Yesterday I spoke of my addiction.
As I filled up seven boxes and one grocery bag worth of books to be donated and two huge garbage bags for the trash, I looked around at all of the books piled on the floor around me. I looked at the shelves. The shelves I'd just dusted and were ready for the books to go back on.
Now, I'm no genius but..... even I could tell that my goal of having all of the shelves with one single row of books on them was not going to be met.
The shelves quickly filled and once again I was doubling up the shelves with all of my books I am not willing at this time to part with.
At first I was discouraged and then! I saw it! The light!
There are a few shelves that aren't doubled up!! Do you know what this means???
I've room for more books!
Some addictions are just not worth the effort of over coming.........
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Addiction
Hi! My name is Rachel and I have an addiction to buying books. A bad one.
Up until now, I didn't think of it as a problem. I could quit. Sure! Anytime I wanted! Not buy a book...... pfft. Piece of cake.
I have several large and tall book cases in my house and through out my house. They are full. Most of the shelves are doubled up. You can't see the books in back because of the books in front. And the books laying across the tops of the books. And the books piled on the floor next to the shelves....
I'm okay with this! I like books. They are my friends. They keep me company. They make me happy. They make a room feel warm and cozy.
The SM has been trying to get me to down size for quite some time now. Admittedly, I have a few books that were bought and not loved to death but still made their way to the shelves. There are some books that have been so loved by little ones the only thing left is a middle page or two.
I told The SM the other day I was ready. I was ready to finally go through all of our books and get rid of those that could either be donated or thrown in the trash because they are missing most of the pages.
This morning, I got out boxes and was ready to impress The SM by the huge dent I'd make.
I started to pull the books off of the shelves going through them one by one. After a few hours I looked around me to assess how well I was doing! One little box full for donation, a garbage bag full for the trash, and heaps upon heaps of books ready to go right back up on the shelves........ Baby steps okay!!
I called The SM and told him what I was doing. I was finally addressing and doing something about my addiction to buying books! He'd be so proud of me when he came home and saw that I'd cleaned out some of my books.
Speaking of books, that reminded him that our baby girl wanted him to get her a book she wants to read from the library. I got all excited, "Oh honey! They have the WHOLE SERIES at Cost-Co! Hard bound! I'm going later to get groceries. I could pick up the whole set for her!!!"
Hi! My name is Rachel. I have an addiction to buying books. A bad one.
Up until now, I didn't think of it as a problem. I could quit. Sure! Anytime I wanted! Not buy a book...... pfft. Piece of cake.
I have several large and tall book cases in my house and through out my house. They are full. Most of the shelves are doubled up. You can't see the books in back because of the books in front. And the books laying across the tops of the books. And the books piled on the floor next to the shelves....
I'm okay with this! I like books. They are my friends. They keep me company. They make me happy. They make a room feel warm and cozy.
The SM has been trying to get me to down size for quite some time now. Admittedly, I have a few books that were bought and not loved to death but still made their way to the shelves. There are some books that have been so loved by little ones the only thing left is a middle page or two.
I told The SM the other day I was ready. I was ready to finally go through all of our books and get rid of those that could either be donated or thrown in the trash because they are missing most of the pages.
This morning, I got out boxes and was ready to impress The SM by the huge dent I'd make.
I started to pull the books off of the shelves going through them one by one. After a few hours I looked around me to assess how well I was doing! One little box full for donation, a garbage bag full for the trash, and heaps upon heaps of books ready to go right back up on the shelves........ Baby steps okay!!
I called The SM and told him what I was doing. I was finally addressing and doing something about my addiction to buying books! He'd be so proud of me when he came home and saw that I'd cleaned out some of my books.
Speaking of books, that reminded him that our baby girl wanted him to get her a book she wants to read from the library. I got all excited, "Oh honey! They have the WHOLE SERIES at Cost-Co! Hard bound! I'm going later to get groceries. I could pick up the whole set for her!!!"
Hi! My name is Rachel. I have an addiction to buying books. A bad one.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Flying High
Last Wednesday night was filled with anticipation as our truck was loaded up with Mr. T's eagle project that would be delivered the following day.
