Computer

Ryan has built me a new computer. My old one was "okay", but was slowly dying. (The machine itself had problems in addition to the modem problems, which by the way, is now working fantastically. I never have trouble viewing pages anymore. I have the Internet back in the way it was meant to be.) It kept shutting off at random times and would say that it had recovered from a "serious system error" when I would turn it back on. The processor just didn't want to process anymore. I guess computers get old too.

I'm now using Windows 7. Ryan tells me it's basically the same as XP and it's different. Great. Different is bad because I don't handle change all that well. Keeping things the same is a comfort to me. He tells me I need to just play around with it to figure it out and I'll eventually get it. I told him I would, but I have a secret. I never really played around with, or figured out XP all that well. I still don't have a very clear idea of what drive I was supposed to be storing my pictures on after they were downloaded. (Ryan knows this. How he thinks I'll be able to figure out Windows 7 is a mystery to me.) I have/had too many choices of where to put them. We have a server computer in our basement that I think is supposed to be the "media" server and where pictures are supposed to go. We also have our bedroom computer that has a purpose all it's own. What that is, I have no idea. It's so confusing to me. I just want to plug in my camera and download my pictures without having to figure out where I'm downloading them too. I want to click "yes" and have the magic little elves inside the computer take care of the rest for me. After transferring all the files from the old computer to the new last night, Ryan told me that I had pictures in 4 different places. I'm not surprised.

Maybe not

Avery got one of those plastic frogs with a tab on the butt from her teacher today. The kind where you flick the tab and the frog jumps up in the air. You know what kind I mean? She was really proud of it and quite excited that she got it. She started trying to think of names for it as soon as she got in the car after school. Finally, she said "I know! I'll call her Glitter. Yes, Glitter.....or, maybe Sh*tter. Sh*tter, Sh*tter (she repeated it a few more times to test it out and in my defense, I couldn't tell until about the 3rd time just what she was saying). Is Sh*tter a better name than Glitter Mom?" I stifled a laugh and then said, "I don't think that's the best name for her. Why don't you just go with Glitter?"

She ended up calling her Froggie.

Wanna be startin somethin

I decided on Monday that there was no time like the present and got started on my goal for the week. There was no point in putting it off until the next day. Or the next, or the next because I would just keep putting it off and it would never get done. After all, what is today, but yesterday's tomorrow. Yes, I am extremely profound.

I've tackled one corner so far. One corner doesn't sound like much, but it was a corner that had 3, 58 Qt. plastic storage bins in it. Bins that were filled to the brim with my kids old school papers and papers needing to be filed. I had started piling the papers on the top of the stack because I couldn't fit anymore into the bins. It was such a sloppy mess and the one that had been making me the most anxious because it was in my direct line of sight when I walked into the room.

It took me about 4 hours, but I went through all of them and was able to totally empty 2. So far. The third is filled with the needing to be filed things that don't really need to be filed and can instead be shredded. Once that's gone, the corner will be totally empty. Hooray!

I had to be really, really brutal when going through the bins. I've never been able to throw away my kids school papers because I didn't want to feel like I had thrown away something precious and irretrievable. However, I finally came to the realization that if I didn't start whittling them down, they would take over my house. So, I kept a few worksheets and art projects from each grade they have been in. I hope I kept a good representation of each grade and if I didn't, it's too late to do anything about it now. I took the rest out to the recycle can and threw them in before I could change my mind. The garbage man has already picked up the recycle stuff and so I really can't do anything about it now.

I've decided that for the rest of this school year, I'll save one worksheet every few weeks and then throw away the rest. I'll keep some of the art projects too, but I can't keep everything. If I do, it will build up way too quickly and take over my bedroom again.

I feel so much better about my room already. The most major monster of a mess has been tackled. The rest of the work to be done is simple tidying, dusting and vacuuming. Phew.

I didn't set a goal for myself last week, but I will for this one

I didn't set a FJ1W goal for myself last week because I just couldn't think of anything good. Plus, I kind of felt like I deserved a break after the last one. Being easy going and trying to not care about the little messes and such really took a lot out of me. ☺ It was so totally against my nature.

I think I have a noble and worthwhile goal for this week. I'm going to get my bedroom really good and clean. It's cluttered right now. Not Hoarders type cluttered (which is one of the more disturbing shows I've seen in a long time), but it's still bad enough that it's beginning to make me anxious. I'm going to give myself until Friday of this week to get it done. I need a shorter window because I know I'm going to push getting it done until the last possible second. The smaller the window of opportunity, the sooner I'll get my butt into gear and get it done. I'm experiencing a weird sense of excited anticipation and dread over this one. I'm excited to see the end result, I just don't want to have to do the work to get there. I've been a little, shall we say, on the lazy side lately. This goal is going to help be get out this funk.

