Not a Matter of Life and Death

Are you ready to cry my a river? To hear such a sad sob story that you'll roll your eyes? Yeah? Good, cause here we go.

For the past two days-ish (because admittedly, some of it happened through the night), we had a recent wave of severe thunderstorms roll through our area of the country and had some interesting lightening strikes near-by. I didn't think much of it, though once it did knock out the power and I had to reset everything. Like I said, didn't think much of it...

Until yesterday...

When our tv went on the fritz. Yep. Our less than four years old flat screen splurge...er...tv is no longer showing any kind of picture at all. You can hear everything, but from my research, it appears that a video card (or the like) has been fried, so we no longer get a picture. And based on everything else, the only thing we can think that caused this problem is the lightening storms we've had.

Oh heavy heavy sigh.

It's darn annoying, but it's definitely not the end all of anything, except maybe the tv. Not to fret, the children are still able to get their tv fix thanks to the lesser used, smaller (oh the sadness) tv in the basement. And, they get to be reunited with all their toys they've forgotten about that live in the basement, so they really aren't hurting for entertainment in the least.

But, like I said. It's annoying. AND the DISH satellite system we subscribe to seems to having issues as well. I've had to reset the thing several times this morning to get things working in the basement (because, see, I didn't know it was having problems yesterday because our main tv isn't working...you get the picture. Pardon the pun).

Super J has smelled the blood in the proverbial water. He is anxious for us to get rid of all things television and has told me that we should, since the one tv isn't working, just get rid of all of it--the tv and the DISH. "It just seems like the natural time to do so, doesn't it?" he reasons.

Hmmmm. I'm not so sure. I'm not sure I'm ready for that, much like I'm not ready for a financial planner or a trip to the dentist for a root canal. Not that I can't be without tv. I can quit any time (yeah, clearly!!!). But the only tv that got the digital signal is the one that is now dead. So, we would literally be without ANY tv....Super J says that this will help us all to be better readers and communicators, but I've got three kids who aren't even reading and that means that *I'm* the main reader and, let's be brutal shall we? I'm lazy. This doesn't sound like a good time to me, since I wouldn't be able to just read what *I* want to read...I'm stuck reading Barbie and Dora books over and over and over, and I kinda do that already.

Tsk. See how whiny and complainy this is?

Now, I do have a friend (and you know who you are) who lives a happy and fulfilled life with no television (well, she has a tv, but they just use the *gasp!* free stuff that comes over the airwaves or use it for just *gasp, again!* dvds and videos!!! ...or they watch stuff on the computer). There are probably more of you out there. More incredible women who are raising their children without a television nanny.

Yeah...but that's not me. And this isn't to say that I haven't told Super J that I'd get rid of DISH so I could keep my YMCA membership. He's just been good enough not to force the issue so far this summer. And it wasn't like we didn't talk about getting rid of DISH when Super J wasn't working, because we did! Several times. And our contract has now expired, so we can do so without any financial cancellation fees. But that was when I could comfort myself with knowing we could still get some form of kids shows, like PBS or Qubo.

So, see how sad my life is? Don't you just feel so sorry for me? Yeah, I know. I kinda feel that way, too. It's a sad sad river full of tears flowing through my life right now.

Thanks for letting me kvetch.

¡Hola!, Chicken!!!

Backstory: Yesterday for dinner I made this tasty dish from Picky Palate, but added some salsa and used some canned chicken instead of crock-potting it and forgot about the "crumbles." Anyway, when my kids asked what it was, I said, it was either "Chicken Ole'" or "¡Hola!, Chicken." They picked "¡Hola!, Chicken."Fast forward to F.H.E. (Family Home Evening) For our activity, we went to our little community pool, where Miss E proceeds, as normal, to drink half the pool and then burp LOUDLY like an incredibly drunk sailor. It's shocking, it's so loud, and draws attention whenever she does it.

Anyway, so we get that part of the evening over and Super J and I are with the littlest girls in the "baby" pool while Misses A and E are in the "bigger" pool (which is at most 5 feet) when all of a sudden, we hear Miss E belch again.

And then she gives us a weird face and then, as if in slow motion, she starts...

yes...

throwing up. Luckily, she had the presence of mind to cup her hands. Sadly, she was standing IN THE MIDDLE OF THE POOL! Hello, other swimmers!

Ohdearheavens!!!!!!! The Mortification. And I thought Miss O's digging in her pants yesterday was gross and disturbing.

Luckily, I let Super J deal with all that and I took Miss E to the bathroom and then we went home. Who knows what happened next. Ohdearheavens, I can barely stand to think of it without cringing.

Seriously, you just can't take us Peters anywhere, because CLEARLY the Zoo is following us, no longer contained to the chaos of home.

On the way to the car, Super J said, "Well, this is the peril of a community pool."

And, clearly under the stress of the moment, I revealed my secret shame to my husband in response. Please don't hate me and think I'm the most disgusting friend/sister/mom/etc. you know. Because I'm going to share this secret shame with you, too.

As we walked to the car, I whispered to Super J the following: Hauling Miss E out of the pool and into the bathroom as quickly as possible, all I could think was, "¡Hola!, Chicken!!!!"

Bawk, bawk!

May the Force be with you

This is a tale about Potty training. If you are not interested, please feel free to visit some of the other awesome blogs you normally read and know that, in a couple of days, I'll eventually post about something else.

In the meantime...

I may have mentioned this before, but we are working on potty training with Miss O. She has a chart, she tells everyone she meets that she's going to have a Potty Party (though often they have NO CLUE what she's saying, her little happy voice is so high pitched), and she has been known to take herself into the bathroom to wee on the pot. We are very proud of her. Of course, she has yet to poop on the toilet, but we are hopeful. And she knows. She's told me a few times when she needs to pee. So we'll go. She'll get an M&M and a sticker. It's a very happy time, needless to say, when it happens.

Alas.

A few days ago, she decided to take a break from all sorts of potty training efforts.

How frustrating is that? Well, let me just say, frustrating.

I've been trying to guide her in the right direction because, as anyone knows who's done this before (and that would be me and Super J...twice. Not us being potty trained, twice, but teaching it, twice. You understand, right? Anyway.), you cannot force your toddler to do their business. At all. It won't work and it will, if you aren't careful, help them to avoid said training long enough to cause you to have anxiety palpitations that your child will be the only Kindergartner still in pull-ups for no good reason beyond stubbornness...right Miss E?

Happily, I know this is a phase. Frustrating, but a phase.

So, I hopped on the helpful Internet and re-read all the hints about potty training, especially helping the toddlers move those bowels in the toilet. I've tried my patented, "But the poop is soooooo happy when you put it in the toilet." And Super J took it a step further in saying, "You like to go swimming? Guess what your pee and poop like to do? Guess where their pool is?" To which, Miss O enthusiastically answers, "The TOILET!" Yay! She knows...she just doesn't know...or care.

Anyway, I bring all this up because Miss O came to me today after having stuck her fingers down her pants after doing her business. Ohdearheavens. We just don't do that here at the Zoo, because I tend to become a shrieking mess of hysteria. Luckily, I was Skyping my brother and so, had an immediate outlet and didn't freak out completely (only on the inside, Gentle Reader. Only on the inside). I went to change her and we then went and flushed the poo down the toilet, saying good-bye and wishing it well and wishing Miss O had just done her business there in the first place.

I am reminded that this potty training business cannot happen soon enough.

So, once again, any helpful suggestions for getting your kid ON the toilet after a brief stint of NOT wanting to use it, or any aid with the poo efforts, would be greatly appreciated.