Random Thoughts By Amanda

1. Remodeling a house is not all it's cracked up to be. Don't get me wrong I love being able to pick out the colors and design of everything but it really bites when one person helping you hurts his back and the other person helping is sick. That just leaves a handful of girls and I need boys with big strong arms! haha! Oh well. It gets done when it gets done.

2. I'm so excited about my 5 days in St Louis I could almost pee my pants! I just absolutely LOVE that place. If the mortgage biz wasn't in the toilet I would pack my happy little home up and move there. However, now is not exactly the time to be looking for a job. Plus I love my job and my family here in Arkansas.

3. Nykile has been strangely good the past week or so. Calm before the storm maybe?

4. Being on a budget and having to cook your meals instead of have them prepared for you is for the birds!

5. I'm somewhat concerned that I can now fill up my gas tank for less than it takes for me and Nykile to eat at Chilis. Anybody else just fill like you are just waiting for the bottom to fall out from under you. It's so bad that I go to bed at night sometimes mentally preparing myself for gas to be 10 a gallon the next morning. Weird I know! I shouldn't really think about it. I should be trying to decide what I can spend my extra money on :)

6. One thing I've recently gotten into is Craigslist. Weird I know! But it's really interesting what people try to sell and why. Like they tell ya they need to sell to make next months mortgage payment. While I'm not unsympathetic but it's just not something I would share with the world. Anyway, I also bought a really COOL piece of furniture on CL. I would recommend it to anyone. If you want to sell it's great. So far I've sold about $200 worth of stuff in the last week. Cash money for just taking a picture and posting it. Not bad in my book. At least now I don't have to move it.

I will post some pics of the progress on my house soon.

Later

Closing: Office Visit

Guess what? I'm closing on Wed! I'm super excited although I was once REALLY excited about doing pretty much a complete re-model but one trip to Lowes cured me of my excitement. I should not say that I'm not excited but overwhelmed would be more accurate! There's so many choices for EVERYTHING! Paint for example, there's a million choices and I'm the most indecisive person there is when it comes to stuff like this. Here's what I've got so far:
Red in the kitchen
Herbal Green in the laundry room
Light Orange/Light Tan in my bed room
Limeade green in Ky's bathroom
Chalk Board wall & Red in Ky's room

As far as everything else I think that I will leave that up to the experts. HAHA


In other news my wonderful son got to visit the assistant principal for the 2nd time this week. Today's visit warranted a call to me so it was really bad. Really strange because he has been a saint all week for me. He thought that it was his job to be judge, jury and executor of justice. Yep he bit a boy on the leg because he was doing something he was not suppose to be doing. Somehow there's more to that story but that's all I got. So I picked him up early and life wasn't fun in the Poor household once we got home. For those reading that don't know Nykile, he really is a sweet, smart, & lovable child. We've just hit a rough patch that has lasted longer than I care to think about. :)

New House!!

Ok, so if all goes as planned I will officially be the owner of a new (to me anyway) home. I'm super excited! It's not move in ready yet but I'm getting it really cheap and it just needs new floors and paint and a few other minor things. Ya know completely move around the master bathroom. Minor, right?!?! Thankfully I have a wonderful step-dad that is 100% committed (and excited) to do all the work for me. That translates into free labor! Here are some pics....It's not mine yet but unless something goes completely wrong with the inspections it will be.


Kitchen
Just imagine new cabinets, more cabinets (notice where they took the top ones with them), new counter tops. I'm thinking white cabs with really big black knobs. Color schemes to be determined.


Nykile's Room
New flooring and paint a light blue.


2nd Bathroom
New sink & cabinets


Living Room
New flooring & paint


Master Bath
Huge room with lots of wasted space. This room is going to get a MAJOR overhaul and the first thing to go is this tub. Not really sure what the plan is yet but something has got to be done. This pic is taken from the door. To my right (behind the door) is the toilet, to my left is a sink with no counter space, next to the toilet is a stand up shower and right in front of me is the walk in closet. Check back for updated pics. Whatever we decide it's gonna be cute!

