Happy Halloween!!!!

Hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!

I'm on a sabbatical.........

I have been so busy with school getting out and camps starting and baseball and t-ball and making plans for the summer etc. that I have totally neglected not only my blog, but everyone else's too.

I tend to be an all or nothing type person. So I'm either totally into the whole blog thing, reading my regulars and commenting, posting on mine or I'm totally avoiding the whole thing. If I can't spend a lot of time on it, I tend to put it off all together. I can't figure out how to just do it a little bit. And I feel like maybe I was spending a little too much time in blogland. I kept finding new ones I liked and bookmarking them. My daily reads list just keeps growing.

So I have been negligent about blogging. But I've been to the pool quite a bit. I've helped with my kid's t-ball teams. I've done ALL of my laundry. I enjoyed 12 hours of the school picnic. My kids and I have slept in a couple days.

I am going to cut myself some slack and tell myself that it's ok if I haven't read the latest post of my top 25 favorite blogs. When I have time I will get back to reading and commenting. In the meantime I am taking a break and enjoying summer.

My girl is smart!

My daughter is scared of dogs. It really doesn't matter what size dog it is. She'll claim that she likes little dogs. But if she is presented with a tiny cute little fluffy dog she still acts petrified. It's a pain in the butt because there are dogs everywhere. Lots of people have dogs as pets. Any outside activities in the park or wherever, usually involve dogs. And it prohibits her from going places too. If a new friend wants her to come over, the first thing she asks me is if they have a dog before she'll commit to going.

Some houses we visit have the philosophy that the dog is part of their family and should not be inconvenienced by being put away someplace just because one kid is scared of it. Or people try to reason with her and tell her that the dog won't bother her. But if you are truly petrified with fear by something (and you are five) no amount of logical reasoning is going to matter.

My BFF's family has a golden retriever and she is wonderful about putting the dog away when we come over so that my daughter is not scared. I think she just wants my daughter to be so comfortable at her house and have fun and knows she can't do that if the dog is around. She is so good about it that sometimes I forget they even have a dog when we are there because the entire time the dog will be put away.

So my BFF's family got a second dog. A new little puppy they adopted from the Humane Society. She emailed me some pictures of her kids with the cute little mutt. So I told my kids about their new addition.

My point to this whole post is that since my BFF and I already have my daughter and her son betrothed and he is a dog kid and she is not, I asked my daughter how this will be handled once they are married. I asked her "What are you going to do when you and your boyfriend get married and he wants to get a dog?"............

She said "Well...... I'll get to decide because I'll be the Mom."

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

I'm lazy.

I'm feeling so very lazy. I have several loads of laundry waiting for me in my laundry room. I have some tidying up to do in my kitchen. Both have been waiting for me all day. I just don't feel like doing it. And I shuffled around those papers in my in box. But I didn't really do anything with them..... I'm just too lazy today....

I love these commercials...

The new series of commercials for Orkin totally crack me up! The way the big ass termite talks in that low even tone is great. And the drive by at the end.... love it.

My latest obsession......

I have been obsessed with the iced nonfat chai latte from Starbucks. I went into Starbucks this morning to get a gift certificate and was very strong and abstained from purchasing one. However, I was chatting with the gal working there (not sure if she was officially a "barrister" or not) and I was telling her how I much I have been enjoying them. She said that she likes them too. Then she said how she likes to add a shot of vanilla to hers....... Well, what do you think I have been thinking about since then??? I'm going to have to get one tomorrow!

Gin In My Apron Pocket: Using my gym membership

As a member of Lotta's gin tipping club, I am proud to report that I went to the gym this morning for the second time this week!!!!!

I mentioned before that for Christmas my Mom gave me a year membership to a gym that I had been wanting to join. So I went a couple times in January, maybe once in February. I think I'm being a little generous with myself here. But the point is I have not been in quite a while.

So this morning and Wednesday morning both I walked on the treadmill for an hour. I have to play little mind games with myself. I start out slow for five minutes then increase every five minutes until I hit my maximum speed at 15 minutes. At that point I say to myself all I have to do is five or ten minutes at this speed. By the time I reach ten minutes I feel pretty good and can go for a little longer. So I went at my max speed for a full 30 minutes and then slowly decreased my speed by five minutes increments.

One of the lovely things I inherited from my Mother's side of the family is a little dizziness. All the women in the family suffer from a little vertigo here and there. Some worse than others. But for me if I don't slowly decrease my speed and baby step my way off of that treadmill then I am in trouble.

All the treadmills at the gym have televisions with cable in them. So you just bring your headphones and plug it in to the treadmill and you can watch tv while you walk. That makes a big difference to me. It really helps to pass the time.

When you finish using the equipment you are supposed to use this rag and spray to clean it up a bit before you leave. But they also have this guy that walks around wiping things down too. So I see him getting a little closer to me and he starts wiping down this treadmill next to me with a guy walking on it. I'm thinking please don't come over here because I just knew it was going to throw me off. Sure enough here he comes. He totally wiped all the edges of the track off while I was walking on it. I kept thinking "please don't let me fall".... I didn't fall, but it was a little awkward. I have my headphones on trying to find my zone and this guy is wiping down by my feet. Am I supposed to chat with him? Make eye contact? Smile? Just a little weird.......

Master Procrastinator

This is a picture of my "inbox"......

Do you think I should get started??????

Happy Mother's Day

I am up early showered and lotioned waiting for my family to get up. This is what is waiting for me in my kitchen. I wonder what is in there!

Actually I know most of it as my husband left the receipt on the kitchen counter yesterday and I looked at it. There was one thing I couldn't figure out by the description. I even went online and tried to figure it out buy couldn't. Is that bad? I just like to be ready.....

We are headed off this morning to the same place we had Easter brunch and had the chocolate fountain fiasco. I'm hoping we get out of there a little cleaner today. And then over to my Mother-in-law's for dinner.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there! Hope you have a great day and get all the accolades you deserve!

Blogging questions......

When I started my blog I decided to be vague about where I lived because I wanted to be able to post pictures of my kids. I thought it would be safer if I am putting their faces out there to not also give their names and location.

Now I find that there are a lot of things that I would like to blog about, but they would give away my location. So my question is, am I being paranoid?

Both of my parents were police officers. My Dad was a career policeman. My Mom was a civilian police department employee and then a policewoman for a couple years and quit when I was born. My Mother's Father was a criminal defense attorney. I am telling you this because it explains that I was raised to be suspicious, to be aware of my surroundings and recognize the possible repercussions from my actions. Therefore, I usually think things through before doing them. Now, I'm not saying that I didn't spend some time in college, oh hell let's be honest high school too, being totally irresponsible and reckless. But that is a whole series of other posts.

So, I am usually a cautious, observant and deliberate person. Unless, of course I am drinking heavily. But again, I digress. My question is am I being too cautious? I am totally stifling my blogging creativity with this being careful business. Am I being too careful? Usually I feel like you can never be too careful. I always tell myself I don't want to be in the position of saying "Oh, if only I would have...."

Now that I think about it, I also wanted to be vague in case I wanted to vent about any personal issues and not have it come back to me. Just in case I wanted to complain how much my sister drives me crazy or my friend has disappointed me. But so far I have not used my blog for that. I kind of decided that was too risky. If someone I know just happens to stumble across my blog and has any question that it is me, once they see the pictures of my kids they'll know for sure.

I have managed to not tell anyone about my blog except for my BFF and my husband. And my BFF's husband knows too. So I still have some anonymity for now. Should I keep it or let loose a little? What is your opinion?

Hooked on Houses

I was reading my regular celebrity trash on the internet and I came across a little snippet about Reese Witherspoon buying Kathy Ireland's "country house" in Ojai, California for $6.9 million. So for lack of anything better to do than cleaning my house or laundry, I thought I'd try and see if I could find pictures of the place on the internet.

Well, I came across this website called Hooked on Houses. Check out the new vacation digs for Reese and her kids. I think I could have a really good time there. And if my family had that place to retreat to for our weekends away, I'm sure I could lose my children for hours at a time. Who am I kidding, I'll never shake them.

The site is fun to look at though. I love looking at other people's houses. All the different styles. I like so many. You have to also check out Michael J. Fox's $6.3 million Southampton Home. So cool.

Finding this site is probably going to be a problem for me. I really don't need to find more things to waste my time on...........

