Maybe the constant rising fuel prices are a necessary evil to force all of us to change our ways.

Maybe we’ll actually start driving less and taking public transport instead of just talking about it.

Maybe this will be the push needed to bring ozone friendly transportation and heating options into the price ranges that average people can afford.

Maybe this is too heavy a thought and you’d rather listen to some cute songs by E.

* Please know that I am saying this as a person who really can not afford the price of fuel and who really has no idea what to do if things keep going the way they are. *

These are a couple ideas that have been rattling around in my head for a little while and I thought I’d share them with you:

You know how people will be telling a story and random phrases will come up like: The Creepy Perving, Green Card Shenanigans or The Plummeting Helicopters (all of these examples have come from Holly at Nothing But Bonfires - one in her comments - and if she checks the stats on her search widget she is going to think I am a complete weirdo, but that was the most recent time I could remember reading this sort of thing…) and then someone will say, “Hey, that would make a great band name!”? Well, hey! That would make a great board game!

Someone could gather up millions! (Or hundreds. Whatever.) of actual weird band names for the game base and have a description of the kind of music they play, some song and album names and maybe even a photo of the band. To play the band info would be given out and everyone playing would try to come up with some hilarious name for the band in a Balderdash style. The actual band name would then be put in the mix and everyone would have a turn at guessing which was real. Ok, so this is turning out to be incredibly similar to Balderdash so maybe they would have to put out Balderdash: The Music is in You! Edition (it’s a working title), but either way - fun, no?

My second idea may already exist (if so tell me where to find it pretty please…), but how great would it be to have a recipe website where you can type in a bunch of ingredients you already have in the kitchen, or maybe some things you think would be tasty together, and then recipes that use all (or some of) those ingredients come up on your screen. When I’m stuck for dinner ideas (which happens, oh, every other day) I’m constantly wishing there was something like this available.

And that’s it. I have other ideas in my head like a special kind of pavement that absorbs all the rain and snow and is able to regenerate itself and repair cracks and potholes therefore making safe driving conditions year round, but that involves the invention of a new material that can complete the task in an environmentally safe fashion and, well, it gets a bit complicated. I’ll just save that one for another day when I’ve worked out all the kinks.

I may be biased, but I dare you to click on this and tell me it’s not the best rendition of Humpty Dumpty you’ve heard.

*Bonus K squeal at the end.

This morning as we were leaving to take Andy to work I was the last one out and the second I closed the door behind me I realized I left my keys inside. Andy tried to open the windows to the living room, but they were all locked so I ran around to the back because I knew our bedroom window was open. I got there and suddenly the window was so much higher than I had remembered. I got one of the chairs from the deck, but it was still too high. Andy came around and noticed the laundry window was open so I brought the chair over and climbed through that window. I hate not too high high heights like ladders and what have you and the drop from the window to the floor was just high enough that my breathing sounded like I was on camera in the Blair Witch Project. Never-the-less I got through, grabbed my keys and we were off. Now we just have to make sure it’s not so easy to break into our house, I suppose.*

After we dropped Andy off the girls and I headed to the grocery store. As we were heading in I saw a few boys who worked there pushing a bunch of trollies into the store so I hurried the girls so I could grab one and be out of the way by the time they got up the ramp and in the store. We got up to the trollies quick enough, but when I grabbed my trolley and tried to move aside for them I crashed my shoulder and face right into the fire hose on the wall. It hurt.

We got our groceries and headed to the car. We have a trailer hitch ball thingy on the back of our car and I usually wedge the trolley on that when I putting the kids and groceries in the car so it won’t roll away. This is a practice that has worked for me for years up until now. I had put everything away and was buckling K in when I looked up and saw the trolley making it’s way across the parking lot. I gasped and ran, trying to catch it, but unfortunately a parked car beat me to the punch. And, of course, there was two people in the car. They came out and I apologized, they had a look at the car and said they couldn’t see anything and not to worry about it. (Phew!) I apologized again and went to put my trolley away, another employee was there to collect those trollies and I told him what I had just done (I don’t know why) and as I was walking away I crashed my leg and hip into the metal bars holding the trollies in place. It also hurt.

