Thursday, November 29, 2007

Web address

For some reason that link won't load in my previous post. Copy and paste this into your browser www.elfyourself.com/?id=9635752463

A Green Christmas Card

Well, just like the lights on our house that aren't there, you're probably not going to be seeing a Christmas card in your mailbox this year. I think we'll go green and save a tree or three. Click on this link here to see your Christmas card greetings from the Stephens'.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Gimmies

Today Emma and I ran an errand to PetSmart. She loves watching the kittens in the adoption area (so do I). They were so funny. We found this long stick-like thing with feathers sticking out the end and we had those kittens jumping all over their cages. Emma thought that was great, but she just couldn't enjoy watching them. She kept begging and begging and begging for a kitty. I kept telling her no. "Emma, we have enough animals in our house now." "No Emma, there is a rule as to how many animals you can have in this city." "Grus and Griz wouldn't like another cat in the house." "We can't have another cat Emma." "I would love to have a little kitty too Emma, but we can't." "Emma, you'll have to ask your Dad." That was the response that finally stopped all of the whining and begging. Sorry Scott! :-)
From PetSmart we went to Kohl's to look around. We were killing time until it was time to get Gage from school, and I didn't want to walk to get him, so figured if we just went there instead of home, that was a good excuse not to walk to the school in the subzero temperatures! Kohl's was TERRIBLE! First of all they have so much stuff in the store you can't even push the cart in the aisles without bumping into something. At one point I was getting so frustrated, partly because Emma was seriously wanting EVERYTHING she saw, that I just kept ramming a rack of clothes to get through and a bunch of hangers fell on the floor and I just kept going. I kept telling Emma that Santa would not bring her a thing for Christmas if she got things now. I don't think she cared.
I was glad to finally get home.
Gage has his second spelling test tomorrow. He has been told if he studies without complaining, he will get 50 cents on top of the $1 he gets for getting all of his words right. I'm not so sure bribing with money is a good thing? I know you aren't supposed to reward with food, but I don't know for sure about money? Any tips out there on how to get him to study and do his homework without a fit? I'm all ears!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Closing the gap

Today was a big day for me. I went to see the orthodontist and today we are going to start closing the gap! YEAH! The rubberbands apparently worked in gaining a little bit of width. I was worried about it because on Thanksgiving morning when Gage, Emma and I were eating breakfast (Scott was out hunting deer) one of the buttons on my molars came off and I was unable to use the rubberband on that side due to that. I didn't want to call the office since it was a holiday, and I didn't want to call them Friday either, since it was the day after the holiday, then comes the weekend and they aren't open. I thought I would try to call them on Monday. However, while I was standing in line at Target for the crazy sale last Friday morning, one of the gals standing next to me works at the orthodontist's office so I asked her about it and she said I would be fine until Tuesday. Then, when I was at the Civic Center on Saturday with Kara, I saw another gal that works there (the one I usually have when I go in for my appointments), and I stalked her down when she came out of the bathroom and asked her and she also said I would be fine. So, I stopped worrying about it and it did turn out fine, thank goodness! Dr. Warford once again told me I could be done if I would just put a permanent tooth in there. Now, I'm beginning to think he really wants me to do that. I told him there's no way I'm going through all of this to end up with three front teeth, so he might as well give it up. I'm going to have to tell the surgeon (he is at Emma's hockey with his little boy so I've been seeing him a couple times a week there) and see what he thinks about that. I'll have to tell him to give Dr. Warford a hard time. They are both very nice people and like joking around, so I fit in quite well. :-) Anyway, my teeth are sore tonight, but it's all good.

The temperature here is FREEZING COLD! I walked Gage to school this morning and I nearly froze solid. The wind chill was -6. I bundled him up in all the regular gear, plus this morning I added snow pants to the ensemble. He has a full-face stocking hat so all you can see are his eyes and mouth. I figured he wouldn't complain too much about being cold. I on the other hand did not bundle up as well as Gage. I did have 2 layers of pants, but that was not enough. On our way up the hill to the school he said his eyes were freezing. I laughed because mine were too! I had him walk behind me so I could block his wind. We made it and I made it back home without turning into a solid block of ice. It's supposed to be colder tomorrow, so I'm glad Emma has school too since we drive on those days. As we were walking across the crosswalk this morning the crossing guard asked me if I was at Target last Friday morning and I said I was. She said, "I knew that was you! I saw you on television and I said, HEY! I know that lady!" I don't know what channel that was on, but I didn't see me on the channel I watched. Thank goodness I wasn't the lady who got pushed with the cart and fell down! HA!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Cold

