust. It also has developed an oil leak over the past few months that has me putting in a couple extra quarts between oil changes. So instead of putting the money into repairs, I've been persuaded to put the money towards a new vehicle.

I had a Honda CRV, a Mazda Tribute, and a Saturn Vue on my list. The CRVs were a bit too expensive for our budget unless we found a great deal on a used one, which we weren't finding. I test drove a couple Tributes and they weren't bad. But then we went and test drove a Vue and we loved it!! So we signed on the dotted line.

I thought I was super excited when I got my Geo because it had only 42k miles on it. My first car - a two-tone brown 1980 Chevy Citation - had 90,000 miles on it when I got it. My 2nd car - a cute little black 1988 Mazda 323 - had 55,000 miles on it when I got it. This car had 9 miles on it (yes, NINE) when we hopped in for the test drive, lol. Not even growing up did our family EVER buy a NEW car. I love it!! Now I totally understand the "new car smell" thing.

I'll get a call tomorrow from the financing dude as to when to come in and sign that paperwork, then turn over the keys to my Geo. Whee!!!! And eek!!!

I've added a couple new folks...

...to my "Blogs I Read Often" list over there>>>>

So go visit and say hi to Melanie and Leonard. Melanie is a friend I've known for a few years and has now started her own blog. :) My mom emailed me a link to Leonard's blog, and I think it will prove to be very interesting!

Happy To Have an Only Child!

My sister (the one with 3 kids - Demon Spawn, Angel Child, and Barfy Baby) - her in-laws sold their house and are moving into a condo. So the in-laws are doing lots of packing and moving, and today was going to be a big day to move lots of stuff. My sister asked me to babysit her 3 kids so she and her hubby could go help with the move. (The inlaws didn't want to pay to hire someone to move....)

So I get there about 9am, and by 11am, I've seen tears, mud, dirt, barf, poop.... You name it. I ended up ordering a pizza for delivery for lunch for all of us so I wouldn't have to make anything. The pizza man rings the bell and I open the door with part of a gooey rice krispy treat in one hand, a baby screaming in the background, a 3 yr old dancing around and singing, "the pizza's here! the pizza's here! the pizza's here!", and I'm just trying to open my wallet one handed so I can get the $$ out to pay him.

We eat, I send Demon Spawn, Angel Child and Frodo out to play in the sprinkler so I can feed the Barfy Baby. I can't find a bib anywhere so I decide to feed her then change her clothes when I'm done. I couldn't even get 20 minutes to feed her and in comes my nephew saying he's already done with the sprinkler. Hello? Towel? And what do you mean "done"?

So I finally finish feeding Barfy Baby and I am not wearing any barf! Woo Hoo! I barely get a wet washcloth across her face and all the kids are in the house already. Sheesh. My sister needs a swingset or something else to entertain kids out in the yard.

Demon Spawn starts acting up because I won't make snowcones because I'm rocking the baby for her nap. Angel Child (who is becoming less and less angelic...) has wet right thru her pull-up. Frodo is looking for a corner to hide in for some peace and quiet, lol.

Demon Spawn hollers at me from the bathroom, "Mel! You gotta come here and help me with the plunger!" (That's never a good phrase to hear.) He learns that he can't flush 10 of those "flushable" wipes all at once....

Needless to say, by the time I left at 330pm, both Frodo and I were bolting for the car, lol. We are BOTH very happy he's an only child. How do moms of many kids do it? I'm drinking.

What the heck am I thinking????

In my approaching middle-age state, I've decided I need to start exercising more. I used to run when I was younger. Some days I sorta miss it. So I decided to take up running again. A friend of mine wants to run with me. (This is good, because otherwise I'd probably be giving up already.)

We went for our first run on Saturday morning. I do not remember it being this difficult. I do not remember having to breathe so hard. I do not remember sweating like a pig in Georgia in July. I do not remember my shorts trying to bunch up. I DO however remember the soreness of the next day. And for some reason, the memory there is that the soreness was much worse when I was younger than it is now.... Isn't that odd?

So to *warm up* we just walked the first mile. Then tried to run the second mile. I make it about 0.6 miles and I am breathing like I'm a two pack a day smoker. My friend with the blood pressure of 160/110 is doing better than I am. WTF?

So today we go for our second run. I bring along the albuterol inhaler to see if it helps. We do the first mile warm up walk first. Then I make it about 0.7 miles this time before I have to stop. I used the inhaler once before we left and once about halfway thru the run. It helped a little. I was able to recover my breathing much faster this time. But my pulse went thru the roof, lol.

And the whole time I'm running I'm thinking, oh yeah.... my chest wasn't this developed when I used to run.... What a difference THAT makes! Time to look into some surgery me thinks....

Woo Hoo!

An email I received today:

Hi Mel,

This problem was caused by a temporary operational problem we had recently that accidentally reverted the post page settings for a small number of blogs. I corrected this on your blog and the comment links should now be working again. I hope that helps.

Sincerely, Graham
Blogger Support

So comment away! Yay! Thanks Graham!

Darn!

I was just informed that my comments haven't been working.... (Thanks Samir!!)

And here I thought nobody was reading or cared. (Just kidding.) My counter did pass the 1000 mark today, so I know someone is reading!

