HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Duelling Computers

While playing Guitar Hero (rather loudly,) I could hear a lot of noise in the background. After my song ended (you DON'T interrupt Guitar Hero,) I went to see what the boys were up to. Corey had the old computer cranked up all the way, listening to his music, and Shannon had a Sonic Cartoon at full volume on the new computer (bass boost, no less,) all in the same room.

Poor Riley had been struggling to hear his puny DS the whole time and nobody could hear a thing. So I booted everybody off of anything electronic and told them all to go play. Well, everybody got booted except myself, I decided it was MY turn to play on the computer. With the volume off, of course.

---A little side note. The strum bar on my 'guitar' no longer works when you push down on it. It's only 5 days old. Help!

Web Cams and other Crap

Yesterday I put together this new computer - not too difficult considering it's not a system straight out of a box like we usually buy. (Ah... what you will sacrifice to save a couple of dollars and get more computer memory...) Next I installed an external storage device on the old computer and backed up all of my files to it. Then I deleted a ton of programs (44% free memory space, YIPPIE!!!) and completely reorganized my files.

As I was going through all of that, I allowed Ken to install our new web cam on the new computer even though most all computer related tasks are typically MY job. He did just fine, but once the web cam was installed we couldn't seem to get it to work. We called Papa and he loaded his new web cam today and same problem; just couldn't get it to connect.

Well, for some reason, one hour before the boy's bedtime, I decided that I would try to fix it. Just so you know, it is VERY hard to troubleshoot technological problems (at least for me) when you've got two little boys fighting in the background, one playing Portal on a computer behind you with an ever-increasing volume, and a father-in-law on the phone with a bad cold! (Thanks, Papa, I'm sure it wasn't any fun for you, either!)

Anyhow, we got our web cams to where we could hear each other, ("No Cussing," cautioned Papa as we tried to work through it,) and then I walked away for a little while and put the boys to bed. Upon returning to the computer, I found an article which said that if all else fails, contact your internet provider.

Wow, even though the problem inevitably had NOTHING to do with my IP's firewall, the poor kid from my internet service walked me through a million ideas and stressed to try my speaker settings again. I got off the phone with him, tweaked my settings and wa-lah - I could connect with Papa.

All is well, right? Well... then I decided to walk mom through her web cam. Needless to say I am ready to scream, and I am sure she is too. We walked through everything a million times and once again got both of us to where we could hear each other over the computer but no picture. For TWO HOURS I went through the same stuff I did with Ed, and all we got was each others' voices. But the really frustrating part?

For about 30 seconds WE HAD VIDEO! We giggled. We screamed. We celebrated! Mom hollered for Dad to come have a look when all of the sudden... blip! "Your connection has been lost."

And I haven't been able to see her frustrated face ever since. Excuse me while I scream.

Christmas Pictures

Christmas has come and gone, and now I'm left with a house that's been turned upside down and some mediocre pictures to show you how our season went. Here goes:

Margarine is NOT the same thing as butter, and this cookie press is going back. The gingerbread men turned out just fine, though.

Corey being dramatic after being told that the coal he found in his stocking wasn't a good thing after all. (Somebody should lay down and go to sleep at bedtime instead of tormenting their brother and their mother...)

Corey loving his Slinky's. (Oops, he was supposed to get those when he was completely potty trained a LONG LONG time ago.) Better late than never.

The biggest hit of the day - a Batman cave with an actual functioning PORTAL! (Corey is fascinated by portals, courtesy of some internet game.) The older boys loved this toy, too.

Shannon with one of many Hot Wheel toys, Riley with his Bakugon (FINALLY!)

Santa's only gift for the boys, a computer of their own. Unimpressed, this is how much they unwrapped it before walking away. I finally unwrapped it this evening so we could return it for an after-Christmas-sale-upgrade. Maybe I should keep it for myself?

Grammy and Papa. Thrilled. (Actually Papa became very sick later in the day and has yet to recover.)

It WAS a good Christmas, and we now wait it out until school resumes on January 5. January 5... that's a long ways away...

Merry Christmas, Boys...

...your Grammy and Papa got you Guitar Hero for the WII. We know you'll love it someday, but in the meantime the adults sure are having fun with it!

Especially your Daddy, who is truly tone deaf and can't keep rhythm for a standard eight count. Set music to a video game, though, and suddenly he's a musical genius.

Proof that this game has NOTHING to do with musical talent.

A Little Busy in Michigan

If it would ever stop snowing, I might find time to blog again. Two snow days in one week, and more snow on every day besides. Oh yeah, single digit temps, -20 wind chills, 30 MPH winds, drifts up the kazoo....

If you need to find me, just look under the 5 foot snow pile that used to be our mailbox.

A Snow Day in Cookie Land

About five inches of snow, and don't you know it, they declare a snow day. Right before a two week Christmas break. Two observations: One, it is just wrong to force children to stay home from school when parents are trying to prepare for Christmas. And two, our new superintendent must be from Florida or something, what's so bad about a little snow?

