Always read the second line!

Today I am at my cardiologist- wow I am so old I have a cardiologist... there is a whole other blog- being the only one not collecting social security in the waiting room- great way to feel young but so old all at the same time.

Anyways, I had just finished up a stress echo that wore me out. The appt was at 9am, a time when I am usually comfortably snoozing in my comfy bed, NOT running on a treadmill, pretty much topless with wires attached to me. Quite the look, but I'll spare us all pictures of that! So needless to say I am exhausted at this point. I just want to sleep, my head is a little spinny...

I move to the next station (with my shirt on thankfully) where the lady calls me back for my halter monitor to be put on. I requested different sticker things for the wires because I have pretty sensitive skin. While she was in the other room locating them I saw a sign on the door.

I'm a speed reader, I read the important parts, once I get the gist I move on. So on the sign I read- Five Important Tips for Cardiac Patients.... (okay, lets see what this says) #1-Dress warm ( I wonder if that is why my feet are always cold? Are people with heart issues always cold? Old people do always seem to have sweaters on), #2-drink a lot of water to stay hydrated (Man oh man, people are always telling me to drink, well I just dn't like to- am I the only person? Nah, otherwise there wouldn't be signs like this), #3 have someone else help you drag and clean the deer" (WHAT? How did a deer carcass make it on this list? I'm so confused! Am I really that tired, let me read again). Yep #3- have someone else help you drag and clean the deer. I must have missed something here... Ah, the second line- Five Important Tips for Cardiac Patients....While Hunting this Season"

I guess sometimes speed reading doesn't pay off... but the nurse attaching my halter monitor had a nice chuckle, you should as well... so my tired stupidity wasn't for naught.....

Long Live the White Label

I'm a cheap person, I'm pretty sure I've already established that. When I grocery shop I have some name brand things I have to buy but most of the time I just go for whatever is the cheapest- generic works for me unless it is Mac n Cheese, gotta have the blue box, cheese slices same thing has to be Kraft, are you sensing a cheese pattern? Really I buy off brand cheeses like provolone, etc...But this blog isn't about cheese so lets move on!

 I figure generic is just the same thing as the name brand but the name brand pays for all the advertising and has a higher price. That must really piss the name brand people off. I mean think about it, they spend all this money on marketing their product and then what happens? Consumers like me show up to buy some Tylenol, heck we even call it Tylenol not acetaminophen, but then we see the generic brand right there next to it for half the price. All those big words on the back look the same, just the box is different- usually white, no fancy packaging. I'm sold- same thing cheaper price; keeping some money in my pocket and down with the push it down your throat advertising to my children!

But today I started wondering if I was mistaken about the generic brand wonderment. I have bought off brand detergents for quite sometime. My clothes smelled clean but never that laundry smell that your grandma's towels have. So I picked up some Tide. Wow, the difference in smell right out of the drier! So now I am wondering what else have I went generic on and it is inferior but I have no idea. I might have to re-evaluate my whole system! Nah, I'm too cheap for that... I'll find these little gems on accident one day...long live the white label!

The Focusing Face

Wyatt is my child that I always seem to have a story to tell starring him as the main character. Because he is just that, a character. He has the funniest quotes, the quirkiest style; his brain goes a mile a minute and his logic is usually either amazing or just plain humorous. He never fails to entertain. Even his whining is funny at times, the things that bother that child are too many to tell so of course many just make you laugh. (please remind me later about the humorous part, I may forget!)

I've started a journal full of funny quotes my children have said. I have always wanted to do this but never got around to it, always thinking I would remember them all. But I've realized I don't (insert sad Becky face here). So sadly, Levi will feel left out I'm sure, his funny days are behind him at the moment, I'm sure they will come back at some point though. Wyatt, well he is the king of my quote book thus far. He was mad the other day because his fortune cookie told him to take a weekend away and clear his mind. "Why would I want to clear my mind? I like being smart!" Earlier today Levi asked him to bring a piece of cake outside and he announced quite annoyed like " I am like some cake servant carrying this around!" Or there is the whole "when your hair turns white your brain stops working and you die" theory he has after I explained how my grandma died (apparently not very well!).

Then there is just the funny things he does- like wearing two different shoes becasue one shoe in the pair is wet so why put a whole new set on when you could leave the one and just swap out the wet one?! Everywhere we go he seems to be in a costume. Taking a Power Ranger, Batman, or Indiana Jones to the grocery store, well that is the norm around here. Wyatt is simply amazingly amuzing!

