Politics.

Ok, so D is harrassing me again because I haven't blogged in a while, so D, this one's for you. Nothing exciting right now... just some complaints. Craig's List and PreSchool politics.

So first off, Craig's List. Our basement remodel is almost getting started - Yippee! We've had the contractor, plumber, electrician, cement guy and carpenter out. They are just finalizing everything up and then we're good to go. So, back to Craig's List. I've decided to sell off a bunch of baby stuff we are no longer using so that I can buy some new furniture for the basement once it is done. See the connection here? So anyways, I sold off one (yes one... I had two. Why? Just because I'm like that, ya know.) of the double jogging strollers for $10 less than I listed it for. D said I'm too easy, but I just don't like the dealing with people part of Craig's List. Prefer EBay anyday, but some items are just too big for me to want to deal with shipping. So now I am trying to sell the bassinet that we bought brand new for Reed for $100. (Why did we buy a new bassinet you say... because we couldn't find all the pieces to the old one, of course.) Anyways, I listed this hardly used bassinet for $50, half of what we bought it for which seemed very reasonable to me. A guy emailed and asked if my price was flexible and I said that I was willing to go down $5 and he emailed me back and told me that his budget was only for $40. Am I just being totally unreasonable here? Truly, I'd rather give it away to DI than keep lowering the price. This is my issue with Craig's List. The whole people thing. Sorry about that.

Ok, so now for PreSchool politics. Our PreSchool is a Coop, so the parents do a lot (MOST!) of the work. They were having elections for some of the board spots. I signed up for either the Treasurer or the Supplies Officer, both of which I feel I am very over qualified for. Only 3 people signed up for both of these positions - the same 3 people I might add. So, I had to fill out a "questionnaire", which was like a job application, and then go on an "interview" with some of the board members. Totally felt like I was applying for a job. Anyways, needless to say, although I was certain I would get one of the positions, I got neither. Not sure why... except for maybe the fact that I started off the year already head-butting with the president. I don't think that my qualificiations had anything to do with not getting the position. When I did my "interview", it seemed to go really well and seemed like the board members really liked me, so I don't know. Oh well. Maybe next year.

So, that's the end of my gripping for right now. Have some pictures and other better stuff to post, but I'm not at a "card-friendly" computer right now. Will post more later.

Happy Valentine's Day.

I LOVE Valentine's Day! There's just something about all the LOVE, hearts, candy, flowers, cards, just happy, niceness. The day was a bit crazy, but still "lovely". I helped out in Haley's class, where a favorite is making "Valentine's", putting them in the "mailbox" and then "delivering" them to the "post office". Next week they are actually going to the post office to mail home some letters.

Then, on to Macy's class, where they got around the whole "no sweets" rule by making cookies to demonstrate symmetry. They had to design them and then decorate them symmetrically. Very interesting.

We had heart shaped pizza for dinner (gotta love Papa Murphy's) with little heart cakes that the kids got to decorate. A good day for all!

Uninvited guest.

Ok. So last night. 4:00am. Wake up, because I'm hot, so I head downstairs to turn off the heat. I've got Reed and the cats in bed with me, Cooper asleep on the ground. Go downstairs. D is asleep on the couch (well gee... no room left on the bed.). So I turn off the lights, turn off the heater, and head back upstairs. About to go potty, when I hear the doorbell ring. Hello... it's 4:00 am... whose up at that hour. I go down, a little freaked, only to find a cop at the door (ok, this tends to freak me out a bit more). I open the door, and he informs me that my garage door is open. He tells me that he's sorry for waking me up, but that people have complained that their houses have been burglarized because they've left the garage door opened. So, I take care of it, but then totally can't get back to sleep because I'm sure there's someone hiding in our house. Totally paranoid me. D finally comes up around 5, and I tell him this story (he heard nothing... including Cooper barking at the doorbell), and I lock our bedroom door (after making sure that all the kids are still in their own beds), and feel a bit better. This morning I made sure that he checked the whole house for bad guys. We also made sure to tell Chad to close the garage door after he takes out the garbage. Not like we live in a bad neighborhood or anything... but still. Just put something in my head, and I'm freaked!

Portland Children's Museum

Last week, we went on a field trip with Haley's PreSchool to the Portland Children's Museum. Pretty cool. There was lots to do - acting on a stage with dress up, running a grocery store, running a hospital, all sorts of different things. Haley's favorite part I think was that she got to use face paints and do whatever she wanted. When she was all done, she seemed to slightly resemble a pirate with a big black beard. She just kept coloring and coloring... with black. It was pretty funny. Didn't last too long though. After a bit, she made me go and wash her face because she was done with it.

The end of an era.

Reed turned 10 months old on Friday. I had him out the other day, in his carseat, in the stroller. A friend was like, "you still have him in the infant carseat?". And I said, "Well yeah. We've always kept our babies in the infant carseats until they turned 1, and they we got them a bigger one and turned them around." I was then informed that big carseats can be turned backwards for babies. Only took me 5 children to realize this. To stop squishing my babies into infant carseats when they were already over 20 pounds. Gee... you'd really think that I would catch on sooner, wouldn't you? So anyways, we got Haley a new booster seat, and turned her old carseat around and Reed went in it for the first time this morning. No longer my little baby!

So, at 10 months, he's still the cutest ever!!! He talks ALOT (runs in the family, right?) without really saying anything. He is standing and starting to "walk" around furniture. He LOVES food. Anything, and everything. He's up for it all. He's just a sweet, happy, well adjusted (so far!) little man and we just adore him!