Now that I've gone to the trouble of doing all this there will be something major wrong with it show up on the inspection. But I hope not! :)

Timeline of a Rotten Day

Ok, so I told myself that I wouldn't post unhappy thoughts but that does not apply today.

5:45 am: Wake up (late!); find that Nykile is in bed with me; find that he wet the bed (you know the morning after you just put clean sheet on)

6:00 am: Getting ready; trying to get Nykile out of bed and in the bath tub

6:05 am: Nykile is finally taking a bath

6:13 am: Nykile getting dressed and crying loudly because he is cold: UGH!! Trying to explain to him that if he would hurry and get dressed he would not be cold.

6:15 am: Nykile coating himself in lotion; He gets some on the shirt he's wearing; throws a fit because his shirt has "stains" on it: UGH AGAIN!! Refuses to wear any other shirt because that is the "ONLY SHIRT I LIKE" (Yes he was screaming); Takes stained shirt off and announces with arms crossed that he's not wearing a shirt.

6:17 am: In a raised voice I inform him that he is wearing a shirt and either he can go pick one or I will pick it for him

6:18 am: Child storms off to go find a shirt

6:19 am: Returns with Hard Rock shirt with this skull on it (Yes, I did buy this shirt in the Caymans but I didn't notice the big skull on it until he points it out to me when I give it to him) 3rd UGH for the morning!!; I tell him that is not an nice enough shirt to wear to school; The beginnings of yet another fit

6:20 am: Stomps off to get another shirt

6:21 am: I hear crying/whinning from his room; In complete frustration I go see what the problem is NOW; The drama was created because he could not get the shirt he wanted off the hanger; mind you he was not giving it his best effort; I get the shirt down and hurry to finish getting ready

6:25 am: The take your lunch/eat at school debate begins for both breakfast and lunch. I guess the child was feeling sorry for me because he decides to eat both at school; A silent cheer goes off in my head!

6:26 am: Begins the battle of what coat to wear; Really...it's cold pick one; Of course the one he wants is out in the car. I march my happy little bottom to the garage and get it for him; He freaks out when he puts it on because "it's too cold"; That's it...I've had it and it's only 6:30 in the morning. I do the ultimate worst mom ever thing and YELL at him. Looking back now it was a horriable thing to do. I should have been more adult in my delivery. But keep in mind from the time that he got up he has whinned, cried or thrown a fit about EVERYTHING.

6:30 am: On the way to school; Thank goodness the drop off was uneventful (Not like other mornings when he runs away, screams and kicks the teacher so on and so forth)

7 am - 5 pm: Work; this and that happens but basically it's just another day at the office

5:15 pm: Pick Nykile up; I see the bad mood written all over his face; Great I think to myself

5:16 pm: Discussions of dinner; He wants to go to Acamabro with my mom; Call mom and she can't go; Yet another melt down, crying fit! (I'm seeing a pattern here)

5:17 pm: I announce plans to go to Acamabro have been put on hold until he can act like a 5 year old should

5:20 pm: Get home; Tell him to do his homework while I cook dinner; His response, "I don't want anything to eat & I won't do my homework, I won't do what you say!"

5:21 pm: TIME OUT NOW!

6:30 pm: He finally has followed the time out rules for long enough he can get up. (yes he was there for over an hour but in that time he was screaming, not sitting in the chair, and the list goes on)

6:31 pm: Attempting the homework while whinning/crying that he doesn't know his ABC's and all the sudden he has lost the ability to write. Really?!?!?! That handy since you have no problem any other time. Talks about why his color in class changed to yellow were met with a very loud yelp. In Nykile language that is I'm not going to talk about it and if you keep bringing it up I'm going to get louder.

6:40 pm: Waiting on dinner with him crying in the background that he's starving and going to die if he doesn't eat right now. He's able to multi task because at the same time he's spilling his lemonade all over the counter, himself and the floor.

6:45 pm: Finally dinner is served along with his complaints on the chicken, not enough rolls, he's cold, the counter is sticky, and I believe he threw a few other things in there as well.

7:00 pm: Bath time (yea we are almost to bed); Now the rest of the day has not gone well so I'm not sure why I thought that the bath would. However, it was minor in comparison to the rest of the day.

