Is It Naptime Yet

We have an old air conditioner that goes with our old house. About a year and one month after we moved into the house we had air conditioning trouble. I was so worried that we’d have to replace it, and only a month after the home warranty expired.

We had an air repairman out, in fact they had just replaced my in-laws air conditioning, and after paying a lot, but not as much as a new unit would cost, we were wrangled into a semi-annual air conditioning service agreement. For a small monthly fee they come out twice a year to check the AC unit, fill fluids and apparently tell me how desperately we need a new unit and how it’s going to die on us any at time, so we should replace it now. We also get some kind of discount on repairs and service but, since they haven’t needed to repair it in nearly 3 years, we’ve yet to see those savings.

Since we no longer have a home warranty and the AC unit is one of those big expenses we figure it’s worth having them come and service it twice a year even if it involves dealing with annoying service men.

Some air service men I like. One told me we had a very old and inefficient unite, but if we look around to the other roof tops all our neighbors also have the original units, so even though it’s lasting longer than it should, all our neighbors units are also, so we can continue to use it and it’ll go when it goes and just save for when we have the large expense.

The last service man, who came in September for the heat check-up and this April for the summer check-up, told me how old and inefficient our unit is. It’s fan is caked with gunk and it’s leaking some fluid. I just think, you’re here to service and help it stay running, why are you not even giving me an estimate of how much it would cost to have you de-gunk my fan or fix the leak? Why is it always ‘you’re air conditioning is going to die anytime now, you better replace it now before the summer really sets in.’ (Last April the service man told me it was going to die and it would be more expensive because China was importing all the steel for the Olympics so the price of steel was going up and so was the price of units. )

Anyways, they also suggest how we can save so much money with a new unit, blah, blah, blah. Not that we don’t want to save money, but uh, a new unit is not going to cut our electricity bill in half because we also have a drafty house and a not well insulated attic.

We are thinking of getting a new unit so we can see some of the savings while we’re in the house. We’ll probably be keeping the house to rent later and eventually the AC unit will need to be replaced. But I’ve also had some expensive test denied by our insurance and our dishwasher is leaving stuff on our dishes regularly, and we pre-rinse really well AKA washing the dishes before we wash the dishes. So we might have some expensive tests to pay for, though I’m appealing it, and we might need a new dishwasher and our AC is going to die on us any day, though I’m confident it will last another summer. (knock on wood.) We also just paid a lot for the yearly ‘fix Jon’s car problems.’

We have savings to pay for all these things, but it’s the paying for all these things at the same time that gets to me.

I think my biggest pet peeve of the AC service man is his use of fear to sell me an air conditioning unit and the fact that last summer they predicted it would die, and it didn’t, this winter it was going to die, and it didn’t, so it’s still going to die this summer, and it might, but do I really only buy a new unit because I don’t want to have a house without air in the summertime? Yeah it’s gross, extremely uncomfortable, and I would probably be found at friends houses all day, but it’s not the end of the world. (Ask me again when it happens and how freaked out I was three years ago.)

How do you respond when people use fear or some other negative technique to get you to do things?

I also resist popular things, like Twilight and couponing. Not that I don’t like mindless books or saving money, I just hate that I must read something or I must do this so I can buy over processed foods for nearly nothing and store them in my already small house. (I’m overgeneralizing, I know not all coupons are for the bad foods and Twilight might be enjoyable to me. I just don’t like it when I must do something. In fact, maybe I’ll stop blogging because it’s become so popular, but I was doing it before it was so big. )

How I hate feeling pressured.

1. To be free of my yucky sinus infection. (Jon and I can sleep in the same bed again now that I’m not snoring anymore!)
2. Afternoons at the park.
3. The earth and all the wonderful things is supplies us so we can survive.
4. Baby smiles.
5. Friends willing to help me make costumes for the play or watch my kids so I can make costumes for the play.

On Monday’s I usually clean my house, well the hope is I tidy my house up from the crazy weekend. Due to watching Matilda so Sam can teach a dance class my Mondays have been a little less productive. She’s a good baby but she likes to be entertained and does not like to be sitting, and she usually takes a nap while here and she doesn’t like to take naps so  she’s a slight mystery at times to me.  I enjoy watching her, but I also enjoy seeing her go home with her mom and big sister. It reminds me how much work a young infant can be and how much I enjoy the ages my girls are at.

