In which I admit I'm a little bit of a Celebrity Junkie

I've tried off and on to quit, but for some reason I feel the need to know the latest gossip about celebrities.  When I check KSL.com I always have to scroll down to the "Entertainment" section.  I try not to check in with People.com too much any more because the whole thing really just makes me nuts.  I hate that celebrities are so hounded by the media, I hate that I read what is written about them and I HATE that they make so much money just because they are famous.  But yet, I read anyway.  

Take for example a headline I saw probably a year or more ago.  One of the tabloids had a picture of Katie Holmes and her daughter Suri on the cover and was saying something about the "shocking" life and how they were basically being abusive.  The three things they listed were: No TV, No McDonalds and I think the last was something about Immunizations (I think).  I thought...well good for them (on the McD's and TV at least).  That little girl will maybe grow up a little healthier than most.  Anyway...that's not really what prompted me to write this post.  

Any Jon and Kate watchers out there?  I'm not an avid watcher by ANY means, but occasionally I will watch it while I'm cleaning the house.  But who can help but notice everything in the mags lately?  My heck!  So I did watch most of the episode last night and read an article leading up to the episode because the whole thing seems so sad.  I kept hoping...maybe they won't really get divorced.  Maybe they are going to announce that they are quitting the show to focus on their relationship and repair their marriage.  But no...the marriage is over.  I read another article later about it (I had missed parts of the show...I'm lame, I know, I'm too busy for this...).  They quote them as saying "the last 10 months have been hard, the last 4-5 months have been very hard" or something like that and then BOOM...marriage over.  They have been married for 10 YEARS and a few difficult months and they are DONE?  Don't get me wrong.  I know things can change quickly and some things make a marriage beyond repair.  And I'm sure there are things the reporters haven't discovered yet that are going on that have contributed to the demise of the relationship.  I have good friends that have gone through divorce and sometimes that just how it happens.  But I just feel so bad about that whole situation.  And I'm kind of irritated they are planning on continuing the show.  I don't think they realize what this really is going to do to the kids.  I don't think I'd want to have the whole world watching while I watched my parents fall apart.  Anyway...is anyone else bothered by that whole situation?  I just wish they could work it out for their cute little kids.  

Oh can I also just say it drives me nuts when they publish "shocking" pictures of celebs without makeup.  Thank goodness I don't have someone following me around with a camera 24 hours a day.  People are just people after all.

I think in music

...and apparently so does Kelley.  I've mentioned this to a few people and they look at me like "huh"?  Let me explain.  If someone says something like say for instance "Someday...." the first that will probably pop into my head is "...my prince will come", back up orchestra and all.  I constantly find myself humming little diddies in my head that are either familiar (nursery rhymes, slogans, that type of thing), or something I just made up.  I also do it out loud on occasion, or perhaps more often...

So last night Kelley and Tyler were playing with a new wooden train set we picked up at a yard sale.  Kelley was kind of mindlessly running the train around the road and she started singing "there's a crack in the track..there's a toad in the road".  She sang it over and over, adding little rhythms and such. (The phrase incidentally is from a Thomas the Train book we read often).  It's probably just a habit she picked up because I do it so much without thinking, but it made me smile.  Do any of you do this?  Please tell me there's at least one or two of you out there...

What do you think?

I have kind of had this idea in my head about my kids playing with other kids, but after talking it over with Joey, I'm not so sure.  So I want to know what you think.  I'm going to try to pose the question without giving away my position on the matter because I really just want to know what other people do.  When your kids want to play with other kids do you invite them over to your house or do your kids ask to go play at their friends house?  Give me your opinion and I will post mine at a later date and if you have influenced me at all to change my opinion :)  Thanks so much!

Family Announcement

If we have a girl we are going to name her:

Frances Rachael DeGraaf

Because Frances is her first name we will call her Racheal to be fair to both cousins who are clamoring on names and when the baby will be born. Sorry Karmin and Kember your names are out of the picture.

If it's a boy we will name him Bob.