7:15 pm: Call the fashion police!!! I didn't bring him pj bottoms that matched the t-shirt. Oh My Goodness!

7:15-7:30 pm: Wind down time with a movie.

7:30 pm: FINALLY BED TIME!!!! But not without a fit about wearing boots to school tomorrow. "Well, X (girl from school) wore them today so I know we can" Now the boots in question are some my mom pick up somewhere, snow boots with the fur and every thing AND are about 3 sizes too big.

7:35 pm: Peace and Quiet. I just don't know what to do with myself.


Don't get me wrong I LOVE NYKILE but man today I was not sure that bedtime could get here soon enough. Tomorrow is another day & it's going to be a GREAT day!

Nykile's Prayer

Tonight over dinner Nykile & I were talking about what he did in church today. He informed me that he got the quiet seat prize and that means that he got to go on stage and lead the prayer. I told him how great that was & asked him what he prayed about. He told me that, "Dear God, please give all those boys and girls that are like me a dog. God we really want a dog." Not sure that was exactly what the leaders were looking for but I suppose they didn't specify what he had to pray about. :)

His prayer should have been for forgiveness for stealing from his teacher. Yes, that's right my 5 year old "stole" from the teachers desk. The routine check of his backpack this weekend reveled an ink pad, Curious George stamp, and a stuffed elephant. Odd things to come home from school with. So the questioning begins. The unedited version is that the ink pad and stamp were "treasure box" items and the elephant was a gift from a classmate who's name has slipped his mind. After that story didn't fly the final version (after several revisions I might add) is that X (name omitted to protect the innocent) gave him the ink pad and told him to take it home. Nykile does just that even though he knew that X had taken it from the teacher's desk. So technically he was being a follower and not a leader but that's just a technicality, which was completely over looked by his mother & the child still got in severe trouble. He is being sent to school with instructions to return all items to the appropriate owner's. Ownership of the elephant is still a mystery that I'm leaving up to the teacher to solve.

My prayer is that God gives me the widsom and sanity to survive this child! I'm beginning to think that I'm losing both.

Field Trip, Pumpkins, Backyard BBQ

Nykile went on his 1st real Field Trip earlier this week. I went with them. It was several classes of 5 year olds and we went to the one room school house for most of the day. It was interesting to say the least. Me and some of the other parents that went along walked away wondering why Kindergartners went to something like this. Such as it was the kiddos I think were just excited to get out of the school for a day. Here are some pics of Ky. I took others but they have his friends in it so I won't post those.



This is Ky and his homemade paper cup so germ weren't spread drinking out of the laddle.



Recess games played in 1905. I think this was called Gracies or something like that.






PUMPKINS


Gotta have the gloves to prevent pumpkin goop on our hands!










I'm a really good mother for doing this. I about gagged at the smell of this thing. So gross!

A Funny Birthday Card

Ok, so my loving cousin got me the following birthday card:

A Birthday Fairy Tale
Once upon a time, there was a princess who was like a size four or something. She could eat and drink whatever she wanted and always stayed really skinny and had flat, firm abs even though she never went to the gym. Every time she tried on jeans, the very first pair fit perfectly and made her butt look amazing. She lived in a great big, beautiful castle with her handsome, multimillionaire husband, who was busy all the time buying her giant diamonds, taking her to Hawaii, giving her foot massages, and telling her how beautiful she was. One day, she was eaten by a dragon and no one cared. The End.

I think that this is the funniest card I have ever received! I love it! Thanks Lesha.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!

My birthday is a big deal in my world. Not sure why but every year it becomes a bigger deal than the last. So today I get to work and of course Steph and Mike went to great lengths to trash my desk. I get the normal crazy birthday presents from Steph. Colored sharpie markers (I think a hint so I would stop using hers), an assortment of stress reliever balls (which are quite popular around my office) and a misc of other gifts. Then my friend Phil strolls in, late I might add with his gift. Here is a picture. Keep reading for the full story. Sorry, I can't get it turned the right way.




