TMI Tuesday #7 - All About Underwear

Do you know how hard it is to find new underwear? I have been looking for years. Most of the underwear I have was purchased 6-7 years ago. Some of it is rather hole-y by now. The problem I have is that I like a certain kind. And only that kind. Out of necesity, I have bought a different kind recently, but I'm still on a search for better underwear. I like bikini's with cotton over the elastic. All bikini's have an elastic waist. You can buy them in grandma style, but not in a bikini. I'm short. If I wore the other style, they would hang out over top of my pants. While it may be stylish for teenage boys to wear them this way (and my daughter with her lovely training pants), I don't think it looks so hot on me.

I lucked into a new discovery though. Victoria's Secret has wonderful underwear! I normally don't shop there, because $12 for a single (One!!) pair of underwear is crazy. Oh, but I'm now tempted. I got 2 coupons in the mail for a free pair of Body by Victoria seamless panties. They were free, so I went and picked them up. So comfortable! Love them! But $12!. So sad.

Anyway, today and tomorrow, I'm wearing new underwear that have no holes and fit well. If only every day could be as good.

PS. When my mom owned a restaurant (I have a hard time spelling that. For some reason I just can't remember it. Everytime I write/type it, I have to stop and tell myself "There's an ant in the restaurant!" That's how I remember where the u goes.) we had a waitress named Sherry working there. Mom occasionally tells me she's run into her here or there, and every time she does, I have to stop and ask her who she's talking about. She says "You know, Sherry Blank" And I stop and say "Oh, you mean What color is your underwear Sherry?" She was one of those people who liked to show off her underwear. Often. Apparantly, it made her friends, because she was very popular with the guys. So in the interest of full disclosure, I'll let you all know: I got mine in pink.

Proof television rots your brain

If the clouds... if the clouds... clouds come down on the road we will have to watch out. We might run into them if we don't... if we don't... if we don't be careful... We should... if the clouds are in the road... we should go over them!... If the clouds are in the road, we should not run into them. We should... we should... we should fly our car over them...
Honey, our car can't fly.
Maybe we need a Mouse-ka-tool to help us fly over them... Maybe if we go... I see birds...Maybe if a bird... Maybe if a big bird comes up...Maybe if a big bird ... Maybe if a big bird came on it and it would let us fly... on it's back...  How do we...We need a boat... and some... and some... and some boat pawwles... and some... and some life jackets...to help us be safe from crocodiles.... Then we have to go to Crocodile lake...We have to go to crocodile lake to find the chocolate boat... we need a chocolate boat to get across aligator... chocolate lake. We have to go a chocolate lake aligator... a brown chocolate aligator lake! 

For those of you without children - that's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Dora the Explorer.

The best offense is a good defense?
Rob steals covers (in central Illinois, that's what we call blankets). He holds them tight and rolls over. I generally don't have a lot unless I also hold them tight. The problem with that is that I get out of bed at least 50 times in the night to tend to one child or another.  So last night when I put the sheets back on the bed after washing them, I intentionally left more on my side. I thought maybe if I started with more, I would end up with my fair share. It didn't work. He just started the night out noticing that he didn't have the usual amount and pulled them over. I'm thinking that maybe I need to weight them down somehow when I get out of bed in the night. Any suggestions?

good deeds

OK, it's Christmas season. So everyone is coming out of the woodwork with charity pleas. But, it's not just about Chirstmas season. I've had a link under my pictures over there for a long time. Every day you can click on it to help generate money for free mamograms. Every day of the year. Please do it. It only takes a minute. And today, because Jenny posted about it, I saw that there were more causes at the same site. I've decided to add them to my links and make them a little more prominent. So check them out and click. Go back and click some more tomorrow. and the next day...

 

 

 

Oh, and if you click, please, please, please go over to Jenny's site and comment that you did. She swore she wouldn't get 200 commenters on a single post and I really want to help prove her wrong.

snow flakes

Hey, I found a site you can carve pumpkins at Halloween, so I went looking for snowflakes. I suck at it. but it's still neat and a good cause.

news flash

Anya stood up today! She let go of the couch she pulled up on and just stood there for a good 3 seconds. She was very excited. Especially when I cheered and clapped forever. She did it 2 or 3 more times too. I'm so thrilled. I can't wait until she can run around. The longest she went tonight was 4 seconds. Rob got to see that one. He was cooking dinner (Sometimes he is useful) and turned around to see it.

