can't contain herself

Marryn started Kindergarten. Finally. In her mind, not mine;) She has been asking when she'll start school since like Christmas. EVERYDAY she'd ask. Need to work on that whole month/week/day concept with her. Crossing of days on the calender didn't seem to register much either;) But the day finally arrived, Thursday Aug 13th and she was just too excited for words. That prior Tuesday we went to the orientation, took in her loooong list of school supplies (Really? What happened to just crayons and glue??) and met her teacher, Mrs. Wright. We chose a charter school, The Imagine Classical Academy and it just happens to be 4 minutes from our house! The building is brand new this year, although the school opened up last year. She's in the PM class of which I am SO SO SO grateful. Getting her there at 12:15 is still a challenge. There is no busing, which sucks, but even if she went to the local public school, about the same distance maybe a little further, we are considered too close for busing. So either way, I'm officially a chauffeur now. Drop off 12:15. Pick up 3:15. Everyday. Yikes. What's happened to the simple days of staying home with my kids...

Anyhow. Marryn was so eager to get ready that after breakfast she disappeared for awhile before coming back down stairs, showered and dressed. At about 9am. And just so you know, we've never let her just go shower on her own. Yet. Turns out, this works out quite nicely for me;) So then she had to just wait. And wait. And wait some more. And then once again, it was finally time to go.

Mrs. Wright read a really cute story for the kids and their parents and then each kid got a heart sticker to kiss and then give to their parents. You know, to help ease the separation fear from both parties. I might have been more tearful if I wasn't so busy trying to keep Reganne from drenching herself from the water fountain and Christian from crying because he also wanted to do whatever Reganne was doing. Oh, the cycle starts again... And then before we knew it, it was time to pick her up. She gets out at 3:15. We arrived at 2:55 (I know, early? Me?) and had to wait in line, in the neighborhood streets. Marryn didn't get in the car until 3:38. Uh...what have I gotten myself into... Next day ran much smoother and quicker, the kinks of a new school and school year are still working themselves out. She was just so excited to tell me about everything, of course her favorites being snack time and recess;) Once again, she could hardly wait until the next day to go back.

Her first full week went well. She loves picking out her *school clothes* (there is a uniform-like dress code) and getting together her healthy snacks and water bottle. And of course doing her homework;) Drop off and pick up are getting smoother all around, although I'm struggling. Again, aren't stay-at-home moms suppose to well, stay at home! This is tough for me, I typically only leave the house a couple times a week. Not a couple times a day. I'm sure we'll all get use to it. Christian's naps are still working themselves out he usually goes down from 11ish to 3ish but sure makes for a quiet afternoon when he is sleeping and it's just me and Reganne. I thought Reganne might have a hard time with Marryn going to school and her not, but she's doing just fine. Although she talks about herself going to kindergarten all the time now. I was asked if I wanted to join in with a co-op sort of preschool with some other moms at church. Super excited about that. And so is Reganne. She even packed up some snacks leftover peas, ham, bread, carrots and frozen soybeans for her to take to her preschool won't start until September;)

back on again

Well. 3+ weeks after I took our computer in for a weird start-up thing it was doing, we have it back and fully working. NO THANKS TO BEST BUY. Here's the low down. I'm still fuming mad about the whole thing...

Monday, July 27th-Took in computer (1.5 years old) to Best Buy (BB). Geek guy plugged it in and immediately knew what was going on. 30 seconds later it was fixed. Then he convinced me to have a diagnostic test, just to *enhance* it's performance and check for any future problems. I hesitated (big red flag here) but did it anyways, for it was included in our service plan. It would take 5-7 business days. WHAT? Okay, whatever. I can survive without my computer for a week or so....

Wednesday, Aug 5th-8 business days later, I call BB that evening to see if it's ready yet. Yes. Yes it is. And they found nothing. Big surprise, computer was fine to begin with. But did streamlined our internet video(?). So I brave the rain better than the 3 kiddos and pick it up that night. Bring it home and can't get it to connect to the internet. Wait til morning to look into it more.