Spring Concert review

Last night was my son's "Spring Vocal Concert". I was all stressed out about getting there early and getting good seats and getting the grandmothers in there the best route..... blah, blah, blah. I got it all done very well. We got great seats.

I don't have a good picture of my son singing because I was video taping it (do you still call it that?) for my husband because he was still out of town. But I do have a picture of my daughter attending the concert. She gave it a thumbs up!

I have a swollen uvula.

Did that get your attention? I said uvula, not vulva! Get your mind out of the gutter!

I don't feel well. My tonsils are swollen. My throat is red. And my uvula is so swollen it's resting on my tongue. I have a huge amount of crap dripping down the back of my throat and settling in my chest. My neck hurts and my glands are swollen. It's lovely.

It's bothering me so much that I bought a neti pot this afternoon and rinsed out my nose. I expected that to be a little weird. But it really wasn't that bad. Of course, I couldn't see myself while I was doing it. So that could have helped. I'm big on personal hygiene though. So, this little apparatus is right up my alley. I clean out my ears with q-tips dipped in peroxide every day. So now I can clean out my nose too.

My son is still not over what he was sick with last week. His head is still filled up with crap and he's still coughing a lot. So being the loving mother that I am I made him do the neti pot too. That went better than expected actually. I thought he'd physically fight me a little more than he did. But really, what did I have these kids for if I can't mess around with them. My daughter was standing there watching everything. She looked at me with big eyes and said "You're not doing that to me, are you?" It's too hard to get the jump on them without the element of surprise so I didn't try it with her.

I have been spraying that ocean nasal saline spray stuff up all of our noses for a couple days. My kids keep walking around telling people that they have the ocean up their nose. They are surprisingly tolerant of this too. I hate it. So I don't know why they don't put up more of a fight.

I broke down and called my doctor today and got an antibiotic. Hopefully that will help soon. My husband has been out of town and this has been a super busy week with after school activities. I'm totally behind on posting and even reading my favorite blogs. I hope I haven't missed anything too big!

I'm looking forward to Friday getting here!

Oldie but a goodie.....

Sick day

My son is sick today. He came home from school feeling yucky on Monday. He laid down and took a nap when he got home from school and felt better. So we sent him to school on Tuesday. Tuesday night is a busy one for us. My son goes to the public school every Tuesday night to get speech therapy and occupational therapy.

Spring brings sports around here. So after time at the public school, my son gets whisked over to a neighborhood high school for track. His track practice overlaps with my daughter's t-ball, which my husband coaches. So midway through track practice, my husband and daughter leave and head over to the baseball fields. After track my son and I head over there too. So it's a busy couple hours of running around the neighborhood from activity to activity. And it was hot last night, very sunny. I got a sunburn on my large lily white forehead.

My son did pretty well at track last night. When they run all the way around the track a lot of the kids start dropping by the way side. But not my boy. He's like Forrest Gump once he gets going. He was runnnnninnnng......

He does not quit running and when another boy looked like he might be catching up towards the end my son somehow sprinted and beat him. Now I'm not saying he is the fastest. I think there was another first grade boy that beat him. And older kids were faster too. But we are just impressed with the fact that he is somewhat competitive at this. Because usually he is just not competitive at anything. He got that from me. It drives his father crazy.

He came in our room in the middle of the night with a fever of 102. So now we are really impressed with the fact that he did so well at track last night when obviously he did not feel very well. Really he does not like to miss anything. He is still asleep this morning and I'm sure when he wakes up he is going to be mad. Because you see, until today he had a PERFECT ATTENDANCE record!!!! He never missed a single day of kindergarten and had not missed a single day of first grade. Even when he had eye surgery. He managed to not miss school because they had snow days then.

I feel really bad for him. He made it all the way to April 23rd without a sick day. I mean he only has like 25 days of school left. It sucks to make it this far and then get sick. Oh well, I guess there are worse things in life. I'm not looking forward to the homework coming home. I've heard that when they are sick a ton of paperwork comes home for them to complete. That is going to be real fun.

Lilly dresses

My BFF and I hit Costco the other day because they had Lilly Pulitzer dresses from 2T to 8 for little girls. I bought my daughter two for this summer and two for next summer. They were only $23.99 a piece!

I was so excited and overwhelmed by this awesome opportunity to buy them at such a cheap price. It took me forever to decide which ones I wanted. I hemmed and hawed over it for quite a while. My BFF took my daughter and her son to go potty and when she got back I still hadn't decided.

I feel the Lilly dresses were going totally unappreciated at Costco. Women kept walking by with little girls in their shopping carts and stopping to look at these cheesy little outfits and not even giving the Lilly dresses a second glance. I wanted to scream "LOOK... LILLY PULITZER DRESSES FOR $24 PEOPLE! WAKE UP! YOU MIGHT NEVER HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY AGAIN!"

Five Things Meme

Five things on my to do list today (that I am not going to do):

1. The cap on the street light in front of my house is dangling. So I need to call the street department to have them come fix it. This has happened before and the cap fell off and landed on the hood of our car and dented it. When we called the street department to see if the city would pay for the repair they laughed.

2. I need to get a couple baby gifts for some babies recently born. One of my husband's co-workers and an old friend of my husband's both just had baby girls. I'm going to get them the old monogrammed bib & burp cloth combo.

3. I have a great idea for my Mom for Mother's Day. She loves all things monogrammed or things with her initials or name. There is a lady in my neighborhood that takes all of these cool pictures of things that can look like letters. Then she puts them together to spell something and even frames it. So I am going to see if she'll make one for my Mom with her last name.

4. We have recently switched insurance agents and I need to get our new guy a recent copy of our auto insurance declarations page. I also need to get a new appraisal on some jewelry.

5. Complete my first meme listing five things on different topics about myself. I tend to avoid things on my to do list. So this is hanging heavily over my head.

Five snacks I enjoy (really, what snack do I not enjoy?):

1. ice cream
2. chocolate
3. chicken wing dip
4. Starbucks coffee (hot or cold variety)
5. various warm cheesy dips with good bread


Five bad habits (I could probably just copy Southern Fried Mom's. They are pretty close to the same. I will copy and past a couple.):

1. Procrastination
2. Control freak, yet lazy
3. Definitely have a potty mouth
4. Become withdrawn when overwhelmed/stressed out/pissed off/ anxious
5. Compulsive and/or emotional and/or boredom eating


Five places I've lived:

1. I was born, raised and still live in one of the top three largest cities in Missouri.
2. Went to college in one of the other three largest cities in Missouri.
3. Went to another college in yet another of the three largest cities in Missouri.
4. NA
5. NA

Five jobs I've had:

1. Stay at Home Mom.... This one sucks sometimes. I think about quitting at least once a day.
2. Financial Reporting Analyst for a major U.S. department store.
3. Institutional Bond Sales Assistant.
4. Captial Markets Group operations associate
5. Bank teller

OK, I skipped the "five things I would do if I were a billionaire" one. I'm too tired and lazy to do it. I've told you I never finish anything completely. And really, shouldn't there only be five topics for a "five things meme"...........

Meme Virgin

Southern Fried Mom from Grits with Cheese has tagged me to do a "Five Things" meme.

I have never done one before. So I am a meme virgin. Actually, I'm not even sure how to pronounce it. Anyway, I need to get to it. Since it's my first I want to take my time. So I will get back to you later with it.

You know how on your first you want it to be special. You'll always remember your first, right? You don't want it to be an ugly experience. And you don't want to rush through it. I want to make sure I'm not drunk when I do it, maybe just a little buzz to take the edge off. I might light some candles and put on some music.

I should probably take care of some personal hygiene. It's been a couple days since I've shaved my legs. So I'll take care of that. My pedicure looks relatively acceptable. If I dim the lights, it should be ok. I'll floss and brush and gargle.

And just when I think the moment is right... I'll do it. The question is, can I catch anything from a meme?

I think I figured something out......

I was lying in my bed this morning, for a couple minutes before the alarm went off, pondering how much I love my bed. I REALLY love my bed. It's one of my favorite things in the world. Two Christmases ago my Mother bought my husband and me a Select Comfort Sleep Number bed for a present. And I have been loving it every day since it arrived.

So I'm lying there thinking I wish I could spend more time in bed. It's so comfortable. I started out sleeping at either 40 or 45. But about six months ago I went down to 30. The mattress justs folds up around me like a big pillow. I'm sleeping on a cloud.

