Weird Phone Call

So we were all out having dinner tonight at a sushi restaurant, and before I even had a chance to order my mango mojito, Andy's cell phone started ringing--he didn't know who it was so he didn't answer. It kept ringing and ringing and finally he answered and had sort of a strange short conversation.

When I asked him what was going on, he said that it was one of his friend's moms and she was mad because her son had received some prank calls and that she was going to the police. I was like ??? I asked Andy and his brothers if they had called the guy and Andy said no.

Then, a few minutes later the lady calls back. Andy starts talking to her and it was all very confusing so I told him to give me the phone. I get on and introduce myself and I can tell right off the bat that this woman sounds a little nutty. She tells me that they received two prank calls at midnight with blocked numbers so she didn't know who it was, but that she had gone through her son's cell phone and that Patrick's number appeared on there.

Turns out that months ago Patrick had called and left some silly message that this kid thought was funny--but his mom was assuming that because it was a "prank call" that my kids must be responsible for these apparently upsetting calls last night.

I was nice and I told her that my kids were in bed at midnight and that I really didn't think they were responsible but I would definitely check into it, etc. I asked them all then and there if they made any prank calls the night before and they all swore they didn't.

But the lady on the phone obviously didn't believe me and said she was going to the police department to find out where the calls originated from because that was the only way to "unblock" the numbers. Then she basically hung up on me.

It was all very upsetting--especially since I was really looking forward to a nice dinner out and hadn't even had a chance to look at my menu when I was attacked by this woman.

So I grilled and grilled the kids to the point where I felt confident it wasn't them--I even checked our phone records to make sure no calls were made last night--but now I'm mad! I found out that this lady had called Patrick's phone a bunch of times today--he didn't answer because he didn't know who it was--but it sounds like she was harassing him!

Sorry--I'm sure this sounds rambly and confusing--I'm just ticked off that someone I don't even know is calling with these accusations. I don't like that my kids are "suspects" in this woman's mind! Hopefully she'll get to the bottom of it and find out who called there--though I seriously doubt she'll call back to apologize!

In other news--someone is coming to see our house today--cross your fingers they like it!! I want to make a sale happen!!

Valentine Pics!

I attempted to get a few pics of Pickle and Gooser in Valentine-type get-ups. They turned out so-so, but here are the best ones.
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!

Pre-Valentine Pics

The kids have a long weekend so they did all their Valentine celebrating at school on Thursday. I snapped a few pics of Pickle and Gooser getting into the candy!

Is anyone doing anything special for Valentine's Day? I'm feeling so busy right now that I don't have much of a plan--maybe I could try and pull something together last-minute? I usually take Pickle to a photographer for some V-Day portraits but I don't think that's going to happen this year--maybe I'll try to take some myself? Here are a couple from the photo shoot last V-Day...it's hard to believe a whole year has gone by.





I hate that I am slacking off because I love Valentine's Day! Inspire me with your ideas!! And don't forget to join Candid Carrie for some Phriday Foto Phun!!

Picklisms!

Pickle has been cracking me up lately. She is having a language explosion and the sentences that she's been putting together lately both impress me and make me laugh simultaneously.

For the past couple of mornings she starts screaming for me the second she wakes up. Screaming. At the top of her lungs "MOOOOMEEEEEE!!!!" Over and over plus just plain screaming.

Yesterday I scrambled to get in there--rushing to throw some clothes on and racing to her room. The second I opened the door, the screaming stopped and she very cheerfully said "Hi Mommy!"

"Why were you screaming like that?" I asked her.

She casually shrugged her shoulders and said "But--I need you so much."

This morning the same crazed screaming occurred, followed my my mad rush to get in there, followed by her cheerful greeting.

Again I asked "Why are you screaming like that."

She shrugged again and said "But--my tiny little dog is on the floor."

She is also having some diaper issues--I think she might be getting close to potty training because the second there is even a slightly wet diaper she freaks out and wants it changed. I think I went through a whole pack of diapers today!

A little background--when she was first learning to talk, she (for reasons I don't understand or remember) started calling her diapers "beets." So when she wants her diaper changed she says "Change my beets" or change my beetsies."

Today she asked for her millionth diaper change and I told her that I had just changed her diaper and that it was fine and she said "But--I have really, really beetsies."

