My New Love

Kohl's. Paige swears by this store and I had 1/2 hour to kill in Petaluma today so I thought I would stop by. I went in just to see what this store is all about and left with 3 maternity shirts, 2 picture frames and a new can opener. Completely random I know but our can opener broke the other day and I needed one. I don't even have any pictures to go in the frames but they were buy 1 get 1 free...who could resist that? The best part was that everything I got was 20% - 50% off! This store has EVERYTHING you could ever need. I almost bought a new sheet set for our bed but I figured it would be best to slowly ease Brian into accepting this new love of mine. If I went completely crazy the first time I went there, I could risk being banished from the store forever!!

Boy or Girl?

For those of you sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for the answer....we find out on Jan. 2nd. I have tried to bride the lady at the clinic to take a peek now but they are making me wait until I am 18 weeks.

Does anyone have access to an ultrasound machine? I'll let you take a peek now!

Mystery solved!

Just in case anyone was wondering...Brian's Christmas present has been found! It is now sitting safely in my office waiting to go home. :)

Please pray for Brian's Christmas present.

I had Brian's Christmas present shipped to my work. Someone would be here to sign for it and it wouldn't get wet sitting on our porch.

I checked the tracking on line and it arrived yesterday. YIPPPEE! This morning, I went to the mailroom...nothing. OK, don't freak out yet, maybe they delivered it to my old office. Went to the tasting room...nothing. Went back to the mail room and asked the lady if she knew where the package was and she has no clue! The good news is that she feels really bad that she can't find it and is looking EVERYWHERE for it! See, it pays to be nice to people at work, you never know when you are going to need their help!

Cross your fingers that we find it!

Why I shouldn't deal with household repairs...

Brian decided that we should get the heating ducts in the house cleaned. Who knows when the last time they were cleaned and we have been getting a lot of dust in the house and his allergies have been acting up. It was scheduled for Saturday at 3:00pm. Fine, Brian would be home and he could deal with it.

Saturday morning Brian went golfing and sure enough, the cleaning people called. They had a timeslot open right then and were in the area so could they come by now? Sure I said. I called Brian to ask if he had any directions for me to follow and he said they would know what to do.

Three guys show up and hook up tubes to the heating vents and climb up into the attic where the heater is. One of the guys takes out the filter to the air return and it is caked in dirt and crap. Even I know it didn't look good. He tells me it is supposed to be changed every 4-6 months. Wow, that is a lot I'm thinking. Never fear...he has a state of the art air filter that has a lifetime warranty. Instead of taking it out and throwing it away, you just take it out, spray it down with the hose and put it back. Perfect I think, we'll never have to buy a filter again! Even, better...it's only $100. Great, I think a new filter is about $30 so in the long run, we'll save money.

This is what I learned...at the most, air filters are $10. The kind we get is about $4. I have now been told, we have to live in this house for 12.5 years to make my investment worthwhile. I say screw it, we'll just take it with us when we move!

Moral of the story...I am not allowed to be home when service people come anymore. Hey, at least I didn't agree to let them take apart the heater and clean it. They wanted to charge me $600 to do that and even I thought that was crazy! :)

Clearly I'm not smart enough...

I have spent the better half of the morning trying to figure out how to claim State Disability and Family Medical leave once the baby is here. I am an educated person, this should be a simple task. Not so much!

I have been on every website and on hold for 7 minutes and still can't get any answers to my questions. How is it that so many people can work the system and get their money and I can't? I used to think the people who worked the system were idoits but I am quickly learning that they are very smart!

Color Me Mine

Last night Paige and I decided to be creative and paint some pottery. In our usual fashion, the store had a big sign that said "Special $9.95 for unlimited hours" and Paige and I just HAD to do it! These are some of the things we learned...

Lesson #1: in order to get the bright vibrant colors you see on most pottery items, you must apply THREE coats of paint. We were not told this until we were almost done. My snowman will therefore not the bright and vibrant!

Lesson #2: pick your color scheme before you go into the store and stick with it. It took Paige and I 15 minutes just to pick out what piece we wanted and then another 15 minutes to pick out the colors.

Lesson #3: less is more. Pick a simple design with smooth surfaces. Picking one with lots of detail and ridges is for the experts only. If you are not an expect, don't attempt to do it.

Lesson #4: They won't let you buy the display models and keep claim them as your own. Trust us, we tried.

Lesson #5: Time is very important. If you think this is going to be a quick fun half hour activity, you are VERY wrong. How long could it really take to paint a 6 inch snowman...3 hours!