Dan had a business trip this week... a real exciting one too... He left on Tuesday and flew to Oklahoma City. He had a meeting there, then he headed to Northern Texas for another meeting, then he was supposed to drive to Rodgers, Arkansas (home of Walmart) for another set of meetings. Tuesday and Wednesday meeting-wise went as planned, but then the weather messed up everything. An ice storm was forecasted to hit the Midwest. Dan decided that he wasn't driving to Arkansas in an ice storm so he was coming home early and changed his return flight to Thursday. Well, the storm hit with a vengeance. Dan's flight was canceled. He was put on a flight via Memphis for Friday, which was canceled... next it was a direct flight home on Sunday, then a direct flight home on Saturday, then a flight via Minnesota for Sunday. Canceled, canceled, and canceled. Currently Dan is scheduled for a flight out tomorrow (Sunday) via Dallas, but who knows. Today is the first day in 48 hours that any flights are coming or going out of Oklahoma City, but most of today's scheduled morning flights were canceled. Hopefully the "travel gods" can be with Dan and he can get home tomorrow. Meanwhile, he is so bored stranded in his hotel. He has a book with him, internet service, and there is a fitness center, but unfortunately, the pool is outdoors and the hot tub should be renamed the "tepid tub". Last night he ventured out for dinner, after scraping 1" thick ice from the windshield of the rental car. He said the road was terrible... 5" of snow on top of a thick ice layer. Sigh... I just find it ironic... for the first time ever that Dan decided to cut a trip short, he's stranded and returning later than originally planned.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Grocery Deals
Two shopping excursion, 6 hours apart, same store.
But I paid $36.95.
But I paid $7.06.Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Nolan's News
Okay, really, Nolan has no news, but I haven't mentioned him for a while. Yes, he still is alive and lives in our house... so here's the Nolan News. Nolan regularly has bedhead. No matter how short his hair is, he always has bedhead in the morning! If you look at the picture below, you can also see that Nolan has discovered a hazard of wearing glasses. He got nailed in the face and his glasses cut into his eyelid. Nice mark! Nolan went to the orthodontist today for a consult and was relieved to hear that he doesn't need braces yet... we'll go in for a recheck in October. Nolan wants to eat a Baconator for dinner... What's a Baconator? Well, it's a hamburger sold by Wendys... it is one of their "late-teen–to–young-adult, male-oriented products" that consists of "two 4oz. beef patties, two slices of American Cheese six strips of bacon, mayo, and ketchup on a bun". Yuck. I think we'll get him one tonight... I'll take a picture of him eating it! He's heard it's about 4 inches tall and that is exciting to him! Nolan is obsessed with the book series that includes The Lightening Thief. He wants all of us to read it. Dan is obliging him and took the first book in the series on travel with him. Nolan has decided that for his birthday there are two things he wants (and he will be getting neither...) a laptop and a recliner.
I Saw a Movie!
Shocking, I know... too bad it was awful! I never go to the movies because more often than not I leave the theater $20 poorer and have wasted 2 hours of my life. If a movie is good, I mean really good, then I enjoy seeing a movie in the theater and don't mind paying for it, but if it's "typical", then no thanks, I'll see it when I get around to it. We are fortunate, however, to have a couple of second-run theaters close by. Yesterday Dan called and wanted to go as a family to the movies for family night. He said he heard about this great movie that we needed to see, and that Miles would even like it. Fine, I said, but what movie? "Where the Wild Things Are". I told Dan I heard it was terrible, but whatever, we could go. We got to the theater. It was less than a quarter full and there were at least 3 infant carseats in the aisle. We sat on a side away from people and prepared to be entertained. Miles liked the theater. He thought the lights on the floor were great. He liked walking the aisle. He even liked the previews (which I'd have to say were the highlight of going to the movie). Miles watched about 20 minutes of the movie, then he was done. Dan happily took Miles out. I stayed with the "big ones" and endured another 74 minutes of the stupidest movie ever. How do you take a book that really has no plot and a very simple story line and turn it into a feature length film? We watched Max lie, a hut building scene, a scene where a Wild Thing throws rocks at birds, a friend-making scene where we learn that the best way to make friends is to throw large dirt clods at their heads. We even got to see Max climb down a Wild Thing's throat for safe keeping. It was so dumb. The best thing about the film was the Wild Things' costumes. They were fun. Needless to say, I was really happy to see the words "The End" and the silver lining of last night was that on Mondays, the second-run theater only cost .75 per ticket! So yes, nearly 2 hours of my life was wasted, but it only cost $3 total!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Oops! He Did it Again!
