It's over already?

Well, the last six weeks or so have been a whirlwind of activities. There have been many times through those days when I thought "I should blog about this..." but then the next activity arrived and the blogging never happened.

So here I sit at work and since I am only one of two people in my office this morning, I figured now was the perfect time. Rather than try to recreate all that has been happening, I will treat you to a peek into our Christmas Celebrations.

This year, we specifically made ZERO plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We did all of our running around and visiting family last weekend so that we did not have to add that extra stress of getting loaded up and driving somewhere to our world. That made such a difference that we will probably continue that tradition. My Big Human did take all of the small humans out for a couple of hours in the afternoon on Christmas Eve under the guise of feeding our friends' kitties but it was really an excuse to go to Dunkin' Donuts. While they were gone, I was able to pull out the rest of the Santa presents and get them wrapped so I didn't have to stay up late that night finishing everything.

We had an early dinner of Special K Loaf, mashed potatoes and corn and then headed to Christmas Eve Mass. We arrived about 20 minutes later than we had planned to, but still 10 minutes before Mass actually started and the church was so packed that there were no more seats. So we had to stand for Mass. Which caused some grumbling among the small humans but it was fine overall. Oh and at some point during that afternoon, I had picked up a wonderful stomach bug and was feeling VERY NOT GREAT but I railled when we got home and made homemade hot chocolate from the recipe on the side of the Hershey's Cocoa box (because my mom used to make it for us when we were little) and we gathered in the living room in our PJs to drink the hot chocolate and open one present each. The small humans had picked out special new PJs for me when shopping with the Big Human and then they had talked me into buying PJs for the Big Human when they were out shopping with me. Boy, they are sneaky! So we opened those and the small humans opened one present each from us. They were all books. We gave the oldest small girl human, who just turned 11, "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret.". I have been excitedly looking forward to passing that book on to the girls and now seemed like the perfect time. Then I read the story of Jesus's birth from Luke and The Night Before Christmas and we all headed to bed. Well, the small humans got in bed and fell asleep rather quickly and the Big Human fell asleep too but I laid in bed and did some internets until I was sure the small humans were asleep.

Once I was sure everyone was asleep, I got everything out of it's hiding spot and prepared for Santa's arrival. It was tricky getting everything out under the tree, stuffing the stockings, writing the note from Santa to the kids, nibbling cookies and carrots and celery all while not waking any small humans but the Big Human and I were able to accomplish that. That is, until about 1:30 AM when the Big Human came back from a midnight run to CVS and tripped over a dining room chair. Which caused a big clatter that promptly woke up the oldest small girl human. She in turn woke up the oldest small boy human and the youngest small girl human. We convinced them that they needed to go back to sleep which they did until about 4:30 AM. We all got up at 5 AM and had started opening presents by 5:30 AM. They were all very happy with their haul and spent the rest of the day until it was time to go to their mom's house playing with their new toys. It was a fabulous day. Pics will be on my facebook soon.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Good Ideas

I have plenty of good ideas. The execution part sometimes does not work out well. Here was my last good idea:

-let oldest small girl human invite 4 friends to come over from 5 PM tonight until 10 AM tomorrow morning for her birthday celebration.
-serve special dinner for them and let them eat it on the floor in the big humans' bedroom picnic-style.
-buy 6 pillowcases and let both small girl humans as well as the 4 friends do tie-dye.
-feed them sugary cake, popcorn and soda (IZZE so no HFCS) and let them watch a movie.
-expect that they will all sleep tonight.
-get them all up, feed them and out the door so we can make 11:30 AM Mass tomorrow.

Here's where the problems come in.

I was sick a few weeks ago with a cold right around (TMI warning) the time I should have ovulated. Because I was sick, it delayed my ovulation for a week. So my period that should have come and gone last weekend is just arriving today. This equals MAJOR CRAMPS. So major in fact that my doctor has given me a prescription for narcotics.

So I'm dealing with that while welcoming four giggling girls into my home. The meal goes o.k., things start to go downhill when the tie-dye starts and fails hopelessly by the time we get to cake. The main problem is that our house is 1100 sq ft. The six people that normally live here makes it a tight squeeze. Adding the extra people just pushes it over the edge. Or rather it pushes me over the edge. Right now I'm just praying that they go to sleep before midnight. I don't think I will be a very nice lady after midnight.

In completely unrelated news, we found out the other day that my big human's annulment went through and the Bishop approved my early confirmation so I will do First Reconciliation, First Communion and Confirmation on December 8. I'm taking Adelaide as my Confirmation name after St. Adelaide. She's the patron saint of step-parents. And then a few days after that, the big human and I will have our marriage convalidated by the Church. And we will be fully and officially legal! Yippee!!!!

I wish there was a patron saint for sleepovers so I could ask for some help tonight!

Invasion of the house snatchers

We have had a very busy weekend so far. Actually I need to back up and explain my whole week because it will make what I pulled off today much more impressive.

