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.