a little preschool update

Well...preschool was a success today!! He cried when I left him and didn't want me to leave, and then I left and sat in the car for 10 minutes crying and asking myself why I was doing this to him. So I picked him up before lunch and when I arrived, he was playing with another little boy and didn't even notice me. And the teacher said he quit crying as soon as I left. And he even made me an art collage. Yippee!!

We haven't quite made it to a full day, we'll keep doing half days until he's ready, but I'm just thrilled we made progress.

I was really starting to doubt he was ready for this and was beginning to wonder if my sweet little 3 yr old was ever going to make it to school or end up a 30something mama's boy living in the basement.

Oh oh! I got the dreaded electric bill. It was $60 cheaper than last month. Um, how did that happen? I'm hoping with the new 4-ton'er I'll have a nice little surprise next month.

Mommy Kiss Card

My little boy, Mr. E, had his very first day of preschool on Tuesday. It did not go well. I don't know why I thought he could handle preschool 2 days a week all day long. Em only did half days clear up through kindergarten, but she was a different school, and I thought it would be better if they were together in the same school, and this school only offers full days of preschool.

So on Tuesday it did not go well. He wanted to be held the entire time I was there. He clung to me for dear life, so I stayed for about an hour and he started to have fun on the little playground. So I thought it was time for me to leave. My daughter was one who would cry with me there, but literally the moment I left, the tears would stop and she would skip off and play...I was hoping he would be the same. He wasn't. The teacher called me an hour later, he had cried himself to sleep. He wouldn't eat snack, he wouldn't play, nothing. So, I picked him up at 11:30 and we decided to see if he would transition slowly and I would pick him up at 11:30 before lunch for awhile. When we got home, he slept all day long. I felt terrible.


So we read some books on going to school, and we've talked about it for the past couple days. He says he misses Mommy, so I tried to think of something he could take to feel close to Mommy, and I came up with a Mommy Kisses Card. I put on some lipstick and kissed one of my famous tags (lol) and wrote it was Mr. E's Mommy Kiss card and I told him when he was at school tomorrow, if he got lonely for mommy, he just needed to pull out his kiss card from his pocket and hold it and think mommy will pick him up soon. So he's very excited about this and says he is ready to go to school now. I'm still not sure what to do. We're going to try for a couple more weeks, but if it's nonstop crying, we'll just try again next year.

New Freebie Project is Up

I just posted the Felted Pincushion and Shrinky Dink Pin Tutorial in the Freebie list on the side. It's lots of fun and easy to make, and kids love making them too. They are great to give as gifts to your fellow seamstresses.

Here is the direct link - Pincushion & Pins Tutorial

You can even use just the pincushion tutorial and create felted balls which are great toys for pets and kids. You can put bells in the center of the ball before it is felted.

Happy Crafting!!

My 100th Post!! And it's about that stupid a/c

Woohoo!! Party time!! It's my 100th post and it's about that damn air conditioner. This will be my last post on that stupid thing.

So we were gone all weekend long, dh met me and the kids right after the a/c was installed Friday and we didn't get hom until Sunday night. And then dh realizes, the night before Em's first day of school, they didn't light the pilot light for the gas hot water heater and furnace after they installed the a/c, so he goes to do it and turns the gas on and suddenly the entire house suddenly smells of gas so much I get a headache. I freaked out and took the kids and the dog outside, because there's no sense in all of us blowing up.

So...after it won't light TWICE, he finally notices the giant pipe of gas that is not hooked up to anything is essentiallly pouring out of it. I'm surprised honestly he didn't blow himself up. He turns it off and we call the a/c people at 10 o'clock at night. They said they were sending someone right then, but at 1 AM when still no one is here, we go to bed. And they finally call at 8 AM this morning, didn't bother to let us know last night while we sat up and waited and waited and waited. Isn't that just great?

So I had to boil water on the stove so Em could take a hot bath before bed. And today was her first day of 3rd grade. She goes to a very small school, there's about 100 kids in the whole school. We've had a little problew with the clique of girls in her class. There is a ringleader who drives me insane. Last year in 2nd grade, she told my child that she doesn't eat for 2 weeks a time, and so my child thought she should try that too. Then later in the year, she felt she was so popular that she was going to require appointments for the other girls to play with her. My child told me this and said Friday was her day. I'm sure the teachers are thrilled when I tell them these things. Needless to say, I've been seriously considered pulling her out due to this little ringleader and clique, but she loves it there and the academics are so wonderful, you can work as far ahead and you want, so Em was doing a lot of third and fourth grade work last year in 2nd grade. But today there were 2 new girls in the class, so I'm hoping there will be better girls to play with.

Tomorrow is Mr. E's first day of preschool. I'm hoping he'll do okay, he is a bit scared about it. He somehow lucked out and got the only preschool classroom that is literally next door to Em's classroom. The rest of the preschool is in a completely other building. He says he's going to go talk to his sister, so I'm not sure how well this will be, lol.

the a/c saga continues

I know this is just thrilling to talk about, you have to be on the edge of your seat just waiting to hear my newest a/c updated, so here it is! As I write, dh is at our house getting the new a/c installed. So it was slightly better than expected, we only have to spend $3500. Basically the previous owners of our home got a 3-ton system and didn't replace the 2-ton coils, so our system has been working its butt off for nothing. Isn't that great? Which is very typical for the do-it-himself kinda guy the previous owner was -- you would not believe some of the stupid things we've found he has done to this house.

So, this a/c guy (who was so much better than the first idiot) said our inside part is great, but because of the 3-ton/2-ton issue, we need a new one outside. So they are running new lines because ours are too small and putting the new outside part in right now. Hopefully by tonight we can checkout of Hotel Grandma.

Oh and if you are in Texas and have had your head up your rear for the last few weeks, this weekend is Tax Free weekend, starts today and goes through midnight on Sunday night. We'll be doing shoes this weekend for both kidlets. Happy shopping!

a little update

So my life in hell got even better. I met dh and the kids at the Holiday Inn on Tuesday night only to find when I got in the car, the freakin' windshield was cracked. Fun! Apparently on dh's way home from the airport over the weekend, from one of his European biz trips, he got hit by a rock and it wasn't until Tuesday when it was a 150 million degrees outside that it cracked the windshield all the way across.

So....yesterday we hired an idiot to come fix the a/c. Seriously, he was there a total of maybe 5 minutes. He put 4 pounds of freon in it, and then left. Didn't check anything out, didn't look for leaks....nothing. All for a $132. So....it didn't work, it won't go below 83 degrees and that is when the a/c stays on all the time.

Now who is just dying to hear what my electric bill will be? I know I am. I'm taking bets. My guess will be $1k. Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster dh has an extra paycheck this month.

So...after one night in a hotel, me and the kids are camping out at Hotel Grandma while my parents are on vacation, and I ain't leavin' til the a/c is coolin', lol. Poor dh is still at home with no air and all the ceiling fans on, he would rather drive 5 minutes to work than an hour from grandma's house, lol.

We have a new a/c guy coming tomorrow to see if it's worth saving, or if we get to spend $5-6k on a new system. So my disney vacation is now officially in the toilet, swirling in blue water.

I swear if something else breaks, I'm going to need to be sedated.