O.K. so I have volunteered to teach a Natural Family Planning (NFP) class at my church. Because of this, the Big Human and I have to go through the process of getting our marriage convalidated with the Church which means getting his first marriage annulled (not as difficult a process as we imagined since it was not done in the Church), getting married again in front of a priest (which can be a very small affair or a very large affair. we haven't decided but we are pretty sure it is going to be a very small affair. we haven't even decided if we are going to have the Small Humans there or not.) and me finishing up the process of converting. It seems like a lot of work just to teach a class but this is a Very Important Class and the Diocese would have a big problem if I were to teach it while being in a marriage that was not valid in the eyes of the Church. I believe very much in natural forms of family planning and I think that is important to spread the word. So this week, I started my training class so that I can be certified to teach. So I was doing that after work some this week. Which took up some of my time.

**TMI alert**

I also started my period on Thursday night which meant that the cramps from hell started. This was a particularly painful cycle which meant that I did not sleep most of Thursday night. Friday morning, I was feeling o.k. but since I had not slept and I knew that the cramps would start back up, I stayed home. I slept for a couple of hours and then woke up with some of the most painful cramps I have ever felt. My Big Human was out of town for the day on business and I couldn't get my mom on the phone. Finally she called me back around 3 PM and I was bawling into the phone about how much pain I was in. She came to help me out and and finally started feeling better around 5 PM.

Now I had scheduled Thursday night and Friday afternoon as my time to get ready for the Halloween party we were hosting this weekend at our house. That obviously did not happen because I was in so much pain so I had to rush around and do it last night and this morning but it went off without a hitch. We had six school friends show up and they all had a blast and ate way too much candy and then we sent them home! But since the oldest small boy human is "too big" to participate, he has two friends over tonight for a sleepover. So right now my room has been taken over by three teenage boys because one of them brought over their XBOX and they are playing some game and eating pizza. I'm giving them until midnight and then they need to hit the racks. We have a busy day tomorrow as well because it is my mother-in-law's birthday and we are hosting some of the siblings and cousins to have cake and ice cream in the afternoon. I haven't quite figured out how we are going to fit an extra 12-15 people in this house but they'll go somewhere right?

Small Bites

So far today I have:

• Cleaned the small boy humans' room and put their bikes in their proper spots
• Scrubbed both toilets and bathroom floors
• Listed seven pieces of clothing for sale on eBay
• Started on the small girl humans' room

I still have a lot that I want to accomplish before I go to bed tonight. I just need to remind myself that I can do one thing at a time and slowly chip away at my list.

It's just a few things

I've got big plans for the weekend. They all involve some form of cleaning. These are the things I plan to accomplish before work on Monday:

• Clean, organize and declutter small humans' rooms
• Put the bikes back in their proper places
• Shampoo the carpet
• Deep clean the bathrooms (someone, I'm not pointing fingers, has developed an aiming problem recently. subsequently both bathrooms now smell like portapotties.)
• Organize and declutter our bedroom
• Dig out my KitchenAid mixer that has been waiting patiently in the storage shed
• Clean out my closet and put some things for sale on eBay

Now the question becomes have I placed the bar too high and will I feel like a failure if I don't accomplish all of these things this weekend? I don't think that the list is too daunting although I will definitely have to fight the urge to stay in the bed the whole weekend. We are having a Halloween party for the small humans and their friends next weekend and things need to be in their proper spots so we can handle having extra humans roaming around. If anybody sees me on their blogs this weekend, come back here and leave a comment telling me to get my rear in gear!

$2.99

My big human got gasoline yesterday for $2.99/gallon. No, it wasn't a special promo. That was the price at the pump. Crazy, huh? Now that was not here in our town but it was about an hour away which means hopefully it will get that cheap here soon.

Here's my issue with the price for gasoline dropping. Can someone explain to me how all of a sudden, the economy tanks and now gas is cheaper? I am sure there is a basic economic reason that I am forgetting or overlooking but it seems suspicious to me. I don't want to get all conspiracy theory but c'mon. How can the gas prices be dropping so dramatically?

I am reading a new book, Protecting the Gift by Gavin De Becker. Anyone who has kids, plans to have kids or works with kids needs to read this book. It's not new to print but I just bought it yesterday and I can't put it down. He wrote another book that I will probably get after I am done with this one called The Gift of Fear. It looks really good also.

I can't believe I missed Michelle Obama on The Daily Show last night. I will need to find it online tonight and watch it. I'm getting a little tired of the campaigns and debates and political ads and bad-mouthing. I feel as though everyone has already made up their minds. So can we just go ahead and vote and get it over with? Please?

Wow, ADD much?

I didn't spend much time on the internet this weekend since my small humans were home and we were busy doing nothing and everything. So it was nice to log on tonight and find comments from my web friend, I Hope So, on some of my blogs! My dearest I Hope So, I must say that it is nice to get comments from you and even though we are technically only friends in cyberspace which feels totally wierd to me but I justify it because we know a lot of the same people and I'm sure we'll meet IRL(ugh did I just type that?) one day, it still feels like you are a real friend. Which I guess is how some people can meet their soulmate online or through one of those websites or whatever. I guess I shouldn't be so judgemental.

Anyways, I digress. I have a couple of topics to accomplish. First, my birthday trip to NYC. So here we are in Times Square shortly after our arrival.