It appears that we are going to be getting some COLD weather this week. They're calling for 17 degrees to be the high on Wednesday! Brrr! The cold weather does make it feel more like Christmas is coming, however. Although, it's very evident it's coming when you drive around town after dark. Everyone is getting, or already has up, their Christmas lights outside. We have not done that yet, and I don't even feel that I have the energy or desire to do it. I thought a good excuse would be to tell others that we are going "Green" this Christmas, and going to save energy and do our part to decrease global warming. (I doubt Gage and Emma will appreciate that). Saturday when I came home from helping a friend at the Civic Center, Gage and Emma were quick to tell me the neighbors had Mickey and Minnie put up. And, they quickly noticed the wind knocked Mickey down the other day. My other excuse is that we don't even see our lights when they are up outside because we are in the house, so it's way better to have the neighbors' Christmas lights to admire. Hopefully just having a tree in the house with lights will satisfy them. We'll have to get one soon.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

The Giving Tree

This is my favorite time of the year, when the giving trees go up in our community. Today at church the Christmas tree was decorated with paper ornaments that list items that people who are less fortunate want for Christmas. I feel sad when I see some of the requests that are for things that we take for grated every day, like underwear, socks, clothes, gas, etc. Each year we each pick an ornament or two off of the tree. This year Gage picked an ornament of a 14-year-old boy who wants a board game, I chose a Mom who wants Huggies wipes and Emma chose a family who wants Homemade goodies (not a big surprise on that one!). After we got home and ate lunch, we went to Walmart to get our gifts. (Emma was not happy that hers has to wait a little while) Gage picked out a Heroscape board game. I hope this is appropriate for a 14-year-old. It said for ages 8+. Anyway, it is a $40 game. I asked Gage if he would like to use his own money for this and he didn't want to. I decided I would use my $100 gift card winnings that I won with my work to buy our gifts for the giving trees. I couldn't decide what to use it on, and I think this was the perfect choice. We will use the remaining amount on the Giving Tree at Gage's school.

While we were at Walmart, Emma had a TERRIBLE case of the "gimmies". I told her over and over that we were there to buy gifts for OTHER people, not ourselves. She didn't like that idea. While we were over in the baby section getting Huggies wipes, Santa Claus appeared. He was asking all of the kids around what they wanted for Christmas. We were waiting for him to come to us, and Gage was so worried I was going to leave without letting him talk to Santa. Finally Santa made his way over to us.

Santa: "What is your name little girl?"
Emma: "Emma."
Santa: "What would you like for Christmas?"
Emma: "A Webkins." (P.S. Kysa, you certainly picked out the right gift for Coly to give to Emma!).
Santa: Santa turns to Gage, "And you?"
Gage. (He was responding to the 2 questions he asked Emma). "Gage."
Santa: "Alright."
Gage looked at me puzzled as Santa was starting to walk away.
Mom: "His NAME is Gage. Gage, tell Santa what you would like for Christmas."
Gage: "Star Wars Legos."
Santa: (I can't remember his stupid comment he made to cover up his mistake)

That made the kids' days. However, I wasn't impressed with Santa. I'm not sure what kind of gauge he thought Gage was asking for, but I guess that's what you should expect at Walmart? Gage asked as we were walking away, "Mom, is that the real Santa?" I said, "No Gage, that was Santa's helper. And do you want to know how I know that Gage?" "Yeah." "Because I think the real Santa would have known your name is Gage."

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Bee Movie

We went to see the Bee Movie tonight after supper. I recommend it to all. Before we went Scott said that the reviews for it weren't that great. Gage and Emma wanted to see it, so we went. I enjoyed it so much. It was very funny. Every time I laughed; however, Gage wanted to know what I was laughing about. It would have been easier to watch it at home on DVD so I could explain all of the "adult humor" to him. The basic story line is the bees decide to sue the humans for stealing their honey, then the consequences for their actions. I thought Gage and Emma were both going to cry when the bee stung the lawyer and then nearly died. They also have fun music in the movie. Emma was surprised and excited to hear them singing "Sugar sugar, do do do do do do, ah honey honey" We sing that oldie when we bake cookies and she loves hearing it when it comes on the radio or my iPod. Here comes the sun was another older favorite of mine that they played in the movie. I'm not a huge Jerry Seinfeld fan, but he did a great job providing a voice for the bee. When that comes out on DVD I am definitely going to buy it.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Dead

