Hilarious and soo soo true. They didn’t have a spot for my latest annoyance – those snapshots. They always get in my way. Blegh.

Top 10 Most Annoying Tech Products

14 Surefire Ways to Annoy Users

We played Wii Play again then we hopped over to Costco. I think the trick is to stick to your list which of course I didn’t. I bought these cute melanine mixing bowls. I want to do more baking with the kids so it should be fun. I also found the cooler that I adore for the price I wanted which I’ve been absolutely devastated about losing (Sammy chewed ours up). Of course it’s not exactly the same as the link which is the one we originally had but it’s pretty much the same. Anyway, it was less than $30 like the original one I bought. After Sammy chewed ours up, I couldn’t even find it for less than $60. I guess it’s all about the season. Love Costco!! I’ve searched for it for ages online, in costco, in target. Good things come to those who wait

It was also game night last night. We played Dinopoly. What a long game it is. I had to speed things up (I was losing anyway) so I traded my cards cheaply so that the others could start collecting bones (aka houses) on their monopolies. Somehow I ended up with Dh’s 2 eras (aka utilities) and then after that C gave me his 2 so I had a monopoly of eras (love my son ). Guess he loves dinos more than those eras heh heh. He was really attached to some dino and wouldn’t give it up no matter what. Not even when we told him he would go bankrupt. He would rather give up his monopoly of other dinos if he could keep that particular dino. So I gave him the dinos that went with that particular dino he liked for the more valuable monopoly he had. I wonder why he liked that one so much. Anyway, long story short, even though I was way way way behind (and I really mean way behind – I had one lame dino and was losing money left and right), somehow I ended up winning. Just goes to show you, when you’re not so anxious about winning and you try to help people, it sometimes just comes to you. I think the kids had fun although C was bummed about losing the dinos that he had acquired for the next time we play. He’s cute.

I watched Brothers and Sisters today. I really like that show. And it just happened to be about game night. They have the life I’ve always wanted. A large family of siblings and a cool mom. I think I’m slowly getting to that life I’ve always imagined I would have. It’s great playing games with the kids, enjoying being together. The kids getting older is really key. They’re like little people. It’s great. Although the early childhood stages are cute, it can be a bit tiring when everything is on you to entertain. Even though the burden is still on you when they’re older, there’s so much more they could do. I’m definitely going to figure out more board games we can all play together. The show is being renewed. It really is a great show.

B got bitten on the back by the neighbor’s dog yesterday. I took a photo of it. I’ll monitor it to see if any infections develop. It doesn’t look like any skin was broken so I’m not too worried about it. Hope that doesn’t turn around and bite me in the butt.

Bought some new clothes for the boys at Target.  I think I need to go elsewhere for clothes though.  They didn’t have much in the way of pants or long sleeves which is really what I needed for them.  I ended up buying a couple more outfits for J though.  I can’t resist.  They’re just too cute.  I do like baby clothes.

Took C swimming yesterday again. His swimming seems a bit worse. Not sure if it’s because he’s bored with the lessons. I think he wasn’t concentrating. I’m going to have to make sure he practices during the summer. Michelle brought her daughter’s Fisher Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera. I wanted to buy it but I wasn’t sure how well it worked. She told me she got one at Walmart and it was defective. She also said that her daughters were constantly asking her to pose and that got a bit old after awhile. It’s a bit pricey but it might be worth it because my kids are pretty rough with things and are always dropping stuff. The screen for looking at the pics you took is horrible. Can barely see anything. But the casing is tough. She says the pics are decent but a lot are blurry. Wish it were cheaper. I think I might let B have the canon s400 since we aren’t using it anyway since it’s a bit unreliable. But he’s constantly dropping the game boy. Argh decisions. I think they would get a kick out of taking pics.

M also recced going to Oak Canyon Nature Center. It’s free and it has shells where kids can go inside and experience how it feels like to be for example a turtle.  We’ll definitely do it.