I was just about to end this by saying: Things can only go uphill from here, right ? When E walked in to tell me K was drawing on the tv. I went to see and not only had she drawn on the tv, but also on the rocking horse, her zebra spin toy, the table, the wall, her chair, and of course, her face.

It’s not even luch time yet, people!

* Sad thing is that it was only a couple months ago that I said the exact same thing to a taxi driver who had to take us home when I locked the keys in the car. Guess it’s lucky I didn’t listen to myself.

I’m gonna go with never on this one.

When we say ‘Love you!’ to K she responds with “Too!”. As in I love you, too. Sometimes, completely out of the blue, she’ll come out with, “Too, Mummy.” (or Daddy or she’ll just say too to E). I thought this was cute and wanted to share (and also make a record so I don’t forget).

So I ended the last post by telling you I would have a serious question for you regarding school and I asked you to put your thinking cap on. I have to apologize to any of you who might have actually been wearing that thinking cap all this time because I don’t feel the need to ask the internets for advice on this topic anymore. You look great in a hat, though! So, there’s always that. I suppose I could still tell you what I was going to ask and you could still tell me your opinion or thoughts on the subject, it just won’t affect my decision anymore. OK then…

For a brief peroid I considered enrolling E in a Catholic school, but I’m not Catholic and for that matter I don’t even believe in God. (Something bigger than us? I think so. God? No.) The Catholic schools here (and there are quite a few) are private and therefore cost money (but not much - maybe $1000 for the year), have small classes and you do not have to be Catholic or even religious to send your child there.  My question was whether or not it would be hypocritical of me to enrol my kid in a school like this. Here were a few of the thoughts that ran through my head while deciding what to do:

• I may not be religious, but I’m not the one who will be attending the school.
• I have no problem if E or K grow up and become religious, church attending people.
• I want the girls to make this decision for themselves so would sending them to a religious based school be too much when they are so young and impressionable?
• Small class sizes would be great.
• I don’t want religion to play the biggest part of their education.
• The public school we are zoned for is fantastic and there are a lot of people who wish they lived in this zone so they could send their kids to that school.

If it’s not obvious I decided that we would go with the public school up the road and consider ourselves lucky for living in an area with a school that has a great reputation. Plus the public schools here have a religion class so my girls will have the chance to learn and make their own decisions about church and God in their own time. I imagine it seems weird that I let religion even play a role in deciding where to send E to school, but it only came up for me when I found out that the Catholic schools were open to everyone and didn’t cost an arm and a leg to send your kids there. The main attraction for me was the smaller class sizes, but at this point I don’t even know what kind of a student E will be. For all I know she’ll do perfectly fine in a larger class setting and we can always get a tutor if she needs help in specific areas.

So feel free to put your two cents in on any or all of what I talked about up there. I know alot of people think religion, politics and the like are touchy subjects that should be left alone, but I think they can be some of the most interesting topics out there.

On another school related note E and I went to an open day at the public school on Thursday afternoon (I actually remembered!) and their prep program is really great. This school is made up of several buildings and the preps are in E Block which made E very happy. They have three rooms and toilets in that block and there is a separate playground for the younger kids; actually they have four playgrounds for all the different age groups. We left there feeling really good about that school and E is pretty excited to go next year. I loved being in the classrooms. I forgot just how colourful and vibrant the classrooms for smaller kids can be, it’s such a fun environment.

Remember a little more than a month ago when I wrote this post about becoming too antisocial and complaining about all the socializing the preschool seems to be forcing on me is trying to do? At the time there was two upcoming events: the family get together in a local park and the birthday party for one of the kids in E’s class. Since then a third has been added to the list - dinner and drinks at a local pub for all the mums, and it’s tonight.

