Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our family to yours!

Isabelle the Witch

Henry the Ninja Turtle

Daniel the "Super Spy Army Guy"

You can also check out their costumes from last year HERE and find out why Halloween always makes me think of my mom HERE.

Hope everyone has a great day/night!

Sound Not Working on iPhone 5?!

My camera was not working properly on my iPhone 5 so after two trips to the Genius Bar I ended up with a new iPhone. I set it all up last night but then today noticed that I wasn't receiving sound notifications. I first noticed it for texts and Facebook notifications so I tried calling myself from another phone and it didn't ring. I checked out the Notification Settings and everything was fine. I could even listen to the sound of the ringtones in Notifications but wasn't receiving any. Do Not Disturb was also not on. Upon further investigation, I also couldn't hear any sound in most apps but my iTunes music worked fine as did Pandora.

I was starting to think that I would need to go BACK to the Apple store for the third time in three days and was going to LOSE it. However, it turns out that my phone had been put on silent. Do you know where the silent button is because I sure didn't. It is a thin switch located above the volume button on the left hand side. If you see orange it means your phone has been put on silent. If it's on silent, there is no indication of it on the actual phone so (like me) you wouldn't know it was on. So there you go, problem solved. I'm sharing it with you in case this happens to you someday and you are about to lose your mind. If you already knew this information then clearly you are smarter than I am.

See that little orange line? That means silent!

Please Don’t Buy Me Flowers

In preparation of Valentine’s Day, I’m just going to say it: I hate flowers. Okay, okay that’s a bit harsh. I guess I just don’t understand flowers.

While most people would be excited to have their (fill in the blank) buy them flowers, it’s really the last thing that I want. Yes, they are pretty and look nice but what am I supposed to do with them? We live in a small house that’s overrun daily with little tornadoes. Our coffee table is covered with Barbie, Spiderman, and farm animals – not roses.  All of us can barely fit at our kitchen table to eat never mind look at a beautiful, flower centerpiece. Our kitchen counters are used to cut crusts off sandwiches and a safe haven for endless art projects to dry. So if I do get flowers I constantly have to move the vase from one spot to another while we try to live our lives around the flowers.

Speaking of vases, what do you do with them when the flowers are dead? We have a collection of empty glass vases collecting dust in the basement. I suppose I could do something crafty and pretty with them. Maybe fill them with glass beads and put them on display? But again WHERE?

Oh, and speaking of dead – the little petals and leaves that start falling off? As if I need one more thing to have to sweep up.

And let’s not forget the main reason that flowers drive me nutty – they are so damn expensive! I just can’t get my head around spending $50+ on something that is constantly in my way and is already on its way to death’s door. Instead, I’d prefer $50 worth of Reese’s Peanut Butter Hearts or $50 worth of Diet Pepsi. Actually, better yet, I’d prefer 50 minutes of alone time at Target. 

So I respectfully repeat, please don’t buy me flowers.

We Got the Flu but Did We Get the Flu SHOT?

Just shy of two weeks ago, our house was hit with the flu. I was the first to come down with it and I was hit hard. However, like any mom who is busy shuffling kids around, baking, and doing last minute things just a few days before Christmas, I was living in denial. I’ve had a cough since Thanksgiving(?) and thought it had just festered in to something that would quickly be cured by some antibiotics. One trip to the doctor and one chest x-ray later, I was not prescribed an antibiotic but rather sentenced to (what felt like) my death bed for the next five days. The flu then slowly but surely took down every member of our household (in varying degrees).

Whenever anyone hears that we had the flu the first question that people ask is if we got the flu shot. The answer is yes, and no. In October, I dragged all three kids to the doctor’s office at 7:30pm (since that was the only open appointment that they had) to get the shots. It was past their bedtime and I had to physically restrain Isabelle who was kicking and screaming while the nurse gave her the shot. So yeah, it was basically a nightmare but it was worth it, right? My kids weren’t going to get the flu – yippee! They were surrounded by a magical anti-flu force field. My husband also got the flu shot since they give them out at his work. Me, on the other hand? I did not get the shot. My mom didn’t come drive me to the doctor (I think all the taxis in Heaven were booked) and my employer failed to set up an easily accessible time/location for me to receive the vaccination.

