Based On A True Story

I'd like to be thrifty but I just can't afford it.

2011-01-18T16:20:00.004-07:00

So like many of you out in the world, I am (or I was) a huge fan of the home decorating on the cheep blogs. I would faithfully check out all of my favorite bloggers everyday and marvel over their amazing creative prowess. I started stalking the local thrift stores for diamonds in the rough that I could transform into home decorating gems.

But lately I've started to realize a change out there in the blogoshere. My favorite bloggers have become buisness women. They have changed from creative women who share their love of crafting and design with the world to crafty product placement advertisers. It seems like almost half the time I go to my favorite blogs to get inspired the post starts with " More From the Silhouette Craft Cutter" - www.makeit-loveit.com or "I just used the embroidry function on my Bernia computerised sewing machine" or "I did this using my Go Cutter machine." And the other half of the time I'll find a link to a shopping site or another lifestyle site like Martha Stewart.

I know that this is the way the world works and everyone has the right to make a living from their talents but I find myself dissapointed that places that I used to go for inspiration to make my povery striken life more pleasent have changed to be just like TV and make me fell like I'm less of a human because I don't have the money to buy all the gadgets that would help me to be "thrifty". Even if I had the money I don't have a clue where I would put a Silhouette, a Cricut, and the new computer that I would have to buy to go with my new sewing machine.

I guess I just have to accept the fact that I don't have the money to be frugal.

Mr. Wonderful?

2010-02-24T23:57:00.003-07:00

I know, I know it has been a long while since I posted and I'm very sorry. A lot has happened that I need to catch all two of you up on but that will have to wait till another day as I have another topic in mind.

You, who have been waiting with baited breath to read the pearls of wisdom that I impart have my dear darling husband to thank for breaking the blog fast of the past several months.

First, the disclaimer. I am well aware that my husband is one of the best men out there. Many of my friends are envious of his kindness, his willingness to serve, his humility. I love him for all those qualities too but I have one question, At what point in our marriage vows did I promise to be responsible for all of his stuff?

Yesterday, after spending the third straight day at the church doing his calling( good job, hunny) he comes home with a small stack of papers and throws them down on the coffee table and goes to bed. Today after spending the evening doing more church stuff (good job hunny) he comes home and needs some info that was written on one of the pieces of paper. Some how I'm supposed to know what happened to the paper with the info on it. So he looks at me, slightly accusingly and asks me what I did with it.

Now, before last September that was a bit of a valid question. Most of the time I had the typical mommy radar and could come up with a pretty good guesstimate as to where just about anything was in our house. But thing have changed. First school started, the amount of paper that floods into this house from our two children boggles my mind. In any given day the kids can bring home between 5 and 1000 sheets of paper. (OK 1000 might be an exaggeration but seriously you should see my recycle bin.) it's easy for things to get lost in the shuffle. And second, I started working outside the home and I'm the first to admit that I have lost my touch.

Is it too much to ask that he just take care of his own stuff?
Am I being to hard on him?
am I blowing this out of proportion?
Am I blogging at midnight in the midst of a full blown PMS crisis?

The answers to these questions are no, yes, yes, YES! I probably just need some chocolate.

Rant of the week

2009-04-23T09:48:00.002-06:00

I have a HUGE pet peeve. Literally. When I see people doing it I can't control myself. I have to say something, OK, if I'm being honest, I yell at perfect strangers. I try to be polite as I call the people to repentance but it always end with me being angry and yelling at random people.

So what is this issue that turns me into a crazed maniac you ask? Well, I hate, hate, hate dog owners that walk their dogs off leash.

There is a sports field that separates my house from the school that my kids attend and several times a week I see dog owners walking their dogs off leash. Me and my kids have been chased down several times by strange dogs and the lovely dog owners will yell from across the field as my daughter is screaming and crying in fear "Don't worry, he's very friendly". Yeah, that's going to dry her tears in an instant. Then they call the dog, but almost always, the dog is not well trained enough to actually listen. When I try to politely remind the dog owner that this is not an off leash area and could they please keep their dog on a leash. These awesome people either blow me off with a "Oh, he wouldn't hurt a fly." comment or they get very angry with me for censoring their behavior in the first place.

I don't want my kids to be afraid of dogs and if there is a friendly responsible dog owner with a dog safely on a leash, I will let my kids play with the dog. I want to know how to keep them from being afraid when almost every week they are being chased down by strange dogs that don't obey commands to sit or heel.