Joey Out.

Mr. Fun Times!

Joey works during the day and isn't around a whole lot when I've got all my daycare kids here, but occasionally he's here working on the backyard or for lunch or something.  I LOVE it when he's here and so do the kids.  He is so energetic and fun with them.  Case in point....he had taken some time off work to get the sandbox in play ready shape.  Of course the kids wanted to be buried so he takes it to the max and digs huge hole with the big shovel and buries them good!  The kids thought it was GREAT.  He's always putting together some big game or running around chasing them or something.  He's a great dad and a lot of fun for all the other kids too!

It's always the same

If you are a salesperson....I don't hate you ;)  But can I just say I hate salespeople?  It's always the same.  So I got this phone call the other day..."because you answered our survey you won a "prize", spend $250 in groceries, get $250 in groceries.  All you have to do is let our demonstrator come in and show you our product and let us know what you think.  No pressure to buy anything....blah blah, BLAH!!!!!"  Ok, so we've had our fair share of the Kirby Guys, and the Water Softener guys to know it's not that simple, but it's really hard to pass up $250 of groceries right????  45 -60 minutes tops.  Oh and they are only around until Monday.  We are busy for the weekend and Monday is family night, but we can do 45 minutes.  Something inside of me says...don't do it Kristy...you know it won't be worth it...OK, Monday at 7 will be fine.

7 PM Monday night, Adam shows up.  Very nice guy, genuine, asks about our family, work, SUU, lets us rave about how much we love that.  Blah blah, BLAH!  Gets down to business of the Air Purifier and Vaccum Cleaner sold by Filter Queen.  Great product...oh and by the way, Kirby is no good, just so you know... Their demos are all gimmicks.  Anyway, two hours later we are still ushering him out the door.  It went from $3500, to $3000, to $2400 to $2000.  Oh but we can finance you at 20% interest.  Oh, but I can say you gave me referrals, even though you didn't and knock another $600 off (wink, wink).  Blah, blah, BLAH!  Let me say, seemed like a great product, it really did.  But we're not making a $2000 decision tonight...sorry!!!  Plus, we can't afford it anyway, so the answer is no.  

So my "prize".  Haven't looked at it all the way yet, but it's a "$3000 Saving Certificate" (I'm sure to make up for the $3000 I'll be spending on the vaccumn.)  The grocery savings...and I quote:  "Visit our Grocery Section and we will show you how to cut your grocery bill by 30 - 70%.  We will teach you how to use a coupon on most purchases and how to become a "smart shopper" and beat the Grocery Stores at their own "Game".  It is easy, fun and it will only take a few extra minutes per week... you can shop in the same grocery store and you can buy the same products... the only difference... you pay a whole lot less!  Our Grocery Savings System has been featured on Syndicated National TV Shows.  You may have actually seen us on late night TV purchasing $100 or more worth of groceries for $10 or under.  No we cannot promise you 90% savings, but we can promise that if you will put in an extra 10 - 15 minutes on your grocery shopping per week we can help you cut your grocery bill by an average of 35% or more. Shop and save with coupons at over 127,000 supermarkets nationwide. "

Ok, so I haven't logged on yet to see if there's anything more to it, but did any of you catch that....they want to show me how to use coupons?  I just wasted two hours of not just my own, but my husband and children's lives for someone to show me how to use COUPONS???????  *(&*^&*%^&$%#^$%#$%^@#$%#$%^ ??????????????  (If you haven't been reading my blog, let me just say, I know coupons are valuable and worthwhile, it's been my latest obsession). And actually, my sisters ended up both coming over as well for fun, to visit us, so I wasted two hours of their time too.  So four adults, each of worth at least $20 an hour, plus two kids, time with them invaluable, but we should charge them $20 an hour for them as well.  6 x 2 x $20, $240...do you think if I bill them they'd pay up?  If I got a $250 grocery certificate it would have been worth it.  Having received information on how to use coupons?  Not so much.  It's what I get for trying to get something for nothing.  The prophet has warned against that and there are reasons why I suppose. :)

Can I get a "do-over" please?

