Saturday, January 28, 2006

Finally! Aidan got his hair cut!












Ok you have to understand that Aidan is quirky. About a great many things. But I digress, we were talking about a hair cut. This little boy seems destined to turn into Shaggy (think the hippie from Scooby Doo). See before picture above. Well he will pitch a fit at the sight of the hair cutting place we usually go to, he hasn't had a bad experience there or anything, he's just weird! I tried to get the boys hair cuts last weekend, because daddy needs one just as bad as Aidan did. Let's just say Aidan threw a fit and wouldn't let daddy get his hair cut either....So I had to go to the post office the other day and in the same shopping center I notice a new place called Cool Cuts for Kids (or something like that). I took him there today, it was GREAT! They had toys to play with (Thomas the train stuff!), Videos to watch and he got to sit in his choice of vehicle, a yellow taxi or a really cool fire truck with a bell on it, you can guess which one he choose! We will definitly be going back there soon! Here is the after picture, you can actually see his face!! YAY!

Friday, January 27, 2006

If it isn't one thing..

it's another! We got the van running again, so we took it to get an oil change since it has been sitting for months. What do you think happens? The dipstick broke! Seriously, all I could do for a few seconds was look at the kid holding the handle thinger in his hand. When I could finally speak I was like "What the?" OY! So now we need to find a way to get that taken care of. I mean what else needs to go wrong? Everytime I think we're all set, running on a level playing field, what happens? We trip in a gopher hole. So now I'm off to research this latest "problem". Wish me luck.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Regis and Kelly...


are having a cutest baby contest. So, at the suggestion of Mamaw I went and entered Aidan. You had to have a picture (not a professional one) that was taken within the last month, here's the one I picked. So, watch the show on Feb. 20th to see who the semi-finalists are, and to find out when to vote. This picture was from New Year's Eve, my little man stayed up with us to watch the ball drop, and got to lead the "noise maker jamboree". He had a ball!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Ian is turning out to be a...

Jack of All Trades! We now have 2 running vehicles again. It did only turn out to be the battery on the van that was the problem. So last Saturday I went and picked him up a set of sockets w/ a ratchet (insert that strange noise that Tim the Tool man Taylor makes here). More Tools! I seem to remember a time when you disconnected the battery, lifted it out put in the next. Well let me tell ya, they bolt the suckers in now! you have to have a socket and ratchet. I think it could very well be a conspiracy by the tool industry! Anyway so Ian got the old dead battery out just fine, we go get the new one, come back,start to put it in. Ian goes to hook the negative side back up and the alarm starts wailing! ok disconnect that again!, go in the house find the remote (we haven't used it in ages, even when the van was running), discover that there is no battery in it, run out get a battery, come back try again. Success! Just call him Ian the Toolman/Geek Squad McBride! That's my guy.The van started right up! Thank goodness! Especially considering we have to get the truck to the dealership by 7:45 am tomorrow (what an awful hour to have to face the day when you work 2nd shift).
Which brings me to my newest RANT! What is with the car dealership? They don't have service department hours on Saturday, and Monday -Friday it's only open 7 -3. Does the entire planet revolve around 1st shift people? And further more, I asked the dealership, since this visit is to repair 2 (yes that's right 2!) recalls, if they would give us a courtesy car and they said NO! arg, why not? "they don't do that" What kind of nonsense is that? I mean you recall something on the car, and then you're going to leave me without a car for the ENTIRE day and not give me something else to drive? what's that all about. Thankfully we got the van to start (even if it is the eleventh hour). Hopefully we'll be able to come back home and get some sleep. We've taken the day off of work for this mess, maybe we'll get some other stuff accomplished too! Wish us luck!

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Nervous as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs...

I really really don't like snow, especially this annoying slushy, if it was warmer it would be rain,kind of snow, but instead it's this nasty wet snow building up everywhere. And I have to say I've been driving in this stuff every winter for 10 years, so I do ok, but the other drivers on the road...well they leave something to be desired. We don't have 4 wheel drive on our truck, but if you take it easy you do ok, so we're putting along, and struggling a little bit (4 inches and still falling w/ no sign whatsoever that a plow had been around), and along comes this small car driving like a loon! You would think that if you saw the car ahead of you struggling through the snow, sliding now and again, that you would just stay back. but no, they zip past and scare the bejeezus out of me. It is for reasons like this that I tend to be as nervous as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs everytime it snows and we have to drive in it.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Hooray!!!!

We have two working toilets again! Ok, I know what you're thinking, who on earth would want to hear about my bathroom problems. Well, I can't help but be proud of Ian for fixing the problem by himself! Way to go babe! See the problem was that the toilet downstairs (the one by the way that gets used the most) was leaking from between the bowl and the tank. I can hear you handy people out there saying "That's easy to fix", but being first time home owners (who are slowly accquiring the collection of tools needed to do minor home repairs) and having zero know-how in the plumbing department (or any other home repair department for that matter) you gotta give us credit for being able to fix it without having to call in a plumber. Now... computer problems we've got that covered, our house has it's own "Geek Squad"; my Ian can figure out just about anything with a computer!
So what job shall the McBrides of IL tackle next? the answer: Operation Get the Van running! Stay tuned.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Resolutions?

I don't know that I've actually made any resolutions in the last few years, but this year I'm going to try, actually we're all going to try. Here are our goals (resolutions sounds a bit intimidating to me) for the year.
1-muck out our house, that sounds bad doesn't it? we have so much we don't need or use, it's time to "fluff off all the excess and find our centers". You can bet we'll be throwing out a lot and probably selling some on eBay-have to try to make something out of all this STUFF.
2-make lists, we seem to get much more done when we do this, I think part of it is because you get a sense of accomplishment in getting to cross things off. It doesn't bother us that the list will never actually be finished, but crossing off and revising just feels like something is getting done. We've already started this, our goal is to cross off one thing a day, even if we add more then that, all that matters is that something gets done.
3-a personal goal for me is to scrap a page for each day of the year, I'm already behind on this but I'll catch up quickly once we're back in the swing of things. I feel this is an Important goal, it gets our memories down on paper, and it gives me a creative outlet that I think I'm starting to improve at.
4-look for another job for both of us but definitly me, before we go onto 12 hour shifts. Look for jobs for both of us 800 miles from here (big dream-but we can eventually do it)
5-last but not least try to eat better..which in turn hopefully will shed some pounds off of both of us. Hopefully straightening up and getting a sense of order throughout the house will make it easier to find the time to make home cooked meals instead of so much processed food.

Well those are our goals for the year...wish us luck.

I also have a new gallery for my scrapbooking online at scrapbook.com click here to see my gallery. http://www.scrapbook.com/places/Fe+McB Hopefully I'll have some new things going up soon.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

"Home....

...is where the heart is." I never really understood that until I was blessed to become a part of my new family in NJ. My heart, my home really is in NJ, we didn't even get to the corner of the street when were leaving to come back here and I was missing them all already. It's really funny when people hear me talk about going home for christmas, they always ask "But didn't you grow up around here? You're not from NJ are you?" My answer to that is always "I am now (from NJ)." Even my little guy gets very excited about going home for a visit. It is truly where we all want to be.
We miss you all so very much! Let the job hunt begin!