Talking to Daddy

 


He mostly jibber jabbers "dada dada dada" to him, but he's super cute while he's doing it!

I Finally Convinced Him

 

That my castle is cool! Okay, so it's his castle, but being a mom sometimes has it's privileges! We've been shooting the catapult at the enemies and riding our horse saving dainty maidens from sure doom! There is a secret wall and a drawbridge and 2 prison cells!

I'm still most certain that I like it more than them. Oh well! I only paid 15 dollars for it! I think that's quite a bargain considering that it's Playmobil. Did I mention that there was a trick treasure chest? :)

Because the Box is WAY MORE FUN...

 
 
 
 


I got home from work today and there was a package that had been delivered. I had scored a deal on WOOT.com and got a Playmobile castle for a really great price.




I open it up and show the boys and what does Ian say but, "Mom, can I have the box?" Seriously Kid. I just pulled out a cool castle with knights and horses and all sorts of fun stuff. 86 pieces of awesome Medieval fun and adventure and you are drooling over the brown box. So I say OKAY and now the boys are having a ball! It's been a car, a house, a fort, a train, a hiding place, a torture chamber (for Ian to trap Aaron in) and well I'm sure it will continue to be all sorts of things.

I think I'll just go play with MY CASTLE! :)

Move Over Mr Coffee

 

*A choir of angels sings in the background and all manner of earthly pleasure is caught in a cup!*

Okay so maybe that's an exaggeration, but I DO love my new Keurig coffee maker. It's so easy and FAST for me to get my cup of java in the morning and it just seems so COOL. Even though I know Keurig is nothing new, it seems to be a fad in my family this year and I can honestly say that I fell fast. I'm in LOVE. So move over Mr Coffee, Ms Keurig is in the house!

Another Day; Another Saga

 

So today started off pretty okay! We headed to Salado for a playdate after picking up donuts at Shipley's and dropping off stuff at Goodwill. Well it was pretty good minus noting that some idiot had rifled through my trash again. Oh I'm sure those large black plastic bags were enticing. Thanks so much jerk for tearing holes in them, pulling out junk and then not putting it back. UGH. These are the days that I really hate living here. I have never lived anywhere that people take license to go through stuff left on the curb. The first time I experienced this here was right after we moved. I guess the idea that I might actually have the pair to the missing shoe was too much for the lady that she felt compelled to knock on my door to ask. So yes, I guess I knew people were nuts about the trash here, but seriously people. I don't leave good stuff on the curb. I donate it to charity, give it to friends or recycle it. PLEASE STOP MAKING A MESS OUT OF MY TRASH!

So after the playdate the kids were tired, we came home and had lunch and the boys took a nap. I hear the doorbell and go to the door to see a lady waving as I opened. I was confused. She acted like I knew her. I am pretty good with names and I rarely forget a face. This lady was someone I had never seen before. I am sure I looked puzzled when she asked if I was the owner of the home. I told her NO and she asked when they would be back. Me, then even more confused told her that I wasn't sure since this was a rental. She then told me that she was here for ME. ME? I questioned. Yes, me. She was doing all the "moms" on my street a favor and offering a free carpet cleaning of 2 rooms in my house. She was with the new Kirby office here in Killeen. I told her kindly that NO thank you, I had just had my carpets steam cleaned by Stanley Steemer less than a month ago. I also told her that I was an owner of an Electrolux vacuum and that I certainly wasn't on the market for a new vacuum today. She then asked if I had tile. Well, my tile is a mess right now and she offered to clean that. I hate scrubbing it on my hands and knees so I agreed. (Okay everyone tell me I am idiot now because obviously I fell for it hook, line and sinker.) So she asks me to pick up the major stuff off the floor and that they would be back.

About 20 minutes goes by and no one came back. I went outside to look and there was no one to be seen. HUH? So I figured whatever. I had told her that I owned a decent vacuum and maybe she changed her mind. Just as I had about given up of anyone returning, 2 gentlemen show up with the Kirby in the box. They come in and introduce themselves. The one guy tells me that "CHRIS" was going to be the one getting down to the nitty gritty and that he would be back later. So I endure the presentation. It was a poor presentation at best. Weak as tea steeped for about 2 seconds. It was pretty hard to swallow, but I endured the first few minutes and just thought that the guy was pretty green. Well that was until he started in on how "blackk ladies" talk to him. HUH? It was pretty unprofessional to talk about other clients in the first place, but to make a comment about their color was horrifying to me. He continues on fumbling with his gadgets and then says something about how he's going to make more discs of dirt by rubbing two or more together and dumping dirt from one to another so that he can have his set "quota of discs" for his boss to see upon his return. SO YOU ARE A CHEATER AND A LIAR salesperson is the ALARM that goes off in my head. What are you trying to cheat me out of was all I could think and I was still appalled at his "black lady" comment. So on with the droning presentation that I have started to tune out and I have started paying more attention to how bad of a saleperson this dude is. He tells me about the death of his daughter and how it's his aunt's fault because she was "doing adult stuff with a black guy." (He said this with the most condescending tone.) Not only was the story making me uncomfortable, but why bring up the racist stuff again? He then segues into "Will your husband be mad if I am here?" HUH? What does my husband have to do with your being here. Stupid ME let you into the house. Stupid ME pays the bill and NO my husband lets me handle myself since I am pretty much a big girl and can handle the household, but thanks for asking... UGH.

