Is it really almost March?? It seems like time is flying by. We just celebrated one of the kitties’ birthdays and coming up soon our oldest cat will celebrate her kitty day. One that I’ve made up because we don’t really know when she was born. We found her wandering around the apartment complex we used to live in, in San Diego. Our vet guess that she was likely 3 at the time so that would make her going on 10 now! You can tell that she’s getting up there too. She’s so goofy and sort of fragile. Totally a candidate for aging pet supplements. I’d almost bet she was even older than 10.
It’s cold, raining, boring .. blah. I woke up before dawn because apparently Will thought that would be the perfect time to get up. He peed the bed and I forgot to throw one of those overnight pull up things on him so guess who had to wash sheets? The hubby slept in so I was left with the terrors who can’t get along today .. at all. We’ve had bite wounds and near fist fights already. If I have to break up another brawl I’m going to throw a fit myself. I just don’t get why they have to fight over everything. It’s like they do it just because they can.
I’ve cleaned everything that I can/that needs to be cleaned. But I’m thinking about shampooing the carpets, just because. I’m bored! I’ve baked bread, played a little Animal Crossing, watched tv, browsed the internet and looked at random things like Torgoen watches. The only thing that I haven’t done is .. uh .. get dressed. So I suppose that might be something to think about doing soon.
It’s going to be a long day!
It’s good thing I didn’t have my heart too set on going anywhere this weekend because the hubby, who never works weekends, has to work this weekend. Seriously. I think our home must be wire tapped or something. I might have to do a little search behind the furniture, tv mounts, etc. I just can’t believe our luck. Any other time he would be home. But if we make plans? Nope! I don’t know why I get all uptight about having my plans changed almost constantly. It doesn’t make sense because with this military life, things will never be constant. Ever. At least I can save the money that I would have paid for dinner and a babysitter, right? That’s always positive. No fun = extra money in the bank.
Since we weren’t going to be able to go anywhere he also decided to tell me about some happenings at work. He had been saving it so we could have something to talk about over dinner since we’re normally pretty short on conversation when alone. How thoughtful! Supposedly he’ll be changing jobs again in the next couple of months. Same command, just a different job within. He thinks it sounds like a great opportunity – I think it sounds like a bunch of BS. Just another thing to throw me off balance. His schedule will change back to days and from what he told he’ll be gone more since he’ll have to go wherever the pilots go. Or so he’s been told. I never believe the first thing I hear. But as long as he’s happy I guess. He thinks he’ll like it more because he’ll only be working with a couple of officers. As it is now they have too many 1st classes within the shop that he works in so it’s a constant mess of people stepping on toes. Too many chefs in the kitchen, you know? It just doesn’t work well. He’s felt like he’s been in the way since the moment he checked in so maybe this will help? eh.
Ooh .. and then I realized that I am a super douchebag. I downloaded a couple of ring tones and google’d something on my phone yesterday and I failed to realize that I would also be paying for the internet access by kb. Holy shit! $37.01 later I learned my lesson. I added the stupid data pack to avoid that again. Which actually isn’t too bad. $15 a month gets me internet, email, TV and other junk that I can use to amuse myself when I’m stuck at the park, bored out of my mind. lol
So, needless to say, I’ve been sort in a yuck mood all day. A trip to Target/Starbucks didn’t work – and normally that’s just the ticket. haha I’m hoping maybe some time outdoors will lighten the mood a bit. It’s absolutely gorgeous here. Breezy and warm. Spring is on it’s way!
My LG Lotus arrived today and wiped away all of the icky feelings I had about spending so much money on a new phone when I really didn’t NEED it.. because it seriously rocks. It’s pretty, purple, and like … a gazillion times better than any of the boring phones I had on Nextel.
Nextel phones suck hard.
No, it doesn’t take much to tickle my fancy! Who needs European cruises when you can have a cute phone?!
I also have pretty “cute” plan too. It’s giving us a ton more for a little bit less than we were paying before. Plus the customer service guy gave me a special “gift” that he told me not to tell anyone about. So I won’t. But let’s just say that I’ll never pay for a text message. EVER. 
