My Shopping Weaknesses

My weaknesses when it comes to buying things are....

KITCHEN GADGETS - I like to cook (mostly so I can eat good food since I don't always enjoy the cooking process) and I love having kitchen pots/pans/utensils/gadgets to make my job easier. I have a lot of Pampered Chef items because they are well-made. Back in the day when Craig and I were dating, I found it difficult to cook in his bachelor pad because they had very few pots and pans and they were usually dirty so I had to wash them so I could use them. I made sure to have multiples of the stuff I use the most after we got married to avoid that frustration.

BABY ITEMS - I'm excited to finally have my own baby to shop for! Baby stuff is so cute! I like browsing the aisles to see if there are nifty inventions I could use. My latest purchase was a little container that holds formula powder in separate sections for 3 8-oz bottles and a formula mixer that eliminates powder clumps. Before, I'd scoop the formula powder into a snack-size ziplock bag and put the scoop in the bag for use when I am out running around and Alisa needs to eat. Now, I measure the formula powder at home and put the container in the diaper bag so when I am out and need to make a bottle, I just dump one section of the container into the bottle of water and I don't even have to think about measurements.

PURSES/BAGS - I'm always searching for the perfect purse...one that has the right pockets for all my stuff so I can easily reach into my purse without looking and pull out what I need. In high school and college the purses I always had were small because I didn't need to carry around much stuff. Now, they are bigger because I have more things like my digital camera, cell phone, Sony CLIE, stash of coupons, hand sanitizer, etc. I never buy expensive purses (I bought one for $40 many years ago but the rest were under $20). Since I use my purse every day I get tired of one after awhile and like to switch it out with an old one (or with a new one if I found a good one). And about bags...I have various bags and backpacks for airplane carry-on, road trip to-do bag, hiking, going to the beach, etc. I even bought a tote-bag for when I had jury duty years ago because I wanted one that could hold snacks, books, magazines, my purse and a light jacket.

So, those are my shopping weaknesses. Whenever I'm in a store that has those items I like to browse those sections and often end up buying something...those are my regular unplanned purchases. Buying shoes is not one of my weaknesses because most of them cost more than $40 so I can't afford to buy them often (though I would like to have more). Oh, and another thing I love is blankets (probably because I get cold easily so I'm always wrapping one around me when sitting in the living room in the fall and winter). I don't buy blankets as often as I want to because we honestly just don't need any more. Those really soft fuzzy ones are sure hard to resist though!

Spiders in my car

I got the heebie-jeebies today when I got into my car to go to the grocery store. I saw tons of tiny spiders in a thick web by the front passenger air vent and window. I grabbed the lot of them with a kleenex and smashed them. Then I noticed that there was another clump of them in a web in the corner where the dashboard meets the windshield. I grabbed more kleenex and obliterated that group. I started driving and drove past 5 houses when I noticed there were tons more on MY side where the dashboard meets the windshield. I got those and some more that were by the rear passenger's window. By this time I was creeped out and hopping mad (why me?!). Those critters ran fast when they saw me coming so several escaped. I got to my destination (Wal-Mart) and the lot was seriously full. I had to park in the separate lot at the very back (that was a first). It's probably a good thing though because I went after the remaining spiders and was glad no one was around to observe me. I discovered more webs and spiders on the back window. So, they were literally in all 4 corners of the car and then some! Arrrrrggggghhhh! Those spiders really had a party last night! An eggsack must have gotten in my car and hatched overnight. I'm sure the battle will go on a bit longer. There will be new webs in my car in the morning but at least there won't be tons of spiders. Right? Please tell me there won't be tons of spiders in my car tomorrow!!

Man, just writing this makes me feel like I have tiny spiders tickling my arms as they run up them. I'd better stop. But, I'll leave you with some pictures I took of the ever-present Banana Spiders that I've posted about before. I took these pictures around our yard today. These were NOT the spiders that were in my car today.

Click on each picture for a larger version where you can see more details....

By the creek:


Check out the details of this web and the colors of his underside:

Look at the size of this web! Looks like he partnered up with a smaller spider to make a gigantic web between 2 huge pine trees:

This picture shows how bright yellow their backs are:

Car Accidents

Friday, July 27th we picked up Craig's 10-year-old "brother" Darien of the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program and Darien's 13-year-old sister Devenny. We were on our way to eat pizza for dinner when we had a car accident. Craig was driving the Honda on a road we hadn't been on before. The accident occurred where the road was merging with one of the main roads in town (a road we have been on many times).

