An up and coming artist

My new piece of art that I got in the mail today by a very talented artist...

You will probably be seeing her name among the art community very soon.  She's very edgy and I've been collecting her pieces for years.  I'm just one of the lucky ones that she sends pieces to from time to time.  Eat your heart out everyone!

The sports triathlon that nearly killed me

You know how they say things happen for a reason?  Well, I am pretty sure there was a reason that I decided to Google me yesterday.  More importantly, happy that I didn't find my address, city, and other personal information for everyone to find.
Yesterday Jason and I were outside playing in the yard.  Yes, playing.  He thinks I am some kind of sports idiot and I wanted to prove him wrong.  He got out his bat and of course asks, "Do you even know how to swing a bat?"  Who the heck doesn't know how to swing a bat?  If can accomplish the task of hitting the ball, does it matter how I swing the bat?
As if that wasn't fun enough, he decides he wants to get out one of his golf clubs. His golf clubs that live in my trunk...which are always.in.my.way!  I get my keys to open my trunk so he can get a club and then set my keys on top of his car while my trunk is open.  "Do you even know how to hit a golf ball?"  Of course I know how to hit a golf ball.  It may not always go where I want it to go, but the stinkin' ball gets hit.  I'm shocked that he even let me touch his club.  When I got him a new driver, he wouldn't let me use it, or hold it for that matter, because he said I would probably scuff it on the ground.  Which is probably true.
Then came the soccer ball.  "Do you even know how to kick a soccer ball?"  Yes, I know how to kick a soccer ball.  I'm not a little kid who is learning how to play sports for the first time.  I've taken gym classes before in my life.
After our sports triathlon, Ryan showed up to pick up Jason to run some errands.  They left.  I closed my trunk and garage door.  And went inside.
Jason left for work this morning and came back inside with something in his hand.

"You left your keys on top of my car all night."  Oops!

My car keys also have keys to my house on them. So if someone was looking for me and Googled my name, had my address been listed...they could have gotten me last night and I would be a goner.  Thank goodness the Internet can't track me down!

Google me

Hmm.  I'm trying to figure out a way to make, "I googled my own name" sound not so weird.  Only there isn't a way so I'll just explain why in the heck I did that.  You know how you can find absolutely anything on the Internet?   That is the reason I googled my own name.  I wanted to see how easy it was to find me.  
Here are the things you can find out about me on the Internet:  I am an elementary school teacher, I graduated high school in 2001, I was on the Dean's list at Manchester College, and I have a lot of responsibilities on our InSAI team at school.  And for $2.95 you can find out my possible contact information... apparently because I am so evasive even the Internet can't track me down.  There are some sites that will list your age, city, address and known relatives.  Luckily, they don't know my age or have my correct city.  
I don't like the fact that you can search and find out anything about anyone on the Internet.  There are some real creeps in the world...not that I think anyone is trying to get me because I think they'd bring be right back after a short time.  But I certainly don't want just any old Joe to be able to find my information.  I feel pretty safe in the amount of information I didn't find about myself.  However, I did stumble upon the fact that there is only one person in the United States with the name Kacina Pfeiffer, and that's me.  I also learned that the ancestors of my in-laws may have been pipe players according to this information:
Pfeiffer:  German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from an agent derivative of Middle High German pfif(e), German Pfeife‘whistle’, ‘pipe’, hence an occupational name for a pipe player.
Too bad your name doesn't represent your occupation still.  Because I would love to see Jason as a pipe player.  


What can you learn about yourself on the Internet? 

Mother of the year award

I walked into the girls room today and found Kaitlyn's name written perfectly.  I was so proud because we have been working so hard on her name and making sure that her 'a' looks like an 'a' and not a 'q'.  Unfortunately, my pride was short lived when I realized that I was looking at her perfectly printed name on the back of her bedroom door in red crayon.  I asked her who wrote it and of course she told me Kinsey did, which I knew was not true.  So of course she got in trouble for writing on the door.  By trouble, I mean she had to sit on her bed for four minutes.  During that four minutes, she began crying so hard that she gave herself a bloody nose.  She came running out of her bedroom in a panic with blood running down her little face.  I felt like the worst mother alive and figured things like that would not get me nominated for Mother of the Year.
Kaitlyn hasn't exactly had the easiest week this week.  Let me start by saying that Kaitlyn loves playing dress up.  She is in dress up clothes more often than regular clothes and if you come to visit, she will show you every single piece of dress up clothing she has.  Along with her dress up clothes, she likes to play in her old Halloween costumes.  On Monday, she got down this old costume to play in:

