So we didn’t end up going out to beg for candy because the kids were napping. I had planned on it, so naturally we didn’t have any candy on hand to pass out. But there was one group of trick or treaters that would not take NO for an answer. They BANGED on our door and rang the bell violently, even after I yelled to them to go away and that we didn’t have any candy. They then left the front door and walked all the way around to the other side of the building and started harassing us through our front window! Seriously and when they left?! They threw one of our jack o lanterns down onto the concrete, busting it. 
Oh my gosh! I wish I knew where they lived. I would love to go over and backhand their mothers for letting these kids run around by themselves and then be so rude and disrespectful while they were at it. Thankfully those were the only trick or treaters we had to deal with, but still, they definitely ruined my Halloween. If my kids ever pulled something like that I would be kicking their asses all the way home. By 10-12 years old you know better! In fact I think they looked older than that even – and we have a cut off age here of 12 I believe. It’s technically illegal to be going door to door past that age.
I just realized that it’s Halloween! How on earth could I forget?! I must be distracted by everything else going on right now and my general funk filled mood. If you’re bored, you could try your hand at some virtual pumpkin carving! I should have settled for that this year instead of the 6 real ones that we carved. It would have been less itchy, and messy.
I’m still debating taking the kids out to beg. Last year we didn’t have many neighbors who passed out candy and the number of trick or treaters was around the same. Just a handful. I didn’t buy any candy to pass out, so if we don’t go out to beg, then I’ll have to put a note on the door or something. I really hate it when kids insist on knocking and ringing the bell when the porch light is off. I was always taught to not do that when I was a kid.
So Britney may be a little erratic, neglectful, a bad dresser, fast food addict and an attention whore but the girl can still make a decent album! I bought Blackout as soon as I woke yesterday (on iTunes) and I have been listening to it over and over again ever since. I love that all of the songs are catchy, have great dance beats and there’s no ballads at all!! I may splurge and get the CD version so I can have something to listen to in the car. 
When we were at the harvest festival / Halloween party this weekend I could not help but notice the most beautiful dog there. A man was walking him/her around the festival and of course the kids were just loving it. The dog was very friendly, but a little too friendly at times, knocking over a couple of kids. But it was still adorable. At the time I could not quite figure out what kind of dog it is which is funny because I am normally very much on my toes when it comes to those sort of things. So I did a little search online and after browsing many dog photos, I stumbled upon boxer photos and realized that is exactly what this beautiful beast was! A Boxer!! I have been wanting a dog forever, and this just made that want stronger. Unfortunately I am just not up to the challenge and we simply can’t handle it right now. Being a military family makes that difficult. It is hard enough to find homes that allow cats, and even worse when it comes to dogs. I also have my hands full right now as it is. I don’t know if I am up for the dog responsibilities that come with owning any breed of dog. As much as I love dogs, a pooper scooper isn’t an accessory you will find me carrying any time soon.
Over the weekend I decided to take a trip out with my Grandma and browse the craft store looking for something, anything to take hold of my interest and maybe turn into a side hobby. I ended up in the clay section and decided to buy myself a few Sculpey kits to try out. I did and I loved them. I made cute little kitties and a dog. I made a crazy looking drunk monkey/mouse looking figure and I was having FUN. Fun isn’t something I have an awful lot of these days. As I have blogged about before, I have NO hobbies or interests. So this was wonderful!! I had all of these thoughts of really getting into it and creating wonderful little figurines, Christmas ornaments, etc. I would give them to family members for the holidays, decorate my tree, glue them to the dash in my car. You know.. just the basics.
The last time I messed with my clay I had cleaned everything up and placed the kits (and all of the accessories I bought) back into the shopping bag in which they came and hung them on the back of our kitchen door. I didn’t want the kids getting into it and they have managed to get into every closet we have. The kitchen is the last place that I can store things without little hands getting into them. Well imagine my surprise this afternoon when I went to grab that bag, worth over $50, and it wasn’t there. I checked in cabinets, closets, under my bed.. hell, I even looked in the bathrooms and in the dryer. I thought I was losing my mind! I called my Grandma and she told me that the last place she had seen it was on the door. I knew I wasn’t imagining that I had put them there. So I called my wonderful husband at work and asked if he possibly knew what happened to that bag…
“It was garbage, right? I tossed it yesterday when I took out the trash.”
You’ve got to be frickin kidding me. Angry doesn’t even describe how I am feeling right now. We have had issues in the past with him randomly tossing items without checking if it is something I wanted to keep. His carelessness along with the kids and their general destruction of my property is something that I have been very upset with for quite some time. Now this. Over $50 of something that I had bought for myself, with MY extra birthday money and it’s gone. Totally gone, in a dumpster. That pisses me off beyond belief. It’s not just the clay. It’s obviously replaceable. But I don’t have the money now. We just spent $300 on the car and I can’t replace those items without feeling guilty about it. Plus it’s in a landfill now. Knowing that perfectly good items are sitting in a landfill bothers me. I try not to throw anything like that away to begin with as it is. It’s a waste and not exactly “green”. So he has not only pissed me off, but mother nature as well. I hope she kicks his ass for me in some way or another. Can we say lightning strike?! I need to find myself a good realtor and get my OWN house. I’ll let the hubby and kids live together on their own .. I swear.
