What I learned this week...

First, please pray hard for Stellan (you can click on the photo on the right). He's in pretty poor shape right now and he and his family could use all the prayers they can get. MckMama is a pretty amazing person but she could use a few more hands to hold them up in prayer.

Secondly, I had been keeping "What I learned this week" postings in my myspace blog. I don't visit there much as myspace doesn't interst me since I primarily Facebook. With that, I thought I'd move the 'What I learned this week' postings here.

In the last few weeks, I have learned:

Laundry STILL won't do itself. No matter how much I curse and fight.

The dirty house fairies have drained their whiskey barrel. Those little bitches are terrorizing my house hourly.

My daughter starts Kindergarten very soon and I'm not sure who is more scared. Her or me.

Chunky will poop in his diaper the minute his butt hits pool water. It never fails.

Having a garden is wicked fun. Being eaten alive by mosquitoes while trying to harvest the rewards is not.

While harvesting said rewards, I almost had a heartattack by the size of a zuchinni that I caught out of the corner of my eye. Watching an adult woman pee-pee dance around large green leaves freaked out of her mind by what she's seen had to have been hysterical for the neighbor to see. That sucker was about 2 feet long and 6 inches in diameter. And I am NOT joking. And boy was it GOOD.

Taking the entire week off with Soldier and kids was rewarding. Having a messy home and suitcases not put away from our two day trip is not.

Chunky is trying his hardest to potty train. Loves his undies that glow in the dark. I just wish he'd quit PEEING in them. We take him every 10 minutes and he pees every single time. Then two minutes later a lake comes flowing out. How is that possible? We have him sit an extra 20 seconds after the last dribble comes out.

Mad Hatter loves shopping for clothes. Trying them on after purchasing...not on your life. I must check the return policy.....

One must remember when using compressed air to blow the dust out of the vacuum filter to keep their head out of the way. This one got a facefull of dust not once or twice, but three or four times. Do I ever learn? Apparently not.

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Yes, today is my birthday. One more year older. Am I wiser? Meh.

My day started out by sleeping an hour later. Soldier has the day off for a follow up appointment and is fixing his brakes and working on the garage. While getting ready for work I heard Soldier and Chunky Love horsing around. Bathroom door opens and Chunky sneaks in. I reached around the corner and tickled his side. He said he was hiding from Daddy. We had a morning hug and snuggles and then went to finish getting ready. Mad Hatter was still in bed.

I got plenty of birthday hugs and kisses before leaving this morning. I was hoping for a beautiful summer day. I got cool and cloudy with some rain.

At work I received yummy chocolate brownies a sweet woman made. She doesn't cook well and is really trying. Another co-worker took me to lunch. I'm so absolutely blessed. My girlfriends have all sent various wise-cracking emails wishing me happy birthday. Again, I'm so blessed to have these people.

The woman from the jeweler keeps calling about their redesign event going on today and that they have some really beautiful stones in the size and color I'm coveting. I told Soldier about it. Many days ago. We've talked about replacing the center stone on my engagement ring with something a bit larger and much better quality. We then decided that maybe doing that and resetting the diamonds into a better band wouldn't be a bad idea either. Do I tell him that's what I want to do for my birthday or do I shrug it off? I'm so sentimental about my wedding set, I'm not sure I'd go through with it anyway.

What else??? Not much. We are having a fundraiser for my sister for her upcoming kidney transplant. I've been craving sweets and junk WAY to much. I'm not quite sure why. I generally don't. Last night at the gym, the scale was showing a total loss of 6 pounds. I was thrilled with that. I was not thrilled that I ripped the lining in my slacks yesterday morning before work. One reason I dislike lined pants. And the pants were not skin tight. Not even close.

Family Day is Sunday. I must go and be the good wife. I get the feeling I'm not that well liked by the wives of the men that Soldier works with. Just a hunch and the fact that I got the evil stink-eye from them at a function last fall. I can't help it that skin tight, pre-worn Prom/Bridesmaid dresses are not my thing. I don't do gaudy hair, make-up, jewelry. And I am NOT stuffy and anti-social. I had laryngitis and couldn't talk!!! I represented my husband in the way I felt he deserved. I was proper, behaved and polite. And I was covered where I was supposed to be covered. So I got lucky in the Lauren department at Macy's, geesh!!!

OK, so I had better get back to work. I've got two aggressive work plans staring me in the face and have no reason to complain I don't have time to do everything. I needed to brain dump and that's just what I've done.

And the 4th is gone.....

I so love the 4th of July. It signifies summer, swimming, the smell of suntan oil, smelly kids, popsicles and grilling. OH, and my birthday!!!

The 4th of July this year meant something different. This July marks the 10-year anniversary of the the death of our brother, Jason. He was killed in a tragic car accident. We celebrated his life this year with a typical Iowa kegger party. The turnout wasn't what we had hoped, but those that did come were glad to be there and appreciated us doing this. Will we do something similar at 15 or 20 years. Not likely. I believe we've learned our lesson and will keep it more intimate.

This July also signifies a new chapter in our lives. My sister Jamie is in early kidney failure and went from 1 option to 5 options to 3 options. The constant option is the donor list, which she's on. There was a donor in death (who was also a close family friend), but the match was not compatible for various medical reasons. Nicole, her friend and blood match, went through testing only to find out she was not a tissue match. That was a devastating blow to all. Jenny, my middle sister, goes through testing at the end of August. She's a 6 for 6 marker match (whatever that means). If Jenny turns out to not match in the tissue department, it's between me and the donor list. Unless her insurance says no more testing and then she's at the mercy of the donor list. We'd prefer that to not happen.

This is also the summer before my mad hatter starts Kindergarten. She's absolutely THRILLED to be starting. Wait until I tell her about all the doctor's appointments she has to go to. Dental and eye exams are mandatory now. I can't even get her to the pediatrician's without foaming at the mouth. How am I going to get her to submit to an EYE exam? Criminy.

And my birthday. It's Wednesday. Am I doing anything you ask? I haven't a clue. It's Family Day on Sunday and Soldier has drill. So unless he's arranged something with a sitter, my guess is I'm cooking dinner Saturday night. We don't typically go out mid-week and leave the kids with a sitter, so I'm betting he'll grill on Wednesday since he's off work. There may be cupcakes. Or carrot cake. Who knows. I don't get worked up much on my birthday. BUT I am getting older and fussier. It could happen.