I've been so productive today that I'm wondering if I have been replaced by an extraterrestrial anamatronic Katie.

I got up before 8 this morning. That alone is enough to cause alarm! I don't know exactly what compelled my to get up but I was awake so I showered.

Since I was awake and functioning and it was still business hours (this is very rare) I called MSN to find out what I needed to do to migrate my account. See we made the mistake of signing a 2 year contract with them to get a $200 'shopping spree' at Best Buy. It wasn't the worst deal ever, we like MSN, it's just it's for dial-up and we soon got DSL through Verizon and couldn't make ourselves go back to dial-up. So we've been paying double for our MSN. Then we found out that MSN and Verizon partnered up and we could get out of the contract by having Verizon. We've known this for a while now and have just never gotten around to calling them and getting it transferred. But today I, being productive, did. So that will save me $21.95 a month. YIPEE!!

Since I was up and on the phone I called the Child Support people too. See, back in December when Shawn got fired I called Doug, our newest Child Support Enforcement guy, and explained that paying the usual $400 a month was going to be really hard without a job. He agreed and said he would contact Ohio and get the paperwork done to request an administrative review. We got those papers and filled them out. The review was held the 18th of February and effective the first of March our support order was lowered by about $50. But the amount Washington was taking out of his unemployment checks didn't change. I figured that it just takes a while to get paperwork rolling so I gave them some time. Plus each time I would think to call Doug again I couldn't find the number.

But today I found it and I called him. He said they hadn't heard anything from Ohio AT ALL! And he was pissed. He said he would call Ohio. I mentioned to him also that our balance according to Washington and our balance according to Ohio differed by about $3000. Apparently Ohio has been getting out taxes each year but not bothering to tell Washington so they have no record of it. His exact words were "Oh, don't even tell me they're doing that and not telling us!" I LOVE Doug. He's the nicest Support enforcement person I've ever met, not to mention the first that doesn't treat us like criminals for having to pay child support. So I was extra glad I talked to him today.

We cleaned the living room. (See anamatronic!)

The Jehovah's Witnesses came over after that for a little bible study. I wish the alternate form of me that took over my body for the day had been a more assertive one than the regular me and had been able to say no. It's not a hard thing to say. Why, oh why, am I such a wuss. I guess I just don't like hurting people's feelings.

I went to the bank and deposited Shawn's two most recent unemployment checks, then drove to Richland and got insurance on the car I finally finished buying from my dad. It was the last day of the month so I needed to get it today. I had priced Geico and they said $66 a month. Which I thought was pretty good. Then I called Farmers (where the car has been insured by my dad, and where I had always had insurance before.) I wasn't sure they would still want to insure me since last time we had insurance from them we let it lapse and lost it. But he said they would be happy to have us back and for only $33 a month! WOO HOO!!

After that I took my kids and a neighbor to the children's museum. We were the only ones there for most of the time. We weren't there for very long before we had to leave but Kathrynn didn't throw a fit AT ALL!!! It was nice (and probably a first). It sure made my day nicer!

I dropped Aiden and the neighbor off at home and took Kathrynn to her follow up dentist appointment. They said she looked like she was healing well. I already knew that but hey, the state's paying for the visit so I'll let them. Kathrynn got a tie dyed pencil for a prize. She was thrilled.

Stopped at the bank again. I went inside this time since I only had one kid with me instead of three. I love my bank. They know me, they know my name and my account number, they know my husband and my kids. I love that. I went in and the lady had my account up on her computer screen before I even stepped in the door (she saw me in the parking lot). I got a cashiers check to pay the rent and then Kathrynn and I read a very cool pop up book in the lobby before we left.

When we got to the managers office Kathrynn wanted to go in and pay the rent by herself. So I handed her the check and reminded her to wait her turn if there was someone else already in there. She was taking a while and kept peeking out the window at me so I finally got up and went in too. The manager (Nancy) was talking to another tenant who was moving out. After she left Kathrynn walked up and gave the Nancy our check and waited for the receipt. Nancy told me that Kathrynn had said "I'm my mom's daughter, and I have to wait my turn to pay the rent" :)

We came home and Shawn told me that a place he's been trying to get a job since January called and he has an interview on the 6th! YEAH!! If he gets thins job we will be moving to Richland which will make me REALLY happy!

Ahhh life is good!