Thursday, Aug 6th-Call Comcast. Twice. Both took me through all sorts of computer files I didn't know a thing about. Both saw the bad IP address. Both came to the conclusion that it's the netcard in our computer. Haul it back into BB with 3 kids. They plug it right into the internet and say nothings wrong. It's your cable connection. Try different cable cords. Nothing. Try different cables cords from modem to computer. Nothing. Joey brings home work laptop. Hooks up instantly.

Friday, Aug 7th-Call BB. Refuse to tell me anything over the phone. Must bring it back in. So I do. Joey and the kids wait in the car for 45 minutes (this was our Zoo day). Nothing wrong. Try uninstalling your antivirus protection. They don't do it, just tell me to do it. After a fun day, go home and nope, didn't work.

Saturday, Aug 8th-Call Comcast. Go through same things. Cable is working fine. Call BB. Must bring it in. Finally get someone who listens and actually tries to do something. Works on it trying to fix our bad IP address (of which another Geek tried to say was the "Best Buy IP address") Finally gets it to change. Come home. Nope, didn't work. Well, this time it partially loaded a page in about 5 minutes. Do finally thing suggested. Completely reload the computer. Completely wipe it out and start over. Nope. Still didn't work. I completely flip out. Take it out on Joey. Poor guy. Call Comcast again. Same thing. But this time they'll send someone out tomorrow. No, lets do Monday instead. Joey takes it back to BB, tells them our netcard it bad. Please fix it. No it's not, but we'll replace it for $90. Even though you paid for the protection plan. Brings it home and we just wait until Monday.

Monday, Aug 10th-Comcast guy comes. Is here about an hour. Tries everything. His computer hooks right up to the internet. It's that bad IP address. We need a new netcard.

Tuesday, Aug 11th-Take it back into BB with 3 kids. Tell them again we need a new netcard. Guy looks at me like I don't know what I'm talking about. We hang out for an hour while he "tries" stuff. Then sends me back home with it. Of course it doesn't work.

Wednesday, Aug 12th-Take it back into BB with 3 kids. This time they'll run another diagnostic test.

Friday, Aug 14th-Joey calls to check on it. They're busy, will call back.

Saturday, Aug 15th -Joey calls again to check on it. It's done, but they want to run another test on it.

Sunday, Aug 16th-Get a recorded message that our computer is ready.

Monday, Aug 17th-Wait until Marryn gets out of school so she can push Christian in the stroller and go pick it up. They found nothing. What a surprise. Still doesn't work.

Wednesday, Aug 19th-Joey goes to BB, without computer, to buy a netcard. Girl helping him says they don't have any. He asks someone else who shows him about 5 different brands he could choose from. He pays $35 for one. Installs it himself thanks to coworker who showed him how easy it was to do it and what do you know, we connect to the internet no problem.

What was that again we kept telling BB we needed? A new netcard? Oh no, that's not the problem. It's your internet, the one that others can hook up to but you can't. And that bad IP address (code for BAD netcard), oh, that's just our IP address. All those Comcast people don't know what they're talking about. So what was that protection plan we purchased good for? A diagnostic test on a perfect computer that left us without a fulling functioning computer for 24 days! And in the end, we had to buy the part and install it ourselves! To be fair, nobody at Comcast could really explain why we could connect to the internet at BB with a bad IP address. Thoughts were, it might have connected wirelessly or just that BB had a larger network or something like that. We're not computer nerds, but we do know one thing. We will never purchase a computer with the lame-o protection plan from Best Buy again. No, we'll pay less at Costco or somewhere and when something goes wrong, we'll find someone who knows what they're doing to help us. Joey does work for a computer company, of sorts, full of tech nerds;)
And now, I've going through the process of reinstalling all our software and getting out computer back to normal. It's a pain, but I must admit that I like how I can decide what goes on it and not the BB guys who sold it to us...

fyi

Our computer was out of service for awhile and now our internet is not working. Well, not working on our "fixed" computer (works just fine on Joe's work laptop he brought home for me to use...and worked just fine when I hauled it, and those 3 little kiddos back into Best Buy...)

grrrrrr.

So who knows when I'll be back in full blogging service...

But today Joey is taking the day off and we're off to visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo here in Colo Springs, not Wyoming;).