Back to Blogging?

Okay, there have been a lot of reasons that I haven't been blogging.  One of them is actually pretty stupid.  There were two obnoxious widgit graphics that appeared over my text and I didn't know how to get rid of them.  I know that I could look online to find out or just experiment with settings, but our internet can be SO slow sometimes (remember dial up speed?) and with the boys constantly distracting me it was just not something that I was doing.  Today (I hope) I did it!  Yay!  Now that that isn't there to bother me, perhaps I will get back to more regular blogging.  At least I have been doing monthly updates of what I have been doing with the boys on my blog http://entertainingmykids.blogspot.com/

I want to write a bit about our trip to Etosha last month, but for now I will write about my tripS to the store to buy food.  This morning I went to the fruit and vegetable market to buy produce and milk.  That was all that I needed.  I got the produce.  I can generally accept that our produce is trucked in from South Africa and does not always look the way I expect produce to look.  I can also usually deal when an item or two is out of stock.  Today there was no milk to buy.  Correction, there was no milk that had an expiration date any later than today.   There was some with yesterday's date and some with today's date.  That doesn't really help me for the rest of the week.

This afternoon I decide to head out to the market to buy milk.  My husband wants some ramen for work as well.  Simple enough.  Still, since I am making the trip I might as well buy for the week.  They had tortillas in stock (yay!) which I have not seen for three weeks.  We are out, so I bought five packages of eight tortillas to put in our freezer.  That starts us out at $15 US.  I continue, happy that they do have milk AND ramen AND even the kind of yogurt my kids like.  The dates on the products are all good.  Of course since I am buying so much I figure I should get flour since I am low, chips, etc. etc.  Once we get over the magic number of $15 US we need to get a tax receipt so we can be reimbursed for the 15% tax on things here.  (Your state tax isn't sounding so bad now, is it?)  I load up the cart and decide I should check how much money I brought.  I wasn't going to get much and now I have quite a bit.  I have about $100 US so I plan accordingly.  I end up buying about $70 worth of stuff.  The boys have been playing with food in the cart, trying to climb out, making loud noises, grabbing for things on the shelves, etc. etc.  I am so frazzled as I check out that I forget to get my tax receipt.  Grrrr... I could wait in the looooooooong line at customer service, but I really don't want to be with my screaming demons a moment longer.  There goes $10 US down the drain.  I know, not a huge sum, but it still makes me mad.  There was no good reason not to get that "free" money. 

So we get home and the boys are walking so slowly while I am carrying heavy bags.  They are fighting to get in the house and I open the door without turning off the alarm first.  I have to push past the kids who are hanging on my legs and trying to be the first ones in the house and get over to the control panel to turn it off before the alarm company starts calling.  Then Ryan is upset and needs comforting.  Justin decides to help put away the food because he knows I am not pleased with them.  He puts some in special "tricky" places for me.  Lovely.  I think I have found everything.  I wish I hadn't been busy with Ryan so long.

Good thing I got more than milk and ramen because I am NOT looking forward to my next trip to the store!

Why doesn't Justin sleep?

Sigh. I just finished reading my sister's latest blog entry. I shouldn't do that before I write. It discourages me. It would be fun to be creative and witty with my entries, but I find myself struggling to even put together somewhat coherent sentences. I want to record some of my thoughts and the events of the week because I know otherwise I will forget them all too soon. I am going with the theory that something is better than nothing.

This week I decided to sort through my floppy disks. I mean, do I really need behavior tracking sheets I created for students over ten years ago? What about scoring software for a test that is now obsolete? So many things I found I just didn't need, especially not on floppy. Well, silly me was going to get rid of them. What was I thinking?!? Justin has decided they are the best toy ever. I mean, you can stack them, line them up, act out five monkeys jumping on the bed with them, build them into a birthday cake... The list just goes on and on and on. I think that I should think of a marketing angle and sell the things as the newest and greatest toy.

Justin has also been enjoying the wooden blocks that his grandparents sent him. He builds a lot of towers and animal playgrounds. He was particularly proud of this structure. I am not sure why, but for some reason this one is cool in his mind and he wanted a picture of it.

He has really been getting worn out this week. We have been playing out on the playground for a couple of hours each morning and then coming home for a snack. Justin will then ask to watch something on TV and totally crash within minutes. It isn't his normal nap time, but I won't argue with him sleeping. I will take peace and quiet whenever I can get it. If only Tiny would sleep at the same time so I could have a little nap myself. Not sure that I can complain about Tiny though. Right now I am up with Justin. It is almost 4:40 on Monday morning. Justin has been up since 2:00 AM. He appears to have insomnia. I didn't know toddlers got insomnia. Surprise!

Ryan turned five months old today. Yesterday I thought he turned five months. Evidently I don't know what day it is half the time. I had decided to start solids at five months. I think I started Justin at four months and he wasn't that into it. Tiny was ravenous! I had to make more! I tried nursing him when he still seemed hungry and he refused. He wanted that great flavor of rice cereal. He sure can track that spoon and get his mouth open and ready.

We received a huge box of hand me down clothes from my sister-in-law this week. Justin was quite excited. He loved piling them on the floor and making a cozy nest for himself. He also expressed that he liked to roll around in them. I don't mind too much when he does things like that until he takes clean, folded clothes and does it.

All in all they are good kids. They are so cute together. My favorite sound is the two of them laughing together. I try to remember that when my eyes get heavy and I have trouble focusing.