And finally, the other day she was playing in the basement and started desperately calling for help--like life or death-type screaming. I rushed over and found her trying to climb the stairs with Meow-Meow, some kind of caterpillar and what looks to be a skunk. "But--carry Meow-Meow," she demanded.
What a drama queen!!

Tired!

OMG what a loooong day (I say as I write this late Tuesday night). I am honestly so tired that I am beyond sleep--I have entered some new realm of overtired sleeplessness!

My day started bright and early with the open house looming--I had to get the non-sick kids to school and clean the entire house before 9:30 a.m. I also made a batch of butterscotch blondies because I'm hell-bent on getting that bakery smell in the air.

So I had to evacuate the house for several hours and I decided to try and get some birthday-related errands done for Andy's big day. Of course, I was nervous doing this because I had to bring poor sick Teddy along--but he was a trooper. I think now that the antibiotics are in his system he's feeling a little better.

So we did some present-shopping and had lunch--then I felt that I really needed to get him home to rest. I dropped him off and continued my birthday errands, including a trip to the grocery store for the chocolate fountain fixin's--I did manage to pull that off!

I think Andy appreciated it!
I know Pickle enjoyed it!!
Then I tried to get some study time in with Patrick who was in the next round of the spelling bee (county level) tonight. I was so tired that I fell asleep in the middle of asking him a word!

After a quick dinner and Andy's present-opening we headed off to the bee. Good news! Patrick has made it to the next level again! This time it will be at the state level! The winner of that one will go on to the National bee in Washington D.C.! Have I used enough exclamation marks in that paragraph!?! !!!

You wouldn't have believed these crazy-time words get got--vorlage (pronounced for-lagga), Baedeker, pangolin, realschule (I don't even know how you pronounce that one!) It went on for hours...and hours... It was nuts!



Big congratulations to Patrick! He also won a Borders gift certificate and got a nice t-shirt. He is very proud!

So here I am just now getting to my computer for the first time today--I had almost 100 emails waiting!! Thank you all for the birthday wishes for Andy and I apologize once again for not getting around to any blogs--I am crossing my fingers the rest of the week won't be so crazy and I can start to catch up!

Happy Birthday Andy!!

Wow--I can hardly believe it, but my oldest son, Andy, is fifteen today. FIFTEEN!?! How can that be??

It seems like just yesterday he looked like this:

Two days old.

And this:

One year old.

But now he looks like this!

I'm depressed!

Plus yesterday he started driver's ed classes which makes me depressed and scared!

But it's also exciting that he's growing up--he has so many interests and is good at so many things--there's never a dull moment with Andy!

You know what he's doing right now? He's playing the theme from The Office on the piano--he just taught himself tonight and he's playing it perfectly!

Unfortunately, I don't think he's going to have the most exciting birthday this year--for one thing, I have to evacuate my house for another open house, plus Patrick will be in the next phase of his spelling bee--oh, and did I mention that I took Teddy back to the doctor and that, in addition to the Influenza B, he now has pneumonia? Poor Teddy. I'm glad I took him back though--I feel better that he's on antibiotics now.

Andy has requested the chocolate fountain for his birthday like I had for Patrick--and I will try, but I'm feeling so overwhelmed I just don't know. I guess when I'm driving around during the open house I could try to get the supplies--but that means I'll have to take poor Pneumonia Boy and the unpredictable Drama Queen to the grocery store--that doesn't sound like such a good idea!

Oh well--if we don't end up with a great celebration today, we'll try to make up for it over the weekend. In any case--Happy Birthday Andy!!

P.S. Please excuse those older pics--I had to take photos of my scrapbook as my printer/scanner is one of the many electronics I've got stored in my car!

So Long Ferrets!

We have tons of pets--but I don't think I've discussed our ferrets too much on my blog. We've had them forever--I think about eight years, which is considered pretty old for ferrets. Although they're fun pets--sort of like a combination between dogs and cats, they are VERY smelly. I find that it's a constant battle to keep their cage clean so I eventually moved the cage to the basement so their weird musky odor didn't infiltrate the entire house.