There are more pics on my facebook so you can go there to see them all. We had such a wonderful trip. The most enjoyable part of the trip was just being with each other. It has been such a long time since we were able to have those long meandering conversations that don't have noticable starts or stops and we can have long pauses for thoughts. The past couple of years when we are all together, it is usually centered around events and involve our husbands and children. We had a great hotel room in Times Square. We went down to the West Village and went to Magnolia Bakery which was featured in SATC and then we went to Perry St. and found the front of Carrie's apartment. We rode on the Staten Island Ferry and went to Zabar's. We went to dinner at Lips which I highly recommend if you are ever in NYC for a special event like a birthday or bachelorette party. Those queens are hilarious! It was a short trip but just what we needed to reconnect.

O.K. on to the second topic. Politics. I am enjoying this election season immensely because it has opened up a new realm in my relationship with my big human and also our oldest small human. He's 13 and taking an advanced civics class this fall and his teacher is really pushing them to think and examine and grow and learn. They are reading the Audacity of Hope (which I haven't read yet but it's on my list) and my formerly staunch republican child has admitted that if he were able to vote in this election, he would be voting for Obama. Which makes me want to do cartwheels but I am trying to remain impassive and not push my ideals on him because I would rather that he grow and reach his own conclusions on issues. I am also deeply enjoying discussing politics and the current financial crisis with my big human. Over dinner tonight, my big human pointed out how difficult it is to be a catholic with regard to the respect for life issue and the two main political parties. If you are a catholic and a democrat, then you agree with no death penalty but disagree with the right to choose. If you are a catholic and a republican, then you agree with the right to life but disagree with the death penalty. I love having thought-provoking conversations with my big human rather than the typical kids/money/who needs to do the dishes discussions.

O.K. third topic and this one will be short. Whenever I see Tina Fey on SNL, I wish that McCain/Palin would win so that I could watch the comedy every week. But then I come to my senses when I read news stories such as the one I found on late Friday morning/Friday afternoon that announced that Palin didn't know that her campaign had made the decision to leave Michigan until Friday morning. Ummmm, can she not read google news like the rest of us? Instead of reading every magazine and newspaper?

With moments to spare

I started having a bit of a panic attack this week. The local NPR stations kept announcing that next Monday is the last day to register to vote. I sent in my forms to update my registration at the beginning of the month and I had not received my new voter card yet. I had to get a new one because my name changed last year. Anyways, I was starting to panic that I would not be able to vote next month. But when I arrived home last night, there it was, sitting in my mailbox. My ability to make a difference. Hopefully.

Couric '08

Anybody else with me?

I haven't figured out how to put the fancy youtube videos in my blogs but go to youtube and search for the McCain/Palin interview with Katie.

If those two clowns get elected, I will be seriously concerned about our national safety.

I was trying to be responsible

Really, I was. I meant to log off after I was done posting and get my rear in gear. But then I wandered over to see what this lady had to say. And I had to watch the Palin interview because I had been avoiding it. Then I had to watch the Letterman link. And here's what I have to say. I now understand why the McCain campaign is hesitant to let Palin loose with the press. She's really a femme-bot and they haven't had a chance to hook her up to the laptop and load her with new lines. Seriously, she had like four preloaded lines and that was all she could say. And Dave is just the best. I would never stand him up!

Oh and I hope so? I just totally have to agree with your twitters from last night. I heart The Office!

The big 3-0

It's here. It's today. The big one.

30.

Wow.

O.K. so here are the plans. I took the day off from work. So right now, I am curled up in my bed drinking coffee and doing a bit of surfing. I just finished baking a batch of pumpkin muffins and will soon start on a batch of blueberry muffins. So my house smells yummy.

I am meeting my mom for lunch at my favorite place to eat, Sticks, and then I am going to get a pedicure at my favorite place, Happy Nails. They do an amazing job. After that, I will pick up my Big Human and we will head out for Maryland. We are going to my sister's house to have dinner and spend the night. Tomorrow morning, my sister, her best friend (who is like my other sister) and I are headed for NYC! Woohooo!

We, really I since it is my birthday, have big plans for NYC. We are going on my version of the SATC tour. We are going to Zabar's since I have never been there. And we are having dinner at Lips. They have a website but I am not going to link to it for fear that one of my readers will accidently click on it at work and it's just not work appropriate. It's a restaurant where all the servers are men dressed in drag. And they do a show. It's supposed to be fabulous. We are meeting up with my friend Sandra who lives in Long Island and it will be so awesome to see her and hang out with her. I am also just excited to take a trip with Shelley and Jewel. We haven't done a road trip together in a looooonnnng time.

I'll try to post pics when I get back!

I tried to give her a chance

I really tried to give Palin a chance. But I just don't like her. I even listened to her whole speech last night. She started to tire me out...lots of pointing and sarcastic smirks. Anyway, the best part of the whole speech was when the NBC cameras panned over to Piper holding baby brother Trig. Piper was gently stroking Trig's head and then she lifted her hand and proceeded to lick her palm from wrist to fingertips and WIPE IT ON THE BABY'S HEAD! Priceless!

This.is.funny.

Too many choices

Based on one of this fine lady's blog posts, I just discovered that I can listen to past episodes of This American Life. That makes me oh so very happy. I looooooovvvvveeee listening to that show but I always seem to miss it. So now I have to make up for lost time! Which one should I choose first? Aggghhhh!

