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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Toilet that won’t flush.

We have been having issues with our toilet for quite some time now.  When we got back after our two month stay in the hospital, it was really bad.  After getting the situation under control, we had to keep a close eye on it constantly.  Imagine, every time you flush you have the plunger in hand, waiting. 

I had just checked out FlyLady again for the hundredth time. I saw an email of someone praising the HeyTom Clog Cannon

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After showing it to hubby, he said to order it right away.  So I did.  Although the site says to expect it in two weeks, we received it a week later.  After attempting to use it .. took a few tries.. this pops out of the toilet. 

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Now I know what the penny is.. but have no clue what the rocks are from.  The penny though is really thin.  I placed it side by side next to another penny..

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No clue what the rocks are.. but for now.. the toilet is flushing. 

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Bottled juices...

We are on the road, heading to Hartford for Angel's bi-weekly appointment.  We stopped to grab egg sandwiches and juice.  I noticed they did not have regular Orange juice. Angel insisted I try on of the mixed juices.

I am not a juice person at all. Aside from orange juice, I drink no juice or koolaide. Not even lemonade. My beverage is iced water, occasionally soda.  Milk once in a while but mostly with cereal.

So I try the strawberry berry juice pictured below.  Nope. One sip was enough. I think angels peach mango was better but I still wouldn't buy it.  Am I the only one that has a problem with bottled juices? 



Wednesday, August 10, 2011

I can’t believe it’s been 12 years!

Twelve years ago, I walked down the aisle and vowed to spend my life with Angel.  Now, I am so grateful that he is still by my side.  Thankful the Lord granted us more time together. 

We decided we really needed to go out.  We went out to eat at Ruby Tuesday.  We had not been there in quite some time.  The food was pretty good.  Sometimes however, I wish we could find some really good hot wings.  These were not it. 

Angel had lobster tail and steak with onion rings and mashed cauliflower.  His dietitian told him he should try some since potatoes are very high in potassium. 

I had herb crusted tilapia, asparagus and white cheddar mashed potatoes.  I also tried some of the lobster tail since I have never eaten lobster. 

It always amazes me when they ask if we want desert.  We have only had desert maybe twice in a restaurant.  Seriously, we always leave really full! 

Next Angel wanted to see Cowboys and Aliens. 

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Isn’t that romantic?  Sigh.  However, I will admit.. it was really good and it was even better when Harrison Ford’s grumpy character gave that half smile I love so much.  Oh yes, I had a crush on him when I was a kid.  I think it is time to introduce Anna to Star Wars.  :-) 

It was really nice to just spend a nice time alone with Angel for a change.  I wish we could do it more often. 

Could anything else go wrong???

Yesterday was just one of those days.  It started off when I turned on my computer and it told me there was a problem and started scanning my disk drives.  Lovely.  After that it was just hours of error messages and window failure.  I tried scanning for viruses but the windows errors kept interrupting and it would reboot the entire system.  Seriously?? 

I have been having some problems for awhile now.  Whenever I did a search on Google.com.. the links would direct me to ads.  I had to stop using google and go to yahoo (not my favorite thing to do).  I had done all the scans and there was still an issue.  I guess now it is time to completely redo my laptop.  Sigh. 

I spent the entire day moving over files, pictures, documents, etc.  Uninstalling programs.  I have no clue where half of those programs even came from!  Sometimes the computer would just reboot on it’s own.  I just kept on trying.  I did not want to lose anything!  It was a pain and there were times where I yelled at the machine.  Ok, many times.  It was a bit frustrating! 

Then it was time to make dinner.  BBQ chicken sounded really good.  Looks good too! 

I did all the prep and got that in the oven.  After 15 minutes I re-basted and set to cook for 45 minutes.  Then I went back to working on the computer. I got up and started the corn.. checked on the chicken and noticed the oven was off.  Uh oh.. did I accidently shut it off when I re-basted the chicken??  hmm.. Ok.. late dinner.  Restart oven and go back to my computer.

After 45 min I go back (don’t know why I didn’t bother earlier) and once again the oven is off.  Seriously!!  It is now like 7pm.  So I start the grill.. in the rain btw.  I am not a good cook when it comes to the grill.. either everything cooks too fast or too slow.  well.. I burned the chicken.. whatever, take the skin off, right.  As I go to put the chicken on the plate and it slides off.. I try to do some acrobatic type move to catch the chicken in mid-air while screaming “NOOOO!!!!”  Well, of course, I missed! 

Now I am really ticked during this entire thing.  I went and heated some rice and tried to calm myself down.  We all sat at the table and I decided to just cut into a chicken to see how it looked.. Red.. in the middle.  Of course mom and Anna are like.. we can just eat the outside.. NO!  Do not touch the chicken. 

We ran to the store and picked up a cooked whole chicken, reheated everything and ate.  Last night as we went to bed I asked Angel if he could cook dinner for tonight.  Thankfully he said yes. 

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Catching up….

I am sitting here playing Pet Shop Monopoly with my mom and Annaleah.  They can be insane when playing this game.  I figure it may be a good time to do some catching up on here.  I am failing miserably at posting regularly.  Where should I start?? 
Homeschooling:
We have been behind in this area due to Angel’s two month hospital stay.  We did catch up a bit on Math since I feel it is a very important subject, but that alone was stressing us out.  We decided to stop.  We will play some math war games to review the times tables.  I was mostly stressing because I had no materials for next year.  We had missed the convention and I had no clue what I was going to use.  Math is easy.  We love Math-U-See. 
After some serious researching (I just love scouring reviews) I decided to go with Painless Jr. Grammar and Ignite your Writing to go along with our Language Arts Program.  Now my other problem was Social and Science.  I found some awesome weekly newletters for students.  An entire year of Science or Social.  The Science covers 96% of our State’s requirements.  Anna is going to love this.  She will need to cover 8 weeks in division before starting on this years Math book, but we are fine with that.  I think this is going to be a good year. 
New Dance Year:
This is a recital year for Anna’s Dance Studio.  This will be her 3rd recital.  I can’t believe this is going to be her 6th year dancing.  She is now officially old enough to try out for the Dance Ensemble also.  This group dances at nursing homes and various benefits.  Last year they got to train with the Rocketts in NYC.  This is just a wonderful opportunity for the dancers. 
Last Friday, Anna went to audition.  She was very nervous!  Once we arrived, she would not let go of my arm.  One of the older girls came over and asked Anna if she would like to warm up with them.  This helped Anna tremendously.  She got her shoes and went to join them in the room. 
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They actual audition required them to follow along with one of the teachers in Ballet, Tap and Jazz, while the rest of the teachers observed.  Anna did not think she did well at all.  We would not know how she did til Monday morning. 
Angel decided we all needed to go out to eat so we headed to Gus Pizza.  I ordered fish and onion rings (instead of chips)  which was huge.  Anna ordered spaghetti and meatballs and Angel got a hamburger platter. 
Saturday Morning, my brother brought my mom in for the week.  We were sitting around chatting when Angel’s phone rang.  Someone asking for Anna.  Turns out it was Miss Maggie.  A huge smile spread out on Anna’s face.  She made it!!