and we're back. [Walt, Wizards, and....Woolungasaurus?]

[kaoden39]

Shannon, I hope that we three are the exception to the rule with the MIL's. I would hate to think anybody else goes through this.

I need to look for Greased Lightning. I don't think I have ever seen it.

 

[bumbershoot]

Greased Lightning or Carbona will be sought out by me now!

Not to revitalize my old icky shirts, those are going to become rags soon. But for Eamon's new stuff.


I'm all about the bright colors for shirts, that's for sure!

I'm totally bummed about Old Navy, though...from the reviews, it seems that their "perfect shirt" brand has become that "tissue" fabric, not the nice sturdy normal cotton fabric. Tissue fabric does NOT work for me...


I've been thinking of running over to JCP today. Gotta finish up the surveys for Sunshine though...oh man those take so long!

Good news is that E and I have already done some learning work, and we're going to tackle watching Jurassic Park later today (E.T. caused E to sob his sweet eyes out, but then he liked it and kept saying "happy cry" when he'd well up again). I'm thinkin' JP will have less crying and more excitement.

 

[kaoden39]

I like JCP. That is where my girls like to go for clothes too. And I like their prices. When they have sales, they are good sales.

 

[bumbershoot]

When you go on their website, and they have the "outlet" section...some of the things say "available online only"...does that mean some of their other *outlet* stuff can be in stores?

I didn't go yesterday, but definitely might today after the Y AND getting cleaned up LOL. Found some super-cute stuff in their outlet section...but am afraid of sizes...


Gol dang, the online ADR system still isn't showing everything that I have already reserved...

 

[kaoden39]

You know I am not sure. I do know that our JCP has huge racks of sales items, and they often have items buy one get one for $1. I love that place, I have bought clothes for everyone there. I know that our mens department has huge sections of sales items, $40 shirts for $5.

Good luck.

I wonder why the system isn't showing your ADR's?

 

[bumbershoot]

They are having issues galore.... It's happening to bunches of people; they call in and are told that their reservations are in their systems, just not showing up to us...highly obnoxious. I don't want to call and bug them. But I don't want to be the exception, either.

 

[Brady's Mom]

Do you have Kohl's near you? You can find some pretty cute things there, too. And they can have some killer sales.

And about the Greased Lightning - I use it with good success on things that have already been washed and dried and still have some stains on them.

Not having my ADR's show up would sort of freak me out. Is the online checking for ADR thing new? Or just glitchy?

 

[bumbershoot]

Good gravy people!

If my butt is THAT BIG after a YEAR of working out and all the changes that have happened with my bod...how the heck big WAS I before???????

Aughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I had a really really really bad day shopping with E. Horrid size issues, Eamon was almost less happy with the shopping excursion than I was, he kept going behind racks and not answering and then not caring that I was worried....and it all culminated with an angry and scared (after the 7th time he disappeared) Molly telling him he was now down to ZERO dollars in souvenir money, NO wand, NO tshirt, NO souvenirs from our trip.

That worked...got his attention after a full week of acting up and ignoring our attempts at discipline ...also caused him to sob his eyes out.




Robert and I will work out a plan on how he can earn souvenir money again...it's probably a good time to be working on allowances and chores and all of that anyway...but it wasn't THE best parenting moment in the entire universe...

 

[kaoden39]

Oh Molly, I am so sorry top hear that your day was so bad. I have done that and by the time I calm down I knew that I needed to make amends. Thankfully kids are much more understanding about things than adults are. I am sure that E picks up on your anxiety and then goes from there. Give yourself a relaxing glass of wine and take a hot bath and chalk it all up to experience.

 

[Brady's Mom]

Awwww....man, Molly, I am so sorry. I hate that "Mother of the Year" feeling when things like that happen. Although, I think my kids appreciate their money more when they earn it.

I've had to be really creative with chores and stuff in order for my kids to earn extra money. Cleaning the shower, cleaning out the refrigerator, car washing, vacuuming the inside of the car. Things that aren't on their normal chore lists - it can be tough to be that creative, but it does pay off in the end. For my kids vacuuming and dusting their rooms are part of their regular chores, as well as dusting and sweeping and mopping in other part of the house. My house looks like it's dusted by a 6 year old, but at least he's learning that he's part of the community and his contribution is important!

Try not to worry about sizes - some manufacturers are just weird in their sizing and I've noticed that clothes lately are fitting way weird - not because my body has changed so much but because fashion dictates have changed so much. Just buy what feels and looks good and cut out the tags as soon as you get home! Shirts are made so much more form fitting than they used to be that I either buy men's t-shirts or go up a size in women's. I hate the bigger sizes - but don't need a second skin, either. Good luck!

 

[QueenDoOver]

I have been missing in action and not a good dis friend, and I am sorry. But I was on the movie rewards club sight and saw a really cool reward which I ordered. But I have to say, when I was looking at it, I thought to myself OoH, Molly and E would like that.

Anyhow, it is a magic fireplace DVD. You pop it in you player and then you have a fireplace on the TV with all sorts of magical effects. They have a preview video, so you should go check it out.