She had a great time.  So great, in fact, that she fell asleep laying backwards in Kinsey's bed in this costume.  When she woke up, I noticed that something was wrong with her right eye.  It was very red and swollen.  I immediately thought she had pink eye.  I took her straight to the doctor, who confirmed that yes, she had pink eye.  On the way home Kaitlyn told me that the duck must have bitten her eye and that's why she had pink eye.  I laughed and agreed the way mothers have to when kids say something ridiculously cute that only a four year old would think of.  I spent the rest of the day washing every stitch of bedding and everything else in hot water.
When Jason got home Kaitlyn had to show him her eye and explain her rationalization of how she got pink eye.  Only, she has to explain by showing, not just telling.  She ran in her bedroom and put on her duck costume again to show him exactly what she meant.  We jokingly told her that she better take it off before he bites her other eye.
After dinner, we notice that Kaitlyn's left eye looked really swollen.  And wouldn't you know that her other eye got infected.  Now she really believes that the duck bit her eye.  After that, I took the costume and put it in the garage because I'm kind of starting to believe Kaitlyn about being bitten by the duck!

Manchester College Golf Outing

Since Jason won't post anything to our blog himself, I am taking the liberty to do it for him.  A few weekends ago he participated in the Manchester Golf outing with his friends from MC.  Today Jason got a picture in the mail from Espeset, who was in charge of the golf outing and is the baseball coach at MC.  Jason's team won 1st place in the outing!  I wish I had a great story for this post, but seeing as how Jason doesn't elaborate like I do, I have very few details.  So I'll just have to settle for saying congratulations to this great group of guys!

Great shopping weekend

This weekend has been filled with tons of shopping.  I started back to school shopping for school uniforms for Kinsey.  Gosh, I thought it would be much easier than it was.  I ended up getting things from all over. I started at Old Navy and couldn't find the style of pants I wanted for her.  I ended up finding them at Gap. I don't understand why places that sell uniforms don't have sweaters that are uniform legal. I have searched but can't find any except online. Maybe I'll have better luck during winter.  I guess I don't need them right now.
I went to Old Navy again on Saturday and bought some new dresses for me. I really wanted to wear one to lunch with Jill and Emma but had to meet them in 5 minutes at the mall so I didn't have time to change anywhere. The only logical solution I could come up with was to change in the car. I took off my shirt (don't worry I still had on a tank top) while still in the parking lot. I pulled the new dress down over my head and then shimmied off my carpi's. Worked perfectly! Except the weirdos watching me. Haven't they ever seen anyone change in a car before? After that I was off to meet Jill and Emma.

I love days when I can get together with these two girls.  It's always a day with lots of laughs and fun memories.  We went to Red Robin for lunch then off in the mall for some shopping.  When I say shopping, I mean we went to Kay Jewelers and tried on huge diamond rings that we dream our husbands will buy us for our anniversary.  Knowing that they probably won't, we contemplated buying some of the things we wanted ourselves.  I mean, don't get me wrong, we all love our wedding rings, but girls love more sparkle.  Like $23,000 worth of sparkle.  Thanks for a great time Jill and Emma!

27 dresses ... plus three

It's a bit ridiculous really.  That my four year old has thirty (yes THIRTY!) dresses.  I counted.  As you can tell we have pretty much lost control of this.   It is all she will wear in the summer and during the winter it is a battle to get her to wear anything else.  Which is exactly the reason why sometimes she goes to daycare in a printed orange floral sun dress, heavy blue floral tights, and mismatch sweater.  I love her in dresses but sometimes they are just not the best choice.  Like when we go to the park and she wants to climb up the wall leaving the world to see right up her dress, or when when we go to the bounce place and her dress bounces right up with her, or when we are with other people and she decides it's a great time to show everyone her front tumble and she shows more than her tumble. All I'm saying is that a dress is not appropriate for every occasion...even when you are four.  No matter how adorable they are.
Here are her current favorite dresses that she just got from Michelle.  Who is, by the way, her number 1 favorite person because of all the dresses she gets from her.  Even if they are from Michelle's daughter who is a year younger than Kaitlyn!  That's right...Kaitlyn is almost five but these 3T dresses fit her perfect.