I've got no strings to hold me down

We officially have no more training wheels in the house. The smallest human learned to ride on two wheels this weekend. I have to admit, I'm pretty sad. Well, I'm happy for him because it is a big accomplishment and he is very proud of himself. But we've hit a lot of milestones this spring and summer and we are almost a house of all big humans. Or at least big-acting humans.

Earlier in the spring, the smallest girl human learned to ride with two wheels. And then a few weeks ago, the smallest boy human passed the swimming test at our local city pool which means he can be in the pool without a big human AND he can go down the water slide. Now add in the two wheel bike riding and I am a mess of emotions! I also noticed when I was brushing the older small girl human's hair this morning that she is as tall as me or taller. I couldn't bring myself to measure her.

I'm having a tough time lately accepting that we will not have any more small humans to parent. I feel like I am just getting the hang of it and hitting my stride and soon, we won't be needed. I wonder how I can make peace with this urge to procreate and put it to rest without actually doing it? I need to read some more of The Power of Now so that I can enjoy the moments we have right now rather than mourning the ones that will never be. It is nice to have more self-sufficent humans around. They don't need constant supervision. They can entertain themselves for longer periods of time. You can take them out in public with relative ease. Going back to diapers, naps, teething, binkies, incessant crying and taking an hour to get out of the house is no fun, right?

Right?

Today is the greatest

The other day, I was asked to babysit a friend's niece on Saturday night. Today at work, I was offered FREE tickets to sit in box seats at a Smashing Pumkins show on Saturday night. I had to turn them down because I like to keep my word. Blasted values!

Is it sad that my Big Human and I can identify Scrubs episodes by one sentence? For instance, "The one with the hot girl in the MRI machine"? Yeah we watch a lot of Scrubs.

This morning I think I shaved my right leg but forgot to shave my left leg. Which disturbs me because my normal shower routine when shaving requires me to shave my left leg first...sooooo...I don't know how I got over to the right leg. Hmmmm, maybe I need to rework my shower routine.

School is starting next week. Which means we have started the Open House/Back to School Night/Make a good impression with the new teachers routine. We did Open House for the biggest small human on Wednesday night. He has mostly male teachers this year. Which I think is great. And he got invited to be on the Robotics Competition Team. Wooohooo!

Today was pretty slow at work. I even did some things that I had been putting off and by the time I looked at the clock, it was only 2:30 PM...ughhhhh...good thing I worked through lunch so I could leave at 4:30 PM!

I'm addicted to MDC. I have had to limit my time on there. It's kind of hard to do.

Family therapy is going well with the small humans. We've gone twice now and everyone is enjoying it and we are noticing a change in behavior which is fantastic.

I am so happy that football season is starting again. And I'm not being sarcastic. I think I like football more than my Big Human.

Big giant step forward, I think

We have forward progress. I don't usually write about super personal stuff that is happening in my life and family but this is huge and I have to share. Tomorrow, we are going to our first appointment with our family therapist with the kids. This.is.huge.

It's been a long time in the making. We have been meeting with the therapist for a couple of months with just me and the big human and some with the big human by himself and now we are ready to bring the small humans in. I am hopeful that this will be a positive outlet for them.

Wow, two posts in one day! Aren't you lucky?

For the love of sleep

I understand the concept of co-sleeping. I just can't figure out how it would be done so that the grownups actually sleep.

At least every other night when the small humans are home, one of them finds their way into our bed in the middle of the night. I love it. My big human loves it. However it's not very easy to sleep with a thrashing child in the bed. These small humans make sleep an olympic sport. I'm not sure what time the smallest girl human got into bed with us last night but I do know that I feel as though I haven't slept! Her favorite sleeping position while in bed with us seems to be with one arm and one leg on top of me. Oh and the arm and the leg need to be violently placed just so. So let's imagine this. Me, just falling back asleep and WHAM! here's an arm and a leg! She then had the audacity to announce this morning that I move too much while I sleep!

It's o.k. I can sleep when the youngest turns 18. Maybe.

Tick Tock goes the Clock

**Warning: This is going to be a very disjointed post.

O.K. lots to talk about and nothing matches with each other so here goes. My smallest boy human recently got his very first watch. He has been wanting one for some time now and it kept getting left off of christmas lists and birthday lists so he finally bought one with his own money. It has a stopwatch feature. Which means EVERYTHING gets timed. Here are some snippets of what we have been hearing recently:

"I'm going to time myself brushing my teeth." (This one is particularly funny because he knows teeth-brushing is not a race. He is supposed to do it for 2 minutes no discussions.)

"Dad, you have been speaking for 1 minute already." (This was said to my Big Human while he was attempting to have a serious conversation and let the kids know that their Pop-Pop was probably not going to make it through the night. More on that later.)

"It took 4 minutes 52 seconds to get from Pop-Pop's to the pool."

"I have been playing by myself for 10 minutes 33 seconds."

"Mass was supposed to be over 3 minutes 44 seconds ago."

We've been very amused to say the least.

O.K. so now on to the Pop-Pop situation. My father-in-law passed away about 10 days ago. It was pretty much expected because he had Alzheimer's but still difficult to experience and go through. I will say however that I have even more respect and love for the Catholic Church. Catholic funeral masses do not leave much room for people to add in their own stuff thereby causing a crying fest which I don't think does anyone any good. It was very soothing for the kids that it was just basically regular Mass. Part of the death of my father-in-law involved all of my Big Human's siblings coming to town along with their spouses and kids. There were a lot of people in town! The small humans had fun though playing with their cousins and getting to spend a lot of time with them. And it helped my mother-in-law out a bunch to have all 7 of her kids here.