My old mattress, while relatively new, was just too firm. I have a little touch of arthritis in my lower back and that mattress would have me waking up with a back ache way too often. With my new lovely sleep number bed, I feel like I'm melting into the mattress. It's soooo nice. And I rarely wake up with a back ache now.

So I am thinking about how much I love the bed and my desire to spend more time there. Then I start thinking about how I started taking Effexor because I was having trouble getting going, getting my shit done, getting motivated to keep up with life.

And then a light bulb went off. I wonder if I would need the Effexor if I was still sleeping on the hard mattress. I wonder if there is a correlation between sales of sleep number beds and prescriptions of Effexor or other anti-depressants being written..... just a thought.

By the way, I hate the Effexor. I really don't feel like it's giving me the kick I desire. And the worst part is the withdrawal symptoms. If I miss one day... man, it hits me like a ton of bricks. Ashley from Ashley's Closet described the withdrawal well.

I really need to get off of it and switch to something else. But, like I mentioned in my last post, I have an aversion to going to the doctor. So I just keep taking the crap and live in fear of forgetting a dose......

OK, I have a confession to make......

My arm/shoulder still hurts.

On Monday morning my arm did feel better. But it's not 100% better. Plus on Monday I still could have been drunk from Saturday. I had A LOT TO DRINK on Saturday......

Anyway I have a real problem when it comes to going to the doctor. It's not the doctor. I really like him. And he will write a prescription for WHATEVER I want. You can't ask for more than that really. But the whole process of making sure the kids are taken care of. Getting cleaned up beyond my normal day to day attire and God forbid, actually putting some make up on.... it all sounds like too much for me. So I avoid the whole scene.

Also, and now you're really going to think I'm nutty, I don't want to have to actually make the phone call to make the appointment. This is weird. But I hate the steps in between me needing a doctor and actually talking to the doctor. You have to call and tell them why you want to see the doctor. Then when you go and they escort you back to your room, you again have to explain why you are there. Is this really necessary? No person I talk to in between can write a prescription for me or order a test. I wish I could just call and talk to the doctor directly, with no in betweens.

But wait, there's more!!!!!! I have Plantar Fasciitis in my left foot. I went to an Orthopedic Surgeon who gave me a cup to wear in my shoe, a prescription to take twice a day and an exercise to do with my foot. Because his office is really close I actually went two or three times for follow up appointments. But you see, the cup only works in my tennis shoes and I don't wear those all of the time. And I could only remember to take the medicine once a day. Oh and that exercise, NEVER DID IT ONCE. We kept making follow up appointments and I would assure him that I would start doing what I was supposed to do. But I never did. So on our last appointment he was really nice but said something about not making any more appointments. I know he thinks there is something wrong with me.

I know this is weird. I would rather walk around in pain than call and make an appointment. So my foot has been hurting me since last summer. Now I've got the shoulder pain. I have a cough I can't shake that disrupts my sleep. And I've been taking this Effexor for a while that I'm really not crazy about (no pun intended) and would like to switch off of and yet I STILL WON'T CALL THE DOCTOR. So far the power of positive thinking is just not working for me. I tell myself all my problems will resolve themselves. God knows I've given them plenty of time to work themselves out. But it hasn't happened yet.

OK, so now I have really opened myself up to let you all know I'm whacko. My husband knows I must feel pretty bad if I actually ever suggest going to the doctor or the hospital. Now he on the other hand, is a whole other post. If I pinched him, we'd have to call an ambulance and administer CPR.

Real Housewives of NYC meltdown

I'm not sure if this was a new episode I just watched or not. Jill had Bethenny (weird spelling) make dinner at her condo for all five of the "housewives" featured on the show. Alex brings her husband Simon with her even though it's a "girl's night"......

Jill and Bethenny knew Simon was coming, but Ramona was not expecting him. Well, Ramona sees Simon come through the door and goes totally bitchcakes! I mean I'd be kind of pissed because I'd be thinking well, I would have brought my husband too if husbands were welcome. And it would totally change the dynamic of the party for one man to be there. But once he is there, he's there. Don't have a fit. She totally had a hissy fit and looked totally crazy! (Can I say "totally" a couple more times????)

I was so surprised by her fit that I had to discuss this. It was really entertaining but almost uncomfortable. My husband walked in just in time to catch her fit and was saying there's no way she can recover from this. I said the only thing she can do is next time the group gets together she apologizes and admits to being out of line and crazy!

Oh and Alex and Simon's house!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!! It looked almost dangerous for the children to be living there. And they appeared to be in no hurry to do anything.

It's crazy! And I don't trust Luann. She seems to be able to get other women to say something bad without ever saying anything herself. My favorite is Jill. Although, I'm liking Bethenny more after tonight. She was kind of funny tonight, kind of dry.

I'm looking forward to next week. It's the season finale and the previews made it look like everybody is pissed at Ramona about something..... We'll see.

I'm down to so few tv shows I really want to watch anymore. I Tivo a whole bunch of shit that I never bother to watch. I manage to catch this one though because Bravo repeats the episodes all of the time on the weekends. It's easier to keep up that way.

Did anybody see it? What did you think?

My Arm/Shoulder

You know how I said that I was going to wait until Monday to call the doctor about my shoulder problem. Amazingly it feels pretty good today. So no call to the doctor!

Gin In My Apron Pocket: Healthier Eating

Don't let the title fool you. It's only been one day. Tonight I made Stuffed Turkey Burgers. It's an Ellie Krieger recipe from the Food Network.

1 1/4 pounds lean ground turkey breast
1/2 cup chopped roasted red peppers, divided
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Divide turkey into 4 equal sized rounds. Make 2 equal sized patties out of each round so you have 8 patties total. Sprinkle 4 of the patties with 2 tablespoons each of roasted red peppers and cheese, and top with remaining patties working the turkey around the edges to seal burgers closed. Season with salt and a few grinds of pepper. Grill or broil until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.

OK, I made the patties and my husband grilled them. So I did part of it. We even had them on whole wheat buns that my husband also grilled. They were ok. The thing with eating like this is I really have to convince myself to enjoy the food. Otherwise I could very easily think that tonight's dinner tasted like crap. I was really hungry so that always helps. I'm much less picky when I'm super hungry.

I'm really going to try to make healthier choices when it comes to food. It seems like everyone else is doing it but me. I'm just waiting around for everyone else to quit. Like it's a fad that won't last long. But everybody keeps on eating well and exercising. The joke is on me.

If anyone was reading my blog back around my birthday, you may remember that my Mother gave me a month of Nutrisystem (and a wad of cash!). I still have some food left from that. You see I NEVER complete ANYTHING 100%. I'm not kidding. I always quit. I am the least competitive person ever. I just have no drive.

On Easter my Mother told me to order myself another month of Nutrisystem and put it on her card. For Christmas she gave me a years membership to a local gym. Now before you go thinking that my Mom's a bitch about my weight. I ASKED for these things. Because I would like to be that healthy Mom who cooks light and works out every day. I just never have been and even if I start I have a hard time sticking with it.

So I'm going to try some baby steps. Remember "What about Bob?" with Bill Murray. That's going to be me. I'm going to just try and do a little here and a little there and maybe one day it will come more naturally to me.

Now I don't know what this means as far as the large volume of beer I consumed on Saturday. It was Bud Light. So that's a healthy choice, right? I mean it's not like I was throwing back full blown Budweisers!

Gimpy Arm

I went to a baby shower tonight for one of the girls in my bunco group. Another girl in the group is a physical therapist. So since my freaking shoulder still hurts I asked her what she thought.

I was getting a lot of grief because nobody understands why I wouldn't have just gone to the doctor by now. It's been 11 days since I fell and I just figured I'd give it a good two weeks before I decided that it was worthy of a call to the doctor.

The PT said I needed to do something because if it was hurting anytime I used it there is something wrong. We're thinking it's my rotator cuff in my shoulder. She said it might not necessarily be torn, but could be just inflamed. But since I'm walking around favoring it and trying not to use it because it hurts she said I could wind up with it frozen if I don't get it taken care of.

So I swear, Monday morning I am going to call the doctor. Unless, you know on Sunday it seems like it's getting better on it's own......

