The Potty Referee

I have a new title around the house, I have dubbed myself "The Potty Referee".
How does one become a Potty Referee, you ask? Well, there's an extensive 4 year training program, continuing education courses... oh wait, I'm sorry... that's how I became a CPA.
Here's the real story...
Anyone who has been to our house knows that there are 2 restrooms downstairs, the full bath between Cackie's room and the spare bedroom (very convenient for little girls to fill up cups of water, take them in Cackie's room and throw them at each other... oops, sorry that's totally a different story/nightmare) and the half bath/laundry off the area that my Dad has dubbed "the concourse".
Well, here recently Cackie has started referring to the half bath as "Daddy's Potty", we guess because he is sometimes in there when she wakes up in the morning. She has become fascinated with using "Daddy's Potty" and will often opt to go in there over using the one attached to her bathroom. (exciting, huh?)
So, tonight we're trying to get her to go to bed and we ask her one last time to go potty. She got out of her bed and took off before we realized that she was not in her bathroom. Michael called out for her and she yells back "I'm here in your potty, Daddy." I headed toward the half bath to check on her when I hear Michael say "well, I'm going to use your potty then". As he said this, the look on Cackie's face was a cross between "how dare you" and "oh, no, what have I done".
So, my response was... "well, you're using his potty... it's only fair that he uses yours". This was followed by the usual toddler arguing and I feel into the trap of trying to defend my husband using the potty in his daughter's bathroom rather than waiting.
Thus, the title "Potty Referee". I can just see my uniform now. (why is that guy smiling????)When I start hearing "Hey ref, you suck" from the fans in the stands, I shall resign my post.

So, just after I had written this, but before I hit post.....
Cackie has gotten into a habit of calling us back into her room just a few minutes after good night kisses and lights out. We hear her calling on the monitor "Daaaaaddddddyyyyy, come here". Michael responds "Why?" Then, you hear this sweet little voice "because I love you" (this kid has never played fair!)
So, he goes into her room... gives her more kisses... tells her goodnight again... and then I hear (in an irritated voice) "Daddy, you used my potty"
Sorry Cackie, I've already refereed one match tonight... that's my limit!

New Car!

Our car saga is officially over!

On Friday we went out and bought a Honda CR-V that looks like this...

(yes, right now it's pretty much still nice & shiny like that)

I LOVE it! Michael LOVES it and Cackie has a new "big girl" booster seat so she loves it, too. We went to the dealership intending to get the one that we had driven earlier in the week that was green with camel colored cloth interior. Over the week, I had worried that the interior color was too light and would show dirt real easily. We got to the dealership, took one look at the green one and knew that I was right. It already had a little dirt look on one of the door armrests, I could just imagine how bad it would look within a week, let alone a couple of years. So, being the awesome shoppers that we are... I had already checked out the dealer's inventory online and knew that all the other CR-Vs were leather. Within the next few minutes Michael surprised me twice... first he said let's just go for the leather, it will stand up a lot better. Then when we headed toward the red one that I really liked, we noticed it was the souped up version with the Navigator system (I like gadgets, so I thought the navigator would be really cool to have, but it was definitely not a necessity) he surprised me again when he said "let's get this one." That was it, we sealed the deal and got rid of the old car. Hopefully we will have far less problems with the new Honda.

While we were working on paperwork, etc we were trying to keep Cackie busy. This is never an easy thing to do, but we got help from one of the dealership employees. She asked if Cackie could have a balloon and Cackie's eyes lit up. They went off to get the balloon and she came back with the biggest one I have ever seen...

(sorry for the bad photo, it's from my cellphone).

Cackie & I took off on Saturday, running errands and we hit a local craft fair. Poor Michael never even got to drive the car for the first time until Sunday. Now he keeps telling me that he's going to take it when he has to go out of town and make me drive the truck.... Yeah, right!

Never Forget

How to Remember 9/11

CCAA Update

Here’s the latest update on the CCAA website…

All files through July 2006 have now been reviewed. This means that there are only 7 more months before they get to our LID month of March 2007.

There is much speculation as to why the CCAA has reviewed through July 2006, but has only referred through November 25, 2005. Some question whether this means that they are getting ready to refer bigger batches and need to have the files reviewed and ready to go. Sounds plausible to me.
Most agencies are saying that the review room and the referral room are two separate functions at the CCAA and they operate on their own schedules. This one just doesn’t sound very efficient to me. But, this may be just how the process works.
Only time will tell…

When I get big...

Most of the "Cackie'isms" lately have come with this clause attached. It usually comes out as "I can do that when I get big" and usually she's referring to something that there is no way that we would ever let her do now, such as driving, drinking alcohol, riding her bike in the street, letting the cat sleep in her room... you get the idea. Hey, at least the kid knows that she has some limits, right?