When we first started the project, we figured it would take about a month to complete. That was months ago...... before the car accident that took our summer and sent us spinning. Finally! After months and months, the project was completed with the help of many willing hands.
Thursday after school, Mr. T, Levi, and I drove up to the Primary Children's Hospital meeting The SM on the way. As we pulled up in front and met the lady in charge of service/eagle projects, we told her we'd need carts. Several carts to haul in his project.
I can not convey to you what took place as Mr. T brought in his project. I can tell you that Levi and I got several laughs as we jammed up the revolving doors trying to get our carts out!
People stopped and asked questions and when they found out that Mr. T had done this for his eagle project and that it was for the children at the hospital they were amazed.
Amazed isn't even the right word! Maybe you have to have a child that goes there to understand how we parents feel when others do even the tiniest thing to make our kids lives a little brighter. A little happier.
Levi was more than happy to show how the dollys and ramp worked. Over and over and over again. The security officers got a big kick out of watching Levi going down the ramp.
All of these items are in the neurology department. Mr. T wanted them to go specifically where his little brother goes. He knows that it is tough having to go here.
It's scary.
It can be painful. The waiting can be long.
Thanks to kids like Mr. T who do service projects for the Primary Children's Hospital,
it makes a difficult situation a little bit easier for both the children and the parents. And for a kid like Mr. T, it brought him great satisfaction that he was able to look through a catalog for special needs children, see the prices which angered him, and decided to do something about it by choosing some items he thought he could build, and then seeing to it that it was done.
When we first started the project, we figured it would take about a month to complete. That was months ago...... before the car accident that took our summer and sent us spinning. Finally! After months and months, the project was completed with the help of many willing hands.
Thursday after school, Mr. T, Levi, and I drove up to the Primary Children's Hospital meeting The SM on the way. As we pulled up in front and met the lady in charge of service/eagle projects, we told her we'd need carts. Several carts to haul in his project.
I can not convey to you what took place as Mr. T brought in his project. I can tell you that Levi and I got several laughs as we jammed up the revolving doors trying to get our carts out!
People stopped and asked questions and when they found out that Mr. T had done this for his eagle project and that it was for the children at the hospital they were amazed.
Amazed isn't even the right word! Maybe you have to have a child that goes there to understand how we parents feel when others do even the tiniest thing to make our kids lives a little brighter. A little happier.
Levi was more than happy to show how the dollys and ramp worked. Over and over and over again. The security officers got a big kick out of watching Levi going down the ramp.
All of these items are in the neurology department. Mr. T wanted them to go specifically where his little brother goes. He knows that it is tough having to go here.
It's scary.
It can be painful. The waiting can be long.
Thanks to kids like Mr. T who do service projects for the Primary Children's Hospital,
it makes a difficult situation a little bit easier for both the children and the parents. And for a kid like Mr. T, it brought him great satisfaction that he was able to look through a catalog for special needs children, see the prices which angered him, and decided to do something about it by choosing some items he thought he could build, and then seeing to it that it was done.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
The Process of Being Ugly
"I'm not a witch! I'm your wife!" What's that from???
First, you take chocolate candy for melting. Melt; and paint the inside of a hideous rubber mask. After the candy is hardened you peel off the mask to reveal the beginning of your master piece. (Make sure you get the candy/chocolate in all of the nooks and crannies like the ears, warts, nostrils, etc.)
Second, you make a cake and shove it all inside of your chocolate head.
Then, you frost the back of the head where you are going to place black licorice for the hair.
You are going to use some of these..
to shove into any holes you can find.
And some of these......
because they add to the nastiness.
A work of art. If I do say so myself!
First, you take chocolate candy for melting. Melt; and paint the inside of a hideous rubber mask. After the candy is hardened you peel off the mask to reveal the beginning of your master piece. (Make sure you get the candy/chocolate in all of the nooks and crannies like the ears, warts, nostrils, etc.)
Second, you make a cake and shove it all inside of your chocolate head.
