Rubber Band Fever

Has it hit your local elementary school yet? The "fever" I am referring to is the shaped rubber band explosion that happened in our town this Spring. It was the most amazing thing to see unfold, and I could just kick myself for not coming up with the idea first. If you have children, then you probably know about the fun, colorful, funny shaped rubber bands that are being sold all over. I first saw them several months ago--I think even before Christmas--and thought they would make good stocking stuffers, but I didn't purchase any. Around the beginning of May, I purchased a couple of packs of sea creature shapes and funny shapes for my daughter for her birthday. Ever since then, we can't seem to have enough of them. The crazy thing is, that apparently there is no patent on them, so there are many different manufacturers and many different places to purchase them. I have bought them at Walgreen's and Hallmark stores. The Walgreen's ones cost .99 for a card of six, and $2.99 for a pouch of 20 or 24, I think. The Hallmark ones were between $5.00 and $8.00 depending on what shapes. So, anyway, the kids (elementary through high school) have all been collecting them and trading them since early this Spring. They actually are not rubber, but silicone and there are many different names: Silly Bandz, Zany Bandz, Stretchy Shapes, Rubba Bands, Band-It-O's, and Bama Bands to name a few. I noticed that they can be purchased at Amazon.com as well, so now you know. If your kids haven't caught the "band fever" yet, they probably will soon.

Car for a Kid

I never thought I would be considering purchasing a car for my daughter to drive to school, but that is pretty much all I have been thinking about since school started three weeks ago. I always thought it was a little silly to have an extra car just for going back and forth to school. It seemed like a waste of gasoline since the school bus comes right to a stop near our house; however, this year the bus schedule is really messed up and unpredictable. My oldest daughter's bus comes at 6:29 am. School starts at 7:50. Even though the bus is scheduled to come at 6:29, it rarely does, so I send my daughter out to the stop and she stands there for ten or fifteen minutes in the dark until the bus comes along. Right behind that bus is my other daughter's bus that is supposed to pick her up at 6:43 am, but rarely gets there before 6:53. It is all very confusing and sets us all on edge in the morning. Because of all the uncertainty, I have been allowing my daughter to drive my car to school on days that I don't have anything scheduled. The only thing bad about that is that I am left without a car, and if one of the other kids (two others are in elementary school) gets sick or hurt, or something, I would be unable to get to them.
I have been secretly looking at used cars that are inexpensive, but safe and sound enough to get at least my oldest daughter to school and back on a daily basis. The problem is that while my daughter and I would go out in the evenings and on weekends to look, we would mention cars that we had seen on lots to my husband. He got the "car buying bug" and decided he couldn't stand his 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe anymore and went and bought a Cadillac Escalade ESV. That car is nice and it is great for all of us to finally be able to fit into one car comfortably, but that leaves us without any extra money to put aside to get a car for my daughter. I have been hoping to find something that we could just pay cash for, but it is very difficult. I hate to go behind my husband's back, but he doesn't seem to understand what a pain in the neck it is to have to guess about the buses, or to be left completely stranded for eight hours of the day. I found a car yesterday that is $1900; very clean, and it is from a reputable dealer. I told my husband about it, and he blew me off. Now I don't know what to do. I don't think I can go through the whole school year with either being stressed about the bus, or stranded. I need a car for my kid!

I'm Thankful for What????

I generally like this time of year. I almost enjoy Thanksgiving more than any other holiday, but this year was different. Last Sunday, we dropped my husband off at the airport so he could fly out to his new job 600 miles away. My job for the next week was supposed to be spent getting our house ready to put up for sale(stop laughing). We delayed putting our house on the market because the home prices are falling so far so fast around here that we weren't sure what to do. My husband was going to call our mortgage company on Monday. Well, he did, and they were pretty much no help. It looks like we may be joining the ranks of those who are said to be "underwater" in their mortgages, even though we put 20% down on our house and have been making the monthly payments in a timely fashion, we have nothing (or less than nothing) to show for it. So, that is how the week started out. The kids only had two days of school last week, so that was something to look forward to, I guess. On Wednesday, I finally went to get an overdue mammogram, and was greeted by two ogres at the front desk who ignored me and allowed me to sit for 30 minutes without even asking for my paperwork. When I finally decided to ask one of the ogres what was going on, she was extremely rude to me, even though she was the one who made the mistake. The next day, of course was Thanksgiving. My husband was spending the long weekend with his side of the family, and they sounded like they were having a pretty good time. The girls and I made the traditional dinner and enjoyed it, but it was still weird. We called my family, but they pretty much blew us off because their party was breaking up when we called and they needed to say their goodbyes. The next thing that happened was that some sort of large dog-like creature (wolf, coyote, etc.) decided to rip its fur out by the roots right in my front yard. That creeped our dog out as well as the girls and I. We cleaned up the fur and tissue and went on about the rest of the day, which turned out to be the pinnacle of the holiday. My youngest daughter had just washed her hair and I was looking at it, and saw a bunch of little white dots in her hair. . . you guessed it! Her head was infested with lice. I spent the rest of the day putting LiceMD and olive oil on our hair and picking out nits, vacuuming the furniture, and putting everything I could in the dryer on high to kill the little buggers (or at least make myself feel better). Then, last night as I was laying peacefully on my newly changed sheets with my damp, olive-scented hair, I hear what sounded like an abnormally huge mouse/rat???? crawling around the other side of my bedroom wall! Oy! Someone must be trying to tell me something. Or maybe my life is just supposed to play out like a Dr. Suess story (lice, mice, etc.) or some sort of modern-day bible-like story of Job. At any rate, I still have much to be thankful for, not the least of which are my children and my husband's new job. We are doing well, have food to eat, clothes to wear and , for now, a roof over our heads. What else could a person ask for?

Disney Channel

Say what you will about the Disney corporation, but you have to hand it to them; they do a great job of giving kids what they want. From the High School Musical(s) phenonmenon to the Disney Channel "Happy U Year" shout outs, they have kids fascinated. I just visited http://www.disney.com/ and saw the New Year shout outs my girls put on there. They are really cute. I sent them to my family so they could see them as well. All of the videos on the site are clean, short and a great way for kids to communicate. Disney has done it again!