Some bullets

• It's far too early in the morning to be awake, but such is life.  I popped awake when Avery's alarm went off this morning and Kirk needed to eat not long after that.  And then I couldn't doze back off so I decided to stay awake.  Hopefully I won't regret that decision later today.
  
• I just realized (about 10 minutes ago) that my mother's birthday was yesterday.  I am such a bad daughter.
  
• Last night Avery told me that a lot of police officers don't wear seat belts in their squad cars.  Oh the irony.
  
• This morning a lady from an early childhood intervention center is coming to test my kiddos.  Supposedly it's "required" since we were investigated by CPS.  I don't see how they could require it, since the case is already closed, but whatever, I'm not paying for it.
  
• I desperately needed to get out of the house yesterday so we loaded up the kids and went to Lowe's.  (Fun, right?)  Avery bought fertilizer for the yard and a spreader.  Then we ate dinner at Taco Cabana.  Shiph was being bratty and wouldn't stay sitting in her high chair.  Then we "window shopped" at the Academy Sporting Goods store across the parking lot from the TC.  Shiph quickly became intolerable (she had taken only one short nap that day) and threw about a bazillion fits (including one where she knocked a lens out of Avery's glasses) before we went home.
  
• The "window shopping" turned into real shopping when Avery decided to spend his graduation money on a cheap weight bench for him and a treadmill for me!!!!  I love that man.  I think he secretly wants to see me all fit and in shape, but he said that wasn't the reason.  But now I have no excuse not to work out plus I'll feel super-guilty if I don't since he spent his fun money on me.
  
• I also got my cool new phone via UPS last night!  It's a purple LG Lotus from Sprint.  My contract was up so I got it for $50 after a 2-year contract renewal and a mail-in rebate.  It's really way too fancy and has too many gadgets (I'll never use the music or web functions) but it was so pretty I couldn't resist!  I'll get it activated tonight.
  
• We're changing gears with Shiphrah's discipline.  I realized yesterday that spanking her just wasn't working at this point.  (I was having to spank her so hard it left a red mark for several minutes and she still wasn't really reacting.)  Distraction doesn't work with her either (unless I have something super-cool to wave in front of her), so we're going to resort to just removing her from things she shouldn't be getting into.  I figure no matter how stubborn she is, if I pull her away from the stove twenty times in a row eventually she'll get tired of trying to turn it on, right?  I hope so.  I'm really at my wit's end with her.  She's an angel as long as she's being actively entertained every second of the day.  But obviously, since I have another baby and a house to keep up with, that's not physically possible.  So she gets into anything and everything.  Her toys don't interest her anymore (unless I'm playing with her) and movies only occupy her for 20 minutes at a time.
  
• I saved a good amount of money at HEB the other day.  I'll blog about it tonight or tomorrow after I've made my Target run.  I'm skipping CVS this week because they weren't running any amazing deals that I was excited about.  But Target should be productive.  They're running a deal where if you buy five Special K products (on sale for $2.69 each) you get a $5 gift card.  So I printed out five $1/1 coupons and should be able to get them for 69 cents each after the gift card.  They've also got good deals running on apples, waffles, and a few other things.
  
• I need a bigger pantry.  The whole point of this couponing thing is to keep your pantry stocked with items when you find good deals on them.  But I really only have two pantry shelves to work with.  The bottom half is the laundry hamper and I can't reach the top shelf (darn short genes!).  Avery says he can install shelves in the bottom section if I want, but then where would we put the dirty laundry?
  
• Okay, enough dawdling.  On to breakfast before the little man needs to eat again.