Hoarding: e-mails.

One of my goals this year is to clean out our stuff and get it organized. After two moves within 6 months everything is a mess and needs to be gone through (again). I am also trying to simplify and make my life easier.

Yesterday I decided to tackle my e-mail inbox. I have one e-mail I use for EVERYTHING and there was seriously stuff in there from all the way back in 2005. I am not joking. It is very surreal to re-live the past 6+ years of your life through your e-mail. Time travel without leaving the couch. I relived my time with the Hunter Spouses Club (and oh did it feel good to delete some of those e-mails!), two deployments, having two babies (did you know I did not get a single e-mail the day Henry was born? How weird is that considering I get about 5 million e-mails everyday from all my e-mail subscriptions?). There was my original approval to CinCHouse (a military wives forum that I was on and helped me out tremendously when I was first starting out).

Hi, my name is Sundee and I am an e-mail hoarder. Set me up with a TLC special!

Things I learned as I was deleting over 20,000 (yes that is a real number, I am not even joking) e-mails.

• Lots of people must like my cooking because I keep getting invited to recipe exchanges even though I never respond to them (sorry, I mean to, I just forget and never get around to it!). 
• When unsubscribing to e-mails the use the tiniest sized print possible ( like this ). You have to get out a magnifying glass to see it. And then once you click on it it usually is not a simple "you're done!" it is "Are you sure?" "It's not to late to resubscribe!""Can you take this ten page survey to tell us why you no longer want us bugging you 5 times a day with updates?" Annoying. And I know I didn't get them all so I will be doing this for another week until they all stop. 
• It is impossible to delete any e-mails from my Grammy, especially the last one she ever sent me. 
• It is also impossible to delete any e-mails including pictures of my kids. Even if I have hard copies, saved copies and CD copies of said pictures. 
• My friend Steph C. always sends updated contact information, usually on New Years. I had seriously had no idea (sorry Steph! Keep sending the update though, I promise to look at them from now on!). 
• My mother in law, my mom, and my friends Amanda and Stephanie are the only people who actually write me e-mails. Everyone else just forwards me stuff. 
• Amanda writes the funniest stuff ever. Especially when she was bored while working security at the hospital. 
• A lot of people use the excuse that their computer/e-mail wasn't working and that is why e-mails did not get sent or received. Please, people I use that excuse too. You are not fooling anyone. 
• Petunia Pickle bottom does a lot of "surprise" outlet sales. 
• You actually will NOT die or have horrible things happen to you if you do not forward on chain e-mail letters (you are shocked on this one, I am sure).
• Found a few gems in there including a recipe for Tangerine Ginger Mojitos and how to clean your silver.

Ginger-Tangerine Mojito

2 oz. rum (mt. gay)
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp sugar
3 sprigs mint
1/2 tsp peeled and roughly chopped ginger
Juice of 1 tangerine

Muddle lime, sugar, mint (save 1 for garnis), and ginger together in a tall glass
Add rum and tangerine and shake vigorously
Serve over crushed ice with mint and lime garnish.

How to clean your silver:

To clean tarnished silverware --Run a quart of hot water into the sink. Dissolve one tablespoon of  laundry water softener (top shelf of the commissary near Deft) and one tablespoon of salt into the water. Place a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom of the sink and place your tarnished silverware in the mix, touching the aluminum foil. Silver touching the foil and submersed in water should become clean in about 10 seconds.  Works best on real silver pieces - shouldn't be used very often with silver plated items which may tend to ware over time, revealing the undermetel.

 

The science behind it for geeks like me.....the salt is present to help the transfer of electrons (ionization or commonly known as a "salt bridge").  The silver oxide is reduced to silver metal and the aluminum foil is oxidized to aluminum ions. So it is the electrons that are being shuffled around, and not the elements themselves.

Now that my e-mail is all cleaned out I am hoping that I am over my e-mail hoarding and it will stay that way for a while. We shall see. 

Dating Wesley

Today Wesley came to me and told me he wanted to take me out for a date. He said he wanted to go out to eat just me and him. Cool, I am down with that. I am a huge fan of "dating" your kids so that they learn how to treat (and be treated) by the people they will date in the future. Plus, it is a good way to get some one on one time. Also, I am hoping to get them into the habit of it so that when I am old and alone they will still come and take me out every once in a while.

I took a little nap this afternoon so Wesley got me up and told me that I needed to get ready so that we could go out. I asked him if he was going to get changed (he was wearing running pants and an Angry Birds t-shirt) but he told me, "No, this is what I am wearing. I can wear what I want. You can wear what whatever you want." Cool, I down with a casual date night. I then ask if he is going to pay for dinner. He says "Um, no, I need to save my money to buy the blue ninja (from Ninjago) but you can pay and show me how it's done." Okay.....

So we get ready, get in the car and I ask Wesley what he's in the mood for. He says "Burger King." This kid really believes that because the place is called Burger KING, it has the best burgers. I mean, it must if the it's run by a king, right? Riiiiiiiight. I talk him into Cheeburger Cheeburger instead. While we are there eating our food the family at the table behind Wesley has a fussy baby about Henry's age who is probably tired and obviously hungry. I am not judging because my kids have totally acted the way this baby did (throwing stuff, screaming, crying) when in the same situation. Been there and to show some sympathy I try to smile at them to know the baby is not bothering us at all. Just as I am doing that Wesley says (quite loudly) "And THAT is why you should leave your baby at home!". OMGosh....yeah, I don't know where he is getting that from. I shush him and remind him that he acted that way at that age too and to finish his meal so we can go.