I am dead. My eyes are propped open with toothpicks while I'm trying to fill you all in on the great fun Emily and I had today. I had my alarm set for 3:10 am, hit the snooze once and got up before it went off again. I was at Emily's house by 3:30 or so and we were off to Kohl's. It was crazy. There were already hundreds there waiting in line to get in. I dropped Emily off to get us a spot in line, then parked the van. We waited about 10 minutes until they opened the doors and everyone went wild. There was screaming and once you were in the middle of the herd, you had no choice but to go forward! Emily gave me her cell phone to use and she had her husband Jody's. She found the items she was looking for while I wandered around trying to figure out which sewing machine was the one on sale. It certainly was not marked. I had to ask for assistance and she helped me find the right one. The checkout line was already wrapping around to the back of the store. I hopped in line while Emily went to check out the other side for open lanes. I stood in line watching all of the crazy people snatching items up left and right. As I stood there, I nearly jumped out of my coat after Emily's phone started vibrating in my pocket! I wasn't sure how to answer it, and by the time I got the phone opened, Emily had apparently gotten transferred over to the voice mail. I closed the phone. It happened again, and once again I couldn't figure out how to answer it. When Emily gave me the phone she told me how to call, but I didn't think to ask how to answer. So, I hit send twice and got Emily. :-0 (See how "Behind the Times" I am! Anyway, Emily had a better spot in line so I left my line to join her. We waited a little while in line before we got out of there. Then, we proceeded to hit Walmart. Their doorbusters started at 5 am. I was very surprised at how calm it was there. Since it is open 24 hours, no one had to wait outside. Everyone had their carts lined up in the aisles waiting. The guy over the intercom informed us at 7 min before time to be respectful of others. They announced when it was time over the intercom. I snatched up 2 things for Emily and headed for the checkout. She joined me soon after that, and after a little difficulty with the checkout gal, we then headed for Target. Target was another story. When they opened the doors at 6 am, everyone took off running through the store. Emily and I made eye contact and took off with the rest of them. We were laughing our butts off. It was fun. We both ended up getting all of the items there we were after, and got a great spot in the checkout line, then headed to K-mart. K-mart had also opened at 6, so the mad dash was already over by the time we got there. I would say we waited in line the longest there, even though we were like the 3rd ones in our checkout lane. They only had about half of their lanes open! UGH! After K-mart we headed back down to Scheels, got what we were after there and then ended the shopping frenzy at Bath and Body Works! I am dead tired. (Oh, and I forgot to mention after lunch, Scott decided it was time to tear the kitchen apart!) You can now open the cupboard doors without getting knocked out by various things falling out of the cupboards! You can actually see the countertop!!!

I've got to get to bed before I fall out of my chair!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Can't wait!

Man, I can't wait to get the paper tomorrow!! I was so disappointed today when I got the paper and saw there was only one ad for K-Mart. I called Emily to see what the deal was, and she did the same thing. Well, the ads come out in TOMORROWS paper! DUH! Anyway, my good friend Aneetha sent me the link to check out all of the sales online. Thanks Aneetha! That was fun browsing through them all but I still like looking at the paper ads in hand. It's easier to flip through the paper than to click on each item and wait for it to load on the computer. I guess I'm "Behind the Times" when it comes to that! :-)

I am in the process of making pumpkin pies for tomorrow. I'm taking a few side dishes to Emily's for our Thanksgiving meal. I'm taking Apple-Rice Medley (YUM YUM!), my Mom's traditional apple/grape salad, 2 pumpkin pies and some dinner rolls. I couldn't find any already made dinner rolls in the bread section at the grocery store? Do they not carry them around here? We always have them in Iowa. Hmmm. Anyway, I found some frozen ones that I will bake instead. Hopefully they will be tasty. Emily is making several dishes and another friend of Emily's is bringing the turkey! It will be a great time with delicious food! We are certainly thankful for our wonderful friends!