Once again I have been busy constructing clothing for Kathrynn. Here is the second skirt I made...



It's a good thing Kathrynn bent over or she would have never fit in that picture! The skirt is a knit fabric which I don't usually like to work with but it turned out pretty well. I was happy. Here's a closer up look at the print. In the first pic it looks like polka dots but on closer inspection it is revealed to be baby roses...



Here the dress I made today...



I made another hat for this one because Kathrynn requested it. I made it so it ties with blue ribbon behind the head, so, I added the blue bow to the dress to match which Kathrynn LOVES!

Isn't the fabric hideous?!?!



Like I said before, definitely NOT something I would choose but it turned out pretty good anyway.

I think I'm going to make another dress like this in knit. Since I have so damn much knit lying around! The dress was super easy so I might make a bunch of them to last the summer. :o)

For Kathrynn's fourth birthday she got a little red bike from Dawn. It had training wheels and Kathrynn really enjoyed getting around on it. Unfortunately so did all of the other neighborhood kids. The training wheels got bent and then broken, so everyone else learned to ride a two wheeler. But Kathrynn really struggled with it.

For her 5th birthday we bought her a very fancy Disney Princess scooter. This is no flimsy-ass 'Razor Scooter' (she already had one of those). This thing has blow up tires, hand breaks, a kickstand, the works. Basically it's a bike that you stand on. The logic was this way she would be out there with the other kids riding around, learning balance, without ever having to feel 'bad' that she couldn't ride a two wheeler.

Yesterday she hopped on the neighbors two wheel bike and rode. All by herself. I was so proud!

A while ago I bought a wall chart with the numbers 1-100 on it. It was quickly revealed that Kathrynn could only confidently count to 12. Beyond that she only had the vaguest idea of numbers up to 20. After that she had no idea.

We went over it a couple times that first week and then didn't even look at the poster again until today when she came up to me and asked me to help her count. So I pointed at the numbers for her and she counted all the way to 100! I was impressed.

It's amazing what a little time to mull things over subconsciously can do. :)

Kathrynn has decided that she will only wear skirts and dresses these days. Not only does she only want to wear them but she apparently wants to convert others as well. Each day she asks me if I'm going to wear a dress, the answer is ALWAYS no! And yesterday Aiden wore a dress for a good part of the day. I've purchased her a few dresses lately because we were all getting pretty tired of the graying purple atrocity she was trying to wear each day.

The problem is she has a LOT of shirts but very few skirts. And the skirts she does have are specific and only go with a limited number of tops. Not that this stands in HER way mind you. In fact yesterday she spent much of the day in a white top with purple butterfly printing matched with a khaki skirt with pink/white candy stripe trim. It was a glory to behold.

Yesterday we made a trip to the fabric store. I found the perfect fabric to go with the white and purple top and made a skirt and 'doo-rag' for her. Thus solving half of the problem. I also went to Value Village hoping to find a plain denim skirt. Not a mini skirt but a nice elastic wasted 'jean equivalent' for the child who won't wear pants. But there were none. They were all super short mini skirts which doesn't fit with her tree climbing profile. I guess I will have to make some myself.

Back at the fabric store I also bought a VERY simple dress pattern and let Kathrynn pick out any fabric she wanted. She came away with a pink Eastery number with butterflies and flowers and stuff. Definitely not something I would have chosen. Not even something I would have chosen FOR HER, but it's cute and will increase the number of dresses which is a good thing.

Oh here's a pic of my handiwork...

I also added cool graphics so you should definitely check it out, just for that!

I added another recipie to The Cheap Ass Gourmet. Tuna Casserole. I don't make this often because Shawn's not a big fan of Tuna. It was the first time I ever made it with sour cream. It was SO much better!

But then, isn't everything better with sour cream? And the onions made a big difference too. I will be making it again soon.

Ok ,so I snapped some pics of Ms. Kathrynn in all of her toothless glory.



The second one she has her teeth clenched together and can still stick her tongue out! It's a skill you should all envy! ;-)

I bought this shirt for Erin (yes, I already gave it to her, I'm not stupid!). I was going to give it to her for her birthday last year but she was sort of pregnant so I waited until that passed before buying it. :-)



She liked it and it suited her well, at least I think so. I got it from a dandy little site called T-Shirt Hell. They specialize in horribly offensive t-shirts many of which are quasi-political. There the kind of things I laugh at, but don't want other people to see me laughing at. :-) That's my disclaimer. There is also some nudity so beware of that as well. Good site though and there are a lot of funny shirts.

