If you don't use it, you lose it!

I'm sure most of you have heard that phrase - meaning if one has learned something, it can be easily forgotten if one doesn't put it to use.

Back in high school I chose Spanish to fulfill my foreign language elective; my adopted grandmother is the grandchild of Spaniards, and to this day she is fluent in both languages. So I heard it a bit while growing up, and a few of us grandkids opted to learn it in school so we could help Mama keep up her Spanish skills. Two of my younger cousins work as translators! I've never had any trouble comprehending Spanish spoken to or around me; I seem to be able to translate it in my head fairly quickly and can follow a conversation. Participating, however, wasn't so easy just a few years after graduation (1995!) and it's only gotten worse from there...
With an impending move to a new city, I thought something 'easy' for me to do would be brushing up my speaking skills. I'm surfing online right now to find some free lessons - there are a few here and there - and am taking notes on what I find.





It is something I could use anywhere, with Spanish being the second most-spoken language in the U.S these days. There are books in libraries, and for sale at every turn.

About 9 years ago, I bought a novel written in Spanish and used to read it during my lunch breaks at work. That book is long lost, but it's a good place to restart, right?


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Unrelated: a friend from high school just birthed her firstborn today, a little girl. I am so excited for her!! Everyone is healthy and doing well! <3

Blessings,
Amphitrite

Ever been robbed?

Our car was broken into last night, and we are now short one car stereo and an iPod charger/connection cable that goes with it. We really did not need this now.
Our neighbour has a friend visiting from Colorado - and his car was also broken into, but he also has a busted window from the deal. Missing a couple things himself. Now that totally sucks.
This has been a really good neighbourhood, apparently for decades, but definitely since we moved in 7 years ago. Last year we noticed that someone had rifled through our glovebox, but nothing came up missing that time. We don't keep important things in the car - anything over $50 comes inside if it ever went out to the car in the first place.
Back in 2006 or 2007, a different neighbour had someone try to break in to his house *during the day* - and he is a retired police officer! Nothing was stolen, I think the theif chickened out or something (the details were never really clear to me) and the wife told us that he was arrested a little later that day, because he *did* get into someone else's house and was caught red-handed. Those two incidents have been the only incidents that we know of, and are the only ones any older neighbours have seen in at least 10 years prior to us moving in.

I am so very ready to move. Not that moving will solve all our problems, but at least when we get out there we won't have a car for someone to break into or steal! Oh, but I am also going to post somewhere on Craigslist about this - an open letter to the theif. If s/he never sees it, oh well - but it will surely make me feel better. I'd like to use my most colorful language, though I probably will just call him/her a coward. It's the nicest insult I can think of publishing.

Criminy. :/

T minus 16 days!

Today, it is 17 days until our flight out! Very early flight, leaving the gate around 7:30 a.m. We are stoked!!

So, yesterday we had a yard sale to shed off some of the furniture, and the other stuff that we accumulated over the last 7 years. Those garage sale early birds sure do come out early! We planned (and stated in the paper and online ads) to start at 7, so we could start setting up at 5:30. Our first visitor showed up just after 6, and that guy bought a lot of shelving and some office stuff. Probably $50 just from him - and he had to take it in two trips, but was happy to do so! Then a few more people came by even while we were still setting up and putting things out, but no one seemed to mind picking through boxes and patiently waiting while we worked around them a bit. It was probably 8 before we had most everything out and ready, although due to space issues we didn't even bring the clothes out (and there was a TON) until right after noon. Because of that, we did actually have a couple people looking for clothes earlier who came back again and looked through the kids' clothes. Our sweet neighbour even called all of her daughters - who have daughters of their own - to come by and see what they could get!
The only snafu from yesterday was my jewelry box - a few years ago, Poseidon and the kids bought me a very lovely jewelry box for either Mother's Day or my birthday. Both are in May so it could have been either, all I remember is Miss Hurricane was pretty young at the time! I had decided to sell it a couple months ago, so I went through it and bagged up the jewelry I was also going to sell, and dropped that baggie in the necklace holding area. Yesterday morning, I did so much so early that I didn't even think to look inside again (solid wood - no glass to see through), and I'm pretty sure the lady who bought it late that morning was super excited when she found that little surprise! I do remember that she paid the full $5 I asked, and had I remembered about the jewelry, that really would have only added about another $5 to it and I'd have sold it all together anyway (I know I put the hemp necklaces and bracelets that I made in there). Fortunately, I know (and double checked last night!) that I did indeed keep every bit of jewelry I wanted to keep, so I lost nothing important to me. But I didn't remember anything about jewelry until the afternoon, at which time I frantically tried to imagine what was in the bags! I was pretty sure I hadn't just given away something important - I have my wedding bands and a couple others that were special, I have a couple necklaces (one of which I wear almost daily), a few bracelets and some earrings - and when I checked later, I did still have all those pieces. Whew :)
Besides that incident, the day went very well and we managed to sell off everything except the bulk of the clothing, the toys, and some kitschy stuff that everyone has at yard sales. I did get sunburnt on my back, but it isn't too bad; our friends let us borrow their tent that they use to sell tie dyes at festivals and craft fairs, so we kept a lot of things in the shade and ourselves inside the house whenever possible!
Today we are going through what's left and taking pictures of what still in good sellable condition - the rest will probably go to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. This week we will be attempting to sell our bed, the couch, the washer/dryer set we bought for the house (unless the landlady wants to buy them?), and our small appliances that we're still using for a bit. The last three days of the month will be for cleaning an empty house, and hopefully one more playdate with Miss Hurricane's good friend and birthday buddy from school; I love her mom too, and we've been able to chat more this past school year, even though we met when our boys were in elementary and the girls were just wee nurslings!