The city bylaw states that the dogs should not even be in the sports fields at all. Probably to keep the poop to a minimum (which by the way there is massive amounts of). But no one follows this rule and the city certainly doesn't enforce it so I am left to either police the park myself or ignore the dangers of the untrained dogs making my daughter cry as they invade her personal space.

I hope you all enjoyed my rant.

Potpourri

2009-04-06T15:06:00.002-06:00

It seems like I have a lot to say today, so here it goes.

First of all, I am finally loving the weather. We have hit double digits for the first time this year that I can remember. The sun is shining, the snow is melting and I sent Dallin to school without snow pants!!

Now, the question becomes, do I pack away the snow suits, hats mitts and scarves or am I jinxing it? My entry way is clogged with all of the winter stuff and some of the spring stuff creeping in. Just the kids have 4 different pairs of shoes/boots depending on activity and destination. Add to that the snow suits, rain coats, hoodies and such. and I am being over run with stuff. Dallin has been begging to start ridding his bike now that the sidewalks are clear but the last thing I want to do is add helmets and roller blades and soccer balls to the mix.

Suggestions are welcome.

Next, the long weekend. We are traveling to southern Alberta this weekend and we are not excited about it. Kenyon and I have come to the conclusion that traveling 7 hours away for a long weekend is just not worth it. You may be asking yourselves why are they going then? We are biting the bullet due to family pressure from our kids as well as from everyone else.

The most annoying thing about it is My Husbands Family! (sorry Harris') I love them but they don't listen. We have told them repeatedly that we don't like to do big family functions(by big family functions I mean all the Aunts, Uncles, Cousins 2nd and 3rd) when we are only there for 1 or 2 days.

I understand why they want to have these parties 1) We're awesome everyone wants to spend time with us. 2)They all live within an hour of each other. It just doesn't occur to anyone that not everyone has to come to everything. And 3) They have this fantasy about our kids playing together with the kids of Kenyon's cousins in peace and harmony. A Harris family Utopia. What they don't realize is that my kids don't know those kids. My kids just spent the day before traveling for 7-8hrs and sleeping in a strange place. And in the case of Megan she is painfully shy and doesn't like large groups of people. So to make a long story short we make a huge effort for the soul purpose of having a bad time.

We have asked them to keep thing low key and casual and they agree. Then one thing is added, and then another family wants to come, and then we get the phone call "We haven't seen you for a year can't you just stop by for an hour?" And by the end of the weekend we have visited 6 different houses, 3different towns and about 50 people.

The worst part is that since my parents moved to the same town as some of Kenyon's Aunts and Uncles, they don't respect the time we want to spend with my family. Last year we had set aside a day for my family. We let everyone know ahead of time but still by about 1:00 they started to phone my parents house and kept phoning until Kenyon caved and went to go visit them. Kenyon and I were so angry and frustrated that we really haven't wanted to go back. I also get the distinct impression that I am being blamed for the lack of visits since last summer.

Now it's already started, plans have already been changed and visits already added.

Once again suggestions are welcome.

Last but not least it's looking like I will be going back to work shortly. I have accepted the reality that if I want to shop like I want to shop, I need to make some moola. Looking forward to my first paycheck. I should probably call my old boss and see if there is even a spot for me.

I Have a Confession

2009-04-02T21:09:00.003-06:00

I want you all to know that I love my children. I need to say that straight off because although I love my children I have a secret shame. I HATE playing with them. I love to talk to them, I love to read with them, go on outings with them, but when Dallin comes and asks "Mom will you play with me?" every fiber of my being screams "NO!!!"

I hate everything about playing with toys. Pretending to be a barbie or a car with a silly voice and have a ridiculous conversation with another toy, tries my patience. It seems like play time lasts forever and I apparently do it wrong. Dallin is always correcting me "No mommy, put Lightning here!" "No, Say it in the funny voice." "Mommy, I need all the cars."

I almost always try to get out of it. " Honey, I need to work on the computer right now." " I just need to finish the dishes. " "Do you want to watch a movie?" And if I do finally say yes I do everything I can to end it fast. I will often initiate a wrestling match or a tickle fight to end a session with the toys. I really hope they haven't realized my true feelings.

I expect the Parent of the Year people to be calling any day now. Maybe they lost my phone number.