For two weeks TWO WEEKS I have been trying to pin my sister down on some kind of plan for my nephew's birthday tomorrow. Every time I saw her I mentioned it and asked if she was any closer to a plan. Last I heard she was postponing the party until my parents are in town. And then today. Today the 25th, the fricking DAY BEFORE the birthday she tells me she's finally made plans for the party tomorrow at 6:30. Now! Now, after two solid weeks of badgering. Now, that I had given up completely and made alternate plans. And somehow I'm the bad guy because I don't want to cancel my other plans!!!!

AAAARRRRRGGGGG!!!!!!

So, Kathrynn had her surgery and things went swimmingly. She's really funny when she's stoned out of her mind. Nothing like a 5 year old high on psychotropic drugs! :-) She was very silly, it made me wish I had a video camera.

They ended up removing nine teeth. Nine! Which is a lot when you only go in with 20! They originally planned on seven (which is still a lot) and they ended up pulling two bottom ones they had originally only planned to fill. I suspect they only did this to give her a more menacing vampire smile. It's really an amazingly vampirelike appearance. They pulled the top front four. So on top everything is missing until you get to the Incisors. And then the molars are all capped in silver. So at a glance it looks like she might only have incisors!

Her two bottom permanent teeth in the center are in so they left those alone but they pulled the next two. Her bottom incisors they left alone and then capped the backs again. This gives the appearance of a harelip vampire. LOL It's pretty sad.

They also pulled three molars and put spacers in. They said to start brushing again yesterday, which we did, I wonder if they realize how hard it is to gently brush around all the missing teeth. On the one hand you don't want to disrupt the scabs but you can't help but do so when almost one out of every two teeth are gone!

She's doing really well though, with the recovery. In fact they told me to expect her to throw up blood a couple times and to have a fair amount of pain that first day. But she didn't throw up at all and never complained about pain. Her biggest concern (and mine) is her inability to bite anything with her front teeth. And the top permanent teeth aren't expected to come in for another year!!

I'll take a picture sometime, when I think of it, and it's daylight, and I will post it for all to see. :-)

Computers are tricky little creatures. They almost seem to be alive sometimes. Alive and out for blood!

Shawn is working on M'Ellen's computer and it was giving him fits so I offered to share some of my new found mechanical expertise. The first thing I tried was unsuccessful, the second was even more so. I was about to give up when I decided to switch the power supply cord and in doing so managed to gash my knuckle open on an exposed piece of sharp metal.

And then of course it worked perfectly!

I'm beginning to suspect that there was never anything wrong with the computer in the first place. I suspect that none of the cord swapping or other things I did had nearly as much influence as making my hand bleed. I told Shawn that and he agrees. So, that's enough evidence for me.

I could start a computer repair business based on blood sacrifices to the computer gods...

Maybe I've been watching too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer. :-)

We visited M'Ellen yesterday. Shawn helped her work on her computer and she gave us some new games for the kids.

Unfortunately, somehow, sometime the day before the kids had injured their computer in such a way that the CD-ROM drive was no longer recognizing the cd's. The drawer went in and out fine but it wouldn't play anything (a lot of action, but no results). Shawn was busy on his online League game and wasn't at all interested in trying to fix it but the kids were dying to play the new game.

I will admit I know VERY little about computers. I clicked around for a bit and found that according to it's own brain the computer was sure the drive was completely operational (denial). Shawn was pretty sure that the kids had destroyed the drive beyond repair so I felt safe removing it. I guess I figured if it's already destroyed then I can't destroy it further. So with no help from my husband I opened the case, removed the drive, took it to my table and took the whole thing apart.

It's a very freeing feeling to dismantle something so foreign. I have zero knowledge of the workings of the inside of a CD-ROM drive. I know there's a laser and that the little spinny thing spins. I also now know that there is a plastic curlicue thing that spins to move the laser and that it's lubricated with blue goo. I would have never suspected there was SUPPOSED to be blue goo inside the CD-ROM drive! :-) I was placing my trust in my instincts and basic knowledge of mechanics. Like if something is supposed to slide and it is being blocked by something else that is likely a problem. If a piece of plastic is broken, that's a problem. If there's a foreign object inside the case, that's a problem. Stuff like that.

