CRUNCH!

June 06, 2006Since Daniel was born, I've been extremely careful when I've been driving.  I don't speed, I don't take risks, I brake early and slowly.  So, of course, I got rear-ended while sitting in traffic.  Last Friday, I was sitting at a red light, telling Daniel we'd see Grandpa in just a minute when a car slammed into my rear bumper at 25-30 mph.  Daniel started screaming like a banshee and I, of course, panicked.  Luckily, a nice British gentleman pulled over and "rang the police" for us and I called my Dad, who got there entirely too quickly.  (THANKS DAD!)  Out of the four people in the car that hit me, none spoke English.  We had some doubts as to whether or not they are here legally, as when asked by the police where they lived, none of the four seemed to remember.  The driver, however, was, I'm assuming, since his insurance was completely legitimate.  My insurance company is dealing with them now.  The rear bumper has to be fixed, as does the muffler, and a small scratch on the lift gate.  All in all, over $1400 worth of damage, but it's all fixable, and what is money for, if not to use it when you need it?  Daniel and I were not hurt at all, and aside from the muffler, the damage was cosmetic.  We were VERY lucky!  Aside from that, the week at my parents' was very low-key.  I cooked at their house most nights, which was fun. 

On a different note, the Today show is doing a segment on teaching your children to be healthy eaters.  They say that the number one vegetable for children under 2 is french fries and half of children under 2 have candy every day.  Most of you know my opinion of feeding your children that kind of nonsense.  If you want to see a walking advertisement for reasons to eat healthy foods, walk into Wal-Mart and see how many massively overweight children there are.  ARGH.

Hello there, gentle readers.

May 29, 2006Obviously, it's been a while since I last posted.  Currently, of course, Josh is off in Colorado, careening down a raging river of death.  I suppose it's all right, so long as he doesn't have to kiss a llama.

Since Josh is on the other side of the country, I'm spending the week with my parents.  I've been here since Friday, and it's been relatively uneventful.  Daniel is having a great time - he loves all the attention!  His second tooth on the top finally cut through yesterday afternoon, to much relief from both of us.  He has been a bit crabby the past couple of days, I'm guessing due to the sharp jabby thing doggedly pushing its way through his tender gum.  Hopefully, the crabbiness is in the past now for at least a little while.

In some ways, it's a lot noisier and yet also a lot quieter here.  There are two additional people, which makes it much more vivacious, but my parents like quiet a lot more than Josh does.  It's very peaceful here, especially when Daniel goes down for a nap.  (At least if the TV is off - Dad does love the war history shows and anything where they are rebuilding some type of vehicle.)  I doubt that I'll have too much of interest to report over the next few days, but we'll see.

Whew!

May 12, 2006As you know, the semester is over.  My husband and I both remain victorious, having earned 4.0s this semester.  It was not exactly a fun semester, but there have been worse ones.  Next semester will be a bit easier, as Daniel will be in daycare.

The Tennessee Tech daycare is supposed to be a wonderful daycare.  It better be since we've been on a waiting list for a spot since January, 2005.  That's right - we've been on the waiting list since 8 months before Daniel was born.  We are FINALLY number one on the waiting list.  The beginning of this August, children from the preschool class will move to kindergarten, children from the toddler class will move to the preschool class, and children from the infant class will move to the toddler class.  There will finally be a spot for our little boy, just in time for the beginning of the semester.  FINALLY.

Jeana and Randy are coming to visit today.  Randy is teaching a motorcycle class this weekend, so Jeana will be spending her time playing with Daniel here.  I know she's really not looking forward to it.  She doesn't even like that baby.  ;) 

In case you haven't heard, my tiny, helpless little boy is now a gargantuan, speed-crawling, property-destroying, adorable chunk of doom.  He weighs 19 1/2 pounds, he's eating us out of house and home, and the kitty lives in fear.  Like my sister Sarah did, Daniel will spot the kitty, giggle in a menacing and slightly maniacal  way, and then crawl after him at speeds that would astonish you.  Zeus has been remarkably patient, which is good.  I love Zeus, but if he claws the baby, Zeus is the one who gets the boot.  I know it will be in self-defense as the baby determinedly attempts to eat Zeus's ear, but still, Zeus will be the one sitting on the front porch.  Poor kitty.  At least his arch-nemesis is still cute.

Death to Cingular.

May 04, 2006So last month, I called Cingular and cancelled the 7PM-7AM Nights/Weekends shared minutes feature that allowed us to use night and weekend minutes starting at 7PM.  The woman I spoke with informed me that on my May bill, there would be a credit for part of the cost.  I was looking at the bill due on the fourth of May, and it not only does not have a credit for the service, it also still has a charge for it.  After spending a while on hold and speaking with a customer service representative (Hello, my name is __________.  Thank you for calling Cingular.  How may I make you miserable and cheat you today?), she informed me that we pay a month in advance for our services, so the credit will show up on the next bill.

I will therefore pay this month in advance for a service that I will not use nor have access to because I've already cancelled it.  I hate you, Cingular.  In fact, I hate you, all wireless companies.

At least the baby is still cute.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

May 02, 2006So I was puttering about Eagle Online today, looking at my unofficial transcript, when I noticed something was wrong.  According to my unofficial transcript, my program was changed to drop my Education degree.  Now, as I'm finishing a semester of only education classes for credit, 7 out of my 10 hours next semester are education classes, AND I most certainly did not fill out paperwork to change my program, I was a little concerned.  I called the records department and the woman asked me, "Aren't you getting your education degree this semester?"  Confused, I responded, "Well, I'm working on it."  She responded by telling me that the graduation office believed that I was graduating and receiving my Education degree this Saturday.  As much as I would love for that to be true, I'm a few hours short.  You know, just a few... 33.  It's all straightened out now, but that's a heck of a mistake there.

But in happy news, the baby is still cute.