Shhhhh... They are sleeping

FINALLY!!! I love my quiet time late night. The girls are sleeping, Clif is snoring... Dogs are snoring... The only thing making noise is my dryer. Ahhhh...

I had a fairly productive day. I got all the stray dog hair off the couch, swept all the stray dog hair off of the floor, cleaned the cat box, did dishes, did laundry, flipped the mattresses (and vac'ed them), got supper cooked, did the dishes from that, did more laundry and now I am sitting in my favorite spot... doing my favorite thing... Blogging and reading others blogs. Nosy little thing, I am...

The girls went to the library today and checked out books... not one or two books.. they checked out 21 books!!!!! They are into reading the series comic books from Japan (or somewhere). I picked up one to look at... Silly things have to be read backwards.. from what we, in America, consider the end of the book to the front of the book... The girls didn't tell me this one small fact and I was sooooo confused by the 3rd page (since I was reading it the way a normal person reads a book..). The girls laughed themselves silly at me... Oh well, such is life. They were talking about these books. I swear it sounded like they were talking a different language. Names like fishugie woogie (thats not the correct spelling, but it is what I heard...) They even watch these series on YouTube based on these books... I wonder if they have to watch them backwards... Don't get me wrong, I am soooo glad they like reading, but geez... We read Nancy Drew, Archie Comics, and even the occasional MAD Magazine... I am so lost..

Speaking of lost... Kayla needed help on her math homework. **sigh** I stopped being able to help Laura when she was in the 3rd grade. If it's not 2+2=4, I can't get it.. Sad really. Clif came home and Kayla asked him for help, I think they finally got it, but even he had to look at her book for a refresher. I did actually help Laura with math once, she was doing division. When I was in school you put the big number in a half box, the small number on the outside and worked the problem by putting the answer on top of the half box (doing your work under the box...) **sigh** That was not how she was supposed to do it... She got an "F" on that homework even though she got all the right answers. That really made me mad, I even called the teacher to complain. She calmly told me that they didn't "do" math that way anymore.... HUH?? What the heck!!! She got the right answers... she understood how we did it... WTF!!!!! Whatever!! The teacher said she would be glad to tutor Laura so she could work the problems the way they should be done. Um.. Hello... SHE GOT THE RIGHT ANSWERS!!!!!! Teacher told me they don't "borrow" anymore, they don't "carry" when they add anymore, etc, etc... Oh well, Laura ended up staying after school for an hour for 3 whole days to unlearn what I had taught her... **sigh** She hasn't asked my help on math anymore since that incident... She did come to me just the other day... for English help.. I thought "Oh boy, this I can do.. its my first language!!!". Then she told me what we had to do... Diagram a sentence... OMG!! ok.. I know nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs... What the heck else is there??? lots it turns out.. **sigh**

Another tidbit from today: I get this phone call right about the time I heard Clif's vehicle outside.

Clif: Do you know where the hose is?
Me (finder of all things): Umm, I think its on the porch.
Clif: Well, find it.
Me (Captain Obvious): Its been raining all day, what do we need to water?
Clif: Me
click....

Clif had an interesting day. One of the many things he is asked to do is move horse manure from a set of stables to a different location. He loads the dump truck with it, then drives 30 miles to where they want it dumped... Usually its an easypeasy thing... today I guess his end dump decided to not cooperate... He got out of the truck, went to the rear of the dumpbed to see why it was jammed... and about the time he walked just to the rear side, the dumpbed decided to work, opening up and spilling its load like it is supposed to do... Poor Clif was about waist deep in horsie poo. Hence the need for the hose.... **sigh**

After supper, Clif and I sat down to go through all the receipts for the items we have purchased since the fire. I have to turn those in to the Insurance Lady tomorrow. Geez, this has been one huge learning experience. I sure wouldn't wish anything like this on ANYONE!!! Not even my ex-husband... another long story there, but that's for another blog on another day... Anyway.. here is some advice for everyone out there....

1. Scan into your computer ALL your photos. But that is not enough.. You also need to upload them to a site. Either on myspace, photobucket, or another album site. Everyone that found out we had a fire said "Oh things can be replaced, but gosh I bet you miss your Photos".. Well, to tell the truth.. I don't, simply because I have them all scanned and Uploaded on a website, or on my msn site. I even scanned in old pictures of my family, not because I thought we might have a fire or them might get ruined with water or whatever, but because I got a new photo program and wanted to make a slide show with them... I just lucked out that I had done that and Uploaded them. Now all I will have to do is send them to wal-mart dot com and print them out when I want hard copies of them....

2. Do not store car titles, birth certificates or other important papers in your house. Get a safety deposit box at your bank and keep that stuff there. You might even want to keep extra sets of vehicle keys in the box. (my purse burned up in the fire and I lost keys, social security card, id, credit cards.. etc) You might even want to keep a list of all your medications, credit card numbers, Phone numbers, and even special items of jewelry, or baby's "firsts" in the box.

3. When you purchase "high dollar" items, such as TVs, furniture, appliances, jewels, computers, tools, etc.. make sure you keep the receipt and make a photo record of these items. Keep track of brands, serial numbers, sizes, etc... The Insurance company will want as much information on lost items as you can give them. The receipts, place into the safety deposit box, and the photos, either upload to a private album or make a photo cd and place into your safety deposit box. If you have antiques, it would be a good idea to have them appraised by a credible source and keep the written appraisal in the safety deposit box also.

3. Keep a kinda running total on items of clothing that each family member has... just a general idea: 10 pair jeans, 20 teeshirts, 10 sweaters, 2 pair joggers, etc... if you have very expensive items, it is also a good idea to keep "proof" of these items such as store receipts, tags, or, again, a photo journal.

4. Always check with your insurance company about coverages. Make sure to have "replacement cost" insurance on your items. Make sure to find out what personal items will be covered and which ones need a special "rider" on the policy. Some more expensive items need special coverage, your agent should be able to help you decide on coverage and limits....

5. While on the subject of Insurance... Make sure you have coverage on fire, theft, water (flood) etc damages or loss. Trust me, proper coverages can make or break you in a bad situation.

I hope even just one person will take my advice on at least some of the items... I wish someone had told me all that stuff before we had our housefire on February 24th.

**Yawn** Finally I am sleepy enough to head off to bed... Only to do it all over again tomorrow, minus the horsie poo incident, I hope.....