I am such a bad blogger I couldn’t even remember my password!  How bad is that?!  I just don’t have much to say so I am sparing you all the boring repertoire that would be going up here!

So to give you a little snippet so you don’t all write me off completely, things my kids have said that made me scratch my head:

Elizabeth (age 3)

I am NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER going to use the potty (she’s not kidding either she won’t budge)

Isn’t she beautiful? (Referring to her Tinkerbell doll)

Fight, fight, fight (at the UW/MSU hockey game)

The kitty LOVES me (as she hauls her around by her throat)

Joey (age 9)

Choir is for girls MOM (referring to the extra curricular choir at his school)

I didn’t do it (constantly lately even when there’s evidence to the contrary)

But MOM, that isn’t homework it’s a FUN sheet I took off the fun table (well if you took it off of there you obviously wanted to do it so get to it)

I know it’s a boring post but it’s all I can come up with today!  I promise better posts down the line!

We watched Marley and Me last night.  Good movie, the book is better.  Not a good book/movie to read/watch after you’ve lost your oldest dogs in a fire.  Couldn’t watch the end, had to leave the room, but did finish the book through the sobs.

I’m watching it and thinking the puppy my kids and husband so lovingly bestowed upon me after the fire to cheer me up could easily be Marley!  Actually her name is Molly and she’s about 100 lbs. lighter but the wave of destruction mirrors Marley’s I swear!  I love her more than anything so I can surely understand their keeping “The World’s Worst Dog” but I’d totally dispute their claim!    I’ll edit and post a picture later after I wash the mud off of her, she’s been digging in the yard!

Elizabeth has been sick all week.  Oh how I loathe daycare with every fiber of my being.  She went last Friday, then Monday and she’s really sick and miserable.  She spent most of the week with her Nana. 

I’m LOVING work, wow I can’t even tell you how much I love it!  There’s not enough space on the blog!  I think I found the best possible job for me, truly.  I picked it up really quickly and just really enjoy it.

That’s about it for us.  I will get caught up on all my blog reading here shortly, just been working so much it’s not been possible!  Today I have to do laundry and clean up the house, because Molly has it just trashed!

Love to all!

I am blogging at a new blog as well, it can be found HERE.  I am trying to get help and offer some advice at the same time.  I hope it works!

I got a new job!  I am way excited, I love the staff, the environment, it’s great!  My first day was yesterday and it was a LONG one because I did internet training all day, that was really fatiguing but it’s gonna be great!  I have two bosses technically, one’s a branch manager and one’s a customer service manager (I’m a customer service rep at a bank) and I met them both in my interview and the branch manager remembered I had two kids so yesterday she sent them home goodies!  How great is that?!  They are laid back while still being professional, very upbeat, and very much a family.  I couldn’t be happier with the job I found!

Expounding on the subject of employment, I hear so much about un-employment rates, and “there are no jobs” many people on unemployment, etc…  I know I’m a bit different because I have experience in a niche market, but seriously… I watched the employment listings for 2 weeks while waiting for my interviews, and I have to tell you there ARE jobs out there, lots of them.  The Wyoming Job search listings through the state for our county are like 50 pages long.  I’m sure not all of the jobs are desirable (I didn’t apply to wash cars or clean office buildings) and not everyone is qualified for all of them (I didn’t apply for any of the hundreds of positions for nurses and pharmacists), but there are a lot of entry level positions out there for decent money.  I have heard of businesses here having to close their doors because they can’t find good help?!  I’m sure it’s not like that everywhere, but when we were re-financing our car a few months ago and Joe had just been laid off, the banker said “I’m sure you’ll find something in no time, it’s impossible to be un-employed in Gillette”.  At the time I thought it a very risky comment, but now I think I might agree with her.  Joe found a job in two weeks in his field.  He didn’t take an entry level position by any means, but they are available in his field as well.  I don’t know if it’s the salary people don’t like or the benefits or what, but I am just blown away at our un-employment rates right now.  I can’t imagine they’re making more on un-employment than they could be making in many of these entry level positions.  I kind of think people need to look at the long term picture, entry level positions give you chance for advancement.  I’m sure it sucks to have to start over after getting laid off of a job with better pay and more benefits, but surely even these entry level positions are better than un-employment with no benefits?  Also just to qualify my thoughts a little, the recession has hit here, lots of layoffs in recent weeks and lots of people fearing for their jobs, so I do understand the economy stinks and job security is questionable everywhere, I just have trouble wrapping my head around the amount of listings vs. the amount of applicants.  If you want to see what I mean, go to http://careerbuilder.com search for jobs in Campbell County, Wyoming and you’ll see the amount of open jobs and the amount of people who applied for each job.  It’s really staggering, we’re still running ads on TV stations in places like Michigan and I’ve seen signs in Colorado, Montana, and South Dakota inviting people to come to Gillette to work.

