Getting ready

Nothing like waiting till the last minute to get anything done. Well that is the story of my life!

Once again my parents are coming this week for a cub scout event. Johnathan is going to be crossing over from cub scouts to boy scouts and they make it a big event. However this means that I need to get busy and get my house cleaned and the bedrooms prepared for painting. No big deal some might say, but in each of the kids rooms we put up things called walle's and now I have to remove them.

A walle is nothing but a wallpaper cut out that we pasted onto the walls when we moved in 7 years ago. The package said they are easy to put up and easy to remove....they lied! Over the past several weeks I start to take them off but get discouraged when I spend 30 minutes scrubbing and scrapping only to get just one off the walls. At this point it is going to take me several days to complete Hannah's room since she has the most. Right here and now I vow to never ever put up wallpaper of any kind, shape or size! What a mess this is going to be.

On the bright side once the rooms are painted they will look so much nicer! (I hope)

Annoying children have oblivious parents

Have you ever noticed in a large or small gathering of people that there is always one child that is annoying? Why is it that the parents of that child are oblivious to his/her actions? This evening I took Johnathan to his last cub scout den meeting and as usual there was one child totally out of control and interrupting the entire things. This child's parent just sat there the entire time ignoring the behavior while us other parents kept looking at one another in amazement. I would have been mortified if my child was acting up and being disruptive to the group. I would have had no problem grabbing my child and leaving if that is what it took. I wonder if the parent noticed the behavior and was embarrassed and didn't know what to do, or were they just used to this action and just accept it as the norm. I know that my child would not have gotten away with this action. I would have had no problem grabbing my child and leaving if that is what it called for. I wonder if that child acts like that in all situations?

Incompetent delivery driver

At this moment I am waiting for a FedEx delivery driver to fix his mistake, and I am not happy about it. A package we ordered Friday was supposed to be delivered here yesterday. When it wasn't we just chalked it up to it being a holiday. But then we got to looking at the comments left by the driver online and they said that no one was there to sign for it or that the business was closed and we thought that was kind of strange. Oh well it would be here today.

Upon checking the delivery status we found that it had already been delivered to someone this morning and that they had signed for it. It became clear that the driver delivered it to the wrong address, so I called the 800 number for FedEx and had them put a trace on our package. About 20 minutes later I get a call from the local FedEx transit station saying it was delivered to the front desk and that P. Walker had signed for it. Well we have not front desk and no one by the name of P Walker lives here I told the man on the phone. He had to recheck with his driver and would call again. More waiting.

The man on the phone called back to say the driver had delivered it to a school since he couldn't find our address. WHAT??? Apparently this driver believes its ok to just drop a package off at whatever address if he can't find the correct one. When I stated my disbelief, the dispatch person said that this isn't the drivers regular route and that he couldn't find the address. Here's and idea call dispatch and ask for directions! I mean how hard is it in this day and age to have someone Google the correct damn address? I am so wanting to ask the driver what the hell he was thinking, but Jim says that I have to be nice and not yell at him. It will take every ounce of strength I have to not let the driver have it!

Now I wait for this genius of a driver to go back to the school, pick up our package and attempt to deliver it a block away. I have every intention of speaking to this drivers boss as well as send a letter to the FedEx company! This is beyond ridiculous. I'm pretty sure that this isn't standard proceedure nor is it acceptable practice to just drop off packages at any address. However this is the second time we have had trouble with them delivering packages to us, this one being the worse experience. From this point on I will not be shipping anything with FedEx!

No more three day weekends!

So I would like to know who the person is that makes the school year calender each year. Did that person realize that in the month of February and into March our kids have every other Monday off? Come on give us parents a break. Around here a three day weekend usually means just one more day for the kids to fight with one another and another day to drive me crazy. I love our kids and enjoy spending time with them, but I also enjoy dropping them off at school on Monday mornings and having some time to get the things done that I want or need to do.

