~~ 10:41 AM ~~
In this, the season of shopping, I would just like to take a moment to wholeheartedly recommend Pixelgirlshop for all your funky gifty needs. Their goods are gorgeous, their customer service rocks, and the package came stuffed with all sorts of nifty little extras. I love that.
A few of you will be getting Pixelgirl goods this month. You'll see...
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~~ 12:18 PM ~~
There's a new batch of pictures up, starting here.
Don't tell Alice, but this batch is about 99% Sammy. Hey, she's at school all day, when am I supposed to take pictures of her?? Heh.
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~~ 8:03 AM ~~
It's that time of year again -- Advent calendar season!! I think we have a paper one lying around here somewhere, but mostly we go for the online ones. Here's my list. Do you know of any I missed?
About that last one... Yeah. It's a nice time of year to start your very own Neopets account, because they give away nifty fun cool things all through December. If you wanna get a piece of that action, please use this link so I get referral credit. No pressure, though. Heh.
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~~ 2:53 PM ~~
So, apparently I was just barely keeping ahead, immunologically speaking, of this bug that Alice is finally almost done with. I've been taking garlic and extra vitamin C and trying to take good care of myself lately, and all last week I felt no symptoms as I watched Alice cycle through every blah symptom known to man.
Unfortunately, last night we watched something right before bed that gave Alice the creeps, so she wanted to sleep with me. What with the sporadic coughing (Alice), the squirming and flailing (Sammy), and the inability to get warm while sandwiched between two heat-producing kids who kept kicking all of the blankets off (me), I did not sleep much last night.
And now I have a headache, and I can't stop sneezing, and my nose is tickly and runny, and I feel like crrrrrap. Bleh.
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~~ 11:31 AM ~~
In my never-ending quest to become more like Google, I've made an archive of my header images.
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~~ 12:13 PM ~~
Oh, so, I got so caught up in the wailing and the gnashing of the teeth that I forgot to tell you what we're doing for now: She's wearing panties all day, but she's peeing and pooping in disposable diapers. It seems to be working for her, even though it's kinda giving me the worst of both worlds, in a way. I'll stop by Le Boutique Target sometime this week and pick up a potty...
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~~ 9:38 AM ~~
I'm still experiencing angst about the whole potty training thing. I gave it two weeks of total no-pressure diaper-wearing, and the little scabs are back around Sammy's hips (where the disposable diapers apparently rub or irritate her) and the rashy rednesses are back on her sensitive areas (from both the disposables and the cloth overnight dipes).
She just can't pee on the potty though. (Can't, won't, whatever.) She will spend hours in panties, tell you she has to pee, sit on the potty for literally 10 or 15 minutes straight and produce nothing. Give up and put a diaper on her after that and she will instantly pee out approximately ¼ of her body weight. Trying to hardline her just upsets her, and I really don't want to add any further negative associations with the toilet or toileting activities at this point.
There's no talking to her about the problem. She doesn't have the words to volunteer the information, and if you ask her, "Is it this?" or "Is it that?" she will say yes to anything. Maybe this all stems from the scary automatic-flush potties at McDonald's (curse them), although if so, it was a delayed reaction because she continued to be fine with the potty for a couple of days after the McD's debacle. If it's not that, I don't know what it is, but she pretty clearly has something wedged in her brain that has turned her right off toilets of any sort.
I guess the next thing to try is buying a little potty for her. Sometimes she says she thinks that would help, but sometimes she says she doesn't want one. I had really hoped to avoid that, since we never had to go that route with Alice and Sammy had seemed to be happily following in Big Sis's training footsteps. Juggling little bowls of toddler pee is not my idea of a good time, but whatever.
What really eats at me is this: If I had just done what freaking everybody else in this country does and trained her by parental decree with sticker charts and "Once Upon a Potty" videos and Pull-ups and "I'm a big girl" pep talks when she was 2, would we have gone through all of this meshugass that we're going through right now? Am I in this mess (can't get her to train, can't just leave her in diapers) now because I was all crunchy-granola and ohhh, it'll happen when you're ready and there's no pressure and let's all be groovy together and pee wherever it feels right, man?