Have you ever done something that you wish...wow...wish I could wake up and THAT was a dream?  I have had many of those moments in my life.  Stupid things I've said or done, sometimes on purpose, usually out of reaction to something.  Most often they pass before too long and it's not a real big deal.  Sometimes though they linger and haunt you.  The older I get the more I realize how human just about everyone is.  (Although I do have a hard time imagining the prophet doing very many of the "human" things/mistakes that I do :)  Although at times it's a hard lesson, I think in the end I feel a little kinder and more forgiving of others.  But man if I could just be a little more PERFECT...life would be so much easier, wouldn't it?  Anyway, enough of this rambling for tonight.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

I hope you meant what you said when you wanted one :)  I didn't order it until today though, so this will have to do for your big birthday surprise!

I didn't post about it...but Joey did GREAT for my birthday.  He totally surprised me with a massage and a spa treatment (which I still get to redeem....wahoo!)  He even let the kids pick out gifts for me too.  So I felt like I ought to return the favor.  Joe has been working SO hard on our backyard.  Seriously, like almost every spare minute, providing it's light and not raining outside, since sometime in February.  So I told him he deserved something really great.  This is what he mentioned...so I hope he really wanted one!  

Animal Lovers Beware

Top Reason I HATE my dog:  My garden.  I patiently did my yoga breathing as she chewed up not one, not two, but something to the tune of 6 balls (soccer, beach, bouncy) in my backyard, forget all the other toys, tools, etc she destroyed back there.   I bit my tongue as she ripped to shreds the umbrella shade for our NEW sand table.  I only smacked her a few times not when I found the chewed up snow boots, not when I found the BRAND NEW sandals, but when I found my favorite pair of Tyler's shoes (green corduroy gap loafers) chewed up (thank you Tyler for leaving them there...)  I did yell and scream enough that I'm sure I sounded like a complete crazy when she got into the neighbors yard and refused to come back home, leaving them with her poop to clean up, eating their dog food and having a great time.  I followed her three blocks down the road when she refused to come to me until some kind walkers helped me corral her so I could physically carry her back home so she didn't get lost.  Last Saturday I even replaced huge chunks of weed block under my newly completed gardens where she had dug and flung the (*expensive*) soil all over the dirt and ripped up the weed block.  Tonight it is all I can do not to go out to that stupid kennel and kick her until she stops twitching!!!!  OK, so I'm not THAT mad yet, but close.  I could seriously kill her.  Joey had to move some stuff into the backyard and forgot to put her back in her kennel.  He remembered to lock it....lightbulb....she's figured out a way to get out again!!!!  AGHHHH... be right back....

OK, now she's in the house...pray for me that I don't commit a "dogicide".  Anyway, either way Joey is forgiven (if he did just carelessly leave her out)...he went to the store for me tonight so I didn't have to.  He didn't even get home from work/store until after 8 PM today because he had to go to home depot once to get stuff for the back yard.  Not a great day for me.  Anyway....she was out tonight and ran through my newly planted garden.  It could have been worse, she could have dug.  It's too dark for me to see if she disturbed anything in a major way.  But SERIOUSLY...I am not a dog person.  Really kind of hate them.  If Joey were to ever die, Koko would be the first thing to GO in this house, I don't CARE how much the kids love her.  Dogs are ok I guess if they listen to you and don't make messes and don't bark and don't jump up on you and don't shed or lick you and you don't have to clean up their poop....ok, I really don't like them much at all.  

Which brings me to another gripe (yes I'm in that mood).  LOCK UP YOUR DOGS.  I don't think people have any idea how insane it makes some of us that you can't go for a run or a walk without getting viciously barked at, or in some cases attacked by dogs that their owners don't bother to keep put away.  I don't care if your big German Shepard (that's bigger than my two kids together) wouldn't hurt a fly...he sure looks and sounds like he could eat me if he wanted to.