Then, you frost the back of the head where you are going to place black licorice for the hair.
You are going to use some of these..
to shove into any holes you can find.
And some of these......
because they add to the nastiness.
A work of art. If I do say so myself!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Warning 3
This is a true story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
A few weeks ago, Miss K came to me and declared that she knew what she wanted to be for Halloween and would I help her make a costume. It has been a long time since I've gone full hog on pulling out the sewing machine, spending hours, days, weeks, on yanking out my hair and making homemade costumes for The Native's.
I told Henny Penny that yes, I'd make her a costume. Not just any costume mind you. She wanted to be the bumble bee fairy from the book "Fable Haven". I told her that finding bumble bee fabric might be a tidge hard but we'd go to the fabric store and see what we could find.
Off to the fabric store we went. JoAnne's. It has been years since I've bought fabric from JoAnne's for several reasons. We'll leave it at: It has been years since I've bought fabric from JoAnne's. The last time I did, the fabric was $1.99, $2.99...... a yard.
The first aisle we came to was loaded with fairy wings. Bedazzled Henny Penny and I started to lay them all out so we could see each one. Henny Penny decided the bumble bee fairy was stupid. She wanted to be the purple fairy. And then we saw, the green fairy wings with the purple glitter so it was decided, a multi colored fairy.
We grabbed the wings and set off to go and look at patterns. None on sale. Of course. We thumbed through the pattern books. I made snorty disgusted noises and comments under my breath about how all of the adult costumes looked like floozies and hookers.
Finally! We found THEEEEEE pattern. A beautiful fairy dress with several layers of flowy fabric in the skirt.
Next! The fabric! Off we went going up and down the aisles looking at the fabric.....touching....... oooohhhing..... "Look at this one!".
Fabric was found and as each of the six fabrics were put into my cart, warning alarm number 1 somehow got mis directed and if it rang. I didn't hear it. I saw the price of the fabric.... but it didn't register.
We stand in line waiting for our fabric to be cut. People are passing our cart and oooohing at our fabric and, "What are you going to make with that??"
The fabric, all six colors gets cut out. Yards and yards upon yards of it. Wow! That's a lot of fabric. Warning alarm number 2. Lots of fabric, lots of expensive fabric. "Did you hear anything? A bell? A buzzer? A GONG?" Nope. Still didn't register.
Henny Penny and I, after getting matching thread and what not to go with, made our way up to the cash register. I lay the fabric out, everything is rung up, and the cashier says, "That can't be right!" I tell her that that most certainly can NOT be right. I'd be out of my mind to pay that much for a costume!!!
The cashier rings it up again! Yup! It's right! The grand total. I'm gonna make you guess. How much do you think it was that left me near tears as I handed over the credit card and spent the rest of the evening sick to my stomach?!
Fifty dollars? Nope! Keep going!!!!
Seventy-five? Keep going....
NO! I'm not kidding! Keep going!
All night I was sick to my stomach. You know the feeling. I know you do. Fess up!
The next morning I called my sister and lamented. "What am I going to do?? The SM is going to KILL ME!"
I started thinking. What could I sell? My truck? Our house? How could I make up for the huge dumb mistake I'd made? And how in the heck did all of this not even give me the tiniest of a, "Lady! Are you out of your cotton picking mind of a clue??"
One hundred dollars! Nope! I know!! I'm dead serious. Keep going!
After I got off of the phone with my sister, I sat on my bed trying to figure out how I could justify my daughter having a Halloween costume that cost the same as a wedding dress! (In my day). And the dang thing wouldn't even have french seams! I was just going to zig zag the bottom of the thing! I can't have my baby girl wearing a dress with zig zag that costs that amount of money!
One hundred fifty? You are getting closer but sadly, no........ keep going!
And then.... I remembered...... my sister in law's sister saying something about some fabric she'd gotten and they'd taken it back! Maybe, just maybe!! Oh please oh please oh please. Do you think they'd take it back?
