Victory!

Today was a small victory for me.  After months of trying to get a stripped screw out (see my Stripped post), I finally got it out!  I went and bought some Vice Grips, something every girl needs in her toolbox, and a screw extractor.  I was told by the nice man at the hardware store that my epoxy idea was a no go, so I had to listen to him...Deep in my heart I really wanted to try it one more time, but I spared myself the anger...Anyways, Greg took the kids to the park after dinner tonight and I marched myself right upstairs with those vice grips (still in my dress, I might add) and busted out.  I think the key was to make the crib sides a little more level.  Once I wedged something in there to make it level, it started turning.  It was hard at first but once I got one good turn in there I knew it was going to come out.  I was sooo excited!  I immediately texted numerous people to tell them of my accomplishment, and then posted a picture of that damn screw on facebook.  It made me feel like I defeated Malificent, and saved the kingdom...Ok, maybe not that much, but still.  Now we can move on with our lives.  The crib can be passed on, along with all my other baby gear that I will no longer need (please pause for a moment while I sob), and we can turn the play room into something other than a holding pen for all the junk I gathered up.

Another victory...I went to Banana Republic at lunch today.  I found some great stuff on the sale rack, with an additional 25% off.  Awesome!  I found a great navy blazer, and got a lesson from the ladies in the dressing room about how stuff really fits me.  I tend to wear clothes one size too big...In case you didn't know, they are currently giving you 25.00 in Banana credit for every 50.00 you spend.  Of course they are pretty hard core about the rules of cashing those babies in, but I know I will make it work somehow!

And it can't all be triumphant...As I was chatting with my brother on the phone this evening, I was trying to multi-task and give Katie a bath at the same time.  As I bent over to wash her hair my Blackberry fell right in the tub.  Damn!  I dried it out right away but none of the keys are working yet.  I'll give it until tomorrow, but if it isn't working by then, I will be at Verizon for lunch...

PS - The screw extractor was useless, and as far as I can tell it is a myth that those things really work!

Obsession.....

I have to admit something...I am completely obsessed with Disney World.  I don't wear the clothes and look for hidden Mickey's while in the grocery store, but I LOVE going!  I have always loved it.  When I was a kid we went every year, and even though my childhood was not the best, I still loved this vacation every year.  Granted, I got to experience Disney like few do...Maybe that is part of it.  I don't know.  I think I would have loved it either way.  Have you ever had a Gold Key Card?  Oh man, that was a rare thing that Disney had back in the 80's, and it was awesome.  Think Disney Dining Plan on steroids.  No points, just walk in and order whatever you want, wherever you want.  Golf carts around downtown Disney (which was The Village at Lake Buena Vista or something like that).  Woo-Hoo that was fun.  Those days are long gone, and while I did take 2 trips there when I was older without kids, I must say that taking my kids to Disney is one of my great pleasures in life. As soon as I get there it makes me happy.  Oddly, I actually enjoy staying off property.  I never thought I would like it, but by accident we did it one year and have ever since.  This is not to say I wouldn't like to stay on property at some point.  In fact, I have plans to do so...I actually have a nice elaborate plan for the next year and a half that involves 3 trips!  It all started with an idea and has snowballed into a year of wonderfulness!  We have been twice already.  The first time (the accident) was a fluke.  I have a timeshare (I don't know if they are a good idea or not, so don't ask my opinion) and in 2008 I was so agitated with the cold winter weather that I declared we MUST go away somewhere warm.  I looked on my timeshare website for what would be available in the winter months, and Orlando popped up for January.  Katie will have just turned 2, and that would be fun to sit in the sun and play in the pool.  Ok, great!  Then it started...Well, what if we just go to Disney for one day.  She is so young she won't even know, but how can I go there and not go to Disney?  The price of one day will make you fall off your chair, so it suddenly became a 4 (maybe 5) day pass.  Everyone told me I was crazy.  Katie will never remember it, you are wasting your money, I heard from all the naysayers...She was free btw.  So we went, while Dan the Man was still in my belly.  I think that was my favorite trip ever!  She was super adorable when she met the characters, she would open up and give them hugs and kisses...That was a big deal for my otherwise reserved little one!  I always tell people to take their kids at that age...They won't remember it, but the pictures and the moments you will have will be amazing!  I guarantee it!  Katie still loves to watch her "Dickey-Doe" video, and look at all the pictures, and I have such fond memories of that trip...They only are that size once!

