Monthly Archive for November, 2003Page 2 of 2

Aahh

Published
by
Val
on 11.12.03
in Days Go By
. 1 Comment

Ah… I’m going to have to beat Jared up… he comments on Sheila’s blog, but not mine… whaaaaaa

Anyway…

So the other day, I bought a third domain. I am allowed to split my hosting between three domains max, and thought a new, different one would be cool. But now I am not so sure I can use it. So if anyone needs a domain :-). I do have an idea for it though, so I will refrain from posting the address until I know if this will pan out or not.

So I have used the credit card online three times this week, and it’s only Wednesday. Steve is gonna kicka my butta.
The other two times, I’ve ordered books, mostly.
First, I went to CBD (www.christianbook.com, I think) and found a fourth book to the three I bought Sheila on Saturday. It was on sale, so I decided not to wait to order it. Then I ended up buying Elijah two pacifier holders, a stuffed animal, and a rattle.
Then yesterday, on half.com, I found these two books I was trying to find for Elijah. I bought two in this series on Saturday (Weather Windows, Winter, Autumn), and decided I wanted the other two (Spring and Summer). I could not find them on Sat. So I contacted the publisher and learned they were out of print. So I found them brand new at half.com for only $1 each. I am paying over $5 in shipping, but it’s still cheaper than other places were before shipping.
I have not really spent that much money, but I really don’t use the credit card much except for my monthly hosting fees. And when you already owe, it really adds up.

I am also a bit ticked because before my computer crashed, I found this really cool free layout. I wasn’t going to use it necessarily, but I wanted to learn how they did it - absolute positioning, I think it was - and maybe use the colors for another page - it really made brown work. Anyway, now I can’t find it.

Well, I am sitting here with E in my lap, trying to get him to sleep, and waiting for Steve to get home so he can watch E so I can change and get my make-up on for church tonight. I’ll be picking up Sheila & Sarah tonight, too. Then I guess afterward we’ll hit Walmart to redeem two free formula thingys. Tomorrow I will take them and the four I already have to church for the food pantry. It’s a different formula from what E gets, but they keep sending me free cans.

Not in a while

Published
by
Val
on 11.11.03
in Days Go By
. 0 Comments

Wow, it’s been a while since I posted :-)

Well, let’s see, what has happened since Friday??

Well on Saturday I drug C to downtown St. Louis to go to that book sale thing. It turned out to be outside in a tent and they had a TON of stuff! I spent only $13 but ended up getting Elijah 10 board books and 5 (4?) hardbacks, Sheila 3 paperbacks (for Christmas, shhh), Ab two board books (to go along with her birthday book I have yet to give her), and Em two board books (either for her bday or Christmas, they’re pretty close). That’s 22 books! One of the ones I bought Elijah is called “The Very First Christmas” and it lists at like $18.99! It goes along with the one we already have “The Very First Easter” - which we got free from the insurance company (they send all kindsa stuff to us), but it’s also by the same publishers, etc - not published by the insurance company.
So then from there we went to the music store, but I didn’t see anything I had to have. Found the book for Chicago (piano music), but didn’t want to spent $11 on it at the time. I’d prolly never play it anyway.
Then we had lunch in South County at the Steak n Shake and then went to Sears and got Steve’s measuring tape replaced. Then we headed to Fenton and went to Target and Garden Ridge before coming home. At Garden Ridge, I bought a 5ft Christmas tree - I call it my Charlie Brown Tree. It’s not real scrawny but it isn’t full either - it has a real wood trunk and fake branches and real pine cones on it. It had grapevines wrapped around it too, somehow, but I had to unwind them to get all the branches straight. Then the next morning, I came downstairs to find Rimshot eating one, so I finally just cut them all off today. I never decided if I liked it or not anyway. But I have been wanting a small tree like that since last Christmas when we set up everything only to not be home on Christmas, but in Mississippi. That’s not going to happen this year, but we still don’t have a lot of room, and I don’t want to use the fiber optics tree because Elijah is so small - those things get in your skin and they hurt. I never liked that tree anyway.

