Rolling in the Dough

I recently got a notice that my car insurance policy was going to be credited because Geico made a mistake calculating my premium. I waited excitedly for the check to find out how much I would get back - it's not every day that some of that money you pay out in bills comes back! Finally the other day it came.




Yep. They sent me a check for 24 cents. I guess they knew I couldn't get by without that last (less than a) quarter in my budget. Thanks Geico!

I'm taking it to the bank.

Every Parent's Dream

I related more than usual to today's Engrish Funny:



After months (OK, actually years) of potty training, pleading, begging, scolding and bribing, Sawyer is finally consistently using the toilet. Our developmental pediatrician says that it's pretty common for kids with a language delay to also have issues with potty training, but we finally made it, right around his fourth birthday. Hallelujah!

He still has accidents sometimes when he gets really involved in playing and he doesn't want to stop what he's doing. He'll come up to me and say "Uh-oh! Accident!" Then he'll say "Oh well, that's OK," which is a line from a book he likes about learning to go potty. I want to tell him "NO! It's NOT OK!" but I usually manage to rein it in.

Next step: teaching him that yes, you really do have to wash your hands every single time.

Guilty

Do you other moms ever have moments of intense mommy guilt? I just had one yesterday. I was doing some weeding in the front yard. Sawyer was with me and disappeared when I had my back turned. I called for him, he didn't answer. I went inside and looked all over the house, he didn't answer. I was starting to freak out when I found him in the backyard using one of my pitchers to dip water out of the pond. My fear combined with the fact that he had (unintentionally) uprooted several newly planted water plants made me furious - oh, and the fact that he knows he's not supposed to play in the pond without an adult watching. I smacked him on the hand as I took the pitcher away and yelled at him, telling him how mad I was. We don't spank, so he's not used to this kind of reaction, but he didn't seem too upset about the whole thing, which actually just made me even madder. I brought him inside, put the pitcher away and tried to calm down. Once I was feeling more level-headed I apologized for getting so mad.

So later in the day I overheard him playing by himself with a couple of matchbox cars and making them "talk" to each other using a high-pitched, sing-songy voice. Here was the conversation:
"I so mad! So so mad! I'm going to HURT you!"
"Ouch! That hurt!"
"Oh, I sorry."
"That's OK."


GUILT.

Looking for LOST?

I've decided to create a separate blog for my LOST posts. That way those of you who read just for LOST won't have to wade through posts with pictures of my dog, and those of you who read just for pictures of my dog (I know you're out there!) can skip all the LOST musings. The new blog is at http://chelseagetslost.blogspot.com

I'm going to be following the Lostpedia: Rewatch schedule, where the plan is to watch seasons 1 through 5 before the start of the final season in 2010, and I'll continue with the weekly blogging through season 6. By the end, I should have a complete LOST blog. And that's what I'm doing with my summer vacation.

The Massacre Continues

Because Penny has shown such a love for stuffed animals (or a desire to tear them to bits) I bought her one of her own - a squeaky monkey from the pet store. I thought since it was made specifically for dogs that it would be a bit sturdier than regular stuffed animals. I was wrong.



She immediately ripped off all of the poor monkey's extremities. The tail has not yet been found.

Fortunately Sawyer hasn't been traumatized by all the violence. In fact, he thinks it's hilarious.

Whale Wars

In the absence of LOST, 24, Fringe, The Office, and so many others, Eric and I have found a new favorite show, Whale Wars on Animal Planet. It started in November, but they have been replaying episodes. We're hooked.

It's a documentary series about members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society . The Sea Shepherds were founded by Paul Watson, an activist who was kicked out of Greenpeace for being too hardcore. Yep. Too hardcore for Greenpeace. The series follows the group as they sail around the Antarctic trying to intercept Japanese whaling ships - according to the Sea Shepherds, the whaling ships claim to be conducting research, but they are actually hunting for whales in order to sell the meat, which is extremely valuable in the Japanese market. So they use nonviolent but confrontational tactics to stop them - they throw butyric acid stink bombs (which taint the whale meat and make the deck of the ship slippery and just generally stinky), interfere with nets, and on one occasion, they even ram the ship.