So now, fast forward a few years and Katie is in school...We have to suddenly follow a school schedule!  You know what that means...So does everyone else and we can only go when it will be crowded.  OH NO!!!  We are from Jersey, we spend a lot of time in NYC, we will be cool.  Right?  Well, just in case I have  devised a plan that will ensure that we will be cool.  Besides me being a drill sergeant every morning and waking everyone up so we can be there at "rope drop".  Keep in mind this is the only time in my life where I will be waking everyone in the morning...I hate mornings...But for the kids at Disney, I will wake my sorry self up.  Then I got to thinking...An Annual Pass would be a smart move.  I think I dislike the month of April the most out of any other month. For me growing up in STL, April is nice, spring is on it's way, you get some nice days thrown in there, you can open the windows a few times...Here, in the NE, April sucks!  I still have it in my head it is going to be nice...It's not.  So what better way to make it nice then to go to Disney?  I did a little looking and apparently spring break in 2012 and 2013 all fall into a one year time frame!  Sounds like a good reason to get an Annual Pass and save a few bucks.  Hello, free parking saves us a TON!  Worth it right there!  But then I said to myself...How can I have this Annual Pass and not take advantage of it fully?  I can't do that!  So then I decided to plan a surprise trip.....I'll keep you guessing for now.....

Stripped

I finally did it.  We moved our son Danny into a big boy room after he was straddling the crib one brave night shortly after his 2nd birthday.  I hated the prospect of this daunting task.  Shift all the rooms in the house to make everyone happy.  That's not going to happen.  The nursery turns into a play room.  Greg's music room turns into Danny's Big Boy room, the guest room turns into Greg's music room and a guest room on the side.  Before we do this we have to have the ceiling replaced in Danny's soon to be new room...It had had a leak from our evil flat roof before and caved in, and while Greg didn't mind the big hole and nasty brown spots, I couldn't make Danny go into a stained nasty room...Ok fine, we replace the ceiling 2 weeks ago...Danny moves to his room.  Let me back up...First we tried a toddler bed...Please, for the love of all things holy, don't do this.  Who the hell invented a toddler bed?  A tiny little bed that kids can jump off of for hours of entertainment.  A tiny little bed that has tiny little rails on the side to keep them in. They don't keep them in, every morning my little guy would wake up half way across the room because he would roll out in the middle of the night and then proceed to roll all over the floor.  This brings me to the crib.  We had this crib delivered to our house when we were expecting Katie.  They came in, set it up, life was bliss with my beautiful Italian crib.  It made it through 2 kids and was a great crib.  In comes the toddler bed and the crib needs to be taken down.  I take out all the screws, and I get to the last screw...It's stripped...Damn!  I proceed to try every trick in the book for getting this screw out so I can officially take down the crib.  I use a rubberband.  Nope.  I use a pliers.  Nope.  I use a screw extractor.  Nope.  I superglued a nut to the top of the screw, waited for it to dry and then took a pliers to it.  Nope.  Tomorrow I am going to try epoxy.  I was hopeful with the superglue idea, it actually turned a slight bit before it popped off, so I am thinking epoxy might do the trick.  Any other ideas?  I am set to give my crib to our cousin on Saturday and I have no way of getting her the crib if I can't take it apart, and I don't want my beautiful crib to get hurt in the making of this blog...Did I tell you that 2 days ago when we had that insanely heavy rain, I came home to a puddle on Danny's bed.  That ceiling made it 2 f&%$'ing weeks!

Starting up...

I was at a very good friends house tonight and as I was rambling on about various crap in my life she told me I should have a blog.  Why the heck would I have a blog???  Apparently she finds some of the junk I ramble on about to be interesting.  HA!  Maybe you will too, maybe I will at least be able to help someone out who is in a similar situation as me.  
Who am I?  Just a mid-west girl living in Jersey with 2 kids and a hubby.  I work full time (with my husband!), and just try to get 8 hours of house work done in a 2 hour time frame every night.  I never succeed at this, but that is to be expected!  I was terrible in English/grammer/writing class growing up...I will have run on sentences like crazy and if those little red squigles didn't show up there would be misspellings all over the place.  I figure you all get the point what I am trying to say.  I have accepted this about myself and moved on...
What do I like to do?  Somehow I have made it a sport to save money and find a deal.  Not the sweat and get a workout sport, but more like a have to practice and become a pro sport.  I will admit that I do sometimes sweat while in Target, or god help me if I am at a sample sale...I would dare to think that I am getting a workout while rummaging through boxes of purses or racks of clothes.  I love deals, even if they are fake deals, I have to admit I still love them.  I don't do a cross analysis on whether this is better than that.  Sometimes I am just happy with knowing that I probably saved a buck or 2, or better yet, I saved someone else a buck or 2.  I really love that!  I always have something bizarre going on, and I am always planning waaaayyyyy too far into the future, sometimes obsessively.  That is mostly for vacations, and worrying about stuff that I have no control over.  Katie starting big girl school...What will that be like, how will she do???  This keeps me up at night.  She will be fine, we will be fine, it will all work out, but I still obsess over it...Yikes!


The rest we will figure out as we go along...Here we go...