Due to the snow we had the week before Christmas the kids don't get out of school this year until June 17th. Rather than extend the school year why not take away some of the Mondays and Fridays that they have scheduled as teacher work days. How many extra days does it take for the teachers to get grades ready for report cards or get project together. I thought that is why they have one day a week of early release. Looking at it from the view point of the number of paid days off, and I think teachers have it pretty darn good around here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yes, its that time of the year again when all card companies and chocolate makers see their wallets get fatter. Some people don't like valentine's day, I however am not one of those people. I enjoy all the pretty red and pink hearts and the thought of a special day set aside for love and romance. Not that any day of the year couldn't be a day of love and romance...but you get my meaning.

This year my valentine's day started with getting up early (no sleeping in this Saturday) and heading out to help unload trucks of Girl Scout cookies. Oh boy did you say...well before I went my husband put a smile on my face. Now get your mind out of the gutter, he was very sneaky this year and managed to go out and purchase a lovely valentine's gift. I was touched and the thought of him getting me a gift...because he couldn't keep the secret he told me on Thursday that he bought me something. But when he handed me the little bag with the red wrapped box, I was thrilled, I couldn't get the paper open fast enough. Once the paper had been discarded and the smaller box was taken out of the larger box, I had a moment of breathlessness. Inside the smaller box was a perfect pair of diamond earrings. I was in shock and Jim says that even my jaw dropped when I saw them. I am so grateful that my husband is such a thoughtful and romantic man after all these years. I am truly a very luck girl!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The winner is.....

Each year in cub scouts, the boys build derby cars and hold a race to see who's car is the fastest. For the past 5 years Johnathan has built a car and usually falls in the 5th-6th place slots. Although he has been a good sport about not placing and getting one of the trophies, I know deep down that he really wanted to place in the top three. What kid wouldn't want that. This year was Johnathan's year. The cars race once in all four tracks, this determines the finial four cars. Johnathan's car came in first in all the four of the qualifying races. Now it was down to the finial four, the gate drops and the Green Machine (aka Johnathan's car) takes the lead. And the Green Machine crosses the finish line first. The look of shock and joy on Johnathan's face said it all. Both he and Dad are thrilled that they have made it to first place in Johnathan's finial Pine Wood Derby race!



Hannah made a car this year also and raced in the open division. Her car tied for second and had to go into a race off....Hannah got second place in the last race. So this year the Powell kids brought home a first place trophy and a second place trophy. Way to go guys!!!

Getting a head start

I seem to have caught some type of bug that is driving me to deep clean our house. I spent one entire day last week cleaning up old paper work and shredding what we didn't need anymore. Then Friday we spent the day cleaning the kitchen walls, cabinets and appliances just to turn around and slap paint on the walls. Today that bug has moved me on to the garage. I will admit that we use the garage as a dumping pit. I would really love to have one of those garages that has a place for everything and everything in its place. Guess I will just have to settle for clean chaos.

Little Old Men

Why is it that some little old men feel the need to make comments to a strangers children? Today while shopping at Fred Meyers with the kids, some little old man walked up and asked Johnathan if there was no school today. Johnathan politely answered him and said it was a teachers work day. The man laughed and then said how lucky kids are today to not have as much school as he had in his day. Then he tells told the kids he had to walk to school up hill for two miles and that walking home was also up hill. Both of my kids had smiles on their faces but kept shooting me looks like Mom what is this guy doing talking to us! The kicker was when he said that he did all this walking without shoes. Hannah being a little girl with a big heart, told him how sorry she was that he didn't have shoes when he was little. This made the old man laugh and confess that he had been joking with them. Then he just turned and walked away. I don't know if this is done out of loneliness or what, but it has happened before when I have had the kids at the store. And I can remember the same types of things happening myself when I was little. Wonder if I will get to that point when I am old and alone. Will I just walk up to unknown women and their children and start telling tales of my childhood? Kind of makes me feel sorry for that little old man.

The Big Game

Can you feel the testosterone in the air today?

Yes its Super Bowl Sunday and everyone is all excited about the game. The kids and I don't really care about the actual game, we just want to see the commercials that they play during the game. Well I take that back, Johnathan is interested in the game....he is turning into a man rather I like it or not. Hannah wants to see the new trailer for the movie Monsters vs Aliens and use the 3-D glasses we got from the store. Also its another excuse for the children to eat. Like they need another excuse! :)