They say that she learned how to crawl out of the circle at day care too. She doesn't fall on her nose anymore. Oh yeah, did I tell you she's not banned anymore? She figured out how to crawl back in too. So they figured they couldn't keep her out anymore.

Plus, tonight she was happy! Really really happy. This is the first itme I've been able to get her to laugh hard enough to hiccup. I was really worried. She was always such a serious baby. I wonder how long her ears have been hurting her and I didn't know about it. I tickled her, and threw her up and caught her, and we leaned in to each other and bonked heads (She really loves that one!). Plus, the diaper rash is getting better. Cross your fingers for a good night.

life, the universe, and everything birthday related

OK, here it is. The massive update I've been putting off, because there's so much freakin stuff that's happened:

Thanksgiving
We went to my maternal grandma's house. They live out in the middle of the country with fields all around. Grandpa was a farmer until just recently, but not the fields around his house? or something. I don't really know. I think someone else used them for cattle?? Anyway. They were all empty. All the way back to the pond. The kids all wanted to go out to the pond for some reason, so Ally went with. It was absolutely gorgeous weather, and she wasn't even wearing a coat. Beautiful. She ran! This is the girl who never walks along faster than she has too. She runs with her arms all crooked and her elbows sticking out, but she ran. She had a great time chasing her cousins. Then we got to the pond and played a bit. We threw small rocks in the water for a while. I wished I had a good camera lens, because from the opposite bank, I couldn't get any good pictures. Very sad. We ate. We played. Anya cruised between people, fell down roughly 38 times, and took a short nap.

Then there was cake. I got the cake out and set it on the table. Ally promptly stuck her finger in it and asked if it was real. That's what I get for giving her a fake cake to pose for pictures with, I guess. So we pulled her chair away from the table while I got the candles in and lit. As soon as we scooted her up to the table she blew out all the candles with one breath. Only problem was that no one was ready for pictures and we hadn't even sung yet. So I re-lit them and we tried again. She didn't get them all out with one breath the second time though. She ate cake. She got presents. She was happy. She also got to go back outside with my uncle and some other people for quite a while. She was outside as much of the day as was possible. She did not get a nap. She did not get to bed on time.

On a sad note, my grandparents are getting old. My grandma is getting signs of early Alzheimer's. My grandpa broke his ankle recently. They are both starting to, well, be old. I don't know quite what to say about it, except that it makes me very sad.

Ally's Birthday
We woke up and let Ally play a bit Friday while we were getting ready to hit the road. Just before we left, we let her open the rest of our presents. The trip of the day was planned for just before lunch so that she could eat in the car (and hopefully Stop Talking for a few minutes to give our ears a break. The kid never stops talking, so this was a necesary precaution). We were headed for Rob's mom's 2.5 hours away. Anya spent most of the trip playing or at least mostly happy. Her nap ended right before we left, so it worked out well that she was in a good mood. Ally, however would not take a nap (Day 2). And she made us stop to pee twice. Other than that the trip wasn't terrible.

We played outside when we got to Darra's. Rob's sister and kids were down visiting too, and had raked up a large leaf pile that Ally was perfectly happy to thrash around in. I gave Anya to Darra and Rob who were at the porch swing in the back yard and jumped in the leaves with her for a bit. Very liberating to play like that. Must do it more often. When I went back to get Anya and talk, she was trying to gag and spit out a little bit of the leaf that Rob had let her eat. What is it with fathers? You ask them to watch the kids and they do just that. Why don't they understand that "watching" them isn't a passive thing? You should not "watch" them eat leaves. Do somethng about it! Oh hey, I think that was a rant that snuck it's way into my story. Sorry about that. Anyway. We went for supper that night at the restaurant that I used to work at. Yummy. I love their pizza. Miss that place. Ally slept all night. Anya didn't. Grr.