Sorry if any of you are big animal lovers out there.  I really am not.  I merely tolerate them.  I think Tyler is going to be one...more on that later, have some really cute stories.  But I much prefer children to animals.  At least they aren't in diapers forever and you can tell them to stay out of the garden and they are more likely than not to listen to you (depending on several different factors).   OK, I think the Unisom is overriding the adreniline again.  Time for bed.  Hope koko knows enough to stay in that spot by the back door.  She better not get into anything else tonight or else!

Coupons and stuff

So I'm having mixed feelings about my coupons lately.  The obsession has worn off.  I still think it's awesome that you can save so much money, but my desire to put in the effort is not real high.  Perhaps it has to do with the fact that every time I try to browse coupons, they make me want to throw up...literally.  This pregnancy has been different than either one before.  I was REALLY sick with Kelley (throwing up almost every day, sometimes more than once) and not at all nauseous with Tyler.  This one I haven't actually thrown up that much, but just don't feel good.  Thinking about food is often hard because nothing sounds good and some things (like spaghetti...an old favorite before!) really make me want to just loose it even thinking about it.  GAG ME!  Anyway, so browsing pages and pages of food coupons...yuck!!!!!!!!  But my grocery bill was so high before, I feel like now that I know what I know, I can't go back to ignorance.  So I'll keep doing it I suppose.  

Also just so you all know...we aren't going to find out what the baby is until he/she is born!  Now that I have one of each, I think it will be a fun surprise.  I was sure I would know right away because Kelley and Tyler were so different.  But this one is in the middle, so it's perfect!  Joe thinks it's a boy, I think it's a girl.  Of course ;)

And I finally got both my garden boxes planted.  This is the first one...isn't it pretty????  I'd never heard of Square Foot Gardening before this year and now it seems like so many people are doing it.  My neighbor next door even has one!  I haven't blogged about this yet have I?  Well last year if you were reading my blog you know we traveled out to my mother in law's all summer to do our garden.  It was a great piece of land and it was perfect to have so much space, but it's a 20 minute drive out to her house!  Gas was super expensive and although I really enjoyed it, it was a time sucker!  This year, especially knowing we were going to try to get pregnant I knew we had to do something different.  

(By the way...I think it's really funny, for us, there is no try, only do ;)  This is the second time we've been able to plan exactly when we wanted to have a baby :)

I just didn't think we had enough room in our backyard.  Well my daycare licensor told me about Square Foot Gardening.  LOVE IT!  I guess I shouldn't say that yet, because we have yet to be successful, BUT I love the concept.  This garden box can grow as much veggies as a normal garden FIVE TIMES the size.  Between our two boxes I think we will have as much if not more growing (with the exception of corn) as we did in our huge garden last year.  And it's supposed to be nearly maintenance free.  You start with only compost, peat moss and vermiculite.  You DON'T start with the weed seeds you get from your natural landscape dirt.  Besides, our soil STINKS here.  For a garden this size, it's a little expensive to get started (buying all the soil), but I doubt we spent what we spent on gas last year, and my time is really at a premium now.  After the first year though, you just make your own compost and add that every time to plant a section.  You don't need to fertilize, you don't need to till, hardly need to weed.  

So in two boxes this size so far I've got: corn (40 stalks) and will grow pole beans up those (old native american trick), 2 each of eggplant, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and cantaloupe, some lettuce, chard and radishes, acorn, yellow, butternut and zuchinni squash, lemon and regular cucumbers, 7 tomato plants, four peppers, carrots, onions, turnips, chives, oregano, lemon and sweet basil and cilantro.  And I have room in 20 more squares I haven't decided what to do with yet.  Luckily for me, fresh fruits and veggies actually sound really good most of the time.  I'll keep you all posted.

Also, coming soon...pictures of the new and improved back yard!  I'm so excited about this.  I convinced Joey to spend our tax returns on the backyard this year and it's going to be SO cool.  Joey has also spent most of his free time for the past several months back there too.  He's the best!  More on this later.