Monday, August 20, 2007

Diaper goo fluff

So this morning has made me think today is gonna be another one of those days, but I shall try my hardest to fight it off. Elijah woke me up saying "I'm all wet" - grrrrrreat. We started wearing just big-boy pants to bed about 4 days ago, cause it'd been months since he went wee-wee in his Pull-Up. Of course, now that he's not wearing a Pull-Up, he pees his bed. Awesome. Then I went to get a load of laundry out of the washer, and there was this weird goo fluff stuff allllllllll up ova my clean laundry. I emptied it into the laundry basket, and out plopped a wet, soggy, gross goo and fluff covered Pull-Up diaper. For all ya'll parents out there - make sure you never put a diaper through the wash. Elijah has been a "big boy" for a while now, and puts his own dirty laundry in the hamper. I guess one morning he forgot to take his pull-up out of his jammies, and I didn't catch it as I stuffed the dirty laundry into the washer. So it took me like 8 times as long to hang the laundry this morning cause I had to shake and pick off all the goo fluff. Ha.

I won't waste any more time with crap - I shall talk about good things! Friday night Paul and I went to dinner with a couple we met at church - Mary and Jonathan. We went for a curry, England's #1 cuisine. We had a lovely time, Mary is cool as hell, and Paul and Jonathan got along really well. Mary & Jonathan were supposed to relieve their babysitter at 10:30, but we were having such a knee-slappin' good time, we looked at our watches at it was 11:20! Ooops. Their babysitter is Jonathan's Mum - hopefully they didn't get a whoopin'. Paul's parents were nice enough to keep Elijah for the night. We got to sleep in. HAAAA - that's a joke. The cat (who I'm now calling CousCous) woke us up at about 4:30. I locked her out, but she screamed and yelled and threw a kitty tantrum until about 5:30. Then I finally fell back asleep, and there was a loud knock at the front door at 7:30 - the POSTMAN!! What postman comes at 7:30am on a Saturday morning. I let him know that it was the 1 day I didn't have my 3 year old at home. Hahaha.

We also took Elijah to see Transformers this weekend. He was SO excited. We didn't tell him what movie we were seeing, we wanted him to guess. So after the first scene, he looked at me with his mouth WIDE open and said, "Is this Transformers Cybertron!?!?!?" He loved it - he was really good, got a little fidgety at the end, but he had a good time. He keeps asking me when we can buy the DVD.

I got a wireless doorbell from eBay for like £3, it's awesome. It's so loud we're all gonna go deaf if someone comes to our door. Heck yeah for eBay!

I've decided to brush up on my geography skillzzz. I realized I almost totally forget where things are on this side of the world. I bet if you go to this site and try to locate all the countries, you won't do as well as you think you will.

Seriously, try it - no cheating! And think, that link is for the "easy" test.

Here's a new funny video of Elijah. He was playing with the cat and she poked him in the eye. Ha!! Anyways, that's all for now. I'll post an update if I get the order!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

One of those days

I feel like complaining, so watch out, this blog is nothing but Donna complaining. I warned you.

I just received my mail, and in it was my invoice for the first month of advertising in Wedding Ideas Magazine, as well as a copy of the publication. I was all excited, and started flipping through it to spot my features. As part of the advertising package, you get a regular ad in their directory in the back of the magazine, as well as features throughout the magazine. Anyways, I flipped, and flipped, and flipped...and I wasn't featured! I wrote to my rep and asked why, and she said I was too late for this issue, but I'll be featured in the next 3. Pooooo. So that was a bit disappointing. My ad is still there in the directory for the upcoming issue, but I won't be featured until October. Dammitall.

So yeah, then I was balancing my checkbooks, and this stupid company I host my website with charged the wrong account! I want all business stuff to come out of my business account, makes sense, eh? I told them to charge my business account last month, but I guess they didn't make a record of it, cause it still came out of my personal US account. Thank goodness I had the money in there - I usually don't have much money in there anymore since I have British accounts now. Heavens to Betsy!

I also got invoices from my printer for my last 2 orders (mostly samples) and the prices they came up with were more than double what I figured! Jeeeeeeez. So I wrote to my rep, and it's somewhat cleared up, but I found out I overpaid my last invoice too - so my account is all screwed up. Hopefully that'll be taken care of soon. C'mon people!