Second Thanksgiving (Saturday)
Darra brought in one of those push/ride-on toys for babies to learn to walk. It was a train with a horn that Anya loved to push. The batteries soon mysteriously disappeared. (Oh my aching head). She pulled up on it and had a good old time with it. I sat her on it a couple times and let Ally push her around. Oh, they loved it. I think Anya is about ready to have one of her own. Ally never really liked to play with hers at that age. She just liked to pull up the seat and put things in the little storage area under it. Surprise! That's still her favorite thing and she is still doing it. Anya seriously liked riding though. Darra had all of her in-laws over for dinner. One little boy there was 4 and he and Ally went out to play in the leaves again. They played together pretty well. Rob's nephew got stuck in a tree. A neighbor's cat came to visit and wouldn't go away, even when Ally picked it up by the back legs and threw it in the leaf pile. She wanted it to play with her. It is actually a very even-tempered cat and let Ally pet it and hold it quite a bit. Nap time came and Ally laid in a bed upstairs, but with so much excitement going on, I let her get up and play after an hour of laying there staring at the ceiling. No nap Day 3. OMG!!!! Can you say crankiness (but only in the evening hours. The daytime was just fine)?

After everyone's stomach had time to adjust, we dragged out yet another birthday cake and sang and opened presents. Ally was very interested in her dress-up princess set and immediately had to have her ponies opened so she could put the babies in her "purse". Oh, and of course she had some more cake. She also loved her Rudolph stuffed toy. Conveniently, I had bought her Rudolph and the Misfit toys and she hadn't seen it yet, so she watched it while holding her Rudolph on the way home.

Sunday we rested. Oh and cleaned. Yuck.

Monday she took cupcakes to day care. Kid had lots of cake this year. No wonder she wants cake for Christmas.

Shew... That was long. Last weekend's update is much easier:

Thursday = rain + sleet. All. Day.
Friday = snow. over ice. yuck. Ally played in her new snowsuit.
Saturday = Santa at the mall. oh yes, pictures were taken. Check out Flickr.
Sunday = sledding. We found a really, very, large, humongous hill for sledding. Anya was supposed to be sleeping and Rob would stay with her. It didn't work out that way. I took Ally anyway. They stayed in the car. We went halfway up the small side of the hill and sledded down together. Then I got the wonderful idea of just sledding down the embankment on the far side instead. Much less scary heights. Plus it had the added bonus of being sloped enough that I could just leave Ally on the sled and pull her up then turn her around. She had a good time. Then Rob and I switched kids and she kinda got bratty. I think she was cold and he took her higher than I had, so she was scared. For some reason, he thought she'd enjoy going down the humongous hill. Duh. This kid has suddenly become afraid of the slide in the backyard. oh well. I think I would've had a blast without the kids. THe hill was slick and fast. I love sledding. Or at least I think I did. I haven't done it forever, and had a good time going with Ally.

Is that everything? God I hope so. I have to go see if there's anything I haven't eaten yet out there. Going to gain 10 pounds today.

Red Day
Today is red day at work. This means that the whole Information Services department brings in food for Christmas to share. Oh. my. God. There is so much good stuff out there. I have to pee very badly, but don't want to get up because I'll have to walk past the food again and I know I'll find something that I haven't yet seen and have to have. I currently have at my desk - 4.5 cookies, a little spicy roll-up thing, a piece of pineapple upsidedown cake, some almond bark covered snack mix, a cupcake, a lemon bar, dip with Hawain bread, and some little mints. Oh, I need to pee! I wonder what I'll come back with this time...

IRS refund

Hey, I got an email about a refund from the IRS. When yuou file your taxes this year, make sure you don't miss it. Here's the scoop: (Oh, and snopes.com verified it.

http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/excise.asp

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tax refund on your phone bill

When it comes time to prepare and file your 2006 tax return, make sure
you don't overlook the federal excise tax refund credit.  You claim the
credit on line 71 of your form 1040.  A similar line will be available
if you file the short form 1040A.   If you have family or friends who
no longer file a tax return AND they have their own land phone in their
home and have been paying a phone bill for years, make sure they know
about this form 1040EZ-T.

What is this all about?  Well the federal excise tax has been charge to
you on your phone bill for years. It is an old tax that was assessed on
your toll calls based on how far the call was being made and how much
time you talked on that call.  When phone companies began to offer flat
fee phone service, challenges to the excise tax ended up in federal
courts in several districts of the country. 

