I decided, since I had some free time today, that I would take Ian to Party Express to see if they had stuff for his fish-themed birthday party. As we were walking out I slipped on an acorn (seriously) and lost my balance. I waved my arms around like a fool trying to get my balance back, and running through my mind was, "I'm going down. Big Bertha is going down!" Down I did go, purse flung across the driveway and Ian screaming. Lovely picture for the neighbors, I'm sure!

I managed to haul myself up with minor damage, other than my ankle. It hurt a bit and was a little swollen, but no more than my pride was at that point. I got Ian in the car and we made it to Party Express where I nursed my wounds by buying out the place of their fish items, as well as Ian's Halloween costume.

We got back here uneventfully and unloaded the car, then headed over to my brother's house to watch the game. The kids swam for a bit while we all chatted, then we got them dried off and settled in. We watched the game, ate our weight in wings and pickle dip (which I am paying for now), and enjoyed a day of NFL football.

When I started packing up to leave, I began talking to my SIL about her induction (she's 6 days past her due date). I stopped what I was doing to make a comment, and my ankle suddenly gave out. It twisted to the side and I fell over, hearing a 'squish' and a 'crunch'. Gross! My brother was nice enough to yell at me for tripping over air, and my mother was in a panic, but I managed to get myself up with minor embarrassment.

Now I'm home with a swollen ankle and a lovely bruise spreading across the top of my foot. Unfortunately my work schedule cannot be cleared this week; I have two things that I have to get done because there is no one else who can (or who would want to) do it. So, my wrenched back, pulled ass muscle (yes, I really pulled the muscle in my ass. Who knew that your ass actually had a muscle you could pull?), and lovely ankle are just going to have to grin and bear it!

We took a trip to Babies R Us yesterday and bought some odds and ends. While we were there I wanted to look at strollers, because ours got thrown out somewhere between Ian's second and forth birthday. We spent about 20 minutes looking and I was overwhelmed! Sit and stand strollers good for babies and older kids, strollers good for infants, double strollers, jogging strollers... Yikes!

I decided that I wanted to wait and do some research online before making a commitment on buying anything. I love to search for buyer reviews and product reviews, so I spent some time doing that when we got home.

I found a great site called ShopWiki which does all the work for me! They find every store on the internet by 'crawling' through sites, but unlike sites like Google, they show all the sites available, not just the paid placement sites, so the shopper is assured that eveything available on the web is located. A lot of the time this means that searchers find better deals

For instance: I did a full ShopWiki search on strollers. What I found was terrific! They had every type of stroller listed with explanations of the different types, pros and cons, prices... Just what I would have spent hours doing myself! I looked at the tandem strollers since Ian will want to ride sometimes too, and I think I found the one I want: the Baby Trend Sit and Stand Stroller! Has everything I want, and other customers seem to like it too. To think I saved about 3 hours of time just by using ShopWiki!

Bug's room is done! I'm so excited. I washed the walls and cleaned all the furniture, then taped the walls. Sean fixed the knobs on the dressers, rehung some shelves, and then painted the baseboards and door. He then scraped the floor and mopped it. All we have left is to get the replacement parts for the crib, and then I have to hang the curtains, but there's plenty of time for that since she'll be in our room for at least 2 months.

Even though the room is clean, I want to get an air purifier like the one we have in Ian's room. When I pull the filter out I can't believe how much dust is in there! Considering the breathing problems this family has, I think I'd rather be safe than sorry and get one set up now. I'm thinking of an ecobox air purifer by ecoquest because it's different from traditional air purifiers: it purifies the air by killing the germs on surfaces! How awesome is that? Ecobox says that the viruses and bacteria on doorknobs and countertops, like ch as E. Coli and Salmonella, are destroyed. It also attacks molds, which is a huge bonus living here in Florida! The best part is that Ecobox doesn't use toxic chemicals to kill the pollution in the home, and anyone who knows me know that is a huge deal.

I just have to look into this a bit more before I approach Sean because he's so detail oriented. However; I'm SOLD!