All of these people are quite possibly clinically insane. They're sailing through a minefield of icebergs on a ship that's not designed to handle ice, they head into open waters in tiny little zodiacs in the middle of storms, they stand in plain sight when the whalers ships threaten to retaliate with gunfire...all in the name of saving whales. Whether or not you agree with their mission, their bravery and determination are astonishing. That's great TV.

The Lion King Lear

The other day a tragedy occurred in our home.



It was Penny's doing. Despite the mountains of dog appropriate toys we've bought for her, she only wants to play with (and subsequently destroy) Sawyer's stuffed animals, in particular this lion. No matter how many times I put him away, she always manages to get him out again. I suspect Sawyer is helping her. At least now the poor lion won't have to see his stuffing ripped out in front of his own eyes.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's....Healthy Body Image Man!

Yesterday I was cleaning the kitchen when I suddenly noticed the house was too quiet. I figured Sawyer was out back so I went to go check on him and this is what I found.








Apparently superheroes don't need clothes (just a cape), and it doesn't matter if their Crocs are on the wrong feet.

Enjoying the Fruits of Someone Else's Labors

The previous owners of our home were obviously gardeners. Since we bought the house in February we didn't have any idea of what was planted in the backyard but since spring began all sorts of gorgeous things keep surprising us. A huge peony bush, which unfortunately I didn't photograph before all the flowers fell off (huge bummer how short the blooms last on those!) Enormous azaleas, which have also lost their blooms already. A few recent discoveries:

Raspberries.

I can't wait until these ripen. They've spread over a large part of the landscaped area, but I don't care, that just means more berries!

Daisies. There are little clumps of these all over the yard.


And my most favorite thing ever: lavender.



I have a two year old lavender plant in a planter on our deck that I've been waiting to transplant, and then I find this! Very mature plants that are flourishing.

Weeping willows are my favorite trees, and when we were touring the house and realized there were four of them on the property that sealed the deal for me.




Our pond needs some work (I've been trying to schedule a drain and clean for weeks but it keeps getting pushed back because of the rain) but something survived the year of neglect - these plants suddenly popped up a few weeks ago and now they're getting huge. Doing a web search, I think these are taro - does anyone recognize them?

Sickness Part Deux

Just when we were all feeling healthy again, last Wednesday I got a stomach bug that kept me up all night. The next day Sawyer got a fever and what turned out to also be a stomach bug (probably the same one I had.) Just in time for my dear friend Sara's wedding. So Eric stepped up as the good dad that he is and stayed home with him so I could go to the sealing and dinner. This captures pretty well how Sawyer was feeling.

Luckily it was a quick illness and we are all feeling fine now. Here's to a healthy, sickness-free summer!

Sickness

I fell off the radar screen for a while there because I was sick. We were all sick - Eric, Sawyer and I got the Worst Cold Ever. Eric missed several days of work. Eric NEVER misses work. After almost a week with no improvement we all went to the doctor. In the waiting room they had a big sign that listed the symptoms of Swine Flu and instructed us to put on a mask and use a squirt of Purell if we had any symptoms. I was pretty sure that's not what we had so we declined the masks. At least they're taking the outbreak seriously. When we saw the doctor she agreed with us that it wasn't Swine Flu (pshew!) but just a bad cold. She told us to wait it out for a few more days, and if we still weren't better to take antibiotics. A couple of days later (the day before Mother's Day, and the day of Sawyer's birthday party, which I have yet to blog about) Sawyer and Eric were feeling a lot better, but I developed an earache. So I filled my prescription and took a Z-Pak. 6 days later, my ear was still killing me. I went back to the doctor and she was surprised it was me and not Sawyer that was back with an earache. She took one look in my ear and said "Oh, that ear is not happy." No, it wasn't. I have newfound empathy for kids that get chronic ear infections, because it hurts like crazy. All I wanted to do was lie down and whine. She gave me a stronger course of antibiotics, and about 5 days later the pain was finally gone. I still can't hear well though - apparently it can take up to a couple months for the fluid to drain completely. Eric is calling me "old lady" because he is so tired of repeating himself to me whenever he's on my right side.

Maybe My Favorite Thing Ever

Listing on Amazon.com

Read the reviews, and enjoy!

