We found him climbing our house this evening.

Larry is a very brave lizard.

I know this because he obviously saw Jack from up there on the wall, and still decided to come down to say hello.

The boys had just dried off from swimming and were so excited to play with their new pet.

You see, we don’t get many lizards in our backyard (because of our lizard chasing dogs).

Can you tell how excited the boys were?

It’s funny… Larry moved a lot more when Jack was holding him.

I think he was trying to escape.

Here’s Jack concentrating on not. dropping. the. lizard.

When Michael held Larry, he didn’t move an inch.

Again:

Michael:

and Jack:

Michael:

Jack:

Do we all see how this story is ending?

We played with the lizard for about 40 minutes.

Jack liked the name Larry The Lizard (first, middle, and last), but Michael liked “Little Dude.”

Jack liked to see where Larry would “stick” to him.

Michael liked to watch the little dude breathe.

The boys took turns with Larry.

During Jack’s last turn, well… see for yourself.

Larry T. Lizard dropped his tail.

They do that when they’re terrified, you know.

It happened right about the time Jack tried to get the lizard to climb up his back.

Michael came to the rescue, and put Larry back on the house where we found him.

Minus a tail.

This post is linked to Angie’s Wordful Wednesday Carnival – go check it out!

And share everything that I have learned thus far about summer break.

1. Boys like to pick on each other.

Older boys like to make their younger brothers yell at them.

They think it’s funny.

2. Everything is better when Daddy is not out of town on business.

Daddy dragging Michael into the pool (Michael is laughing)

Daddy demonstrating his throwing skills

Daddy rolling the hula hoop so the boys could jump through it

And jumping through it himself :)

3. I learned that Jack has eagle eyes. He found Aunt Jen’s earring at the bottom of the pool.

4. I learned that rabbit mating season in Arizona is in June. They. are. everywhere.

5. You can’t hold a 5 year old tight enough at the Grand Canyon.

6. I learned that there is such a thing as too much Looney Tunes.

“Be vewy qwiet. I’m hunting wabbits.”

7. It’s not easy to explain to kids what Route 66 is and why it’s so cool. Maybe they’ll get it in a few years.

8. Ice cream for breakfast dessert makes a boy happy.

9. Freezing cold natural rock slides? I learned they’re fun :)

10. Grandpa Ralph is a sharp shooter with the rubber band gun.

11.I learned how to take pictures at night with my camera!

12. I learned that one can never get enough of seeing the family “look what I caught in the trap” trick. (Can you see the “animal” flying through the air?)

13. I learned that I’ll never get tired of seeing belly laughs shared between these two.

14. I learned that this sleeping arrangement works best when we stay in a hotel room. I tried to give each of the boys a bed and sleep with them, but that didn’t work for anyone involved. So, they got one, and Mom got the other.

15. And just because this is linked to Julie’s blog, I am stopping at a nice round number :)

I learned that eventually, even little guys get sick of having their picture taken.

]]> http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/06/21/what-i-learned-this-week-summer-break-edition/feed/ 10 http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/06/18/celebrating-uniqueness/ http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/06/18/celebrating-uniqueness/#comments Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:40:02 +0000 Becca http://ourcrazyboys.com/?p=2512 [...]]]> Earlier this month, I participated in a meme about things that make me happy.

I thought it would be fun to make another list.

I thought about making a list of 10 things that make me unhappy, but that just seemed like a downer.

So I thought a bit.

I’ve been told that I have “quirks.”

And I thought that if there was anyone who would love hearing about my quirkiness, it would be you guys.

You ready?

10 things that make me “unique.”

10. I really, really dislike cheese. It leaves a film in your mouth like milk does. And that’s just yucky.

9. I don’t like getting water in my ears. So I plug them when I wash my hair. Apparently, I’m part cat.

8. I have an irrational fear of getting stuck in the bottom or top of an escalator. I hide it well, though.

7. The worst sound in the world? A dog whining. It will instantly raise my blood pressure.

6. I say “draw” instead of “drawer.” (Along with the rest of my family. It sounds completely normal in context).

5. I don’t care for chocolate. Vanilla is a flavor, people. Embrace it.

4. I don’t eat fish. Or shrimp. Or seafood of any kind.

3. I won’t drink a beverage without ice. Unless it’s water. And only if I have to.

2. On that note, I would much rather drink from a plastic cup than a glass. Or a mug. The thought of it accidentally clinking against my teeth makes me shudder.