One of the gals offered to do that move that Mr. Miyagi does in Karate Kid when slaps his hands together and warms them up and pops the kid's shoulder back in place. Yeah, I stayed away from her the rest of the night.....

Blank

I've got nothing. I'm completely blank. I think the new colors have stifled my creativity. I'll let you know as soon as something hits me.

Change???

I'm not sure about the change..... I think maybe it looks too harsh? I don't know. I kind of like it. I felt like maybe I should update because my first settings I did kind of quickly without too much thought.

I'm not settled on this. I think I'll be changing again soon.

M.I.A.

We decided to go to my Mother's lake house on Thursday afternoon. Normally I have internet access down there. When we got there Thursday night I did have access for a short while. Some time late Thursday night I lost it. AND I NEVER GOT IT BACK!!!!!!!

It was so frustrating. I was forced to finish a needlepoint belt that I had started for my husband a looooooooooong time ago. Come to think of it, maybe that bastard sabotaged my internet access so I would work on his belt. He is a little tired of waiting for it.

I'm totally addicted to my laptop and the internet. So it was a little like going through detox. I considered driving into town and sitting at a Starbucks for a while to score a hit of the net. But I didn't. Because as addicted as I am to the internet, my laziness supersedes that.

On top of no internet access. We slept in on Friday and let the kids run around in their pajamas and took it easy for a while. We got in late on Thursday night so we decided to skip baths for the kids. Well, by the time we got around to showering on Friday we discovered that we had no hot water. The hot water heater needed to be serviced.

Finding a plumber in a rural area on Friday afternoon presents a challenge. This same thing happened to my BFF and I and all four of our kids a couple years ago. We trekked to the lake house and did a whole bunch of running around before we decided to take our children home late at night and bathe them. And then found out that we had no hot water.

We found a plumber that time from the phone book that looked like Crazy Joe Davola from Seinfeld. It's a little unnerving having Crazy Joe Davola come find us two women and our kids alone and stinky at the lake. But we made it. Crazy Joe never came back to eat us. Maybe we were just a little too stinky for him. Plus, my BFF is tough. She would totally kick his ass and protect us. I call her my second husband. But that is a whole other post.

Feeling that as crazy as Crazy Joe looked last time he was there, that he didn't gouge us with his price, I suggested my husband give him a call. Apparently though Crazy Joe does not like being called on Friday afternoons. So we had to find another local plumber to give our $230 check to and we won't be calling Crazy Joe anymore. The new guy was just as creepy but very willing to stay at the house and replace parts and drain the hot water heater etc. etc. for hours and hours.

I have learned over the years to pack my checkbook. Because every year there is something that goes wrong and requires a check. I can't complain because my Mom always reimburses us and she barely uses the place anymore. I'd rather this happen while we were there so it is all taken care of when she goes.

Oh, and my arm still hurts when I move it. I'm still an old lady. I really hate the whole doctor routine. So I'm hoping that if I do a little voodoo it will just go away on it's own. Whattayathink? Good plan?

School resumes tomorrow!!!!!!!!!

Oooooooowwwwwwww!

I'm feeling like an old lady today. On Easter Sunday morning I fell in the shower. I was shaving my legs and had one leg all lathered up with shave gel and I dropped the razor. I was trying to avoid rinsing off my leg before I got to shave it. So I was contorting my body and trying to reach the razor and pick it up with my newly pedicured monkey toes and the foot I was balancing on slipped and I fell.

My loving husband came running in to tell me how loud of a noise I made. Like there was a good chance the bathroom floor just might go crashing down into the first floor. It was just that big of a boom. He is so sweet. After that any offer of "are you ok?" just makes me want to say "F$#% you!"......

I whacked my left wrist and bruised it and went down on my knee. Really nothing hurt too bad immediately. Sunday night when I was sitting at my Mother-in-law's dining room table my shoulder starting hurting. It took me a minute to realize why. Well, it has not stopped hurting since then.

I am waiting to see if maybe it will just stop hurting on it's own. I'm hoping that I just strained a muscle that I don't normally jerk into action like that. I was complaining to my BFF about it and she reminded me when she fell a while ago. She said her shoulder still hurts when she moves it a certain way. This old lady crap sucks. How and when did this happen to us?

The Easter Bunny Brought Candy!

Notice the eggs we left out for the Easter Bunny, similar to cookies and milk left out for Santa. This is my husband's family's tradition. We left out cookies for Santa, but never eggs for the Easter Bunny.

Obviously my husband was able to find some chocolate at the last minute. Now I have to try to stay away from it!

Mission Failure

I did not succeed in my mission yesterday. I really thought I could make it. I thought the chocolate splattered clothes really just needed a cold wash. I did a quick pre-wash in cold. Then I did some stain treatment and ran a regular cycle in cold.

We had a couple hour break in between Easter stops. My kids each retreated to their rooms and were playing quietly and my husband decided to take a little snooze on the living room couch before we had to go to his Mom's. Since everyone was occupied and I was in the basement doing laundry. I decided to see what I had on Tivo. We have a play room/family room in our basement. Since that is where our largest TV is, that is where our Tivo is. I kind of regret that location because I'm not down there all of the time. Anyway, while the washer was running I caught an episode of Brothers & Sisters.

The washer stopped and unfortunately there were still chocolate stains on the clothes. I took a look at the clock and thought "Wow. I still have a whole hour before my husband wants to leave. I can do another quick wash." So I did some more stain treatments and put the clothes back in the washer.

Well I really f'd that up. You see, I neglected to ever change all the clocks in our basement after Daylight Savings Time told me to "Spring Forward." So I was an hour off. Five minutes after I started my second wash my husband yells down the basement steps that we should start getting the kids together to go. I was totally confused. I was like, "Why now? We still have an hour!"

Needless to say we had to make some wardrobe adjustments. My son went to Grandma's without his sweater vest. And my daughter wound up wearing a dress that my Mom had given her for her birthday, a pink and white seersucker with her monogram on it. I had the whole family color coordinated in green and messed it up.

I was wearing a green sweater and white pants. My husband had on light tan linen pants, a white shirt and a green sweater vest. And the kids had their matching green and white striped clothes. At least we matched for brunch. Oh well. Such is life.

You can see the chocolate on them in the shot above. And here are two before the chocolate.....

Happy Easter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are in between families right now. This morning we went to the country club my Mother belongs to for Easter brunch. That was fun. They have the Easter bunny there with goody bags. They also have face painters. So they both have artwork on their faces and hands.

My kids also hit the chocolate fountain rather hard and got dark chocolate all over his sweater vest and her dress and cardigan. So I have those items in the washing machine right now. I am attempting to rid them of chocolate and have them washed and dried before we go to my Mother-in-law's house for dinner. I have two hours..... We'll see what happens. If we run late I'll have to listen to my husband bitch. He gets really bitchy when we're doing that last minute scramble to get someplace and I usually take the brunt of it. He just can't stand to be late and disorganized. It's one of those compromises in a relationship that you learn to take. Because believe me I do my fair share of bitching at other times.

It's also freezing here today. I wasn't smart enough to get back up flats to go with my Easter outfit. So I am wearing gold Jack Rogers sandals. Totally inappropriate for the weather. But my ensemble looks cute! We actually had snow flurries this morning. Now that is just wrong on Easter Sunday! They canceled the Easter egg hunt at the country club because there were flurries and it was so cold. Now on Friday, it was beautiful and 70 degrees. Not so today. That is the beauty and horror of where we live. The weather can change three different ways in one week.

The fire alarm went off a couple of times while we were there too. Years ago when I was much younger, the place did have a terrible fire and they had to have a major renovation. So all the old timers had that to discuss when the fire alarm was going off today. Good thing today was a false alarm because nobody seemed to move an inch when it did go off. It totally didn't bother anyone but my son. He is a big rule follower and if an alarm is going off we are supposed to evacuate the premises. So we had to convince him that everything was going to be ok.

Well, I better go check on my laundry. Wish me luck on getting the clothes clean and dry before it's time to go! Maybe I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Oh crap!

We were all just walking in the house and my daughter says to me "Mommy, I am so excited. The Easter bunny is coming tomorrow." And my husband and I looked at each other said "Oh crap."

We haven't bought any Easter candy yet! We really don't buy a lot of candy every year for their Easter baskets but there are some staple things a kid should get in their basket. I mean what is an Easter basket without a chocolate bunny?