The other thing that really sticks in my craw is the whole "rock and a hard place" thing. Pushing forward to a diaper-free existence seems guaranteed to traumatize Sammy in a uniquely dark and Freudian way. Laying off and letting the diapers fall where they may is obviously not good for her physical health and skin integrity.
Bleh.
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~~ 10:50 PM ~~
And hey, look! More farked-up TomKat news. People, this stuff happened almost a week ago. Why wasn't I informed??
My favorite comment on the article linked above:
>> A witness says, "People didn't care that she was a star, they just wanted to see the movie."
How dare they!! HELLO, celebrity buzzing her alien baby here!!
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~~ 8:08 PM ~~
I have most of my holiday shopping done, which is nice. But the reason I haven't finished is because there are about three people who are completely stumping me, which is really annoying. Bleh.
And speaking of annoying, we had our little photo session tonight to get the picture we'll be sending out with our holiday cards this year. We got a picture, and it's really cute, but man, the trying was very hard on everyone.
But hey, at least I'm not a complete farking nutcase. That's a great comfort to me.
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~~ 7:02 PM ~~
If you have an Amazon wish list and you haven't updated it (removing items you no longer want, setting priority on items still listed, adding a few new things you'd love to receive) in the past 3 months or so, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?
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~~ 10:59 AM ~~
By the way, Happy Buy Everyth-, um, oops, I mean Buy Nothing Day. I already blew it -- I bought some butter knives off of ebay because I'm tired of the knives we've got always being dirty when one of the kids wants another piece of buttered toast or another peanut butter and Nutella sammich. But... Does buying used count, or am I Doing The Right Thing(™) by Circumventing The Capitalist Machine(™)? (Except that I didn't completely circumvent it -- ebay got their cut, and Paypal got their cut. Hmmm...)
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~~ 9:34 AM ~~
Alice is (still?) sick (again?). Her string of seemingly-unconnected symptoms continues apace. In the past week we have seen, intermittently:- Fever
- Sore throat
- Upset stomach (this took much of the pleasure out of Thanksgiving for her)
- Throaty, chesty, yet unproductive cough
- A feeling of being unable to breathe because her throat hurts so much
- Headache
- Dizziness
- Malaise
- Painful sensitivity to sounds
- An inability to speak above a whisper (thank goodness she is now literate enough to communicate well with paper and pen)
- Stuffy nose
- Sneezing
- General misery
Never are all of these symptoms present together, but never is she free of all of them at once. Never, however, are enough of them on the job simultaneously to really knock her down or make her seem really sick. She's just lingeringly, unhappily unwell. Poor chook.
At any rate, if she's just going to be sick in a "blah" sort of way, this is a very good time to do it. We're all home and idle and planning on doing not-much-of-anything for the next three days. If, on the other hand, she does go downhill and start to look like she needs medical attention (like if that "can't breathe" thing comes back again and isn't soothed by cherry VapoRub, or if it moves down into her lungs which so far have sounded clear and whooshy, or if the throat gets worse and starts to look like Strep), then this is a very very bad time to do it, because I am quite sure that our pediatrician's office is not open until Monday at the earliest.
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~~ 12:00 PM ~~
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who is celebrating today!
Happy, um, Thursday to everyone else!
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~~ 8:13 PM ~~
For those who are keeping track, I finally changed my email sig file again. It was (and has been for months)"Oh, fine. Last week it's 'I wish I could find a boy who was interested in my brain and not my body.' And now you're all 'Aaaugh zombies!' Seriously, Shel. Make up your damn mind."
-- Scary Go Round http://www.scarygoround.com/ But now it's"There ain't no Devil, that's just God when he's drunk."
-- Tom Waits At least until I get the holiday spirit...
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~~ 2:46 PM ~~
Small batch of new pictures up, starting here.
I am sleepy. Not much else to tell you today, except this:
Earlier today...
Sammy: I have lots of friends!
Me: Yes, you do!
Sammy: Everybody loves me!