Craig was looking over his shoulder to see if there was room for him to merge. I noticed that the car in front of us had their brake lights on for quite awhile. As we got closer I realized that Craig didn't realize they were stopping because he was looking over his shoulder. I made some sort of "Aaaaahh" noises because I couldn't get the word "Stop!" out. Craig heard me, faced the front, saw the other car and hit the brakes. He knew we wouldn't stop in time so he turned the wheel hard to the right to try to swerve around the car. We hit the right taillight with our left headlight and ended up on the side of the road (thankfully, it was flat and grassy).

We weren't going very fast so nobody in either car was hurt and Alisa didn't even make a sound. The other car had 4 college students in it and they were very nice (the driver immediately apologized to Craig). The driver of the other car called the cops. He apologized to us for having to do that but it was his dad's car and his dad told him to (he called him for advice right after the accident). We said we would have called the cops if we were him (we knew it was our fault since we were the rear car).

The cop arrived within 10 minutes but didn't let us go for an hour because he was doing all the paperwork. We were starving so it was hard to wait. We stood outside for awhile because Alisa didn't want to sit in her carseat anymore. It started raining though so we had to get back in the car. Alisa got her first mosquito bites (2 on her face and 1 on her leg) while outside so it was fine that we had to get back in the car because then she didn't get anymore (though they didn't ever bother her). Alisa became hungry during the wait too so I fed her. After dinner, Devenny was going to watch Alisa while Craig and I went to a movie and we nearly cancelled those plans because the accident messed up our schedule. However, after we got home we looked at the movie times again and saw that we could still make it to one that wasn't too late. So, Devenny got to earn some money babysitting after all (and it was easy money because Alisa went to bed for the night as soon as we got home). She and Darien spent the night.

Site of the accident (witness' car was behind us)...you can click on this picture to see a larger version (there is a little debris on the road where we collided):

There is minimal damage to the Jetta we hit (you will have to click on the picture for the larger version to even see it):

Damage to our Honda:

We were without our car for 8 days while the shop waited for parts and repaired it. The total amount was $3,135 which was more than I thought it would be because the damage doesn't look that bad. We had to pay our $250 deductible (I'm glad it's still low) and $140 for half the price of the hood. The reason we had to pay for part of the replacement cost of the hood is because it had hail damage from 2004 that the insurance company had paid me for but I never got fixed. We tried to get out of that charge by arguing that even if we had fixed the hail damage, they would still need to get us a new hood now but they didn't go for it. The traffic ticket for careless driving was $120 and Craig got 4 points on his license. He didn't have any points before because he has a good driving record. Oh well. We think they need a longer merge lane on that road because while we were sitting on the side of the road that lane kept filling with cars and they were having to stop because the front car was unable to merge right away. You just don't expect to have to stop like that when merging onto a highway or road like that.

This reminds me of another car accident we had in this town. It was in December a few days before we went to Tulsa for Christmas. Craig was driving the Jeep and it was raining. We were on the way to pick up the Honda from the shop where it had an oil change and tune up so it would be ready for the long drive to Tulsa. We were about a mile from our house and first in the left turn lane facing west. The light turned green and no other cars were moving so we moved forward. Suddenly we heard and felt a loud crash and realized we were spinning around. It was surreal and felt like slow motion. We ended up facing the way we had come and were by the median. Craig backed the Jeep up over the curb onto the grass so we'd be out of the way since the light was turning green for the cars that were heading our way. A cop car was in the left turn lane facing north so he immediately turned his lights on and did a U-turn to get to us. He said he didn't actually see it happen, he just saw us spinning. Once we were out of the way, we looked to our left and saw that the car that had hit us had smashed head on into the large lightpost on the corner. There was a lady and her baby in the backseat and her mother was the driver. We got out and looked for the damage done to the Jeep. At first we thought the other car hit the back of the Jeep because the bike on the rack had been knocked part of the way off. When Craig was backing up out of the road I saw the bike dangling and thought it had been smashed. We were baffled when we could see no damage to the bike or the back of the Jeep. We circled the Jeep and looked closer and saw a few scrape marks and paint on the front right tire rim. So, the other car hit us there and so there was no body damage to the Jeep. We had the alignment and other hidden stuff checked out to make sure nothing was damaged and the shop said there wasn't anything wrong with it. What a truck!