So go figure that I am the one who comes down with it. I can’t help but think that if I had got the shot that I could have prevented it from entering our house in the first place. We could have not been home confined for twelve (TWELVE!) days. We could have celebrated Christmas with our family. We could have had a happy and healthy school break. I had never really considered that me not getting the shot would get the others sick. Clearly, I knew that I risked getting sick but I thought that even if I was sick that the flu shot would protect everyone else. I mean, isn’t that the whole point? Now I’m sure that the shot worked successfully on tons of people this year but is it too much for it to have worked on my family? What did we do to piss off the flu shot scientists? Or maybe the nurses gave us a placebo shot...oh, the conspiracy theories are endless!

In all seriousness though, let me tell you that this flu that we had TOTALLY sucked. Isabelle and I (in particular) were so sick with it. If I had a magic wand, I would go back and get the flu shot in hopes that it would have prevented it from invading our house. Since I don’t have a magic wand, I’m telling YOU that you might want to consider getting vaccinated. You don’t want to be sick like we were and you don’t want to have to sit around after the fact wondering if you could have done something to prevent your entire house from being brought down by the plague. So that’s my advice – take it or leave it! Oh, and go stock up on medications either way.

Updated Advice: Don’t Ever Clean Your Rings

Three months ago I posted about how everyone should go get their rings professionally cleaned. Well now here I am rethinking that advice. I had my engagement ring and wedding band cleaned for the first time in six years and they looked great when they came back. The problem is since then, two diamonds have fallen out of my wedding band.

I guess that when you don’t clean your rings regularly lots of gunk can get stuck in them which actually helps to keep the diamonds in. Then when you clean it out it can make the diamonds loose. The first diamond was lost right after the cleaning and I was able to find and have it put back in. The second diamond was lost somewhere about two weeks ago and it’s anyone’s guess where it is. This time I went back to the original jewelry store where I bought it and they replaced the diamond and checked the settings. Since my band is small as are the diamonds that are in it I guess it’s not uncommon for them to fall out (although two in 3 months??). I told them to “super glue those bad boys in” so I’m hoping that this is the end of the diamond drama. 

So now after having two diamonds fall out and making two trips to the mall over the last week (with the children during peak holiday shopping time!), I’m thinking that I should have left well enough alone and never had them cleaned in the first place! I guess really in a perfect world what you should do is have them professionally cleaned once a year starting the year you get married. I’d also recommend bringing it to the jewelry store where you bought it from since they know the ring better and can keep records for cleanings/repairs for you. However, if you’re in my boat and have had it for years and never cleaned it then I’d suggest just loving the gunky, cloudy diamonds that you have!

Picked back up today and (currently) full of diamonds.

 

Where Are All the Short Jeans?

Yesterday, I went shopping for jeans. In case you missed my updates on Facebook, it did not go well. I am a proud shorty who comes in at 5’2” AND A HALF. I honestly don’t ever think of my height except when I am shopping for clothes. I always go right to the “short” lengths – if a pant doesn’t come in short then I don’t even bother looking at it. Clearly, jeans/pants manufacturers have a different idea of what short is because the short style pants are still way too long for me. I find it so frustrating.

Based on my extensive internet research (of Googling it and then reading the top two hits), it appears that all the short people in America are buying jeans and then having them hemmed. Really? Is this what I need to do? Who has time for that added inconvenience? Instead, I’m just going to keep complaining about it and inevitably cuffing my pants. Sigh.

Well when all was said and done, I did come home with one pair of jeans so I thought I would share them with you. These are Old Navy Sweetheart Style Boot Cut Jeans in Short…

Still too long but this is always about as good as I get.

Oh, and I picked up this new fleece for $15 at Target that I’m pretty excited about.