Ohhh, what else. Oh yeah, I am now totally addicted to the TV show Mad Men. I started watching it yesterday during a marathon showing on AMC and could.not.stop. All I can think about today is getting home and getting my chores for the evening finished so I can watch more! It is totally addicting.

My brother-in-law (the one married to my sister) won a loser's lottery. Part of his prize is getting to throw out the first pitch at an Orioles game on Saturday night. He is beyond excited! Oh and they also won a trip to Boston for Labor Day weekend to go to a Red Sox game. I think he is more excited about the pitching thing than the trip!

Hmmm, I think that is about it for right now.

Clean

All the dishes and clothes in the house. Are clean, that is. Whew! And I am fairly well-rested and ready to start the week. Man, we should have 3 day weekends every week! Actually I didn't truly have a 3 day weekend because I chose to work on Friday so I could take a day off this week when we have the small humans at home. But working when no one else is in the office is extremely relaxing and so I feel as though I have had a 3 day weekend. Yesterday, my sleep debt was so high that I slept until 11 AM which is absolutely unheard off in this house and then I took a nap around 3 PM. And still managed to go to sleep before 11 PM. I was very tired.

I am currently reading a book which basically confirms all my child-rearing beliefs. It's called Parenting, Inc. and if you plan to procreate in the next ten years or so, I suggest you read it. If nothing else, it will save you a ton of money. Although there is one thing that I would spend a ton of money on. I have already told my Big Human that if we ever produce a child, that we will be spending the $450-550 or so to purchase one of these. In Ruby. With the optional bassinet.

He's all grows up!

I just got finished chatting online with my oldest small human, the one that's in Europe right now? He seems so grown up in just a week! My big human said he "sounds taller"...hahahaha! Apparently the hotel they are staying in right now has a rooftop pool which is the big crowd pleaser with the 13 and 14 year olds. Tomorrow is his last day in Athens and then he's headed back home to us. I can't wait to see him! We are supposed to get him when they arrive back in town at their school but we may drive up to the airport to see them come out of customs. We just can't wait!

*the title of this post is a reference to the end of Swingers when Vince Vaughn's character does his rant about Jon Favreau's character growing up and not needing girl advice any longer. I need to watch that movie this weekend.

Your, Mine or Ours?

It's summer vacation from school. So that means we have our small humans for bigger chunks of time. Last week was our first week. It was busy busy filled with swim team practice, lacrosse clinic and packing the oldest small human up to leave the country for 10 days. Here's what I have noticed. When either my big human or I notice that one or more of the small humans are doing something they really shouldn't be doing, they become the other person's children solely. Example? Me to my big human: "YOUR daughters will not stop talking and go to sleep. You need to go do something about it." My big human to me: "YOUR son is launching toys off the top of the bunkbed. You need to handle that." But when they are behaving fabulously it becomes: "OUR kids did such a great job sitting through mass!"

Having one of our small humans ACROSS AN OCEAN is a bit nerve-wracking. I typed up mulitple lists, rolled clothes, meticulously packed so his things would all match, made sure he had the correct size of tolietries so he wouldn't get a body cavity search going through security and even packed neosporin and bandaids. But when Friday morning came and he picked up his backpack to head out the door, woo boy, I was a mess! I held it together until my big human called me about an hour later because the bus had left and he was officially gone and my big human was a blubbering mess. He got himself together though and then I called him an hour later bawling concerned that our small human wouldn't remember to take his asthma medicine that night on the plane. So we are comforting ourselves by fanatically checking his online bank account a gazillion times a day to make sure he has money and he is able to withdraw it properly. Oh and I stayed up Friday night until Lufthansa said that the first flight had landed in Frankfurt. Other than that, his teachers say "no news is good news" so we probably won't hear from him until he shows back up on this side of the ocean on Sunday.

Having one of my small humans do an international trip has given me a new appreciation for all the stress I must have caused my parents during high school and college with my travels. I remember many trips when I would never call my mom to even let her know that I arrived. She must have been a nervous wreck! So the moral of the story is even if it seems silly, if you go on a trip, especially out of the country, take a few minutes to call your grownups and let them know you are o.k.!

It was fabulous

I went to the 4:30 PM showing of Sex and The City Movie this afternoon and loved every second of it. I laughed, I cried. Oh it was great. I am trying to talk my Big Human into going to see it in the theater. He watches the show all the time with me at home but he says if he goes to the theater to watch it, they will take away his "man card". Whatever that means.

Year Old Cake

It actually tasted pretty good considering that my mom's definition of "wrapped up really well" and mine are considerably different.

We had a good holiday/1st anniversary weekend. It was busy since we were also celebrating my brother's birthday and my dad and stepmom were in town visiting. Oh and my sister and brother-in-law. I did accomplish one thing that we have been working on for awhile. Our smaller girl human is now able to ride her two-wheel bike! Yay! We worked on it on Saturday for a little while and then took a break and when she got back on it on Sunday, it was like putting a duck in a pond. Except for the starting off part. We're still working on that.

Oh Swiffer, why do you tease me so?