Back to the scene...I went over to the lady that was holding a baby and asked if they were okay. She said she thought so and then ignored me. A firetruck and ambulance soon showed up and the ladies (who happened to both be large women) went into the ambulance. We stood around in the light rain and then sat in the Jeep while the cop did the paperwork. I was 6 months pregnant but didn't get much attention because the ladies were drama queens and were carrying on quite a bit. The firemen came over to admire our Jeep and they talked about how the driver of the other car had been eating french fries with ketchup while driving and there were fries, ketchup and soda all over the front of the car. She had been in the far right lane and had just cruised through the red light. We didn't even see her coming because the left 2 lanes both had a line of cars stopped at the light which blocked our view of her. The wreck was her fault and I wonder how many tickets she got. I'm thankful that we were not hurt and that we were not driving the Honda then because it would have gotten smashed and would have messed up our travel plans. We could have taken the Jeep to Tulsa but would have barely any room for our things and Minga, let alone the Christmas presents (and we would have paid a lot more for gas because the Jeep has poor gas mileage).

Videos of Alisa - Early August

Mommy tickling Alisa (8-01-07):



Alisa holding foot and sucking on fingers (8-02-07):



Alisa is talking and playing with the toys on her new play gym (8-04-07):

Videos of Alisa - July

Alisa holds bottle for 1st time (7-22-07):



Once Alisa finally noticed the toys attached to her bouncy seat she'd stare at them for more than 20 minutes straight, smiling from time to time. Later, she began touching them too. Alisa looking at bouncy seat zebra (7-26-07):



Alisa was intrigued when I put socks on her feet that have fuzzy animals sewn to them. She kept trying to reach the duck on her right foot (7-26-07):



Alisa has many different styles of talking...this is one style (7-29-07):

Videos of Alisa - June

Alisa looks at her Fisher-Price Waterfall Soother toy for the first time and is mesmerized (6-17-07):



Mariachi band at Los Amigos Restaurant sings for Alisa (6-29-07):



Uncle Charlie requested many Spanish songs after they finished a couple lullabies for Alisa so they sang by our table for about 15 minutes. It was great!

Videos of Alisa - May

Alisa waking up from a 3-hour nap (5-05-07):



This video was taken around the time that Alisa first started smiling (5-11-07):



Craig giving Alisa a bath (5-30-07):

Videos of Alisa - April

Nurse washing Alisa shortly after her birth (4-07-07):



Nurse washing Alisa's head shortly after her birth (4-07-07):



Alisa with hiccups (4-07-07):



Alisa sucking on her arm while taking a burp break during a feeding (4-30-07):

The Fish Tank is Back!

The fish tank is in use again! We found a place for it in the new room. Craig bought an official stand for it and chose some new fish. He sterilized the empty turtle shell we found in our yard as well as some shells from the beach and put them in there along with his miniature pots, the rock and some plants.





Cyphotilapia frontosa Kilipi:







King Tiger Plecostomus:

August Alisa Pics - Part 1

Pictures from the 1st half of August....

Alisa was made at home and her onesie makes that clear:



Relaxing with her lion toy:



Looks like his ear doesn't taste very good:







Alisa with the glo-worm Grandpappy (Craig's dad) brought her when he visited:



Watching the glo-worm glow:





Sometimes she sleeps with her hand over her ear even though it's not noisy:





She watched her fingers move around for awhile:





Making funny faces:





Busy with her feet again:



Mommy's foot makes Alisa look so small:



At 1 Fresh Stir-Fry (a local restaurant):



Alisa on the quilt my friend Sara made for her:





Alisa playing with the toys on her new play gym:



Playing with toys during tummy time:



Alisa sees herself in the mirror that's on the other side of the smily face (she always smiles when she sees herself in a mirror):



Tasty toes:













Alisa drools a lot in her crib and moves around a lot during a nap so there will be little drool spots all around (and sometimes chunky spit-up):







Alisa had a blast with the paper at the pediatrician's office while waiting for her checkup and shots:



She can't get enough of her feet:



Alisa is always watching Minga when she is near (which is often):













Alisa got to ride in the Jeep when my car was in the shop for 8 days. I had to sit in the backseat by her because the front passenger seat had to be pushed forward so far to accomodate her carseat.