What's that smell?

Ok, so Eric made it through his procedure ok. He's still alive. Barely. I'm kidding. But he did tell me that he was in so much pain, he thought he was dying. He was a whole new respect for women who have given birth now. Anyway, it's done and not something he ever wants to experience again.

Now, onto the topic at hand. I received a catalog yesterday from Yankee Candle. I really love the smell of most of their candles. But sometimes I wonder where in the world they come up with some of those scents. They have just released their new summer scents and there were even some scratch and sniff's in the catalog. The first one I came to was "Ocean Water". Ok, not bad. I don't know anyone who really wants to have a candle that smells like ocean water because honestly, I think the ocean stinks. Then I came to the next one. "Dune Grass" Are you kidding me?! Dune Grass? Who in their right mind wants to have their house smelling like dune grass? Well let's scratch and sniff anyway. EWWWWWW. Excuse me while I go puke. I didn't think anything could smell worse than that. I thought wrong. "Fresh Cut Herbs" was next. The name sounded alright. Scratch and sniff. Double EWWWWWWW. It smelled like rotten grass. It was twice as bad as the dune grass. And I'm sitting here thinking, people want their house smelling like this? I'll stick with the Fudge Ripple scent. That one didn't even have a scratch and sniff. I assume that's because it probably smells great and people would buy that one instead of one of the nasty smelling ones such as "Beach Walk" which smells like moldy wood to me. Where do they come up with this stuff? You can click on this link if you're really interested in having your house smell like rotten grass or moldy wood.

The Power of a Look

A look can be quite effective when you want something. My daughter gives me a "puppy dog" look when she wants something and probably about 75% of the time, it works. My son hasn't discovered the look yet. When he wants something, he whines or screams at the top of his lungs, which is quite effective too. When the trash is nearly overflowing, I can just look at my husband and he knows, the trash needs to go out. The look can work on strangers too. When I'm at a store waiting for someone to come help me, I can stand there looking annoyed and that probably works about 25% of the time. Last week is a wonderful example of the power of a look. It was around 10:00 p.m. The kids were asleep in bed. I was in my nightgown in bed watching TV when all of a sudden, the windows start rattling because our neighbor kid has his dang car stereo turned up. Now, I don't mind loud stereos during the day so much. I've been known on occasion to turn up my radio when a good song comes on the radio. But this was 10:00 at night. I waited a few minutes thinking maybe he would be turning it off soon. Finally, I was ticked. I was worried he was gonna wake up the kids. So I put some pants on and walked to the front door. I first turned on the porch light thinking that maybe if he saw that come on, he might have enough sense to turn the dang thing off. I waited. Still playing. That was it. I opened the door, flung open the screen door, stepped out and gave this kid the "Look". You know the one. The look that says if you don't turn that damn thing off, I'm gonna come over there and turn it off permanently. He was in the process of walking towards his house, with his car stereo still blaring. I must have given him a pretty dang good look because when he saw me, he said, "OK" and ran back to his car and turned it off. I didn't even have to say a single word. I calmly walked back inside shut the door, turned out the light and went to bed. Ahhhhh. The power of a look.

Finished Packing FINALLY!!

And it only took about 10 months. I've spent the past couple of weeks rearranging, organizing, and cleaning the house. There are absolutely no more boxes in our house! I put everything I wanted to keep (i.e. old school awards, mine and Eric's diplomas, etc.) went into Rubbermaid containers (I could buy stock in Rubbermaid) and anything that neither of us wanted anymore either went into the trash or into the garage sale pile. I got our master bathroom completely organized so now you can actually see the countertop. I rearranged our bedroom and you can actually walk through it (so long as a certain someone keeps their clothes picked up!). All of this was a really big task and I feel so relieved that I have finally finished it. I'll try to take pictures later today and post them. I'm really proud of this accomplishment and anyone that has ever moved knows exactly how I feel right now.

On another note, Eric is having laser Lithotripsy done Thursday morning for a kidney stone. It's a non-invasive procedure where they use shock waves to break up kidney stones that are too big to pass. He has one right now that is 7mm. He's not in any pain right so that's good, but the doctor wants to get it out ASAP before it gets any bigger. So we'll be checking into the Kansas Medical Center at the butt-crack of dawn 5:00 a.m. on Thursday morning. Unfortunately, Eric will have to miss 2 days of work. Let me rephrase. Eric gets to miss 2 days of work for this. He has to be on an all liquid diet all day Wednesday along with drinking two bottles of magnesium citrate. But at least he doesn't have to have surgery to have it removed. Thank goodness for technology.

Both kids are doing great. Ereka's favorite phrase right now is "I don't want to live with you no more". Four year olds are so much fun!

Final Round!!

So now the Wichita Wingnuts have made it to the final round. I wonder if KU will be so lucky. Anyway, here is an updated link (http://www.cnbc.com/id/23898413). So go vote for the Wichita Wingnuts!! I may have to actually take up a baseball game this year and see how well they really play. I wonder if they can live up to their logo. hmmmm.