On a similar note, we had dinner out last night and one of our waitresses is a teacher of Joey’s.  That’s the 2nd restaurant in two months where a teacher waited on us.  In Rapid City it was a kindergarten teacher with 50+ students in two sessions during the week, he works weekends and nights as a waiter to supplement his income.  Same thing with the teacher of Joey’s.  She wrangles 25 kids during the week and moonlights as a waitress.  This just floors me!  There are people in other government jobs knocking down $100k a year and the average teacher’s salary is $30k to $40k to start with a cap at just under $70k for a tenured teacher.  WTH is wrong with this picture people?!  It’s no wonder our economy is in the crapper!

Just a note, if you’re going to search for a job on CareerBuilder, beware of the scam jobs wanting you to invest money to work for them, or worse the jobs offering you $100k the first year, because those are commissioned jobs selling insurance and the like, you only make that kind of money if you can sell the product and in this economy I wouldn’t put my house on the line for one of those jobs.  That’s saying a lot considering I come from a strong sales background and my house is burned down!

I have discovered the only way to keep your house clean is to NOT live in it.  Seriously, I clean the whole thing, we’re gone for the weekend, it’s clean when we come home and we’re home 2 days and it’s thrashed.  WTH?

When I travel I get sick, without fail.  Doesn’t matter where I go or for how long I’ll come home sick.  I lost my voice on Saturday, I thought it was yelling at the game.  It’s not.  <blech>  I can’t even holler at the kids!

When you’re sick and your kids are sick they still want to be snuggled and loved on and it’s your job as a mom to do that no matter how lousy you feel or how badly their vomit makes you want to hurl yourself!

The weather in Wyoming never gets any less crazy, it will be 65 one day and -12 with 6 inches of snow the next.  Not even slightly kidding here.

Joey made a goal this weekend!  IT WAS AWESOME!!  His 2nd goal of the season.  Not bad for a boy who started out behind the other kids from having to take a year off!!

Joey says “hockey is his life”.  I think he might be serious.  He wants to do two hockey camps this Summer to catch up the rest of the way with the kids who have 3 full years vs. his two.  I had my doubts at the beginning of the season, he’s so just not a sporty kid and he’s so not aggressive.  I figured those two things would mean he just didn’t dig it.  I was really wrong.

Nothing is as infuriating as crappy officiating in kids sports, especially a contact sport like hockey where kids can actually get hurt really badly by the fouls against them.  When you have one kid getting fouled on over and over and OVER and a completely blind ref it WILL infuriate every single person in the stands that isn’t rooting for the opposing team

2  year olds are a force of nature, there’s nothing quite like them.  One minute you want to snuggle them and the next you want to lock them in a cage until they hit 25.

You will spend just shy of 2 years begging your child to walk on time and talk on time and you’ll spend the next 18 wanting them to shut up and sit down!

If you groom your dogs in the March it will snow the next day.  Then you’ll feel like a huge jerk for grooming them.  But LORD did she stink!!  I bought her a sweater, she lived through it.

I think it’s likely 80% of my graduating class is on Facebook.  I LOVE seeing what everyone is up to and catching up!

Animal Crossing is the most addictive game EVER.  It’s not smart to buy it for both DS and Wii because you’ll end up changing the time so you can do the things you need to do in the day.  Plus you won’t get anything else done and it’s really hard to tell your 9 year old how to play, he’ll argue with you!