The challenges pointed out that flat fee/rate phone service had nothing
to do with the distance and the length of the phone call.   Therefore,
the excise tax should/could not be assessed.

The IRS has now conceded this argument.  Phone companies have been
given notice to stop assessing the federal excise tax as of Aug 30, 2006. 
You will most likely see the tax on your September cutoff statement,
but it should NOT be on your October bill.

But the challengers of the old law also demanded restitution.  So the
IRS has announced that a one time credit will be available when you and
I file our 2006 tax return as I explained above.  However, the IRS also
established limits on how BIG a credit you can get.  Here's how it
works.

  If you file your return as a single person with just you as a
dependent, you get to claim a $30 credit on line 71 of your 1040.

  If you file with a child or a parent as your dependent, you claim
$40.

  If you file your return as a married couple with no children, you
claim $40.

  If you file as married with children, you claim $50 if one child, 
$60 if two children.

  In all cases, the most you get to claim is $60 - UNLESS you have all
your phone bills starting AFTER Feb 28, 2003 through July 31, 2006 (do
not use any bills starting Aug 1, 2006.), then you can add up the
ACTUAL TAX AS IT APPEARS ON YOUR BILLS AND CLAIM THAT FOR A CREDIT.

Now if you have your actual phone bills and come up with an ACTUAL TAX
AMOUNT, you cannot use line 71 on your tax return.  You have to
complete a special form number 8913 and attach it to your tax return.

Individuals using the special from 1040EZ-T will have to attach this
form 8913 also.

One final point - this credit is a refundable credit.  That means you
get this money, no matter how your tax return works out.  If you would
end up owing the IRS a balance, the refund will reduce that balance you
owe. 

If you end up getting a refund, the credit will be added and you get a
bigger refund by that $30 to $60, depending on how many dependents are
on your return.

Feel free to pass this on or make copies for family and friends who
don't have computers.

3 year checkup

I took Ally for her 3 year checkup on Monday. 36.5 inches tall. 34 pounds. No shots! Then I decided that wasn't good enough and asked them for a flu shot. I'm terrible. I had discussed with her ahead of time that she was gong to get a shot and it would hurt a little, but when she was done she'd get a sucker and sticker. Everytime she saw someone new (the receptionist, the nurse, the doctor, the doctor again after interupting the exam to go potty, the nurse again when she came back to give her a shot) she made sure to tell them she didn't want a shot. We told her it wasn't time yet and she went on about her business. But when she got the shot? She screamed! You would have thought I was pulling out her fingernails. She sobbed. "I didn't want a shot! You gave me a shot and I didn't want a shot! It hurts! I didn't want a shot!" She got a sucker and it helped a little. She didn't really stop crying though until I showed her all the stickers and she got to pick one out. When she went to bed that night, she was laying in bed and I had gone back upstairs. I heard her yelling. Rob checked on her and told me that she was yelling because there was a sticker on her arm. It was the band-aid over the shot.

The rest of the checkup went pretty good. The Dr asked Ally a bunch of questions, some of which she actually deigned to answer. He asked if she could count to 5 and said 1. Ally stared at him blankly. So I wispered in her ear "3?" So she disagreed with me and told me I was wrong, cause she can't pass up an opportunity to do that. She then counted the rest of the way to 5. He asked her what color his shirt was (red). What color my shirt was (blue). What color his shoes were (I don't know). They were black. She knows that. She just thought she was being funny. So I asked her what color mine were. She said "the same as his". He accepted that answer as good enough. He asked how old she was (I'm 3 (fwee) years old!) Then he asked if she is a boy or a girl. (No, I'm 3 (fwee) years old!) So I asked "is Mommy a boy?" and she said "No, you're a girl". It was here that the dr decided he had asked enough questions. And he commented on her stubbornness. All in all it went well. It took forever, because she had to pee twice, but oh well. She hasn't had an "accident" for over a week now. Hooray.

She's my girl

What does Ally want for Christmas this year? Cake Hah! She wants cake with icing. I've asked her a million times this past week and I always get the same answer. I try to trick her and ask what she would like to unwrap - Cake. Like mother, like daughter.