So a few weeks back when Brad decided to pull out the BB gun and teach the boys to shoot it why would I expect anything different. So no more typing from me, just some fun pictures of my little character giving his all- and you should know before looking that frankly, you just can't focus unless you are making a good focusing face...

Polymorphic Light Eruption

Ah, it is summer. A time to spend outside, beautiful walks, bike rides, trips to the park, laying out by the pool, sprinklers, picnics...

Summer is the time that people talk about how to spend their time outside. No one talks about what to do inside during the summer! But that is where I am finding myself. What to do indoors, away from that evil sun. Yes, evil. All right, I know it isn't, we need the sun and yes, I like the sun. Maybe I should go with my evil immune system. It has something against the sun.

I have Polymorphic Light Eruption (PLME). What that means is if I got out in the sun I break out in an itchy rash. A rash that doesn't seem to go away quickly or lessen with any type of over the counter products that I've tried thus far. Last summer when I had my first outbreak I spent an entire month of the summer itching. I had to take steroids to ease the itching. The rash,well a year later the rash is still visible (lessened but there). My Dr. told me it might possibly never completely fade. Nice... (this isn't me but pretty much what it looks like)

So how do I function this summer? What in the world do you do when you have 3 young kids and you can't be in the sun? I can cover up and wear a special sun block but even that fails. I can't seem to get everything covered. And man it is hot to keep covered from head to toe. I don't know how muslim women do it.

I'm glad long skirts are in this summer, I hope they stick around for quite some time- like until I get to a point where I just don't care what I am wearing- gosh I hope that day never comes. So anyways, long skirts that is easy- legs covered- check! Shoes, well just going with flip flops, my feet haven't broke out yet and I need my feet cool.

Shirts, this is the area I am having a hard time with. I can't seem to get it right. I have been wearing long sleeves- even on 80 plus degree days! Not enjoyable! But, I seem to keep letting my chest and neck get attacked by the sun. Apparently I need a turtle neck for the summer time; that or scarfs. Yes, I just said scarfs and turtlenecks in the summer- ugh!

For my face, yes my face has been effected, I have over sized sunglasses and a big ol' hat, I call it my Diva hat. I feel stupid wearing it even though everyone tells me it is cute. I personally feel like an idiot. Like I am over dressed for the event or that everyone thinks that I just think I am fabulous. I'm going to have to be that person walking around with an umbrella on a sunny day. "Look at me! Look at me!" that is what my outfit will be screaming. While I on the other hand will be hoping to no one is looking. (this is me and my far too low cut shirt!)

Really I guess I just need more confidence (and a self cooling body even when completely covered). Changing your style is hard. Not that I have a great style to begin with but it works for me, I feel comfortable. I do love the skirts though. I guess I am becoming more girlie in my old age (of 25, yep I am 25). Last summer I had started wearing skirts prior to the PMLE diagnosis, just knee length vs ankle. The long skirts, well they are super comfy- elastic waists, flowy, nothing riding up.... But, elastic waist can be dangerous- you can gain weight and have no idea since your clothes still fit! And today I found some cute light-weight turtle neck short sleeve shirts. I'll have to wear a light-weight shirt over my arms. I'd still rather go with a tank of some sort. And the hat, well the hat is something I could definitely go without...

Ants! Ants On The Counter!

It took a few tries and I seriously thought to myself, Good Lord you can't even do this? But finally success! I, my dear friends, am an ant farmer! Move over Uncle Milton, I did it, and without your mail order ants!

Okay, I have been successful for a day, yes one day...maybe I should keep my gloating over my mad skillz down to a minimum. But my ants are awesome.

So here is the story to how I became an ant farmer, becasue I know you are dying to hear it, er um read it. Wyatt, my 2nd child, has a ridiculous bug phobia. It came out of nowhere last summer. One day he was fine the next he was screaming and clawing himself out of his car seat becasue "dear lord there is a fly in the window 5 feet from me but I think it will eat me alive..." or something like that. But seriously, this fear has been crippling for him. He barely went out last summer. I would carry him out on the porch, toss his shoes out the door and lock it just to get him outside. (Yes, I did win mom of the year last summer, thanks for asking) He would sit on the porch screaming until we came up with some compromise- he stop crying and swing for 5 mins then he could come back in, something like that...what usually ended up happening is that he would pace around in a circle in the driveway swatting at bugs that weren't there until his time was up. I'm sure the neighbors went from thinking I was beating my child  to maybe I have a special needs kid becasue man oh man did he look crazy.