Term 2 is over and, once again, Jonathan got straight A's. This time it came down to the wire in a few classes, but he pulled it off. He learned that 10 points of extra credit can make a difference. His geometry grade went from an A- to an A with those 10 points. His AP Geography grade was a 92%... an A-... but his teacher is slow at recording grades and in the end, he got at 96%! Good job! Right now, I love his "second week of Term 3" GPA... must put in disclaimer... his band teacher has the grades all messed up... His current GPA is a 2.2833! Hahaha! He has a C in one band class, and F's in the other 2. I think it's funny to see Jonathan failing band, but only because I know his teacher has screwed up the grades instead of Jonathan screwing up the class! By tomorrow, he'll be back to the standard, regular, plain-old-boring 4.0000!
All About Miles
Miles can get AIR! Yes! Miles can jump! Not 100% of the time, but regularly now, daylight can be seen beneath his feet. He's also learned to "land" instead of crashing to the ground when he catches air.
Miles loves Toy Story 2. Note... Toy Story 2 (he hates the original Toy Story). No, he doesn't sit down and watch the movie from end to end, but he has some favorite scenes. He loves the opening scene where Rex is playing the video game and Buzz gets fried by Zurg. He loves the part in Al's Toy Barn where the Barbies are dancing. His all time favorite scene is when Jessie is singing her song about Emily. His Buzz obsession has gotten to the point that I have brought the 9" TV/DVD player into the upstairs family room so he will watch Buzz there and then I am allowed to get things done in the kitchen, eating area, and upstairs family room while he gets his Buzz fix.
Miles is into carrying bigger things around. His latest obsession is a new garbage can. He puts whatever treasure appeals to him at that moment into the can and then pushes or carries the garbage can around the house. He also likes a wire basket that lives on a shelf on my bookcase in my room. First, he loves to dump out the stuff I store in the basket, then he hauls the basket around until he finds a good place for it. He then climbs into the basket and just sits there until that gets boring. After that, he climbs out, picks up the basket, moves it to another spot and climbs in it again. This is repeated until something more exciting catches his eye!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Smart Cat?
Could 'Jing actually be smart? Not just "cat smart" but really, actually, and truly smart? When it's "wet food time", Nolan calls out to 'Jing in a sing-song voice... "Jiiiing-y, do you want some fiiiish-y?" The cat appears and runs ahead of Nolan downstairs to watch Nolan get her food dish, they she tears up stairs and watches Nolan open the food, dump it in the dish, then tears back downstairs to eat. That the routine. The other day, Nolan called (in a not sing-song voice) to the cat "Jing-y, want some..." then he stopped, the cat appeared, and rather than finish the food phrase and say "fish-y", he made the ASL sign for fish. The cat tore off downstairs like she always does. Weird, we thought, but it must be a coincidence. The next day, Nolan decided to try his experiement again. This time, he said "'Jing, want" then signed "fish" and again the cat took off downstairs to wait for Nolan to get her dish. Is is possible that the cat is learning ASL alongside Miles? I don't know, but it sure is "fishy".
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Shopping for Snack Foods
Some people think that coupons are only issued for processed and junk foods. Today, I almost entirely dedicated my Albertson's shopping trip to the junk/processed food category. I bought 6 boxes of Microwave Popcorn, 5 bags of Rice Cakes, 4 boxes of Animal Crackers, and a gallon of Milk. Unarmed (meaning without coupons), I would not have bought any of this stuff, except for the milk (at $1.99/gallon). If I was buying this stuff, unarmed, it would have cost $36.84. But armed with coupons, I made out like a bandit!
But not all coupons are for junk/processed foods. I headed over to Smiths where I used coupons and bought 4 pouches of StarKist tuna, regularly priced at $1.49 each...
...and paid .25 for all 4 pouches!The Missing Tooth Appeared
Miles has had 3 bottom teeth for about 5 months. His most-left incisor didn't come in with the right-side one. I had just convinced myself that that tooth was missing and would never come in and was hoping that the permanent one existed somewhere and would erupt through in about 5 years... I risked being bit and stuck my finger in Miles' mouth the other day and to my surprise, the slow-to-appear baby tooth was just breaking through. So now Miles has 4 front top teeth, 4 front bottom teeth, and 4 molars!