I grabbed the bags of fabric and drove like mad to JoAnne's saying a prayer the entire way. PLEASE TAKE BACK MY HIDEOUS MISTAKE? PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME PAY RETRIBUTION FOR HAVING MY CONTROL TOP PANTY HOSE ON TOO TIGHT!
I walked in the store...... plopped down my fabric and asked, "Do you take back fabric? Please tell me that you do? Or I'll slit my wrists on your cutting table!"
They didn't want a messy table. They took back the fabric. Every blessed piece and the wings. Every penny that I'd been sick over, put back on my credit card. All...... One hundred........ eighty.........five........ dollars worth.
Yes, you just read that correctly. Korrie! I could hug and kiss ya for that post you'd written about taking back fabric. If it is over a yard they'll take it back. Well, my six pieces were WELL over a yard........
I got back in the car and Henny Penny asked me what we were going to do for a costume. I told her not to worry, we'd go to the 'Marts and I'd figure something out. We walked through the costumes and guess what? A bumble bee fairy costume! For nineteen bucks!
Two days before I'd have snorted at spending nineteen bucks on a 'Mart costume but that day. BARGAIN!
So, warning 3. Don't get emotional. It skews your judgement. Not that I have any personal experience with this...... just sayin'...... hypothetically.
A few weeks ago, Miss K came to me and declared that she knew what she wanted to be for Halloween and would I help her make a costume. It has been a long time since I've gone full hog on pulling out the sewing machine, spending hours, days, weeks, on yanking out my hair and making homemade costumes for The Native's.
I told Henny Penny that yes, I'd make her a costume. Not just any costume mind you. She wanted to be the bumble bee fairy from the book "Fable Haven". I told her that finding bumble bee fabric might be a tidge hard but we'd go to the fabric store and see what we could find.
Off to the fabric store we went. JoAnne's. It has been years since I've bought fabric from JoAnne's for several reasons. We'll leave it at: It has been years since I've bought fabric from JoAnne's. The last time I did, the fabric was $1.99, $2.99...... a yard.
The first aisle we came to was loaded with fairy wings. Bedazzled Henny Penny and I started to lay them all out so we could see each one. Henny Penny decided the bumble bee fairy was stupid. She wanted to be the purple fairy. And then we saw, the green fairy wings with the purple glitter so it was decided, a multi colored fairy.
We grabbed the wings and set off to go and look at patterns. None on sale. Of course. We thumbed through the pattern books. I made snorty disgusted noises and comments under my breath about how all of the adult costumes looked like floozies and hookers.
Finally! We found THEEEEEE pattern. A beautiful fairy dress with several layers of flowy fabric in the skirt.
Next! The fabric! Off we went going up and down the aisles looking at the fabric.....touching....... oooohhhing..... "Look at this one!".
Fabric was found and as each of the six fabrics were put into my cart, warning alarm number 1 somehow got mis directed and if it rang. I didn't hear it. I saw the price of the fabric.... but it didn't register.
We stand in line waiting for our fabric to be cut. People are passing our cart and oooohing at our fabric and, "What are you going to make with that??"
The fabric, all six colors gets cut out. Yards and yards upon yards of it. Wow! That's a lot of fabric. Warning alarm number 2. Lots of fabric, lots of expensive fabric. "Did you hear anything? A bell? A buzzer? A GONG?" Nope. Still didn't register.
Henny Penny and I, after getting matching thread and what not to go with, made our way up to the cash register. I lay the fabric out, everything is rung up, and the cashier says, "That can't be right!" I tell her that that most certainly can NOT be right. I'd be out of my mind to pay that much for a costume!!!
The cashier rings it up again! Yup! It's right! The grand total. I'm gonna make you guess. How much do you think it was that left me near tears as I handed over the credit card and spent the rest of the evening sick to my stomach?!
Fifty dollars? Nope! Keep going!!!!
Seventy-five? Keep going....
NO! I'm not kidding! Keep going!
All night I was sick to my stomach. You know the feeling. I know you do. Fess up!
The next morning I called my sister and lamented. "What am I going to do?? The SM is going to KILL ME!"