So what did I find? Nothing!

Nothing was broken nothing appeared to be dislodged and there were no pennies inside (common problem with Aiden). The only thing I did find was a tiny flake of reflective plastic which looked like a piece of the shiny part of a CD. But it was so small I don't think it could have caused the problem. The bearings inside the spinny part were noisy but seemed to still be doing their job.

So I carefully put the drive back together, reinstalled it in the case, put the shell back on, and plugged everything back in. Would you believe the drive works now?

Apparently I AM a computer genius! Well, that or the only thing wrong was a loose cord and I'm just really lucky I was able to take the drive apart and put it back together without causing any real damage. But I'm sticking to the computer genius theory!

Kathrynn is having Dental Surgery this morning at 11:30. I was looking over the pre-op paper work last night to be sure I understood everything and I came across this instruction...

"DO NOT EAT OR DRINK anything (including water) after midnight on the night before your child's surgery."

I think this definitely wins the 'Most Poorly Structured Sentence' award! So apparently not only is Kathrynn supposed to fast before her surgery but I am as well? That's what it says. It says not to eat before my child's surgery. God, talk about controlling doctors!! I was feeling pretty confident about the whole procedure but if they can't even carry one subject through a short sentence how on earth can I trust them to competently perform surgery on my kid?

I'm tempted to ask when I get there if I'm allowed to eat yet. And then point out their error.

On the legitimately sucky side though Kathrynn is supposed to not eat from midnight until after her surgery which isn't until 11:30. The last time she DID actually eat was at 9 last night (who eats at midnight?). I'm not sure how long her surgery will actually be but we're looking at a good 17 hours (at least) before she's allowed to eat and then when she's finally able to, and starving I'm sure, she will have to contend with 7 missing teeth!!! :-( Poor baby! Damn rotten teeth!

Ok, I promised you a better picture of my hair. It's not great either partially because taking pictures of yourself is kinda hard. Also I think it's because its just not a very good haircut...



Chelee did say it looked better in person though than on my blog which is somewhat reassuring. Although I think maybe it's just my overwhelmingly great personality that helps people overlook the bad haircut. LOL So I guess if you're still looking at this haircut and wondering 'what the hell Katie was thinking when she did that?' well, the remedy would be to get together with me in person. :-) Which really you should be doing ANYWAY!

So if you want to see my haircut it will be performing live and in person at Dawn's DDR party tomorrow night. There's no cover charge and I hear there will be food! Woo Hoo!!

Got this too cute shot at the park today so I had to share.



It's funny how I take twice as many pictures of Aiden than Kathrynn... Hmm... I think it's just 'cuz he's kind of a mamma's boy and he's always around. Kathrynn is also into the cheesy smile phase which makes her harder to take cute pictures of.

I was supposed to go to the park with Dawn and some other homeschoolers today. But did you see the wind? I did. And I guess that's my point. It's times like these that make you realize that the Tri-Cities really is just a vast grey bowl full of blowing dust.

I did end up going to McDonald's though and meeting Mary Ellen there. She loaned me a tape I've been wanting to hear for a while and we talked. It was fun. Kathrynn knows Jackie by name now and will love her forever because she traded her purple Clickit's piece for Kathrynn's blue one. :-)

I also got a haircut today. I didn't plan it at all. I was out of the house this morning for an appointment at the DSHS office. And on the way home I thought "I should get a haircut" so I did.

I stopped at Heavenly Hair. Which is where my mom and sister both go. I went there once before. I'd have to say it was probably almost a year ago now. Betty, who did my hair there last time was there. She recognized me, said hi, mentioned that my mom had been in the day before, asked about the kids, asked about Shawn, asked if he was still wearing his hair long (she's never met him!). I was amazed. I wouldn't feel that confident asking stuff like that of someone I met last week much less a year ago! I always assumed that hairdressers just asked questions like that to help people feel more comfortable during the haircut. I never assumed they retained ANY of it. I know I sure wouldn't!

But Betty didn't cut my hair her husband Kevin did. He was nice. He had several foils in the front of his head while he was cutting my hair (apparently he was lightening the front) If it weren't for Betty's little baby belly I would so swear he was gay. Maybe it's a stereotype. You know male hairdresser = gay. But he totally talks the talk and walks the walk, LITERALLY!!

