Hooray for air condioning!

I'm excited to report that we are the proud owners of a brand new HVAC unit! The company we chose came on Friday and installed all of the equipment, and we got to close all the windows and take all the borrowed fans back to their homes. The house feels great, and the new unit is super quiet. And by all accounts it should lower our utility bill by enough to more than cover the payments for the financing on it. Plus it will up the resale value on our home.

Now that the house is a reasonable temperature we've been able to start putting Daisy in her own bed. We wanted to do it a couple of months ago, but then the air went out. I wasn't comfortable leaving her alone in her room with her window open all night, and I was also afraid that with the fans going I wouldn't hear her if she cried. This is the third night she's been in there, and so far it's going pretty well. She woke up around 5 AM the first night, and around 7 AM yesterday. Hopefully she'll sleep even later in the morning.

It's been incredibly nice to have our bed all to ourselves. It's embarrassing to admit, but Morgan slept most nights in our bed until she was 7. This was NEVER our plan. She started out sleeping with us when she was born just because of the logistics of our living situation. Unfortunately it was just about impossible to get her into her own bed once she got to be a toddler, and it was even harder when she got older. The family bed is something I grew up with (me and then both my brothers slept with our parents until we were each around 4 or so), but we never intended for her to share our bed as long as she did. We were just determined not to make the same mistake with Daisy. Anyway, it's nice to not have to move a sleeping kid to another room when the mood for love hits. :)

We're still trying to get our garage door fixed. As I mentioned, Nick is doing some work for my dad on his antique truck. My parents went ahead and paid him for enough of the work for us to buy a new garage door spring. He called the door company and told them what we needed and they said they had it in stock. Unfortunately when we went down there on Thursday we found out that the didn't have it in stock after all and it will be another week or so before they get one in. Oh well.

I had a photo shoot on Thursday that went pretty well. It was one of the original introductory rate ones that had been scheduled a few months ago, so I didn't make much money. But the customer seemed pretty happy, and it's more stuff for my portfolio. My brother and his wife did something pretty cool for me. They paid for me to get some business cards. They won't be here for a couple of weeks, but I'm pretty excited about them. I think they'll really help with getting the word out.

Anyway, I hope you guys have an awesome holiday weekend!

Happy Memorial Day!

For those who serve - thank you can never be enough.

Ouch!

I knew there was a reason I'm not a fan of canes! Last night was when my punishment spanking for the socks actually happened. We had planned to do it Wednesday night, but my mom unexpectedly offered to have Morgan spend the night with her last night, so we decided to take advantage of the semi-alone time to do it instead.

Once I got Daisy down to sleep Nick came up to bed and asked me if I was ready. Of course I was not and of course it didn't much matter. He pulled out the Naughty Stick and the Tiger Cane from CANE-IAC and had me turn over. He got in a few test whacks with the cane to start with, and I about hit the ceiling! Holy welts it hurt! And this was over jeans. I managed to convince him to switch over to the Naughty Stick, thinking surely it would be easier to take.

Let me just say that the Naughty Stick is no roadside novelty piece! It hurt! It was also very loud, a fact that somehow convinced Nick that it must not be very effective, so he picked the cane back up. When I flipped over and refused to get back into position, he told me I could either take the cane over my jeans or take down my pants for more with the Naughty Stick. I'm not sure that I've ever volunteered to take a punishment to the bare bottom before, but I did this time without any hesitation. He looked surprised, but put down the cane and pulled down my jeans and panties.

If I had known how much the Naughty Stick was going to hurt on my bare bottom I just might have stuck with the cane! The Naughty Stick is highly varnished, and that seems to be the secret to an incredibly painful sting. I have no idea how many he gave me, but I thrashed around and flipped over enough that he finally picked the cane back up and told me that I was getting 5 hard ones with it to finish, but that if I moved again it would be 100 with the cane.

The five with the cane were awful, and I'm still welted this morning. I think though, that I may actually have more marking from the Naughty Stick. Either way, they were both highly effective pieces, very sturdy, and they took me where I needed to go. I think that next time he pulls one of them out though, I'm going to ask to be restrained. I have a feeling I ended up getting a lot more than I would have just because I fought it so much.

