Tea, anyone?

[Warning: Shameless self-promotion to follow]

As you may know, I (along with my parents) own a website.

And this week, we’ve got a little write-up over at Musings of a Housewife.

And a giveaway, too.

Check it out.

And don’t forget to leave a comment to enter.  Drawing Friday.

PS) At the bottom of the post, you’ll find a promo code good for 10% off.  That discount is also valid on sale items, and right now we’re having a ‘blue skies’ special – anything and everything that is blue is on sale!

What I Learned This Week

Yey for bullet lists!

• I learned that you should not count on a transmission.  Or rather, a second transmission.  A second transmission that you have because the first transmission was not to be relied on, either. 
• You should also never utter the words “It’s worth spending more than we want because it’s a Honda!  It will run forever!”  Guess what?  It won’t.  Quite possibly it will have a transmission failure.  Or two.
• Also quite possibly, American Honda will refuse to pay for the second transmission.  Because they suck.  Sorry, but it’s true.  If by some miracle they read this and reverse their position and recognize that since they issued a huge recall and paid for replacement transmissions, they should step up when those replacement transmissions fail as well (and fail within the original warranty period, too, I might add) then I will issue a retraction and an apology, and I will sing their praises from the rooftop.  But until then, you suck, American Honda. 
• I learned that I feel kinship with people who love a good run-on sentence as much as I do.
• I learned that if you’re in the market for a new minivan right now, you’re facing quite a dilemma.  I mean, Honda and Toyota were always ranked tops.  Yet now we’re dealing with multiple transmission failures and American Honda not taking responsibility for them (yup, I’m bitter) OR Toyota possibly accelerating the heck out of my crazy brood against our will.  Neither sound so appealing.  So whaddaya buy?
• I learned that sending your children to a different school – one where bus service is not an option – is extremely inconvenient when your car is in the shop.
• Moving on…I learned that children who wake in the middle of the night are hysterical.  They say such random things, I wish I had a recorder running at all times so that I never missed a moment.
• I learned that I can only take a very small amount of chewing with one’s mouth open before I’m forced to fight the urge to succumb to physical violence.  Close. Your. Mouth.
• I learned that despite Webkinz being quite possibly the dumbest most pointless toy imaginable, they are extremely interesting to 7-year-olds.  Particularly right after you’ve gotten rid of their Webkinz because they never ever played with it and because it’s dumb. 
• And, I learned that I suffer from Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome.  And here I thought it was just insomnia.  Of course the bad news is that since I still have to get up with the kids every morning, more than 3-4 hours of sleep a night won’t ever be possible for me.  But yey! for the diagnosis, huh?

If you’d like to read more, or share what YOU learned this week, hop on over to Musings of a Housewife!

What I learned this week

Jo-Lynne at Musings of a Housewife has a great carnival going on. I have enjoyed reading others’ posts, but apparently I have been blissfully ignorant because last week I’d learned nothing worth sharing. This week, though…this week I have a few tidbits for ya.

1 – Skunks are not afraid of Shih Tzu. Or things thrown at them. Or hysterically shrieking women. Skunks are actually quite brave, and thank the good Lord above they do not spray as freely as one might think.

2 – You need an emergency kit in your house. I know you know this, just like I know this. But knowing and doing are two very different things, aren’t they? Just because you already own a flashlight and candles and extra batteries and non-perishable food doesn’t mean they are all readily accessible when you’re suddenly in the dark. And having peanut butter as you backup dinner plan is less than desirable these days.

After losing power again, I am finally committed to making an actual Rubbermaid tub full of goodies. Two weeks ago we were in the dark and the COLD because of ice storms, and tonight we are in the dark because of windstorms. At least it’s warmer now.

3 – Q & U are married, and they are always together. However. Mr. Q needs Mrs. U, but Mrs. U does not need Mr. Q. So says Annie, who earned this handy dandy chock-full-of-interesting-subtext letter lesson in school this week. I’ll never view ‘unicorn’ in the same light again.

So there you have it, a few of the valuable life lessons I’ve learned this week. Be sure to pop over to Musings of a Housewife to get links to all the other bloggy participants. You know you need to absorb their knowledge too, right?