Sunday - I did not run a camera, cause they had enough guys, but I did help the director out. Mostly I just paid close attention and wrote down the times of when things happened, to help him with editing later. I did feel a bit better about last week though, because right away he hit camera 2 (which is still sick) and got black on there. He said they just covered my black from last week up with some “stock” crowd shots. Said, “I can make someone who’s not here be here if I want to.” lol
So then afterward Steve and I had to run to Walmart, then to Autozone. I was sitting in the car at AZ with Elijah and this guy came out and got into the passenger’s side of the truck next to us (on our left), while the driver got in, too. And when he did, he hit our car with the door. At first he didn’t know I was in there, so I just kept staring at him - he noticed, then they drove off real fast. But not before I got his license plates :D. He is ILL plates 1 NMMC. Easy enough. So I got out and looked at the door but didn’t see anything. But when Steve came out and looked, he found a scratch. In looking at it, it was probably done by that truck, it’s at the right height, etc. Plus, the paint on the car is in like perfect condition. So Steve wasn’t too happy. We drove through Burger King then he was like, “What’s the chances that they went to Walmart?” SO we went there and looked at all the white trucks. Nothing. Then, going to head home, we saw him at the stoplight - he headed back to AZ and we followed! Then he went inside - he was passengerless by now - and Steve got out and looked at his truck!! He had a website on the back of his truck: www.nmmc.com. I’m supposed to email them, heehee, but haven’t yet. May in a few. But we haven’t told the insurance company and I guess we won’t - it’s so small and we’re not @#$%’s. But I was just mostly mad that the guy knew he did it and knew I was there, but didn’t say a @#$% thing!!!!
(I just emailed the company hehehehehe)
So then we finally went home, long enough for me to be there like an hour and a half then go back to church.

Monday…. uh, nothing much happened, until Mom called me and said that, “this might be on the news tonight” and it was… there was a fire from a meth lab in an apartment building in De Soto the other night (Sunday night/Monday morning around 12am). The guy who started it went running from the building on fire. The woman upstairs was killed. That woman is/was a friend of our family. Granted I have not seen her in a few years, but still… I am very angry. These people obviously have no regard for anything but their meth, not even another’s life. They are going up for, obviously, making meth, but they also said it could be manslaughter or even 2nd degree murder. If this guy does not get 2nd degree, I will be very upset. He and his partner who were making this crap killed an innocent woman - a very nice, godly woman I might add. I am stinking mad. The funeral is Thursday in Pilot Knob at 11. Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it due to prior engagements (not until evening, but I’m afraid I won’t be back in time), but my mom, at least, is going to go.

Tonight… M was in town! So she came over here and we went to eat at Dairy Queen and then came back to the house to meet Elizabeth, Sheila, & Sarah after martial arts. But on the way… We witnessed an accident, at the last stoplight before my house (well one of the only two in our town lol). So of course we had to stop and wait. We were pulling up to the light, it was yellow, and this truck coming from the other direction was going pretty fast, it’s only 35 through there. I wasn’t paying too close attention to him, but I heard his tires screech and heard the impact, and noticed the stoplights waving ALL around. My first thought was, the wind, but then I was like, no it’s not THAT windy here, I didn’t feel any wind on the car. And then I noticed the poll was cracked good. So we started to go, and I saw the truck and so we turned and pulled in the gas station parking lot (just barely, right out of the street, which is a pretty wide one at that). I got out and said to M, “get my cell phone out of my purse” and started running to his truck. I did this because when I first looked at him, he was slumped over and I thought, “Oh my God he’s hurt.” But I guess he was just messing with something because he came up as me and this other woman went toward him. I said, “are you okay?” He said “yes.” I said, “do you have a cell phone” (stupid thing to say) “Yes.” “I do too - need me to call someone?” “No” - and this other guy walked up and said, “I already called the cops.” And some other guy came running up and had one of those cop radio things so they were there in no time. Then they tried moving the truck. He had hit the guide wire of the poll, causing it to crack and the lights were flung over entirely and all tangled up. So he gets his truck out of where it was and it’s in the middle of the street- by this time, I’m on the phone with Steve, telling him we’ll be a bit later. The guy starts hollerin, “tell them to move their car! Tell the people in there to move!” He’s talking about my car. By this time, I realize he’s totally smashed. So I just quit talking to Steve and ran to the car and moved it as fast as I could - forgetting my seatbelt and headlights even. As I turned into the hardware store parking lot where we’d been standing, our extra food we’d saved for Steve fell off the dash all over the floor. I said a bad word (oopsie). But don’t tell Steve, cause he ate it anyway. So by this time, I turn off the car and hear Steve hollering on the phone “what!? what’s going on!?” and etc. lol. So we hung around a little bit more and gave the cop our statements and he took our info and said we could go then. So we did. The guy never did get his truck out of the middle of the road though, some other guys were moving it and he’s sitting there going, “I don’t know what the f- big deal is, I just blew a tire.” So that was his story. He blew a tire. He blew a tire my @$$. lol. Not the way that accident happend. Oh yeah, he blew a tire, AFTER he hit the brick flowerbox. And some other guy was saying that he was in the car with him. BULL. And we overheard the cop’s radio… DUI, traffic this, traffic that. BUSTED! (Or so said Mindy.)