Me: Yes, everybody loves you, because you're sweet and nice!
Sammy: And I smell like peaches!!
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~~ 7:57 AM ~~
Alice stayed home from school yesterday, because she had a fever and a headache, and noises make her skull vibrate and hurt. I was on the fence about whether to send her anyway and just tell her to take it easy and call me if she felt worse, but Anth reminded me that the little sister of one of the students is going through chemo for leukemia, so I kept Alice and her germies home.
This morning I went in to feel her head before her alarm went off and she was still quite hot, so no school again today. Woo yay. It's grey and cold and miserable and drizzly out there, so I'm fine with not leaving the house for any reason.
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~~ 6:57 PM ~~
On the plus side of my life, Yay! It's time for
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~~ 5:36 PM ~~
I'm really hating on my job right now. No time to post.
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~~ 6:31 PM ~~
Remember when I said we wouldn't go see Harry Potter this weekend, but would wait a couple weeks for the hype and crowds to dwindle? Well, I am weak. Alice and I went to see it this afternoon.
It was... Okay.
I mean, it was great to be back in that world, and great to revisit all my favorite characters. But it was too long (which really bothered Alice) and yet at the end it felt unsatisfying. Keep in mind, it's been years since I've read the book, so I wasn't sitting there ticking off all the things they kept and all the things they cut. Heck, I had forgotten enough of the story that I was actually surprised by a couple things in the movie. Heh. So I don't say it was unsatisfying because they didn't include my favorite plot point or something, and it wasn't like I noticed any major holes in the story. But it just felt like there wasn't enough there there.
The book was sooooo long... I know they really struggled to get the screenplay down to a manageable length, and they had to cut whole subplots, entire families of characters, etc. But even the stuff they left in, there wasn't enough of any of it. I didn't get enough Snape, I didn't get enough Dumbledore, I didn't get enough of any of the Weasleys... Too many people and things to show, not enough time to give any of them real lasting impact.
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~~ 5:37 PM ~~
Hey, need a nursing bra? Go bid on this one.
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~~ 2:52 PM ~~
Sammy is officially between pants sizes. 2T's are too short, and 3T's fall off her skinny little waist. It's cold outside! The child needs skin coverage!! Bleh.
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~~ 1:31 PM ~~
I am now officially afraid of cornstarch. (The freakiest part is at the end.)
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~~ 1:02 PM ~~
So, yeah, the new Harry Potter movie is out and I am of course dying to go see it, but I hate the crowds and the hype so we won't go this weekend, and maybe not next weekend (holiday crowds! ick!), but it's killing me to wait. Argh.
And after I do get to see HP4, this is the next movie I'm anticipating.
There are a few other things I'm anticipating, too. Like peanut butter Hershey's Kisses and also little M&M-y type mini candy-coated adorable Hershey Kiss-ette thingies. Yes.
Edited to add: Also? Colored bubbles. YES!!! (Official site.)
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~~ 11:14 AM ~~
*sigh*
So, just supposin' I needed to lay my hands on a pair of overalls that would fit a tall skinny 8-year-old girl, because she's stepping in to help the numbers on the "The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends" dance that the class below hers (the one she was in last year but moved out of) is doing at the Christmas recital at the nursing home, but this year they want her to be a farmer (overalls) instead of a cowman (jeans)...
Okay, that sentence became a paragraph.
Where can I buy overalls for Alice? I don't think Target has 'em.
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~~ 9:56 AM ~~
Crap. Now I'll eventually have to buy a PSP, to add to the Gamecube, PS2 and GBA we own, plus the Nintendo DS (plus Nintendogs) that Alice is pining for this Christmas. Bleh.
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~~ 7:32 PM ~~
A few links. I should be working, so I'm posting links.
Neat article about people who are famous for divergent achievements, like the guy who wrote "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and also made pioneering advances in optics.
Got LATCH for your carseat? There's a hidden danger.
Remember a few days ago when I linked to "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back" in tiny flash form? Here's "Return of the Jedi".
