Remember the cupcake post from Friday? And how I was very much looking forward to our cupcakes decorated like soccer balls? So here they are. Very un-soccer-ball-like. One of the coaches said, “Well, they look like soccer balls …” and I wonder if he was just being nice, thinking I made them? lol. His son and I concur: they do not, in fact, look like soccer balls. These are soccer cupcakes. But they tasted pretty good (and in defense of my diet, I scraped all of the frosting off).

Yesterday we had two soccer parties, then I had a wedding in the evening. The soccer parties went well and, by the end of the day, we were all stuffed with plenty of pizzas and these soccer cupcakes. The kids and Darin went roller skating at Jenna & Emma’s party and they all pretty much had a blast. The wedding was so much fun, except for the creepy drunk guy. lol. There’s always one, right? Gwen and I had such a blast taking pictures for our co-worker’s son and his new wife – a great couple that I hope will be blessed for many years to come.

Today, since our priest is out of town, we skipped church in favor of working on a few items on our to-do list. Darin, Jaiden & Jaylen are at Lowe’s, picking up some items necessary for repairs at Darin’s step-grandmother’s house. She recently broke her hip and moved in with my in-laws. Oh what an interesting experience it has been for them. lol. Darin and his stepdad are working to get the house ready to be put back on the market. When Darin and I were dating, he sold the house to her (she moved here from Virginia two years ago). Apparently, the house has changed a lot in two years.

Also on our to-do list is spending time together (of course my complaint was that we never really do spend time together), a trip to the grocery store and fishing. The last two will be concurrent, with Darin taking the kids fishing at his parents’ house while I shop for food. Fun stuff, I know.

Jenna and I decided at the very last minute to go to Burger King for breakfast (cinni-minis called, we answered). We got all the way there, argued with the workers that it was still 10:29 a.m. and no, we didn’t want a Whopper Jr., ordered french toast sticks, a sausage biscuit and orange juice (they were out of cinni-minis) and when I got to the window I realized I’d left my wallet at home. I do not carry cash, but just so happened to find $2.25 in my purse. Awesome. We had to drop the OJ, but paid $2.19 for the food. Great save, right?

Whooah, we’re half-way there …”
NaBloPoMo is half-over already. Thankfully posting every day has not quite been too big a challenge. In one of the forums someone brought up cheating, asking if she had double standards because she considered back-dating posts cheating, but scheduling posts completely okay. I agree with her. Sometimes I schedule posts the day before, usually because I have a little more free time on certain days than others and I have something to talk about, so I go ahead and do it. I write up the entry, then schedule it to post whenever it needs to be posted. If I have time today, I plan on scheduling posts for later this week and posts will likely be scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend when all of my family will be in town and I’ll be too busy cuddling nieces and nephews to blog. And, in my book, this is completely acceptable because you’re doing the work before it’s due.

Of course the devil’s advocates would point out that you’re doing the work when you have time for it and sometimes the only chance you’ll have time for something is after it’s due, so you do it then and what’s the difference? You’re still doing it when you have time for it. But, to that I say, shut up and that’s such a stupid argument.

This week I plan on answering more of your questions, specifically about how Darin and I met and started dating and what renovations we’re working on, both in honor of our second dating anniversary (Wednesday!) and the first anniversary of moving into this house (next weekend!). I may also talk about toxic relationships and food, but that question still stumps me! If you want to submit a question, please feel free to do so. Just leave it in the comments and I’ll answer it by Nov. 30.

So today was a crazy day wherein I learned how to use an iPod and that Patrick Swayze is potentially dying of pancreatic cancer. All of that in one day.

Yesterday I finally took the leap into the 21st century and bought a 4GB iPod Nano, in silver. Honestly, I’ve always looked down my nose at those crazy people who couldn’t just listen to the radio or CDs. I mean, who needs new technology, right? And for over $100 (for anything more than the iPod Shuffle, I mean), holy crap, people. Save your money. But over the last couple of weeks I’ve been milling it over and actually considering it – because I discovered the beauty that is the Podcast.

