No Sacrifice At All

I guess I suck.

I'm way behind here. I'm sorry. I'm way behind in general. I was totally gonna post a Friday Fragments, but Rob accidentally sabotaged that (yes you DID, honey!!) and gave me a sleeping pill instead of a vitamin D. That's like, the third time. We should totally keep that Trazodone somewhere ELSE, don'tcha think?!

So here's some stuff that's going on lately, since I posted Wednesday. I'm kind of in a blah mood, because this has been a ridiculously crappy night for me, so apologies in advance if the writing brings you to the doldrums, too.

 

We went back to that "other" beach on Wednesday. I remembered the camera this time. It was a pretty awesome day. Like, perfection. I was grateful for that day, like all days, but especially that day. I had taken the kids to the free Regal Cinema movie that morning (we saw Aliens in the Attic, which was good but a bit too 'old' for the kids) and then went grocery shopping for our picnic at the beach. I packed a lunch for everyone, and we brought the cooler with us. The kids loved that.

Rob joined us later in the day, and we went and had a seafood dinner right at the beach. I wore my bathing suit there. If we could pick up and move to that area tomorrow, I would do it.

The only thing that marred the day was when both girls got stung by a jellyfish (we found it and some people dragged it up on the beach, so it's a certainty), and Chloë had a bad reaction. I had nothing with me but sunscreen, and she was in hysterics (Sophie too, but I think she was egged on by Chlo), so I had to call 911. Don't pee on a jellyfish sting, by the way: vinegar is the best solution. The girls calmed down, were soothed, and wanted to stay at the shore. So we did, for a total of about eight hours!

I like this self-portrait, from dinner at the Green Parrot Grille that night... even if my nose ring does look stupid! I have since taken it out, and ordered some more from an Etsy shop (Hotwire, I think?).

And I think I look pretty good in this picture that Rob took of me with his iPhone, too (holding a squirming, plump Tinkerbell).

Which brings me to my next thing: I've decided not to have my abdominoplasty.

For now. We just needed that money for other things, and I have waited this long - what's another six months? The house has been flea-infested for a month, and we have COVERED it with diatomaceous earth. That 'natural approach' didn't work, so it was time to do something drastic: on Thursday, we bought the pill that kills fleas within minutes for all three pets, as well as three months of flea and tick treatment, for all three animals. And we went to the Exchange and bought LOTS of bug bombs. Lots.

(Independence Day, 2009)

But, life has gotten expensive, and we have decided to re-home our dog, Tiger Lily. She's a great dog, and we love her, but we just can't afford to take proper care of her anymore. There's a family that wants her, and they sound like a great match, but now that I've told them about the flea problem, I haven't heard back from them. Which isn't terribly surprising. *sigh* But, I had to be honest.

But hey, look!! We have green things growing!! We are terribly excited. Whoopee!

So Thursday, I mentioned, we did a little shopping at the Exchange, after we stopped at the vet's office for meds. Well, a lot of shopping, actually.  We used a lot of that money earmarked for surgery. Jack needed a bike helmet, and we had looked all over for one that fit. Eureka! He's stoked.

 

Vacs were on sale, and we needed a hard floor one for downstairs, so we got this! We also needed one for the carpeting upstairs, since the kids just broke mine recently. Buggers.  That night, the kids and I cleaned up the downstairs, and I vacuumed, washed and dried the living room floor with the FloorMate. It looked AMAZING, like new!! I can't wait to do it again.

 

I found these great cubbies for storing school supplies, so I got one for each of the kids, and one for me. We LOVE them! Our little school is really shaping up!

We bought lots more stuff that we needed, but when the cashier gave me the total, I stopped him and said, "Uh, I don't think you scanned our computer. It's a $600 laptop..." and I was right, of course. There was no way he had. In the end, the total came to more than we could afford to spend at the moment, so we couldn't buy it. I was so disappointed. I knew I had done the right thing, speaking up, but I admit - I was kicking myself a little, too! I really wanted to have a computer for school and for fun, for the kids.

So anyway, I didn't get it.

Severe weather, including flooding and tornadoes, hit while we were shopping. The drive home was nothing short of terrifying for me. I gripped the wheel and focused on the road, begging the kids to just. be. quiet!! I'd thought we were going to have to drive Rob to work later that night, but he decided it cleared up enough to ride his motorcycle in. I sure was worried, but he got there safe and sound. Whew.