Back from the Dead

I feel like I'm back from the dead. The past week has gone by in a blur. We all got sick with a horrible cold - congestion, headaches, bronchitis, body aches, and fever. No, it wasn't swine flu. (Although when we went to the doctor last Thursday there was a big sign in the waiting room stating that if you had any flu-like symptoms and had traveled to infected regions to please put on a face mask and use the provided hand sanitizer before signing in.) Even though it wasn't swine flu, we were pretty darn sick and miserable for several days. Eric even took a few days off work, which he NEVER does. 10 days later, I'm still sick - I now have a sinus and ear infection. Antibiotics, here I come! All this is to explain why I've missed blogging about getting a new dog, celebrating Sawyer's birthday, and two great episodes of Lost. Time to play catch up.

Welcome Home Penny!

The long-awaited day is finally here! Last Saturday we brought home our first family dog, Penny (full name Penelope Widmore Hume. :D )


She's a 2 or 3 year old Redtick Coonhound (not sure if she's purebred or a mix) and we are adopting her through the wonderful folks at PAWS Rescue of Northern Virginia. She was rescued from a high kill shelter, where she was on death row after being picked up as a stray. The lady who rescued her has a real job but spends virtually all of her personal time rescuing dogs and finding homes for them at what I can only imagine is great financial cost in addition to a huge time commitment. It's amazing what she does and we are so grateful to her!

Unfortunately, on her first trip to the vet Penny tested positive for heartworms. She received the treatment for it a few days before we picked her up, so she is still recovering from that illness. As the heartworms die off they have nowhere to go since they're in the circulatory system, so the only option is to wait for the body to break them down (gross, huh?) and there is a high risk of embolism so we have to keep her quiet and calm as much as possible. After a month of rest she'll go back to the vet to be spayed and the adoption will be finalized.

She's still adjusting to living in a house - we're fairly certain she's never lived inside before because she's very afraid of normal indoor things like ceiling fans, flushing toilets, and stairs (we have yet to be able to coax her upstairs or down into the basement.) She's not housebroken but is crate trained and so she's only had one accident in the week we've had her - and that one was totally my fault because I forgot to put her back in her crate when I went upstairs to give Sawyer his bath. When she's in her crate she is very good about holding it until we take her out. She is a different dog outside, she instantly becomes playful, happy and relaxed. I'm hoping in time she'll adjust to being an inside dog and learn that the ceiling fan/toilet/stairs are not out to get her.

She is such a sweet dog. Sawyer can't get enough of her and she is incredibly tolerant of his hugs and kisses.


The other day she was looking longingly out the window by the front door (we had just come back inside and it wasn't time to go out again yet) and Sawyer kept bringing her his toys to make her feel better. After a few minutes there was a big stack of books, stuffed animals, and Lincoln Logs next to her. I think she appreciated his concern.

Happy Earth Day

Sawyer and I weren't feeling well today, so we stayed home and celebrated Earth Day by watching part of the Blue Planet series from the Discovery Channel. It's fabulous and kept Sawyer enthralled for much longer than I expected it to. He especially got into the parts about penguins - he's been on a penguin kick lately. According to Sawyer a penguin says "Eek!" in a very high pitched voice. I have no idea if he's right or not. Anyone know what a penguin really says?

I'm not the best at making environmentally friendly choices (I drive a Dodge Durango for heaven's sake!) but I have tried to change a few things in the past couple of years. Learning to make soap and other bath products was a big eye opener for me because I now know what's in most commercially produced products and it's mostly not good. I'm much more stingy in my use of heating/air conditioning than I used to be. And when we had to buy a new washer/dryer we opted for an energy friendly choice even though it was more expensive.
Probably my favorite change I have made is a really simple one - using reusable grocery bags. I bought a bunch of the Wegmans bags (99 cents each) and I love them. I'd use them even if they weren't "green" because they're so sturdy; the groceries stack up perfectly inside, they don't spill all over the back of my car, and since they're so much larger than the plastic bags, I can get a whole week's worth of groceries into 3 or 4 bags rather than 8 to 10 plastic ones.

So that's my attempt to save the Earth. Kind of lame, I know, but big changes start with small ones, right?

Before and After

After a lot of work and some camera drama (USB cables got lost in the move) I finally have some before and after pictures of the decorating we've done to the house.

First here's the kitchen before.
All the cabinet knobs were shiny gold, which really didn't go with the gray/white/silver quartz counters. And the wall color was much too warm and light.

