The last picture I will ever take with this camera.....

...A picture of my new camera! Woohoo! I feel like a fourteen year old saying this, but I have been saving up my babysitting money to get it. It is a slightly newer version of the one Chad surprised me with for Christmas last year - the one that I adored and left out in the rain in April! I wasn't about to let Chad buy me a new one, I felt so guilty, but now everything has been restored.

And yes, that is a spider on the fruit basket. It is for Halloween but I haven't put it away yet because I really like having a fruit basket there and I haven't found an all-season one to replace it yet. Hmmm, there is an idea for Christmas *cough cough Chad cough.* I know you aren't supposed to get women domestic gifts for Christmas, but this is one I wouldn't mind. Like the Roomba, it's not a gift that asks me to do more work or one that is actually a family necessity, like an iron (okay, maybe that's not a necessity) or a new toaster. Which is a whole other topic - what kind of domestic gifts are acceptable for men to give their wives? I guess it varies by what their wives actually enjoy doing. For some women, a sewing machine or a bread machine would be awesome for Christmas. For others, it would be like, "Oh, so you think I need to start sewing my own clothes and baking our own bread now? What year is this?!" And I think my sister-in-law Audra would question whether Levi knew her at all if he bought her an attractive fruit basket to display on her kitchen island. Oh, another domestic thing I want for Christmas is some nice looking magnets that actually hold my kids' artwork up. Chad totally mocked me when I told him yesterday that I wanted magnets for Christmas. Oh, and I have already given him the idea of a cake stand. I can't believe how motherly I sound this year. Now I am really off the subject.....

By the way, in case you are wondering why I am posting so much tonight, it's because the kids have been asleep since 7 and Chad had his last softball game of the year tonight. They won, so now they are playing another one, and if they win again, they will play another. I just talked to him and he said it was freezing out there.

I am seriously contemplating going to bed before it even hits 9 pm.

Why I love Aldi

I bought these roses there (for myself :o) for $2.99!

Uhoh! Hope the strike ends soon!

Filming for "The Office" has ended!

Why Actors and Models love to hang out with Hugo Chavez

This is an article I came across on Slate. I am always interested when I hear about so-and-so hanging out with Chavez. My brother Aaron was serving a mission in Venezuela when they pulled all of the American missionaries from the country and sent them elsewhere because it was too dangerous for them there. After finishing his mission in Texas, Aaron came home with some of Chavez's propaganda and some good stories. Needless to say, he doesn't have a very high opinion of Chavez.

Here is another article about crime in Venezuela.

Can I have this bulldog for Christmas?

Yesterday on Oprah, she featured a skateboarding bulldog who is building up a reputation through YouTube. He was so absolutely hilarious that I had to save the show and have Colin watch the clip this morning (since he is a skateboarder now and everything). Here is a link to the YouTube video. BTW, this clip isn't nearly as funny as his appearence yesterday.

Flower sale

I am so excited! One of the flower catalogs I get was having a huge fall sale so I ordered some great plants for my new garden - all under $2 a plant. Among others, I got 12 Purple Coneflowers , which a plant I have been wanting to try, and 6 Coreopsis, which is a plant that I have used before that works sooooo well here, only I have never done this color. It looks really pretty and I am so excited. Did I mention I am excited? This is the first time I have ever tried fall planting, but supposedly it is great for perennials because it gives their roots a chance to establish before spring. We shall see.

My Awesome Sister-In-Law Audra

Okay Audra, I think I am finally out of mourning.

I was very sad for a long time about missing out on meeting all the So You Think You Can Dance people. I have been been easing my pain by watching season 2 re-runs on MTV and watching clips of season 3 on YouTube. I think I have finally healed enough to post some of the pictures that Audra took. She got to meet everyone and continued the kissing tradition. I guess that means that next year it is my turn! Sorry Chad.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Audra for taking pictures all by your lonesome!

BTW, the pics are tiny because I had to steal them from shutterfly and the quality is not too hot when you do that.

And here is an article by Orson Scott Card about why this show is so freakin' good. You have to scroll down a little to get to the part where he talks about it This is one subject where I agree completely with him. Oh, and here is another one. I can't wait for next season!!!!!

Colin's last soccer game

Colin's last soccer game was on Saturday (woohoo! we have Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays free again!) It started out pretty ugly. For some reason this team, that we had beaten easily before, scored about 3 goals against us in the first ten minutes. Our team seemed to wake up a little though and Colin ended up scoring twice. He has gotten really good at sneaking in and stealing the ball when they are all huddled around it (which is usually how it is in under 6 soccer) and then dribbling it down the field. At the beginning of the season, he said, "Mom, all of the kids are faster than me." So that he has been trying hard to run faster, and I must say that he has improved a lot.

About three quarters of the way through the game, he totally lost focus and started messing around with Santi. Then he was acting like an airplane every time he ran! Oh, to be four years old again!

We had a team party afterwards a teammate's house. All of the kids got trophies, which, honestly, I think it pretty silly, but of course they got a kick out of it.

Rascals

Lindsey, I am sure you can already guess what happened here.

I was on the phone with Lindsey last week, when I had to take a break to shoo Colin and Evan out of the downstairs shower. For some reason they thought it was really funny to open and close the door and act crazy. I commented to Lindsey that at least they hadn't turned the water on. They did this a couple of times over the next couple of days. So weird!

