A day in the life of a 9 year old

So, DS has been at Grammie and Papa's house all week. (Quiet time for us yah!!).

My mom calls me this morning. Apparently last night DS mowed my Uncle's lawn as payment for my uncle taking him out on the boat tubing the other day. DS had a blast (mowing the lawn and tubing) and even THANKED my uncle for letting him mow the lawn! Go figure. We as adults really dont' care for mowing the lawn, but tell a 9 year old to do it and he is all over that! I guess we know a new job for DS to do around the house when he gets home!

Well, then she proceeds to tell me that they had just picked up one of DS's friends and they (My mom, DS and his friends Angie) are going mini-golfing. I guess Angie has never been mini-golfing before. (The poor child! We go mini golfing at least once a month when the weather permits!) So they were heading to one of the mini golf courses about 40 minutes from her place.

Before they head out of town, they have to stop to see Angie's mom at work so she can get some money. Then a quick stop at Wal-mart to pick up eggs and a few other things that they need at home. FINALLY it is time to leave....

One the way out of town, they had to stop so he couldput gas in the car - yes, he - my 9 year old! They pull up at the gas station and he jumps out of the car, as does Angie so she can help. So now we have 2 9 year old putting gas in my mom's car. He then proceeds to tell her that he needs a credit card. The pump said "to pay by credit card, please swipe card now". Once he is convinced that since he is paying by cash, they start pumping the gas. My mom then informs the two of them that if they go over what she told them, then it was coming out of thier lunch budget... so they are going very slowly, trying NOT to go over. Needless to day, they went over by .22 oh well, at least it wasn't too much over! Meanwhile, as they are pumping gas, my mom said she HAD to get a picture of them, in all thier glory, putting gas in the car.

So now they are on finally on the road....



Now I am just awaiting that phone call to see what other adventures they found today!

The FlyLady is my new friend

I have decided that I need a new friend! her name is the FlyLady (http://www.flylady.com/)She is going to try and help me get my house clean and organized! Several of my friends have already started using her tips to get their homes and lives organized. It is my turn!

I just spend this morning getting caught up on the daily missions for the week. I have also started trying to get into my morning and nighttime routines! Doing 1 load of laundry a day is definelty much mroe tolerable than doing it all at one! I have folding laundry and if I have 5 loads sitting there staring at me that need to be folded it is just too much! Now throwing in one load each day is much more reasonable! Now why didn't I think of doing that years ago?

The next big project is to get my weekly cleaning schedule somewhat figured out...

I am realizing that if I tackle smaller parts of the cleaning list on different days of the week, I am more likely to get it done! No one wants to spend the ENTIRE day cleaning... I can deal with a short time each day instead! I am hoping that this will help to make sure that all the cleaning is done before the weekend so we dont' have to spend our family time cleaning!!!

Today's list of stuff finished:
Kitchen swept and mopped
living room dusted
all trash cans empty
downstairs bathroom swept and mopped
Chili simmering in crockpot to take up north with us this weekend
Kitchen table cleared of everything except what needs to be packed in car tomorrow

A Perfect Evil

Just finished reading A Perfect Evil by Alex Kava....

WOW! I actually started reading this book last week, but unfortunatly, I didn't get much time to read it in the last week. Last night I decided that I wanted to sit down and really start in on the book.

5 hours later (at least Midnight) the book was finished. Now it has been a LONG time since I have read a book almsot completly cover to cover in one night. I just could not put it down. I HAD to find out what happened. I actually did stop reading at one point so that I could go to sleep. That lasted about 5 minutes! I was back into the book again. It was like sitting down to watch a movie and 15 minutes from the end, turing off the TV. It was not happening. My mind needed to know the outcome. There was no way that I was going to get to sleep without knowing...

I would have to say that is has been a long time since I book really did that to me. I usually can read part of a book, but it down and come back a day or two later to read more. Not this book! It was like I was under some sort of spell. It was a superb blend of good and evil. One's twisted view of what is right and wrong. Another's fight to overcome the issues of the past.

Now I am not going to devulge anything that happened in the book for those of you who want to be read it and find out for yourself. I will say that it did not end like I had expected... and I will be looking onto her next book to read soon! VERY soon!

Next read: Double Shot by Diane Mott Davidson

The list grows and nothing gets done

Why is it that when you have plenty of time to get things done, we alway manage to get nothing done?

This week, as DS is off visit Grandma, I have plenty of time to get caught up on that cleaning that I never seem to have time to do... mopping the floors, getting the blankets and such washed... you know - all that stuff that needs to be done but we all hate doing! I did my usual Tuesday morning run at work, came home, ate lunch and had every intention of hitting the bathroons and kitchen and getting some of that list done...

here is is, the end of the day and the trashes are emptied, the kitchen table is cleared (for anyone who has been to my house before you know - that table is never cleared off unless it is Thanksgiving Day and dinner was finished an hour ago!) and that is about it!