Our saving grace

2009-03-23T12:41:00.002-06:00

Any one who knows me has heard me say that my beautiful daughter is dragging us kicking and screaming to the celestial kingdom. She is the one who has made FHE an every Monday occurrence instead of when ever I remember kind of thing. She is the one who made us start having daily family scripture study again. She has even been known to sing primary songs at the top of her lungs to deter bullying at school.

We are now known as the Crazy Christians around Kameyosek Elementary.

Anyhoo, I now have a new story to further illustrate the righteousness that is Megan. Today Megan wasn't feeling great so she stayed home from school. I was feeling awful also and really needed to sleep so I told Megan that she could essentially do what she wanted this morning. Movies, TV, wii, snacks, nothing was off the table. An hour and a half later I woke up and went to check on her. My wild child was watching a Book of Mormon Stories movie while writing in her journal.

Where did this child come from?

She was obviously sent to our family to call us to repentance. Which she does, every day.

Where is spring

2009-03-11T16:35:00.004-06:00

Where is spring?? I am so tired of being stuck in this house with these people (I love my family, really). My biggest pet peeve with winter is that it seems like we are sick from the first snowfall until we can open the windows again. For example just this winter we have had innumerable colds, stomach flu twice, I have had three, yes three ear infections and now my little Dallin has pneumonia for the second time in three months.

Can you order a bone marrow transplant from Amazon? I wonder how much that would cost.

In spring, summer and fall we are outside all the time. We go on bike rides, hike, camp, barbecue,and play in the park, essentially, we live outside. And although we are annoyed by seasonal allergies, we just keep going.

Maybe I could build a bio dome around our house, hmm. I wonder what the monthly utilities would be on that.

Anyways, I have become a weather network stalker. I check the forecast about 18 times a day. When the long range forecast shows a warming trend I am as happy as can be but if the temperature tanks so does my patience and mood.

Maybe I can be adopted by a lonely rich childless couple who have a house in the Bahamas, hmm. I wonder if E-Harmony has a section for that.

February?!

2009-02-10T13:48:00.004-07:00

I have a love/hate relationship with February. I love it because I can see spring coming. The days are getting longer and the sun is getting higher in the sky. I look at the calender and I know that in 4 or 5 short weeks much of the snow will be gone and the temperature most days will be above zero. I tell myself that 4 weeks flies by and that before I know it spring will be here. And then it snows. and the temperature drops to -18 and my kids leave their mitts and hats and snow pants and boots strewn all over the place and I am back to hating February. It is the shortest month of the year but boy does it feel like the longest.

My daughter gets mad at me when I talk about spring. She loves winter. She loves hockey, and skating, and sledding, she's crazy! Doesn't she get that its cold outside? That in spring we can ride bikes, barbecue, and stay outside without 10lbs of extra outerwear?

My son gets it. He told me during the last cold snap that we should stop going to school until the snow was gone. That kid is a genius! I wonder if I could home school just from Nov. to March? Dang, that would mean no school Christmas concert. Its just not Christmas unless a kid in grade one falls off the stage.

Oh well, spring is only a month away. Maybe I can hibernate till then.

Am I old or is it just me?

2009-02-05T23:12:00.001-07:00

I am going through a midlife crisis. I know that I'm not even close to my midlife but boy, am I feeling my age. It has been almost 15 years since I graduated from high school (holy crap!), 11 years since I graduated from college (argh), and almost 10 years since I got married (I guess I'm not a newlywed anymore).

When did I become "still young" instead of just being young? Where did those wrinkles come from? Why do I make noises when I get up? Is it just me or am I old?

2009-02-03T17:15:00.002-07:00

My house is a disaster!! I never clean on Sundays and I wasn't feeling great on Monday so I chose to spend the day on the phone avoiding my chores. This morning I looked around and wondered where was I when the tornado hit. Now instead of cleaning I am blogging instead. Can you say procrastination. Crap, I'd better get to work.:(

finally

2009-01-30T10:05:00.002-07:00

Today I am finally going shopping to spend a gift card I have had for over a year. Why does this seem to happen with me so much. I have sat on movie, restaurant, and retail gift cards all for periods of more than a year. And then when I actually spend them there is always $1.37 left on the card and it stays in my wallet for years afterward. People please don't give me gift cards for anywhere but grocery stores as they are the only place I go on a regular basis.