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What's on the menu today: I can't remember and I'm feeling too lazy to go find my menu. I'm pretty sure it's a beef brisket crock pot recipe. I haven't posted it on my cooking blog. I'll try to get to that today and will maybe link to it tomorrow because I know people are just dying to to what my family is eating.

Twitchy & Friday Tunes Nov. 6 edition

1. Makin' Whoopee - Dr. John & Rickie Lee Jones / Sleepless in Seattle
2. Stickshifts & Safetybelts - Cake
3. Silly Putty - Stanley Clarke
4. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' - Michael Jackson
5. Gettin Jiggy Wit It - Will Smith
6. Georgiana - Pride & Prejudice (2005)
7. Best Imitation of Myself - Ben Folds
8. Space Between - Dave Matthews Band
9. Tonight, Tonight - The Smashing Pumpkins
10. Overjoyed - Stevie Wonder

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My eye has been twitching, on average, every 5 minutes since Sunday. WHY? It's getting seriously irritating and makes me look ridiculous. I had to tell the checker at the food court in Costco the other night that I wasn't winking at him and really didn't want more than a slice of pepperoni pizza. I finally had to cover my eye while I finished my order because it just wouldn't stop.

I did a little Google search and some of the causes of a twitching eye are stress or fatigue. I'm always anxious, it's just my nature, and being tired is part of being a mom. So, I have no idea what's causing this. I really need it to stop. It's done it 3 times since I started typing. That's way more often than every 5 minutes. STOP NOW!

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Cameron locked himself in the bathroom on three separate occasions this morning. It's his latest way of throwing a fit. He storms off, screaming and yelling something like "I hate you! You're the worst mother ever!" Then he sits in there waiting for me to come and pound on the door and yell at him to come out. He delights in seeing me freak out. Most of the time, I try to ignore it and let him sit and stew. I couldn't do that this morning because he had to leave for school in about 3 minutes and he was still in pajamas. I may have lost my temper just a little bit while telling him to get his butt out of the bathroom. Like, there was a little swearing involved and me saying to him it would be a "joy" to send him to school and that I couldn't wait for it. Not my finest moment.

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What's on the menu today: Southwestern Bean Medley.

Surprise!

Happy 60th Birthday to my Dad! Although we won't be having the surprise party of your dreams tonight, we'll all live it up on Saturday. There might even be some dreaded black decorations involved. You just try and stop us. ☺

I love you dad and appreciate you so very much. Thanks for being such a great dad to me. And I guess those other two, but I still contend that I was the only necessary one. You could have stopped at me and been just fine.

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I was moderately successful with my FJ1W goal for last week. I got a little stressed a couple of times, but no major freak outs. My kids took full advantage of the fact that I was trying to not sweat stuff like messes. They wanted me to take it "easy" and ignore them and more importantly, not make them clean at all. Well, I'm sorry, but it's hard to ignore an entire Malt 'O Meal bag of Captain Crunch that has been dumped onto the family room floor. That's something that kind of needs to be cleaned up. It's also not right leaving dirty underwear, socks, pants, shirts and shoes on the floor of the bathroom. It has to go to the laundry room, otherwise the pile would reach the ceiling by the end of the week. So, a little cleaning up had to take place. Tyler tried to convince me on Monday of this week that I said I was going to be easy going for the rest of my life and not just for one week. Nice try buddy. We're mostly back to our regularly scheduled programming. I'm just going to try to be less shrew like from now on. Not more slob like.

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What's on the menu today: Golden Mushroom Pork & Apples.

There's nothing worse

I have a go to comfort food when I'm feeling a little blah. French fries. There's just something about them that, for me, chases the blah away.

I've had a cold threatening for the past couple of days. It's nothing terrible and I'm fine, just a little tired is all. So, after I finished my grocery shopping this morning, I went to a drive thru and ordered some hot, salty, starchy, fattening comfort. I pulled one out, popped it in my mouth and it was the opposite of what it should have been. It was NOT hot and crispy and comforting. It was limp and cold and annoying. Not cold because it was old and had been sitting out too long. Cold because it wasn't cooked all the way through. How does that even happen? There is just nothing worse then wanting some hot fries and ending up with disgusting, skunky ones instead. Nothing worse at all. I may have cried over it I was so upset. Don't try to tell me that it could have been worse, or point out the bright side. Like, I saved myself from eating empty, fattening calories. I don't care. I needed a french fry hug and I didn't get it. Feel sorry for me.

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What's on the menu today: Some sort of cheesy, broccoli, chicken and rice casserole that I'm going to make up as I go along.