Flash forward to this spring, the bug phobia is coming back, at the moment it seems less crippling but all the bugs aren't really out yet. So the Dr. told us we should think about counseling. Last year I was joking we'd end up in counseling but this year, well now I am dreading it. Let's take this step by step and start with an ant farm our Dr suggested, so we did.

My dear sweet friend, Andrea, found an ant farm for me on clearance- jackpot! I am a cheapy cheap person- clearance is great! But my clearance find was missing the coupon for free mail order ants. I can still get ants but I must pay. No one local seemed to carry ants. And really, why should I buy ants? A cheap person like me is not going to pay money for something that is in abundance all around me. So began my quest for ants.

I read up online about how to catch these lil buggers, I didn't find much help. I did find a few important tips 1- make sure all your ants are from the same colony and 2- if you put them in the fridge for 15 mins it will slow them down so you can get them into the ant farm.

So day one ant catching Wyatt is thrilled. We can't get ants in that farm fast enough for him. I set out with a star burst and a baby food jar with oil around the edge (oh that was a google tip too, so they can't crawl out.) Man oh man were those buggers hard to catch. I was trying to just get ants there- no dirt. I'd get them to walk on the candy but then I couldn't shake those darn things off- candy equals sticky- stupid, stupid! Finally I discovered a magic rock. I picked the rock up and an ant was on it, I shook it off into the jar, put the rock down and when I picked it up again whala! another ant! I think I got about 10 ants in and then catching ants was just too much work. I decided 10 ants was good, I mean it is a little ant farm and a lot of my googling told of people whose mail order ants had mass casualties and they only put a few ants in so I thought we'd be good.

Off to the fridge with the ants for 15 mins. Then it was time to load them in. I did not plan this well at all! What google failed to inform me of was that those little ants spring right back to life once they are out of the fridge. I'm trying to shake ants out of a jar, Levi is having to run his hands back and forth over the top of the farm to keep them in while Lucy and Wyatt stand in the way yelling " Ants! Ants on the counter!" I got most of the ants in so we shut the lid and put them in the basement (cool and dark for the first night- another google info). Wyatt kept checking on the ants but they weren't doing much. I did notice there was one light brown ant, the others were black, hmmm.... is he from a different colony? Me and my spectacular ant knowledge decided he was from the same colony but he just had a different job so he looked different, shut up you watched ants and saw they all looked different based on their jobs too, oh wait that was Bee's wasn't it- stupid Jerry Seinfeld, you should have went with ants....Okay but there are ant movie were the different job ants look different so I'm justified (in my own mind at least).

The next morning we woke up to an octo-something homicide, the one brown ant had killed  the other eight ants. He had a speedy trial and was sentenced to banishment.

Try 2, pretty much the same thing- somehow ended up with ants that killed each other. Try three, I decided ant farming was not for me. I can't seem to catch ants that aren't homicidal. Plus every time I have to get these ants I feel like they are crawling on me all day long (shudder). So I sent Brad and Wyatt out on an ant expedition. They took a shovel and dug up a ton of places until they hit the mother load. I brought out some bread for them to climb on and we shook them into the ant farm directly- No freezing ants only for them to jump back to life w/in seconds this time. They captured about 25 ants.

I was certain this third time was the charm, plus of course Brad would have to upstage me here. Well, the next morning we woke up to an empty ant farm. Those little buggers were just that- little. They escaped out the air holes. Now don't tell Wyatt but there are 25 ants in his room somewhere!!!

So now I've given up and decided cheapy me is going to have to buy some freaking ants. Ants that are too big to fit through the air holes. Stupid ants, why do you need air?! But as I am sitting outside waiting for Wyatt to get off the bus I see the perfect opportunity for ants. There is an abandoned wasp nest on the ground packed full of ants- just sitting there. All I have to do is pick that thing up, toss it in the ant farm and wha-la! 200 ants in one swoop! I had been thinking about the air hole problem and coming up with solutions prior to my find so I decided to go for it.