Time to get super busy now... we have storms here now and it's supposed to rain all day so it's a 'work inside' day for us. Feed the kids, make more coffee, and off we go! Have a great week everyone, and many blessings your way!! :-)

~Amphitrite

What's going on around here.....

Okay, I know it's been a few weeks, so I thought I should write a little update for those of you following along at home:

The kids have been with my in-laws this week; it's VBS week at their church, and the kids have really enjoyed it in years past. I'm sure I'll get pictures soon! :)

We are almost ready for the yard sale, which will be a week from today. I really had NO IDEA how much *stuff* we had here! We seriously have two piles (which seem to breed when we're not looking!) that go almost to the ceiling... we hadn't sold or given away much of anything in the last few years, so it is a truly ridiculous amount of stuff.

Last night we started scanning in old pictures. I have had this fancy shoebox for about 15 years in which I've kept mine, and Poseidon has his own similar box of pictures going back about 20 years. All our married life, we have shuffled these boxes around - in closets, under the desks, in the kids' room, everywhere - always intending to "someday" scan them onto a hard drive. We are finally doing that! He started Wednesday night, worked on it a little yesterday afternoon, and all day today... in just my photo box, we so far have almost 1,000 pictures. Yes, one thousand!! And, because he was born in 1998, over half the pictures are of Mister Twister!! (He was born a few years before we owned a digital camera LOL) We will sort them out and put them up on our Flickr as soon as we can. I am so glad for some great advice at my first baby shower - "take lots and lots of pictures, they grow up way too fast!" - absolutely I did, and soon I will share them with you. It's had me tearing up a bit to remember some of those days, especially now that he's almost 12 years old - turning into a young man on me. *sniff*

To finish out the week with no kids, we will be doing some cleaning here too. We will turn in our keys on the 30th, and cleaning a little at a time will make everything easier on us. All that's really left will be to hand the utilities back over into the landlord's name and to pack everything up!

Back to the scanning... I will certainly come back with a link once we have the pix ready! Have a great week everyone :D

~Amphitrite

Miss Hurricane begins her 7th year!

Yes, our baby girl is 7 years old now. Going on 17... LOL

Not much of a party per se, but my in-laws did take both kids to dinner last night and we had cake & ice cream here afterward. Poseidon was the photographer of the night! :)

We had a Jetsons kind of party ~ Mom and I both have Skype, so we called her and everyone was able to see and hear everything at both houses, even though there are 100 miles between us. The kids and my parents absolutely loved it; it's the coolest thing since sliced bread now!

The cake, pictured here before the addition of strawberry pieces which spelled her name:

I'm holding my MacBook so everyone at Mom's house can join in the singing of Happy Birthday.  L-R: Miss Hurricane, me, (via Skype) my oldest niece, my mom, and my MIL holding the other camera:

Wish made, candles blown out, and now she's grinning for the cameras:

Time for presents!  She picked out a messenger bag-style carrying/storage case for her DSi (here's an Amazon link).  It's pink, and that's all she requires of things she owns.  Here I'm showing it to Mom and niece:

At dinner, which was eaten at a local place similar to Chuck E. Cheese, Miss Hurricane won some games and earned enough tickets to 'buy' a set of pom poms with a streamer baton.  "I want to be a cheerleader!"  Um .... okay?  (She did ask for poms but we couldn't find any; she only gave us a couple days' notice that she wanted them!):

Our baby is growing up.  *sniff*

Blessings,
Amphitrite

A funny thing happened last week.