Emma and I searched through the bookshelves tonight for all of our Thanksgiving books. We found 4 and read them all at bedtime. They have been watching our Charlie Brown Thanksgiving DVD. Gage turned it on this morning before school. He was all excited for school today because they were to bring something to snuggle with while they watched a movie. Well, it just happened to be A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving that they watched! He didn't mind though. He brought home a couple of cute Thanksgiving projects he made at school, along with next weeks' spelling list! UGH! I think it's going to go better this time because Scott promised him $1 every time he does well on the test. I included that he only gets the dollar if he willingly studies and doesn't throw any fits! We'll see if it works. I just pre-tested him at supper tonight and had a little spelling bee. He knew most of them anyway, so hopefully it won't be too difficult to get him to practice them. We have plenty of time to study with the holiday weekend upon us.

I hope you all have a safe trip if you plan to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday! It sounds like they are getting alot of snow at home in Iowa, so it's probably a good thing we aren't traveling there, although I do wish we could see everyone. We'll see everyone at Christmas, which is sneaking up on me just a little too fast this year! Maybe I can get alot of my shopping done on Friday, that is if I don't get cart rage and get kicked out of the store!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Black Friday

How many of you are going out to snag up all of the Black Friday bargains? My friend Emily and I are going to give it a shot. Tomorrow we are going to buy the paper and check out all of our options. Kohl's opens at 4am, so I know we can hit at least 2 store openings! I can't wait to see what they have to offer this year! Who knows, maybe I can find myself a new camera for a great deal? I have only shopped on Black Friday one other time and that was 2 years ago. I hit Kohl's and was actually lucky enough to get what I was after. I got the portable DVD player they had advertised. I couldn't believe how many people were there and how crazy it was and how COLD it was and how stupid all of us were for standing out in it for as long as we did! Then, I went to ACE hardware to check out their portable DVD player. I stood in line outside forever while the store manager stood out there giving everyone coffee and telling them where the items were so they didn't tear up the store looking. I had the opportunity to get one, but I really didn't want to get another one. I think I just like seeing if I could. :-) I have never tried Walmart. I can only imagine what that would be like. I can't stand being in Walmart on a regular Saturday afternoon, let alone Black Friday; however, if they have some great deals that Emily or myself are wanting, I'm willing to give it a try! It might actually be fun to be able to shove people in Walmart trying to get to where I want to go. I typically get cart rage when I'm there anyway, and this time I could have an excuse to act on it!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Facebook

I'm not quite sure yet what Facebook is all about, but my friend Emily has been raving about this game called Scrabulous. I registered to be a member last night so I could play a game with her. I'm not even sure how it happened, but I believe an email was sent out to all of the people whose email addresses are in my aol account? I was quite surprised to see all of those people on Facebook! (Especially you Juanita!) :-) Anyway, I think I have about 7 games of Scrabulous going on. For those of you who don't know, it is basically Scrabble. You can play multiple games at the same time and some of them may take over a week to finish. It just depends on how often the person logs on to make a play. This is a great way to avoid cleaning the house, and unfortunately, it needs it BADLY!

I stayed up a little too late last night trying to load audio books onto my computer so Gage can listen to some books on tape with my iPod, and I'm way tired today. Too tired to think about what I would like to write on here. Nothing exciting has happened today either, so that doesn't help. All we've done today so far is eat breakfast, go to church and eat lunch. Scott should be home sometime soon from his "last day of duck hunting". HA!

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Saturday

Gage was very happy to tell me yesterday after school that he got a 100% on his spelling test and 100% on his dictation test! Whew! I was relieved! I was also happy to see that a new spelling list didn't come home since there is no school next Friday due to Thanksgiving! That is something to be thankful for!

Gage and Emma got to go to Space Aliens today for their friend Grant's birthday party. They were very excited about that. Grant is my friend Shannon's son. Apparently soon after Scott dropped them off, Gage told Shannon he didn't feel well and she said he looked pale. Rob said he tried calling but there was no answer (Scott took me out for a lunch date at Applebees!) and she couldn't remember Scott's cell number. But, it only lasted a few minutes and then he was fine. I asked him about it when we got home and he said he thought it was because he had some diet pop to drink and he just needed to burp? Well, I'm glad that was all it was! Although he was complaining of a headache this morning and had a stuffed up nose. There have been alot of illnesses making their rounds. He wanted some more medication for his headache after the party. I would have needed something for a headache if had I been at that party for too long myself. It was WILD!