Bumper cars

I get it.  I completely understand that people don't like it when you bump into the back of their car.  But it's not like I meant to do that.  I didn't set out in the morning thinking, "Gee, I'd really like to rear end someone today.  Who's going to be the unfortunate one?  That old lady looks like she wants hit."  I swear I didn't think that.  Although, the old lady I hit slowly coasted into acted like I thought that.  It was such a minor tap, the girls didn't even know we hit anything and didn't understand why we were stopping.  I, myself, didn't think it was necessary to stop either but there's that whole hit and run felony thing I didn't want to mess with.
I immediately apologized but she didn't want any of that.  She looked at her bumper, rubbed off the dead bugs that transferred from my bumper to hers, and demanded to see my insurance information.  Wouldn't you know that the insurance card in my purse was expired.  Do you think she noticed?  Of course.  She so gently informed me by scoffing, "This is expired."  I told her that yes, it says it is expired on that card but my insurance is in fact up to date.  I just haven't printed a new card.  She kindly replied, "I'll have to look into that."  I thought about telling her I could pull up the up to date one on my Geico iPhone app but I didn't think she would care to see it.  I figured looking into my insurance would give her something to do.
After carefully inspecting my insurance card, she says, "I assume you are Kacina."  Which I proudly reply, "Yes, yes I am."  Normally, people comment on my unique name.  Not her.  She just said she wanted to see my license to verify I was who I said I was.  I was half way surprised she didn't pull out a handheld license verification tool like they use at clubs and casinos.
After she had everything but a blood sample from me, she told me she would get it washed (probably to get off all the dead bugs from my 200 mile highway journey to Fort Wayne and back) and make sure there was no damage.  She said she would call and let me know in a few days what she finds.
I can't wait for that call.

Hallway project

I was inspired by someone else's project that was similar to this. So I had to steal the idea for my own house.  I made letters on my computer and printed them out to give the girls.  We took pictures around our house and yard.  I am going to frame each one in a 5x7 frame and put them in the hallway.  

I went to scrapblog.com to create picture frames to see how the pictures would look framed and on my wall.  I know I don't have cool wall paper like that in my hallway but I like the pictures in the frames.  I'll post pictures when it's finished.  

Dear medical office personnel

Dear medical office personnel,
When I call and you send me to voice mail I can only remember about one eighth of your directions. By the time I listen to your directions of the eight bazillion things I need to be sure to tell you so you can get hold of me, I have completely forgotten what I am even calling about! When you tell me to leave my name, the spelling of my name, today's date, home and work phone, best time to be called back, provider, and my birthday don't be surprised if you even get my name because I can't remember all of that. Obviously the best time for me to be called back is right now...hence the reason I'm calling right now!  I think your office would be much more efficient if they just answered my call so I can simply tell you that...yes, I will be at my appointment tomorrow. I bet you could really cut labor if you didn't have to listen to all of those 30 minute messages you want people to leave. That was the most stressful call I've ever made and I didn't even talk to anyone!
Respectfully,
Kacina

Because sitting on the ground is too hot

Kinsey and I stepped inside to get her remote control car today while we were playing outside.  We were maybe inside for a total of three minutes.  When we came back out we found Kaitlyn sitting in this

Not only was she sitting in the car seat, she had gotten all of her sidewalk chalk too.  When I asked her why she sitting it, she told me because the ground was too hot and the car seat was right there in the garage for her use.  I guess she just wants to draw in comfort.  I have to say, it does look more comfortable than sitting on the driveway.  

She got so hot being outside, she decided that she wanted to go in the sprinkler.  Here is a rundown of how that went:

2:15  Kaitlyn decides she wants to play in sprinkler

2:15  Runs inside to change into bathing suit

2:16  Decides she has to go to the bathroom

2:25 (No I'm not kidding, it took almost 10 minutes to go to the bathroom) Comes back outside and picks up all of her toys and car seat she got out.

2:35  Goes back inside to get bathing suit on

2:45  Still can't decide which suit to wear

2:50  Finally has suit on

2:51  Goes outside Dumps and looks in every toy bucket for her favorite pair of sunglasses

2:58  Ready to go outside Forgets a towel and goes back to find her favorite one (they all end up on the floor of the bathroom)

3:05  Goes outside to play in the sprinkler

3:06  Runs through one time and says shes done

Nothing is ever easy in this family!