Still, it was exactly what I needed, and I'm feeling much more settled this morning. Thank you, Sweetheart, for taking care of me so well!

Perfect Timing?

So tonight is supposed to be the night I get spanked. At least that's the plan as Nick told it to me last night. And he's off work tomorrow, so it doesn't much matter if he has to stay up late to do it.

Normally this would mean that he would pull out his favorite CANE-IAC Jr paddle, or maybe the Patty Paddle. But today we got a package in the mail. From CANE-IAC. Let me back up a bit. First of all, if you've never heard of CANE-IAC, let me be the first to introduce you to a fabulous implement company! They have WONDERFUL products, very high quality at very reasonable prices, not to mention a 100% satisfaction guarantee. I purchased a set of paddles from them a couple of years ago. When we managed to break one of them, they not only sent me a replacement, but they changed the design and got rid of the style that cracked. The new paddle was extremely well made, and CANE-IAC's products have seen more use in our house than any other implement we have.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking around at the products on their site and came across their page of Naughty Sticks. Back at the beginning of the year when CANE-IAC first came out with Naughty Sticks they held a contest asking for sayings to use on them. If they chose your saying, they would send you a Naughty Stick featuring that saying. Now I didn't submit any winning sayings back then (although I did have a few entries that were a bit too long for the space), but inspiration struck anew when I was browsing recently. I sent an email to Cane Master and Mistress suggesting that they make one with their URL on it. I figured it might be good advertising for them for people who took them to parties and exposed the product to multiple people. Now I didn't expect a Naughty Stick for myself out of it since the contest was long over - I just wanted to share an idea with a company that has been very good to me in the past. They emailed me back saying that they liked the idea and wanted to send me a thank you gift anyway.

And so, in a feat of incredible timing lol, they managed to get the package here on the exact day I'm due for a punishment. I opened it up and found inside a Naughty Stick that says "Teach Me A Lesson" (a phrase that particularly pushes my buttons) and a 28 inch Tiger Rattan Cane.

These are both beautiful pieces, and I think they'll be a lovely addition to our arsenal. I'm sure they'll come into play tonight, and I'll post and let you know all about them. Oh, and if you want a CANE-IAC.com Naughty Stick of your own, they're only $11.95! Thank you, CANE-IAC!

Oops

Hey, guys. Not too much to write about, but I felt like posting. So, I've got a spanking coming. Like a real, live, I'm-actually-in-trouble spanking. How could this be? Ah well, it seems my old nemesis Laundry has struck again. Specifically the sock population. It seems that the little buggers weren't where they were supposed to be, namely the clean sock drawer. Instead they were hanging out in the dirty clothes bin and various other locations of ill repute. That in itself is not really what got me in trouble, although I admittedly should have been a bit more on top of the situation. What got me in trouble was Nick telling me last week that he needed some clean ones, then me forgetting to do anything about that till Saturday afternoon.

When he came home from work that day I mentioned that I had washed some socks for him and he told me that I'd better be very glad I had done so. Better late than never, although apparently still too late to avoid a spanking. Then that night was when I took my spill in the back yard, and I wasn't in much shape to have a paddle pounding away at my bottom. So it's been postponed until at least tomorrow night, depending on how it feels then. As of right now it's a bit better, but I still have some pretty noticeable pain when I stand up from a chair, sit down, or bend over.

Despite my injury we did manage to try out a VERY neat toy that Adult Sex Toys sent me. I'll review it in a different post, but I can tell you that it will very likely come into play when that spanking does happen.

So any Lost fans? I have to tell you, Nick and I are both pretty bummed that the series is over, but man what an ending! We've both seen every episode of the whole six year run, and I'm so glad we got to experience it! If you're a fan, I suggest you check out Jorge Garcia's blog. He'll actually probably be changing to a new URL now that the show is over, but I'm sure he'll leave directions on his current blog. He's a very funny, very cool guy, and I always enjoy his posts.