After we finish up we head over to Target so shop around and walk off dinner and because I had a few items I needed to pick up. As we are leaving, Wesley asks if we can go to Starbucks when we are done paying to get a drink. He tells me it would be a nice way to end our date. I ask if he brought his money and if he is going to pay. He tells me no, he left his monies (no that is not a typo) at home but that I could pay but "don't worry Mommy, it will be good because it is part of our date. You will enjoy it. Isn't that nice of me? Don't I have good ideas?" Um, yeah. Your idea to take me on a date and have me pay for everything worked out GREAT for you. I remind him this will not work as well when he is actually dating a girl in the future. I am pretty sure he does not care right now about that.

Luckily I love the kid and I guess I will taking him out more often since his dating skills are obviously lacking. Hopefully by the time he goes on a real date it will go a bit better than this one did.

As you all know, Wesley birthday was on Tuesday and for his birthday we decided to take him out for lunch and a movie. The movie that he wanted to see was, of course, the newly re-released "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace-Episode I".

 I can still remember the first time I saw this movie in the movie theater. It was so big at the time my high school newspaper did an article on it (in fact, I still have a copy of that issue).  I was a senior in high school (or actually I had just graduated when it came out) and my boyfriend at the time (like all males at that time) *had* to go see it. So, like a good girlfriend I went with him. I had seen the original trilogy and I was very interested in seeing what made Darth Vader turn to the Dark Side. Of course, you get none of that in this movie and not having seen the original movies as a refresher on everything before I went I was a little lost as to how it fit into the whole series. This time around it was so much better to watch it for many reasons:

 1. It was Wesley's birthday present and it is fun to take your kids to do stuff you know they will love and are excited for.
2. It is the only movie in the prequels that does not have Hayden Christensen (AKA worst actor EVER) in them. His acting makes what would be a good movie barely tolerable. It is very hard to believe such a whiner ends up as Darth Vader. When those movies come out in 3D I will graciously agree to stay at home with Henry while C and Wesley have a father/son day out.
3. The movie does contain a REALLY good actor-Ewan McGregor. Even though he has horrible hair and is not standing in a field of daffodils (Steph C. you know exactly what I am talking about!):

4. I had already seen this movie about 5 billion times at home so I knew the story line and could focus on other stuff going in in the background and whatnot.
5. Knowing ahead of time what Jar-Jar Binks is going to say means you can tune him out thus making him less annoying. I actually laughed at some his slapstick actions this time around instead of being annoyed every time he opened his mouth. 
6. I had Wesley reassure me every time something was going to happen so I wouldn' t have to worry about the outcome ("Mommy, this is the race but don't worry, Anakin is going to win!"-sorry for spoilers to anyone who has been living under a rock for the past 11 years). 




There were a few downsides though.It was in 3D. Now, normally I don't like to see 3D movies because:

1. You have to wear glasses.

2. It never looks like it is jumping out at you, it just always looks like the background is further away.

3. It gives me a headache. 

Also, they added a bunch of stuff to it and it made it quite a bit longer. Because the movie is slow on action anyway it had Wesley begging for a fast forward button. Ah, if only....

Overall, good experience. 

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I am sorry I haven't posted a lot lately. I wanted too however I have been too sleep deprived since Henry learned how to climb out of his crib on Christmas Day. At first he wouldn't stay in there at bedtime, we would have to keep putting him back in over and over again. The first few nights this took up to an hour and half and I lost count of how many times I had to put him back in. We debated about converting his crib to a toddler bed but I wanted to try to train him to stay in his crib.

After about a week and a half we got him to pretty much stay in his crib for naps and when we put him down at night. However, he had started to wake up in the middle of night and climb out of his crib. He would then come out of his room and wander around the house at all hours of the morning (you know like 1 AM, 3 AM, 4 AM, 5 AM, 6 AM...after that you just give up and stay awake). Things Henry likes to do in the middle of the night include:

• Playing with the space heater in his room. 
• Going down the stairs and then when you go to get him run around the downstairs until you catch him.
• Go downstairs so quietly you can't hear him until he turns the stereo on and you wake up to people "talking" in your house. 
• Climb out and play with all the "musical" toys in his room. 
• Dump out all the toys in his room so that Mommy will step on them in the middle of the night when she comes in half asleep to put him back into bed. 
• Throw Puppy out and then cry loudly until you come and pick him up and give him back. 
• Get the Star Trek laser gun toy and hold Daddy up at gunpoint when he gets out of the shower. 
• Put Mommy's toothbrush in the toilet that is filled with pee (because we are terrified of flushing the toilet in the middle of the night and waking Henry up). 
• Take Mommy's iphone and hide it! 
• Squeeze hand lotion all over the floors and himself.
• Dump lots of random toys into the tub. 
• Wake up his brother at 6 AM (or earlier) so that Mommy will have to deal with TWO grumpy sleep deprived kids. 
• Open up the fridge/dishwasher/door to the trash can and get stuff out. 

It has been what,  two weeks? We are all exhausted. This is how exhausted Henry is:

 C and I came to the conclusion that unless we get him a crib tent of some sort there is no way we are ever going to sleep through the night again. Today I ordered a crib tent online and in a few short days (and long nights) I will be able to lock that kid into his crib at night (yessss). And hopefully get some much needed beauty sleep.

Off to nap!

Happy New Year! 2012 Baby!

I hope everyone had a great NYE last night. We stayed in, ate food, Mom got mad at Matt, Christopher retired at 10:30, Wesley went shortly after that (contemplating how it would be possible for him to wake up in an entirely new year-time travel, amazing!). Then Mom and Matt made up just in time for the ball to drop. I don't really like New Year's Resolutions (although I did manage to keep most of mine for 2011 and my resolution from 3 years ago to spend less on books and go to the library more is going strong) so this year I am going to leave you with a confession (isn't that more exciting anyway?).  So here it is: I am totally sober in these pictures. Enjoy! I hope you have a great year this year!