I'm having a bit of a cleaning fit right now. Which is a good thing I guess. Anyways, the condition of my kitchen floor and the bathroom floors were driving me up the wall. And I couldn't quite figure it out because I sweep (sometimes) and use the Wet Swiffer and so the floors should look o.k. right? Well, here's my daily cleaning tip...Wet Swiffer wipes and linoleum floors do not mix. They just move the dirt around but don't really get it up. So yesterday on my daily trip to Target (yes I said daily. It's just around the corner from my office and it makes me happy to go in there, o.k.?) I picked up a handheld scrub brush and some of the new Clorox Green Clean and I scrubbed floors last night. Oh it was fantastic! And now my floors are clean! I made my big human promise to never let me buy Wet Swiffers again. It's too bad really because they smelled really good. Maybe I can use the ones I have left to wipe the floors after I scrub them so the smell is there.

I Heart NY or my favorite SATC episode

I have my DVR set up to record any Sex and The City episode that comes on TBS. It's not as great as watching them on HBO but it works. I've seen just about all of them anyways so it's o.k. I'm most happy when the episode comes on when Miranda has Brady and Big is moving to Napa. I will watch it over and over again. It's my fav. Who else is counting down until May 30?

I took a look at my sitemeter this morning and it seems like my post regarding a certain wedding cake disaster get me the most hits. Maybe it's just this time of year with wedding season approaching and all. Oh and my post about how to spell parrot...that's pretty random.

Busy weekend coming up...gotta start gearing up. Birthday party, city market, Mother's Day...we're going to be busy!

Sneezy Smurfs

That's what I have in my house these days...sneezy humans big and small. Well, one of each. A big one and a small one. Allergies are especially rough this year and those two are suffering bad. I am currently researching how exactly to use a neti pot so I can teach them. I've heard lots of good things about them and hey, they were on Oprah so they have to be good, right?

Vacation was amazing. Coming back from vacation, not so much fun. I think it was especially hard because we were all so connected, you know? There was hardly any sibling fighting, everyone was just chilled out. It was fabulous. The small humans were missing their school friends though and they were ready to get back to see them. I will post some pics soon.

My big human's birthday is tomorrow and then it's just about one month until our 1st wedding anniversary. Wow. A year. I feel like it's both just happened and that it was forever ago. The vibe in our family has changed so much. We are a unit now, you know? It's a very cool place to be especially with the whole blended family thing. I can't wait to start defrosting the cake that's been sitting in our freezer for almost a year. Wonder how that's gonna taste...

Lazy Days

We're on vacation. It's fabulous. I'm slightly sunburned (but the small humans are not!), tired and astounded at the fact that we have so many days left still in our trip. We have had a blast so far. The resort where we are staying has a lazy river and water playground which the small humans have absolutely loved even though I don't think it has hit 70 degrees yet! And the water is not heated! But there is a jacuzzi that they can sit in to warm up and the sun has been out which seems to trick them into thinking that it is summer weather.

Tomorrow, we leave early in the AM to embark on the Lauri Reality Tour. We are headed down to Alma since we are so close (five hours give or take a few bathroom stops) to visit Granny Pat and the Okefenokee Swamp. Oh and to see where I was born and the whole rest of my family who refuses to accept that there is anywhere else in this wonderful country to live besides Georgia. Even Florida is suspicious. It should be fun. Ummmm, I can already taste the sweet tea and boiled peanuts!

Cupcakes for dinner

This is what my small humans walked into the house to find this evening:

April Fool's Day! I told them that I didn't feel like cooking dinner so I was giving them cupcakes instead. The looks on their faces for that split second was priceless. Then reality set in and they just could not fathom that I would do such a thing as serve cupcakes for dinner! It was actually veggie meatloaf with colored mashed potatoes on top. Yummo!

Mud Pies and Egg Dyes

I had a lot of laundry to do this weekend. And I loved every second of it.

On Saturday, the weather was beautiful and we had zero obligations. So the small humans went outside after they got ready for the day and they basically stayed outside all day except to come in for lunch and snack. It was awesome. They got to play how I used to play when I was a kid. Digging holes, making mud, collecting sticks and designing forts. They also used the cul-de-sac and played a lot of two-square. This is a made up game that my oldest small boy human created because he can never convince enough of his siblings to play four-square with him. So he drew a rectangle that sort of looks like a domino with sidewalk chalk and we play with a basketball. He beats me and my big human almost every single time. I had a lot of red clay and grass stains to remove from pants on Saturday night. Almost everything came out except there is one pair of khakis that I need to work on more.

On Sunday, the Easter Bunny came early and left baskets and the small humans had a free day with the candy. Needless to say, not a lot of real food was eaten. I mean, who wants homemade waffles with maple syrup when you have just eaten a small bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs and a couple of plastic eggs filled with M&Ms? It's o.k. though because it only happens a couple of times a year when we let them have free reign on that stuff. Then after lunch we went to my mom's house for the afternoon. We painted pictures with watercolors, ate more candy(along with some fresh fruit and veggies), dyed a lot of eggs, had an awesome egg hunt, ate cupcakes, got more stuffed animals, ate hardboiled eggs and played outside some more. I had more messy clothes last night! But I think I got all the egg dye out of them which is amazing since one of the shirts was white!