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~~ 12:44 PM ~~
For those playing along at home, we've totally given up on potty training for the time being. *sigh* Although conflicted, I sure do feel ready to stop dealing with diapers. I'm especially looking forward to throwing out our diaper pail, which is over 8 years old and has been working almost nonstop that whole time (less than a year of downtime between Bean 1 and Bean 2), and which is absolutely impregnated with stank and cannot be fully deodorized no matter what I try.
Hmmm, what else is going on around here? Lots of conflict over bedtime... Alice needs to be in bed at a certain time, but wants to stay up at least 45 minutes later so she can play more Neopets. Somehow I cannot deliver the simple message "It's X:00 which means that you need to finish what you're doing because you need to be in bed in 15 minutes" without ending up in a nasty fight with her. Bleh.
What else? Oh! I sneezed this morning and Anth thought it was his alarm and started trying to push the snooze button on his clock. That amused me.
Man, I can't think of anything else to post about. Maybe my memory's failing me. I should see my doctor about Panexa.
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~~ 1:39 PM ~~
More pictures -- finishing up the York Fair, then grabbing a bite to eat. Newest batch starts here.
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~~ 10:43 AM ~~
Alice is going on a field trip (to the planetarium) today. I'm splitting my time between worrying that she'll forget her lunch (because I carried everything in for her this morning, because she had her carseat, instead of her carrying it in like she usually does, so maybe that will mess up her awareness that she needs to get her lunch before they go) and worrying that she'll die in a fiery car crash on the Schuylkill. Free-floating anxiety is my bestest friend.
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~~ 11:28 AM ~~
Sorry I haven't blogged. I've been watching this for the last 48 hours.
Okay, not literally. But certainly figuratively. Whatever that means.
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~~ 12:24 PM ~~
My presentation went surprisingly well. It remains to be seen whether it was effective, but it certainly seemed to get everyone's heads nodding along. Of course, those nodding heads may have represented "the choir"... Oh well, maybe they'll go home and tell their friends.
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~~ 9:21 AM ~~
Hey! I'm in a session on Oversupply or Rapid Milk Ejection and I'm blogging! I really have nothing else to say, but isn't that cool? I want a laptop of my very own... (This one's borrowed.) Ahhh, technology.
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~~ 9:58 AM ~~
Another very small batch of pictures up now, starting here.
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~~ 11:48 AM ~~
I just put a small batch of new pictures up. Start here. Next batch tomorrow, I promise!!
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~~ 11:38 AM ~~
You know, I would play DDR (my exercise of choice) a lot more often if I didn't have to spend 10 minutes clearing toys to make floor space for the dance pad every freaking time. Just one more way that my children are to blame for my big fat ass.
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~~ 4:40 PM ~~
Bonus link for the Katamari lovers and the textile artists... Heh.
I am a ball of stress and unhappiness today. Lots of crap I have to think and worry about -- Alice's school is being weird, I'm stressing about the conference this weekend (not just the talk, which is only going to be 15 minutes out of three days, but more so the whole thing -- being away from home with the kids, worrying about the stuff I have to do, etc.), the weather is cold and rainy, you know...
Potty training continues to be an issue. I had reconciled myself to just giving up for now, and we were using diapers and I wasn't saying anything about any of it to Sammy. But this morning she asked for panties, and was very chatty about how she knew she would pee in the potty today because she was wearing panties and not a diaper. Then it got to be after lunch and she said she had to pee, but nothing came out when she sat on the toilet. 15 minutes later, same thing. 10 minutes later, same thing. 15 minutes later, same thing. 20 minutes later, same thing, at which point she asked for a diaper.
I can't handle this back-and-forth stuff. I want to just tell her, "that's it -- you're potty trained. I know you can do it because you did it all last week, so I'm throwing out the diapers." But if she will now sit and sit and sit on the toilet and be apparently unable to produce anything, there isn't really any point in trying to actively train her at the moment, is there? Seriously, is there, because I am feeling completely clueless about how to proceed at this point. If she asks for panties tomorrow, do I refuse them, or do we keep doing this "nope, no pee coming out" dance forever? What the heck are we going to do this weekend when we're at the hotel and away from the home potty (which she won't/can't pee on anyway)? What the heck am I doing here?? Bleh.