Stupid me did try to do the fridge thing though just so I could keep the wasp nest out. That failed miserably and I had to quickly kill about 20 ants on my counter while once again Lucy and Wyatt stood in the way yelling " Ants! Ants on the counter!" I swear I should just have cameras running 24/7 in my house, I could win some serious money on America's Funniest Home Videos. Needless to say, I gave up on trying to shake them out of the wasp nest and just tossed it in and closed the lid.

The ants seemed to get to work pretty quickly. I was excited! I put tape over the air holes and then poked a smaller hole with a tack. Genius, I had decided, this is genius! And it was, kinda. By the next morning a few ants had chewed their way out- stupid working ants! But I had a better solution- duct tape! Duct tape fixes any problem right? So I should be all set. It has been near 12 hours and no one has escaped yet.


And bonus, my awesome little ants are great workers! They have made a ton of tunnels already (say that 10 times fast)! And tada! I seem to have no little Hannibal Lecter ants in there killing everyone!

I think I am the one most intrigues by these little ants.  I have spent over an hour just watching them work tonight. It is pretty cool to me how they all just know what the plan is and do it. I guess they have their own ant language but wow, what a great team they make. Too bad we can't be like the ants, the non-homicidal ones that is....

I'll Spare you the Play by Play....

I have Lucy's room mostly done now. I'll spare you the play by play (well most of it you know a short story still takes me a while)...

Her room was rather hard because unlike the boys she does play with near all her toys on a pretty regular basis. BUT she also makes a gigantic mess and doesn't have the shelf space like they do so really she should have less, funny how that works! She has a pretty big closet but it is over the stairs so one wall is slanted,making it useless. Ah but not to genius me! I had decided long ago (like when it was Levi's room back in the one kid days) that a couple shelves on that slant would be spectacular. Well finally eight years later there are shelves! And yes, they are spectacular!

Her 2 shelves are full as well as bins under her bed. We couldn't add a 3rd shelf becasue he clothes have to hang somewhere and I already have her dresser in there. I may have to weed through some more after her birthday on Friday. My mom called to say she had a "bunch of stuff" for Lucy, yay....

There are also some toys up on the top shelf in her closet she can't play with unless I get them down and far too many books... I really need to just donate a box of books. But like I said her room is MOSTLY done...this decluttering gets tedious, I start to lose focus. I think every room will probably get the initial declutterization and then a follow up later. Too bad I can't charge like the Dr!

Unfortunately, I still have to go through everyone's clothes. I'm putting clothes off because though drawers are full they still shut (ah the wonderfulness of hidden messes)! Birthday's are about to be over so after my mom drops her load of junk on me and school is out, summer clothes are out in full force, well then I will go through everything.

So here is what you are waiting for (because I know you are just dying to be a part of my everyday life! lol) the before and after pictures, though I did forget to take a before pic of the closet with no shelves....

People of Garage Sales

Give, sell, trash???

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with all the clutter I am removing from our home. I'm certain I have mentioned before that I just hate garage sales and Craigslist...oh stupid Craigslist people don't even get me off on that tangent!

Giving everything away just seemed wasteful. I knew a lot of the items could sell if I bothered. But man oh man I just don't want to! Luckily, the perfect solution appeared (ahhhhhhhh (this is angels singing))- my Mother in Law (not the angel- haha sorry V had to add that ya know) was having a garage sale. What? Put my name on stuff and then dump it for someone else to deal with???  I'm so there! Okay, so I didn't have intentions of just dumping it, I knew I'd have to help some. But no sign making, no advertising, no having to bother getting change, I can be late, leave early, blame the sun for my need to not work, I'm  like a bad employee that still gets paid! SOLD!

The sale started on Thursday. My intention was to have everything at her house, priced, and set up on a table in her garage on Wednesday night (ya know in case I was late Thursday morning 9am is terribly early for me). So in true Brad form (haha, okay Becky form) at 8pm Wednesday night after the kids were already supposed to be in bed, we loaded up the kids in both Jeeps (picking which items to take right then!) and headed to the in-laws. There we began setting items on our table and quickly pricing them.We sent the kids out back becasue Lucy had already cuddled herself up with a Pooh Bear I had removed from her room over a year ago and Wyatt a singing cow. Ya know stuffed animals- a mothers favorite toy.

