Playing House

My poor daughter needs some sisters!!!!

Jeanisha and I were talking about things she liked to do when she plays at friends' houses. She listed off several things she like to do, then said, "But there is one thing I don't like."
Me: What's that?
Jeanisha: I don't like it when they say 'let's play house.'
Me: Why not, lots of little girls like to play house.
Jeanisha: Because I don't know how to play that game.

I explained that playing house just means pretending to be a mom and taking care of doll babies and pretending to cook dinner and stuff like that. She looked at me for a minute, and then said, "No mom, that's just playing."

Cheap Prescription Glasses

I just ordered 2 pairs of glasses from Eye Buy Direct and got them yesterday. They cost me $21 total for 2 pairs with shipping! They seem great and my prescription works perfect. They don't seem any different from my old, much more expensive ones. They are metal frames and look cute. I only had an old prescription from 2004 and it worked fine, so if your vision doesn't change you can use whatever prescription you have. You can upload a picture and "try them on" on the site. The buy one get one sale I used ends this week. You can also email me or comment with your email address and I will also send you a link from my account on the site good for 10% off. I don't know if you can stack them. But $10 a pair for prescription glasses without having to go to an eye doctor is a steal!

Free Money

Everyone likes free money, right? There is some jumping through hoops involved, but you can get $225 per person (more if you happen to have a Bank of America credit card). (The $150 from Key is only in certain markets, but all of Idaho is included.) Here's the link to see if your area works: Key Bank Promo

Here's how to do it: Key bank is running a promo where you can get $150 for opening an account. You do have to do two payments (pulls, like link it to a cc or ING, explained below) and a debit card purchase. You also can't have opened one in the last 12 months. I've done these many times in the past. It's not too hard. Minimum opening is $125. If you want to do the next part, put $250 in there.

I used an ING account for my pulls. If you want to open an ING savings, I can email you a link to get $25 free money there just for opening it. I'll get $20. That one is totally painless and easy. :) You do have to fund it with $250, but I don't think there are any requirements for having it sit there. If you open the Key Bank first, then the ING, you can pull $100 one day and $150 the next from Key (you can schedule them both at the same time). Leaving $0 in Key. You still have to keep the Key account open for 180 days, and get out your free money, but then close it because after a year, there will be a $20 annual fee (it's waived the first year). Plus, Key does this often and you can do it again 12 months after you close the account.

Once you have the $250 in ING, you can open an ING checking account, transfer the money there and do 3 debit card transactions to get a $50 bonus there. Then you can move the rest of the money back to regular accounts and close everything if you want (I like ING and use it for my savings account).

Total free money $225 per person (remember you can do it for you and your spouse, just do individual accounts, not joint).


Now if you happen to have a Bank of America CC, they are offering $75 if you open a checking account with them. Again, close this after the minimum times and you can do it again next year. Let me know if you have questions. ING and Bank of America should work anywhere, not just Idaho. $600 in free money for me today, Wahoo!!!

Best places to read

The boys spent the entire day reading. This afternoon I told them to go outside and this is where I found them. Ryan was up in a tree and Tyler was lying on the driveway. "because it's warmest here"


The other kids enjoyed the sunshine too. Adam took off his shirt because it was "too hot" Ryan and Tyler then found new reading places, but they stayed outside. And Ryan enjoyed spending the whole day in his pajamas.

No school day

I told the kids we were taking today off of school and they could stay in pj's as long as they wanted. So what did they do?

Danced around singing The Verb Song at the tops of their lungs until they all knew it by heart. I could probably sing you the whole song too. :)
Played "Take Off" a geography quiz game.
Read, read, read and read some more. Tyler is devouring Magic Treehouse books and Ryan is reading Harry Potter 3 again.

Jeanisha did tell me it wasn't fair that I wasn't helping her with her school and that it was my job to help her do at least a few pages of math. I agreed to 4 and told her she could write me a letter saying why she should do more school. (which meant I got to spell words for her to write for the next 45 minutes)

Her letter said: "Dear mom, I like doing school because I want to catch up with Tyler. Jeanisha"

Now they are outside playing. And our "non-school" day has ended up being pretty educational.

Toilet troubles!

Adam was the last kid to go brush his teeth tonight, and there were no older siblings in the bathroom with him. Stephen walked in a minute later to find him swishing his toothbrush in the toilet.
Stephen (calmly): What are you doing?
Adam: I got too much toothpaste on my toothbrush.
Stephen: So what are you doing?
Adam (matter-of-factly): Washing it off.

He has a new toothbrush.

And unfortunately, he is proud of his new toothbrush and was excitedly telling the other kids about it like it was a great reward.

Add to this Lincoln. That kid LOVES the toilet. It's a daily battle to get all the kids to keep the toilet lid and door closed, especially since I'm trying to potty train Adam and the other kids are helpfully taking him frequently. (Both Adam and whoever takes him get a treat if he goes.)

I swear Lincoln watches for the door to be left open and his faces lights up with joy when he manages to get away with it for a minute. So far today, he's managed to put a spatula, a spoon, and a bottle of salad dressing into the toilet! (The salad dressing was when I was bringing in and putting away groceries.)

I do watch the kids, I promise, they just think the toilet was made for their entertainment.