I've emailed the blogger folks and I hope it's back up and running soon!

~Mel

When you read...

...a news story like this, what are your first thoughts? Do you think, "Oh my goodness! That is a sack of bull-loney!" or do you think, "Hmmm... Very interesting."?

Guess which one I think. ;)

And I still find it very *interesting* that a few years ago, there was a HUGE congressional and media outcry about "Slick Willy" lying about getting a blow job, but here we sit, being lied to day after day for YEARS about something MUCH more horrible (I don't think a couple blow jobs at a desk killed anyone) and somehow nothing is being done.... It's disgusting.

Counting down...

...the days, I mean, nights until August 1st. That is the day hubby has his sleep study scheduled for! Woo Hoo! And you know what finally got him to call? A friend of ours said, "Maybe you should call and get in for a sleep study." And bingo. Just a few days later, he calls. Hello? That's what I've been saying for months now! Oh yeah. I'm just your wife so what I say doesn't mean shit. And he tells another friend, "Yeah, maybe I should do that. It's one thing if I'm snoring at home, but when we go on our vacation and share the cabin with the other family, I don't want to keep all of them up." (Gee, now I see where I rank on his list....)

Does anyone know, will they send him home with that CPAP machine that day? God, I hope so. Maybe if I bring them chocolate chip cookies they can get one loaded in our trunk that day.

In the meantime, I'll be spending my nights sleeping in the spare bedroom so I can get *less interrupted* sleep. It's commonly known in our house as "The Pink Bedroom", because when we bought the house, it had pink carpet and a pink and white ruffled window valance. I'm not a huge fan of pink, but at least the carpet isn't all stained with dog pee or anything like that. And there's so much furniture in there, you can hardly see the carpet anyhow.

Fifty-one. That's the number right now. Fifty-one more nights.

"The Snortiest Snorers...

..in all the fair land, are Snorter McPhail and his Snore-a-Snort Band."* And my husband!!!

My hubby has started snoring the past 6 months. It's making me crazy to have my sleep disturbed all the time due to his snoring. He keeps telling me he'll call the doctor and then he never does! Grrrr.

Short of putting a pillow over his face, any sage advice? I moved into the spare bedroom last week. It's so nice to get sleep again!



(*Thanks Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book)

Matt, Ian, and Michael**...

(**Names NOT changed because some are not so innocent!)

Let me tell you about three boys - Matt, Ian, and Michael.

Matt and Ian are brothers. Matt is older, about 10 years old. He doesn't seem like a horrible kid, except he's kinda whiny, and the poor boy has such an overbite, he looks like a groundhog.

Ian is the younger brother and he's about 6 years old. He's the kind of kid you'd like to strangle. And you would enjoy every moment of it too. He's a rotten brat and is always doing things that really aren't *appropriate*, and his parents never discipline him for anything so far as I can tell.

Michael is about 4 years old. Totally unrelated to Matt and Ian. Today, Frodo and I are at the pool and Matt, Ian, and Michael are there. Ian is being his usual brat. Matt is whining, and poor little Michael has no idea what he's about to get into....

Michael's dad is sitting on a lounge chair, talking on his cell phone. Matt and Ian's dad is off on another lounge chair, seemingly watching what is going on in the pool. I'm in a lounge chair myself, tossing the diving ring in for Frodo to dive for, because that way I don't have to get into the cold water, and Frodo is happy to have something to do.

I tell Frodo that I'm done with the diving ring *game*, and I'd like to read for a little bit. I also lean in close and tell him to steer clear of Ian - he's just one of those kids that you *know* is trouble. Frodo has seen him before, so he knows him, and agrees to stay away. I settle back and just watch the pool for a few minutes. I see Ian and Michael have made acquaintance. I watch for a moment and realize that Ian is inching Michael towards a deeper part of the pool that is still shallow enough for Ian, but not Michael.

Michael is telling Ian to stop and Ian doesn't. I notice Michael is starting to get into water a bit deep. I pause for a split second to see if his dad or if Ian's dad is noticing. Michael's dad is still gabbing on his cell phone. Ian's dad seems oblivious. I jump out of my chair and leap into the pool and scoop Michael up. He's coughing and gagging on pool water. I turn to Ian and say, "You NEVER push a smaller child EVER again!!" And I take Michael up to his dad.

Michael is okay. A little shaken, but able to cough up all the pool water. I grab my towel and sit back on my chair, and throw Ian a glare that probably would've made the inhabitants of hell feel uneasy. After about 5 minutes, I see Michael is wanting to get back into the water, and his dad comes and thanks me and apologizes for losing track of his own son. I explained to him that I've seen Ian around before and know that he is not a child to be trusted, so I'd just been keeping an extra close eye on him. The whole rest of the time, I see Michael's dad keeping his eye on his own child, thank goodness. Now I can relax a bit. ;)

Frodo is happy in the water for a short while, then starts getting cold. We bask in the sun briefly to dry off, and Michael and his dad get up to leave and stop and thank me again. They made my day by doing that. I see Ian and Matthew and their dad get up to leave a few minutes later as well. By this time, it's getting late, so Frodo and I head home as well.


Watch for Ian on the news in a couple decades - he'll probably be a serial killer.