Smart Car

So, I had the pleasure (*snort*) of getting a close up of a Smart yesterday.
Is it just me or are they just like an overgrown Cozy Coup?
I'm really questioning the practicality of the car. Ok, yeah, energy efficient, blah blah blah, but if it got into an accident, what's to stop the person driving it to get smushed to smitherines?
I'm not even sure you could fit groceries in it.
Of course, I'm a mom of 3 boys, so really all these itty bitty cars that everyone is proclaiming that everyone else should drive are not very practical for me. THEN, you have the hybrids that are too expensive for the average family of 5 to buy and it takes 5 years before the gas savings catch up to the price you spent on the thing.
I drive a minivan because SUVs are too expensive and have such horrible gas mileage. I love my minivan, the three cars I owned before this one were minivans. Even when I had only 2 kids, I drove a minivan.
I will add that my first car was a station wagon, so I might be predisposed to family cars.
I will also add that I've already told my hubby that once we are free of kids (*snort, yeah right*) I want one of THESE! It's my dream car. I do know it will never happen, I'm a reasonable person and I know that in 11 years, when I don't have to drive the kids around as much, we will NEVER be able to afford a 55 Corvette.... It's on the list of things to buy when we win the lotto (we'd have to PLAY the lotto to win the lotto, lol)

Moving

I'm a bad blogger.
We've been moving our stuff from one house to another for the last month and this week we moved the furniture. I feel very sorry for the movers who had to lug my solid wood furniture out of one house and into another. Every bedroom set we own is solid wood, and every bedroom in the new house is upstairs, very steep stairs at that.
We decided when packing up on Monday morning that the TV from the gameroom (upstairs) in the old house would be switched with the TV from the master bedroom (downstairs) in the old house. The TV that was in our bedroom is about 150 pounds and with the large, heavy furniture already going up, I thought it cruel to have the big TV go up also. Also, with the smaller TV in my armoire, I can actually SHUT the doors! (ridiculous of me, I know)
All of our furniture is now moved, but we still have some smaller things to move.

On top of this, I'm working on a new business opportunity and unpacking all the crap we own.

Rick Riordan

The middle child's birthday was 10 days ago.
(Yes, I'm late with this post, so shoot me)
We found out on the day before that Rick Riordan would be in town, signing books.
Said child has been reading the Percy Jackson series and was very excited to hear that he could get his books signed. We rescheduled the day so that Hubby could take the boy.
It was a surprise, he didn't know that he was getting to go to the signing until they got to the book store.
I have heard that middle child was chatty and smiley (very odd for this child). He made jokes and asked questions, discussing the books in length.
I did have to plead with him to take his camera into the book store and actually let hubby take pics (specifically for blogging, lol).

Something is wrong with my TV

I'm not sure what, exactly, but something is seriously wrong with it.... I think though, that it is the DVR, not the actual TV.

We were watching just fine and suddenly my darling changed the channel (good thing, what we were watching was STOOOPID). First, we didn't have a picture at all. Then we turned it to watch something recorded. That came in somewhat ok. So, then my dearest changes it to Encore Drama channel and does something I didn't quite catch. Now, we're watching TV with a shot from Dirty Dancing with the noises from whatever channel we have on.

Not a good scene from Dirty Dancing, either. It was the touching sister moment near the end of the movie. Couldn't be something good like Patrick Swayze with his shirt off, NOOOOOOOOOO.

Let me tell you, it's very funny to see this scene with the sounds of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Ok, hubby's calling DishNetwork now to find out what's going on.

My Mother's Day Present

Tall, Dark and Goofy bought me something I'd been wanting for awhile, a fire bowl.
We spent Sunday morning at church, then went to lunch with my family at The Melting Pot.
We stopped by the book store to update the boys' schoolbooks (and get a few for me) and then to the grocery store to buy hot dogs, marshmallows, graham crackers, wood, etc.
The kids have had a blast the couple of nights we have been able to use it.
Tuesday night was spent house hunting and last night, we had a storm.

I also got this wonderful cookie bouquet made by the oldest and youngest boys.
They went to a kids' night at the Young Chefs Academy on Friday and had a blast decorating cookies.
Sorry that pic is so blurry, don't know what happened there....

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Mother's Day,
mine was the best I'd had in a very long time, possibly ever.

Update on the house hunt

We had an application in last week and heard back a big ol' fat no. We have good credit, and our rental history is good.... but no, no house. Grr, that one was cool and practically perfect in every way.
So, last night we went and looked at 3 more houses.
First house: Water damage, current renter said that it had been there for awhile and the management company STILL hadn't fixed it. She also said she was surprised they were showing it with the ceiling practically caving in (ok, she said in that condition, but the ceiling is practically caving in!).
Second house: Huge yard, but no room for a school room. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice house, but didn't even really have a place to set up the computer desk.
Third house: Advertised as a 4-5 bedroom house. Umm, NOPE! It has 3 bedrooms, a loft gameroom and then another random space that is open to the downstairs and you have to go through one of the secondary bedrooms to get into. Really cool house, but would NOT work for us.

So, Tall, Dark and Goofy is looking into a loan and we're talking about buying. With all the foreclosures on the market, it's a good time to buy. The problem being, we don't know how long we need to be in Houston, what if he gets a great job offer in Austin? Or San Antonio?
Maybe another rental to look at tonight, from the pics on the HAR site, I like it, we'll see what it looks like in person.

Click and Read Phonics

Now, the youngest monster doesn't really need the phonics lessons, he knows how to read. He does need some more confidence with his reading though.

I like the program, and if you give my email address (lala52877@hotmail.com) as a referral, you get a $10 and I get $10 back. It is a lifetime membership, and can be transferred to anyone you chose once you are finished using it. The only drawback I've seen would be for people with more than one child who could use it at the same time. You'd have to pay extra for the additional children.

Very good program, comes recommended from Homeschool.com.

http://www.clicknkids.com

Happy teaching!!!