Cute Matilda

Today I had Matilda from 10-12:30 and Sam and Britta hang out for an hour or so. (Sorry we take so much of your day Sam.) I then had my visiting teacher over, in which Sam was pulling out when my visiting teacher was pulling up. So I had to clean and tidy my house while I had Matilda, who does not like to watch me do dishes. Since I had cleaned Thursday it was just tidying, sweeping once again, and dishes. Oh, so many dishes from this weekend.
The girls then were very much themselves, fighting and whining about one another while Amber, my visiting teacher, was here. I found it funny that they were so much themselves because they are usually very reserved and try to hide in their bedroom, but since that needed to be cleaned up from what they did with Britta the living room was their only option.

I’m happy to watch Matilda and have visits with Sam. It makes my blah Mondays a little more enjoyable, but adds to the craziness of Mondays at the same time.

I now need to do some sewing.

The girls and I did a few events for Earth Day. My friend Emilie called me that morning to tell me how the Disney store was giving away reusable bottles if you brought in three regular plastic bottles. I thought this was great, but I didn’t have any regular bottles due to already using reusable, so Emilie gave us nine bottles, enough to get three reusable.

We picked up the plastic bottles and followed the unknowing Emilie to the mall. We were both heading there, but she didn’t realized I followed her  there. The girls were amazed with the Disney store and would have loved to stayed, but we had to head to UNLV for their Earth Day stuff. They’re happy with their plastic reusable bottles, and so am I since I can freeze these and have ice cold water on hot days.

We got to UNLV later than planned, around 11:10. I saw that they were having a little closing ceremony with the elementary kids there as I headed to Jon’s office but thought nothing of it since it was scheduled to go from 10 am-2pm. We sat and ate lunch and then while I was inside with Eden Jon realized that vender’s were leaving. We were on the far end so it was hard to tell. We decided to pack up lunch and eat at the park and got to two vender’s that were packing up, but still had stuff out to take. I was really disappointed that it went so short and that we missed going around. I still need to write an e-mail to complain about the shortness of the event and how what they advertised to the general public was misleading as to the actual length of the event. Last year we got there early and left before it finished, so I don’t know if they did the same thing.

After kissing Jon goodbye and leaving lots of time on the meter since I thought I’d be there longer, we headed to the park to meet the unschooling group. There we made slushy with a cool ice cream ball and the girls made bird feeders with pine cones and the adults talked. It was a fun afternoon and not too hot and we left around 2:30.

I gave Eden a quick bath once home to get sand out of her hair. It has a tendency to stick to children’s sweaty heads and I didn’t want sand coming off on my couch or floor as she cooled off. I then took a nap with Eden and woke up hearing Lilah say “Daddy you’re home.” I was hoping Jon was home early, but no, it was 6:16 and I had slept heavily since 3:45 when we laid down.

We ate pizza to finish Earth Day and Lilah and Eden both spoke on keeping the Earth clean at dinnertime, though I heard it all day long so I may be just making it up about dinnertime.

We hope the Earth has a long healthy life and we’re trying to be the best caretakers we can be.

Here are a few pictures I snapped since I was the one helping with the slushy and busy while the girls had their fun.

Lilah walking with her bird feeder. She wanted to hang it at the park for the birds.

Eden with her bird feeder.

Lilah and Eden with bird seed pouches. These might look familiar if you came to our wedding. They’re from our wedding and I finally found a use for the birdseed. (I need to  be more creative if I’m gonna do this home school thing. )

I received information on the play and how to get tickets, but since it’s late and I’m paranoid, if you want information on going to the play and I don’t have your e-mail, leave a comment and I’ll e-mail you.

I know I’ve already given out plenty of information that any strange person can find out where the play is and come see us, but I just can’t give out the direct information here.

I guess blogging late at night since I took a nap at 8:30 pm makes me paranoid.

It doesn’t help that my child just said “who is it?” in her sleep either.

I should blog about Earth Day and what we did yesterday, but then I’d have to edit some photos and maybe try to be cute in my writing, though I really feel my blog writing has been in the minimal mode. I write what I have to because I have so many other things to think about and they’re mostly play or kid related.

Our house has been a slight disaster area lately. Things have just been piling up and I haven’t been very good at unpiling anything. ( I like to make up words.)

