We have a ton of pets in our house. Three dogs, two chinchillas, a bird, a cat, and a whole bunch of fish. As a result, my house tends to look messy most of the time. (Though that may be a result of a husband and an 11-year old daughter....) I could probably use a really good deep carpet cleaning to help my house look a bit better. With that many pets though, the carpet wouldn't stay clean for very long. People will just have to accept our messiness!
New York, New York
This past week has been a bit harsh on me. So I'm going to talk about the lovely time my daughter and I had in New York last weekend. We were in New York City for a Girl Scout trip to the American Girl store. There were three buses on the trip. Luckily, our bus was pretty quiet. (Considering we left at 7:30AM on a Saturday, I imagine a lot of the girls were still pretty tired.) When we arrived in the city, it was time for lunch at the American Girl cafe. The cafe has little chairs that clip onto the table so your doll can "eat" with you. (Yes, they give the dolls little place settings too.) This was the first time I've ever eaten in the cafe and the food was delicious. After lunch, my daughter purchased one of the dolls from the store then we headed out into the city.
There wasn't a lot that we wanted to do so we followed the other girls from my daughter's Junior troop. We hit up a lot of stores: Lego, NBC, M&M, Hershey, Toys R Us, and a NY Yankees shop. We got a Doctor Who shirt for my husband from the NBC store and my daughter got some Adventure Time dolls from Toys R Us.
Even though it was a very tiring day, both of us had a lot of fun. I can't wait until we can get back to New York.
Foamy Goodness
My father-in-law gave us a foam mattress almost two weeks ago. I wasn't sure if it would make our very old bed any better. Amazingly, it actually has made our bed better. Not only is it softer, but it also absorbs all the random movement in the night. Now I don't wake up when my husband tosses and turns. I had heard that it would make the bed warmer (which would have driven my husband crazy) but it doesn't seem to be a problem for us. I'm really surprised at how much it has changed our sleep.
Chalkboards are cool
I've been crafting a lot lately. One of my newest projects was a pink chalkboard for my daughter. She really loves pink and she likes leaving reminder notes for herself so this was perfect for her. We're planning on making an orange and white chalkboard for her teacher as well. I just have to figure out what type of base I'd like to use. My daughter's board is wood but some people recommend using a glass picture frame. However, I think the glass may be broken too easily. It might be kinda cool to have a stainless steel tube bending machine to make a frame for a wooden chalkboard. That is way too big for me though. I'll just have to figure out something awesome before the end of the school year.
Daaaad, my computer is slow
My husband works in IT. As a result, I know a bit more about computers than the normal person. I know that those commercials on TV that promise to make your computer run faster are a bunch of crap and you are probably better off typing format hard drive. It seems like common sense to me but I guess someone out there is buying them. If only there was a way to make them realize the truth....
Middle school, here we come!
My husband and I attended the parent orientation for the middle school last night. Our daughter moves up to the middle school next year and the administration wanted to let us know how things work there. One of the weird things I found out, which was not discussed at the orientation, is that the kids aren't allowed to carry bookbags during the school day. They are allowed to have them for the to/from school trips but not during the school year. That makes no sense to me. Unlike the elementary school, the kids will be transferring classrooms so they will have to carry books around. I'm going to make sure to ask the administration about it. It's not like she's going to be carrying around an expensive kenneth cole briefcase or anything. Then again, schools are infamous for having terrible policies.
Business is booming
I haven't talked about my Zumba business lately. My classes have really grown a lot this year. I've gone from having 5 - 10 people to having 20 - 30 in each class. It is so awesome and it makes me very happy. Besides having much more fun in class, I'm also finding that I have fun when I design business cards online. I would have thought that would have been boring but it's not. I really enjoy mixing and matching styles and colors. Who would have thought the business-side would be as fun as the teaching-side?
Are we done with winter now?
While the first day of Spring actually happened back in March, the weather has still been a bit too cold to really be considered spring. Thankfully, we have moved out of the super cold temperatures. Instead, we have moved into the rainstorm that is April. I hope that the warmer temperatures are here to stay. I really don't like the winter.
Make it level!
I have decided that leveling pads are the coolest things. Their whole entire job is to just make things level. I know a few tables that could use those. They're made for industrial use but I wonder if they could be fitted to a table to stop the wobble. There are feet with screw tops so they would work in theory. I need to try this out!
Time to Pay the Taxes
Since I haven't posted anything in a really long time, I've decided to give you a list of free things you can get today, Tax Day. Arby's Arby's Facebook page has details on how to get free curly fries or potato cakes.
Boston Market At Boston Market, you can get 2 rib meals for $10.40 with no coupon!
Carvel Carvel's Facebook page will give you a coupon for an 18-pack of Oreo Lil' Rounders for $10.40 (if you like them).
Cinnabon 2 Free Cinnabon Bites! See their Facebook page for more info.
HydroMassage Get a coupon for a free HydroMassage on their website.
Sonic Drive-in Half price drinks and slushies all day!
This is probably the only good thing about tax day!