The Day. It was Thursday. We did stuff.

The day started out innocent enough. Hubs was delayed in leaving, as he was working a later shift. K- and I went out to the consignment store to peddle our hand-me-down's. We pocketed $45.00, $15.00 of which we left back at the store in exchange for 2 pairs of uniform skorts, 1 pair of shorts and a Shrek Leap Pad game. It was a fair trade, I thought. By the way, they took all of the games that we had (yes, I checked them all for all the pieces and so forth), 3 of the 5 DVD's, the bag of new stuff and not much of the used stuff. So apparently, games are the thing to unload at a place like that.

We pressed onward to an upscale consignment store that I'd hear rave reviews about. Well, it was far too rich for my blood, as I noticed that a dress/sweater set were selling USED for $19.98, it was my cue to exit. I'll be leaving my money at the Village Discount Outlet, thankyouverymuch.

We had an appointment with our fabulous dentist at 12 noon, but we got there about 20 minutes early. That's okay. K- was able to play with the train table and I was able to quietly call a friend from the waiting room. Good news! We have no cavities! Bad news! They are watching a spot on one of my teeth and a few spots on a few of K-'s teeth. Ugh. But we left, hoping that February 4th is when we see them and not sooner.

We arrived back home, had a lovely lunch of quesadillas and started the weekly cleaning. Mom called once or ten times, so she cleaned the bathroom with me, did the laundry and I'm sure that she'll call while I'm sweeping. I still need to tidy the kitchen. I had clipped coupons in anticipation of going to KMart's double coupon thing this week, but they have a minimum purchase amount of $25.00 and you can only use 10 coupons. Nope. Not a deal for me.

Several times today, I have hosed the wretched beetles from my tree. At this point, the swarm is so bad that the beetle juice isn't even keeping them at bay. I have found that when I hose the tree off, they do swarm and tend to remain swarming around and into the beetle bags. Hubs emptied the bags today, crushed the dead beetles and hung a pierced bag in the tree (where no one can see) in hopes that the dead beetle smell will repel them. About this time last year was when they got so bad, but I don't know if they stopped because the tree was all eaten or it was their time to move on. My guess is that they moved on because of lack of food.

So, K-'s friend, E- got home and the girls biked up and down the street a few times. Both girls were getting a case of the crabby appleskins coming on, so I announced that it would be the last up and down until lightning bugs. Something in my child snapped. She absolutely melted down. She sat down at the end of someone's driveway and wouldn't get up. Then when she did, it was only because I was pushing her bike up the street and had taken her lightning bug collection privilege away. Then, she decided to start yelling so loud that I placed my hand over her mouth to muffle the sound and she blew her nose into my hand. She then lost TV for the evening and the next day. We trudged up the street until she finally did collapsified body in the front yard, so that I had to pick her up and carry her in. The neighbors? Oh, many were out or had their windows open. They were all watching. If I were to give her a score, I'd say a nice 9.8. She was a hair sloppy on the landing. She continued the festival of no and disobedience when she got into the house. She has officially lost TV for the entire weekend. She has lost lightning bug collecting for these two nights and I have taken her new game that she earned today. I told her how everyone was watching and now they think that she might be a bad little girl and it is up to her to prove them wrong. She cried and asked if daddy would kiss her when he got in, or if he thought she was a bad little girl. I told her that we both know that she is good, but she made some very bad choices. She told me the bad choices that she made, hugged me and apologized profusely and promptly fell asleep at 7:30 PM. (She was sent straight to bed.) Tomorrow is another day. Wow. I hate the breakdown battle. Argh.

We've made the solid decision today that we will not be vacationing this year. There was a glimmer of a chance of a vacation in August. It was a real opportunity, but the timing was bad. We have a sale at work and asking for that week off is like asking for the week of Christmas off. Hubs has programs, but he would have been able to have someone cover. K- starts school the next week and we would have only just gotten home to have to ready her and shove her out the door. We didn't want to shove out the door. We want to have a nice first day. She also has Kindergarten Orientation sometime that week before, which we'd really like to attend. It turned out that the week that was potentially being offered wasn't available in a townhome or beach house, so the next week was chosen, which really cuts us out. We've decided to sock the money away to save for winter and just general savings. As soon as we get the RAV paid off, we'll have to get Hubs a new car. He's kicking around the idea of a Matrix, which with a downpayment will land us with the same payment that we have for the RAV. I figure that I can have the RAV paid off in two more years. But still, another car loan. Sigh.

So today is a busy day for us. We have a park program on dragonflies and damselflies. My aunt wants us to pop in and see her and Grandma (we were going to do that Thursday, but Aunt Donna wasn't feeling up to it) in the afternoon. Then, friends will be coming over to celebrate E-'s birthday. He just turned 7 last week. We'll dine on brownies and catch up as the kids play in the backyard. Heather promises not to vomit this time. ;)

So as the news of Michael Jackson's passing settles down, the week has been walking down memory lane with the couple of friends of mine that lost a parent back in June. A previous boss' mom died last week, with the memorial just this week. These are losses that I can't fully help with. I feel like if I make some sort of comparative comment, I'm trying to downplay their loss, which isn't the case at all. (No, neither A- or Julia has said that.) I'm a filler speaker. I'm wordy, I tend to eat hips sometimes and in the occasion of attempting to soothe feelings and be there, I over talk. Why can't I keep my flippin' mouth shut? I read e-mails from A-, talking about great costumes that dad made and contests he entered and won. I see Julia, my co-worker, roll through extreme highs and lows over the loss of her mom. And there is Chris, who I've not been able to speak to, but have sent a sympathy card to. I guess it is a nervousness. I'm a fixer by nature. I can't fix their hurt. I would if I could. I guess that my mouth thinks that it can help to fix, but really it just needs to tell my ears that it is happy to pass the job along. Good listening ears, my friend. That's what I tell K-. I guess that I should practice what I preach, eh?

Good weekend to all of you. May your listening ears be firmly in place. [e-er, e-er] There. I checked. Mine are.

Smiles in my day:
- K- holding my hand when I was getting my teeth cleaned.
- Finding a 15% off shopping pass to Kohl's in my e-mail box. Now I'll go and get the cute little drop waist jumper for K-. It was 30% off and I can use my shopping pass on top of that. We'll use our consignment store money and that makes me smile.
- Having big plans to fill our pool (a large plastic shell pool from TRU) in the AM to have it heat up while we're gone to our park program, so we can play in it later. That will make K- smile.
- Though I hate the hum of the central air, I'm glad to have it to use when we need it. I decided to turn it on tonight (Thursday night) so that I don't have to play catch-up tomorrow when they predict that it will be 90 F. (I know, don't complain. Y'all in the mid section have been battling 100+. )
- Being able to talk with K- about the icky evening breakdown, tell her what a good little girl she is and to tell her that I love her. She had me snuggle in with her and I made up a story. "But mommy, I really don't want to make up a story tonight." "I do!" I made up a story about her and what a great kid she is-- concentrating on the positives about her. I don't want her to feel worthless by any stretch, I do want her to behave and be respectful.
- The Heath Bar in the freezer that I forgot that I bought myself this past weekend. Mmmm.
- That K- was able to have a positive experience at the dentist today that didn't involve her getting "a big lip." (Numbed up lip from dental work.) Dr. Rick could return to being the "good guy" and all is well.