Where did the day go...

Granted there was the 4 phone calls from hostesses, trying to get shows closed, answered questions from past hostesses regarding exchanges etc, time spend laughing at the cats running through the house like their paws awere on fire. Did I really spend 4 hours on that? I guess I did!

Tomorrow is a new day... The list must get done! I hate leaving town for a long weekend without getting it done. I prefer to come home to a clean house so that I can relax after that long "relaxing" fun-filled weekend!

Which brings the next questions... if a long weekend is a "short vacation", does that mean I can take Tuesday off from work so that I can take a vacation from my vacation and rest before going back to work?

Back to School, Fresh Start for everyone!

Any parent knows that Labor Day means Back to School. This is a joyous day for parents, who are ready to the house to be quiet again, but kids dread the day as the new "imprisonment" begins. I just never really understood this view, because I recall as a child actually looking forward to school starting! I remember looking forward to seeing all my friends again because during the summer I hardly got to see them! Call me a nerd, but I actually liked school!

Now, as a parent, I look at the start of school differently! There are many things about back to school that are great, but then there are the not so great things! Like school shopping! Now I do only have the one child, but sometimes I feel link I am shopping for 5! I swear the list of Back To School Supplies grows each and every year. And the items on the list are getting more and more expensive. I am just glad that I have a few more years before I have to buy him a calculator for school! Those things are getting scarier as the years go by! What happened to the simple calculators? Now they have more buttons on them that my laptop computer! But I am sure that will change before long and I will be out buying him one of those!

As far as the rest of the supplies go, I guess it could be worse, but it just seems like it is never done! As a mom, I am always out save a buck or two, but back to school shopping is a nightmare! You check the store sales flyer's for the sales, but NEVER can get everything you need, on sale at one store. If you want to get all your shopping done in one day, AND save as much money as possible, you are required to drive to 4 different stores in 3 different parts of town, only to find out that half of the stuff that you need to sold out already! Each year it is the same thing... at what point does all the running around become more costly than the school supplies that you are buying! Especially with gas prices these day!

I think we finally have all the items on the back to school list!

Clothes shopping is an entirely different story! I swear each year I have to buy a whole new wardrobe! It will be nice when Darrin actually stops growing as fast as he is now! I will probably save a small fortune each year! The first order of business this year... go through the entire closet to see what actually still fits and what needs to find a new home! This entails trying everything on to see if it really does fit, sorting the too small stuff into its own pile/box/bag and taking a good look at what we are left with....

TWO days later, we finally are through everything. Now keep in mind that Darrin has a Grandmother that buys him clothes all the time when she finds stuff on sale or clearance. He has ALOT of clothes! By the time we are finished going through everything, we have 2 garbage bags PLUS a laundry basket FULL of stuff that no longer fits! Some of the pants were still BRAND NEW with the tags still attached! I have already had one friend go through the stuff for her son, but unfortunately there was not a lot in there that she found would fit her son - he is growing just as fast as Darrin! So now I have 2 other friends that are going to come over and go through the stuff! I need my laundry basket back! I was thinking about doing the ebay thing with his clothes again, but I just don't have the time to do it right now, and I would much rather give them to friends, who I know can really use them! Some will probably end up at Goodwill once all is said and done!

Ok, so the closet is gone through... What is left? Well, after pulling out all that stuff that is too small, we are left with a closest that is still have half full of nothing but shirts! Dress shirts, t-shirts, sweatshirts, long sleeve, short sleeve, you name it, it's in there! Notice anything missing?? Yup, you guessed it....

Pants!

My child has no pants that fit him. Well, almost none. He is left with 2 pairs of shorts, 2 pairs of jeans (none of which are going to fit him much longer) and a pile of sweatpants and wind pants. I guess we are going shopping for jeans..... oh yippee! And shoes... he has 1 pair of tennis shoes that are ok, but who knows how long they will last.

Shopping for jeans would be fine and dandy, but finding ones that fit him... not so easy. We can never find ones that fit everywhere. thankfully I have a mom who is a seamstress, but she lives 2+ hours away! Shoes.... I just refuse to pay $75 for a pair of shoes for a 9 year old that will look like they have been through the war within 1 week.! It is going to be a fun day!

We actually got really luck this year with the clothes shopping! We hit 2 stores (and the first one we didn't even try anything on so does that really count?) Gotta love Wal-Mart! An hour later we were walking out the door with everything we needed! 1 more pair of shorts (living in WI you know you can't wear shorts to school to long after school starts - just gets too cold) and 3 pairs of jeans! Now granted all the jeans will need to be hemmed, but that is what Grandma's there for! But we found shoes too!! Everything in one place and I didn't have to break the bank!

Back to school... yes, as a perent I look forward to it, but next year can we just skip the "Getting Ready for Back to School" part of it??