As for the haircut, I don't know. I asked for short. He cut it short. Probably shorter than most anyone reading this (except Dawn and Anna) have ever seen. But it feels like it's too long on top. And the bangs are right in my eyes which is annoying. I always hope that having short hair will help me feel younger and hipper, but it makes me feel like I looks like a 12 year old boy. Which is kinda not the younger and hipper I was going for. :(

But Shawn even said he liked it. I think he was just being nice. Because he doesn't like short hair on women. He had one complaint though that there wasn't enough there to grab... I don't think I'll elaborate there. ;-)

Here's a crappy picture...



There's a before and after shot for you in case you don't notice the difference. You'll notice they did not remove my Kathrynn shaped growth (She's such a ham, always has to be around when the webcam is hooked up). And while I don't look happy at all in either shot the after shot is, at least, less sad, right?

I will try for a better one tomorrow in the daylight since my camera has no flash and my house is apparently dark as a tomb judging by the webcam shots! :)

I took the kids to the library park today. I don't know if that's worth mentioning. I took Kathrynn, Aiden and our neighbor Brianna. Kathrynn and Brianna wanted to play on the toys and Aiden wanted to go in the library I had some books and videos to drop off and wanted to get some new ones.

I let Brianna and Kathrynn play at the park while Aiden and I went inside. It was scary! I don't know if I'm just paranoid or if maybe I *am* really a bad mom for doing it. They are 5! I don't know what the general rule about these things is. When I was 5 I walked to school by myself and played at the park by myself. But I have a hard time if Kathrynn is out of earshot.

The thing is I'm not so much worried about them getting kidnapped of falling and breaking their neck or wandering off or anything so much as I am worried about what the other moms at the park would think of me for leaving them there. :-( How sad is that? So I was only able to stay in the library for about 7 minutes before I was a complete mess and had to go back out. I was able to return the stuff I needed to and get a video for Aiden but didn't feel comfortable browsing for something for myself.

Of course when I went out to the park to join the girls they didn't even realize I hadn't been there. LOL Here are a couple pics from the park...









Here's something odd you may or may not have noticed about Aiden. He's into dressing himself lately. And he's really bad at it. His shirts are almost always inside out and his pants are regularly backwards. Which isn't often an issue since it's usually sweat pants. Yesterday he had jeans (with elastic in the waist) on though and it was funny because the worn holey 'knees' where in the back. :-) Today it was overalls! I tried to convince him to turn them around but he wouldn't so I just buckled them in the back and he was happy as a clam. LOL So here's a couple pics of my unique kid...

Talk about having to censor my words, now my husband wants to read my blog. Well, he may have read it last night, I don't know, I was too drunk and went to sleep as soon as we got home.

I don't know. I guess I don't mind if he reads it. There aren't any huge deep dark secrets here. But it was sort of nice to have someplace I could rant about him in semi-privacy. :-)

I guess I have Kenny's glowing review of my blog to thank for this new development. So, thanks Bud! :-) And Shawn, if you're reading here, Don't hate me because I'm... wordy?

I went to a party last night it was Kenny's big 25th Birthday and Erin went all out. It was a surprise party. There was a ton of great food and some really BAD alcohol. There was good alcohol as well but the bad alcohol left a bigger impression on me. The party was fun. Well, Ok to be honest the party was pretty dull until the Mormons left and everyone started doing shots. :) But then things really livened up. Although to be fair a few of us did get into a very sweaty game of balloon 'volleyball'. LOL

The party was held at the home of Kenny's boss, Scott someone. They have a beautiful home with a nice panoramic view of the whole Tri-Cities. It's sad to know that I will never live in a house like that. I admit to being hugely jealous of the whole place. Then somehow the talk turned to the kids and TV and it was mentioned that in this home there is this product. Can you imagine the mind that came up with this? I think this takes the concept of controlling parents to a whole new level. I really liked Scott and his wife and they really didn't seem like the type to be TV Nazis. But according to Scott it works like this. Small son wants to watch TV and dad says "go clean your room first" so small son cleans his room, gets a token, and then gets to watch his precious 35 minutes of TV. It's just so wrong to me.