I'm starting to think that dirty clothes are a sign of a good day.

Special K Loaf

For I Hope So...

Ingredients:

1 medium yellow onion chopped
1 can of mushroom pieces (optional)
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix (the box will have two pkgs so just save one for another time)
1 stick butter
7 cups rice cereal
5 large eggs
2 16 oz containers small curd cottage cheese (make sure it is small curd. something about the other size curds doesn't do well with this recipe.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Saute onions and mushrooms in pan with stick of butter. Add pkg of dry onion soup mix and stir well. In large bowl, combine cereal, eggs and cottage cheese and then add in onion mixture. Stir well. Put mixture in large baking dish that has been well coated with non-stick spray. Bake for 1 hr and then let sit for about 10 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

Is this something I want to throw away in a few months?

This evening I went shopping for the easter basket items for the small humans. I didn't want to get them a ton of candy because let's face it, I'm a bit of a food nazi and they aren't just allowed to eat it whenever they want so that means the big human and I then have to dole it out and it's just no fun. But the alternative of letting them stuff it all in their faces doesn't appeal to me either so I just decided to give them a little bit of candy. I also got them each a new Playmobil person and I was trying to decide if I wanted to give them a stuffed bunny. Being the frugal shopper that I am, I wasn't commited to paying $2.99/bunny at Target so I thought maybe I would find something suitable at the Dollar Tree. Now, I must stop here and say, I feel like a failure every time I go in the Dollar Tree. Maybe it's just the ones here in my town but it really does suck. So I went in and started looking at easter stuff and after I had picked out a few things, I stood there and the realization washed over me that this is all crap that will end up in their rooms which I will then go through and throw away in a few months. And it suddenly wasn't worth it, even if they were only a $1/each. So I put them back and walked out of the store. I'm not saying that I am going to go back and buy the bunnies at Target but with those at least, I know it is something that they would play with. So we'll see how I feel about it tomorrow.

Scenes from a former vacation

My Mama Friends

Grrrrr....motheringdotcommune is down for server troubles that need to be fixed which means I am sans mamas. This does not make me a happy lady. Although it does bring to light my apparent addiction to that message board. What can I say? I'm turning into a crunchy mama and I like to talk/read/write/ with other crunchy mamas.

The Big Human and I have decided that the Easter Bunny is going to do an early visit to our house on Palm Sunday since he will be visiting the small humans at their mom's house on Easter Sunday. Which means that I have to get my rear in gear because the only thing that I have purchased for said easter baskets is the medium sized paper egg that will go in each basket. I have to buy those early from World Market every year because they sell out fast.

We are also starting to gear up for Spring Break '08. It will involve lots of beach time(hopefully! please weather behave!) and a quick trip to Alma to visit my side of the family. We may also see some gators. The small humans are getting very excited and have been looking at the pics from the last time we went to Myrtle Beach so they can remember all the fun things they did. I can say for sure though that NONE of us are looking forward to the car ride. But it's a necessary evil, right?

Can I donate it?

On days like this, when I have taken way too much ibuprofen and it hasn't really dulled the cramps, I wonder why my uterus is here. I'm not going to use it ever for it's intended purpose so can I just get it removed? Maybe donate it to someone else? Grrrrrr........Sorry for a TMI post and no pre-warning. Just deal, o.k.?

This morning on NPR, they did a story about Kraft discontinuing Postum. Really? Wow...isn't there an adventist version of that? Well anyways, supposedly now people are bootlegging it on eBay for a ridculous amount of money. And it's still for sale in Canada so now my big human is concocting a scheme in which we can get it from Canada and sell it on eBay. And I just so happen to know that a canadian friend of mine will be visiting my sister and her husband in a few weeks soooooo...he could bring us some but I want him to bring in the other coveted item sold in Canada but not here...KINDER EGGS! He so better get my myspace message and bring me some...if you are reading this Bart I want Kinder Eggs, o.k.? Santa brought them for the small humans in their stockings and it would be awesome for the Easter Bunny to bring some for their easter baskets. And I want them too! Stupid U.S. rules that won't let them be sold here!

New Favorite Store

We have a newish store here in town that I absolutely love. And they are doing a contest right now which I have entered so I can win a gift certificate there. Whenever you people start popping out the kids, this is where your presents will come from, o.k.? Great.

I love my husband

This showed up at my office this morning:
And this is what was inside!

Aren't they lovely?!? They smell amazing. And he was a day early too! What a planner!

Little bits of heaven

O.K. so power has been restored...I know everyone was on the edge of their seats so now we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. Things that I enjoyed this afternoon:

• taking a nice long nap in a warm house



• homemade chili with a cold glass of Beck's



• a slice of Whole Foods whole wheat bread smeared with Nutella (ahhh a little taste of Norway!)

And last but not least,

• going to sleep in a warm bed.
  

No Power Day 2

Ughhhhh, this is getting old. So I stayed at Panera as long as I could last night and then I ventured home HOPING AND PRAYING that our power was back on. No dice. The good news is that my mom's house had power. So the big human and I packed up and headed out there. The bad news was that the family that my mom nannies for also did not have power so the girls were sleeping in their room at my mom's and their parents were sleeping in the room that my sister and I shared. So the big human and I had to sleep down in the basement in the guest bedroom. So totally not fun. First of all, the pillows that used to be on my bed upstairs that were absolutely horrible have migrated down there. I hate those pillows. I want to burn those pillows. They are very very uncomfortable and I can't sleep with them. I tried but around 3:30 AM, I gave up and got up looking for other pillows. I found a different pillow but it was no use. I didn't sleep last night. So I am taking the day off from work because based on how I feel right now, if I push through and go to work, I will definately be an absolute wreck physically.

