I've made a huge mistake

Every problem has a solution. Right, math majors? Maybe not. Basic trigonometry was enough to confuse me. Anyway, Jack and I have been having a small problem because our laptop is upstairs while our desktop and printer are downstairs. The laptop is all we really use these days, so anytime we wanted to print something we had to run downstairs to do it. Some of you may call that laziness, but we prefer to call it non feng shui-ness.

All of the running up and down the stairs was throwing off my positive energy and making me tired. Not to mention the fact that in order to print anything, we would first have to send the desired document from the laptop to the desktop. Sometimes the desktop (which is very old and can be a little cranky) did not like the format of the document that the laptop sent, so I would have to trek back upstairs and reformat the document and send again, then do the stairs again. Enough is enough, right?

Well, Christmas came early at Redwood Roofing this year. Santa brought us a new printer. But not just a printer. It's a fancy shmancy, bells and whistles, multifunction printer that faxes, scans and copies as well. Best of all, it's wireless. Which means that I can hit print on the laptop no matter where I am and our printer will get the job done. No more transferring files to the dinosaur downstairs.

I was sold on a printer as soon as I found out that we could download a (free) app that would allow us to print stuff from our phones! Thanks to Sullivans Office Supply for the best bang for our buck. And to one handsome pen salesman who sealed the deal, we'll just call him Mr. PP. He even offered to come help us set it up after hours at that! What service! (Visit them here. Or you can reach them at 662-323-5222. For all your office needs, from furniture to office equipment / supplies and more pens that your hands could desire! Ask for Philip and tell him Mrs. Featherbottom sent you.)


But no help necessary. We declined his kind offer because I'm smart enough to handle these kinds of things. And it is just a printer after all. Tonight seemed the perfect night, since Annie was tucked safely in bed, and Jack fell asleep with SB at 7:30. I was left to myself, and myself decided to set up our new printer. The instruction booklet was very detailed. Step One was "remove product from the box". I felt confident that I could complete the installation. And I did. Then I decided to go ahead and set up the wireless connection, which was only logical since that was the reason we had purchased this thing in the first place.

The instruction manual warned me that I would need our network name and password. I was pretty sure I knew that information. Then it warned me again that I would need the name, password and WEP key. In the event that we had multiple WEP keys, the printer company only needed the first WEP key.

Come again? WEP key? Is that some kind of code used by computer programmers to make normal people feel like idiots? If so, it worked. I turned to my best friend Google, who never makes me feel stupid when I have a question. It turns out there are some basic hacking skills you can learn and use to retrieve your WEP key. After a few online tutorials and several failed attempts, I managed to log in as an administrator to our wireless service's online system and retrieve a default WEP key, which, ironically, was "WEP key 1". Ugh.

Anyway, armed with my necessary information, I started the wireless set up process. It prompted me for my network name and password. I was ready with my WEP key. It never asked for it. WHAT????? I was pretty upset. Most of my evening has been spent honing my (nonexistent) hacking skills in order to retrieve some useless information that I didn't even need. What a waste. BUT at least the set up process seemed to be finished. I was ready for a test run.

I opened up Microsoft Word and the first document was "Jack's Messages." Perfect. I would print his message list and tape it to the front door. That way he would have his to-do list ready when he left in the morning, and I could make a note on there that I had printed it from our brand new printer that I had installed while he was sleeping. And please don't wake me up since I was up all night working on it.

I hit "print."

Then the realization suddenly set in.

It might have worked perfectly. I couldn't tell. There was no way of knowing.... Not without going back down the stairs.

All that time, all that money, all that EFFORT put into buying and installing a new printer with wireless capabilities so that I wouldn't have to run up and down the stairs anymore...and I had set it up downstairs.

So I went back down the stairs. There it was, shimmering like a most precious jade, Jack's message list, sitting primly on the output tray. It worked.

Now I just have to move it upstairs.

#what a waste

Annie Bananie

Little Annie is growing like a weed. I cannot believe how fast the time goes. She's 8.5 months old and scooting around like a pro. Thankfully, she doesn't have any teeth yet, but that hasn't stopped her from eating everything she can get her hands on.


Like broccoli



and crackers. I'm running the vacuum every other day, but she can usually find something on the floor that her sister has (intentionally or not) left for her to taste.