This is after changing the cabinet hardware and before painting:


And the finished product. Well, almost finished. I still want to replace the sink and the appliances.


The walls are Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage. I got the cabinet pulls very inexpensively on eBay (less than $60 for all of them.)

Next, the breakfast room, which is next to the kitchen. Before:
Notice the lovely circa 1980s brass chandelier. Not my fave. In this room I painted, replaced the chandelier and got a new table and chairs. After:


I got the chandelier online, the table from Ethan Allen, and the chairs, believe it or not, from Walmart. They are surprisingly well built and sturdy, and they were much cheaper than buying them from a furniture store (or even used chairs on Craigslist). The walls are Silver Sage just like the kitchen - the color in these is much more accurate since they're daytime shots.

And finally, the family room. This one took the longest because we had to cover up the cranberry red on the walls.

Here's the room after three - that's right, THREE - coats of Kilz primer:




The color we chose was Restoration Hardware's Flax. I painted the mantel white to make it look more continuous with the trim and to "pop" more against the darker walls (incidentally, I don't think it's possible to talk about decorating without using the word "pop." Just watch HGTV for 5 minutes.) I got the drapes from JC Penney and curtain rods from Target - since this is our TV room we needed a way to block out sunlight from the wall of windows


We still have a lot to do in here - we're going to mount the TV above the fireplace on a tilt mount and install surround speakers. We also want a couple of new couches to make a U-formation around the TV/fireplace. And I can't wait to get rid of the huge white and gold ceiling fan, as well as move Eric's hideous (but extremely comfy) recliner into another room. It's really nice to have the red walls gone. I like red, but it was just too much since it's such a large room. At night time it felt like we were sitting in hell.

So that's phase 1 of my decorating plans. Next on the list is the 2 weird bedrooms (the tiled one and the sewing/craft room), my soaping space in the basement, and the bathrooms. I'm going to take a break first though.

Flight of the Conchords Live

Last night Eric and I went to see Flight of the Conchords perform at Constitution Hall. It was so much fun. Eric's not as big a fan as I am, but he loved the show, and we were both laughing from start to finish.

Kristen Schaal (Mel from the show) was the opening act and she was hilarious. This is her tribute to Law and Order SVU.


Bret and Jemaine came out (inexplicably dressed as robots) and gave a rousing rendition of "Too Many D*#$s on the Dance Floor" - adult language notwithstanding it was hilarious. Then they removed the robot costumes and settled down into acoustic mode for a long setlist, not in this exact order but including:
"The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)"
"Stana" this one was new to me - it's a Johnny Cash-style story about a man whose name is an anagram of "Satan." Really funny.
"Hurt Feelings (Tears of a Rapper)" - the clip is from last night's show and opens with dialogue about how they've been wondering how DC is doing since they were here last year, but they've been unable to find out since we're never all in the same place at the same time. Best line: "The day after my birthday is not my birthday, Mum!"

"Bowie"
"If You're Into It"
"Carol Brown" - girls in the audience got to sing along with the chorus
"Motha'uckas" (with Bret on drums)
"Not Crying"
"Robots"
"Jenny" - one of my all-time Conchord faves

"Hip-Hopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros"
"You Don't Have to be a Prostitute"
"Bus Driver's Song" (this was new to me too)
"Business Time"

On a lot of the songs they were joined by what they referred to as the New Zealand National Symphony Orchestra - otherwise known as a guy named Nigel who plays the cello. The cello added a lot to the arrangements of the songs and sometimes doubled as a bass. Well done, Nigel!

Some of the funniest parts were the banter between songs. At one point lots of people were yelling out requests and Jemaine went into baby-talk mode to tell everyone to shush. (I took this video on my iPhone, which is why the quality is so bad.) He went on like this for a while, and Bret finally said "Seriously, if you don't listen to him he'll carry on. He did this for 45 minutes in Orlando."

Later in the show Jemaine said "Hmm, this isn't going very well. We shouldn't listen to you when you tell us what to play. Sometimes democracy doesn't work, DC." Several people cheered and he continued, "Ah, I see we have quite a few fans of dictatorships here tonight!" Another time when people were yelling out requests someone yelled "Free Bird!" Jemaine said "I've always wondered - is there one person in every town whose job it is to yell 'Free Bird'?" Bret: "Or is it the same guy, following us around?" Jemaine: "Do you even know 'Free Bird'?" Bret: "Never heard it."