To clarify, I’d heard of podcasts, but I’d never actually listened to one. And it’s only been recently that I’ve fully embraced the iTunes radio on my Mac at work (and argh – HATE IT when the streams need to rebuffer every two seconds). A few weeks ago I bought my first iTunes songs for my cousins’ wedding DVD (the background music) and … wow, it felt good to download songs again. I haven’t downloaded songs since I moved here two years ago because I’m on dial-up at home. And only paying 99 cents for having a clear conscience (free downloads can spell trouble later on) is awesome. Then my dear friend decided to tell me to listen to a few podcasts and … well, now I’m hooked on podcasts. Last week I downloaded about 15 podcasts (cheap folks beware, most podcasts are free) and burned them to a CD so I could listen to them in my car (trying to listen to them at work while I’m trying to write is not so productive, let me tell you). But, you know, with me never being satisfied, I wasn’t really satisfied with having podcasts on a CD-R that I couldn’t regularly update. It was almost like recording a whole CD to a cassette tape because you’d not yet caught up with technology.

Yet my cheap heart could not fathom spending that much on something that gives me the ability to listen to music and podcasts when I have a perfectly good radio and a perfectly good computer at work, both for free (not counting the $18,500 I spent on that car last summer). But lo, there is a solution for the frugal folks among us – refurbished iPods! I could get a refurbished previous generation iPod for only $80+tax and I qualified for free shipping. Rock on. But my advisors said, ‘This is the old model, might as well spend a little more and get the new model ..’ and ‘But the new gen screens are pretty!’ And thus I began browsing – and drooling over – the current generation refurbished iPods. They were only 14% off regular price. Yesterday morning I finally gave in and decided to go for it. I was set to purchase a refurbished 4GB Nano for $130 + Tennessee sales tax, and after hearing that my grandfather had passed and we’d be spending about 20 hours or more in the car this weekend, I figured ‘Let’s go for it’. Except that I needed it sooner rather than later. Okay. So skip the free ground shipping and let’s go with the next day shipping, right? Well that $143 turned into $159 and, suddenly, this refurbished iPod didn’t seem like such a great deal. I could go to Wal-Mart and get a brand new one for $164, so I did. Once you add in the stupid auxiliary cord for the car and the case … well, buyer’s remorse has settled in, big time.

I took the iPod home and played with it. It took me HOURS to figure out how to scroll, I’m embarrassed to admit (hey, when all else fails, read the manual, but I did accidentally figure it out myself). I couldn’t put songs on it at home because, here again, we are working with outdated technology. lol. All of the nearly 300 songs I had were on my desktop computer, which had an outdated version of iTunes on it not compatible with this iPod and no Internet connection. Loveliness, let me tell you. So I copied all of the songs to my external drive, weeded through the southern booty bass songs that my ex had downloaded (that’s how long it’s been since I’ve downloaded songs) as well as any others I didn’t want to listen to. I figured I could download the new version of iTunes to my laptop, but my download manager said it’d be an estimated seven hours and 45 minutes … ha. NO.

I did get all of my songs and podcasts loaded into the iPod today. And I categorized my songs into playlists: 80s music, 90s music, Country, Instrumentals, Motown/R&B, Oldies, Pop, Rap, Rock, Showtunes and Wee Ones. The last one holds such goodies as Disney songs, Laurie Berkner and The Wiggles and Earth, Wind & Fire (yes, they are big September and Let’s Groove fans – Shanee, your mom would dig that lol). I am rocking out (ha) to my instrumentals right now – Ave Maria by Beethoven, The Gift of Love by the O’Neill Brothers, Songbird and Breathless by Kenny G (Darin said he’s divorcing me over the Kenny G lol), Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (one of my favorite songs – this one played when Dr. Green, I think, from the show ER died), Moonlight Sonata by Mozart and Four Seasons – Summer by Vivaldi. Nice and mellow. (Em – that version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow would be good for some of your baby plan slideshows.)

I heard a song called “The Way I Am” by Ingrid Michaelson last night. LOVE IT. You have to listen to it. My favorite part is, “I’d buy you Rogaine if you start losing all your hair/Sew on patches to all you tear/Cuz I love you more than I could ever promise./And you take me the way I am.” If that’s not sweet, I don’t know what is! I wish her upcoming Nashville shows were not on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. But okay. Apparently this song has been on Grey’s Anatomy, too. Anyhoo.