We went to get pizza at Round Table after Dh got back from work. Was sooo windy. We ordered garlic with cheese. I think I’ll bypass the cheese one next time. Could barely taste the garlic.

Today is friday the 13th. Dh is going to play poker with his buds tonight. I might go rent a movie at Blockbusters for the kids. Depends how tired I am by the end of the day.

Practicing multiplication with B really helps. The difference is amazing from before practicing and after. It’s rewarding to feel all that time spent actually works. I’ve been making him write little essays during his spring break. I confess it’s really for me to have some insight into how he feels and thinks about things rather than any attempt to improve his writing. I really ought to pick up some books on how to help improve his writing. It’s hard to figure out how to teach him that since he’s so young. I’m not sure how “strict” to be or should I just be supportive and encouraging. Not sure how the latter would really fly in terms of learning how to write better.

B really helps me out a lot. C tries but he’s still too young. It’s so much easier when I have them helping me out while I take care of the baby. They help me with laundry, with putting away dishes, with picking up stuff, with washing the dog, with sweeping the backyard, feeding the dog, walking the dog, groceries. If only I could get them to help me with cleaning the bathroom

Over the summer, I’m going to venture into cooking territory with B. I’ve already thought about the whole cooking pasta stuff. I may not let him turn on the flames but mixing the stuff, prepping and showing him boiling water might be cool.

ROOT CANALS

Yesterday was the continuation of my root canal on my lower right side. It didn’t feel as bad this time, probably because Duc used a thing to keep my jaw open. Doing that helped me “doze” off instead of concentrating on keeping my mouth open. He also put my permanent crown on my upper left tooth. It was disturbing hearing Duc talk with his assistant Stephanie about dentisrty. He’s been coaching her, a good guy imo to talk her through everything he’s doing although it makes me a little too conscious of what he’s doing. I feel more comfortable with him as my dentist than I have ever felt in my life. He really puts me at ease. I don’t know if it’s because he’s a friend and I feel more trust in him or just his bedside manner. She spoke about how easy root canals were and he told her all the procedures in dentistry are easy on paper but a lot of factors can make it trickier, i.e. placement of teeth, patient reaction, how far back the teeth are, how many canals there are, how many roots there are, etc. Fun stuff

MOVIES AND GROWING UP

C had swimming as usual yesterday. I saw P there again. I remarked on how damn cold it was and that it was probably due to global warming. She suggested I watch “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Maybe we should sign up for Netflix. I seem to be spending more and more time in front of the tv. J has a sixth sense for when I’m on the computer these days and wakes up as soon as I get online now. He’s growing such a personality too. Yesterday, when I wanted him to nurse, he wasn’t having it and pushed me away. He’s never refused milk before. He also refused the bottle at my mil. He also has started batting toys on his swing. I’m not ready for him to grow up yet. Ahhhhh…

B has to do a computer timeline at school now. We had to submit two photos. One of when he was a baby. One more recent. I used a photo I took of him at the Corona Del Mar Castle building contest. He looks so happy at the beach. I looked through the baby photos and since Easter was coming up, I asked him if I could submit the one of him in his spring outfit, sitting in the easter basket wearing bunny ears. Think he was 5-6 months old. Soooo cute. His answer was, “No way, that’s so embarrassing.” I asked him again 5 minutes later. He said, “MO-OOOOOM-MMM.” Oh well, it was worth a try.

ACTIVITIES TO DO WITH THE KIDS

I met this woman Sulan at the park today. I met her last time as well. She had a few good suggestions for occupying kids during the summer. I told her I didn’t want them to spend all their time playing video games. She has theme days i.e. making a movie day, arts and crafts day (draw a flower in the garden day) , math/worksheet day, write an article day and science day (google cool science projects). She has a website which she runs where she programmed cool free educational software – free math/chemistry games (sort of like teaching tools) for kids to play and along the side are google ads where she gets $/click. I may try to find it.