Anyhow, I've started my baking, first with the spritz cookies because I need ten dozen by Saturday for a cookie exchange, about five dozen more by Saturday for a girlfriend's birthday gift (I swear, she insists that she loves them...) and then another five dozen or so by Friday because I'm going super cheap-o with the teachers' gifts this year. Oh, yeah, and then I need to make some for US.

One little problem, though. My Wilson Cookie Press has a habit of breaking right when I'm in full cookie mode, and then I have to go buy another one. I'm on my third one now in less than two years. And yes, Wilson will be getting a little hate mail.

My three Cookie Presses, broken part in center.

So far I've made five dozen yellow stars, two dozen gingerbread men (Riley's request,) and about four dozen chocolate crinkles. Umm... chocolate crinkles. Corey immediately recognized the similarity between chocolate crinkles and the yummy brownies at Valentino's. No wonder why we all love them.

Lot's of crinkles (Aunt Jan's recipe.)

My gingerbread man looks just like the AOL symbol, eh? With crinkles and stars.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, cookies. Time to go make the cookies...

Christmas Crafts

We've had a busy day today, starting off with a Christmas shopping spree at the boy's school, where I volunteered and Ken got the honor of carting the boys around, followed by a trip to the library to make Gingerbread Houses. Corey and Shannon insisted they wanted no part of this craft, but they were signed up so there was no getting out of it. Turns out they had the best time ever!

Riley's house featured a ramp and Shannon's featured a smiley face.

Corey's house featured a big old blob of frosting on top, which became squished when Shannon dropped it in the car on the way home...

I was not in the room with the boys as they decorated their gingerbread houses, but both Riley and Shannon ended up adding big red licorice N's to their eaves. When I came back to check on them, I commented on how their Daddy's poor team never gets any love, so Riley added an O to his. Shannon demurred.

More pictures to follow sometime this week in the Kalamazoo Gazette, please let me know if you see them so that I can go out and buy a copy!

Uh oh...

So a few weeks ago my computer started acting a little strange... I could rarely access my blog and I had difficulty getting onto Internet Explorer; my connections came and went. AOL was fine, which is strange, because I understand it runs off of Internet Explorer. Then AOL couldn't connect all of the sudden. Luckily my cousin had been pushing Firefox a while back and I had installed it but never used it. So I started using it. Worked GREAT! For about a week...

I decided that since my blog was most important, (sad but true,) I'd work on getting that going. I deleted the maps, which rarely loaded well anyway, and then got rid of my countdown gadgets. Hey, I could finally access my blog! At least when I could get an Internet connection...

Last night, after attempting to get an Internet connection from THREE different servers for over TWENTY minutes, I made a decision. I was going to find out what the heck was wrong with my computer if it took all week. Apparently, it's going to take all week. What I found out so far:

1) I ran a defragment every couple of months, and this summer my free space was wide open in my memory. When I ran it today, I found I only had 32% of memory space left on my C drive. This is bad. I ran the defragmenter and still, the same amount of memory space remained.

2) Next I decided to manually remove programs from my computer. That was fun. Over and over I deleted anything I deemed 'safe' to remove, only to have it remain on my computer. WHAATT???

3) Then I decided to perform a system 'clean-up.' (Right about now, you might be going, "What is all of this stuff Colleen is doing?" I was asking myself the same thing, most all of it is new to me...) The clean-up program found plenty of things I could do without, so I gave my computer permission to delete more junk. Guess what? It's still there!

4) Finally I decided that I must have a virus or some crazy spyware on my computer and did some Internet research (after battling my computer for another 20 minutes trying to obtain an Internet connection, of course.) I found and ran a free spyware detector/remover called Malwarebytes' that came highly recommended on numerous sites. According to Malwarebytes', a service I found while browsing this site, I have 120 instances of spyware on my computer. Supposedly a free download (hmm... is it a safe download or just MORE spyware...) would remove all of that crap and free up my computer. I couldn't wait, the solution was right here and my troubles would soon be over. Well, let's just say this: NOTHING is allowing me to remove this stuff from my computer, not even the program designed to do this.

5) My 'gal Heather is having similar problems getting an Internet connection and she thinks it's a problem with Charter, our local Internet provider. Her husband, who is more computer savvy than little old me, wiped out her computer and re-booted everything, and her only remaining problem is in trying to get that dang Internet to connect. Since neither of us have any obvious problems with our computers outside of the failed Internet connections, she may be on to something with her idea. But what do I make of all of this junk I'm finding all over my C Drive and the sudden lack of computer memory? UPDATE: Just called Charter, there is a known issue that they are working on, but they don't really know if it's relevant to my situation, and they don't seem to know what exactly the known issue is. Niiiice...

Okay, I realize most of you are equally or even MORE computer illiterate than I am, but I think there might be a few of you out there that might have a suggestion or two? Besides calling in a professional, which will be my next step. (Argh, but there goes a decent portion of my Christmas spending...) If you don't hear from me every 3-4 days in the future, it means my computer was completely hijacked or is in the hands of a computer nerd, trying to be salvaged. In the meantime, ideas anyone?