THEN (seriously, stop reading if you don't want to hear me gripe) - for my sample kits I need to put the invitation samples in between cardboard or something of the like, so they don't bend in the mail. I found a company that does these cheap cool transparent envelope stiffeners, so I ordered 100 of 'em. They were advertised at a size of 219x108, which is EXACTLY the size I need for my stuff. I got them, and they're all more like 208x100! Too small for my stuff. Sooo, I called them, complained, and they told me they'd send me a new shipment of the next bigger size if I sent the ones I had back. So today, I just received the new "bigger" ones, and they're still too small!! They say the size is 229x162, when they actually measure 215x153!! I'm just gonna keep them anyways, I can't be bothered sending them back again. I'll just make sure to order the NEXT bigger size next time. Holy crap.

AND, I have like, NO money. Man, pray hard I get an order soon. I have a potential big order, so keep your fingers crossed. I need it! The trade show is coming up, and I'm trying to make a fancy shmancy display with household products. Starting a business, even a little business where you don't really need inventory or anything, is SO expensive. I'm scared to look at my books already - I don't really want to know how much in the hole I am. But, I must not get discouraged - the money will magically appear, it always does. Next year this time I'll be wondering why I worried, as the orders will be flowing like beer at an English pub. Yes, please.

I left the laundry out on the clothes hanger thingy yesterday and it downpoured so they're sopping wet now. Awesome.

Ok, I assume you're sick of reading this, it's ok, don't feel bad. I'd be sick of reading it too, so I shall go and leave you feeling pissed off and discouraged at the lack of goodness in my blog. Perhaps I will have good things to write about after the weekend. It's already noon here - I must go make Elijah some lunch. Byeeeeeeeeee.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Crazy kitty & stuff

I'm a big girl this week! I get the car! Woohoo! Paul is getting a ride to London with a co-worker, so yeah, I can actually leave Capel - aw yeah. Yesterday Elijah and I went to the Pirate Ship Park down in Folkestone, and I took him to "Old McDonald's" for lunch. It was a nice time. Today we'll probably go to Kids Planet - a big indoor playground thing. It's only £3, and he LOVES it, plus I can have some time to read a book.

Elijah's birthday is coming up in 2 weeks. He is so very spoiled. He's getting trampoline and some other little things from Mama & Dad, then he has like 6 presents sitting on the fridge from folks in America, the Martins are getting him a bike I think. What a lucky boy! I'm still not sure what we're doing for his birthday yet - I think we'll just have a few close friends over, and maybe James Bates cause he loves him.

Let's see, what's new...our kitty is CRAZY - she's a foot attacker. Every time you walk by she's at your feet. She's also a pant-leg-climber - Paul and I have cuts all up our legs and on our feet from her. Stupid kitty. I love her though - she's super cute. We took her to the vet last week and she got some shots, and the vet said she'd be sleepy for a day or so. YEAH - so as soon as she got home from the vet she was sprinting from one side of the house to the other (we now call the back of our house "The West Wing" - haha). She's nuts.

Elijah is doing well - he starts school in about a month - I think 4 weeks from yesterday. I need to go buy his uniforms! The uniforms aren't bad, he just has to wear grey pants, a white polo shirt, and a green Capel Primary School sweatshirt. I need to find him a cool lunchbox - maybe Transformers or something. I still can't believe he's starting school! Eeeeek.

The business is slowly going - I sent out one Sample Kit to someone in London last week - and last night got another lead from my contact form - this girl from Florida actually. I'm figuring business will really pick up the 2nd week in September - that's the week after I do the trade show, and also the week my ad and features come out in the wedding magazine here in the UK. Oh - I'm on Google and Yahoo and MSN! You have to type in either "modern photo invitations" or "modern photo stationery" - but if you type in either of those, I'm on first or second page. Weehee! Right now I'm trying to make a cool display for my trade show for like, um, £15 or something. I'm rigging everything with random household products - I made table number stands from copper wire torn out of electrical cable, and it's all stuck in a chunk of styrofoam insulation. I got a basket for 6 pounds that I'll put that in, with perhaps a sheet tucked on top so you can't see the styrofoam. Ha. I think it'll look nice - I'll take some pictures.

Paul's doing well in London - he's been up at 5am, leaving at about 5:30, and getting home around 5:30. Sometimes he's home earlier, sometimes later - but it's not too bad. He's pretty tired, and I'm sure by the time this job is over (around Christmas) he'll be COMPLETELY worn out.

Oh - some exciting news from England - Neil and Astra got engaged! Yay!

Well, I'm off to get ready to go to Kids Planet. Au revoir!