 
I might post about this a bit more on the homeschooling blog, but Friday was fun because we broke out all the new (and a couple old) musical instruments in the music drawer. The kids were allowed to try each instrument out in turn and make, basically, a cacophony, while I attempted to help them find my beat. Not much success, but they had a lot of fun. Jack's favorite instrument is definitely the harmonica, but I'm not sure yet what each girl likes best.

Hilarious!!

 
  

I *really* wanted to use the remaining tax/surgery money to get the kids their own computer, so I did a lot of resarch Friday night and found one for HALF the price of the Exchange one, a Compaq that has a lot of really great reviews. I bought it online and bing, bang, boom! we were able to go pick it up at (the evil) Best Buy on Saturday at noon. Whoop!

Also, someone posted on one of my homeschooling boards about a bunch of free student desks that were being given away here locally, so I decided to pounce on that opportunity and snag one for each of my kiddos. When we got there, after picking up the computer, the lady turned out be someone I knew from the Girl Scout leader meetings, so that was cool. She was super nice and glad to have a home for three of the desks. They were in great condition, much bigger and roomier than I expected, and just the ticket for finishing up our little living room-cum-classroom. Exciting!

After we came home, Rob readied the house for bombing, while I set up the new computer and instructed the kids on how to turn it on and off properly, log in and use their passwords, get online, go to their favorite sites, and other basic things. They need lots more practice, but I feel they'll be doing it like old pros in no time. And they're so psyched to know how to go to Starfall, Webkinz and other places. Best? They have another great way to spend their Dad Dollars (I told them 5DD for each 30 minutes of play), so they're eager to earn more.

 

I neglected to ever give Chloë the necklace she earned for selling Girl Scout cookies this past Winter and Spring, so when I found it on my craft table, I gifted it right over to her. Of course, she insisted on posing for a picture!

 

I found us a motel in Newport News that took pets and was pretty cheap, so Rob set up the bug bombs, packed up the children, and off we went. It was alread about 8 PM by that point, so we were tired and ready to bunk down for the night. Only, when we got to the motel almost an hour later, it was nasty and more bug-infested than the house we were bombing!

Oh, my word, we were disgusted. We managed to get a quick refund from Priceline, and we hightailed it out of that place. We had the dog in the back and the cats in the middle, with the kids, and they were stinking up the place. We have no AC in the van, and we couldn't roll down the windows because the cats kept wanting to get out, so we were suffocating. And then everyone *really* had to go pee. It was getting to be pretty miserable in there.

We drove back down to Norfolk, to Military Highway where there was a place that I knew took pets, since we stayed there with our old dog and cat when we first moved here from Guam in '03. Only, they had no vacancies. Nor did the next place. Or the next, or the next, or the next. I stopped for a potty break at 7-11, and we used the BOGO Free Slurpee coupons someone gave us on the 4th of July. Not without requiring some math problem work out of Chloë first, and she did a great job... But I ended up losing my debit card after that stop, which was not good.

I called the bank and ordered a new card, and then we went home. We still couldn't go back in our house for a few more hours, but I couldn't deal with the pet stink and windows up anymore. We put the cats in Rob's truck, the dog in the backyard, and flew down to the oceanfront to walk along the beach.

We stopped and talked to the police on horseback for a while, and the kids all got a major kick out of that. They asked a billion questions, but when the horses sped away after someone whizzed down Atlantic Avenue much too quickly, well that was just a big ol' hoot for them! (I kinda liked it, too...)

Oh, and when we had gotten to the beach, I found my card! But then I lost it again! So I called initially to report it missing and get a new one, then I called back to cancel that. I had to call a third time to say yes, it's defintely lost this time - and I was right, because someone had found it and called it in. Thank you, guardian angel! At least, if I had to lose it, an honest person found it.

We walked along the boardwalk some, and when everyone needed to potty some more, we stopped from shop to shop until finally the good people at Subway said we only had to buy a bag of chips in order to use their bathroom. Phew! I was emergent by then, myself. We stopped in our favorite kitschy beach store to get kickboards for the kids, since they've been envying the other kids' a lot this summer. They were pretty cheap, thankfully.

Lots of things went wrong for me tonight (most of which I haven't mentioned here), but looking back, it has been a pretty great week. I shouldn't complain.  I have a GREAT husband, three beautiful children (who fight a lot, but hey, what kids don't?), and the bugs are dead. LOL!

Thanks for cheering me up, y'all. Maybe now I can go get a few Zzzzz's.

Fin.