I started thinking. What could I sell? My truck? Our house? How could I make up for the huge dumb mistake I'd made? And how in the heck did all of this not even give me the tiniest of a, "Lady! Are you out of your cotton picking mind of a clue??"
One hundred dollars! Nope! I know!! I'm dead serious. Keep going!
After I got off of the phone with my sister, I sat on my bed trying to figure out how I could justify my daughter having a Halloween costume that cost the same as a wedding dress! (In my day). And the dang thing wouldn't even have french seams! I was just going to zig zag the bottom of the thing! I can't have my baby girl wearing a dress with zig zag that costs that amount of money!
One hundred fifty? You are getting closer but sadly, no........ keep going!
And then.... I remembered...... my sister in law's sister saying something about some fabric she'd gotten and they'd taken it back! Maybe, just maybe!! Oh please oh please oh please. Do you think they'd take it back?
I grabbed the bags of fabric and drove like mad to JoAnne's saying a prayer the entire way. PLEASE TAKE BACK MY HIDEOUS MISTAKE? PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME PAY RETRIBUTION FOR HAVING MY CONTROL TOP PANTY HOSE ON TOO TIGHT!
I walked in the store...... plopped down my fabric and asked, "Do you take back fabric? Please tell me that you do? Or I'll slit my wrists on your cutting table!"
They didn't want a messy table. They took back the fabric. Every blessed piece and the wings. Every penny that I'd been sick over, put back on my credit card. All...... One hundred........ eighty.........five........ dollars worth.
Yes, you just read that correctly. Korrie! I could hug and kiss ya for that post you'd written about taking back fabric. If it is over a yard they'll take it back. Well, my six pieces were WELL over a yard........
I got back in the car and Henny Penny asked me what we were going to do for a costume. I told her not to worry, we'd go to the 'Marts and I'd figure something out. We walked through the costumes and guess what? A bumble bee fairy costume! For nineteen bucks!
Two days before I'd have snorted at spending nineteen bucks on a 'Mart costume but that day. BARGAIN!
So, warning 3. Don't get emotional. It skews your judgement. Not that I have any personal experience with this...... just sayin'...... hypothetically.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Warning 2
(Scraping melted plastic off hearth)
This is a message from the local fire marshal for and in behalf of all citizens considering/wanting/having done/contemplating cleaning out ashes from a fire pit/wood stove/microwave/etc.
(Notice red embers in ash)
Common sense would tell you to check ashes to make sure they are not hot before placing them in a plastic bag. In a plastic garbage can.
If common sense is lacking for some reason, be it you had little to no sleep the night before, your panty hose are too tight thus restricting precious blood flow, you've been on a diet making it so the only thing you can think about is chocolate... getting your next piece of chocolate... when can you find/steal a piece of chocolate... if you eat chocolate you're going to have to wear control top panty hose.... you lose sleep over it.... What ever your reason!
I realize that the last fire that was burning in your "appliance" was an entire day ago! Reason should point towards nice cool ashes....... reason....... BETRAYS! Do NOT trust reason.
And if reason should prevail and you do happen to melt your trash can and ash then falls out of the melty hole onto your carpet and you grab your trash can running it outside as it blows smoke and ash in your face do me a favor eh?
(Notice smoke still coming out of melty hole)
Make sure when you throw it into ANOTHER plastic trash can (owned by the city) make sure it is pouring rain, or at least get a hose and douse your fire eh?
Photo credit
Cuz you may end up with this...... and the city and the local fire marshals. They just don't get a neighborhood weenie roast like they did in the good ol' days.....
Not that I would know. This is all hypothetical of course and just. A warning. I am after all..... The Scout Master's wife!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Update
Update from yesterday's post:
Midnight came.
Midnight went.
The Native's all went to school
with shaved brows and heads.
The SM is next.
Several birds have abandoned their flights to the south as they take up residence in the ever growing unibrow planning to hunker down for the winter.....
Midnight came.
Midnight went.
The Native's all went to school
with shaved brows and heads.
The SM is next.
Several birds have abandoned their flights to the south as they take up residence in the ever growing unibrow planning to hunker down for the winter.....
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