Lather, Rinse, Repeat: A Rant about Facebook

I've had an exciting evening.  I've been cleaning out my attic and recently posted a couple of hockey bags for sale on some local sales sites via facebook.  I've been corresponding with a couple of buyers via messenger.  I have one bag sold with a pickup tomorrow and was in the middle of getting the other sale set up when this happened.  

Wait... what???  My account is temporarily locked??  Ok.  I guess I'll do the security check to secure my account...

I had to complete the security challenge, which is REALLY hard to read, and then identify a few friends photos... no problem.  

I then had to create a new password... I can do that too.

Yes!!!  I'm all set and ready to return to facebook.

What the....  Ok, I'll just click on my desktop icon and.....

$%&*!!!!!

I've now completed the same task about eight times now.  I've identified friend's photos, correctly stated my first grade teacher's last name, had a verification text sent to me via my cell phone.  Everything.  I cannot unlock my account.  I can't access it via my phone or ipad either.  It just keeps going in an endless loop.  If I ever do connect again, I'll never remember my password because I'VE CHANGED IT EIGHT TIMES!!!

Here's the worst part.  There's no way to contact Facebook.  It's showing I have an active account and it's telling me that I have to log in to make a complaint or request help which I cannot do.  There's also no way to e-mail them.  I even found a phone number for facebook that is specifically set up so when you call them they say YOU CANNOT CONTACT FACEBOOK OVER THE PHONE!!!  Who does that????  I have some select words for Mark Zuckerberg right now.  

I just wanted to declutter my attic and sell some hockey bags... apparently that's asking too much.  *sigh*  

Dogs in Paradise

Pumpkin Carving!

More silly photos from the teens and tweens

Sam and Allie wanted to take photos with their "friends"...

Tommy likes to hike his shorts up and document it.  Phoenix (the dog) is very confused...

Never Boring Living With Teenagers.

Blink

It's crazy to think that it's been nearly 5 years since my last post.  I was back on here to scour my blog for pictures of my father-in-law.  He passed away two days ago and we've been preparing photos for the slide show at his service.  Hard to believe how quickly my kids have grown and life has passed.  I guess it takes a death for me to get back on here.... it's that busy.

Grandpa with Petey in 1997

It's tricky now too.  My kids are not as excited to pose with tupperware on their heads and dance for the camera.  They are more likely to give me sarcastic looks and text on their phones.  My days consist of driving around a lot.  Not the most post-worthy activities.  I should do that though... post a map of my driving escapades if for no other reason but to remind me that I'm not just imagining that my life is a blur.

So how does one keep up with the demands of life and still try to savor it?  It's really a legitimate question that I don't have an answer to.  Pete's in college (!) now, my "baby" is almost 10.  Our life has switched from internal activities within our home to external ones throughout the region.  With each child involved in one activity a couple times a week, it makes for multiple activities every night.

It begs to ask the question though.  Can I find joy in documenting teenagers and some tweens?  Will they let me?  They always seem to enjoy reading the older posts but never seem to want to allow me to photograph them in the present *sigh*.  It's something to ponder.....

Soda Thoughts

I'm giving up soda for the New Year. It's sort of like New Year's and Lent rolled into one shot. I like these dorky self-improvement holidays. I like the feeling of trying to conquer my perceived weaknesses. Although, I must admit, soda is not a true love of mine...not like chocolate (which I also gave up for a year). No, this is not a love, just an occasional fling that has empty, unnecessary calories. I really do want better health and fitness this year so this is a natural resolution.

So here's the confusion... where do I stop? If I'm giving up soda because I don't want the empty beverage calories, then shouldn't I also give up all juice drinks? I won't give up 100% juice because I find it helpful to grab some in the morning when I'm on the run and can't sit and eat a meal. So it's now soda and drinks that are not 100% juice. But here's the real dilemma... what about hot drinks (i.e. hot chocolate) which are, in my opinion, a necessity in the wintertime? Do I give those up too?

I think I'll keep the hot chocolate and give that up for the real lent or something like that. Nothing that's too long term. Although I don't drink soda all the time, I don't want to lose my sanity and fail miserably...I have to keep my choco. It is, after all, my true love. =)

Here's hoping it leads to better health and fitness. Happy New Year's Everyone! Drink a soda for me!

Where did the year go?

It's hard to believe we are nearing the end of 2010. I can't believe how quickly this year passed. I've definitely let my blog lapse. It seemed a bit inconsequential but I miss it. My kids miss it too. Although they never let on in the past, they enjoyed looking at my blog and seeing the "old" pictures.