As a peace offering to Jon I’ve cleaned part of the house. It needed to be done, but I really did it for him, and slightly for me since the chaos does not help this stressful time. I hope he knows I love him and appreciate all the daddysitting time he’s been doing so Lilah and I can be apart of the play. It’s been difficult for him to find study time and finals and presentations are upon him.

I really appreciate all you do Babe and am so grateful that you don’t mind digging for your socks because I’ve been to busy to match them, when you did have some matched but hadn’t realized I put them away, and it’s so normal for you to have to find your socks that even I was surprised there were some in your drawer.

I also know that I’m going to be neck deep in sewing so I figure it’s nice to have a small memory of what our clean floors and bathrooms look like. Since our floors and house will be full of Winkie costumes for the next few weeks, or however long it takes to make them.

There’s still plenty to clean and do, but there always is, and at least the floors are presentable and our bathrooms are free from hair on the toilet.

1. To be a parent to two wonderful girls.
2. Not having a baby at this hectic time in my life. (Even though I am baby hungry.)
3. Air conditioning in both my car and house.
4. Good friends.
5. Being able to breath through my nose again, mostly anyways.

While I was washing dishes I asked Jon to have the girls help him get the towels in the wash. So they did help him get the towels in the wash. They hunted for treasure (towels) and then buried it (put it in the washing machine). It was very cute and even though it took at least twice as long as it would have taken me, I didn’t mind since everyone was having fun and my job at the time was washing dishes and not supervising the girls doing laundry, though I did remind them that there were more towels in the bathroom than what they originally found.

It reminds me that I need to have the girls help me more often. I know they can handle more responsibility, it’s the time it takes to do things with them or to have them do things that makes me forget to have them help me. I do make them clean up after themselves in some ways, but they don’t help with the dishes or laundry regularly, besides putting their dishes in the sink and putting their clothes away.

This week has mostly been me sewing and figuring out the cost for the lullaby/snowflake girl’s costumes. I’m in charge of buying everything and sewing Lilah’s and one other girl’s costume. It’s been fun considering I’m modifying a costume and have no exact measurements of how much fabric I need. So I laid out patterns to see and then I realized I had forgotten a piece that needed to be cut twice in my measurements, and bought more fabric and returned fabric because I changed the design. It’s been fun, real fun. I’m just hoping that I have enough fabric but not a lot left over by the time the last mom sews costumes since we’re just passing things along.

Besides the costumes this week, last night was the first dance rehearsal and it was the dance for the Jitterbug portion of the play. I was working out, but then sleep got the best of me and then I was sick and I still have a sinus infection and I have yet to return to working out. I am so sore and I get to dance and try to work my muscles tomorrow doing the dance once again. We’ll see if I’m able to do all the dance moves. (It’s the squatting that kills me and we have to go to the floor and hop up quickly at one point.) I suppose with a good warm up, and the fact that I don’t want to look like a total wuss, I’ll hopefully work through the pain and then I’ll just need to work out at home and try to do the moves that cause me the most pain at home, so my body can work through it. I think this just might be the key to me losing some weight.

Yesterday Carolyn’s co-worker mentioned how the Post Office was giving free tickets to the Shark Reef if you mailed your taxes at Mandalay Bay. She remembered that the Shark Reef field trip was canceled on us last month and thought maybe I’d want to mail her taxes for her and get the free tickets. Even though it was a crazy day both weather wise and I had lots I needed to do, I wanted to seize the opportunity to get free tickets, or ticket really, so I could take the girls there. ( The person who organized the Shark Reef trip has since left the group and I’m pretty sure we’re not going in the foreseeable future and the girls desperately wanted to go.)

Luckily it was so easy to get the ticket. I expected it to be harder. I just parked and then went up to the mobile post office and had them weigh the mail to make sure it had the correct postage, it was 33 cents short so Carolyn should be thankful I did have them weigh it, though it was more that I didn’t know if they were giving the tickets at the drop boxes so I went to the main truck. Then they gave me a ticket per return. I wish I had taken my dad’s return with me too so I could have gotten two and then we could have gone as a family. At least now it will only cost me $10.95 to go to the Shark Reef instead of $27.90 to take the girls there.

It sounds like they did this last year too, so if you owe money next year this might be a fun reason to hold off mailing your taxes till April 15th.

I hope you had a happy tax day, because I did.