EASTER BASKETS

I popped by Target this morning. It was great. They open at 8am so after I dropped B and C at school, I swung by there via Irvine Center Drive. I wanted to get all the goodies for their Easter Baskets or in this case bucket (bought that at Big Lots in Laguna Woods). I didn’t want to concentrate on just easter wrapped candy (i.e. candy that just has a different wrapper) but candy that they don’t often have or at leaast has some significance with the “Easter Basket” tradition. I bought jellybeans, malted choco balls, bunny-shaped chocolate, easter animal pez dispensers and also some egg shaped gum because C seems to have a thing for gum. I also bought some goodies like hot wheels truck combo that has a car inside, pokemon card packs, some crayola goodies for C. I also bought some clothes for a portrait sitting later on. I want the kids to have a photo taken together professionally, maybe at Kiddie Kandids since that seems to be the place to go by all my friends.

FINANCIAL ADVICE

The pokemon cards rang up at $13.99 but on the rack they were $9.99. Normally, I would never have noticed because I don’t really pay attention when cashiers ring up things but it just so happened that yesterday I read Common Billing Errors that can Cause You Money – most notably “With the computer age, many people assume the bill is automatically correct and don’t review what the actual charges are. While computers can make errors in calculations less likely, they are far from foolproof. The result is that consumers lose billions of dollars by making unnecessary overpayments each year.” It stuck in my head and I had resolved to be more proactive when it comes to finances since budgeting may play a bigger role in the near future. It’s good to make it a habit of being aware of your money and where it is going.

Id theft is a scary thing too. I think I may do 1-888-5-OPT-OUT and buy a cross shredder. I’ve always wondered what would happen if you submitted a taped up cc application and now I know.

Went to Target yesterday with C and ended up buying some nursing pads. I had bought the cheapest ultra thin ones by Gerber. Mistake. They are horrible pads and did not keep me from leaking through and they move around a lot. I’m trying Medela on C’s rec, trying Lansinoh ($7.64) on some website rec. So far Medela ($9.99) is working well. C claims that it stops heavy leaking… so far so good. I also bought a Eddie Bauer backseat bear mirror for the car so I can see little baby J’s cute face. Tried it this morning – only good if you somehow raise the headrest and attach it to the headrest. It takes a bit of maneuvering. Did a review on amazon for it. I really want to do more product reviews because I live by the reviews of other people.

Yesterday was free popcorn tuesday for Regal and so we met up with W and saw Amazing Grace. Such a good movie and the guy who played William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) was so cute. C says he’s good as Horatio Hornblower in the HORNBLOWER series – I think I will check that out one day. Anyway, the film is essentially about how a political activist goes about trying to get slavery abolished in Britain. I like period pieces like these.

I invited Ar to come see the movie with us when I saw her at the park. She’s going through a divorce. When I first saw her, she just wouldn’t say much which is so unlike her. I literally had to pull out the fact that she’s going through a divorce out of her. She’s depressed and antisocial. She’s on disability as well. 16 years of marriage – she’s 41, hubby 37. I feel so bad for her. I gave her two hugs – one when she first told me, one when she left because she “had to go”. Think she’s falling apart. She looks great though in terms of her figure. She lost so much weight. Anyway, I felt like I couldn’t help her. I asked C who has been divorced before what it was she wanted to hear then or what helped her most back then. She told me what someone said to her which at the time she thought was odd but now she realizes is cool. Someone told her “Congratulations” on hearing that she was divorcing. When asked why, the person advised her that if the marriage was going to be over, then best to get it over as soon as possible and not drag it out. Interesting perspective.

C told me An is happy at Saddleback. She moved over there from Newsong because it seemed like the pastor was telling the same sermon over and over. Sort of sounds like us except our reason was more that we disliked all that expansion talk. I guess An is going through some marital difficulties. Wish her luck on that.