How many did we/I attend or plan to attend? None. We did not go to the family thing because it was on a weeknight from 5:30pm - 7:00pm and we didn’t get home from picking Andy up until after six. And it was dark by then. And cold. As for the dinner and drinks tonight? I wanted to go (no, really - I did), but we just don’t have the money this weekend so there you go.

The party that I was planning on taking E to tomorrow? Yeah, that won’t be happening because the party was THREE weeks ago. I was thisclose to calling the girl’s mother this morning to get her address because I had lost the invitation, but luckily I found it at the last minute and saw the date. I’m not too sad about missing the party (I’m sure you’re shocked), but I feel like a complete asshole because a couple days before the actual party I had told the mother that we were definitely coming. At least I didn’t spend any money on a present yet and thank jeebus I hadn’t been hyping the party up to E.

Also on the list of forgetfulness is the open day for the primary school we pan to enrol E in next year*. Wednesday I was just fiddling around the house when I thought to myself, “Hmm. May 21st. Was there something for E’s primary school today?”. And I looked in one of the bazillion pamphlets we’ve been given the last couple of weeks and sure enough, there it was in black and white: Open Day 9:30am - 10:45am. (Which, let’s be fair is hardly and open day so much as an open hour.) I glanced up at the clock and, of course, it was 11:00am. This wasn’t a mandatory event or anything, but still! WTH is wrong with me? Well, besides the fact that I post pictures of my kids like this on the internet:

Oh, come on! Am I the only one who thinks this is so pathetic it’s cute? And just so you know the phrase that induced this face was, “Eat your lunch.”. I know. How am I even allowed to have kids?

* I’ll have something serious to ask you about schooling soon so put your thinking caps on!

When I brought the vacuum out this afternoon one child* runs screaming to Dad, tears in her eyes saying “Cuddle me! Cuddle me!”, while the other stays with me the entire time and actually gives the vacuum two kisses.

*To think it was two and a half years ago that this line was included in a post:

Today I decided to vacuum before lunch while E was still up, and she loved it. Infact she followed me around and danced to the sound of the vacuum running (she also dances to printers, blenders, anything really).

I have this thing about eating baked goods made by people I don’t know. Actually I don’t even like eating baked goods of some people I do know. I mean, they make the stuff in their house with no regulations and ample opportunity to lick spoons or dip fingers in batter. Blech, even writing that turns my stomach. I felt like this as a kid, too; there was only a few friends mothers baking I was willing to eat. (Amy, Wendy was one of them. Who could possibly resist the parade of baked goods that came out of her kitchen?) Now with all this in mind I think it would be fairly obvious that I am not fond of eating things made by children. Kids are dirty a fair bit of the time so unless I know they’ve washed their hands - unless I’ve seen the washing happen - I am not going to eat that cookie, muffin, ball of spit and dirt your kid, even my kid, has produced. I don’t care if the high temperatures will kill any germs present because that just means the ickyness is still there, but dead.

Here is where my first dilemma lies, today at E’s preschool they are doing a Mother’s Day rigamaroll and part of that is they have made some baked treats. I assume they will bring the treats around and I will be expected to choke one down. If they could guarantee me that I was having one E made I would just ignore all the lights and whistles going off in my head and eat and (at least pretend to) enjoy my treat. But. BUT. There are 25 kids in the class. That is 50 possible germy kiddie hands going into the batter. Fifty hands that could have been sneezed on, coughed on or stuck in unthinkable places (kids can be gross, ok). FIFTY! I have avoided the baked goods at another thing the preschool put on earlier in the year, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to avoid these without being noticed and pegged a mean mummy. I really don’t know how this will go down, but I’ll keep you posted.

My second dilemma is one you will actually have time to help me with should you choose. Have you noticed the “Possibly related posts” links at the bottom of the post (when you’ve clicked on comments)? What do you think? I’m not sure what to do about them. I definitely do not want them there, but if I choose to turn them off then I will be taken off that list on other people’s blogs and I have actually received traffic through those links. But, do I even care about traffic like that? I’m not sure. So tell me what you think and maybe that will help me make my decision. Thanks!