What? NOOOO!!!!

I have to post this quickly.

I always check the news, as in once every few hours. I just read that Hershey's is raising their wholesale prices 9.7%! They aren't sure if it will take place before Easter or not. But wow. I understand they are trying to make a profit in these tough times, but choco-holics like me are in a world of hurt. Granted, I gave up sweets for Lent, so this is helping me. But there are times, like almost everyone else, that I just need a little something.

Le sigh.

I actually knew this was coming. Back in December, I read an article that showed the top 10 things that were expected to go up in price during 2011. Chocolate was among them, as is coffee. How ironic that a little over 4 months ago this article was posted.

Also, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I was told months ago that in about 20 years there may be a chocolate shortage. NOOO! But it's because we consume so much chocolate these days. About a 100 years ago, it was a luxury to have chooclate. Now, it's nothing for us to get it.

Oh, chocolate. We had a good run, didn't we?

Au Revoir, March

I can honestly say that I will not miss you!

You were a very intense month, and I am glad that we are turning the page into April! Things are a little bit better as far as my post on Tuesday goes. Again, I won't know anything until it's certain. But I'll continue to hope and pray.

I am taking a break at the moment from working on a scrapbook for C. It's the second project I have made. I did a shadow box of things for him last weekend. The scrapbook is something that I wanted to have done by December, but never got around to it. If I can work on just a little bit at a time, then I will hopefully have it done in no time.

After munching on some carrots, I'm about to start working on the scrapbook again. Tomorrow morning, I am going with my Grandma to the hospital so she can have a procedure done. My mom doesn't think there will be any problems, but she just wants her to have someone there just in case. That someone is me, because my mom is busy tomorrow at work.

I finished all my required readings for class, as well as one more paper down. This last paper was harder. For somne reason, I just could not get out what I was trying to say. I started typing it on Monday, and finished it this afternoon...5 pages later.

I'm going to go back to working on the scrapbook page I was working on. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Just Need to Breathe

I am starting to prepare myself in case C won't be home soon. I don't want to think that way, but it could be a reality. A reality that I definitely do not want. No one knows anything on anything. And it's so frustrating. I want a crystal ball. I want to wave a magic wand and make it all better. There is honestly nothing I can do.

I got word yesterday that I can send mail again. However, it could take awhile to get there, and considering he is supposed to be home soon, I don't want to send anything and have it completely miss him. It was a decision that I went back and forth on for a few days. I gave myself a deadline weeks ago of when to mail out anything and that deadline is now. Mainly because it could take more than just 5 days to get there.

I cannot shake this feeling right now that he won't be coming home soon. Maybe it's more of preparing myself for it. We all just want some answers, and unfortunately no one has any information that we don't already know.

I just need to breathe and continue telling myself that everything will be okay. I just need to keep thinking that he will be home soon, because he will.

Okay, I got my thoughts out. I feel a little better.

Kids say the cutest things

My nephew was hanging out here earlier today. He was trying to build a tower of blocks, but the tower kept falling over. He was getting frustrated that it wasn't working. So I asked him, "when life gives you lemons, what do you do?"

And he replied, "Take a deep breath."


Did I mention he's 4?? He's so smart, even though I don't think he's heard that before.

The other day, I was watching my 3 nephews when my sis ran some errands. B is 4, H and little B are twins, who are almost 2. They keep life interesting. Anyways, B, Little B, and I were coloring. Or rather, B and I were coloring. Little B was the crayon police. Every time I tried to reach for a crayon in the big box of crayons, he'd say, "No, no!" And hover over the box like it was his job. Finally, I swapped out the crayon I had for another one, and he was okay with that. But I couldn't take more than one apparently.

It was humorous, like he was guarding the box that was specifically for him.

I have a nickname with my nephews. It started when B was just a few months shy of his second birthday. He couldn't say my name, and when he did try, it came out Kiki. So it stuck. He'd argue with anyone when they tried to say my name, he'd say, "No, Kiki." To this day, 2 years later, he still calls me Kiki. Little B started calling me "Cookie." I think he was getting Kiki and the actual food cookie confused. But now he says Kiki, but kind of drawn out. "Kikiii."

B also told me a couple of weeks ago that I was having 5 children, and that their names were going to be Sami, Jo-Jo, Bingo, and Banjo. He didn't realize he left out a name. I asked him why those names, and he said, "Because they are easy to say." Very well. :)

Those definitely won't be the names in the future, although I am not going to crush his idea of those names at the moment.