Let me go off on a tangent here... who gives kids stuffed animals? I'll tell ya who- people without kids! Stuffed animals are the most useless toy ever. And they take up a ton of space. You can't just toss those things in a bin or toy box they take up the whole thing. So then what do you end up doing? Oh either hanging them in a corner net to collect dust because no one can reach them or stacking them on the end of your kid's bed. They fall off constantly cluttering the floor, when the bed needs to be made you have to remove the small army of stuffed germ carriers first then pile them all back on afterward. Those things can't really be washed either. I'll give ya that every kid need one or two stuffed animals to sleep with but all you insane gift givers out there- leave it to the parents to buy these lovies, keep your Christmas bears, singing farm animals, and gigantic monkeys for your own house!

Now that I got that out, back to the sale. Thursday morning I was up and at my MIL's house before 8:30! And I am talking AM here not PM! We set up and I hung out most of the day. A trip to take Lucy to the Dr back home to grab Wyatt but back until I had to get Levi. Friday I had plans so I wasn't going to show up but my plans got canceled, guess I better go help. Actually I didn't mind. Laying on a blanket under a tree in the shade was nice. The kids just ran around and bonus MY HOUSE IS STAYING CLEAN!!!  No one is there to dirty it! Plus the fridge is still broken so no groceries equals no cooking still either!

 Yep! That was my view all day long!

Friday was the day I cleaned up, money wise that is! I swear every sale was mine, it was nice to see my list get longer and longer. But on Friday my sun allergy kicked in, I developed an itch rash on my chest. I'm not sure if it was from Thursday's garage sale time or a trip to the park on Tuesday??? Nevertheless, I was itchy and far more conscious about the sun light the rest of my garage sale time.

Saturday, the whole gang came along- Brad included! It was a nice family day just lounging in the yard. I was blogging Wyatt's fish story and Facebooking of course. ( I was blissfully unaware of this picture being taken and uploaded to Facebook by my wonderful husband who should know by now people w/o chins do not like pictures taken from the side! Warn a girl! I gotta try to stick that bottom jaw out, we can't all be so lucky as to have jaw surgery and a new chin- haha yes, I said lucky! No, I don't want to endure what he has all for a chin, I'll pass and continue complaining about random side view pictures for the rest of my life instead, thank you!)

Brad, other then snapping horrid pictures of me, was sewing- yes, sewing... Our camping shair he was sitting in began to rip ( HIS chair not mine, I'm a feather) and to my surprise he went in, got a needle, thread, and a thimble (yes a thimble!) and began repairing the chair!) How domestic!!!

 

I lowered the prices on a few items and at noon we made most of the stuff 1/2 off. My table was getting emptier and emptier- yay! I really wanted to sell a stroller and a toy box. I got the stroller sold- so that's good.

There weren't too many crazy garage sale people. I was really hoping for a fun garage sale story, who needs peopleofwalmart.com when you could have peopleatagaragesale.com, maybe there is already a website for that? I'm not looking- you can! There was this guy in a crazy weird pointy hat- I tried to get Brad to snap a picture but apparently his camera only works if he needs to post a bad picture of me. Oh and there was a couple ladies in this car- I can't believe this car was actually driving. It was a big 80's boat car with the front lights/grill area just gone. The color- well it was just all rust, no idea what color it used to be. I swear they just drove that thing straight out of the trailer park, oh sorry I mean junk yard. ( and yes I can pick fun at trailer parks becasue I grew up in one!)

Anyways, out of about 3 Jeep loads we only brought back maybe one. And really near all of that is going to The Goodwill tomorrow! We made near $200, not a fortune but it is something.  And now I feel like I can just donate the rest of the stuff I find as my declutterization continues. I only have a toy box and like 3 new-in-box toys to try to sell at the moment!!! I'm wondering if I should take our "donate stuff" to the closest Goodwill, it is usually the one I do- very convenient, drive up, they get it out of your car right there....BUT it is the Goodwill my mom goes to, will she just re-buy it all and bring it back? You do know she can't be stopped!  I was noticing as I have been decluttering- she has bought nearly everything in my house...okay the small stuff, the get rid of stuff, toys, clothes, dozens of hot pads, plastic dishes, candy (omg the candy! and no I'm not donating candy- I serious threw away an entire garbage bag of candy the boys had stored in their closet- how in the world had the dog not sniffed that out?)

My path to a Simpler Life is going well. A few more rooms/closets to go but so far I am quite proud!