The funny story I promised you:

Last week, I think on the 12th, the kids were in their room playing quietly (i.e. not fighting!) while we grownups were reading online. We'd already eaten dinner and everyone was basically relaxing a little before showers and bedtime, putting the time this happened right around 7-7:30 p.m.
The boy was building with Legos, and we thought his sister was helping or at least doing the same thing. We soon found out differently!

I was sitting at the dining room table, reading Fark.
Poseidon was across the room from me, at the desk, reading somewhere else.
Miss Hurricane came into the room and stood by me for a minute, all the while looking back into the bedroom (which is just out of sight from where I sat).
Mister Twister was still in the bedroom... so I asked her if something was wrong.
Being siblings, sometimes they irritate each other - that is what I thought may have been going on at the time. She ignored my question and crept back into the bedroom.

At this point, I thought she was acting a little strange; however she has acted this way before, and I didn't hear any yelling or anything from the bedroom, so I let it go. I figured if she wanted to tell me, she would eventually.

So... she ignored and went back. I went back to reading. Not thirty seconds later, I hear her scream. It was the kind of blood-curdling scream that scares a momma out of her skin. I have heard Miss Hurricane let out this particular scream a few times before, and it's usually only unleashed when she sees a snake in the back yard.

Timeline now is: girl screams - I fly out of my chair - she runs out of the bedroom screaming.

I saw a look of absolute terror on her face. I thought for sure there was a snake in the room. *THEN* Mister Twister starts screaming and he also ran full-speed out of the bedroom, with his own terrified look.

And here's where I freak out, thinking now that maybe there is actually a *person* in their room. I thought I may have heard three screams, but I felt certain that one came from outside the house (neighbor kids, possibly). That did not matter at the time, because as the kids are screaming, I am trying to corral them into the kitchen and Poseidon is freaking out a bit as well.

Now we're all screaming - parents trying to figure out what just happened, kids freaking out over something that terrified them both. Mister Twister's eyes were solid black - he was so scared that his pupils dilated completely! Both kids were crying and even cowering in the corner of the kitchen, with Poseidon and I separating them from the rest of the house.

I took a step toward the bedroom to see if someone was in there, and I couldn't see anything amiss. So I grab the girl child and start the snuggling and asking what happened. The boy has his hands over his ears, eyes still as big as saucers and tears streaming down his face. I felt totally helpless and scared too.

Amid all the freaking out, I heard two words that explained it all: Miss Hurricane's little voice said "scare maze". Dots connected in my brain and I started giggling a little bit. I told their father what she said, and we two were okay and could now focus on calming the children. That is also when it clicked for me - I *did* hear a third scream.

After a few minutes I found out that she had been watching YouTube videos on the iPod Touch. I have always let her use my account (which is why my 'favorites' is loaded with Mario videos LOL), and she's always gone looking for either Mario videos, or funny animals.

**Here's a warning for the faint-of-heart or those who scare easily - also, if you have kids you may want to mute this or use headphones and don't let them see it until you know how it ends.**
Click HERE to see the video that scared our kids nearly to death. It isn't bad, not gory or anything, but for a child who isn't used to seeing or hearing those things it can be frightening!

This entire scene unfolded in a matter of minutes. Maybe three or four minutes, but its effects were felt throughout the next day.

It was a family bed kind of night - my husband slept with a kid on each side in our bed, and I took the pullout couch since I am the first one up on school mornings. Those poor kids... but it was funny in hindsight. The next day while they were at school, I went into my YouTube account and deleted the history so she wouldn't find that video again! I am also going to give her her own account (the boy will have one of his own too) and will set her up with some favorites - and SafeSearch turned ON. (That's my bad, I had it off and forgot... bad momma!)

File this under "Won't Do THAT Again, Will Ya?".

How do we look?

I have spent some free time over the last two days trying to rearrange and edit how the blog looks... I still have some ideas I am trying to implement, but for today I have settled on this layout. I think it suits our blog name much better!
A family update will come soon. I have a funny story to tell too, but it is still being written. I hope you have a great week!!

~Amphitrite