Anyway, off to work on my review!

Popping in...

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Mother's Day and more

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day! Morgan made me a magnet for Mother's Day at school, and my SIL got me a very sweet card. Daisy of course is still too small to get me a gift :) but she's enough of a gift in herself. Money has been incredibly tight, so Nick decided to take me out for dinner and a movie with his birthday gift cards for his gift to me. We went to church that morning, then to see Nick's grandmother. Then my mom called and wanted us to come have lunch with her at her and Dad's house. Of course we had planned to go see her next anyway, but what a surprise that she was fixing lunch for the rest of us on Mother's Day! As much as my mom may irritate me sometimes, she really is the best mom anyone could ever hope for.

Lunch was great, and we got her a colander as a gift. Okay, I know that sounds really lame, but it honestly was the perfect gift for her. I usually get her something decorative for the house or a department store gift card, but she's reached the point in her life where she doesn't want any more stuff brought into the house, and she usually ends up using the gift cards on Morgan and Daisy.

Anyway, my in-laws got me this same colander for Christmas, and I absolutely love it! I use it every single day, and since it collapses, it easily fits into the dishwasher for cleaning and the cabinet for storing. My mom saw mine and said how much she liked it, so I decided to go with something she would actually use and that would give her a little more space and convenience. Anyway, she loved it.

After we saw my mom we went to see Nick's stepmom. Nick's sisters wanted to get her a spa day, so we went in with them on that. A few days ago we had asked Nick's stepmom if she would babysit for us sometime soon so we could do dinner and a movie. She called a few days later and asked if it she could do it on Mother's Day night, so (after making sure that she really did want to do it that night) that worked out perfectly for us.

The gift cards were for Outback Steakhouse and Regal Cinema. Of course on Mother's Day Outback was incredibly crowded, so we drove to a couple before we found one with a reasonable wait time. Then as we were walking in, Nick said, "Do you have the gift cards?"

"No, why would I have them? I thought you had them!" Urrggghhh! So we decided instead to go have sushi. A few months ago Restaurant.com had $25 gift cards for $2 each, so I spent $8 and got a $100 worth to a local sushi place. We had a couple of those left, so we used one for dinner.

Fortunately, I also had a couple of free movie passes in my purse. Back around Christmas we went to see Sherlock Holmes with my brother. The heat was messed up in the theater and it was about 8o°, so as we were leaving, they handed us each a free movie pass for our inconvenience.

So we went to see Date Night, which was very funny. What's nice is that we still have the Outback and movie gift cards that we can use some other time.

Yesterday Daisy scared me half to death. I was nursing her in our bed after Nick went to work. Unfortunately I drifted off and she decided to explore. I had some pretty heavy pillows surrounding us as a barrier just in case she decided to roll, but she managed to climb over one and do a swan dive off the side of the bed. She's fine, just a little scab on her nose where she got some carpet burn, but it dazed her a bit at first and had me absolutely panicked. I know it happens once or twice to most babies at some point, but I felt terrible! I kept a close eye on her all day yesterday, checking her pupils and coordination and movement and ability to track things with her eyes and everything is fine, but what a scare!

I applied for a job with Wal-Mart the other night. I didn't want to, but we're really, really struggling. I only listed that I was able to work in the evenings so that I can still watch the girls while Nick's at work. Hopefully if I get it I can just do it for a few months and get us caught up and then quit again.

Well, I guess that's about it for now - hope everyone is having a great week!

Happy Birthday, Grace!

Okay, okay, so I'm not actually off to do laundry. At least not yet. First of all I want to wish my good friend Grace a very Happy Birthday! And I thought of it before, but I didn't want it to get lost in my long, rambling post, so she gets a post all of her own with lots and lots of sweets and treats! Love you, Grace!

Why yes, Virginia, spankings do exist!

I was starting to wonder though. :) It had been a while since we were able to get to our weekly spanking, and I was beginning to think that "weekly" had turned into "something we no longer do". But Nick made time before bed on Monday night. The stars aligned, both girls were asleep at a reasonable time, and I'm still a bit sore three days later. There wasn't much talking about it, just 80 or so harder than usual swats with his favorite Cane-IAC Jr paddle, then me curled up beside him sniffling and crying.