Other faves? Love Song by Sara Bareilles. Friday I’m in Love by The Cure. All Mixed Up and Down by 311. Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen. Let’s Hear it for the Boys by Denice Williams. Fly Me to the Moon and The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra. In Da Club by 50 Cent, of course. Lately by Jodeci. Love by Musiq Soulchild. My Prerogative by Bobby Brown. Polka Dots and Moonbeams by Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey. Somewhere Out There by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram (this one reminds me of Darin, from when we were kids and watched An American Tale). And Teachme by Musiq Soulchild. And now I shall stop boring you with that …

But let’s talk Podcasts! Which ones do you listen to? What do you like? Shanee told me to find Manic Mommies and listen to them – and I really, really enjoy them. It’s like sitting down with other mommies and listening in on their conversation for an hour. Just eavesdropping – all the while nodding and saying, “OH! My kid SO DID THAT!” or taking in all the tips, such as those from Real Simple Magazine, or just laughing hysterically over some of the things the callers say their kids have done, like stuffing the VCR with tampons. Love it! Check them out at www.manicmommies.com.

I also listen to a couple of journalism-related podcasts and I downloaded more parenting-related podcasts today that I haven’t listened to yet. Motherhood Uncensored is really good, too. That one’s done by Kristin Chase of www.motherhooduncensored.net.

I would love to hear what other podcasts you listen to that are fun and entertaining. I’ll even take serious, but good subjects. Shanee’s created a podcast addict. lol.

And how sad about Patrick Swayze being given five weeks to live. That sucks. And you never know what can happen. I never expected that my grandfather would die four hours after I heard that he was not doing well, which I’ve heard so many times before. Life is crazy and unpredictable. Cherish it. But remember, nobody puts Baby in a corner.

On that note .. I’ll be out of commission for a few days, I’m expecting. Funeral and all of that. I still have two or three stories to write plus my column. And I have to wash a load of laundry and pack. All of that fun stuff. The least that God can do is not to shower us with snowfall. Doesn’t mix well with grief – or with irritated girls with blogs who hate the snow.

Also, I fear Jaiden’s pneumonia or bronchitis is rearing its ugly head once again. Oh how I hate respiratory illnesses. This happened the entire school year last year and for a good bit this school year, too. I am at my wits’ end with this. No one seems to think it’s a chronic condition, apparently, but something is wrong. She stayed home from school today and will likely be out until Tuesday due to being sick as well as the death in the family. Nice.

I have spent days working on writing a little bit more about myself. Now that my name’s ‘out there’ on a regular basis, I thought I’d put more up in case someone Googled me. It started as just expanding on the basic and turned into a basic About Me section with three additional pages. I couldn’t organize it to suit my OCD, so I just gave up and made separate (child) pages!

So um, yeah. Read it ALL! Make me feel like I didn’t just waste my time!

I’ve also added an ‘about the site’ page as well as a page with a contact form. Again, check it all out and make me feel like I didn’t waste my time. Thanks. lol.

I have a gazillion files – including about four years’ worth of photos and other work – on my PC. I want to network the PC and my laptop. We are on dial-up here in the boons and I have been told that I cannot really network these two until we get into the 21st century and get DSL or cable internet, but that I could get the network cables and hook the computers together in order to share files (because I want to burn my photos to DVDs, mainly, and okay it would be nice to be able to share files).

So I bought the cables and hooked them up. I tried to do the network setup that comes with Windows XP. Uh .. it no worky.

Please tell me how in the world I can do this – and dumb it way down, okay. There has to be some way. Weren’t we networking computers way before wireless and high speed internet?

I swear, the day we get some sort of high speed something out here I will run through the streets fields drunken and topless.

Or not. I will probably download a ton of things and send large attachments to all of my friends. Just because I can.

But until then – help me out. My father-in-law always called me a software geek, not a hardware geek. That tech stuff goes right over my head for real. lol.

(Also? RSM SAID I could whine and complain, therefore I have an excuse. LOL. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please see the previous entry that I am too lazy to link.)

(And another also: Shanee always tells me to try the Google Feed Reader and I always pledge my undying devotion to Bloglines, but I checked it out and LOVE it – so much so that I deleted my Bloglines & Subscribe to Bloglines links from my toolbar. If that ain’t love, I don’t know what love is.)