So my husband just ran out to see what he can scrounge up. I already have some DVDs and a couple Leapster games for them. And my son is getting a t-shirt and baseball cap. My daughter is getting some cheesy High School Musical pajamas that she will love and some pink glittery flats from Target. So we just need a little candy.

I've learned to control myself a little over the years and instead of buying a new DVD or game that I want them to have and giving it to them immediately I save it for a holiday. Also I learned to not buy too many things for us to give them because they will get so much crap from family members every holiday too. My husband is really good too about telling his family what the kids would like to get and what we would like the kids to get. That way we don't wind up with some of those crappy types of toys that we usually try to avoid our kids seeing.

Our neighborhood surrounds a large old park that is about a mile around. The neighborhood association organizes a lot of fun activities in the park during the year. This morning was the annual Easter egg hunt. It was super cold but the kids had fun. After the hunt all the kids head over to the playground and the adults hang out and socialize. Today is was so cold we didn't stay too long.

There is a sad side note about the Easter egg hunt this morning. An ambulance had to be called because someone had collapsed walking towards the Easter egg hunt. They were close enough for everyone to see people performing CPR before the paramedics arrived. But they were not so close that it distracted all the kids.

The firehouse is pretty close to the park. So it didn't take too long for the ambulance and a fire truck to show up. But just seeing all the action from afar, makes you think that someone is going to have a crappy Easter holiday. Later on, my husband and I were talking about how different holidays have taken on a different feeling after losing someone special at that time of the year. You think of that loss every time the holiday comes around and they are never quite the same. Some poor family is now going to have this to remember every Easter.

Beautiful Friday

The weather is beautiful today. I wish it would stay 70 degrees for the next two months and then get hot! But no such luck. It will be cold and maybe a little rainy just in time for Easter Sunday. And all those Spring outfits we'll be wearing for Easter will be totally inappropriate. Damn you early Easter!

Thank you to the couple of readers who commented on my post yesterday about really reading my blog and not just quickly clicking back to what they were reading. I'm ok with quality instead of quantity!

We went for our final fish fry of the season this evening. I think I had one too many canned beers. We closed the place down. I'm going to miss it. It's seriously like happy hour to me. I love it. You sit around with your friends drinking beer. The food is cheap. The kids run crazy with their friends. It's great!

Here is a video that my friend had sent me a little while ago. It cracks me up.

Seriously..........

Alright, in one of my recent posts I said that I was considering taking my children to see a movie called "Mr Horton saw my Hoo Haa"....... and nothing.

Nobody said a damn thing about it. Come on people. The name of the movie is "Horton Hears a Who." Don't you think it would be inappropriate for me to take my kids to see "Mr Horton saw my Hoo Haa"?????? A movie with that title would probably be rated at least an R, right?

So I take a look at my "Google Analytics"....... and nothing. 76% of my visits have lasted 0 - 10 seconds. Well, there you go. That explains it. Nobody is actually reading my blog. They are clicking on it, probably by accident, and then quickly clicking back to a blog that they truly enjoy.

I learned how to check out Google Analytics from Caffeine Court. She had posted about the crazy "keywords" put in to Google that led to her blog. Well, my crazy keywords involved either the words "bunco recipes" or "preppy". Not so crazy, huh?

I'll keep plugging along for those 52% of my visitors that are "returning". Maybe I'll start to throw in wild inappropriate words occasionally just to drum up some traffic. It'll kind of be like have blogger Tourette's.

Here, I'll try it now........ fuck, shit, damn, hell.

I think I'm going to have to work on my blogger Tourette's. That wasn't very creative. Any idiot can cuss. No wonder nobody's reading my blog!

Perplexing Questions???

A couple minutes ago my five year old daughter and I had this conversation....

Daughter: How do babies get in your tummy?

Me: Ummmmmm, God puts them in there...?...

Daughter: How? Like this? (She makes a motion with both her hands from up high, like from the sky, and moves them down together towards her tummy.)

Me: Wellllll, He just blesses you and the baby gets in there.

Daughter: When? Does it happen at night?

Me: Yeeaahh, weelll, not always.......

That's what I get for letting them stay up late on the first night of Spring Break.

Spring Break Starts Now!!!!

We have officially begun Spring Break!!!!!!!!

Like a dumbass, I always look forward to breaks from school. Like I covered in a previous post about snow days, I create a romantic idea in my head about being free of a schedule and having fun with the kids, doing whatever we want, when we want. Oh, we'll fly by the seat of our pants just doing fun stuff. No alarm clock going off or lunches to be made. No homework to do or those fun little extra projects they throw at you. Just fun, fun, fun.......

Yeah.... now I'm thinking what the hell are we going to do with ourselves that doesn't involve spending a butt load of money or any effort in craftiness on my part? I guess we could go see that Mr Horton saw my Hoo Haa movie or something like that. That will only take care of a couple hours. And my kids will expect food and drink with that. They think they get something everywhere we go. Every time we get in the car my son says "let's go to a restaurant." Now I don't know who he thinks his parents are, but we're not in the position to be dining out every day. And he means restaurant, as in with a waitress expecting a tip. This kid is too fancy for fast food.

OK, now I don't even know where I'm going with this post. I've got myself so worked up about what I'm going to do to entertain these kids for the next week. I've totally lost my focus. Boredom equals bickering around here. So I'm going to have to come up with something. I should have signed them up to do some charity work over Spring Break. Seven and five are old enough to spend a week working with Habitat for Humanity, right? I mean I would keep them in the United States. It's not like I would send them to Mexico or Honduras. But a little trip to Appalachia might be fun for them, right? Do you think their meals would be provided by Habitat for Humanity?

I wonder how fancy boy with his sweatshirt hanging over his shoulders requesting a nice restaurant meal would fare in Appalachia???

Non Irish Children

Sure they look the part. But don't let them fool you. They are not Irish. They are just like their parents and enjoy any reason to celebrate.



And because one shot is not enough for the girl. She wanted to pose for this shot too. We are also not Kung Foo masters. So don't be fooled by this either.


Hope all of you truly Irish people had fun yesterday and celebrated your big day. Unfortunately our city did not have the best weather. But when did a little rain ever dampen an Irishman's good time?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I have been thinking about my Dad today. My Dad passed away when I was eight months pregnant with my first child. So it's been a little over seven years now. I still miss him terribly and think of him every day. I have pictures of him all over my house and talk about him with my children. There are so many times when something happens and I think, what would my Dad have to say about that?

My Dad was not Irish. He was Italian. But he had some trouble with his family and in only the way an Italian can, he cut them off. When he was a young policeman he was partnered with an older Irish policeman. This man took my Dad under his wing and would include him in his big Irish family gatherings. So my Dad developed a real fondness for the Irish and all the closeness, traditions and fun that comes with a big Irish family. His favorite song was "Oh Danny Boy." We had it played at his funeral.

A couple of years before my Dad died, my parents went to Europe. They went to Britain, Italy, Germany, France.... but not Ireland. They always talked about and planned on making another trip over to see Ireland. I know my Dad would have enjoyed it so much. But they never made it. And I'll always regret that.

I talk to my Dad all of the time, out loud, still half expecting him to answer me. Sometimes he does in different ways. Today I am saying to him, "Dad I hope you enjoy all the Irish fun of St. Patrick's Day, the music, the dancers. I love you and miss you terribly. I'll have a beer or two for you. You know how I am!"

Other Bunco recipes

I remembered that I never posted the other set of recipes from my Bunco night. They are for the Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball and the vodka pomegranate cocktail. Like I said before I never even wound up tasting the cocktail. So I can't promise that it is good. Although it sounds very good.

Now the Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball, I can personally verify, ROCKS! It was so yummy. I wish I had a big vat of it right now. I will definitely be making this again for another function.

CHOCOLATE CHIP CHEESE BALL

INGREDIENTS

* 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
* 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in confectioners' sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover, and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
2. Shape chilled cream cheese mixture into a ball. Wrap with plastic, and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
3. Roll the cheese ball in finely chopped pecans before serving.

I doubled the recipe because I double everything. I am a piggy by nature and don't think like a regular person. I'm always afraid there won't be enough and I'd rather have too much than not enough.

Also, I did not roll the cheese ball in pecans. I used chocolate chips. I got Chocolate and Honey flavored Honey Maid Graham Crackers to spread it on. The kind that come in one piece and can be broken into four pieces. I think it tasted better on the chocolate ones. And like I said previously, I made it the night before and it tasted better on day two than it did on day one.

