Mom is the Boss the most interesting blog out there

Entry for January 31, 2006

a guy just came by.. sells steaks and meats from
outback steakhouse.. but, there was a fire somewhere,
and so, they have to move the meat quicker.

Anyway. I interupted him so to tell him we were
vegetarian. It is easier to say that, than explain
that we only cook vegetarian foods (for the most
part... see the explination gets more complicated when
you throw in the mix of chicken noodle casserole)

his comment "But you have a grill". Me: "yes we do"

then he walks off mumbling something about accounts
and money, and wasting it.. not sure. he was really 
upset by my comment.

I was polite with my interuption, and just told him,
we were vegetarian, if that makes any difference in
what he was going to try to sell me.

poor guy.

upset.

Entry for January 28, 2006

Yesterday, as I was making dinner, Jonas asked me "Are you making what Martha taught us to make today?". We watch Martha every day at naptime, because I enjoy it, and it puts Jonas to sleep.

Caleb got to go to a basketball game this past Wednesday. The Cats won.

We drove in our new car to Grandma and Granddad's house today. Their nosey neighbor came over to check out the car, and he was told he was too nosey. Pretty funny stuff.

Both Caleb and Alex are planning on entering the school science fair. Alex is going to test what soil plants grow best in, and Caleb is going to do an erupting volcano. But, he is going to do a twist on it, and discuss Mount St. Helens, complete with actual volcanic ash. This will allow it to stand out from the 50 other erupting volcanos.

Entry for January 24, 2006

We had an intersting visitor come today. It was the owner of the land that surrounds our home. We mailed her husband (who recently passed away, I learned) a letter asking him to contact us if he was interested in selling the land. Well, she's not interested in selling the land, and has many fond memories of the house that use to be next door, that burned down.

I learned that a man named Dallas Douglas built our house. He was a stone and brick masonry guy. He built all but the back bedroom. I didn't catch if he was the one that added on that room later or not. He originally owned all 2 acres, but sold off 1.67 acres to this lady's husband 50 years ago. Our shed was the wife's cattery. She raised purebred persian cats in there. The house to the east of us that sits on the land we wish to buy was originally the town hatchery.

Hopefully she will keep us in mind if she ever decides to sell the land. She is caught up in the memories of a house that is gone. She says she wants to plant more trees, and grow a garden on this land. She also thinks that we own less of the land than we think we do. Not a lot less, but some. She told me, it really didn't matter though, her voice said that perhaps it did matter. She said that the boys are more than welcome to play on the land, if they don't leave toys on it, that interfere with mowing. That gives them a lot more bike riding and baseball playing space.

Entry for January 23, 2006

President Bush spoke at KSU today. Alex and Caleb both watched it at school, I asked them if it made sense, and they both said no. Caleb then explained to me, that Mrs. Garver said that it was a historical event, and it might run into recess. Caleb was very glad that the speech was short enough that recess was not interupted by by George W. Bush.

Entry for January 21, 2006

Jared and I have become a bit obsessed with flickr.com. Flickr has a section called "expore" that shows the 500 most interesting photos on Flickr. Jared has had 4 photos make it. Me, who takes pictures of my adorable children, had never made it. So, Jared showed me, that people take weird photos of colored pencils and people like them. So, with Jared's suggestion, I took colored pencils, sharpened them, and combined this with snow.  It took about 20 minutes to get the perfect shot, with the right colors, sharpenedness, right amount of snow sprinkled on the pencils, right shadows. Lots of viewing, and redoing. I reached the number one most interesting photo today, with this strange photo. Who knew. Now, I am interesting in the eyes of flickr.

We spent a nice evening with Grandma and Granddad. It's been about a month, due to illnesses. It was nice to see them, the kids loved it.

We also went to a baseball card show, where the boys spent their allowances on sports cards.

Entry for January 20, 2006

We finally got our fireplace up and going today. We've lived here for 10 1/2 months, and we just lit our first fire. I got a call from the Riley city clerk today, our December water bill is over $300 from our leak. She is going to work on fixing the bill, so we don't have to pay that much, thank goodness.

Alex came in from walking home from school today, looking quite cold. He gave me one of his famous sweet big eyed smiles that the boys give me so often, and asked me for some hot cocoa. How could I resist.

Jonas slept through the fireplace repairmen being here. They ran loud vacumn cleaners, drilled holes into the wall, slammed the door about 50 times, dogs were barking constantly, and Jonas slept peacefully.

Our latest fish has lived over 24 hours. He's still swimming strong too. Fire and living fish, can't get much better than that.

Entry for January 16, 2006

Today we went car shopping. I had to argue with Jared to get him out the door. The tempo's tire blew out, and I didn't want to sink more money into it, if we are just going to turn around a buy a new car. The kids waited patiently in the waiting room for over an hour, while Jared looked at cars, test drove one, and waited for the financing to work out. At that point, I took them out to the minivan, where they could be noisy, and restless. Another hour later, Jared came out, carless, because the quote was $35 over what we were willing to pay. He agreed to come back tomorrow, and look at some cheaper models.

We waited so long, listening to the ipod in the minivan, that the battery was dead, and the nice salesman had to give us a jump. What a trip to the dealership.

 We got a call when we got home, stating that they were willing to come down $25 per month. So, tomorrow, he is going to go sign some paperwork (hopefully) and convince them to take the tempo off of our hands for a bit more off.

Our first car, that we have ever bought. All the others were paid for in full. This one has a monthly fee attached to it. Perhaps not a great milestone in our lives, but we'll have a new car.

Entry for January 13, 2006

Yesterday, yet another fish died. I researched on the internet, why my 10 cent goldfish was suffering, and determined, that I needed to vacumn the gravel, change the water, and add aquarium salt. So, I vacumned the gravel, and changed part of the water, 25% as recommended, and the fish started swimming better. The fish made it through the night, and was swimming when we left for Manhattan, so, I picked up some aquarium salt. The fish was dead by the time we got home. Jonas told me "I guess we'll have to buy another one". Much better than greiving over the fact mom can't keep a fish alive.

Jonas also told me yesterday, during an  episode of Martha, that we should get a Martha video game, because then they would always be allowed to play video games.

I heard Alex coughing outside of my bedroom door last night, when I got up at 4:15 am, Caleb was sitting at the computer, playing Seaworld Tycoon, and Alex was watching. Caleb told me, that he thought it was 7am. I'm not certain how that error happened, but he was sent back to bed. Alex had a fever, and cuddled with me on the couch for thirty minutes while his medicine kicked in. Alex gets to stay home from school today. Hopefully he will get better very soon, and no one else catches it.

Entry for January 11, 2006

Alex and Jared went to a basketball game this evening. They got home at almost 10pm, Alex was having a hard time keeping his eyes open as I was talking with him in bed. Hopefully he won't be too tired for school tomorrow. Caleb, Jonas and I played some Mario Kart together here at the house. I watched an episode of Nanny 911 tonight where the kids played 6 hours of video games a day. The nanny frowned upon that. I've never timed the boys in their video game playing, I would hate to know what it was.

Entry for January 09, 2006

Today was belt advancement night. Each kid moved up one rank, so, now we have a purple with white stripe, blue with white stripe, and a yellow belt. Caleb and Alex performed a kata for the parents, and Jonas did a stranger danger move. They made their parents very proud.