My 9 year old can be a real brat, when did kids become so flippant?  Seriously, the things he says I would have been in SO much trouble for saying to adults.  They are so very disrespectful.  I spend all Summer breaking him of it and within two days of school we have to start all over.

If you have animals and you have a fire evacuation plan and stickers on your windows alerting the authorities they are there and asking them to get them out, please understand it doesn’t work that way.  Prepare yourself for it.  Install a sprinkler system.  The fire department is only concerned with putting the fire out and keeping the damage from spreading, they don’t have time to go in for pets it happens too fast, in reality there just isn’t time.  To that end, don’t blame yourself when you can’t enact your evacuation plan.  It just isn’t realistic when human lives are at risk.

If you have Allstate insurance, find a new insurance company!!  Take it from me, they’ve been run out of 9 states, if I have my way Wyoming will be the 10th.  You pay them to help you, to protect you, to take care of you in this insane trauma and let me tell you, they won’t.  Type Allstate insurance complaints in to Google and you’ll see.  I can tell you it’s been 6 full months since our house burned down and we still don’t have a settlement.  We lost EVERYTHING and we’ve been given about $20k out of the $220k policy we pay for.  $20k doesn’t replace the wardrobes and belongings of 4 people.  It doesn’t even come close.

A young boy was killed in our town a couple of weeks ago.  He was 6.  I can’t get it out of my head.  It was a really tragic accident that will change the lives of two families forever.  I don’t know why I can’t stop thinking about it, but I have to say it makes me want to put Joey in full body armor and keep him in the house forever.  I was blown away by the whole incident from the beginning, but seeing his photo in his obituary just really bothered me and I feel an overwhelming sadness for his family and the other family involved even now.

So my best friend posted about Obama today and I didn’t want to litter her comments with my thoughts so I thought I’d just write about it here.

Here are my thoughts about Obama’s presidency thus far:

1. I don’t agree with the funding for overseas abortions.  Not because I’m pro-life or pro-choice, I’m actually in between there which is another post entirely.  I just don’t think we need to send ANY money overseas!!

2. On his economic stimulus I am totally un-decided.  I think spending the kind of money he’s talking about spending is terrifying in our already depressed economy.  I fully believe we are in a full depression in many areas of the US so while I get the basis behind his bill and thought process, it terrifies me.  The things I don’t necessarily like in it:

• I think there is a big misconception regarding some of the mining, etc…  I live in a state with a decent economy.  I wouldn’t say thriving because we are feeling some of it so we’re not un-phased.  The reason our economy is managing  is simple, we are the “Energy Capital of the Nation”.  We have methane drilling, oil, and coal.  I wish Obama would visit our city.  Our air is clean, our ground is clean and green.  Our coal mines are above ground, we don’t have pollution, we don’t have emissions testing or anything to that effect.  They mine an area, then re-plant it, the area comes back much healthier.  Methane runoff water is very clean, it’s not filthy like some suggest.  I’m not sure there is such a thing as “clean coal” if there is we have it.  It’s not like the strip mining of the past, they are regulated and must return the Earth to its natural state or better when they move.
• I am not a fan of handing out more checks to the American people.  History has shown they won’t use it wisely.  Those who are wise are going to put it toward a bill or save it.  The majority will take it to Wal-Mart and buy a big screen TV built in Taiwan, or worse they’ll cash it and spend it on Meth.  I think it’s throwing good money down the toilet.
• I am all for creating jobs, but what happens when the building is done?  Those people are again un-employed.  He’s talking about creating jobs that will require intensive training to be able to accept.  Someone who’s worked for GM for 30 years is not going to be able to jump right in to a job using computers in a government building.

I don’t have many more thoughts on it.  It’s not all bad, but those are the things that concern me about the bill.

3. I agree with the closing of the prison but I don’t want them on American soil…  I believe we shouldn’t torture them and oversight is desperately needed, but please don’t bring them here!!  Plus the people they are detaining in large part are or were a part of an organization who killed HUGE numbers of Americans on American soil.  They aren’t remorseful…  I don’t think we’re going to solve anything moving them, people are still going to hate them no matter where you are.  Oversight in my opinion would be a better option.