Rejected by Facebook

2009-01-26T20:57:00.002-07:00

I have decided that being on facebook is very much like junior high. I get to watch all the "cool kids" get messages and invites while my wall is embarrasingly empty of anything except my status updates.

I'm back

2009-01-20T23:35:00.002-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted, but I'm going to give it a try again.

Things have changed a little in my life but thankfully not much. My children are older as am I. If only wiser was as automatic. My beautiful girl is 7 and my cute and energetic boy is 5. It is a strange transition going from kids at home to kids in school. I feel like I am back in grade 12 and I need to decide what I'm going to be when I grow up. Should I go back to school? Should I get a full time job, a part time job, or continue to be a full time mom? How much should I volunteer at the School before my kids think I'm cramping their style and the teachers call me crazy stalker mom behind my back? Any suggestions?

Are families really that important?

2007-04-17T15:42:00.000-06:00

It has been a stressful time for our family. my parents are not doing well and my sisters and i have been trying to find a time and a solution to help them.

Let's get rrready to rrrumble!!

we all have different ideas about what they should do and how soon the plan should be put into action. My younger sister wants to take away all financial control from them and have us (her) make all of their decisions. My youngest sister wants them to sell there house yesterday and move to a tiny community away from their doctors and everyone they know because living expenses are cheaper.

I find this frustrating. My parents, although in poor health and precarious finances, are grownups. they have hearts and minds and feelings. I seem to say over and over that they need to make these important decisions for them selves and that we need to help them in a way that will allow them to maintain there dignity and self respect.

These are not issues that are going to be solved overnight. These are not issues that have a permanent solution. Explaining this to my twenty something sisters seems to be a challenge.

Wish me luck. in our aging society this issue will affect everyone eventually, I just didn't expect it to affect me when my parents were in their mid 50's. Suggestions are welcome

There's something in the water

2006-10-06T00:26:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I got a job at shoppers drugmart. I work mostly night shifts 6pm-12am and let me tell you it has been an eye opener. So far it has been like watching a parade of stereotypes. From about 10pm on the only people in the store are women buying tampons and chocolate, men buying condoms and sports drinks and sick people buying cold and flu drugs. The best one was the couple that came in to buy a pregnancy test and condoms. Can you say oopps?

Tonight was a little different, in the last four hours of my shift i sold about 10 pregnancy tests. by the end of the evening I wanted to go home and check the calender. We all Know that these things are contageous. Watchout ladies there's something in the water.

But...

2006-10-05T16:59:00.000-06:00

I love the word 'but'. It is the word everyone uses to say what they really mean. Dr. Phil said when you use the word "but" it means forget everything I just said what I actually meant was....

Some of my favorite but phrases are:

I don't want to be a nusance but,... translation, pay attention to me!!!
I Know you don't want my opinion but,... translation, of course you want my opinion, I know everything
I don't want to be a nag but,...translation, if you had just listened to me in the first place we wouldn't be having this conversation
He's really nice but,...translation, I would rather spend my evening cleaning my bathtub drain than waste another minute with him

What's your favorite but phrase?

2006-09-29T09:18:00.000-06:00

Boys Will Be Boys

For all those who belive that gender is learned behavior and not genetic i would like you to meet my son, Monkey Boy. My son, from the time he was a fetus, was all male. He likes to run and jump all the time, he loves mighty machines, and last night he started displaying the typical tendencies of older males. While my husband was watching t.v my son came in and sat down next to him. On the screen was a beautiful skinny girl wearing a bikini. Monkey boy looks up and says "that girl (pause for effect) is smart!"

What is with boys????

I wish I were smart.

By the way Monkey boy turns 3 next week.

2006-09-28T14:33:00.000-06:00

I don't know what it is but when you do something new, something spontaneous, it's always more fun when you od it with someone watching. Riding a new bike, better when youyr friends are watching. Getting your ears pierced, better when your friernds are doing it with you. Getting your first kiss, better when you tell every one of your friends about his slobbery lips.

This is Missy's new blog and two of her friends (myself and A) are here to watch and witness the deflowering of Missy.

Enjoy.

2006-09-28T13:56:00.000-06:00

How many times does one have to listen to someone say"you need a blog. Do you want a blog? Get a blog!" befor you succumb to peer presure. I lasted about a month. So here i am with my very own blog, get ready world here i come.