As if TV watching is the best damn thing in the world to be doled out in small 35 minute increments. Won't this just make TV that much MORE desired? The whole you-always-want-what-you-can't-have thing at play.

My husband still loves to tell the story about how when he was a kid TV was rationed to only like 2 hours a week (and only on weekends). His parents would actually remove the plug from the TV during the week. So he and his brother learned how to 'hotwire' the TV and they would skip school and come home to watch TV. Isn't that crazy? What lesson did this really teach? Besides how to sneak around and a basic knowledge of home electronics?

Oh, did I mention that Shawn wants one of these token TV things now? He thinks it's a great idea. Not that our kids watch that much TV (of course they don't it's not a fricking carrot on a stick at our house). But he still thinks it's a great idea. I wish they had them for the computer I'd rig one up on his and see how he likes it. I don't understand how he can remember full well how his parents treated him and how much he hated it, and somehow still think it's a good idea!

I guess I'm just a freak. You know, permissive and all that...

I'm not sure what's up with Shawn and I lately. I guess we're in a funk. It seems as though we are going out of the way lately to get really annoyed with eachother. Often it seems it's because we want to do something but then because we have kids things take time to actually do and one or the other of us starts to take that personally.

I'm sure I'm partially to blame but it feels like Shawn gets angry if I don't instantly jump at the chance to spend time with him. Even when I already have other plans.

It feels like I'm walking around on eggshells. I'm hating it! Today I had a million things planned and he wakes up and decides we should go to the park as a family. Which does sound fun, and I DO want him to spend time with the kids and me as a family and all but I dropped everything just to spend less than an hour at the park with him. And it wasn't even a particularly fun hour. He mostly grumped about and yelled at the kids for dumb things.

And it's not just today. In fact his drunken barfing episode the other day was partially caused by a similar situation. I wanted to do something, he wanted to join my and somehow that turned into him laying on the couch pretending to be asleep and saying he was not coming and me yelling at him that he was too coming. We never used to fight like this.

I was almost ready to just go spend a few days at my mom's house this week. I don't know if it's just that he's been home so long (without a job) that he's driving me nuts, or if it's driving him nuts so he has to in turn make me crazy or what it is.

*sigh*

My phone woke me up this morning. It was my friend Erin calling. Yes, she woke me up. Although I assured her that was not the case. LOL Why do I feel guilty about still being in bed at 10:30? The first thing she asked me was "what are you doing? Blogging?" I knew something was up, as this is not how she generally starts a conversation. And I admit it took me a little off guard. I did a quick mental inventory of my blog to make sure I hadn't written anything terribly incriminating in it.

They apparently followed the link on my profile at Orkut and found my blog. Why this startled me I'm not sure as, clearly, posting the link is an invitation for readers. Turns out her husband Kenny was reading my blog for 2 hours last night. This struck me as a little weird. Not that I don't like Kenny, or because I don't want him reading my blog but I didn't realize it was all that interesting. Or, for that matter, that I had written enough to fill 2 hours of reading. Apparently so. :-)

The weird thing is that as more and more people read my blog I feel more need to censor my self. I suppose that says something about me. Maybe that I'm a two faced bitch. Or maybe just that I have different kinds of relationships with people. Which I suppose is pretty normal.

So anyway, Welcome to my crazy mind Kenny and Erin~*~*@*~*@* (confetti and balloons)

When your husband is being a dipshit and gets so drunk that he pukes on the porch!

Very gross!

Depression is a bad thing! I recommend never having it.

Well I was indeed on the 11:00 news as well. :-) The funny thing is that most of my interview I basically said that I think people around here are pretty courteous drivers and I don't witness a lot of road rage myself. I did mention however that people tend to slow down to ogle traffic accidents and it really jams up the traffic and that they should just keep driving. That's the part they chose to put on TV. LOL

Oh well. I don't think I looked like total idiot. :) And I was the only one they put on and I watched them interview at least 4 other people! I guess I'm at least more entertaining than the other people at Conoco today. ;-)

Apparently I was ON the news tonight!

I was at the gas station this afternoon and there was an adorable young reporter from KVEW running from around freezing his ass of interviewing drivers about Road Rage. And he interviewed me. I honestly didn't think I said anything worth while but apparently I was wrong because tonight I was on the news.