To add to that the car is now finished and I went out earlier to grab a few items and noticed that the ignition/key thingy majig is different. Sure the key goes in just fine, but it’s not the same as the one we had. I can’t really explain it but it’s lacking those little “nubs”. You know, the ones you use to help turn the key?! Now I just have to turn with the key alone and while it sounds extremely picky of me, I don’t like it. I want my damn key turning nubs and want my nubs now! But how on earth do you go back and complain about “nubs”?? They would look at me like I’m an obsessive compulsive freak of nature.
For some reason I have been thinking a lot about schools and education lately. Maybe it’s because I have been doing so much research on where I want the kids to go to school once they reach kindergarten age? I imagine so. I want everything to go well for them once they enter that stage. I will do anything to help them as much as I possibly can. I want to be proactive and supportive. If they need any help or tutoring, I’ll be there. I want them to have a better outlook on school than I had.
I had a very ideal educational experience in the beginning. I lived in a small town with just a few hundred kids in the entire school. I loved school and I was always an honor roll student until I hit high school and then I had a lot of issues. I started having anxiety attacks that made me skip school often behind my parents’ backs. I can’t explain it but I just could not get myself out of the house. My parents were very disappointed and labeled me lazy. They didn’t get it and because of that I didn’t get any help. I honestly don’t think they get it even now. They still think I was a fat blob who was simply too lazy to get up in the morning.
It’s a miracle that I even graduated to be quite honest. I missed so much school my Freshman year that I failed the semester and later had to retake those classes. You don’t even know how embarrassing it is to be the Senior in Freshman English. By the time I had gotten myself over the attacks I was so far behind. I really wish I could have found someone to help me, maybe even have help to catch me up with what I had missed. I could have used it in math and especially algebra. But instead of support, I was forced to get a job and work my afternoons and nights away. My parents were strict about working and being “responsible”. I would leave for work right after school and then not get home until after 11pm. I would then get up in the morning and try my best to get homework cranked out before my first class – and it never happened. I had to slide my way through the last years of high school and pray that I had enough credits to graduate. In the end I think I only passed by maybe a half point. It was THAT close.
Man.. let’s hope my kids don’t inherit any of that from me. I pray that they are brainiacs like their Dad.
This change in weather that I have been coveting is now making me sick. Great. Wonderful. Fantastic!
ugh.
I woke up this morning feeling like a truck hit me. My lips are chapped, my throat is getting that itchy, sore feeling and the rest of me? Total blahs. I’m hoping it doesn’t get too bad though because I’m a big fat baby when I’m sick. I whine, I complain, overreact and then start looking up rates for term insurance because I’m always sure that this sickness will be the death of me. I’m not very pleasant to be around at all when I’m feeling like that. I’d rather stay in bed for a week rather than be human and go on with my life – and that is not possible.
Check it out! Photographic evidence of my mad pumpkin carving skills. lol Or is that “skillz”? Actually the hubby helped with the carving and the kiddos helped with the scooping and general mess of the project. I now have a nice case of carpel tunnel – but hey, at least we’re feeling festive, right? The rest of the photos are public on Flickr, by the way.
I have always LOVED carving pumpkins but this year? I’m thinking not so much. I have started to itch like crazy every time I touch the insides of the pumpkin. I just now rinsed the seeds to dry out for roasting tomorrow and I am miserable. My fingers, my face, my lips, and even my neck. It’s like I have bugs all over my body or something. Very strange. Can you develop a pumpkin allergy?! I might go and see if I have some benadryl on hand to help me sleep tonight.
It’s been one of those days so I am not surprised that it will end on this note. Our car wasn’t finished by the end of the day – something about the locksmith not doing the job properly and a new one having to come in and pick up his slack. I don’t know much about it. I just know that they sent a shuttle for the hubby earlier to take him back to the shop and then sent him home with a loaner car. A Buick LaCrosse in the most gaudy shade of blue that I have ever seen. Barf. At least I don’t have to worry about a rental car bill on top of the repair. Ugh. Maybe that’s what is making me itch?! I hate giving the dealership money.