Holiday Bliss Cocktail (By the Pitcher)

Ingredients

2 cups vodka
1 cup pomegranate juice
1/4 cup thawed frozen lime juice concentrate
3 cups ginger ale

Directions

1. Mix all in a pitcher
2. Serve over ice.

Oh yeah, I doubled that too. It's a sickness. I have a little gluttony problem. It's true. They say the first step is admitting it. I'm stuck there. I've never made it to the second step. I don't even know what the second step is. Does anybody out there know? Help!

Mama Say Knock You Out............

I really got tired of taking crap from this punk. I finally had enough and knocked those two front teeth out.

Just kidding, of course. He lost one just the other day and the other one was just dangling there crooked. He was resembling Ollie from Kukla, Fran and Ollie fame. I was hoping that the second one would have fallen out yesterday. Of course he didn't lose it until tonight. Today was Spring pictures at school. So he should have a nice shot with one of his teeth dangling sideways.

Edited to Add: The tooth fairy will bring a crisp one dollar bill if we remember to put the tooth under the boy's pillow. The tooth fairy doesn't bring anything if you leave the tooth on the kitchen counter.

Fun, fun, fun morning.....

I needed my oil changed. So I dropped my daughter off at preschool this morning and headed over to the car dealership for a quick oil change. Last time I did this I was the only one waiting for my car and I was in and out of there in 30 to 40 minutes and my total was about $40.

Well, when I got there I remembered it might be time for the tires to be rotated. So I asked the guy to check their records and if I'm due, go ahead and rotate them. About an hour later the guy comes in the waiting room and calls my name and I'm thinking it's time for me to go. So I practically skip over to him. He tells me that since we are nearing 30,000 miles we should probably do a transmission flush and replace the fuel filter.

He tells me how much that will cost and how much longer it will take. My husband and I know nothing about cars so usually we just say "ok" like a couple of dumb asses. I've already invested one hour in this deal so I might as well stay, right? Yeah.

So a little over two hours and $320 later I finally got to leave. The worst part was my daughter was not very cooperative heading out the door this morning. So in my rush, I forgot to bring my own reading material. I was forced to use the waiting room magazines and tv to entertain myself.

Preppy Son

My husband met me at my son's school this afternoon to help in the library. We both love getting to see him during school. I swear we'd have a web cam on him all of the time if we could.

Anyway he goes to a catholic grade school so obviously he wears a uniform. Today he had on a red polo shirt with a navy sweatshirt on over it. Well he must have been warm after recess because he had taken his sweatshirt off by the time he got to the library.

But he didn't leave his sweatshirt at his desk like a normal boy. Nooo he comes strolling in the library with his sweatshirt draped across his shoulders. He stopped short of tying the sleeves across his chest. He left the sleeves dangling. He walked in with his hands in his pockets and the sweatshirt over his shoulders and I'm thinking... who does this kid think he is? After seeing him, my husband and I immediately shot each other a look and shook our heads.

He is something else. I wish I had my camera with me.

Song in my head

I'm in between cafeteria and library duties........

Volunteer Day

I'm off today to do my part at my son's school. I am doing cafeteria duty from 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Then I have library duty from 1:20 p.m. to 2:05 p.m. Then back to pick him up at 3:00 p.m.

I am dreading the cafeteria part because my hands are all dry and cracked up. You see, I am super obsessive about washing my hands a million times a day. During the winter at least two finger tips are always cracked. Right now it's my index finger and my middle finger on my right hand. That's only, you know the hand I use all day.

Now cafeteria duty will be painful because after each lunch shift the Mom volunteers are responsible for wiping down each lunch table with this really hot bleach water. I'm thinking that's going to hurt like a mo fo today.

I'm going to dig out some washing/cleaning gloves from under my kitchen sink and wear those. Hopefully I won't embarrass my son!

False Popularity

I looked at my map tracker thing that tells you how many people have checked out your blog and where they are in the world. And I thought to myself "holy crap, I'm popular."

Then I looked at Ashley's Closet for the fifteenth time today and noticed that she linked me in one of her posts because I had left her a comment inquiring about her possible drug inspired ambitious undertakings. Now I realize that really it's just all of Ashley's readers clicking on this link.

So thanks Ashley for the fleeting brief but lovely false feeling of popularity. It was great while it lasted. But maybe it's better this way. I don't know if I could take the pressure of really being popular. I'm a quitter by nature. So sooner or later I would fold under the weight of expectations.

Thanks for the memories. Maybe I'll print out today's list and show it to my kids one day so they can feel proud of me for something.

Some Recipes from Bunco

Here is the Blue Cheese dip. I made it the night before and then served it on French baguette slices. I also doubled the recipe. This was pretty yummy. I got this recipe from one of my girlfriends. I also have another good cream cheesy dip that I brought to another bunco night that was very popular. I'll have to share that one with you sometime too.

Warm Blue Cheese, Bacon, & Garlic Dip

7 slices bacon, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz cream cheese, softened
¼ c half and half
4 oz blue cheese, crumbled (1 cup)
2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
3 Tbsp chopped almonds

Cook bacon in skillet until almost crisp, about 7 min, drain the fat add the garlic and cook until bacon is crisp, about 3 min.
Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the half and half and mix until combined.
Stir in bacon mixture, blue cheese and chives.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Transfer to an ovenproof dish, cover with foil and bake until thoroughly heated, about 30 min.
Sprinkle with chopped almonds and serve with pita chips, apples or French bread.

Here is the Brie recipe. I loooooove Brie. So I tried to eat all of this by myself. But those bitches dug in there and got their fair share. I also used the baguette slices for this and not the fruit that the recipe suggests. I used a 20 oz. Brie that I got at Costco and then doubled the recipe using pecans. I made this recipe the night before too. This one came from my neighbor's daughter.

SUGAR AND NUT GLAZED BRIE

1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts or pecans
1 Tbsp brandy
1 (14 oz.) round Brie
Apple wedges, for serving
Pear wedges, for serving
2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice
Crackers, for serving

In a small bowl stir together the sugar, nuts, and brandy. Cover and chill for at least 24 hours or up to 1 week. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

Place the Brie on an ovenproof platter or pie plate. Bake for 4 or 5 minutes or until the Brie is slightly softened. Spread the sugar mixture in an even layer on top of the warm Brie and bake for 2 to 3 minutes longer, or until the sugar melts.

Brush the fruit wedges with lemon juice and arrange them around 1 side of the Brie. Place crackers around the other side.

When you pull the Brie out of the oven, let it sit for a while and get a little more solid. If you cut into it too early the Brie just spills out everywhere. My Father-in-Law did this to me at my daughter's birthday party. I pulled it out of the oven walked it into the dining room and placed it on a trivet. I headed back into the kitchen to get a spreader for it. By the time I got back in the dining room he had taken a spreader from another dip and cut into the Brie, which of course came spilling out of the rind. Like he just couldn't wait to get in there. There were other things on the table for him to eat. But apparently this was what he was waiting for and he couldn't wait any longer. It's still good. You can still scoop it up and spread it on bread. But the display is just not the same. Believe me I shared a word or two with him about this.

I'll share the other recipes too. I just didn't want to make this one huge ass post. So maybe tomorrow I'll do the chocolate chip cheese ball and the cocktail recipes.

The Day After

Bunco was a success. Some of those bitches didn't leave until 3:00 a.m. I think an eight hour bunco party must mean they had a good time. I know I did.

After about half the group left and there were about five or six die hards remaining, we sat at my dining room table and played that dice game where you roll the dice and have to pass your quarters (or whatever) to the left, right or put it in the center. I won twice and then when my husband came home about 1:00 a.m. he sat down and played with us and he won once. So that was looking kind of fixed, but completely honest!

The blue cheese dip and brie were both really good. I have had those both before and knew everybody would like those. The chocolate chip cheese ball was really good too. That was a new recipe so you never know. I made everything on Thursday night. You know how everything seems to taste better after all the ingredients gel together for a while. When I made the chocolate chip cheese ball mixture on Thursday night and tasted it I felt like it was just kind of bland and I was a little worried that it would be a dud. But then when I tasted it on Friday night it was great. It was like spreading chocolate chip cheesecake on a graham cracker. It was a hit.