Mommy Says...

After a late start, I cranked the music and demanded everybody get to cleaning up this pigsty that we call a home. I dug in, getting the kitchen presentable and sweeping all of the tile floors on the main level. Corey started eating the spilled bowl of dried cereal off of the kitchen floor, and the other two reluctantly started throwing everything on the living room floor into a tub. Ken flipped through the channels on the TV.

Once the floors were cleared, I sent the boys downstairs to get the basement cleaned up and I vacuumed the main floor and tried to encourage Ken to either go supervise the boys' clean up, repair the garbage can, or go shovel the driveway out. Ken decided to go sit in the recliner.

After the vacuuming was done, I gave Ken the choice of finishing up any one of the options I'd put before him, or he could get the boys in the tub. I then proceeded to head outside and shovel the driveway. It didn't take too long, the drifts had worked WITH me for a change, and 45 minutes later I'd put the shovel back up and returned to the house. There was Ken, sitting on the recliner.

Not only was Ken sitting on the recliner, my boys were right there, dirty as ever and still in their pajamas - obviously the bath didn't take place. Hey, but it was okay, because Ken was playing Simon Says with them, and don't they need their Daddy time? (It's amazing how men can justify being lazy.) Anyhow, Mommy snapped a picture and forcefully, (because nothing would get done if I didn't turn into a nagging harping wife,) demanded that they get their butts upstairs and in the tub.

"Are you going to set their clothes out for me?" asked Ken as he made his way up the stairs. I didn't even bother answering. All I know is that he might want to get himself moving because he isn't going hunting until the rest of my requests are met... Gotta love him, right?

Ken on the recliner, working hard at a game of Simon Says.

My Christmas Cards are Lame

My Christmas cards are lame this year, consisting of the 'best' family pictures I could dig up, all of which have previously been posted to my blog. I'm sorry, but after a very late start to this Christmas season, (I'm usually done shopping by now - I haven't really even started this year,) I honestly didn't bother trying to get a good festive picture of the boys. Those of you who have received Christmas cards from me in the past know just how unfestive, out-of-focus, and visually unappealing my attempted portraits of the boys can be.

Like I said, I grabbed a few decent shots off of the blog and used them to create my on-line Christmas cards in less than ten minutes. Forty-five minutes later I picked them up at Walgreens, and within two days, they were addressed and dropped in the mailbox. Well, the first 40 were sent out, then I ran out of cards. (I do this every year, you'd think I'd learn.) I went online to order another set, and darned if I didn't delete my project and have to start all over again. Ugg.

I decided that I should at this point at least attempt a Christmasy picture of the boys since it would take me just as long as my reordering, and just like every year, I ended up with a bunch of unfestive, out-of-focus, visually unappealing photos of the boys:

Like I said. Time to go re-make the original cards I'd thrown together...

Bounceland Wonderland

Bronson Rehab had holiday night at Bounceland, and since Corey is one of their most consistent patients, we were all invited to go and bounce on large inflatable toys for two hours. After a dinner of Happy Meals in the car, we arrived at Bounceland early enough to get a parking spot; a feat which has never happened in all the years we've gone to this event.

Corey and his PT, Becky, in the bouncy.

The boys played hard for an hour, and Corey took the time to antagonize his physical therapist, (payback???) and to just be silly and shy with his former therapist. We stopped a bit for cookies, cake and juice, and even managed to say a quick "Hi!" to Santa. The boys were especially nice to Santa because he had a REAL beard and moustache, which means it was very possible that this was the REAL Santa as opposed to one of his look-a-like helpers. Sadly, though, there was no time for pictures.

The snow was coming down pretty good on our way home, and the boys were open to a little driving-around-so-mommy-can- critique-all-of-the-Christmas-lights. It was just magical the way the lights glowed through the snow covered trees, greens and reds and blues everywhere! The flakes just fell out of the sky like puffs of cotton candy, and the boys were gaily singing Christmas carols in the back of the van, gently at first, then louder as the joy filled our vehicle.

There was Jingle Bells, which went; "Dashing through the snow, in a pair of broken skis, breaking into houses, crashing into trees! The snow is turning red, I think I'm almost dead, and now I'm in the hospital with stitches in my head!" Or the other version that went something like this: "9-1-1, 9-1-1, someone call the cops! Bring me to the hospital and feed me lollipops!" And we can't forget Joy to the World, which went like this (it's BAD,): Joy to the World that Barney's dead, we barbecued his head! Don't worry 'bout his body, we flushed it down the potty..."

Somewhere amidst the singing Shannon yelled out, "My toof, my toof, I dus pulled out my toof!" I guess that darn tooth was loose after all! Being as there was no blood and no pain and Shannon was simply in the holiday spirit, the event remained tear free; in fact, by the time we pulled into the driveway, Shannon once again cried, "This is the BEST DAY EVER!!!" And he hasn't rescinded that statement yet!