Today I got a phone call from a different transcription company offering me a job. She got my name from the At-Home Professions course I took. Apparently this lady is a graduate of this same course and she frequently hires other grads. She told me she only requests the names of the top students, so that made me feel good! It also made me feel good knowing I have options! She told me I would make more money, and she would have me transcribing for the same doctors, so once I got to know the dictators, my speed would certainly increase. AND, she said her doctors aren't difficult to understand. She told me to think about it for a few days, and she would do the same and she would get back to me. She said I could even just "try it out" for a few days if I wanted before I made any big decisions about changing jobs! She was a very nice lady, and like I said, it's nice to know there are options out there if things don't work out.

Emma was very excited this morning to look out my bedroom window to see the neighbors' roof was covered with snow. She ran downstairs hollering for Gage to tell him. Well, he already knew so that wasn't much fun. It was a very nice day yesterday so I was surprised to see the snow myself! I keep praying for freezing cold temps to solidify all of that water the ducks keep flocking to. Scott tells me that "tomorrow will probably be the last chance I get to go hunting". Yeah, right. Once the ducks are gone he'll just focus on some other poor animal that will find its way into our freezer.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Another job

Well, I have another job! I know what you're all thinking. Well, I think I can handle this one. The school that I took my At-Home Medical Transcription course called me up and they want me to be a graduate referral. I would take calls from prospective students, current students, or graduates and just answer any questions they might have about how I went about getting my job, and anything about the course, etc. I will get $10/call, no matter how long it is. I will give them the times during the day that I am available to take calls. Now, I'm just going to have to start racing my kids to the phone!

I have a scrapbooking workshop tonight. My friend Emily and I are going to go, right after I take her out to eat supper at China Garden! :-) I told her she could pick wherever she wanted to go. I'm glad she picked China Garden because it's my favorite! It's her last year in the 20's so I figure we should celebrate while she's still "young". Happy Birthday Emily!

I'm anxious to hear how Gage did on his spelling test yesterday. We have had many arguments while studying for it. He wanted to study, but when I would tell him he got something wrong he would get very mad and very rude. He pointed out to me yesterday on the way home from school that "while" was not one of his spelling words and that it was "white". Ooops. I apparently made an error when I wrote the list down on a sheet of paper and sent the original sheet back to school. I asked him if he got it right. He thought so, but he wasn't sure. This is going to be a weekly ordeal. Each Friday he will bring home a list of spelling words for a spelling test on Thursday and then there will also be a dictation test on each Friday that consists of 2 sentences that are on the spelling word list. We are going to have to implement some kind of reward system, i.e. each time he does homework without griping, he gets a star and then after so many stars, he can pick out a surprise of some sort? I'm tired of fighting him on the homework thing! It would be different if it was hard and he wasn't so smart! Maybe that's why he doesn't like doing it, because it's so easy? Who knows? If anyone else has any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Blessed

I am so lucky to have been blessed with such wonderful friends! I had a very nice surprise early this morning from my friend Kara. She read my blog and saw my camera was broken and she loaned me one of her cameras to use until I get mine back! THANKS KARA! AND, she brought me a caramel frappucino from Starbucks to boot! What more could you ask for in a friend? That was a nice surprise! I think the caffeine helped me to get my lines finished for the week too! :-)

Tonight I attended the Ducks Unlimited Women's Banquet. It was fun. Although I was a little irritated that I didn't win anything! I spent more money than I have at a banquet on raffle tickets and came home with nothing. There were 3 raffles that I was just one number off. The past couple of years I have won a couple different things so I guess that's a good thing to remember for next year! It seems like each year there is one woman who is lucky lucky lucky and wins big. They had a new raffle this year which was fun. They had 5 fancy shmancy purses to raffle, and one lucky purse was holding a ticket for a free rifle. One old lady won 3 of the 5 purses! AND, the odds are pretty good to win the rifle, and she did. I don't think she knew what was going on, or that she had won BIG! LOL! It was pretty funny. One man that works at the DU office won one of the other purses so that was pretty funny too. The MC gave him quite a hard time and I'm sure everyone will know about it tomorrow at work!

Boy Scout popcorn has arrived so I will be seeing some of you within the next couple of days delivering popcorn! Thanks for supporting Gage and his Cub Scout group. (By the way, the caramel popcorn is delicious!)

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

"stacy stephens Your the winner"

I received an email today with the subject "stacy stephens Your the winner". Typically I don't click on those things, but for whatever reason, I did today. Here's what it says,

"Congratulations stacy you won Two Free Disney Theme Park admissions.Sometime ago you signed up at one of our free offer giveaway sites. This email is to notify you that when you submitted the following information:corvis1@aol.com stacy stephens **** * street bismarck nd ***** You have won an all expense paid trip for two to Disneyl Orlando. Please update your information at the winner's site and we will promptly ship out your Disney Theme Park tickets."
"Thanks, Sue MaddenTravel Getaways, Inc."