This bunco group is made up of Moms from my son's school. Everybody has a son or daughter in either first or second grade. A couple also have an older child and most have younger ones too. Most of the younger kids attend the same preschool. So all of these kids know the other Moms.

When my daughter heard that I was having this little party and who was coming over she told me that she wanted to lock up her room and all of her High School Musical toys because she didn't want anyone to play with them. Nice sharing girl, huh?

At pickup at school yesterday, without even knowing what my daughter had said earlier, one of my friends told her that she was planning on playing her High School Musical "Sing It" game on the Wii. Well, now my daughter had that to worry about.

While giving the upstairs a once over before my guests arrived I noticed my daughter had stashed her Wii games so no one could play with them. When the ladies were all here I told them this story. So one of the gals decides to tease my daughter and writes her a note.

Dear *&%$#@,
Thank you for letting me play your High School Musical Wii game. It was a lot of fun.
Love, Mrs. B*&%$#

Being the loving Mother that I am, when I got up this morning I showed my daughter the note. I had to read it to her and you should have seen her face. She was not happy at all and started the cry/whine. I told her that Mrs. B*&%$#@ was just teasing her and that no one had touched any of her stuff.

There is a lot of teasing here. My husband and I tease. My family teases. My husband's family teases. Our family friends tease.... You get the picture. You have to be on your game around here. My son does very well with this. He takes teasing well and teases back. My daughter does..... not so well.

I hope she gets better with this. Because I'd really hate to have to get rid of her now. I've spent a lot of money on her clothes and hair bows and stuff. And had a lot of pictures taken over the last five years. I mean what would I do with all of that crap?

Oh, I almost forgot about the vodka cocktail. I made a big double batch of it and never even tasted it. A couple of the girls had it. But most of those broads were hitting the beer. And I mean hitting it hard. Lushes!

Maybe I'll post the recipes for all this tomorrow.... after I get over this headache.

Bunco Baaabbbyyyy!

I'm having Bunco here tomorrow night. I am waiting to hear if lady #12 can make it. And I use the term "lady" very loosely.

I went to the grocery store yesterday and purchased my supplies. I bought quite a bit of beer and at the check out the older lady checking me asked if I was having a party. I said "Yes, I am having ladies over for Bunco." She seemed a little shocked that all that beer was for a group of women. She didn't know that I already had a stash of different beer in the back of my SUV that I had purchased in bulk from Costco earlier in the morning.

I'm also making a pitcher of a mixed drink involving Vodka, pomegranate juice, lime juice and ginger ale. I am going to use Citron Vodka. Never had it before but it sounds yummy.

Another gal is going to bring a dish, not sure what. But I am making "Warm Blue Cheese, Bacon & Garlic Dip" to spread on baquettes. And a "Sugar and Nut Glazed Brie" that you can also put on baquette slices. Then a new recipe I am trying is a "Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball" with cream cheese that you spread on graham crackers. I got both honey and chocolate graham crackers.

Now I just have to get my house in order. My husband has been working on all of the miscellaneous repairs around the house and still hasn't done a final clean up of all the tools, paint and crap involved with that. I can't complain though because he will totally help me get it all together for the party. He can be nice like that sometimes.

I'm off to gymnastics now. Not for me, for the five year old. Nobody wants to see this in a leotard!

School is back in session!

The kids are back at school and this song is stuck in my head.

Snow Day

My children have a snow day today. I always look forward to snow days. I hear the forecast of the big snow we're going to get. I turn on the news and start looking for the school closings. I have a romantic fairy tale vision of relaxing all day doing whatever I want while the children play nicely and then ask if they could nap. Maybe we'll have some hot cocoa by the fire and play a game.

Well, there is a fire in the fire place and I was relaxing for a while. But I soon realized I have a ton of crap to do around here. And the children are playing, but not always so nicely. No one has requested a nap but me. And I'm too fat to be drinking cocoa. Especially on top of all of those girl scout cookies I have been sneaking.

Oh and my son has been talking in an annoying falsetto high pitched voice ALL day. Between having to listen to the high pitched voice and cleaning bathrooms I'm seriously about to lose it.

I hate cleaning. I hate dusting. The worst part is I can't even bitch about it to my husband. He has been busy overhauling our house. We live in an old house (1935) and we had a little tuckpointing problem in the front of our house which caused a little water damage in our living room. So that room needed to be repainted.

Since my husband is a little on the nutty side and can be a perfectionist he decided to repaint the living room including baseboards and crown moulding. And the dining room and the kitchen and the hallway including the wrought iron railing on the stair case. We have been wanting to hang some photos of our kids on the stairwell. So he sent me out to buy frames and we hung those last night.

Now I can't go complaining about cleaning bathrooms when he has been doing all this work after he gets off work from his real job. I hate projects like this. I mean he's all consumed with the project which means everything else is left to me. There is no way I can coerce him into cleaning the bathrooms if he is busy painting.

And the damn fire in the fireplace is just making me hot while I clean!

Not Invited

A couple of my daily read blogs have gone private for invited readers only. And I did not get an "invitation"......... Why no love?

One of them I saw commented with her email address on another site. I sent her a note asking for an invitation to read with a link to my blog. Guess she didn't like my blog because I got no response......

Must be me. I am mentally reviewing my posts. Hmmmm let's think...... eating too much, drinking too much, forgetting my friend's children, teaching my children to play bar games.....

Well, now I see her point.

This song is stuck in my head.....

Birthday recap

So I finally decided what I wanted for dinner last night. I chose P.F. Changs. The kids would be ok with Chinese noodles and my Mom and Mother-in-law had never been there before and I knew they would like it.

My husband and kids got me a pink iPod nano and two monogrammed travel mugs. I really love the pink and green one. I have been getting these monogrammed mugs for people for gifts lately but I did not have one. There is a lady in my neighborhood that makes them and does other cute stuff. I am always there so she knows what I like. I was impressed that my husband actually called her and collaborated with her on this.



My bff got me a darling set of pink and green make up/toiletry bags monogrammed in green. I love them. They are my favorite colors and I don't have anything that nice for my stuff.


My in-laws got me a nice check with some nice numbers on it. I love this kind of gift because I'm kind of picky so I really do like to pick out some stuff for myself. Or put the money to some use that no one else would think was worthy of birthday money, but I appreciate.

Now for my mother's gift. I have mentioned before that she has already bought me a month of Nutrisystem for my birthday. Well, I was at her house the other day and she was asking me if there is any other little thing I would like for my birthday. I jokingly said "oh, about this much cash" and held up my pointer finger and thumb about two inches apart. And she was joking back holding up her fingers asking "now, this much?"

So she shows up last night before we head out to dinner with this cute little green gift bag. She says that she wants me to open it at home. So I set it down with the other gifts and we head out to P.F. Changs.

We come home and sing Happy Birthday, blow out the candles and I start opening gifts. When I get to my Mom's gift I am totally expecting some little earrings or a bracelet, something small. I start digging through the tissue paper and I see three bundles of cash about as thick as I told her I wanted.

Oh, she thought she was pretty funny with this. She couldn't wait for me to open it and was so proud of how clever she was. I was pretty surprised and thought it was pretty funny too. She had some fun getting it together. She went up to the bank that I used to work at when I was in college. There is a lady there that worked there back when I was there. So my Mom asked her to get it together and they both were pretty excited to be in on this little gag. The lady made sure that she put some older bills in there so it would look thicker because my Mom wanted it so thick.


So I had a pretty nice birthday. Oh and my husband unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher yesterday. That was a nice present by itself.

Oh and I almost forgot my favorite dessert, ice cream cake. I always get ice cream cake for my birthday and my husband can never have a piece because he always gives up treats for lent. So it's just me and the kids eating the leftovers. Too bad for him!

My Mother-in-law also offers every year to make me whatever food dish I want. This year I had a taste for that vegetable pizza. She made me that and delivered it last night. (She is super nice and I am super lucky.) So I have been snacking on that today.

Between breakfast, dinner and cake yesterday and vegetable pizza, secret hidden girl scout cookies and leftover ice cream cake today I am totally blowing any progress I had made with starting Nutrisystem. Luckily I have a whole box full of cardboard food to get me back on track.

I think I need an intervention.

Still deciding

I still have not decided what I want for my birthday dinner tonight.....