For those of you in NWA you know the whole story about Acambaro. For those that don't....a few months ago there was some immigration issues with a local mexican restaurant. Long story short a bunch of people got deported, owners put in jail, buildings seized by the Feds and such. Anyway, with it being a right down the road from my office and the good food it was a popular place for us to go. As you can imagine we were sad when it closed. Well, as luck would have it it re-opened not too long ago. Don't know if new owners or what but I didn't really care as long as it was back in business.
So the day that it re-opened Phil, Step and I take our salsa craving bottoms to this place. The smell when we walked in should have been our first clue. Not really sure what it was but the best way to describe it is take a 50/60 year old building filled with spoiled food, close it up for a few months, come in the day before you plan to re-open, throw away all spoiled food, leave for the day and forget to air out the place and then open for business the following day. Nasty is an understatement to say the least. Against better judgement we stay and are seated. While placing our drink order I'm pretty sure that I can't stand it anymore so I'm trying to hold my breath so not to inhale the toxins I'm sure that's in the air. Drink orders placed, the chips and salsa come out. Now this is what I've been waiting for. They have (or should I say had) the best around! Said salsa is placed in front of us. The 3 of us kinda look at each other and think to ourselves..uuuhhhh! I don't remember the salsa before looking like this?!?!? Basically take something red that resembles salsa, add 3 parts water and 1 part red mixture and that is what was served. It would have been easier to take my straw and suck it down than to try and eat it like a lady with a chip. It was that runny!! Ok so now we have the smell, runny salsa and we are thinking and speaking to ourselves that it can't get much worse. Oh yes it can. Our food comes out and I guess the only chef that knew how to cook the food was one of those that was deported because it was gross! After a few minutes of shifting our food around our plate to at least make an attempted at pretending we ate we give up. It's just one of the times that no one is really saying much at the table because we really don't know what to say that this point. I look up and out of the blue with a straight face say, "Well that left me less than satisfied." I thought that Stephanie and Phil were going to fall out of their chair laughing. Not really a funny comment, or at least I didn't intend for it to be. Oh well, I'm just glad that I could provide comic relief durning a desperate time. So we are joking that I needed a t-shirt with that saying. It would be funny because we are the only 3 that would really get it. As you can see it can be taken in so many different ways and just the 3 of us are the only ones that know different.
So that's what Phil got me for my birthday. Wrapped it and everything. Way to go Phil! Our own inside joke told to the entire web and I'm pretty sure that anybody reading this is not thinking that it is as funny as we do!!!

Does Sonic Recycle?

Not a typical question I would really have thought about had I not paid a visit to the Bella Vista Sonic on Tuesday night.
Nykile & I go the park the other night after I pick him up for school. It is a wonderful evening & we stay longer than I had planned. So that leaves very little time for me to find something to cook for dinner & get him in bed on time. Not a problem because Sonic is right by the park. I'm personally not a big fan of the place myself but at this location my options are very limited. Basically McDonalds, which ps I CAN'T STAND, DQ which is almost just as bad as McD's as far as hot food goes and Subway. I opt for Sonic which is closer than the others. I pull up, order, pay, and wait. I'm waiting and continue waiting for about 5 minutes. Did they have to go kill the chicken for my sandwhich??! So by the time they finally get my food I'm beyond iriated! As I'm sitting there waiting I watch the car hop come out not once, not twice but three times to correct this ladies order that is sitting in one of the stalls. I'm mean how many ways can you mess up a cheese burger but apparently they found several. That should have been my 2nd clue, 1st being the forever wait. So food/drinks in hand we head home. Get home & what does every child want from a kids meal? If you guess toy you get a prize. So I get Ky's toy out & had the sudden urge to go scrub & sanatize my hands. First of all it was not wrapped in plastic. It was a mummy tater tot that I assume was suppose to be white but was more a creamy-grayish tint. It has black smudges on part of it & the worst was there was an eyelash looking hair stuck in it. GROSS!! And to top it all off it was ON TOP of Ky's tater tots. Poor Ky, I had to throw the top row of tots away. I've attached some pics so you can see for yourself. Not very good..trust me it looks worse in person. I'm calling to complain tomorrow. I'll let you know what they say.

