thelittlezoo.com

I didn’t post here about our spare room that had major water damage due to a leak in the supply line to the water heater, but I did mention it on my myspace blog.  And most of you that read here, would either see it there, or know me in person and have heard about it anyway.

Charlie came in with the mail tonight and we were shocked to find a check from our previous mortgage company with an “escrow account overage” check!  We refinanced clear back in September and thought that all the money we were due had already been returned!  No need to post the exact amount here; suffice it to say that the amount of the check is enough to buy a new (larger) water heater, the new carpet, paint, drywall, subfloor, everything, and still have enough left over to pay off our only credit card and buy the photographic lighting equipment we’ve been wanting!  (If you’re family, or a close friend, and you really want to know how much it was, you can email me and I’ll tell you, LOL)

For as long as I can remember, I have pointed and giggled whenever I saw a misspelled word on a sign, announcement in a church bulletin, magazine article or virtually any other public printing. Recently, I’ve discovered several blogs that show me that it isn’t just my Mom and I with this obsession… er… quirk.

Your Sew Vein - A New York City-based blog for grammar, spelling and usage snobs

Typo Hunt Across America - The Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) hits the road. (my favorite!)

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks - Misinterpreting bad punctuation since 2005

Ever since starting to read these blogs, I’ve been obsessing about this plague of bad spelling, improper punctuation and poor grammar even more than usual. So much so that I have actually resorted to pulling my vehicle over and taking a photograph of a public sign, in the pouring rain! I’ve sent a couple of the photos in to the writers of the blogs I listed, but I’m finding so many now that I almost think I should start my own West Coast version with the photos I’m taking. I wouldn’t do it here on my family blog; I’d probably just use Blogspot or LiveJournal.

If I do start one, and post the link, would you read it, and giggle with me?

This morning both kids decided they wanted to have “cereal, with NO milk” for breakfast. Okay. That’s not the weird part. They ask for that a couple times a week. They usually have yogurt, applesauce and cereal for breakfast most mornings, and sometimes they just don’t want milk on their cereal, so they eat it dry. It’s Cheerios 90% of the time, so it’s no big deal.

Today, they both asked for milk in a cup. We are not milk drinkers. They have never just had a glass of milk. We get our calcium from other things like cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese. We just don’t drink milk plain. But today, they wanted “cereal with NO milk, and milk in a cup”.

What’s so weird about drinking milk?  Nothing, I suppose.  But I would think that if you want cereal, and you want milk, why not put them together, instead of having them separately?  That’s what’s so weird about my kids.

We went today to help a friend pick up a piano that she was blessed with on Freecycle. Another church member also came along - he had the truck & trailer! After the piano was loaded, the lady mentioned that over the next few months, she was going to be giving away a bunch of other stuff that we could see there in the garage. Curiosity must have gotten the better of Luther (the guy with the truck), because he asked what other things were going to be offered. She pointed a few things out, and one of them was a pile of bicycles.

The bicycle closest to me was a very cute little pink Barbie bicycle, just Hannah’s size, with training wheels still attached! I stepped closer and said “Oh, reaaaaaaally… I have a nearly-five-year-old girl out there in the car that would love to have that bike.”

Long story short, we now have a cute little bicycle squirreled away in the camper, hiding from a pair of prying little eyes. It’s pretty much like this one, without the Barbie pouch thing on the handlebars.

I’ve been doing a bit of reading and I’ve decided to try to get to a more natural diet, especially with the kids. I’m going to phase things out one at a time, I think, and I’m going to be starting with artificial coloring in foods. I was worried for a moment because I just bought a whole new box of fruit snacks at Costco. Not too worried, actually, because I haven’t opened it yet and could probably return it. But - I checked the ingredients list and they’re all-natural, without any artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. They do have corn syrup listed, but not “high fructose corn syrup.” What’s the difference, really? I guess I better google that next. Especially since High Fructose Corn Syrup is next on my list to be cut from the diet. It’s weird, too… items aren’t the same across the board. For example, I was picking up yogurt for the kids. Same brand, various flavors. I couldn’t buy Cherry because it had red dye in it. But Black Cherry, in the same brand of yogurt, was fine!

So… Grandmas who are reading this blog - no buying treats with artificial colors listed, please! LOL