1. I hate (yes, hate) being scared/spooked/startled.

Ok now. Your turn.

Tell me something (or 10 things) that makes you “unique.”

30 things I vow to do this summer:

1. Spend quality time with Steve and the kids.

2. Sleep in. I am working very hard on this one already :)

3. Read the stack of books I have been accumulating since Christmas.

4. Keep my house cleaner.

5. Touch up the areas on the walls that were patched last year a while ago.

6. Bake with my boys. Whenever they want. Whatever they want.

7. Run at least 3 times a week. I’ve been doing good with this one so far, thanks to my amazing running buddy :)

8. Help Michael organize his room.

9. Eat better (better meaning less).

10. Start lesson planning for next school year.

11. Make sure Jack can recognize all of his letters…

12. And their sounds…

13. And practice writing his numbers from 1-100 before kindergarten.

14. Find a book for Michael that he wants to read. This is my hardest one, I think.

15. Wear more sunscreen.

16. Clean the carpets in the bedrooms.

17. Organize my closet.

18. Paint the boys’ bathroom.

19. Play with my camera more.

20. Review my student files for next year.

21. Clean out the closet in the den, which will result in a Craig’s List post.

22. Get the kids in the pool every day – That’s why we have it!

23. Take amazing pictures of Michael rock climbing on Mt. Lemmon.

24. Don’t wait until the week before school to set up my new classroom.

25. Spend quality time with each boy while the other boy is at day camp!

26. Sand and reseal my front doors. They’re getting a bit sunburned.

27. Switch auto insurance. I’ve been putting that off.

28. Clean my ovens. Well, you know, push the self cleaning button.

29. Talk Steve into getting rid of the foosball table that is taking up space in our living room.

30. Enjoy it. Every second of it.

This week Mom has been busy helping Michael with his end of the year project.

He had to make a board game for a book report.

Any guesses on his book?

Diary of A Wimpy Kid… along with 10 other kids in his class!

I guess it’s pretty popular.

I thought that I’d throw a couple more pictures in here, just for fun.

Here in our neck of the woods, it’s the last day of school.

Six long weeks off starting tomorrow!

Here’s the first day of school:

And… 10 haircuts, 3 pairs of sneakers, 2 lunchboxes, and one backback later…

I have a 5th grader and a kindergartner!

Hold me…

We have used Cox Communications as our internet/phone/cable provider for about 10 years now. We have always been pretty happy with them, but I felt that we were paying a steep monthly amount (about $190) for our services.

We dealt with it, because it’s not fun to change 3 utilities in your house at the same time.

Recently, though, our neighbors switched to Qwest.

They were now paying almost half of what we were. Half.

That’s a lot of money to save.

There are many, many issues that arose with our switch. Too many to list here without losing all of you guys.

Let’s make this easy.

We’ll call it Customer Service 101.

Qwest

Qwest had 3 weeks notice about our installation. During that 3 weeks, Qwest changed my appointment twice. The first time, they called and told me that I “didn’t return the third party verification call in time for” them to honor my original appointment time.

I called back 43 minutes after the verification service left me a message.

I thought that was quick.

Last Friday, the installer came.

Late.

He disappeared around the side of the house and about 20 minutes later, I went out and told him that he could find us out back if he needed anything. I found him running a cable from my box to my neighbor’s house.

Across the sidewalk.

Across our yards.

Me: “What are you doing?”

Installer: “Well, my fish tape doesn’t reach far enough to run this cable across the street. So for a bit, no longer than a week, I’ll have this cable run from here to your neighbor’s house.”

Me: “Um… no you won’t. You’re talking above ground? Over the sidewalk? We have little kids. That’s a broken arm waiting to happen. No. Way.”

Installer: “Well, ma’am. That’s all I can do. You see my truck is in the shop…”

At this point, Steve came home and saved the day.

He had a long fish tape.

But, funny thing, he didn’t have to use it.

He used the installer’s tape and pulled the line across the street.

Steve installed the cable.

Installer: “Thank you, but now, it’s past 6 p.m. and our switch is closed. You can call this number in the morning and they can turn your phone on.”