I fwd the email to Scott and said, "OMG, do you think this is real?" He told me not to do anything and he would check it out. When you click on the "link to package" it takes you to this page where you fill in your address, etc. It does ask for a credit card. It also asks for an income range. Now, I am not retarded, and wouldn't enter that information, but how does a person confirm this to be a legitimate email?

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Finally!

Thank the Lord there is school today! For Gage anyway. What a LONG weekend! :-) We had a quiet day yesterday. Spent a few hours at the Public Library with Emily, et al. Scott killed his deer. Steve had killed 1 of 2, so they were trying to get his second one. They will be home this afternoon if all goes as planned. We have a busy day ahead. Emma has hockey. The kids are due to get their second round of flu shots. (It's going to be a great day!) Wish me luck! A good friend from Alaska is in town (actually he was in Tuttle hunting)and is getting ready to fly back to Alaska. He called last night to see if we would be available to eat out with him and some other friends tonight. Sounds great to me! I'm all over not having to fix supper, although that means the kids won't get to bed at their normal 6:30 pm time, so tomorrow will be another great one! :-) Man, I sound kind of cranky this morning! Maybe that's because I got up at 5 am to try and get some lines typed as I'm coming down to my last few days to get them done and I have a headache wanting to start up. I will be SO GLAD when the water freezes up and there are no more ducks in the area and Scott has killed all of the animals he has tags for. Most people don't want the cold weather but I say, "BRING IT ON!"

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Say Cheese?

We won't be saying "cheese" for awhile. This morning, after getting ready for church, Scott asked me to take a picture of the kids and him. He was getting ready to leave for his mule deer hunt in western ND. (Now that I type it, I hope that he wasn't having some kind of premonition??) Anyway, he asked me to take their picture. I took one, and it was black. I took another one, same thing, black picture. I was a little confused. I haven't really had any problems with my camera since I bought it back in February. In fact, I'm in love with it! I blamed it on the fact that they were sitting in front of the bright window, so I had them move to the stairway. Same thing, black picture. I messed with the flash, trying it with each setting. Nothing worked. Scott is getting a bit irritated now as he thinks I can't work the camera. I'm getting irritated with him because I know how to work my camera. Anyway, I gave him the camera and he looked it over, took out the batteries, etc. We put a freshly charged set of batteries in the camera and that didn't work either. After we did that, we noticed that there were some broken pieces on the door that keeps the batteries in place. I don't remember dropping it recently (I have dropped it in the past, but have never noticed any problems with it and it was working the last time I used it). I asked the kids if they had been messing with the camera and did they drop it. "No." I questioned Scott as well, with the same answer. We then discovered that the flash wasn't actually firing. Hmmm. Frustrated, it was time to go to church. Later this afternoon I got on the Kodak website to see if I could figure anything out. It did say that my warranty was still in effect, but there was a little disclaimer that said if the damage was due to dropping the camera, the warranty does not cover costs to fix the camera. I did the trouble shooting that it said to do on the website and nothing worked. It gave me instructions to mail my camera in and allow 7-10 working days, plus shipping time to get my camera back. I'm thinking I can't live without my camera for that long!!!!!!!! Any of you who have seen my scrapbooks know that I take gazillions of pictures. I'm thinking Emma has a dance recital coming up and I can't not have a camera!!!! Anyway, I print out the sheets I need to send my camera in to have it fixed. As I'm searching in my checkbook, wallet and purse for the receipt that I saved, but apparently threw away, Emma wants to help. She's picking up different pieces of paper laying on the table and counter, telling me she found the receipt. Then, I find the box the camera came in, wrapped my camera up in bubble wrap and packaged it up to send in to have it fixed. Emma asked me, "What are you doing Mom?" I told her I needed to send the camera in because it was broken. She says, with a very sad face, "I'm sorry Mom, I didn't mean to, but I dropped the camera and it broke." :-( Well, at least the truth came out. My camera is packed and ready to send in. This particular style has been discontinued, so I'm praying it can be fixed, as I don't want a different camera. After I read more of the instructions, it says they will call me after receiving the camera and have diagnosed the problem to give me an estimate on how much it will cost to fix. If I decide to not have it fixed and want it sent back to me, I have to pay them $35!!! I'm afraid to know how much it's going to cost to get it fixed? Then, if I don't, I hate to pay $35 to get it back! But, I also don't want to buy a new one! What would you do?