This horrible presentation continues. He's a little disturbed that his vacuum isn't getting up as much "black stuff" as he thought and he couldn't quite figure out if his Kirby was doing better than my Electrolux. He then decides he's got enough fabricated dirty discs and asks to use MY PHONE to make a long distance phone call since he can't afford his own. Seriously dude! You can't afford a "GO PHONE" and you want to use mine? Well, I really want him to clean my tile like he promised and he doesn't know how since he's not been shown that part so he needs to call this Regional dude. I really just want to get this horrible experience over with so I agree to let him call. He calls. Regional Dude answers and says he's on his way. "CHRIS" continues to lay out his dirty discs on my carpet in a display fashion and I am praying that this tile cleaning goes quickly.

So Regional dude shows up and shows CHRIS how to clean the tile. He then asks me if I am ready to purchase this fine product and I tell him that he has an OKAY product, but that there was NO WAY that I was going to purchase anything from a DISHONEST, RACIST, CHAUVANISTIC, unsure of himself salesperson and I outline every single event above. THEY QUIT trying to sell me anything. So Regional Guy tells the "CHRIS" guy to finish the tile. He gets about 1/3 finished and conveniently RUNS OUT OF CLEANER. SERIOUSLY, just GET OUT OF MY HOUSE.

So I tell him to just pack up and move on. He does so, but neglects to dispose of the dirty discs until after he packs up his machine and leaves my carpet in a mess that I have to vacuum myself.

UGH.

MORAL of THIS STORY. KIRBY SUCKS and not in the great vacuum kind of way. PLEASE take HEED and DO NOT LET them enter your home. DO NOT FALL FOR THE LINE. LEARN FROM ME AND MY STUPID IDEA THAT I WOULDN'T HAVE TO SCRUB THE TILE.

Oh and by the way, the tile that was cleaned was still sticky in the places that I saw them go over. It wasn't clean.

And the Purge Continues

We are trucking right along with our 20-10 purge. There are 5 extra bags of garbage on my curb for the trash collectors tomorrow. How bad is that! Seriously, I can't believe all the junk that I pulled out that really wasn't worth saving or donating! I also have 3 very large bags for Goodwill plus a sofa slipcover and a queen sized comforter. I have a decent sized bag of clothes to give to a friend and another tote of baby clothes to give to another. I have a large bag of toys to donate to Arc of Texas through our playgroup MOMs R Us. I can officially walk into my sons' closet and can also do the same in the spare bedroom closet! This is a very good thing!

I still need to finish up the master bedroom and my closet, but otherwise, I feel very good about my purge! I am right on track to have it all done in the next couple of days. I then need to motivate myself to purge the garage!

The Great "20-10" Purge.

Oh how cathartic this all is! I am sorting through every drawer, every closet, every corner and every cranny and I am getting rid of the "stuff" that clutters my life and clogs my closets. It's a bit overwhelming and I can't say that I have a perfect method, but I can say that I have rid my house of 2 great big bags of garbage and several bags of things that can go to charity.

Yesterday was the start of a new year and a new decade and so it seemed appropriate to start this new project. I had to work yesterday but had made up my list on New Year's Eve so that I could at least have some sort of list of places that I need to clean out. I figured that task #1 would be the front closet. It had been overrun with coats and craft projects and miscellaneous odds and ends. I figured a small area like that would be something simple to start out with especially since I wasn't sure how tired I would be after working. I guess the idea of starting with a "babystep" was appealing, too. So I pulled everything out, sorted out the junk and the stuff worthy of donating and put the rest back in an organized manner. It felt good! So I figured I would start on my second area: the kitchen cabinets!

I am blessed with many cabinets in the kitchen. For some reason they then became a "catch all" and there was no semblance of order remaining. There were days that I needed a helmet when I opened the cabinet door because invariably something would fall out and hit me as soon as the door swung open. Well not anymore!!! I tackled 2 cabinets last night and finished the rest of the kitchen today! AAAHHHH I now can find all of my measuring cups. I only have 3 sets now! LOL

I also have cleaned out the linen closet. It was ridiculous to find that I had bedding that fit a bed that we don't even have anymore. I also found a slip cover for a sofa we no longer own. Into the donate pile they went and then everything else was put back in order. You can clearly see the bed linens separated from the bath towels.

One of the worst areas in my house is the desk! Oh the desk that was crammed with papers and CDs and DVDs and all sorts of you name it. It's back to organized!!!!! HOOORAY! Well, I will admit to not tackling all the photos, but I will get to that in the near future!

So that's the report thus far on the "20-10" purge at the Schuyler house. I'm sure there will be another update in the near future!