4. I am happy to see him surrounding himself with staff and advisors with experience, he acknowledges he needs help and I REALLY admire that!!

All in all I am not horribly opposed to him.  I never really was.  I didn’t vote for him and am not sure I would change that now, but it could have been worse.

I am not liberal and I am not conservative, I consider myself moderate.  I believe he is very liberal so I am always going to disagree with some of what he does, but over all he hasn’t done anything to make me stand up and say “oh crap!” 

One thing I will say, I think we are seeing a future administration as well.  I think they are setting up Hillary’s administration in 8 years…  I think the democrats have the first African American in office which is just amazing!  In 8 years I think we’ll see them put the first woman in office, or at the very least try to.  I am glad to be alive in a time when so many barriers are being broken down and I am happy to see my children raised in a country that can break down those barriers.

Because this is already really long, I’ll save my ideas on what I wish the administration would focus on, for tomorrow

I think I have the only 2 year old ever to throw tantrums over WANTING to brush her teeth!  She loves it, she would brush them all day long.  She’s been that way for about a year.  Too bad her brother is the exact opposite!

I am an epic failure at potty training.  My puppy won’t potty train.  She does OK during the day because I let her out every 20 minutes, but she has an accident every single night.  She’s a serious mama’s girl so I don’t dare kennel her, no one would ever get any sleep!  But I can’t break her of the occasional accident.  I miss my doggie door!

Elizabeth won’t potty train either.  I set her on her potty chair over and over, I take her in there with me when I go and set her on the chair.  She doesn’t get it.  Joey was the exact same way.  I had visions of him going to kindergarten in diapers I swear.  Elizabeth is even more determined to NOT potty train than Joey was.  At her age Joey would at least attempt to go.  She flat won’t.  She hates when her diapers are soiled but she won’t go potty.  Pull Ups and underwear don’t cut it either, she’ll just come tell you after she’s gone.

It’s another Monday and I have a zillion things I should be doing, I should probably go do at least one of them. I think I’ll clean Elizabeth’s room today, you can’t walk through there and she has no clue what toys she even has.  The only time she cares about her toys is if the puppy chews on one.

PS/I wasn’t going to write about this, but it’s Hedgehog Day.  Happy Hedgehog day to everyone!  Those of you with hedgehogs please snuggle them for me!  Today I am very sad, it’s the first Hedgehog Day in 6 years I am spending without my hedgehogs.  The history of “Hedgehog Day” for those that are interested: http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/hedgehogday.shtml

Groundhogs are a knock off…

Keep in mind I shop at Super Wal-Mart because I loathe shopping and refuse to go to more than one store…

10. Rude Adults who cut you off, bang in to your cart, and run over your foot and can’t be bothered to acknowledge you, let alone apologize.

9. Rude Kids who do the same as the adults above (think they’re related?)

8.  Adults who let their rude kids play smash up derby with shopping carts in the middle of the aisle

7. Wholesome foods like lean meat, fresh produce, cheese, eggs, etc… cost a fortune and are crappy quality while “look mom the Swiss Rolls, Cheetos, and Fruit Roll-Ups are buy one get one free”

6. The apparent lack of employees available in the store to help you find the item you need when it’s not where it says it should be

5. The apparent inability to stock the shelves regularly

4. Germs – people are gross, there just is NOT enough Clorox in the world, and of course bathing in it would be an off label use

3. The apparent inability to fully man the cash registers, or better yet just man half of them with people who actually care that you want to get checked out and home BEFORE the milk you paid $5 for spoils

2. All of the junk stuffed on the shelves at the checkout stand your 2 year old will just KNOW she has to have

1. The inevitable meltdown your two year old will have at the checkout stand over the items above such as chap stick, processed meat sticks (WTH?), Lollipops, and the flashlights with cartoon characters on them

And the all time biggest reason:

The buttheads who will look at you and said 2 year old with disdain like you somehow planned this tantrum ahead of time (and possibly even paid her to throw it), picked the slowest check out line with the 16 year old who hates his job intentionally, and can somehow magically end said tantrum.