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Saturday

Scott played Mr. Mom today so I could get some lines typed. He leaves tomorrow with a friend to hunt deer. Hopefully they will shoot them quick and get home quick. It's much easier to get my lines done when I have help with the kids! Imagine that! :-)
Gage just asked me a little bit ago, "Mom can you change your working hours?" "To what Gage?" Gage replies, "To be during the day when I am at school."
Well, that is what they are supposed to be, but I can't seem to get it all done in those hours, so it spills over into "his time". I'm working on making some changes. We'll see how it goes.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Days off

I think the Bismarck Public School system has entirely too many days off! (I'm sure all of you employed by them would disagree, however) Once again, we have a 4 day weekend. Seriously, wouldn't it make more sense to group these days off together, like maybe around Thanksgiving, so a person could actually "go somewhere"?? I think every other day Emma asks if we can go to Iowa to see Grandma Pipi. I wish we could! If we could have tacked these 2 days off onto the 2 days off we get over Thanksgiving, we could actually travel to Iowa to visit her! I understand the teachers need time for parent-teacher conferences, etc, but I'd bet they could do that a week and a half later? Anyway, we have a 4 day weekend and the kids are already bored. They just went to play at their friend Grant's house, so maybe that will keep them occupied/entertained for a little while? Today is the opener of deer season, so all of the Bubba's are out trying to kill a deer. Scott went out this morning and killed some ducks. He said he was glad that he wasn't out trying to get a deer. He's waiting to do that on Sunday. As for me, I just started over with my line count yesterday and have an extra 230 or so to add to the 2,000 because I didn't get them completed for the last week. This seems to be a never ending task. Maybe I'll start getting faster and it won't take me as long to get it done? Time will tell.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Today

If I were to rate today by the number of hours I have spent in my p.j.s then I'd have to say, "It just doesn't get any better than this!" :-)

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Better day

Today was a better day, as far as attitudes go. However, tomorrow will be another winner, as the kids are in bed later than they should be due to Gage's hockey and Scott being out of town. I don't know if most kids are as sensitive about the amount of sleep they get or not, but I can pretty much count on Gage being in a bad mood if he isn't asleep by 7:30-8:00. Emma is not quite so bad in the attitude department, but she is quite difficult to get out of bed in the morning if she doesn't get enough sleep the night before! Now that it's darker earlier, it should be easier getting them to bed at a decent time, that is if we don't have activities going on that night. Emma decided she would go to hockey again today to give it another try. She did much better today, but still she's not happy with her performance. She's already better than I could ever be at skating! I didn't learn that growing up, so I pretty much suck at it now. Gage didn't fight me going to hockey tonight, so that was good. He had fun and actually worked hard tonight and was more aggressive than usual. Maybe he's learning to take his frustration out on the puck? That would be nice! As for me, well, there are 3 1/2 hours left in the day, and I still have 270 lines to go. I don't think I'm going to make it? I don't know if it's allowable or not, but I guess I'll just have to tack those extra lines onto my next week, so I'll have a total of 2270 lines starting tomorrow. UGH! I really try my hardest, but there just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I need to do. Something's gotta give!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Uff-dah

Uff-dah! What a day! I have a migraine coming on. Emma was mad after hockey because she didn't know the ice would be like that. Scott left for Ames, IA on a trip I had forgotten about. Gage came home grumpy. I have one more day to get 512 lines typed. CALGON, TAKE ME AWAY!