TMI Tuesday #6 - The Uncle Tom Edition

When I was in high school, I had a slave. Ok, he wasn't my slave, but he was community property. I was free to use his services if I chose to be lazy. Me and my husband's group of friends that adopted me were all upperclassmen. A sophomore wanted to be friends with them. He talked to them and hung around them. In exchange for letting Billy hang out at our table at lunch, he had to be our slave. We gave him our orders and money, and he went and stood in line and fetched our food for us. Sometimes we'd call him Billy and sometimes we'd just say "Hey, slave." He was a pretty good kid, but I don't know what the hell possessed him to agree to this. I mean really? Why? What would be worth it? Anyway, we didn't really treat him badly or anything, and he kept coming back, so it must not have bothered him.

When he became a junior (I was a senior and my husband had graduated) it all ended. He started dating Abby (the really annoying girl who was friends with my husband's ex-girlfriend) and just became a real person. I feel kind of bad about it occasionally, but mostly, I remember it fondly. It was nice while it lasted. Those cafeteria lines were long. I enjoyed not having to stand in them. 

Does that make me a bad person? Nope? ok, I'll accept lazy.

to all my co-workers

When you see someone walking around with a large bag over their (yes, I know that's bad grammer, I just don't care) shoulder, you shouldn't automatically assume they are going home. Especially in December without a coat. if you ask "Goin' home?" you just might get an answer you don't expect. I try not to shout it from the rooftops, but if I just say "No" you look at me like I'm rude. It's really none of your business. If you wouldn't ask - you wouldn't have to be faced with the fact that I'm about to go pump my boobs. Just don't ask.

Thanks
Katie

more pics
Same link as before.  Also, I'm in the process of putting up some at Flickr. Had a busy weekend. Will tell you all about it soon.

Well, crap...

I was all proud of myself for being at work when everyone else couldn't make it in, and then I had to come home. Anya got sick at daycare. She threw up twice. I think she's just draining a bunch of snot and her belly is a little upset, because she's acting just fine. She even slept last night and woke up happy this morning. She let Rob get her out of the crib and was happily playing when I got out of the shower this morning!

So anyway, we bought Ally some boots because she just grew past the boots I had. First they were too big, now they're too small. She went outside to play and help Rob break up all the ice blocking the back doors. She had a good time and got to use the snowsuit that Darra got her for her birthday. Great timing! (She actually got it for her a long time ago and left it with me in case I needed it before her birthday, but I didn't) Now, it's almost nap time. Maybe I'll even get one today!

pictures

I got one set of pictures back. These are the ones we took with my sisters kids.

SNOW!

Okay, so this morning, there was a giant sheet of ice on the car and it took forever to get it our of the driveway so we could drive our truck to work. Most other people did not even try. We were the only ones in our parking lot and the others were pretty deserted too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first is our lonely car in our parking lot. I turned around and took the second. There's going to be no one at work today. I wouldn't be surprised if they send us all home.

Updated: The phones all around me are ringing like crazy. I've seen about 5 people that work here. No one else has shown up yet. My boss got stuck in his driveway. So did one of my co-workers. Another's day care closed. There is only about 4 inches of snow, but there is a solid layer of ice under is. It rained all day yesterday then turned to sleet. Oh what fun!

Photo Friday

This was last week at Grandma Darra's house. Both kids had lots of fun. (and Anya only ate one leaf)

Busy, busy, busy
I realize that it seems I've forgotten to mention much of last week's festivites. Not so. I only haven't had time. You see we've done so much. We had Thanksgiving(s) and Birthday party(ies) and car trips and all sorts of neat things. I'll get to it eventually, I'm sure. With pictures even (that's what I've been working on). I have some all set for tomorrow and need to work on more. But right now I need to go pretend I'm a cow (moo! Oh wait, was that Too Much Information? Damn, and it's not even Tuesday!)

This could be bad
I ordered Christmas cards from Penney's last time I went. I don't rememebr choosing the text for the card. I wonder if it's too late? I wonder what will show up? If it's something generic, or "Insert your text here"? If Penney's will return my call soon...

oh, and Beth is doing a Christmas card swap. I think that's a neat idea. If anyone wants to do it, let me know. I love Christmas cards!