Random Thoughts I had to get out of my head

Okay, so there is this girl in Double A's kindergarten class who is 5 years old. She can read and write. I know, so what?? you say. Well, she has read the first two HARRY POTTER books!!! What??!! I am unsure why this is bugging me so much but that just does not seem quite right. I am not referring to content. I have not actually read them and her mother tells me the third one the content gets a little much for her age. Gee, maybe when she is 6 she can read Where the Red Fern Grows and when she is 8 she can move up to War and Peace or something. It just seems wrong someone that young can read that well. I wonder if she is really comprehending it?

Meanwhile my 6 year old is making huge progress with her reading in the one month she has been in school. She can read an early reader book with some help sounding out words and only needing me to tell her a couple of words. She likes to practice and gets better everyday. We talk about reading so much that Bumblebee told me yesterday on our way to speech therapy that his "teacher" (therapist) was going to teach him to read. With basically no help from me he has started identifying the letters in his name in other contexts and can even write an A and B on his own.

So the vice presidential debate is this evening and for those of you who may not know...it is being held here in St. Louis. I mention this because you would think it was Christmas! Almost everything has shut down. The university where Bumblebee has speech has closed (it is near the debate site), roads have closed, sidewalks have been closed for days. I overheard some parents at Double A's school get excited and envious when one of them stated they would be attending the debate. Interesting times here in STL between debates and beer being bought out...things are topsy turvy.

So we are thinking of buying another car...for me this time. Yes, you are correct when thinking back...it has only been one month since we purchased the truck for Husband #1. We do not want to purchase another car. We were hoping we could get another couple of years out of the Expedition. It has 115,000 miles and has had some major repairs over the last few years. We thought this would mean that it was kind of "rebuilt" so to speak. Well, my electric locks stopped working. No big deal except there is no key hole on the passenger side...at all. So I have to unlock the driver door and crawl across to unlock the passenger side so Double A can get in. It is a big car so it is kind of hard to do and will be even less fun when the snow gets upon us. We took it in and they said it will be $700+ to repair the locks. Well, I guess I will suffer with it. Problem is when we had it in there they found FIVE other issues and now it will be $1700 to repair them. That is 3-4 car payments so now we are wondering what to do. The fear is these things will keep piling up and we will keep spending the money which we could have just used for a new car. The other problem about buying a new car besides the ridiculous expense is I have NO IDEA what I want. Very overwhelming.

I have been painting the guest room, bathroom and upstairs hallway this past weekend and Monday. Husband #1 helped on Sunday and we got a good chunk done. I have an amazing picture of Husband #1 from the painting that makes me laugh out loud so I will post that later when I find the camera and upload the pics. I am still working on the trim which is quite extensive in these rooms...not typical trim rooms. I'll spare the details of the trim work but it is driving me CRAZY!!! Guess I will get back at it next week while the kids are in school. I have taken the rest of this week off painting so I can clean the house very thoroughly so we can decorate for Halloween (and because it is disgusting). I think it is a bit early but I always think that and by the time I end up getting around to it it is a week away and hardly seems worth the effort.

On the house cleaning note (can you tell I am procrastinating??) my mom got me a Shark and I used it on the floors. I think I really like it. No bucket and dirty mop to lug around and the floors are a lot less wet but still clean. Plus, the kids are not slipping and getting muddy footprints on the still drying floor. Since our entire house is hardwood floors it makes it easier than mopping.

Okay, enough rambling and back to the cleaning. Makes it harder when you have a 3 year old "helper" who creates more messes during the act of cleaning that you then reclean everything.

OH!!! one last thing! EGADS!! My Dyson vaccum has sprung a mortal wound. The hose for the attachments has a gaping hole in it...obviously hard to suck stuff up when it all goes out the hole on the hose. For those of you who know me well, know my love of the Dyson. I am bascially a walking commercial for the darn thing and this really hurts. I am now off to google some Dyson repair places so I can staunch the bleeding and get my purple lovely back on it wheels.