Quick, simple, and very ouchy, but I definitely needed exactly that. Money stresses are climbing, and the summer weather showing up early here isn't helping matters much since we're currently without air conditioning. There's a program where we may be able to finance a unit through our utility company, which is going to be the only way we can afford a new one, so we're looking into that.

It just seems like the expenses are piling up. Even so, things could be worse. Yesterday there was a guy parked in from of our house all day so that he could repossess the neighbor's car when they came home. Eventually he left, and I never did see them come home, so maybe somebody tipped them off. I gotta tell you, that somebody would have been me if I'd had their number. Not that people shouldn't pay their bills (hey, I used to work for the bank - I know the effect if they don't). But I also know that if you're already struggling (and trust me, these people are not blowing their money on fancy things - they live very simply), then the last thing you need is to lose your car so you can't go to work.

Good news is that the hotel finally agreed to credit us for the overdraft fees they caused - yay! When I finally was able to get in touch with the guy in charge, he was super nice and cooperative. And he had actually asked someone about the situation after he got my first call, but they told him it was taken care of. Once I let him know that only the initial hotel charge had been refunded, he willingly took care of the rest. It still hasn't been posted back to our account, but it will help things once it has.

The baby is seven months old now and she is doing so much! She says "ma-ma" pretty much non-stop now, and can also say "da-da", along with lots and lots of adorable baby gibberish. She's still working on the mechanics of actually crawling, but she can scoot around a room in no time flat, and she's able to pull herself up to a standing position also. And if you hold both of her hands, she'll put her little feet one in front of the other and walk to you! I personally think she's a genius, but I may be a little biased. :)

Tomorrow the baby and I are going on a school field trip with Morgan to a theme park, so that's going to be an adventure. Her teacher asked me if I would care to supervise one other student. I said, "Sure, can we have Sarah?" Sarah is Morgan's best friend. Unfortunately she was already going with another student and that student's mom. "The only one I have left is Britney," she said. Here's the deal - Britney is another of Morgan's best friends, but she's also notoriously difficult. It's not that she's exactly mean-spirited, but she's got kind of a crappy home life, which makes her very insecure. Because of this (at least this is the way I see it), she has a tendency to say and/or do hateful things sometimes, not just to Morgan, but to pretty much anybody. She can actually be very sweet and loving, and it doesn't take to much to see how desperate she is to be liked. Unfortunately, like many other 9 year-olds, she's under the impression that picking at others will make her look tough and cool and therefore someone people want to be friends with.

I'm hoping that since it will be just her and Morgan it won't be a big issue. The problems mainly occur when it's her, Morgan, and Sarah together, because she's really jealous of the friendship Sarah and Morgan have and will try to set them against each other. I do wish that her teacher had told me she was the one she needed a chaperone for before she asked me to do it, but maybe we can make it a special day for her and she won't feel so insecure and likely to misbehave.

Let's see, what else? We got to see Nick's sister and her husband and kids on Sunday. They flew in to leave the kids with the grandparents on Friday night, then left to go to the Kentucky Derby the next day. Not gonna lie - I was a little bit jealous. Especially when they came back on Sunday and my sister-in-law had won three grand (which paid for the dress, shoes, and hat she wore to the races)! What we couldn't do with $3000 right now... But anyway, that's not the hand God dealt me, so no point in dwelling on it. Besides, while she got to go to the races, I got to hang out with Nick, Morgan, and the baby, and that's better than Churchill Downs any day!

Speaking of the baby - she needs a name. Not in real life, of course - she has a very pretty name. But on here...I'm thinking that if I keep calling her "the baby" I'm going to eventually have to call her "the toddler", then "the pre-schooler" and so on. So, I think I'll call her...Ethel. No, no, I'm totally kidding. :) I'll call her Daisy. We've been doing lots of yard work lately, and it seems like a good choice. Anyway, I'm off to do some more laundry - have a great day!