I’m thinking… “if you had been here on time…”

At this point, I was mad.

I was without internet and phone all day. I had blogs to write work to do. (Seriously… at the end of the school year? I had so much work to do!)

I called Qwest from my cell phone.

I was on the phone for 2 and 1/2 hours.

With three people.

I got a few different stories.

1. “Your phone isn’t actually set to be turned on until Monday.” (Then why did the installer come today?)

2. “Your phone number hasn’t been released by Cox yet. It takes 10 days.” (I set up installation 3 weeks ago)

3. “I can’t help you. Customer service is closed until Monday.” (How can it be closed on the weekend? Do people not sign up for phone service on the weekends?)

Long, long story short?

No help from Qwest.

No apology.

Nothing.

Cox

So, 9:00 at night, I called Cox.

And I tweeted.

A friendly employee answered the phone, apologized for my inconvenience (did you hear that? the inconvenience that Qwest caused), and turned my internet on.

At 9 p.m. on a Friday night.

He apologized again and said that my phone would take a bit longer.

Up to 24 hours.

I thanked him. And told him that if he were in my house, I would hug him.

He laughed and said, “Um.. thank you, ma’am.”

Then he asked why I was going to switch to Qwest.

We reviewed my services, cut down my internet speed (we aren’t able to benefit from the internet speed we were paying for), and decided that it’s cheaper to use DirecTV instead of digital cable.

I am now saving about $40/month.

The next morning, I woke up and turned my cell phone on.

And had the most wonderful exchange with Cox.

Seriously? They saw my tweet from the night before, replied, gave additional contact information, AND then replied again?

My phone was turned on by 11 am, but since the Qwest technician cut the lines, we couldn’t get a dial tone.

We didn’t realize this until about 5 pm.

I called Cox again.

They apologized again.

And someone was at our house by 9 am on SUNDAY.

A real, live person from Cox was fixing my phone and double checking my internet as I was watering my plants Sunday morning.

What I learned this week?

I learned that stellar customer service is invaluable. It’s definitely worth paying extra for.

Cox has my business now, and will have my business for as long as they are around.

Thank you, Cox Communications!

This post is being linked up with Julie’s carnival, What I Learned This Week

This week, I thought I would wrap up a few blogging tips I have learned… from tutorials, from helping friends, from playing with my own blog, and a few from bloggy boot camp, as well!

Hopefully there is something here for everyone:

Blog fun fact #1:

Typing <center> before and after the code in a widget will center it in your sidebar.

Blog fun fact #2:

You can make blog buttons (and Twitter backgrounds, and headers…) with Picnik! I learned how to by following this tutorial from Linda Sellers. Also, you can use Photobucket (for free) to link your pictures or buttons and get html codes.

Blog fun fact #3:

Use Google Analytics to track how many people visit your site and learn how they get there.

Blog fun fact #4:

Do you see that box under by button (over there on the right)?

You use it to make your button easily “grabbable.” Yes, that’s a word that I made up. But it fits in well, don’t you think?

Do you want a grab box of your own? Shabby Blogs has a great tutorial to help you make one. It’s actually pretty easy!

Blog fun fact #5:

I find a lot of helpful tips from these blogs:

Bloggusion

Blogging Basics 101

Desperately Seeking WordPress

Go ahead… add them to your reader… I’ll wait…

Oh, you don’t know what a reader is? Sorry…

Blog fun fact #6:

Using a blog reader (such as Google Reader or Bloglines) helps to get all of  your blogs organized in one place, and makes it easier to read them. A must for anyone reading more than 5 blogs.

Blog fun fact #7:

Get a gravatar. They make it easier to recognize you when you leave a comment, and look pretty in your address bar :)

Blog fun fact #8:

If you have WordPress, you should check out these plugins:

SexyBookmarks (allows users to share your posts via email, Twitter, Facebook, etc…)

Askimet (finds spam!)

WordPress back up (enough said. Ahem.)

Broken Link Checker (uhh… checks. broken. links.)

If you have Blogger, um… sorry.

Blog fun fact #9:

Rename your photos. Google likes “Jacks_firsttooth” better than DSC00056

Blog fun fact #10:

Make your buttons and pictures link to email you!