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~~ 10:00 AM ~~
Thank Maude it's finally election day. Now I can vote and be done with it and get a break from the irritating junk mail and borderline-illegal phone spam. If I could only figure out who I'm going to vote for, when all of the local candidates/issues have annoyed me beyond reach. Bleh.
I am going to a conference this weekend, and I have to stand in front of a large room full of people and speak persuasively, and they want me to have a Power Point presentation with me when I do it. I've never used Power Point. I have to get on this, don't I? Bleh again.
I know there were a few of you who were surprised that I did not rave about the new Katamari Damacy game when I finally got it, after all of the whining I did when I didn't get it fast enough after the release date. Well, I've played it a bit and I really do love it but (a) I am addicted to Neopets at the moment, (b) I am swamped with work I should be doing, whenever I'm not wasting time on Neopets or, you know, sleeping or eating or parenting, and (c) I am quite honestly scared to play the damn thing (Katamari) because I am afraid I will use it up and finish it like I finished the first one. There won't be any more, will there? (You think this is neurotic, wait until the last Harry Potter book is out.)
Anyway, on the Katamari subject, here are a couple good links: Katamari Damacy: A Text Based Adventure and pictures of homemade katamaris with stuff stuck all over them. Bonus points if you looked at any of the pictures in that second link and thought, "They would never have been able to roll up [item] at that size!"
And while I'm clearing out some links to share, here are:Okay, that's enough for today. I need to go do some freaking work already. If anyone wants to volunteer to make that Power Point presentation for me, just come on over.
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~~ 1:49 PM ~~
By the way, I planted 180 crocus bulbs this weekend (with help from my family). I know very little about bulbs, so I'm not sure I did it right, but if even 1/6 of the bulbs bloom in the Spring, that will be awfully nice.
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~~ 7:52 AM ~~
Things are simultaneously boring and busy here -- nothing to blog about, really, and no time to blog it.
We seem to have hit a bump on the potty training path, as Sammy is now refusing to or unable to (they are indistinguishable) pee on the potty.
We tried to hardline her last night, gently refusing her request for a diaper and sitting for a cumulative 45 minutes or so in the bathroom with her while she sat and tried, then said she couldn't, over and over again. But after about an hour of that (not a solid hour spent on the toilet, it was not that hard a line, but she kept trying, then giving up and going out in the living room, then 2 minutes later saying she had to pee, etc.), she fell asleep (at 6 p.m., which in itself indicates some weirdness) so we had to put a diaper on her. She slept 12 hours (and peed a whole bunch in the dipe), woke up sunny and pleasant, but is still unable (or unwilling, who can tell?) to produce on the pot.
So she's got a diaper on but I am not happy about it, and I'm having a hard time being neutral and nonjudgmental and pleasant about it. I. Am. Trying not to be obvious about my displeasure, but I'm sure I'm doing a lousy job of covering it up. I know I shouldn't emotionally invest in the process and it'll happen when she's ready and this is normal and etc. etc. etc. but:- There seems to be a reason why she's skeeved out by the potty, but I can't figure it out and she can't express it, and that frustrates me in a very specific way that really gets under my skin
- Remember, I chose to initiate this process because of real diagnosable problems (rashes and scabs) with the diapers, so I can't truly feel totally neutral about letting her wear them again
- Alice was effortless to train, so I got spoiled (but I know she was easier because she was completely ready, whereas I had to start the process externally with Sammy due to (b) above)
- I am by nature very uncomfortable with starting a process and then not moving efficiently in a straight line toward that project's completion. I get a junkie's rush from completion.
So yeah, I'm trying to take the pressure off while silently grinding my teeth and clenching my fists and muttering, "it would be sooooo good if you would just potty train now" under my breath. I am always so much fun to be around, aren't I?
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~~ 12:05 PM ~~
Too many links lately? Sorry. Here's more. Heh.
I cannot believe they haven't fixed this typo yet.
