TotSpot

I found this great site for keeping track of all the kiddos. I like the way each child shows as a tab on the account ~ certainly makes it nice if you have more than one child to access their "page" more easily!

Visit TotSpot

Painting.... Finger and otherwise

As I write this Mimi is sitting at the table next to me finger painting her little heart out. Letting her finger paint is a huge step for me as I don't usually like activites that help her get dirty. Whoever invented finger paint obviously didn't see eye to eye with me on this issue. Our blue tube of paint is missing from the art supply bucket which is odd. Mimi thinks "Somebody tooked it". I think the somebody was probably Mimi.

We are almost done priming the upstairs and one wall in MiMi's room has been painted. I decided to do the bulk of it in Sleeping Beauty Pink and will give in to MiMi's wish of Mickey Pant Red on the eaves of the room. It won't be long now. The painted should be done by the end of next weekend and then we will make a trip to Ikea and have the carpet done. I am hoping the girls will be in their new bedrooms by Mid October. A VERY far cry from the January 08 date I was given in the beginning.

Today MiMi and I will be making some chicken and rice soup for lunch and then a Pork Roast for later tonight. Funny today is soup weather ~ raining and 50's tomorrow will be 85! Such is life in New England in the Fall!

Fall Weekends in New England

If you have never been here I can't begin to describe the actual feeling that us New Englanders know in our bones. The weather is crisp in the morning ~ crisp enough that you want to put the heat on in the house, but alas we hold out. We throw on our sweatshirts and socks for the first time in months and weather through the early morning chill, knowing full well that it will be 75 by noon time.

We start to notice that the trees are no longer that crisp green color and realize they soon will be a wonderous rainbow of colors. We think of many things during this season and look forward to them all. Fall in New England means: Football, apple picking, pumpkin picking, hay rides, simmering soup and the smell of new pencils.

This is honestly my favorite time of year. We enjoy it to the maximum and I hope to make sure that my children wind up with that same sadden excitement about fall. It is hard to let our short summer go and it is sad to think of what is to come after our fall season ~ but oh so worth it to enjoy this beautiful, magnificent experience we call Fall.

I will share pictures of our Fall outings this year as well as my favorite soup recipes as I simmer them all day long.

Why Bank of America Sucks!

We have had four major issues with Bank of America this year which have resulted in them charging us fees they refuse to reverse. I am sure we are not the only ones that encounter this kind of bullshit.

1. They double posted an entire day worth of transactions including CHECKS that showed the same image online with the same check number and everything. They proceeded to take several days to correct charging us overdraft fees daily in the amoubt of 175$ per day. They also returned the DUPLICATED checks saying NSF ~ this generated fees from the people those checks were written to.

2 & 3. Money transfered from savings to checking comes out of savings and NEVER appears in checking. I think this is a technique they use if it looks like your transfer is to cover a check you are writing then oops you go negative again because they "lost" your transfer. The latest case of this happening was Tuesday Sept 2nd generating 175$ in fees. They called and said it was fixed.... but lo and behold it is not. Now we are out the 175$ PLUS the money that is "missing" in account transfer.

4. They mysteriously 'unlinked' our accounts making it so we didn't meet the minimum requirements on our checking account for free checking and began charging us a maintenance fee ~ which they got three out of me before I noticed it and they refused to reverse the first two since they were so old.

Needless to say we are closing our accounts with Bank of America and encourage you to pay VERY close attention to your transactions with this Bank.

Good luck to any Bank of America customers.

Long time no blog.

It has been a while. Things are starting to settle down at the Heskett household. Zoe has been weaned from the bottle and is sleeping through the night and both girls are settled in at the new school. Turns out that it was the right move for both girls. I was concerned about Zoe but she is blossoming and doing awesome!

The first week the were at the new school I was informed when I picked up Mena that we would be taking Peanut home for the weekend. My mind flashed to the three hampsters and two rabbits currently caged in her classroom and I was panicked. I could barely take care of myself, two small children and a husband ~ a small furry creature had no chance of surviving the weekend at my house. My face must have shown my utter panick since the teacher said, "Oh, don't worry Peanut is the class stuffed animal." Okay I can handle that.

But could I? Then I started having mini panic attacks about losing Peanut the class stuffed animal after only one week at the new school and how I would find a replacement Peanut. I was tempted to leave the stuffed bear in the car all week as a protection program. Alas, Mena and Zoe were both totally enamoured with him and we ended up dragging him around all weekend. I began to relax about him a little on Sunday afternoon.

Dan takes Mena and Peanut to Home Depot Sunday afternoon and comes home with this story:

Mena needed to go potty and Dan didn't want to bring Peanut in the boys potty at Home Depot (I guess they aren't the best) so he sets Peanut on a bench close to the potty. Well when they came out... lo and behold Peanut was gone.

So Mena starts to scream "Help! Help! Help!" about 10 Home Depot came over and Mena says "Someone took Peanut!" Dan is like... "Don't worry Peanut is a stuffed animal" because they were about to go on an "Amber" lockdown. So they paged down to the service desk and Peanut was there. Dan and Mena got there and Mena told the lady that she "Wasn't very nice for taking Peanut" and threw back the stickers that they lady was trying to give her.

2.2 More Lbs Gone!

So YEAH! I lost another 2.2lbs ~ which means that I am almost 1/2 way to my weight loss goal in just two weeks with five more weeks to go! At this rate I may have to change my goal before Labor Day!

I am so excited that I am already counting weeks and deciding what my birthday goal should be... then what my Christmas goal should be!

Ah the wonders of water!

2.4 lbs GONE!

Well even without a whole lot of effort and just being mindful of what I am eating and making sure I get my water in I have lost 2.4lbs! So I have just 7.6 more lbs to go to make my labor day goal!

Of course it has rained practically every day here since I decided to start losing some weight. Hopefully the weather will improve and I get myself out and walking!

I am excited now to make my goal so that I can set my next one!