Anyhow, hello to all, and I am off to run and pick up the little one from school.

T

 

[bumbershoot]

Thanks, Michele and Shannon. You definitely helped.

What did NOT help is how Robert approached the situation last night; it really felt like he was blasting me and trying to make me feel bad... He says he wasn't, but the questions he was asking made me feel awful. Because, yeah, we'd been shopping for 2 hours, E was bored (and was being a bit of a trooper quite a bit of the time), I probably should have brought more water and snacks he'll eat when not starving (he's lost his enthusiastic taste for granola bars, but I've slowed WAY down on the MoJo and Zbars since everyone's last dental appointments). But still, being tired doesn't mean he gets to disappear and not answer me and argue that holding up his hand (when I'm not looking for that) counts as an answer when I call his name...etc etc. Ugh.

But of course my view that Robert was being mean about it points a mirror right back at me, because when he's getting too hard on Eamon, I will often point out that no one has had lunch, etc etc... So now I have to be kinder about that. And while personal growth is good, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck yesterday...when I worked out I did more jogging on the treadmill, so I was sore sore sore, and then trudging through the mall is never ever fun or invigorating for me, and trying on all those clothes, getting scraped by a stapler in the waistband of pants, mightily sucking in my tummy (and when you haven't done situps in years, that hurts!), etc etc etc... It was not THE best time for such a talk.

And then just an hour ago I realized that E could probably be considered to be teething again, since he has one adult tooth around a quarter of the way through, one poking through from the top, and another taking its own sweet time coming up to the gum level (that's the one to replace the baby tooth he lost at 6 months, so I thik I'll throw a party when it makes its appearance). He always got CRANKY when he was teething, and this stage probably isn't that much different.

Sigh.

Shannon, what you say about clothes is so true. This time it worked in reverse for one pair of pants...I have never tried on a pair of Old Navy pants and had them fit...until yesterday. So that was exciting! I just hate the number on the tag.


I swear we are spending more money preparing for this trip than we'll spend on the trip! Along with my clothes (something like 6 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, and some sort of swingy light pseudo-coat/shawl/pashmina-with-sleeves thing that I couldn't resist for UNDER 100 bucks, plus a free sales-pitch for the Rosetta Stone Korean series, along with getting to see the computer user interface for it!) yesterday, and our shoes, today I ordered a bunch of shirts for Robert, and two more pairs of jeans for E. Oh and another shirt for me.

I bet there will be more shopping to do as well! (there are some shorts online at JCP.com Outlet (no shorts at the actual JCP clothing racks, by the way Michele thanks for alerting me to noticing the 80% sale racks! obviously I made good use of that knowledge!)

But maybe it's not fair for me to count it as for the trip...but it sure is a good excuse to buy all these clothes!

 

[bumbershoot]

Tracey, you popped in while I was typing! Alloooo!

I'll have to check out that DVD, sounds like fun. While we have a fake fireplace doohickey, it's expensive to run and definitely doesn't have magical elements to it!



By the way....today is 40 days. Yikes!

 

[kaoden39]

Scotty does that to me and it really ticks me off and I feel as though he is belittling me. Then later I think about the fact that I do the same thing to him. When it really used to tick me off is when he did it in front of the kids. My instant thought was thanks buddy. When the kids got old enough to realize that they could get real miles out of this and boy did they, it stopped right then and there.

You have to love those discount racks at JCP, and I have found that if there are jeans that the girls really like at JCP I will look online to see what the price is because sometimes there are online discounts that cannot be beat.

40 days is so close!! That is when the time starts to crash in on me, until the last week when time seems to stop.

 

[bumbershoot]

Glad I'm not alone in such silly conversational quirks.


Working on a posterboard thingie to mark as E earns back his souvenir money. This sort of thing is LONG overdue, as we'll set down what is expected on a day to day basis, and what extra things he can do. Extras will earn, and doing what is expected day after day after day will also earn a bit (b/c I like to reward being pleasant to live with...hey, why isn't Robert rewarding ME for being pleasant? ha ha). It'll be interesting!

I've now really started to do some jogging on the treadmill. Not much at one time, I'm definitely doing it in walk/jog intervals. But today I did an hour total on the treadmill, and half of that was a slow jog. Feels good.

And while I'm on the treadmill my brain is centuries away b/c I'm reading this sci-fi book by someone-or-other Hamilton, who has a very intriguing and complete view of what the future will look like. I'm not someone who considers herself to be a sci-fi person, but I sure do like his books! And maybe it's b/c in his future, people are "rejuvenated" and their DNA is changed to create the body type you want, LOL. None of this jogging nonsense! (not really true, they do keep fit, but they can start from perfection and just KEEP it)

Signed E up for his fourth session of ballet, and got to sit in his class for the last 10 minutes yesterday. Oh it's just so CUTE, to watch 6ish year olds dance! Augh I can't stand it! And he's signed up for the Y's BIG recital (at a proper theatre) in May (first rehearsal is on his 7th b'day!), so I'm thinking about ballet shoes, dance pants, etc etc, and it's making me all, I don't know...a little teary, a little excited, wondering what his future holds, all of that stuff. And kinda wishing my mom had let me take ballet; but she couldn't...I got such horrible awful nasty leg aches, it was just impossible to think about, even if she could afford it...she got the same leg aches as a child and did take ballet (and had the beautiful calves all of her life to prove it!), and she KNEW what she was talking about. Maybe I'll do what my friend did; a few years after her daughter started taking ballet, she started taking an adult class. I can also take an adult gymnastics class, which would be fun. But first, all of this extra fat must be jogged off (since we don't have v-line DNA re-writing yet).