Monday, November 5, 2007

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Today we had Gage's Parent-Teacher Conferences at his school at 3:30. We really like his teacher, and so does Gage. She really likes Gage, so that is great too. He is doing awesome. He will soon be put into an accelerated reading program, and will be the only one in his class. She said there will probably be 2 others joining him in the future. The only concerns we had were about his penmanship and that he is consistently writing a few of his numbers backwards. She thinks he's just in a hurry and gets sloppy with his letters. (He gets sloppy handwriting from his Dad, not me!) She is going to give us a few copies from a book that contains little rhymes about how you write your numbers and letters. Hopefully that will help. She said that she will start getting a little more strict about those kinds of things, so hopefully we can get it taken care of. He will now start having spelling tests. He tells me he hates spelling. He does not get that from me. Spelling was probably one of my favorite subjects (and, if there are any misspellings in my blog, just ignore them, it's getting late and I am tired!) Scott told Gage that since he did so well, we would like to celebrate and he could pick where he would like to go out to eat for supper. He picked China Garden (he does get that from me!). I like ordering too much so I have leftovers for lunch the following day. :-)
After supper Gage and Scott had a Cub Scout den meeting. It was at one of the other scouts' house. Only 2 showed up out of the 4, so it was a fairly quiet meeting.
Emma starts Preschool hockey tomorrow. It goes from 11:45a-12:30p. She is very excited. We had to try her gear on her today to make sure she hasn't outgrown anything. Everything looked good, so hopefully we'll get by cheap with her?
I have 774 lines to type in the next 2 days. Not sure how I'm going to fit that into the schedule, but I will have to get it done some how, some way. Keep your fingers crossed for me. If I can get good dictators, that will be helpful. (Ones that speak English!)
Scott is going out to hunt in the morning but has to be back to work for a meeting by 1:30.
Oh, and before I forget to mention it, we had some SNOW this morning! The kids were very excited. It started snowing a little before we left for school. Emma was trying her hardest to catch some of those wild and crazy blowing flakes on her tongue on her way into school. Scott picked her up from school and said she was quite upset to get outside to see the ground was not even white and it had quit snowing! It won't be long and they'll be sick of it! North Dakota definitely has 4 seasons, but winter is the longest. You can tell it's getting cold because at Gage's school they already have 2 banquet tables out in the hallway full of lost mittens, hats, sweatshirts, etc. I should have gone and picked out a few extra mittens, as I'm sure Gage's will be lost soon.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Hockey

Gage's hockey season is in full swing. This past summer, I signed him up for the summer hockey program, thinking it would be great exercise AND he really likes hockey. Well, I had no idea that it would cause burnout. At the end of the few week long program, Gage was done. He had had enough. He wasn't trying and it was totally obvious. When I asked him what was up, he told me he didn't want to play hockey anymore. I was a little surprised. However, soon after this, it was time to sign up for the fall/winter hockey program. I asked Gage if he wanted to play. He wasn't sure. I gave him a few weeks to think about it, as I had that amount of time before I had to pay the fee (which was over $200!). Gage decided that yes, he did want to play afterall. I confirmed this with him a few different times to make sure he wanted to play. He said he did. I signed him up and the season started a couple of weeks ago. We have had a fight EVERY TIME he has practice. I keep reminding him that I gave him the choice as to whether he wanted to play or not, and he chose to play. "But Mom, that was a long time ago!" UGH! I told him that we had to pay over $200 for him to play, and we couldn't get our money back. Well, he had practice today and once again, I had to fight him to go. I don't want to force him to play, but I also want him to know that if you commit to something, you need to follow through with it. We went, he had an attitude. After practice when we were in the locker room degearing, I asked him how it was. "It was good Mom!" Did you have fun Gage? "Yes, I liked it!" UGH! What's up with that? I can guarantee that Tuesday, when it's time for his next practice, he's going to throw another big fit!? Does anyone have any tips on how I should handle this situation?

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Ballet

I wanted to share a video I took today of Emma at ballet class. This is the second of two videos. I am having problems uploading the first one and I think it's because the file is too big? I hope to figure it out and get it posted for all of you to see. Emma's ballet class is getting ready for a holiday recital and the instructor asked the parents to take video so they can watch it to help them learn the routine. It is very cute, so I hope to get it added to my blog. I want to apologize for the video being sideways. I didn't realize that the camera wouldn't turn it right side up. So, you will either have to put your monitor on its side, or turn your head, risking a kink in your neck! :-)

Friday, November 2, 2007

Busy Holiday Season

The busy holiday season is upon us! I worked this morning for a friend who has a jewelry business where she sells at hospital bazaars. I see that the holiday shoppers are out in full force trying to snatch up all of the great bargains. I usually don't make much money when I work for her because I end up giving it all back because there are some great deals that I want to take advantage of as well. Everything is $5. There are signs up on the walls, at the cash register and on the front of the tables. It's AMAZING to me how many people still ask how much things are! LOL! The sign at the register says "YES! Everything really is $5.00!" I worked until noon because Emma had school today from 8:30-11:30. Emma got to run errands with Dad over the lunch hour so she enjoyed that. Now I need to find some time the rest of today to get some lines typed! There aren't enough hours in the day to get done all I need to do!