Here’s an example:

<center><a href=”mailto:youremailaddresshere” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://yourphotobucketpicturehere” border=”0″ alt=”Photobucket”></a><center> Text that you want under your picture<center>

Let me know if any of this doesn’t make sense… I’d be glad to answer any questions that I can!

Oops.

You know when you’re trying to get a picture where everyone looks good?

And when there are 6 women in the picture?

Yeah, it doesn’t work so well.

So, I went back and forth, not knowing which one to put in.

Kristin, Rhonda, Me, Pauline, Eileen, and Pauline

Do I post only the one where you can see everyone except for Eileen, who is hidden behind Pauline?

No.

What about the one where Rhonda decided to yell something obscene and get us all giggling, and the waiter thought it would be funny to take the picture early?

Just post that one?

No.

What about the one where we are all laughing so hard that we can’t even try to smile for a picture?

Just post that one?

I figure that at least with all three of them up here, everyone has a good picture somewhere.

And just for fun, I think I have to post this one.

If you were there, you know the one I’m talking about.

The one where Eileen threw a gang sign.

What gang sign?

No one knows.

But she sure did it.

And it. was. hilarious.

This one has had me laughing for days.

*If you don’t know Eileen, you should know that she is not affiliated with gangs in any way, shape, or form. She’s a Mom. And a teacher. And fairly low-key, if you ask me.*

What a weekend!

Friday night, I met up with some awesome bloggers for dinner at the Yardhouse in Phoenix.

Saturday, I spent the day with 100 amazing ladies (and a couple of men) learning about SEO, plugins, branding, and vlogging.

Shey, Chelsea, Me, Michelle, Melanie, and Julie (photo by Julie)

Saturday night I was lucky enough to hang out poolside with some amazing bloggers…

…and watch this bartender make me an amazing margarita using a plastic cups as a shaker (he was waiting on the “real” shaker):

(After I complimented him on his technique, his partner told me to get behind the bar for a picture)

It was quite a sight… he took great pride in that drink!

On Sunday I finally got to my first Bath Junkie:

Where I promptly made 3 husbands very angry by introducing their wives to the store.

(Sorry, guys)

It was a great weekend filled with girl talk, late nights, and lots of smiles :)

]]> http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/05/05/wheres-mom-32-of-52/feed/ 23 http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/04/24/unbloggable-moments-take-two/ http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/04/24/unbloggable-moments-take-two/#comments Sat, 24 Apr 2010 08:13:27 +0000 Becca http://ourcrazyboys.com/?p=2076 [...]]]>

I almost gave up on you.

Yes, you… faithful blog reader.

All this interest in posting stories that you can’t post on your on blog and then…

8 comments.

And one was mine.

I almost scrapped the idea… and then I had a few people ask about it.

So, let’s do this again… Mmk?

And I want your stories!

They don’t have to be HILARIOUS

or AMAZING

or CRAZY.

They just have to be {un}bloggable.

I’m giving you a place to get it out.

Put it on “paper.”

And know that you’re not alone when you can’t blog about everything that happens to you.

To start?

I’m telling you my moment.

Yes, here.

Not in the comments.

Not anonymously.

—

The other day I was putting sunscreen on Jack.

I was wearing a bathing suit and a cover up.

I was bending down (because he’s short).

And I see his eyes traveling.

So I pulled my cover up as high as it would go and pretended nothing happened.

And do you know what he said?

Of course you don’t.

We never know what he’ll say.

He said,

Mom, I already know what they look like.

Because sometimes I take that submarine thing. You know, the periscope?

And I spy on you!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

—

Ahem.

So, here are the directions (if you need them):

1. You may or may not want to leave your name. If you do, just comment and us your story. I say story loosely. I have a feeling that some of you didn’t comment last time because you didn’t think your stories were worthy.

2. If you choose to comment anonymously, follow this:

Name: {make up a name. use mine. or your mother’s. or my mother’s!}

E-mail: leave your e-mail if you want me to reply to your comment.

don’t leave your e-mail if you don’t want me to reply to your comment.

Blog address: If you leave an address, people will click onto your blog, which will make you {un}anonymous.

3. If this stresses you out, e-mail me your comment. I’ll post it for you.

4. If you have ANY questions, e-mail me.

Oh, and I was kidding about giving up on you :)

Ready?

Set?

GO!