When my brother-in-law passed away last month, my kids spent the better part of an afternoon looking at the blog and remembering some of the fun day-to-day events that occured in our life. I think it was therapeutic for them. Memories I would have definitely forgotten were great reminders of our life together. I really don't want to take that for granted... so I will write.

Writing in my blog more often is my New Year's resolution (along with giving up soda for a year and losing a bajillion pounds). I'm not sure this blog will ever be interesting or provocative, but I'm ok with that. My reality is that my life is neither... but it's good.

As an update, we are in the middle of our birthday marathon. Allie turned five yesterday. We did a standard Chuck E. Cheese's party (or as my friend would say "Upchuck E. Cheeses" as it seems someone always winds up sick from going there). Thankfully no one got sick... just a little exhausted and had a near meltdown in the car. Thankfully Allie pulled it together before I had to take a picture to document the moment. Sammy's birthday is next Friday and we are still unsure as to how we will celebrate, I'll try to figure that out tonight. I haven't even started to think about Tommy's (on Jan 12), and poor Bobby (22nd) will again be left with the afterthoughts of a birthday celebration. That's how we roll here... by the seat of our birthday pants.

More musings, updates, and picts later....

R.I.P. Bob

It's been incredibly busy for us and my blog has been neglected but I felt I needed to take some time and acknowledge a member of our family who was never really invited. Pete acquired "Bob Big Butt" (later known just as "Bob") crayfish during his first science unit in the 4th grade. The teacher had promised us that the crayfish would only live for "two weeks- max"! Three and a half years later, I watched him take his final crawl. I think it's for real this time, I don't think he's molting, he's growing mossy and the snails seem to be closing in for a meal.

We knew he was slowing down. He was not attacking the snails the way he used to. We calculated him to be about 227 years old in crayfish years so it was no surprise when he went belly up this morning. Bob provided much excitement in his tank antics over the years and I want to thank him for providing some excitement in a washed up housewife's life. Hope you enjoy the big fish tank in the sky Bob.

Too Long

I suppose it's been a while since my last post. I was in the throngs of Christmas, the birthday marathon, even a long weekend away with Bobby. I've been busy.

I probably should post picts from the past month, and I will... probably in one long post, but right now I wanted to post a really funny site I came across called totallylookslike.com. This site is really funny and the humor is clean. Here are some of my favorites....

Testing the tech...

I'm posting this from my phone. Cool stuff. Here's hoping it works.
We went to the art museum last week. Matty and I had fun and I have wanted to post this photo from my phone.

Big day tomorrow. Allie is sick and laying on the couch, Sammy has
been intermittently going upstairs to try to fall asleep early so
Christmas will come sooner... so cute. The other kids are biding
their time by watching Spongebob and wearing their Christmas pajamas already.

Busy week and I'm not quite done (late with my cards). Oh well, not
much to do about that now.... Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Snow Day!!!

Play in snow.... check. Now I just need to keep them occupied for the next 12 hours. =)

I Did It!!!!

It wasn't pretty, but I did it. I'm not sure what it proved other than I can post drivel every day for thirty days. I did it though, and cleaned out all the pictures lingering on my desktop too. I can now return to my lower stress, occasional posting lifestyle. I know I said it last year, but I really don't think I can, in good conscience, subject anyone to my daily posts next year. Time will tell though.

Happy Birthday Matty!

I can't believe he's 10... that's all that keeps running through my mind. My little snuggle bug is 10... and not so snuggly now. =( He is lovely though, and I'm so glad he was entrusted to me. I've really loved having him home this year and getting to know him better. He's such a cool kid, really bright, and so very kind to his siblings.

It was a really nice celebration this year. We went to the area waterpark, ate Matt's favorite meal (shrimp alfredo with broccoli), and had his new favorite dessert (fruit tart). It was a blast. Happy birthday Matty- man!

We also had a celebration bonus of Tommy losing his first tooth. Yay Tommy!

One post left... Yay me!!!

Thanksgiving Was So Two Days Ago...

I mentioned yesterday that I purchased some Black Friday deals, one of which was a Christmas tree. Our old tree did not survive the two recent moves and had to be retired to Christmas tree heaven. The new tree seemed to be just right, and it came with some garland, a wreath, and two little topiary plants. It was Christmas in a box, what's not to like?

No sooner had I brought the box in, the kids descended upon it and started digging into the box. Soon after, the Christmas ornaments were brought down from the attic, and before I knew what was happening, we were decorating for Christmas. I figured the box might sit in the corner for a week or so before we decorated, at least a few days... but with the a hockey game in the background, we trimmed the tree and decorated. Here are a few picts....

