Still Here

Oh, um....HI! I know, I know. It's been awhile. And I don't really have much of an excuse for my absence. Just your typical run-of-the-mill, semi-annual abhorrence to the computer that I occasionally get. Seriously. Sometimes I just think, "Ugh! I simply CAN'T turn on the computer today!" And I decide to do something ELSE instead--not playing with my wonderful children. Oh no. Instead I pick up a book and ignore my house/kids/husband/chores/life for a while and just simply TUNE OUT. It might be a seasonal (or perhaps cycle) thing.... Anyway, the cure to my recent frumpy, kinda down-in-the-dumpy mood this last week (um, or TWO) has been to reread tons of books around the house--including the complete Harry Potter septology (um....is THAT the word?). And instead of cheering me up out of my apparent depths of despair, I have bummed myself out even more crying again over the deaths of certain characters that Ms. Rowling found necessary to extinguish with her evil, sharpened quill. WENCH! (Trying to keep the blog PG as my parents DO read it occasionally!)

[And now a moment of silence for those characters who were sacrificed for the greater literary good....]


....


ANYWAY!!!

What have the Qs been up to lately??? Well, we took a portion of our governmental proceeds and bought a brand-new TV. For once, my life was like a commercial. You know--that one bank commercial where the wife disgustingly throws down the remote and says to her husband, "You're right; we DO need a new TV" and the husband gleefully goes out shopping to "I want it all" playing in the background. Yes, that was us. YES, after YEARS of grumbles and complaints from my other half, I finally HAD to admit that I could actually SEE the TV was DYING and yes, OK, we DO need a new one. And he brought home a new 46-inch HD TV and a new cabinet on which to place it. NOW we have a problem though. HD TV but NO HD signals coming in. After much deliberating and price-checking, we ended up switching dish providers. It was a bit costly to do the exchange (had to pay high dollar to get out of our contract with previous provider), but we feel it will be worth it in the long run. The new provider (who is actually a PREVIOUS-previous provider for us) had a better HD deal and more channels that we watch than the cheap provider we had previously who didn't have hardly ANY of the channels we actually like to watch. We got the new hook-up last night, and I'm in AWE of the clarity--um, in the FEW HD channels that exist.

We had our parent-teacher conferences for Units #1 and #2, and not that there was any doubt, I am proud to say that both kids are doing great. Keith's teacher is especially giddy about how well he's reading/writing. John bought the kids a new Wii game for a reward (well, that was his EXCUSE for buying it, anyway!).

Our car is acting kinda funny, so John is taking the mini-van to work, leaving me home with the kids and NO means of transportation. It's not that big of a deal usually, but why is it when a vehicle busts down is when you NEED it? Our names were on the list to volunteer for one of Mary's after-school activities the other day, and John got held up at work and couldn't come home in time. As a result, I had to walk to the school. It's not too terribly far (takes maybe 3-4 minutes driving), but it was a pain due to the fact that I was pushing Izzy in the stroller up a big hill with NO sidewalks most of the way (both ways! in the snow banks!) and THEN it started raining. Hey, we made it, and it felt good to actually be doing some physical activity. I'm thinking I will be doing more walking once the snow finally melts. (Yeah--not holding my breath on that.)

Izzy is going through the terrible threes right now and being quite stubborn and ignoring both of her parents. There are days it takes two hours to get her out of her PJs and into her clothes (and vice-versa that night). She's very independent, so I get a lot of "I do it!" And since she NEEDS to be doing this stuff on her own, instead of Mommy continually babying her, I'm taking a step back and letter her do it. But now she's not listening and not following directions and just generally driving Mommy and Daddy nuts. I tell ya. With all three of my kids, three was definitely worse than two. But John and I know that we just need to weather it out a bit, and she'll be fine again. *sigh*

March Madness has begun and once again I am awakened to regional distinctions. I sometimes even FORGET about the tourney now-a-days whereas when we lived in IN, it would have been inexcusable for me to at least not have HEARD of the teams who were in contention. Even John has gradually removed himself from basketball fever. Who ARE we?? Anyway, it also reminds me of how Memorial Day will come and go, and I'll completely even FORGET about the Indianapolis 500 since it's not on the news/radio EVERY FIVE FREAKIN' MINUTES. It's as if I'm in a different dimension. I mean, you can drive down a whole neighborhood here and see only one, maybe two, basketball hoops. That's just not NORMAL, is it? What's WRONG with these people?

I've also been busy doing my GS job that I got volunteered for ('cause let there be no mistake that I did NOT volunteer myself). So, I guess I should be honest here and say that I HAVE turned on the computer almost every day--but I was only checking/responding to emails about my "job" and nothing else. I apologize to my friends that have been pushed to the bottom of my emailing priority list. But let me reassure you all that if it weren't for this stuff I had to do for GS (darnit!), I wouldn't have even walked INTO the computer room. And even now, I'm getting antsy just typing this post and thinking oh God, WHY did I even TYPE IN my blogger address??? I DON'T want to be here.

Obviously, it's time to quit. Perhaps the Spring Fever will abate soon and you will hear more from me in a few days.... We'll see.