Have you heard about the quarter of a million bouncy balls? BoingBoing talked about it in July, but now you can see the actual ad and also tons of pictures from the set. Wow.
If you've got the time, go watch Star Wars: A New Hope in 168k and then Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in 211k.
If you are a Netflix subscriber, you might want to consider opting out of that stupid class-action lawsuit.
I want a glowing dark mark over my house!! (He did it like this)
And finally, a breath of fresh air for all of us, responsible spam from McSweeney's.
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~~ 10:09 AM ~~
My daughter's wonderful lovely school is currently running a fudraiser, and I wanted to see if anyone was interested in buying from me. They are selling Newman's Own organic chocolates, both the bars and the cups. The flavors available are:
BARS (1.2 oz bars)
--------
Milk chocolate
Butter toffee crunch
Crispy rice/milk chocolate
Sweet dark chocolate
Orange sweet chocolate
Espresso sweet dark chocolate
(More info on the bars)
CUPS (1.2 oz packs)
--------
Peanut butter milk chocolate
Peanute butter dark chocolate
Mint dark chocolate
(More info on the cups)
Newman's Own Organics chocolate is grown organically in a sustainable fashion, so there are many benefits to both the tropical rainforests and the indigenous tribes who inhabit them.
Sounds yummy, right? Here's the catch: we are only taking orders for boxes of 24, and you can't mix flavors within a box. If any of the above items sounds so delicious to you that you want 24 of something, the price is only $24 for a box of 24, which is a pretty darn good price!! Now, granted, if you are not within driving distance of my house, I will have to tack on $4 for Priority shipping, but still...!
If anyone wants to order, and support a wonderful school that my family adores, you can contact me. I accept Paypal, or checks if I know you. Orders and money must be turned in to the school by November 17. I'm not sure of the exact date of delivery, but I assume it would be around the end of the month.
Spam over!
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~~ 9:07 AM ~~
I wrote this yesterday at 3 p.m. but Blogger has decided that it won't let me publish. Who knows when you will finally see it...
On a lighter note, I put up a new batch of 11 pictures -- finishing up our trip to the zoo, plus adding a couple bonuses. The new ones start here.
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~~ 9:43 AM ~~
Yesterday Alice was horsing around in the bathtub, and she managed to whack her mouth into the faucet, shredding the gum above one of her top front teeth. There was a lot of blood (you know how mouth wounds bleed), which completely freaked her out. She hates blood. It was pretty scary, but as far as I can tell her tooth is fine -- she was never in any pain, she was just terrified about all of the bleeding. Today it's fine, except that there's this, um... Meat hanging between her two front teeth. It looks like she was eating raw liver and got a little bit stuck there. Ick, it is gross. It's still attached to her gums but looks to be dying off nicely, having gotten smaller and darker overnight. Blech. My stomach does a somersault every time I look at it.
So anyway, guess what today is? School Picture Day!!
She's gonna smile with her lips closed.
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~~ 1:04 PM ~~
This is one of the perils of sending your child to a tiny alternative school: School picture day is on Thursday, and they're going with the same guy from last year. I'm trying to figure out what package to buy this time. *sigh*
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~~ 10:42 AM ~~
I hope you all had a lovely Halloween! We did the day up right, and there was much candy being thrown our way. Emphasis on much, because we were one of the only two sets of trick-or-treaters who hit our entire neighborhood. And we were apparently much more thorough than the other (brother-sister) team.
This means that we (Sammy, Alice, Alice's friend Bailey and chaperone-me) pretty much got fistfuls of candy and exclamations of "you're the only people we've gotten tonight!!" at every house we visited. It's not like there aren't kids around here, but apparently they've all decided that the pickings here are beneath contempt, so they travel for their candy activities. Traitors. Oh well, more for us.
Besides the ToT, not much else to report. I have a cold, Sammy has a cold. Potty training continues, but I have to wash my sheets today (our first night-time incident, and it was my fault because I knew she was drinking a bunch right before bed but I foolishly thought she could empty her bladder before she sacked out and that would be enough to get her through the night).
Oh, and I want this lamp. Thanks.
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