Stand Off With The Sherrif

Well, it was Wednesday & my week hasn't exactly been the best one ever. I had been out of town for 3 days at my grandfathers funeral & all I wanted to do is get home to Nykile. I was rushing home & finally made it to Nykile's school. Almost there and in my impatient state I decide to by pass the traffic that is holding me up from making a right turn. I stop, weigh my options & decide to go for it in the median. Now at this particular intersection it is a common pratice. And besides all that, I'm not that far from where the road widens for drivers to make a legal right turn. Well as I start to pass the 1st car, pass the 2nd car & coming up on the 3 car on my left side then all the sudden Mr 3rd car decides to do the same thing I'm doing. Now mind you he's in a closer position to make his move more legal than mine. Well as I'm slaming on my breaks, come close to hitting him in the back of his truck, I notice that it's the county sherrif. Great! My luck! So now I'm sitting in the median, inches away from Mr. Sherrif. I'm just waiting for him to jump out & arrest me for some illegal traffic vilolation. Well, I'm still waiting & he's not moving & neither am I. So what seems like FOREVER but I'm sure that it was only 45-50 seconds, I'm waving him to go on, I'll wait. Nothing! He just sits there. So, ok I guess he wants me to go. Taking my cue, I gun it. Well I'm not sure why I thought that it would be that easy, but at the same time I go he goes. Are you kidding me?!?!? Now we are parallal to each other. He's still taking up some of the lane he was leaving & I'm getting pissed because he's giving me a case of road rage in a major way! Not to mention the nice ticket I'm sure that I will be getting. Another very long minute or so we are still just sitting there. Finally he goes! Gezz was that really that hard?
So did I get a ticket..........NO! After all that I would have at least wanted something for my effort in my standoff with the sherrif. Ok, well maybe not.

The School Has A Hospital!

Well we are through the 2nd week of Kindergarten & Nykile has been the the "hospital inside the school" 2 times already (aka the nurses office)

Now I'm not an overly protective mother or anything but I'm beginning to wonder if this whole school thing is really such a good idea. The 1st day of school I pick him up & he shows me his toes. I glance back & to try to keep calm & not drive off the road because all I can tell is that his 2 middle toes are about 3 sizes bigger than the rest of the toes. So I calmly ask what happended & he tells the story in true Nykile fashion. "Well me & this other little boy, I don't know his name but we were on the slide, going up not down it & a huge waspid flies at us & gets me in the middle of my toe & then the goes to get the other little boy, who I don't know his name. He gets stinged on the back."
At this point in the story I'm freaking out. What if he was alergic....Why didn't I get a call.....Why are there wasp or for that matter any other potential deadly creature near my child's school?
It was then that he brings me back to reality & tells me that he's ok & got to go the "hospital inside the school." Which seemed like an adventure to him.
All night I keep checking the toes to make sure that they didn't rot off or anything. I'm still concerned about no call from the school as I'm going through his back pack & there it is. A health note sent home explaining that he was checked into the nurses office for a bug bite, what was done about it & that he was promptly sent back to his classroom. Well that's all fine & good but I still would have liked a call. However, thinking about it what would I have done? Pulled him out of that horriable place where they allow huge bugs with big stingers sting my child? As much as I would have liked to I'm sure that my senses would have kicked in at some point during the drive to the school.

So that was the 1st visit now on the the 2nd. The 2nd week of school, I'm out catchin up my office mates & come back to my desk & check my messages. It's the assistant pricipal & she wanted me to know that Nykile is alright but there was an incident on the play ground that she wanted to explain personally to me?!?!?!? Instant panic mode! I immediatly call her back & she is on the phone. What...didn't she know that I would be freaking out. So little bit later, after I have gone through every possible thing that could go wrong on a play ground, she calls me back. Well, good news is that my imagination was a little over active. Story is that some other little boy "found" a bag & decided to fill it with rocks & I guess hit Nykile it the head & back with it. Nice! Grateful for her call I calm down. Apparenlty no harm done. Nurse gave him an ice pack for a few minutes & he ask to go back to class.

All in all no harm done & I really do like his school & the staff there. I just hope that this does not become a trend!