Okay, it’s late now, I’m finishing up some things here, then I’m off to bed. Elijah’s been in bed since like 9.30 or 10 - I prolly won’t get much sleep tonight. :-)

Christmas Lights

Published
by
Val
on 11.7.03
in Days Go By
. 0 Comments

Yes, Christmas lights…
We put some in Elijah’s room tonight, around the perimiter of his ceiling. He’s in there watching them now in awe. They are really cool lights though, because they have about 18 different speeds and settings. I don’t know how long it will last (him enjoying them tonight) though. I’m afraid he’s going to be up really late tonight again. Last night I was out at Steve’s family’s house and ended up being there until after midnight, working with Elizabeth to try and figure out her schedule for this coming spring semester. We did a pretty good job though I think - she got into one of the two honor’s classes she wanted - long story. The only other one she didn’t get into was her science class, because it was full. So she picked something else today when she registered.
I would like to take some classes… I want to take a web design class, and some Bible classes, and I need to learn Spanish. But I guess I will have to wait until next summer or fall after I can try and get federal money again. Last time I applied, they denied me - why I don’t know - I mean, I got money when I lived at home with my parents, but Steve and I make less than they do, of course - so you’d think I’d get at least something. I think it’s that whole marriage penalty thing… But I will apply again after we get our next tax return - cause now that Elijah is here, everyone says I should get something. I can’t afford it if I don’t get some federal help - & that’s just the way it is.
I am trying to get into manage my domains at enom… not working… hmmm… I just hate that when you register a domain they don’t tell you what your login info is for managing it. Not that I am wanting to transfer it or anything, I love CyberPixels, but I just want to be able to manage it if the need ever arises.
Boy, Elijah is being awfully quiet - guess I’d better go check on him… I hope he’s asleep so I can go to bed, too, lol….
Not asleep, arg - still laying there kicking and watching those bloody Christmas lights! I guess I’ll just wait until he starts crying, then I’ll go get him and hopefully that will mean that he’s tired and ready to sleep. I have had the worst day for getting him to take a nap today. At least five times before Steve came home, I would have him asleep, only to lay him down and have him wake up. He finally slept for like a half an hour when I lay down with him on my chest on the couch. But as soon as Steve laid him in bed - he was awake again.
My parents were here not too long ago with my sister and one brother tonight. They picked up their trailer. Last night, Steve went to get rid of the trash he had in it (we burn our trash at his parents’ house) and he got a flat on it on the way out there - Elijah’s crying now…. - 15 minutes later - he’s asleep now, hopefully he will stay that way. Last night he actually slept 6 hours! The night before was 8 and the night before was 6! Maybe we’re on to something? Knock on wood…
So what was I talking about? Oh yeah, so Steve got a flat on his way out there on the trailer - I came later and did not even see him. He musta pulled off the road good. I don’t really know though, because I haven’t had too much time to actually talk to him since then. Cause then we were at his parents’ and he and Chris had to go get the trailer with a spare, and then he came home before me and went to bed, then he left for work and I was still sleeping, then he came home and we prepared for my parents coming down. So they took the trailer with them. Nice to not have it in my backyard anymore…
Well tomorrow I was wanting to go to this sale at Concordia Publishing House that someone told me about. But Steve has to go cut wood in the morning and the sale is downtown (I mean downtown St. L) and from 8am-2pm only. It’s their annual warehouse sale or something. So he told me to get someone else to go with me. Arg. Lol. But I did call C, but she wasn’t home. So I left a message but G was on the internet so I don’t know if she tried to call or not. I guess I need to give her my cell phone number. I will try and call her in the morning. We are probably going to do something next Saturday too, though. I want to go downtown then, too; I want to go to the Hard Rock Cafe and maybe the arch or something.
But anyway I guess that’s all… I need to get some sleep if I want to go to that thing tomorrow….

Misery

Published
by
Val
on 11.5.03
in Days Go By
. 0 Comments

So what - yesterday it’s in the 80’s and today in the 40’s & 50’s? What’s up with that? I guess that’s Missouri (Misery) for you.