I put on the new clothes for Robert, and the pants already fit a bit better, which is lovely. He says they look nice, and if he's happy with them, then that's good. He's been severely warned that telling me the truth, no matter how much it hurts my feelings, is FAR FAR better than being a typical "no the pants don't make your butt look fat" guy, and then having me find out the truth later. I feel so fancy, having THREE pairs of proper pants instead of the yoga pants I've been living in (b/c I'm always on the way to or from the Y, so why the heck would I wear normal pants?).

Ooh, and now I could cut up the two shirts I've been wearing through (seriously, my "wardrobe" has been pathetic!) into dusting cloths, which can go in E's safe cleaning supply area to do his "extras"! That way I won't be tempted to wear those things again.



Not much about the trip, I know! Busy with the Y and ballet and his classes and homeschool and trying to get the house back in order after we were sick AND not to mention the inconsequential challenge of trying to reach the end of the internet, LOL.

But beyond finishing up the shopping and getting our rental car in order...not much TO do! The panicking has already started, as have the WDW dreams!

 

[bumbershoot]

Yay, just had an hour-long conversation with my Florida cousin. I do prefer talking by chat or email, but she likes talking, so we had the phone call scheduled. Got a lot of things worked out and talked over! Our voices are surprisingly alike, both very young-sounding (and where did HER California accent come from???)...it's going to be odd when together. My mom's and her mom's (sisters) voices were/are very unusual and unique, so it's mysterious where the light little kiddish voices came from in us cousins.

 

[Brady's Mom]

Hooray for the walk/jog on the treadmill. I read recently that interval training is the BEST way to reshape your body and lose extra inches. And Hooray! for the pants fitting better. Maybe in the next several weeks they will be - dare I say - almost too big!!

Hooray for throwing away/cutting up the old dingy shirts - do you feel like you've had an intervention?? "Hello, My name is Molly and I wear clothes until they are rags. And I wear Yoga pants instead of real pants." I only laugh because I do the same things. I HATE shopping for new clothes for me because I am not a fan of the latest styles and the way they fit me. So I buy convenient clothes and try not to care how I look.

Under 40 days is so, so close. I would be in the freaking out uber planning/checking mode.

 

[bumbershoot]

Shhhhh. I just need the guys in my house to be quiet and stop talking to me. That's all. But they, especially the older one, just keep talking about why I want them to be quiet, and why can't they talk to me, and blah blah blah.....

2 hours ago I started to have a convo with them about everyone's responsibilities, and Robert hadn't a single clue why I was talking, but kept interrupting with what HE wanted to say (being all dictatorial, which is NOT the direction I was going at all), and Eamon was telling me that I should work and teach him, and Robert could do the rest of it....

And I ended up yelling "I'm trying to talk about how we can figure out how you can earn your souvenir money back" and Eamon ran to the bedroom b/c I was loud and Robert sighed..... I was interrupted and had sentences finished incorrectly for something like 30 minutes, and I am the bad guy for trying to work this out. Yeah, OK.

And I had said that I wanted to clean up today, and of course when I say that, that means that I'm the dictator, but I do not LIKE being the dictator and cannot dictate and do it all by myself, and Robert can't figure out what to clean up when it isn't his idea (he can't look around?) and now I'm giving up on the idea of cleaning up, and now Robert's trying to find some piece of software for no good reason (he was supposed to be doing his own schoolwork and this software has NOTHING to do with it, not ot mention if he does his schoolwork in the bedroom, he's going to fall asleep despite the fact that today was sleep-in day) which means that in about 15 minutes HE will start cleaning up and sighing and harumphing...

And Eamon is humming and singing nonstop while Robert keeps on yammering about everything....and I just need everyone to be QUIET.

 

[bumbershoot]

Just tried to have the convo with Eamon alone. A non-starter.

Maybe if I just grab the scissors and start cutting my shirts, it will prompt him to ask why I'm doing that, and then we can work it through.


I'm so annoyed! One of the pairs of pants is missing a button. That button was on the pants when I tried it on. It's the pair of pants that would make me feel like Katharine Hepburn if I were skinny, b/c the legs are all flowy. Hopefully they have an extra button in the pants somewhere...

 

[bumbershoot]

Sorry about the whining.


OK everytime I try to stop whining, they do stuff that makes me whine again! I need to go far far away, honestly....the guys here are making me bananas.