BIG decision........ like Sophie's Choice.

Sneaking girl scout cookies from my secret stash today.

These activities don't exactly work well with my previous post about joining Lotta's club to better myself...... Guess I have more work on myself to do than I realized!

Now back to dinner....... Chinese, Mexican, hmmmmmmmm

Gin In My Apron Pocket

Lotta over at Mom O Matic has started a new club. Back when I first found her blog she had a weight loss group called the "Future MILF group". She lost 35 pounds. WOW. Quite a feat.

The new club is not just a weight loss group but "focuses on working on your sanity, your life and your looks" and is called "Gin in My Apron Pocket." I have decided to jump on the bandwagon because I could always use some improvement.

Tomorrow is my birthday. My Mom usually buys me a nice big ticket item that I wouldn't/couldn't buy for myself. This year I asked her to buy me a month of Nutrisystem. That is sad, nice, exciting all wrapped in one.

Now on my actual birthday tomorrow I will not be eating any Nutrisystem food. As delicious as it is (wink, wink) I am going to stray from the cardboard boxes and treat myself. I am meeting my bff for breakfast in the morning with our youngest children. And then I will be going out to eat for dinner with my husband, kids, mother and mother-in-law.

I haven't decided what I want for dinner yet. I act like I am on death row and I might not get the last minute pardon. This might actually be my last good meal. So it is so important that I choose the correct meal. THIS IS WHY I HAVE TO DO NUTRISYSTEM! Because food is waaaaay too important to me!

Mundane tasks

If I have to unload the freaking dishwasher and reload it one more time I'm totally going to lose it. And of course, I'm going to have to do it. Who else is going to do it? I'm the only one that the sink full of dishes is really bothering.

I think I forgot my meds today............

Gory eye picture

Here is a shot of son's eyes that I took tonight. They are healing nicely. I expected worse.

He had the surgery on Thursday. He wound up having snow days at school on Thursday and Friday. Lucky break for us because he had some time off to rest and heal on Friday and he is not behind the class on anything. Plus he has a perfect attendance record going and this did not mess it up.

I find it amazing that he could have surgery on both of his eyes and go home that night. He was back at school today with no restrictions. I mean good God, someone cut into his eyeballs less than a week ago! This is craziness!

Perfectly average

This afternoon was my children's annual check up with their primary Pediatrician. Everything went smoothly for both kids. Nothing new that we did not already know about.

I did accidentally lie to my daughter and tell her that nobody was getting any shots today. Because poor baby girl got three of them. I forgot about those. But now she won't get anymore until she's eleven.

They are both "perfectly average" as my title says, because they are both in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. Just your average run of the mill kids.

Now if there was a percentile for personality, idiosyncracies, quirkiness....... oh boy, son would be off the charts......

And daughter...... she could score pretty high for whininess these days.

It's all over......

Last night we attended our annual school auction for my son's catholic school. It is the major fund raiser for the school. They count on drumming up enough cash that they do not have to do all the other crappy little fund raisers throughout the year, like selling wrapping paper or pizzas or stuff like that.

This year I was on the basket committee. It was basically my Bunco group that was the basket committee. The gal that is kind of the lead Bunco gal somehow was volunteered to head the basket committee so she asked all of us to help. We all picked a theme basket to make. And then we shopped for bargains to create these baskets. Parishioners also donated random things and we tried to put them together to make up baskets. With all these different themes in mind we could keep an eye out for things for each other while shopping for our bargains.

We wound up with some really nice baskets. Another lady had control over the baskets for several years and the responsibility was taken away from her. I can't say exactly why, but there are several theories. Anyway we were not really nervous, but anxious about our debut of baskets under a new regime.

All the donations and baskets were housed in the old convent by school. Since there is such a shortage of nuns the convent is not functioning as a convent anymore and the school/parish uses it for a variety of functions. All of our stuff was on the top floor. This floor basically looks like a dorm with bedrooms and a large multi person bathroom.

I had never been on this floor before and I have to say, I was hoping for some paranormal activity up there when we would meet there at night to work on the baskets. Got nothing. Sister Mary Whatsername never tried to contact me. Now, it could have been that I was talking sooo much that I couldn't hear her. She was probably saying "Woman, please shut up. I'm trying to give you all an important message and you can't shut your mouth." And now my whole Bunco group missed this important message.

So back to last night. I think the baskets were a hit. My husband and I bought one. And speaking of buying.... there were two different rounds of silent auctions, a blackboard auction, the baskets and then the oral auction. Last year my husband left all the bidding to me and beforehand I picked out some sensible things from the auction book and bid on those. This year I did not come with a plan and for some reason my husband decided he should start bidding on things.

Now we are both bidding on things in the silent auction and I'm getting a little worried. Some of the things my husband is bidding on were just things his friend was bidding on that my husband would then outbid him by $2 just to piss him off later when we won. So we came home last night with a random bunch of new crap. Just what this house needs is more crap.

Since everyone had a baby sitter when the auction was over everybody went out to a neighborhood tavern. And once I'm out, I'm out all night. My husband and I always act like we've just been let out of prison for one night and we'll never get to go out again. We have a problem leaving at an appropriate time. So at closing time we finally went home.

Needless to say I am dragging a little today. My husband promised my son that since he was so brave during his surgery that we could go out to his favorite restaurant. My son reminded him of this promise today. So we are headed to California Pizza Kitchen for an early dinner.

As much as I like a party and going out with friends, I am glad the auction is over. It seems like we have been super busy socially lately and I'm looking forward to a little break.

My boy Rico Suave

On the way to the hospital this morning son made some phone calls to his Grandmothers. He also gave my bff a call. Now bff has a daughter that is five days younger than son. We did that totally on accident. Anyway son and bff's daughter are betrothed. They have been since they were born. We figure everyone will definitely like the in-laws this way.

So he is chatting on my cell phone with my bff and I hear him say to her "Can I talk to my sweetheart now?"..................... Where does he come up with this crap?

P.S. Bff also has a son that is 18 days younger than my daughter. They are also engaged. And that one was planned.

Operation successful

Today was son's eye surgery. Here is a picture of him after the surgery in the hospital. I'm so glad it's over and it looks like everything went well. Although it didn't look like that when he first opened his eyes.





Here is a more close up shot. We are home from the hospital here. I am trying to give you a visual of how bloodshot his eyes are. I enjoy gruesome stuff like this. Hence my posting of the close up. Sorry if this disturbs you. They actually look pretty good here. They looked horrendous the first time he opened his eyes.



And here he is at home with his little sister who was a little leery of him at first when she saw those eyeballs. She was very tired after spending the day with Grandma. She claimed Grandma made her dance all day. Grandma can be a real toughy. I'm hoping she didn't break the whip out on her to keep her dancing like that.



As I said, I am glad that the whole thing is over and it seems to be a success. When he first came out he was very sleepy and kept his eyes closed for quite a while. You could see through his eyelids that they were swollen though.

Before son came back to us the surgeon came to our room to tell us how it went. He said everything went well and that he actually wound up correcting both eyes. We had thought that only the left eye needed correction. He told us what to expect in the next couple of days. We were anticipating that he would tell us to keep him in from any outside recess and sports. But he said he could go back to school tomorrow and resume any activities that he felt up to.

So we did not think we had any more questions for him and let him leave. Then they bring my child back to me who sleeps for a while and then starts flickering his eyes open. His eyes are bloodshot and very swollen and his left eye (the one that was turning in) is now facing all the way to the left. And I'm thinking, um what the hell happened here. Nobody said anything about him now having a huge wonk eye.

I started thinking about this child's luck and how whatever can happen, happens to him. So I am envisioning them saying they had over corrected it (which is a possibility with this surgery) and how they won't be able to do it over for three months and how he's going to have to go to school for the rest of the year with one eye looking at the wall.

I start asking my husband and the nurse if they are seeing what I am seeing and start asking a lot of questions. So the nurse decides she should page the surgeon and have him call back to the room so I could talk to him.

He eventually calls and I question the crazy eye and he says "oh, yes I should have explained that to you more clearly". Apparently he gave that eye a shot of anaesthesia that numbed the optic nerve. So that eye was just rolling wherever and settled over on the left. It has since corrected itself. THANK GOD.

Oh and he said that the eyes would probably be even more swollen tomorrow with possibly some bloody tears. I'll try to capture that on film too!