I picked up Elijah’s three month pictures today - they came in a whole week early! I am pretty impressed here with Walmart (we went in Perryville). The only problem I’ve had is that the disk was messed up. My replacement disk is the same way, but they also GAVE me two prints (3.5×5″) each of the ones we didn’t order - and I don’t think they’re proofs, exactly, because they’re just as good quality as the other prints that we did order, which by the way, is pretty dang good. So I’m not that upset that my disk has the pictures whitewashed, etc, because I just scanned the ones the gave me then. I think the one pic of him is a little blurry, the one with the cloud background, but it almost seems purposeful - maybe it is? So I will definitly go back there this month for his four month photos. You get a lot for your money. The pics are at a-elijah.htm.
I liked the work at Olan Mills, but they are just too dang expensive. And they make me want to cry, too, because they print out this whole big package by default and then if you want to buy the whole thing it’s like $160 or something. I ust can’t afford that - certainly not every month!! So there we got our free new baby package (8×10, 2 5×7, 8 wallets) and then later bought one more 8×10 (for twenty freaking bucks). Sears was okay but I was not happy with them because she did this enhancement thingy on our favorite photo, but didn’t tell us when she took it. Then she told us later that it was going to cost an extra $5.99 PER SHEET that we ordered of that photo!! We only went there because we had a new baby thing for no sitting fee. Then as I looked at the other prints, that we did not order (also seen on the above page) I realized that I did not really like any of them too much, just the two that we ended up ordering. Plus, normally, if you go there, they are more expensive… We usually go to JC Penny’s, for the last three years anyway, for our yearly pics. So I plan on going there the beginning of Dec for all three of us. But for the baby alone, I think I’ll stick with Walmart.
Other than that, my day has been pretty much as usual…
I did not go to church tonight because, well, I don’t think I could have been ready to leave on time, and it was only business meeting tonight. Mom called later and asked me if I’d been there, and then said that business meeting was still going at 8:00 when she left! It starts at 6:15! And someone told her that they still had like 6 committees to go! I think they were going over the yearly budget tonight. Yes, I know I should be involved in all that - but I trust everyone - and I’m there so much that I think I can use the break every month. If something comes up that I’m really concerned about or involved in, I’ll go. Or if Sheila needs a ride to PowerUp or something… which I guess she didn’t go tonight either… she didn’t say anything about it to me when she was online earlier….

GOSHFREAKINGDANGIT!!
I can’t remember my Yahoo security key… so naturally, I try to get another one and it asks me “What is your favorite city” and tries to tell me that I answered this question on sign-up. Bull crap. I wouldn’t pick a dumb question like that that I would not remember the answer to. So I couldn’t remember that either, so it locked me out and is now telling me that I have to call them to get a new security key. So the stupid person I am - I suddenly remember, I’ll bet I put it in that Code Wallet program on the Pocket PC. I did. But now it still won’t let me in, now that I have the correct code, either. @#$%(*&@^!@*&^$((#$(&@#*( Do they want my money or not!? For crying out loud. Would a hacker or other person of immoral senses be seriously trying to order only 5 photo prints on my account? No, only a picture freak like myself would pay shipping on an order that small. GRRR ARRG.
Did I mention that the call is long-freaking-distance? They’ll probably put me on hold for two hours, too. And I won’t be able to do anything that requires a secure log-in until I call them. AUGH.

N-E-Wayyyy….

Well anyway, I hear the X-files coming on so I guess that means it is getting late. I am once again going to reset the time on this thing so that it goes on the right date instead of the next day :-) I like that I can do that, heehee. It’s actually 12:06am….
Oh, by the way, and knock on wood - Elijah slept 8 hours last night!! Hallelujah!!

n o v e m b e r

Published
by
Val
on 11.4.03
in Days Go By
. 0 Comments

I can’t believe it - it’s November and I’m wearing shorts. How special.

I think there’s a bump on my head

Published
by
Val
on 11.3.03
in Days Go By
. 0 Comments

Okay, so I was leaving Elijah’s room about a half an hour ago - he’d been sleeping in there a while and I went to cover him up as it’s gotten cooler (after an 80 degree day!!!). As I was coming out, I somehow banged my head on the door (it was only open enough for me to squeeze through - it makes noise when you open it, so I didn’t want to wake him up). I don’t know how it happened, but it was totally wierd. And for a split second, my vision went funny - I saw things as if you had a camcorder and shaking it back and forth - I guess like a cartoon. It was so wierd. And go figure, I hit my left side of my head while I already have a temple-headache on my right. Grrrr.
I am also kicking myself in the butt today… I went to the bank and asked, “what’s the difference between a money order and a cashier’s check?” She told me, “a money order is $4 and a cashier’s check is $6.” “Okay then, I’ll have the money order, hehe.” It is for the Poseidon expansion pack. So she makes me out a money order for $13.35 - which includes $5.35 shipping (I went ahead and went with priority mail since it was only $2 more expensive than media mail) - and I had to pay the $4 fee. Then I went down to the post office to get some stamps. On my way out, they asked me if they could help me and I said, “oh I was just wondering how much a money order cost here.” Guess how much… 90 cents. Grrrr.
Steve came home from a bad day at work… and he brought with him Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle and The Matrix Reloaded. Neither are really bad I guess, but neither is as good as its original either. Oh well.
I guess I should go do something productive - I mean since I didn’t get anything done today in between getting up late, running errands, making supper, and watching those silly movies…