15 Month Vocabulary
We think Miles has a huge vocabulary for his age so for the past several days we've been making a list of his words. Miles can say... Mama, Dada, 'Gantor (Jonathan), lights, tree, flag, snow, snowman, this, okay, no, beans, banana, horse, There it is!, cookie, kitty, up (balloon), Buzz (Lightyear), fish, eyes, nose, zoom, spoon, Jesus, ball, more, boots, poo poo, shovel, Bye bye, words, diaper, yep, and Thank you. He also knows how to say another body part, but I didn't want to list it! So there are 30+ words that Miles uses that we could come up with.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Talking in His Sleep
Dan has told me that Miles talks in his sleep; well, maybe signs in his sleep is more accurate. Dan says he's seen Miles sign "milk" while sleeping. I hadn't seen that until just a few minutes ago. Miles is taking a nap in my arms. Sleeping babies are so sweet. Anyway, just a minute ago, sleeping Miles raised his arm up and made the sign for "milk". Too cute/funny!
He Can See!
Miles had his pediatric opthamology appointment today for his suspected lazy eye. He hated every minute of his appointment even though the office had really cool toys (I even wanted my eyes examined so I could play with the toys). The end result was great... no lazy eye! He sees "straight", but does have an asymmetrical nose bridge which is what makes it look like his left eye turns in. Dr. Larson (who was awesome) said that as Miles grows, the asymmetry should fix itself and not be a problem in the future. Yea!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Should Have Been $32.27
$2.23Sunday, January 10, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Groceries, Again
First, let me start off by saying that my favorite grocery store where I get nearly all my killer deals has been sold and will no longer be Albertsons at the end of the month. I'm sad! Where will I get all the awesome scores when Albertsons becomes Ridleys? Needless to say, I'm preparing for the change and stocking up while I can. For example, last week I bought 4 boxes of shredded wheat (bite size and lightly frosted!) and paid $2.12 out of pocket and got back a $3 "like cash" coupon. I did that deal 4 times and ended up with 16 boxes of cereal that I paid $8.48 for and got back $12 in "like cash" coupons. Yesterday I bought 20 single serving size containers of Yoplait and paid .78 total! Today I bought 2 14oz. boxes of Cheerios, 3 4-pack Yoplait yogurts, and 12 cans of Progresso soup and paid $2.85 and got back a $5 "like cash" coupon. I'm taking advantage of the steals while I can because before long, Albertsons will be gone...
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Learning English
Miles is very verbal. His vocabulary is experiencing exponential growth right now. His favorite words right now (well, at least for yesterday) are "no-maah" (snowman) and "Gan-nor" ('Gantor, which is what Jonathan is referred to). My favorite Miles word is "up". No, it doesn't mean "up" in the dictionary definition, nor does it mean "pick me up". When Miles says "up", he is saying "balloon"! Yesterday we looked at "up" in the grocery store several times!
Monday, January 4, 2010
My Boys are NUTS!
Jonathan went to a New Years Eve dance and Nolan hung out at home. He watched Transformers and feasted on a TV dinner, Swedish Fish, Oreos, and Dr. Pepper. I picked Jonathan up from his dance sometime shortly after midnight. Then I went to bed. For the boys though, the night was young and the party was just beginning. They set a goal to stay up all night. Yuck. I woke up several times in the night and didn't hear a sound. I assumed that they had gone to bed. Wrong! Around 11:30 a.m. on January 1, I went downstairs to take a picture of the party boys. They were crashed out in the family room. I took my pictures, but the flash woke them up. That was when I found out that Jonathan went to bed at 5:30 a.m. and Nolan was up until 6:15 a.m. Nolan was especially proud of his accomplishment. Ah, to be young again and think that sleepless nights are a desirable thing!
Santa vs. Baby New Year
Santa came. Baby New Year dropped by as well. So, who brought the better gift? It's important to remember that Santa brings several gifts while BNY only brings ONE. Well, based on my observations, BNY won this round. Nolan got Guitar Hero and Jonathan got a new MP3 player from BNY. Guitar Hero has been played more than any other Wii game, and Jonathan has been plugged into his MP3 player since he got it (excepting sleep, school, and church). Santa did better for Miles though. His favorite gift is a wood pull-along Thomas the Tank Engine brought by the jolly one. So even though the odds were against him, BNY did better than Santa for 2/3 of my boys this year.