And my favorite of the night - a medley of "We're Both In Love With A Sexy Lady" and "Sugalumps." It was not only hilarious but also really cool musically. Near the end Bret reached out into the audience to touch the hand of a girl near the stage - but right before she got close enough he jumped back and called the bouncer over to get her. So funny!

The Scoop

Thanks to some friendly/gossipy new neighbors (my favorite kind, as long as they're not talking about me), we've learned the history of how our house became a foreclosure. The couple who lived here were in their 60s. He was a retired naval officer and very handy - he had a wood shop in the basement and he built the deck and fenced in the backyard himself. She was a seamstress (one of the bedrooms is a sewing room) and showed dogs (poodles I think) and she had about 10 of them. That explains what the tiled bedroom was all about - it was the doggies' room. And that's why all the carpet in the house is new; I guess the dogs weren't house trained very well. Apparently the hubby told her "it's me or the dogs"...and she picked the dogs. So when they went to try to sell the house, hubby discovered that it was only in wifey's name and that made him so mad that he decided to walk away. She was unable to keep up with the payments, hence the foreclosure. So our house is the product of a bitter divorce. It sounds like the owners were interesting and fun people (bitter divorce notwithstanding) and they definitely took good care of the house - they even left us a note to let us know the code to the garage door opener. I'm just glad no one died here.

Updates

So, some stuff has happened in the past couple of weeks. 1) We bought a house. 2) We moved into it. 3) We made our first ever trip to the ER with Sawyer, who had croup. 4) We've tackled several home improvement projects with mixed success. 5) And last but certainly not least, we have watched two episodes of Lost on our new TV. Yep, Eric talked me into it. We got it at Circuit City's going out of business sale so it was a good deal, 60% off the retail price. Not as good a deal as just keeping our current more moderately sized TV, but whatever.

1) The closing process went more smoothly that we ever could have hoped. The inspection went great (very few problems, especially considering that it was a foreclosure), the appraisal came in high above our price (that was a relief!), and we ended up needing less cash at closing than we had expected (more money for furniture! Woohoo!)

2) Moving went well, although it was a stressful 3 days. Eric took boxes over in five trips on Thursday and Friday, and Saturday our wonderful Elder's Quorum came to help with the heavy stuff along with Eric's dad and brother. Thanks to them it took less than an hour! We spent the rest of Saturday cleaning the empty townhouse and filling in nail holes (ugh).

3) On Monday night Sawyer suddenly started wheezing during his bath. He kept saying "It's scary!" I wasn't sure what he was talking about - he has had a lot of new fears come up during the process of moving and he's been saying a lot of things are scary. A couple of minutes later he was breathing normally and seemed fine so I put him to bed and left his door open so I could hear him if he needed us. A couple of hours later I could hear him coughing and crying and he seemed to be gasping for breath. We called the nurse's hotline at the hospital and they said to bring him in to the ER. The triage nurse could tell right away that it was croup. We felt a little bit sheepish for rushing him to the hospital late at night, but they said it was a good thing we brought him in because his oxygen levels were low. He got an epinephrine nebulizer treatment (and hated every second of it) and felt much better. We got home a little after 2 a.m. I guess I'm being paid back for making my parents take me to the ER countless times for my childhood asthma attacks. It was always in the middle of the night.




4) I've replaced half of the kitchen hardware (the other half requires drilling new holes in the cabinetry and I'm scared to do it without Eric's help), painted big squares of sample paint on the walls, and installed a new chandelier in the breakfast room (with Eric's help - that was definitely a two person job!) I have new door knobs coming this week. Little by little we're getting rid of all the shiny bright gold fixtures. Before and after pictures to come!

5) LOST! I loved the past two episodes. Reactions/recaps are also forthcoming. Since there is no new episode next week (why?! WHY?!?!) I'll have time to play catchup.

Not Always Right

Someone on the soap forum I frequent posted a link to this hilarious blog: (The Customer Is) Not Always Right It's a collection of exchanges between customer service employees and crazy customers. I laughed so hard reading some of them. If you've ever worked in customer service you'll relate!