He redeemed Sprint/Nextel in my eyes so I’ll quit blogging about how craptacular their customer service is.
Now I need to pry myself away from fun stuff and clean that same old mess up .. that I clean up every day. ARRRGH! What is with my kids and their need to toss everything on the floor?
I called this morning to find out more about switching our phones from Nextel. Once again, got another answer. This time they told me that I HAD to buy new phones and that was basically all I had to do to be on the Sprint side.
Um, ok. Not what the first 3 people told me. But …
I was planning on doing that anyway since I wanted the cute phone. No issues there.
Then I ask about plans. Our plan won’t work since it’s 5 years old and not something they offer with Sprint. The whole we’re the same company but we’re not with Sprint Nextel is sort of ridiculous. I had a plan picked out that was similar to the one we already had. The website offers it, the first guy I talked to knew about it, the second guy was clueless! He wanted to know where I found that plan and the argued with me that it didn’t exist. I told him that he better talk to everyone around him and the dudes with the IT jobs because it was being advertised – plain as day. Then I wanted to just skip that part and order the phones. I asked him if it could just be charged to our account, as we’ve always done. He swore that was impossible and that I would have to give him a card number. I don’t use credit cards anymore for large purchases unless it’s an emergency, especially over the phone, so I declined. We went into a further downward spiral and then I hung up.
I went online and ordered the phones we wanted AND charged them to our account to pay when our bill comes. No issue whatsoever. What an asshat. I’ll deal with the plan thing later once we get them and activate them. I have no more patience for them or the telephone today.
I just finished the last pÄ…czek. No more pÄ…czki for me! Bring on the best weight loss pills! Thank goodness, too. I need to get back on track again. Hubby went and bought more yesterday and that was just evil.
I’ll have most of March to do that though. He’ll be gone for most of the month and I tend to not eat much when he’s not around to influence me. When I’m too tired and too focused on other things I forget. It may not be “healthy” but oh well. I certainly feel better when I’m not eating like a cow. heh
I’m sorry, I know they say that money can’t but you happiness but I seem to notice that I’m much happier when there’s lots of money in our bank account. So, in some cases, I really think money can buy you just a little bit of happiness. Or at the very least, peace of mind. Our tax refund and end of month pay will hit the bank at the same time and my brain is all “woo hoo” thinking of everything I can get paid off and how much I can save – and splurge a bit. Plus I’ve been getting a massive amount (massive to me) of “blog work” so that will just add to my little financial explosion. If you notice a few more links here and there, that’s why! I’ve quit almost every paid blog job I had but I’m still selling out just a little bit. I can’t help it. I like money.
One of our splurges arrived yesterday – a new cover for our Sleep Number bed. Finally! I may have bitched about it before but it was SO comfortable last night. I haven’t slept that good in a long time. The cover actually seems a little thicker than the one we had before so maybe that had something to do with it. It’s blissful to be able to sleep comfortably again.
Another splurge I think will be switching our cell phones. We’re currently locked into a hellish contract with Nextel and I want OUT. But I’m not willing to pay the fee to end the contract so I think we’ll switch to Sprint instead to avoid paying a fee. You can switch from one to the other without ending your contract. Yes, it’s like the same company but they do have different towers and from what I have seen we should be able to get better reception on Sprint. As of right now the hubby gets no signal when he’s on base. Not cool. The only reason we have cell phones is so we can get in touch with each other. I’m never able to do that! After that has been completed we’ll need new phones. Well, not NEED, but it’s recommended since our old ones won’t work as well. Or so I’ve been told. It’s been an interesting week trying to deal with customer service. Lots of different answers. Hubby can get a free phone because he’s upgrade eligible but I’m going to have to pay retail. Yuck! The phone I want isn’t cheap (LG Lotus) and I can’t find any cheap wholesale electronics places to sell me one so I’m going to have to just eat the cost. Thank goodness for extra linking work here on the blog.