Put on the spot

Published
by
Val
on 11.2.03
in Days Go By
. 0 Comments

Well today is Sunday and it has been a full day.
This morning we got up and went to church like normal. During service, I went into the tv control room to try and learn some things. I asked them for an extra headset and so I was able to listen in. During the preaching, the director turned to me and said, “do you want to do this?” I was like “oh boy - do I?” So for about ten minutes, I directed for the first time. I was SO nervous! I think I switched too much and I hope that I did okay - they said I did good, so I guess I have to believe them. There were only three cameras running though, because camera two is being fixed, so I guess this week was a pretty good one to get a start. I also accidentally hit the button for camera 5. Notice earlier I said there were only three cameras. Yeah, we got some black on there. I was like shoot! And I switched it back. The director started laughing and said, “it’s okay, I did that last week.” Hehe. So after a bit, he took it back to close up. I started doing it, though, the way my old boss used to. He would say something like, “okay going to four” then “four’s hot” when it was online. That’s what I knew and so that’s what I said. But later the director told me that in there, “hot” means there is too much light. Ooops. But then he was like, “they knew what you meant. They’ll get used to you.” So he asked me to run a camera next week, but if he doesn’t need me for camera, I am supposed to help him in the control room - doing a job of the guy who won’t be there. :-) You know, too - I got to thinking, in all my years there, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman running a camera… hmmm… I wonder why?
Well I just finished putting Sheila & Sarah’s school pics online. They’re at 2003schoolpics.htm.
Then after church we went out to my mom’s and ate real quick then headed to A’s ordination service. That went for a couple of hours and so by the time it was over, it was just barely too late for us to try and get to our Sunday evening class. It would not have been a big deal, but mom and G were with us and so we had to take them home and Steve had a stop he needed to make while we were out in that area. So by the time all that was done and we headed back to Festus, it would have been way too late. Plus, The Rimshot had been alone all day again.
But then we had to stop at F Walmart cause Steve had to have some workboots. So we got those, and I got Elijah a “God Made You Special” Veggie Tales book and a toy airplane that was on clearance.
Then we came home. :-)

Work, work, work

Published
by
Val
on 11.1.03
in Days Go By
. 0 Comments

Today we headed out to ILL for Steve to do some electrical work for our friends. We had a good day - he got everything he needed to get done done and I was able to spend some time talking with my friend, and they got to see Elijah for the first time, even if he was crabby and sleepy all day. :-)
We left there around 6:30, and it wasn’t until later that Steve discovered they paid him twice what he said. I about fell over. We are certain this is not a mistake and are going to definitly send them a thank-you card tomorrow.
Last night we went and helped out with the youth scavanger hunt. It was a good thing we went, too, because they ended up needing all the drivers they could get. Mostly there were teams of three because most drivers were couples who had cars and could only fit that many. One group had four. We had three girls including a set of twins. The hunt was to find something that started with every letter of the alphabet. We were allowed to go anywhere, including houses, as long as we didn’t buy or steal any of the stuff. The girls had some great ideas. Steve and I had hurried to Walmart beforehand, so we had a few things to use like Wire (underground wire for the job today, 250 feet to be exact - it had to weigh 50 pounds!), Oil, and my Ultra Dairy Digestive Pills (lol). We also had in the trunk Jumper cables and our Stroller. Then at McDonald’s, we got, from a friend of mine, a Zone Manager nametag, and we went to one of the girls’ house and got some things like an X-wing fighter toy and a Knight’s helmet. I felt bad later though, because had I realized what time it was when we went to her house, I would not have let them drag us over there, it was like 10:30 and her dad was trying to get the two little ones to bed. I know the family though, and if I see them at church tomorrow, I will certainly apologize for our indescretions. Yeah, our girls had some good ideas, but Mitchell’s team of guys had better ones. They brought in a Fallow deer head (mounted, of course, their driver is an avid hunter), another pair of Antlers, and the driver’s Beagle (Dog) in his Kennel. So they won. :-) But it was a ton of fun.
Anyway going to go now, I am also scanning Sheila’s & Sarah’s school pictures I took. I am just a teeny bit proud of them, ehehe, they turned out way better than last year. I will post them as I get the chance to. (I just wish my scanner allowed me to pick output size, like my old one did. *sigh*)