Free To A Good Home

Along my many organizational projects, I am going through the books I have bought over the years. So far, I'm getting rid of 2 boxes of books. They aren't getting thrown out, but if anyone wants them, have at it. I'm an avid reader, but I thought it would be harder to part with them. I can remember when I was a few years younger thinking that I'd re-read them over and over again. Only the ones that I really enjoyed have been read again. As long as someone else gets enjoyment out of reading them, that's all that matters.

I am cutting down on a lot of things that I don't need. It's just not necessary to have so much. One of the things that I do know I have a lot of is sunglasses. Mainly because I lose a pair, buy a pair, find the original pair, lose both, buy another pair, find them, etc. It continues. To now where I probably have close to ten pairs- since going back to contacts in 2006. Luckily, I never spend more than just a few dollars on sunglasses, but still. There is no need to have that many pairs.

Next up: going through all my art supplies. I have to be careful with some of that stuff, because it is toxic. Which is why it's in sealed totes. I know that my photography stuff is in a tote. Such as the brown jug that I kept on hand for when I had to mix the chemicals for my black and white photography class. Although, I think the one brown jug that I have left has never been used. I do recall disposing of the other jug, with it's chemicals in a very proper way. I did have my turpenoid for painting in a container. I've always been told that when it was time to get rid of that, to saturate the mixture of turpenoid and oil with cloth or lots of paper towels. And that is just what I did. I put so many paper towels in there in order to get it all soaked. Then I wrapped duct tape around the lid to seal it in, and wrapped it in many plastic bags. I also wrote on the container before it went in the plastic bags that it was toxic. Again, it was properly disposed of.

I lead such an exciting life, I know! But it's things that need to be done AND it's keeping me busy. While doing all that, though, I keep thinking of May, of things I need to do before May gets here. I need to start a list, but for now it's all in my head. One of the things that is definitely on my list is having a poster made. There is a website that I have found that allows for a free poster, all I need to do is pay shipping and handling (which is less than $10). I'm trying to decide what picture to use, but I'll figure that out in just a few short days. I already mentioned the idea to C's parents, and they thought it was a good idea. What I am going to do is order the poster soon, have it here before May so that people can sign it. I thought it would be a nice touch for him. It is one of the things I am most excited about, to do for him.

Motivation

I was able to knock out a paper I have due on the 28th yesterday. For some reason, I keep thinking that the 28th is tomorrow. Negative, it's on Monday. But anyway, the paper is done. I'm going to re-read it before I send it, to make sure it's just the way I want it. I started working on another paper yesterday, and am almost ready to start typing it up.

I also began going through a lot of things. I am determined to not buy another bottle of lotion until I use every opened and unopened bottle that I have. I am a lotion-aholic. I always carry lotion in every purse or bag that I have. I cannot stand the feel of my hands without lotion being on them. I literally cannot think of anything else until I get lotion on my hands. Drives me nuts! It's now affecting my feet. If I don't have socks on my feet yet, I can just feel the dryness. And then I can't think of anything else. Sometimes I'll look at my hands and if they are starting to get dry, I can tell. Then I'll put more lotion on.

I am so weird. But anyways, I have about 3 unopened bottles of lotion, and 3 half-opened bottles. I actually haven't bought lotion in quite awhile-probably since the Summer. But I won't let them go to waste. Believe me, they will be used. I'm just in that "Spring cleaning" frame of mind. I am an avid reader, and I have collected a lot of books over the past 12-14 years. I'm going to go through them all, keep the ones that I want, and give the rest away.

I'm getting more and more anxious as the days pass on, waiting for May to get here. I had this dream this morning that C's mom and I were either boarding a plane to get to him or coming off a plane to meet him. Either way, he was there. I remember thinking that it seemed so surreal. How true that was! Time is flying by, but at the same time, I am so ready for it to be May.

Macaroni and Cheese

I'm not above eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. It's not very often, but tonight was one of those easy nights. They changed their box design, which I knew about. But it turned me off tonight of the brand, as I was cooking the macaroni and reading the back of the box.

Upon reading the back of the box and how they talk about their new box design, I discovered that they don't use proper punctuation. How in the world are we supposed to teach our children to use proper punctuation and grammar if we as adults can't use it ourselves? It was horrible to read. It was almost like a teenager wrote the paragraph on the back of the box.

I was so shocked when reading that paragraph, that I couldn't get past it. Maybe I'm making a bigger deal out of this than there needs to be. But I really think that people should use proper grammar and punctuation, especially when they are selling a product.