Oh and if anyone’s looking for some extra cash, after a long freeze, ChaCha.com is hiring again! If you would like to be on my team send me a note and I’ll give you the email address I signed up with to “refer” you.
Now here’s a cause I can stand behind!
As I sit here munching on a calorie filled pÄ…czki (my own Mardi Gras tradition), I can honestly say that I love Fat Tuesday. And Zatarain’s feels the same way. They have teamed up with Olivia Manning (mother to NFL quarterbacks, Eli and Peyton) to try and have Mardi Gras declared a national holiday. They are doing this with a petition at MotionforMardiGras.com. The word is also being spread through a facebook profile and twitter (http://twitter.com/Mardi_Gras).
As you can see from the website, Zatarain’s will also make a donation to the Rebuild Fund of the Greater New Orleans Foundation to commemorate this initiative. I really think this is a worthy cause – and it’s FUN! We all need a little fun in our lives. So go, sign the petition, spread the word and party like it’s Mardi Gras! Because it is!
I’ve spent the last few days sorting through applications for babysitters and I am realizing that the web is not where it’s at – babysitting is! Times have changed since I was a babysitter in the last 10 years. I used to make $3-5 an hour. Now? The average seems to be at least $5-7 per kid, per hour. In order to have a night out, for maybe two hours at the most, it will cost us around $25 for a sitter. That is on top of the money I’ve already paid to use SitterCity.com (like a matchmaker site for sitters). Which I am FINE with. I am. It’s worth it to be able to breath or eat a meal without asking the little person next to you to stop standing on their chair and chewing with their mouth open. I need to cut the cord and show my kids that other people are capable of caring for them.
BUT.
I’m still having issues choosing anyone. They all look great. They do. But I just feel so uncomfortable having someone come into my home that I’ve known for all of 5 seconds. Background check or not. It’s gives me the skeeves, man! If that’s even a word.
I’m willing to keep my mind open though. My poor husband has asked me to find a sitter now for the last year. He wants to spend time with me, alone. I should feel flattered, right? Plus I need to find someone I can call on once in a great while. When the hubby deploys in the fall there will likely be things I need to do here and there, sans kids. An occasional sitter would be ideal to have around.
I just wish I had more contacts here who would be interested in making a quick $25 for two hours of “work” involving sitting on my couch while my kids pretty much do their own thing. I just want to be sure they aren’t jumping from tv stands or starting fires. We don’t know anyone with teen daughters who need a job or with teens period. Most adults I know don’t want to do this sort of thing on the weekends or anytime because they have their own kids who drive them bonkers. And most moms that I know don’t have sitters even for themselves, so there’s no sharing of sitter info! LOL
If you live in Virginia Beach (or the Hampton Roads area) I highly recommend a visit to “The Skinny Dip” located in the Landstown Commons shopping center. It’s basically a serve yourself frozen yogurt bar. You walk in, pick your bowl or container and have at it. They have several machines going with frozen yogurt in flavors that change daily. Then there’s a bar full of toppings! They have cereals, granola, fruits and even candy pieces like M&M’s and chocolate chips. Anything you could think of! I couldn’t believe the choices we had available to us. So much control!
Once you are finished choosing your combination, you have your masterpiece weighed and then pay by it’s weight. It was $.47 per ounce for us yesterday. Initially this sort of scared me. All I could think of is my husband loading his bowl to the max and ending up broke. lol He’s a huge eater. But not at all! For the 4 of us our total was under $7! There’s no way we could get out that cheap by going to Dairy Queen or Coldstone – and it would be SO much more fattening for us. Frozen yogurt is so much more nutritious and guilt free. No diet pills required.
I loved that you can choose how much or how little you want. I don’t like the normal servings that most ice cream places serve up for the kids. It’s just too much. This method was perfect for people like me who are worried about portion control. I hate buying them treats and then throwing half of it away because they couldn’t eat it all or it melted before they could finish.
To add to my pleasure, it was clean, there was plenty of indoor / outdoor seating and the employees were very friendly. So helpful and welcoming. I’m in love with this place. I think we’ll definitely be going back really soon.