Ever since they brought out the decorations, the kids refuse to take off their Santa hats. We even went over to Bob's sister's house last night to eat some more Thanksgiving leftovers and the kids were all decked out in their Christmas outfits. It seems a wee bit disrespectful to Thanksgiving, but hey, not much I can do about that now... that ship has sailed.

We're actually away today to a local water park to celebrate Matt's birthday. Full report tomorrow...

11th Hour Post

Four more posts and I'm done for the month. I have things to blog about, but in a normal world (or if I was a normal person), I would not be doing this at 11pm at night. It was a busy day, in my defense. I shopped a few Black Friday specials, we partially decorated for Christmas, I even applied for a passport today. Yes, lots going on. It almost made me forget Thanksgiving was yesterday, but then what would I blog about?

Thanksgiving was nice; calm, relatively relaxing, great food. Can't really ask for more. I cooked up four pounds of corn and about three and a half were eaten (because of my mad kitchen skills- oh yea...) I snapped a few pictures of the buffet line. Notice all my pictures are of people scooping up the corn (that actually was not my intent, but it is true)...


After dinner there was singing...

Allie entertained us with her dancing....


And of course dessert (these are the remnants, I was too busy eating to take a picture)...


One post down, three posts left to go. I'm definitely not doing this next year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm sure some of you have been up for hours already making the rolls and starting on your turkey. I am currently laboring over the frozen kernels of corn entrusted to me. It will a demanding morning but well worth the effort.

In all seriousness, I have a lot to be thankful for. My family: here in town, and spread around the country. My friends: here in town, and spread around the country. I'm grateful for my health and for the health of the ones I love. I'm thankful for a warm home, and good food to eat. I'm thankful for having the best husband that a woman could ask for. I have much to be thankful for.

At this particular moment, I'm also thankful for my cousin, who posted this photo I love. While I am thankful for much on Thanksgiving, I'm not really thankful for pumpkin pie. I've never been able to get past the appearance. This photo perfectly summarizes my opinion of pumpkin pie. May all who partake pumpkin pie today be haunted with this image....


Seriously though, hope everyone has a wonderful day! Full Thanksgiving report tomorrow...

Blog Post Derailed

I'm out of blogging material. I make no bones about that. If it wasn't so late in the month I would throw in the towel, but I figure with Thanksgiving and Matt's birthday, I can hold out. Until then though, it's slim pickings.

Today I decided that I could blog about Matt's piano lessons. As a homeschooling mom, it's a perk that I can force Matt to take piano as part of his music curriculum. I also have him take a shower as part of his curriculum... no joke. It's on the daily checklist and everything.

I was all set to write about his piano progress. I even took pictures of his lesson today. Matt, however, demanded that I not blog about it. He does not want to be on my blog, especially if it's about piano. I believe his words were "If you are so excited about piano, why don't you take piano lessons yourself and then blog about that?". Apparently, he's not such a fan of piano and does not want the photos on the web. At least I have a picture of him playing the piano, it might be the only one I get... ever. He also was upset that I posted the pictures of him doing math a few days ago.

He obviously values his privacy, which I can respect but now I'm in a pickle as to what to post. This was my "hail Mary" pass until the bonanza of blogging material that would be available tomorrow. So I'm posting a cheap blog post today. It's from failblog. Living near the border, this one made me giggle...


Let the record show, though, I tried to be original...

Possible Christmas Photo???

After last year's horrible Christmas photo, I think I'm off professional photos. My kids never hold still and it just turns into a miserable day trying to get my kids cleaned and into clothes they don't want to wear. As an experiment, I snapped three pictures of my kids smashed together on our couch. To my amazement, this one didn't turn out half bad (with the exception of the dog which I don't really care about)...


What do you think? Christmas card worthy?

All in a Morning's Work

I'm running a little behind with my blogging today. Last Friday and this Monday the kids had a half school day. It makes it tough to get anything done. Also, I am out of topics and ideas... it's kind of depressing. I can't even blog about anything interesting for 23 days in a row. When I am reduced to listing the item(s) I am bringing to Thanksgiving dinner, it's bad.

The boys just settled in to play Mario Brothers. They pooled their money together on Saturday to buy the video and are still in the honeymoon (zoned out) period...

That makes the most entertaining creatures in the house Kiko and Allie. Allie always stays very busy and still claims she is going to be an artist when she grows up (or a dancer). Here is her handiwork for the morning....