(One more also: Tonight was Kindergarten Open House. We are already pre-registered or something because Jaiden’s in Pre-K, but yet we have to officially register or something and the first day to do that is Thursday. (THURSDAY! KINDERGARTEN! OH WOW!) I have already met and observed the Kindergarten teachers with their students after having been there a gazillion times taking pictures and volunteering and whatnot, but since I love the school so much and can’t stand possibly missing out on something, we went. And? I was reassured that I am, in fact, in love with this school. The only bad thing is that my favorite teacher – my top choice and Jaiden’s top choice too – is moving after this school year! *SOB* But we have already requested a teacher that is equally wonderful and glorious and all of that, so that’s okay. We wandered around all of the K classrooms and Jaiden saw all kinds of things and interacted with other rising Kindergarteners, which is always fascinating to me. Her music teacher and counselor both have girls entering Kindergarten and so they were there – it’s so great to see that these people remember my daughter (same for the K teachers) and watch how they all interact. Jaiden actually met one of the little girls in dance last year, so that was neat. But anyway, yeah, KINDERGARTEN! That sound so grown up! I know I am going to cry all over again, just like I did the first day of Pre-K.)

Thank you, that is all.

For real this time.

Thanks for popping in! Keep doing it! And then, when I get tired of you, you are more than welcome to head back to the woodwork and hide again. But come on, I’d never get tired of you. Or you. And we can’t forget you in the back!

(Yes, you can roll your eyes. I am. lol.) I intend to reply to all of you, but be forewarned that it may take me a couple of years. I’ve fallen off of the ‘respond to every single comment’ bandwagon, simply because I devote my free time to procrastination. And blogging. And taking meaningless pictures. And oh yes, painting the upstairs and strongly considering deconstructing a futon that is too big and bulky to fit anywhere. Also? The meaning of life and judging people for not doing four-way stops correctly are never far from my mind.

But really – I intend to respond to your comments. (And yes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Thank you for pointing that out.)

I had a few questions from your comments, mostly about Jaiden’s strips. Her teacher has this .. I don’t know what you call it, a thing with each person’s photo next to a little pocket containing like, 5(?) strips of paper. When they act up, they pull a strip. After you have pulled a certain number a day you lose privileges or end up with the vice principal, etc. I’m a little sketchy on all of the details being that [ahem!] my child has never had to pull one. (Yes, I am bragging. I have every right. Thankyouverymuch.) But that’s the general idea. Her teacher still insists that she did not pull a strip and Jaiden still insists that she did. Whose word do I take? I don’t know.

As for the furniture upstairs – it came from my mom’s coworker, who we call our black daddy. (He has the same last name – my maiden name.) (And sorry if you’re offended by my calling him black. He knows he’s black, though.) Anyway, he was getting rid of it, so my mom told him we’d take it sight unseen. (Lucked out on that deal.) The furniture is cream leather; I got a couch, loveseat, big comfy chair, two end tables, a coffee table, a dining table, and four chairs. The tables are odd, and they are glass-topped. I like the circles and the glass tops (now), but I’d like it better in-laid or something. The kids keep knocking the tops off and Jenna keeps beating on the top of the coffee table with her toys. It’s not very kid friendly. The dining table is glass-topped as well and the base is not my style. Which is just fine because I already have a dining table I love along with some end tables and a coffee table. The end tables and coffee table are rectangles, so I am trying to talk my dad into making me new ones. lol. It doesn’t sound promising, however. I think Ryne and Kelly are taking the things I don’t.

We have not fully moved upstairs, though. Saturday Tyrel and Katie are coming up and while they are here, my dad is going to get Tyrel to help move the furniture up. Right now there are two guest beds, a sewing machine, heavy bookcase, computer desk, and corner couch (hi Grannie!) in ‘my room’, plus I am still painting this area, so we are waiting on that. The kids could really move into their room, but I think my dad just wants to wait to move everything at once.

So on to what I did today, then it’s your turn again … (more…)

So we all know that on Saturday I’ll be doing Blogathon, blogging for 24 hours straight to raise money for St. Jude’s, right? Right. I need things to talk about, so this is where you come in. Give me something to talk about! I have to post every 30 minutes, so that’s 48 posts. I think I have the memes/surveys covered – I do enough of them on MySpace and have several in my arsenal – but I don’t necessarily want fluff posts.

So what do you want to know? What do you want to hear about? Any pictures you want to see? You know I’m pretty open and honest, so just ask! PLEASE! I am hoping to get about 40 topics/questions/requests. Hook me up! Just comment to this entry or send me an email (link in sidebar). I’m trying to get organized and come up with a schedule for Saturday so I know what I’ll be blogging about. If you don’t I may have to post recipes or something! lol.

Also, if you’re doing Blogathon, let me know so we can keep each other company!