Along with the itching, and car worries, I’m also very tired right now and I should be. It’s 1am. I’m sitting here with Granny, listening to her go on and on and on about .. gosh, I don’t even know! Seriously. I love her to death and I was looking forward to her visit and all, but the woman talks. And Talks. And Talks. While I like a little adult interaction, I will be semi glad to go back to my normal routine again. I tend to get over stimulated by having someone around 24/7. Maybe that is the military wife in me? I’m used to being alone and in a way I guess I do like it. Now, I try to be very understanding of her talking because my Grandpa is nearly deaf and she can’t communicate with him a whole lot. So when she is around people with working ears, of course she’s a bit chatty. It wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t tell me the same stories over and over again. Oh and then she has this odd habit of being really sweet one minute and the next she gets really pissy with me and downs everything about the world – and I thought I was Debbie Downer. Come to find out I’m not, I am just related to her. heh
Anyway, I should really call it a night and go to sleep. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. It’s back to the grind with the kids and my own “work”. Grandma will leave tomorrow before I wake up. Her flight leaves very early so the hubby will drop her off on his way to work. Very convenient but sad for me. As chatty as she is, I’ll miss her! I’ll also have a very sad little girl on my hands in the morning when she realizes that Grandma has left. That part will really break my heart. She reminds me of myself when I was a kid and Grandma obsessed. Hell, I still am. I just focus on her and her feelings so I don’t bawl my eyes out when Grandma leaves.
If there is one thing that really peeves me it’s junk mail or “spam”. It is my worst enemy and I lose a lot of important messages because of it. There are days when I log onto my computer and check my email only to find my inbox full of random messages and advertisements that I simply am not interested in and do need whatsoever. Though my issue is very small I can imagine that on a much larger scale in offices and other company networks, this can be an enormous issue that would grow very tiring, very quickly. I have tried my best finding a solution for myself, but I have yet to find that really works. After reading about a sale that GFI.com is having on their software programs, it makes me wish I could have something similar on my personal computer. Their GFI MailEssentials for Exchange/ SMTP is a program that is supposed to catch 98% of spam! Would that not be amazing? It’s easy to install and you don’t have to worry about installing it on each and every desktop in your system. They also have a product that offers security with GFI MailSecurity, or you could buy them both in a suite that would solve all of your mail security and spam issues with the GFI MailEssentials & GFI MailSecurity Suite. From now until the end of December of this year (2007) they are offering big discounts on these products from 15% to even 50%! That is quite a steal if you are looking for this type of product to protect your network. You can access the sale by going to the following URL: http://www.gfi.com/offers/q4offer.htm. I am also attaching the press release below with all of the detailed information about this sale and their products.
Save on GFI’s Email Security, Anti Spam and Faxing Solutions in Q4, 2007
Software developer GFI Software has announced a promotion during Q4 with up to 50% off the list price of GFI MailEssentials, GFI MailSecurity, the GFI MailEssentials & GFI MailSecurity Suite and fax server solution GFI FAXmaker.
> GFI MailEssentials for Exchange/ SMTP is an anti-spam package that is easy to install, captures over 98% of spam and also eliminates the need to install and update anti-spam software on each desktop.
> GFI MailSecurity is an email anti-virus solution that uses multiple anti-virus engines to offer a higher level of protection to your network.
> The GFI MailEssentials & GFI MailSecurity Suite combines both products to offer a security solution that will protect networks again spam, malware, phishing sites and much more.
> GFI FAXmaker makes sending and receiving faxes an efficient, simple and cheaper process and allows users to receive and send faxes directly from their email client. It is the leading fax server for Exchange Server, Lotus and SMTP/POP3 servers.
Running until the end of December 2007, new customers purchasing these products will benefit from reductions ranging from 15% to 50% and as follows.
GFI MailEssentials – 25% off
GFI MailSecurity – 50% off
GFI MailEssentials & GFI MailSecurity Suite – 25% off
GFI FAXmaker – 15% off
This is an excellent opportunity to purchase GFI’s at reduced prices! More details of the offer can be found here: http://www.gfi.com/offers/q4offer.htm.
Our weekend was .. ok. We went to a Halloween party with Aubree and had a lot of fun, spent too much money on her, but that is the way it goes. It was still a great time! But then of course our weekend had to end with car issues and totally tear up any positive vibes that I had going.
Oh yeah.. you know how it goes with us! This like a twice a year ordeal. This time? The lock cylinder went out. A lovely $300 fix that left us stranded at Walmart, 20 miles away from home, freaking out for a good hour. Do you know how scary it is to put your key in the ignition and NOT be able to put it IN the ignition?! OMG! Do you know how freaked out I get when I call my mechanic father with 30 years of experience and even he has no advice for me?! The key would only go in just a small bit. No jerking, or wiggling would help. After finally getting a number for a tow truck and sending the hubby into the store to buy some WD-40 as a last ditch effort I finally crammed it in there. It took all of my might but it worked and we were able to get home and then the key wouldn’t come out!! Yikes. So this morning it’s in the shop awaiting a lock smith and the replacement of the cylinder. I’m really pissed about the money as we had just gotten ahead and were feeling rather proud of ourselves. Now? Back to the beginning. I could just cry, but at the time same time? I’d rather not be stranded again.