Photos from the last couple of months…  Most of these are from Joey’s birthday party and the night of his Holiday program which was actually ON his birthday after a snow day forced it to be re-scheduled…

So I haven’t written much because I just can’t bring myself to blog about the never ending disaster that is life after the fire.  I don’t want to seem like I’m looking for sympathy or draw attention to my mess because so many have it worse than we do.  Unfortunately it’s been all consuming lately, so instead of writing about it I will just say, if you have Allstate insurance and your house burns down, make sure it isn’t something so difficult as an electrical fire.  Apparently the fire department’s reports are worthless in a fire and the insurance company will spend as much time as they like determining the “cause and origin” of the fire before settling your claim.  At 5+ months you’ll have to retain an attorney because they will have broken the policy requirement that they settle in 45 days or less.  They will however hold you to every single piece of fine print in said policy.

Now on to better things…

Elizabeth ate my cake, I made a cake, I was craving cake, we were going to eat the cake together (all of us).  No I wasn’t gonna eat the whole cake myself, not that I haven’t considered it!  While it was cooling before I could frost it, she took it off the counter and ate it.  She is SO tall I can literally not put anything far enough out of reach!!

She’s hit the terrible two’s at a dead run and she’s not looking back.  She doesn’t ask for things, she screams at you.  She hates the word “NO” unless she’s using it which she does about 2 million times a day.  She can get out of her crib (yes I know she could have done it months ago, she just didn’t know that).  She’s now moving to a toddler bed and I have no hope of ever sleeping again given cabinet and drawer locks, electrical outlet covers, and the like are nothing more than a temporary setback for her.

She has lost all semblance of any table manners she ever had, she will play musical chairs at meal time because she hates sitting in her booster chair.  She swears she’s starving to death every 3 seconds and if you didn’t live with her or weren’t her physician with actual documented proof she’s not losing weight, you would find you believe her.

Through it all, she will make you laugh constantly, even when she’s telling you no, or circumventing your every attempt at toddler proofing.  She comes up with stuff you wouldn’t imagine.  She sings “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” most of the day, she’ll add in words here and there she thinks should have been in the original writing of the song.  Some are not words a 2 year old should be using, but what can you do?  She will happily sit there while you tickle her for hours, if you stop tickling she’ll grab your hand to guide you to begin again.

I had foot surgery on New Year’s Eve, my grandma moved in for 2 weeks to help as I was non-weight baring.  She looked like death warmed over by the time it was all done, but she went home and she’s miserable!  This is what my daughter does to you! 

For your viewing pleasure so you know I’m telling the truth:

If you look closely you can see the horns I swear!

Joey made the A Honor Roll and is immensely proud.  Being as humble as he is, he promptly declared himself “one of the smartest kids in the school” which according to his test scores is probably true so impossible to argue with.  He also turned 9.    He is no longer a little kid, I am amazed when I look at him and see him speeding toward adolescence, I can remember him being Elizabeth’s age and as big of a pain as he was at that time, I’d give anything to have that back.  Some days I want to just stop and rewind life, wonder why we can’t?!

He made his first goal of the season at a tournament in Douglas.  I missed it, it was too soon after my surgery to attempt to attend the tournament.    They swept the tournament, and I do mean swept it, their cumulative score was like 39-7, completely dominating all 3 other teams.  There was a brief write up in our newspaper, where they of course were sure to spell at least one name and 3 words wrong.  The firing of the Broncos head coach in Denver however took up the bulk of the sports page that day.

Joey is also proud to announce I’ve taken over his cub scout pack as Cubmaster.  I didn’t really do it for a good reason, my reasons are that I’m bored, I know a lot about scouts, and I was horrified by the disorganization of our pack.  Joey of course just sees it as mom cares, which is very true, but I could have cared and just attended meetings.  Right now I’m his hero though so I’m not complaining.  What I will say is, if you take on a position like this, count on your child deciding it means he can do and say whatever he wants without fear of reprisal.  Plan to shatter that elusion immediately.

Also for your viewing pleasure:

Joey’s 4th from the left in the hockey picture (not counting the coach)

I have a zillion pictures to upload and post, I think I’ll do a gallery post here in a day or so.  But nap time is coming to an end so I won’t get it done today!