Anyway, now that the house is on the market and I have to keep it clean and fresh-smelling 24/7, I decided that there's no way I can stay on top of the ferret odor situation--so they are taking a "vacation" at our very nice and very accommodating neighbor's house! Luckily, they have ferrets too so they know what they're getting into! I can't even begin to say how grateful I am that the ferrets aren't here right now--as much as I like them, my stress level just couldn't handle them right now

Here's Andy getting the ferrets ready for their getaway. That's Baby on the left and Creampuff on the right.

And here's Pickle saying goodbye to them as Andy loaded them into the travel kennel. You can tell she's about to lose it...
She lost it!
Poor Pickle!
I didn't exactly share her sentiments!

Oh--did I mention that over our big Open House Weekend, Teddy came down with Influenza B virus? UNCLE!!

Little Update

Long story short: I'm exhausted. I have been cleaning the house every waking moment to accommodate the open houses and showings. One thing is sure--keeping a house spotlessly clean is a full-time job! I can't keep this up much longer!

The good news is that someone might be interested--it's too early to know for sure, but please keep your fingers crossed for me. Otherwise the non-stop cleaning might kill me!

I'm also baking cookies non-stop--I want my house to have that homey cookie smell. So it's actually a good thing I'm cleaning so much so I can burn off all the calories from all the cookie dough I'm eating.

And another apology for not doing much blog visiting lately--I have been storing our laptops (and phones!) in the car as part of my decluttering spree, so until things settle down here I have very limited computer access. So when I'm not cleaning, I'm driving around aimlessly with a car full of electronics waiting for people to leave my house. Bear with me!

House

I thought since I am completely immersed in house-selling, I would show a few pics of my house (which hopefully won't be mine much longer because it will sell right away--right!?!).

They sent a photographer over the other day and these were the pics he took:

This is part of the living room and dining room:
"Sun room":


Family room:
Master bedroom (I like pink, okay!?):

Please wish us luck! Our first showing is today (Friday) and then we have the weekend-long open house.

My friend bought me this "house selling" kit which is a statue of St. Joseph that you are supposed to bury in the yard and then recite a couple of prayers--we will be having the ceremony in the morning!

Please join my friend Candid Carrie and check out all the crazy Phriday Foto Phun!!

More Calgon Needed!

Oh boy--my stress level is over the top!

I'm pretty sure I'm actually "losing it."

Here's how my day started: First,the usual chaos--getting the kids dressed/breakfast/out the door...Within about five minutes before I was going to take Gooser to school I was brushing his hair and decided that it was looking too long and unruly--so I decided to give it a trim (???).

So there he was standing in the kitchen in his coat and I took the kitchen shears (???) and attempted to trim about an inch off the bottom.

I butchered it.

It was AWFUL!!!!! It was long, it was short--it was all over the place. He ran to the bathroom and started crying. I realized I couldn't send him to school in this state so I called the school nurse and basically said that he needed a personal day. I knew I had to take him to a professional to repair the damage that I had done.

A little later in the morning I was doing my workout and I saw out the window that they were putting up the "for sale" sign on my lawn. This sort of freaked me out! I think it made the reality of the craziness with this real estate transaction really sink in. My trainer looked panicky and immediately tried to give me a massage.

After the workout, I managed to take a shower because--and this is really gross so prepare yourselves--I hadn't showered since Sunday. Because Pickle won't nap! And I never have time!

Oh--I left something out--while I was working out, Gooser got into the Krazy glue that I had left on the counter (I was trying (unsuccessfully) to repair an egg cup.) He got it all over his hands and all over the counter--but it could have been worse.

Interestingly enough--there was a "Krazy glue incident" with Teddy right before we moved into our current house--so maybe it's a good sign? Yeah--that's what I'm telling myself--it's a good sign!

So then it was off to take Gooser to the local kid salon for an Extreme Makeover.

The lady was understanding as I explained my stupidity and begged her to keep his hair as long as she could because that's the way Gooser wants it.

I was pretty happy with it when we left the salon, but later I was looking at him in the kitchen and I realized that he is now sporting the exact same haircut as Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men.

"Heads or tails? Call it."

He looks cheerful enough enough in that picture, but later he said "Mommy, I looked in the mirror and my hair still looks bad."

The rest of the day involved an emergency trip to the saxophone repair shop, an emergency trip to Walgreen's and a last-minute frenzy of packing and loading the Pod as it will be picked up in the morning. I think I permanently injured myself moving the air hockey table.

If you have any spare Calgon--please FedEx me some!