So, here's a "when I get big" example....
On Monday we went out test driving new cars. If you've purchased a new car anytime in the last 15 years, you know the drill... you peruse the back lot, looking for the vehicle that meets your needs (they always ask you what color you want, like that matters more than $$$), then when you find the ONE, they go back to the office to get the key so that you can then take it for a test drive. So, we found the car we wanted and while we were waiting for the key we checked out some other offerings on the lot. We'd open the door and Cackie would climb in the drivers seat and play driving. (This in itself amazed me. I don't think she has ever been in the drivers seat of either of our vehicles, yet she instictively knew to turn the wheel from side to side and make vroom vroom noises!) She was having a grand ole time and was behaving, so no complaints from us.
The saleman came back to us with the key and we were ready for the test drive. We all headed over to the car we would be driving and Cackie headed straight for the drivers seat, climbed in and said "I want to drive." LOL! Then, the inevitable came when we told her no. "I can drive when I get big..." stinker

So, then yesterday we're driving home from her school and she wants to talk about my sick car (when the car went in the shop we told her it was sick and needed to go to the doctor (now it just needs to be put out of it's misery... can I shoot it?) anyway... we're talking about my car and the conversation goes...
C: "Mommy, when I get big I can drive"
M: Yes, Cackie when you turn 17 you can drive. Just 14 more years.
C: Do I need to wait that long?
M: Yes, Cackie.
C: OK Mommy, When I get big I can drive.
M: Yes, Cackie
C: And you can sit here in my seat!

Great, she's 3 and already planning on how she can get even with me! When she starts driving, I get to sit in the back seat, strapped into the car seat, lucky me! Who knows, if she starts out driving anything like me, I'll be safer that way! Sorry Mom!

Update

Before I find time to whine & cry about the China wait, (more on the picture later...)I figured I should post an update on how we're doing.

We had a much needed 3 day weekend! We were busy, but at the same time we got nothing done. The Tigers and the Vols both lost on Saturday, boo hoo! We went to the Tigers game and it was a nail biter down to the end. I'll admit, I feel asleep before the end of the Vols game (well, they were losing anyway...).

On Sunday we had the final Redbirds game of the year, they lost as well. As usual Cackie loved it, though!

On Monday we hung out around the house most of the day and then in the late afternoon we went out test driving cars... Yes, we've decided to give up on my car. Michael did a bunch of research and it looks like it's not a matter of if the engine will fail, but when. There is at least one group (probably more) that is working on trying to get the manufacturer to acknowledge the problem and/or put together a class action lawsuit. We read comment after comment where the manufacturer ignores requests and we are just too busy to spent hours a week trying to negotiate with them.

Michael checked a few things on my car (the one actually sitting in the driveway) this weekend and barely 2k miles since the last oil change and it's low on oil. Has the oil light ever come on? No, according to the dealer it was extremely low on oil once.... but not low enough for the light to come one... bull crap!

So, we've decided to cut bait and fish elsewhere... for the non-southerners (maybe I have a few non-southern readers... I did spend half my life as a Yankee) that means change your approach. That means Consumer Reports, here we come! We started reasearching every CR recommended vehicle out there. Yesterday we went and drove 3 of them. Good ole standbys... Honda & Ford. I think right now we're both leaning toward a CR-V. And after doing some more research tonight we may now be ready to head to the dealer to negotiate. We shall see where this drama leads us...

My depressing news of last week (more depressing than the fact that I'm going to have a car note again) is that the dance lesson that I had Cackie signed up for was cancelled. I'm really pissed and now have to find time to drive to the 'burbs to return $75 worth of ballet crap. Geez!

Oh, and we had the boys "fixed" last week. Well, sort of... did you know that they now do vasectomies on dogs? (And I always told Michael he was special...) I wanted to see them with a fresh new look ;-) , but the dang things are still there! Ninety percent of our reason for having them "fixed" was to help with behavior issues most likely related to hormones. Well, the issues are still there because the hormones are still there! We did save $$$ at least, but I had no idea that I should ask if they lopped the boogers off or they just did a little snip! Oh well, live and learn!

Well, it's late and I've accomplished nill tonight so I think I'll go to bed and read some Harry Potter.

Here's some great photos from this weekend...

Apparently laundry baskets can be used for things other than laundry (looks like more fun that way, too)...

She's started loading up her backpack with all her favorite items and wears it around the house (anyone notice that I picked out her outfits these two days... Vols then Phillies...)

Tonight sitting with Daddy watching the US Open (secretly planning how she'll be playing there in about 15 years (OK, so Daddy is secretly planning))....

Referrals!

I'm trying to stay upbeat here, but this really SUCKS!!
Four Days... that's all the LID that received referrals! Four Days!
I really need to write out my feelings about this, but I just don't have the time right now. For now I'll say that I'm extremely happy for the families who are seeing their sweet babies faces for the first time, but I'm very sad for all of us who are waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting....
More later...