Actually this is just what I heard, as I was at the party and didn't get to see the news. If you saw it let me know. Maybe they will rerun it at 11 and I can see it. If not I would sure love to know what I said that they used. I'm sure I looked like a huge dumbass. It was windy and freezing and I was trying to pump gas. :-(

So just how many people should attend a child's birthday party? I think the standard rule these days is about one guest per year old the child is. So if the child is turning five, five guests are invited. This seems reasonable. Of course we've always broken this rule because our family alone adds up to 21. And you can't not invite anyone without the wrath of God (or someone more frightening and equally able to make your life a living hell) coming down upon you!

Tonight we attended the 4th birthday party of my niece. If the standard guest list for a birthday party for a 4 year old is four guests I think they exceeded that by... Oh... about 40 people! The problem is this she happens to come from two of the largest families I know.

While some may look at my family and think "Oh my God! What are they rabbits?" My Sister in laws family is far larger. Where I have six brothers and sisters she has TEN!! And where there are a total of 14 grandkids in my family there are over 40 in hers!

While eating my cake I was curious about the final headcount at the party. So I counted as well as I could (the kids were all literally running around in circles as if the place were a race track). I counted 40 heads and I know there were more in the kitchen.

I wonder when the line has to be drawn. I'm wondering that for my own kids too. At what point do you drop the HUGE family party in favor of a smaller party of just friends? At what point at least do the aunts and uncles drop off the nieces and nephews and NOT stay for the party? It has to happen eventually if for no other reason than because HUGE parties where you are obligated to serve dinner to everyone are DAMN expensive!

Incidentally we had Pizza On Someone Else for dinner. One of my favorites. ;-)

Every day when I'm planning dinner Kathrynn mentions spaghetti. Tonight, mostly in a big ploy to get her to leave a friends house because it was time to go and she didn't want to, we had Spaghetti. She would eat it EVERY night if she could. And really who could blame her? It's a kick ass meal. And it makes excellent sandwiches the next day! ;-)

Tonight we had Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas for dinner. Mmmm... Tasty!

I felt inspired today to be like M'Ellen and have a 'what we had for dinner' section to my blog. But I didn't feel like cluttering up my sidebar. So I made a second blog instead that I can link to to let people know what we had. It includes recipes. So if there are any stalkers out there who feel the need to eat exactly what I eat, well, here's your chance.

So far I've added the basics. The staple meals at our house. I will update and add more if we vary from the 5 or 6 that are there. It could be a while. That said I don't know how pathetic I should make it. You know it's one thing to write up the recipe for Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas and 9 Can Chili Soup because those require more than three ingredients. But Spaghetti is certainly stretching it and Hamburger Helper probably won't be worth my time! I'll probably do it anyway though. ;-)

So check out the Cheap Ass Gourmet and check back often when you're out of food, out of money, or just out of ideas.

I awoke this morning with my son on one side and my daughter on the other. My husband was somewhere in the far reaches of the bed beyond my daughter. Because of the elaborate configuration of blankets and bodies I was effectively pinned. Unable to get up and equally unable to get in a comfortable position to fall back to sleep.

As my body was immobile, my mind was wandering and random thoughts were popping into my head. I was remembering some of the crazier things I have done in life. Just things so completely out of character that in retrospect I have a hard time believing they actually happened. And it occurred to me that it was almost like those 'off' episodes of a television program. You know, the ones they do to boost their ratings during sweeps week. Like when a sitcom choses to do the whole show as a musical or film the whole thing upside down. It's as if they brought in a whole new writing team to write for this one day in my life.

Most of the time the script is predictable. It's not the most watched show around but it holds it's own with a respectable fan base and a small cult following. The characters are endearing. Shawn the down on his luck, hard working, breadwinning father. Katie the upbeat, slightly neurotic, idealist stay at home mom. Kathrynn the outgoing, sassy little 5 year old. Aiden, the brooding 3 year old computer geek. Their lives plod ever foreword with minor crises in each episode which they work together to overcome.

There are also times when everything is just going to pot. Like Shawn losing his job AND our car dying AND it being the coldest winter in 30 years. No self respecting writing team would write such drivle. Not if they valued their jobs at all. So it would seem the whole writing department of my life was out with the flu during that week and the janitors were writing the script.

But lying in bed this morning admiring my sleeping children the writers called for me to have desperate and urgent need to pee.

And so another episode began...