Stimulus... really?

Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?

A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

Q. Where will the government get this money?

A. From taxpayers.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?

A. Only a smidgen.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment?

A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China?

A. Shut up.

New Business Venture

Ahhh empty nesting... one of the joys of having grown children is watching them go out into the world and make their own way. One small glitch... they need a lot of help with the actual 'going out' part. Sometimes, they come back and then 'go out' again and again and again. With each move we usually collect more 'stuff' in our basement aka the 'free storage unit'. Someday, when they are all living in what I hope will be their own homes, we will rent a tandem truck, one trailer for each child and deliver all of their worldly possessions to their houses for storage. Just kidding... it's not THAT bad, yet.

Yesterday was an exciting day for three of our four grown kids. For our youngest daughter, we loaded up the truck, trailer and her car and moved her off to a new college about 4 hours away. New town, new apartment, new roommates, new school. Pretty big day for her and so far, I'm happy to report, she's loving it. This is how we left her...

After unloading her there, we headed off on our next job...

Stop at a furniture store for our married daughter to retrieve their first brand new couch and ottoman and deliver them to their apartment. Before making that delivery though, we had another stop to make at the grandparents house to obtain the hand-me-down furniture grandma was donating to yet a third child. Truck and trailer loaded up again we happily made the delivery of the new couch but when it came time to actually getting it through the door, it was a bit iffy. Can you say, TIGHT SQUEEZE... (not actual couch or doorway, but just for blogging enhancement purposes... here you go)

Poor newlyweds... I think several prayers were offered during this event and finally they were answered because they got it inside. They may never be able to move it from that tiny student housing apartment, but it's in there now and it's gonna STAY. It looks great and below is a picture of the happy couple on the actual new couch...

After leaving them to cuddle in wedded bliss on their couch, we headed out on our final delivery for the day... I must admit by this time of night, I forgot to snap a picture of this recipient and asked him to take a picture of himself enjoying his newly acquired (thank you grandma) furnishings and email it to me. Below is what I received but he neglected to capture the fine end table and two lamps that made a statement of their own. You'll just have to imagine that next to the couch is an end table with a gold and marble lamp being supported by two cupids. It would have looked so good next to him!

I do love his plaid pants though... do you think it would bother him to know his father had some of those when we were dating?! lol

We're getting pretty good at this moving stuff... maybe if we can find some paying customers we'll rake in a little extra cash for retirement.

Love you kids!

Flashing the neighbors and the police...

Yes, you read it right. Wayne and I have been flashing our neighbors and the police were called. So embarrassing!
Before you disown us as family and friends... let me elaborate.
We have a yard renovation project going on at our house. As part of this, we have installed a new lamp post. It's one of those with three separate lamps on one post. Very attractive. The only problem was it didn't come with a built in sensor that automatically turns it on at dusk and off at sunrise. My husband, being a man who can do anything, installed one on the post himself.
I'm so impressed with his skills. As evening approached the first night after the big install my son and I looked out the window to witness this.....

Apparently, the 300 Watts of brilliance was just too much 'daylight' for the little sensor and it got terribly confused as to whether it was day or night! (Please, don't yell at me about wasted energy... we know, 300 Watts is over the top but those are the bulbs that came with the lamp!)

My man quickly determined the problem and had a solution in record time. He fashioned a sort of 'hood' for the sensor so it wouldn't be blinded by the light. He stuck it up there in temporary mode until he had more time to make it a permanent fixture. It was late, it worked all night long, great success.

Fast forward to the next day... moving day for our youngest (further details of this in the next post). Up early and on the road we were out of town all day and into the night not returning home until around midnight. About 9:00 pm and three hours away from being home, we receive a phone call from our daughter who said a neighbor had called her trying to locate us with news that our lamp post was 'flashing'. Within a few minutes, I receive another call from the same daughter saying she'd received a text from a friend telling her that there were a 'bunch of police' at our house and she wanted to know if everything was alright. Oh brother!

We debated never returning home but exhaustion got the best of us and so we did. We discovered that thankfully, one of the police officers that had been 'on scene' was also an electrician and recognized the problem immediately and placed a small piece of duct tape over the confused sensor and the light continued to beam it's guiding light for lost travelers within three counties. We were frankly hoping it would be out so we could skulk back into our house undetected by our previously annoyed neighbors.

For tonight, we've disconnected the stinkin' lamp and tomorrow we will be replacing the bulbs with energy efficient low watters and making that
ingenious repair a permanent fixture of our new, lovely lamp post.

Gymnastics anyone?

Received this in my email today... so to honor the spirit of Olympic competition I thought I would share it with you all. Also, because it's been a while since I posted and I can't seem to think of anything to blog about right now.
Enjoy!

Quote of the... day? week? month?

Who knows when I'll hear another quote that I feel impressed to share, but for now I'm sharing this one...

You have a heritage; Honor it.

You will meet temptation; Withstand it.

You know the truth; Live it.

You possess a testimony; Share it.

Thomas S. Monson

Arrrgh!

Received an email advertisment from Sam's Club this morning...

Among other things this is what it contained:

Better look for a second job now in case your little pirates want this for Christmas. It can be all yours for only... $29,511.36

Are you kiddin' me???!!!

What happened to imagination and maybe an old cardboard box or scraps of lumber and a tree?

Blog repair completed...

Apparently my slideshow of the Alaskan Adventure wasn't showing up. (Thanks Raquel for trying to tell me) It showed up when I logged onto my blog but I guess not for anyone else so I didn't know. Anyway, it's fixed now... at least I think it is, so you can see some of the things I made reference to in my posting about our trip. Let me know if it's not working.