Unlike the past few days, today was nice, peaceful, and slow. There were, of course, normal toddler meltdowns and older children arguing, messes were made, nerves were shot to hell, but at the end of the day it seemed like a pretty good one. I got some work done, the kids played outside, took good naps, we actually made it to ballet (I forgot last week!), Jaiden got her new ballet and tap shoes in (cha-ching, hello!), I paid her tuition/fees for dance, came home, went back out to Wal-Mart, ate pizza, and just relaxed. I even had fun being silly with Jaylen in Wal-Mart. Also, the weather here is gorgeous, the wind isn’t too bad, and it’s warm out. Beautiful.

I found out that Jaiden’s dance recital is Saturday, June 17. I’m really excited! I’ve mentioned this before, but they are doing their tap routine to ‘Good Ship Lollipop’ and will be dressed as little sailor girls. Cute, right?! I think I saw a picture of the costumes today and they are cute, expensive but cute. Jai Jai is ecstatic to have shoes like ‘da udder girls’. I’m hoping to have her 4th birthday party the following weekend (6/24) or the weekend after that (7/1), and hopefully we can invite ‘da udder girls’. That’s totally random, I know.

While Jaiden was in class I had to run to the ATM to get cash to pay the dance class bills, then went to KFC for a drink and a snack. The lady at the drive-thru noticed all of the carseats I have and asked if I had ‘that many’ kids. I told her I did and she then asks, “Wait, how many do you have?!” I told her ‘Three!’ and she is startled, then says, ” .. But you’re so .. pretty!” And that means .. what, exactly? LOL Pretty girls don’t have kids? Pretty girls are too smart to have three kids by 25? I don’t know. Maybe she meant young? People always mistake me for being 18 or 20. Honestly, it does hurt my feelings because I get the ‘You’re too young to have that many kids!’ comment quite a bit, but really I’m not, I just look that young. I know people my age with two or three kids, the only thing is that they look 30 or more. Other people say, “Well, that’s good .. you’ll still look young when you’re old!” and yeah, nice argument, but how does that help me now? I’m just used to it and come up with some witty thing to say in response. My kids will all be adults before I reach my mid forties, same thing with my mom.

Jaylen was in a surprisingly good mood when the girls and I returned from ballet. I thought he could use some one-on-one time with me, so I wanted to take him to Wal-Mart with me, but my dad was working on some assignments so I brought the older two with me and left ‘Gampy’ with the baby monitor for Jenna (she was sleeping). We were going to get fabric (to make Jaiden a ballet bag) and a ream of printer paper then pick up some pizzas for dinner. Katie pulled up as we were leaving so she came with us. As usual, I found other things to get (okay, like diapers and socks that Jai Jai needed for her tap shoes) and we spent longer in Wal-Mart than we’d planned. Both of the kids ate really well, which is a nice change of pace. (Jaylen’s been doing a lot better and I hope I just did not jinx myself ..)

I’ve been reading Nicholas Sparks lately, and I really enjoy his books. I read The Notebook while Bryan was in Basic, back in early 2001. Of course I’ve seen the movie, too. My mom’s also been reading his books and has all but two, I think. Anyway, last week I read The Wedding and I am in the middle of A Bend in the Road – good stuff! As much as I loved the other two, I think I may love this one more. The dialogue has me cracking up. I really love Nicholas Sparks – not only because of his writing style, but also because his stories take place kinda close to home. I’ve driven past the signs for the Tryon Place (he mentions it in his books). I know that the Neuse River [Basin] is halfway between home and Columbia, SC (it’s 199 miles from our old apartment in Columbia to the bridge over the Neuse River – lol). Anyway, yes, love him. It will be nice out this week so I can take the kids outside to play and get some reading done. Nice.

I did put up a new header graphic today – it’s purple and teal and reminds me of my high school (those were our school colors, except the teal was darker). ‘Younger than Springtime’ is obviously from the Rogers and Hammerstein play South Pacific, and the ‘softer than sunlight, sweeter than music’ is part of the song. (Shanee, did you play Bloody Mary? I remember that that one girl played her, but wasn’t sure if you did it one night as well?) This freakin’ song has been in my head for almost a week now too – and I can still hear Matt (C) singing it (he has a lovely voice, that’s for sure). If you don’t see it just hit ‘refresh/reload’ and it should come up. It’s plenty of purple!

Anyway, Baby is calling, gotta run!