I love listening to children's conversations. Tonight I overheard Bradley say, "Why does ice turn to water?" Sarah who was seated next to him said matter-of-factly, "Oh! Because it does." He seemed to be satisfied with her answer. Bradley then elaborated with his conclusion, "Ice must have water inside of it."

Black Friday

Awesome!

My new camera is $30 cheaper today and my memory stick $23 cheaper. I got a price adjustment at Circuit City for $53. That rocks! I love bargains!

It made my day to get a comment on a previous post. It made me laugh. You can read it here.

I bought the Canon SD1000. I think I'm going to like it. I got a free Epson Printer with it. I don't dare try to turn on the old camera out of fear that it might for some reason miraculously start working again.

Today was a really good day. My new printer toner arrived. It was a much overdue purchase. For the past two months every time something needed to be printed, I had to open the door of the printer, dislodge the toner cartridge, shake it, and put it back. It got to be quite obnoxious having to do that for each page that printed. I finally broke down and ordered a cheap knock off version on amazon.com. It saved me like $30 or something. Although, I'm really glad to have it, I was hoping it wouldn't arrive until next week. It was a good excuse for being lazy about homeschooling.

Now I need to break down and just order my new digital camera. It's driving me nuts not being able to take pictures!

Last night at 2AM I heard Emily crying in bed. I went to her room to see what was the matter. She cried, "I need to finish my homework and I couldn't find it!" I thought she was dreaming, but she was serious. Apparently she found her paper that had fallen on the floor and was sitting in bed with a book on her lap, practicing her Chinese characters. I told her that she did not have to finish it at the moment and that she could go back to sleep and finish it in the morning. But I think out of fear of failure, she was determined to complete it. Feeling bad, I decided to stay with her for the 20 minutes it took her to repeatedly copy her characters. Emily does not like to lose at anything. Daddy established a new rule this morning that all homework needs to be turned in by the time he gets home from work. The kids thought that was pretty cool - if you take out the "from" from "home from work", you get "homework."

The Compulsory Burn

Today signifies Wendy learning about hot stoves. We had a showing for the house this afternoon at 12:30 PM. I don't know why, but for some reason I decided to make a pot of spaghetti for lunch at 11:30 AM. Wendy sat on a stool observing. As I turned toward the sink to drain the pasta, I told her, "DO NOT TOUCH THE STOVE. IT IS HOT." I suppose it was foolish of me to believe that her "ok" actually meant, "Ok, Mommy. I won't touch the stove.", because as I was enjoying my steam facial as I poured the boiling water down the drain, I heard a bloody murder scream. I knew immediately, Wendy had regrettfully tested my advice and was now suffering the obligatory hand on the stove burn that it seems all my children have experienced at one time. Under the stress of trying to get lunch served and cleaned up in one hour, I said to her, "I told you not to touch it! I guess now you won't do that again." I ran her hand under some cold water for about 30 seconds and then sat her at the table with a bowl of water to soak her hand in while I finished preparing lunch. She was miserable the whole day. The people don't even want to buy our house.

Santa Claus on November 10?

Give me a break! We went to the mall today so I could get some maternity black tights to wear to church. (I learned last week that non-maternity pantyhose just don't work on a pregnant body. The entire time at church I was fearful my panty hose would fall to my ankles. ) But anyway, while we walking the mall, I was astonished to see that Santa was already seated at his red velvet throne talking to the little children while his elves collected a ridiculous amount of money for low quality photos. Seriously? We still have nearly two more weeks until Thanksgiving! What is this world coming to? I must say I am grateful that we are having a rather meager Christmas this year due to our tightened budget. It is forcing me not to get caught up in the commercialism of the holiday and enjoy the sorting through at Goodwill for that one special inexpensive gift for my family members. I used to love thrift stores and I have been taking my kids for the past week. Goodwill marks lots of their price tags with a number and each day a different number is half price. You can get some really good bargains if you go everyday. I've been having lots of fun with it and Emily has memorized what day is what number. I have a rule that I cannot buy anything that is not half price (unless it is will never be half price), is less than $2, or is Pyrex.

I'm Mourning

I've been in a lousy mood all week because on Sunday our digital camera decided to quit. Thankfully it was after the completion of Bradley's birthday festivities, but it still it put me in a slump. The camera is 7 months out of warranty and will cost $111 to get fixed. So do I fork over the $200 for a new camera? That makes the most sense to me simply because I could spend the $111 to get if fixed and then it won't really be fixed and we will still be out a camera right at the holidays and when this baby is born. So I think I am going to buy a new one. But do I continue to put my faith in Sony or do I convert to Canon? My parents just bought a new Canon and they like it. But the Canon is just not as pretty as the Sony. However quality trumps aesthetics so I think Canon it is.

Today I also mourned my failure to remember to renew my library books last Saturday. I had a stack that I returned last Friday, and I was going to renew the rest online on Saturday. But somehow I forgot and now I had 17 library books that were 6 days overdue which will cost me $10.20! Gosh darn it! I cried. I took them back and tried to get the fee waived. However, the lady wouldn't budge so I gave her the books and left. I didn't pay the fee because you don't have to until you check books out again. So Emily's card will sit with a $10.20 fee while we use our other 4 library cards until we get rich or move to another county.

Then .... I came home and opened a bill from the attorney we used to write a letter to the builder of our house for a repair. It was double what I was expecting because he nickeled and dimed us to answer my simple questions. I had no idea that every email would cost me $17.50. Attorneys make too much. Frustrating!

And then ... I opened the water bill to realize our family uses a ridiculous amount of water. I think Emily and Bradley's showers every single morning has put us over our allotted 9200REUs/ months which means we get charged double for everything over 9200. This month we used 13,200. Those kids need to take military style showers!

I think that's all my financial woes for the week. Hopefully next week will be more prosperous.

Today Wendy hit Bradley. So I gently hit Wendy back to show her how it felt. It upset her and she cried. The crying lasted about 4 minutes. Suddenly she stopped crying and said, "Mommy!"
"Yes?"
"I finished!"
"You're finished crying?"
She nodded and happily resumed her playtime with Little People.

Happy Birthday, Bradley!

Tonight I found a pad of paper without a single kid scribble. That is amazing!