Then when I was on the phone with the water company last Friday, they decided I was distracted enough for them to cause some real mischief. This was the state I found them in. Don't they look cold?

But, shhhhh! Don't let the water company know! They might say this is why our bill is so high!

What number comes after 181?

182, right? Nope, not according to our water meter! 191 is next, and don't you dare think that 192 comes over that, because just as soon as that 2 comes creeping up, BAM, it is already above 200!

The above pictures were taken, in succesion, over a three day period. And just a note, it was raining all three days.

Today has been a somewhat streesful day. Okay, very stressful. I spent over an hour on the phone with Charlotte Utilities battling with them once again about our faulty water meter - a battle that has been brewing since our first bill arrived in August and it was 10 times higher than any previous water bill at our old house. Since Chad and I are reasonably intelligent people, we have read everything we can about water comsumption and water meters, and we have watched our meter every day to figure out what is going on, until finally we saw with our very eyes that our meter was mysteriously moving normally until it hit the number 1 in the last counting number, at which point the second digit would move instead of the last. Sounds weird and crazy, I know, but we saw it with our own eyes. Instead of moving from 181 to 182 to 183, like it should, it moved directly from 181 to 191 - Counting 10 Ccfs of water instead of 1! After being on the 1 for awhile, it seemed to start working normally again, further making us look crazy. We have pictures to prove our case (in case pure common sense alone isn't enough, which states that a family of four in a house with no leaks, whose family size hasn't changed at all, and who isn't allowed by law to water their lawn, cannot possibly be using 20 Ccfs of water in three days, when the average family of four uses 8 Ccfs a month!), and until today, which was about our fifth or sixth time calling in, they utterly refused to admit that maybe we aren't just idiots who run every faucet in our house all day and all night, and that maybe, just maybe, something might be wrong with their measurement. Today was the first time they actually agreed to send a supervisor over to talk to us in person.

If this was a company that actually had competition, there is no way they would have treated us like this. Since we have to use them, I had to listen to the first person I talked to today (who had been bordering on rudeness even before this point) offering to send me pamphlets about how to conserve water around the house, even after I just spent 20 minutes explaining everything and telling her about all the research I had done on this subject. Yes, you mailing me pamphlets about not watering my lawn is really going to help me. She actually kept insisting that since we were in a new house and had to establish a new lawn, that explained the 30 Ccf jump, even though I told her that our backyard was dirt, our front lawn was tiny, and we hadn't watered in the last month and a half. At that point, I knew that no matter what I said, she wasn't going to really listen and she wasn't really going to try and find a solution to the real problem. What good is she as a customer service representative if she isn't going to do those things? The pamplet suggestion was the last straw and I told her to get me a supervisor immediately

Hey, I worked as a customer service rep. I know that most of the time it is a sucky, thankless job, but it still your job to help the customer.

Maybe I have spent too much time with a business oriented husband, who managed in a call center for two years, but it is horrible business to not want to know if your company is making mistakes. If a customer has to call in time and again over three months to tell you something is wrong, each time being treated like a crazy person, when your own numbers alone (which show our family using 8 Ccfs a month or less for two years and then suddenly using 38 or more a month when we have a brand new meter!) should alert you that there is a problem, that is just plan bad business, and if they had any concerns at all about losing our business, they simply wouldn't be acting this way.

A shout out

To my youngest brother, Bryce, who turned 18 today! I love you.

What do the Colemans do after Trick or Treating?

Plop down in front of the TV and watch a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode, of course! What better why to get the kids to settle down? Actually, it seemed to work because they were still asleep by about 8:45! They really crashed quickly.

Notice that Gabe does not have a candy bucket in front of him, and Chad does.

Turns out...

...that Gabe does not like spooky, mechanical halloween monsters of any sort that make creepy sounds. Here are a couple of pictures to prove it.

Breastmilk article

My sister Christie emailed me this article about some surprising (and incredible!) benefits of breastmilk. Of course, I am the last person who needs convincing....but the last few days I have been thinking that I might not wean Gabe until AFTER the sick season is over, and this got me thinking about it even more. He only nurses once, maybe twice, a day now, and never during the night, so it's really pretty easy.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061209/bob8.asp

In case you are wondering...YES, Gabe is 2 years old now :o)
We're a little granola around here when it comes to parenting.

Confession time

Well, Audra wanted know if I have cheated yet, so I am here to confess that yesterday was a very bad day. Gabe was surly all morning and even while it was just the two of us, he whined about absolutely everything - getting dressed, eating breakfast, getting into the car, going to the library, leaving the library...you get the idea. I finally couldn't take it and ripped into a bag of unappetizing candy that I had just bought at Target. I ate, of all things, a multi-colored Twizzler, when I don't ever like Twizzlers, and this one was especially gross. I have eaten a peanut M&M here and Skittle there since starting, so I wouldn't have been too mad at myself if I stopped there. But I didn't. When we got home I broke open the OTHER bag of candy and ate about 5 little bags of Skittles and just as many Starbursts. Then last night, after the kids went to bed, I had a cup of hot chocolate, and it was soooo good.

And I consulted Mr Scale a few days ago, and he and I have grown even further apart than we have been in about a year and a half, so I really really really need to do better.

The good news is that even though I did cheat yesterday, I have gotten out of my rut, and I have been making sure that I am actually hungry before eating instead of just doing it.