Annie is still a sweet, happy little girl. Unfortunately, if I am in the room, she wants me to hold her, but I'm just trying to enjoy being needed because I know it won't last forever. She is learning how to exercise her vocal cords and loves to do so at every opportunity. We are working on waving bye bye, but she isn't ready yet to do that on command.

She is completely enthralled by the computer cords in the living room, so we are also working on saying "no" and redirecting to a safer chew toy, like Jack's work shoes.

While most kids are watching The Wiggles...

SB is enthralled by Pink Floyd. Our four-year-old has a much more refined musical palate than most children her age. Her favorites include Adele, Michael Jackson, Tom Petty and The Beatles. She also cares for Pink Floyd a great deal.

Last night Jack was watching a David Gilmour (lead guitar and vocalist for Pink Floyd) concert, and he played a few songs from SB's favorite album, Dark Side of the Moon. She calls it the Dorothy album. When it was bedtime, SB instructed her father to be sure and NOT delete the Dorothy concert so she could watch it later. She didn't forget about it and all morning has been bugging me to "watch Dorothy." She even cleaned up her room AND the living room without whining in order to watch it. She is currently entranced in front of the television while singing, "Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day..."

I couldn't even get her to smile for a picture. She is definitely her father's child.

SB Fancies Herself a Gymnast

Instructions for a Babysitter

SB asked me to babysit her kids last week. Under her instruction, I arrived at her room at "8/7 central" and knocked on the door. After I identified myself, she let me in and showed me to her bed, where all of her kids and dogs were resting. She then proceeded to give me detailed instructions for her children before finally leaving the room.

I kicked myself for not recording the conversation, but she gave me another opportunity 30 seconds later when she came back because she forgot to tell me that I shouldn't let her kids or Hopscotch go outside but that her other dog could go out because, "I'm not nervous about her." I discreetly set my phone on my lap and turned on the video function while she continued with her instructions for another 5 minutes. Here's what I got.

Gulf Shores

I took the girls to Gulf Shores last week with my mom and two of her friends. We had a great time, and we got some really good pictures. Here are some of my favorites from the week. Thank you Mrs. Bonnie for hosting us and for getting all these great pictures!!

She's mobile

Annie started crawling last night. It wasn't a perfected, up on all fours routine, but she saw me, wanted me and got to me. I got her to repeat the performance this morning, so I guess it is official. Time to babyproof.

What's that? You want to see? Okay, I will video it when she gets up from her nap.

I can't fix this

To the faithful few who still read this blog, there's no need to read this post. It's not about anything funny that my kids did or said. And there are no new photos to show how cute they are. When I'm stressed, this outlet has always made me feel better, and today I am stressed. So here we go.

I've always been a "fixer." Kind of like Devo, when a problem comes along, I must whip it. My mind starts racing, how can I make this situation better? If I really think about it, I can usually come up with a solution. Now I'm (sort of) in a situation that I desperately want to fix. And I can't.

I'm watching my loved ones suffer and stress and get angry at a situation they cannot control. I knew if I could come up with the right words, I could straighten it out. At least temporarily. So I tossed a few scenarios around and finally came up with just the right words to say. I tossed out all the angry / accusatory things I wanted to use and tried to look at the situation from a loving perspective. How should this situation be handled from a Godly standpoint? Again, I had to eliminate more things that could be misconstrued as manipulation or accusatory. I finally honed in on an appropriate approach and put my plan into action.

I simply went to the source and offered to help. Here I am, ready and willing. Use me. And the door that I had politely swung open was politely slammed in my face. And it stung. It hurt my feelings a little bit, but mostly it just made me even more sad for the people that I was trying to help. They were the ones who were really suffering.

I've been pacing my living room, thinking this thing over and over and around and through and have finally determined that there is nothing I can do. I can't help in this situation. And that is very difficult for me to accept. Especially when I have to watch the people I love most bending over backwards to do the right thing, and they still come up with the short end of the stick. It just isn't fair. I know, life is not fair. But I'm still mad. I'm trying not to be angry, and just writing it all down has made me feel so much better. Mostly I just feel sorry for everyone involved. And sorry that I can't fix it. So I guess I'll just keep praying because it seems that is all I can do.

Not to belittle the power of prayer, because I remember a short time ago feeling helpless in a very different situation. I was stuck here in the final stages of my pregnancy while my sister was in a fight for her life thousands of miles away. I couldn't go, I couldn't help; all I could do was pray. And that's all that anyone could do, really. And God answered those prayers in a loud, swift manner.

So Lord, help me not to grow weary in prayer.