Laptops, Waking Babies and Parrots

YES!! I got my laptop and I'm typing on it as we speak! This rules! Granted, part of the appeal of a laptop is that you can do everything from your bed or your sofa and I'm actually sitting at my dining room table. But soon enough, soon enough. The other appeal is that our old computer was on the verge of dying and we needed another computer. Between Erick with his various websites that he runs and his music addiction and me with my scrapping supplies and ginormous Rebel photos we were maxing out our hard drives. I actually tried to transfer some photos over from one drive to another last night and I got an error message telling me "Stop! You've maxed me out!" (That's a paraphrase in case you couldn't tell). So this could not have come at a better time. Crazy though because growing up, it was a novelty if a family had ANY computer at all and now, so much of our lives are wrapped up in these things that it's really a necessity to have more than one computer per household.

So yesterday was a crazy day. We went to Best Buy to return the tv (we are grateful that they made it hassle-free so here's a little shout out to the fine gentlemen at Brea Best Buy for being such great customer servants. Rare indeed.) and we picked up Alice in Wonderland for McKenna & Kyla, a Ryan Adams cd for Erick, a wireless mouse for my laptop and then we went looking at the laptops. We went to find a Compaq with a 40GB HD that was supposed to be on sale for $756. Couldn't find it but we did find a repacked Gateway (40GB HD) for $764. It was the best price so I told Erick I was ok with it being repacked (hey, I am not difficult to please.) But eagle-eye Erick spotted something better....a Toshiba laptop with an 80 GB HD for $779!! A-woo, a-hoo!! Unfortunately, they were all out! So the wonderful employees called around and found us one in Yorba Linda and told them to hold one for us. While that process was going on, Erick is looking at the regular computer systems and finds a phenomenal deal (couldn't even tell ya what it was because I still had stars in my eyes over my new laptop) and he decides that what he wants his Vday gift to be is a new computer as well. Normally, he builds his own because he likes to have ultra powerful computers at low prices. But the computer is no longer his gaming system (xbox 360 is) so he doesn't need it to do as much. He found a computer that would cost the same as it would cost him to put it together. Problem.....the sale was to end the next day. Now, we rarely have money to buy ONE computer, much less TWO (what are we, the Rockefellers?) But this deal was awesome. So Erick called his Mom and asked her to front us the money until our tax refund came in (yeeees...we can still buy the computer and pay off the credit card. Stop fretting.) His Mom said yes. So we go all the way to Yorba Linda to pick up my laptop and they don't have his computer there. After he dropped us girls off at home he had to go all the way back to Brea to pick up his computer, then come home to drop it off. He had about 5 minutes before he needed to go to work so I begged him to set our old tv back up because I couldn't stand having the place all disorganized like that. He obliged my madness and off to work he went. A whirlwind afternoon.

You would think I could count on a nice evening. No. McKenna woke up continuously from the time I put her to bed (about 8pm) through 1am. Crying,saying she was scared. I'd rock her, say prayers, repeat. I finally told her I wasn't coming back in again. That usually does the trick but no, she kept waking up. And I wouldn't go in but I'd open the door and tell her "Go to sleep. I'm not coming back in." And at one point I told her that if she kept waking up then she had to take 2 naps the next day. Nothing worked. Erick got home around 1am and she woke one more time. This time he went in and talked to her and fortunately, that was the last we heard from her. Sometimes Daddy has the magic words...whatever they are! Erick stayed up to work on my computer for me and Kyla decided she wanted to wake up too. She'd been sleeping 11-12 straight hours every night so I think maybe she woke up and noticed that lights were on. So he had to stop to feed her and he didn't get to bed until 3am. Needless to say, I'm letting him sleep in today.

I was hoping that I would get to sleep in. I might very well have too. Except for the damn parrots. "The what?" you say. Yes, the parrots. No, I do not own any parrots nor do my neighbors. But we actually have a flock of parrots that circle the neighborhood. They arrived a couple of weeks ago and generally swoop around making a lot of noise for about 10 minutes once every couple of days, usually in the afternoon. Nothing major. But no, not today. Today they decided to wake the whole neighborhood at 7am. Nice. The one day I would've liked to have the whole family sleep a little later. But it was kind of cool to go out there this morning and see a good 50-100 parrots perched above my apartment. I felt like Diego.

Oh wanna hear something cool? I went to the West Coast Scrap chat last night. Lisa gave us a freebie for attending (a cute alpha set) and then gave us a challenge (scrap a bday card for SBB). If we entered the card by noon today then we would get another freebie. And then she did 4 games to give away prizes. I won a prize!! And I am SO freaking excited at what I won! I had just been drooling over at the modshop earlier in the day and I actually won a kit I'd been considering buying!! I won this rockin' Hey You kit by the Modsquad! I am telling you girls, go get in on the SBB celebration. They are being quite generous with their chat and challenge prizes. Amy Edwards owns SBB and she is running a wonderful, friendly group over there. I can't even believe how far she has brought this website. It's quite impressive what she's managed to create.

Ok, needed to give you a tart update - Sweet Honeysuckle is good! You have to love the smell of the flower though. I do, it's a nostalgic smell from my childhood. Lemon Lavendar is AWESOME!! Highly, highly recommend. I dare say this could be the standout spring scent of the year (oh yes, that's an award. We have a golden tart statue and everything.)

And while I'm product-pimping. I got a sample of Estee Lauder's Beautiful Sheer perfume and it is quite lovely. Next time you're in a department store, stop by for a little spritz and test it out. So nice.

And I asked Erick to pick up some Blistex for me the other day and he picked up a tube that came with a free sample tube of their new product called Spa Effects. I normally dislike chapstick type products but this is so nice. It's really light and has a lot of glide. And it smells so yummy! It's named well. It does feel like a spa treat for your lips.

Ok, that's about all I've got goin' on this morning. I can't share McKenna's art projects because I'm still working out some kinks on the computer. And I should have Kyla's 4 month pics up by tonight hopefully.

The only new scrap page I have for you is the birthday card that I created for SBB. I can't upload it here right now but I can show you where it's at if you're bored and surfing the net.

SBB Birthday Card