So I came home this morning and was overjoyed to see that the stop light near my house was working and it appeared that power had been restored. I walked in to my house and it felt cold. So I attempted to turn on a light. NOPE. No power still. GRRRRRRRRR. So I am at a gas station/coffee house/internet cafe that is around the corner from my house that does have power. I really really need to sleep. But it's flippin' cold in my house! My plan is to wait another 30 mins or so and head back to my house. If the power is still off, then I will head to the gym so I can at least take a hot shower. Thank god for Gold's!

Power

We have none. At my house I mean. This isn't an ongoing problem, just this afternoon/evening. There have been huge wind gusts in our area and it finally knocked out our power. So I am curled up in a cozy chair at Panera munching a cinnamon scone and spending even more time at MDC getting even crunchier. My lastest kick is cloth diapering. I have figured it out finally and I am now on a crusade to convince my sister that she should do that with her kids when they make their apperances. I'm not even trying with Addison's mom because, well, the ick factor would be too much for her to bear.

We went and looked at a house this afternoon and it was great except that it didn't fit all the requirements on our list. I know that our house is out there waiting for us to find so I'm not stressed. But it was cool to see this house. And the people that own it are super cool. They are both jarheads and they are being moved after only being here for a year so that is why they are renting out their brand new house. They were awesome to talk to and it is a shame that they have to move. They would be fun people to hang out with. At any rate, I am hoping that by the time I head home, our power will be back on because I don't really want to pack things up and head out to my mom's house for the night. But if we want heat, then that is where we're headed!

It could be an illusion, but I might as well try...

So I have committed to teaching my big human that stuffing things in boxes does not equal cleaning. A few months back, I asked him to help me clean up our bedroom. I was doing a deep clean/organization project in the small humans' rooms so when I came back later, there were a couple of file boxes neatly piled up in our room and the room was clean. I then reorganized our storage shed and put those boxes neatly in it. This afternoon, I was looking for some papers so I ventured out into our storage shed and started looking through those boxes. Well it seems that my big human was just picking up piles of stuff and not sorting through them or anything, just putting them in the boxes. I located, among other things, a cell phone charger, the base unit for our XM player, a few books that I had been wanting to read and some CDs that had never been opened. One of those CDs was a Grateful Dead that has one of my favorite songs on it, Scarlet Begonias. I love it so much so I looked online for the lyrics and here they are:

As I was walkin round grosvenor square
Not a chill to the winter but a nip to the air,
From the other direction, she was calling my eye,
It could be an illusion, but I might as well try, might as well try.
She had rings on her fingers and bells on her shoes.
And I knew without askin she was into the blues.
She wore scarlet begonias tucked into her curls,
I knew right away she was not like other girls, other girls.
In the thick of the evening when the dealing got rough,
She was too pat to open and too cool to bluff.
As I picked up my matches and was closing the door,
I had one of those flashes Id been there before, been there before.
Well, I aint always right but Ive never been wrong.
Seldom turns out the way it does in a song.
Once in a while you get shown the light
In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Well there aint nothing wrong with the way she moves,
Scarlet begonias or a touch of the blues.
And theres nothing wrong with the look thats in her eyes,
Wind in the willows playin tea for two;
The sky was yellow and the sun was blue,
Strangers stoppin strangers just to shake their hand,
Everybodys playing in the heart of gold band, heart of gold band.

Ahhh perfection.

Fair Weather Fan

Well, I wouldn't exactly call myself that. More of a sporadic fan. Here's the deal. Since I was about 9 or 10, I have been a NY Giants fan. I was a faithful and loyal fan through my middle and high school years and would dutifully watch any game that was aired in Virginia, follow the games, stats, etc. and debate this info with my best guy friend, Bryan. Once I got into college, I didn't have time to watch football on Sunday although I still enjoyed watching when I was able to. Once I was out of college, same thing. If I was home and it was a Sunday during football season, I would turn it on. I would also try to catch the Super Bowl.

This season, I didn't watch much football. I did see the NFC championship game that the NY Giants won against Green Bay and I was eagerly looking forward to the Super Bowl. But I did not get involved in the "who's going to win the Super Bowl" speculation. I think you can never tell. But on Sunday night, I parked myself on the sofa and only got up to go to the bathroom during commerical breaks. I watched every single second of that game. And loved it. It was amazing. I got a little too into it at one point and my big human threatened to leave and go watch it somewhere else because I was yelling at the TV too much. So I chilled out and kept the yelling in my head. And they won and it was fabulous.

After hearing my big human say Eli's name over and over throughout the game, it is now apparent to me that if Luke ever decides to show up in real life, his name will not be Luke but it will be Elijah and he will be called Eli. And that makes me a silly girl but I don't care.

Dear Billy Ray,

I know that you want your daughter to make a lot of money. And who can blame you? You only really had the one hit so it works out for everyone in your whole family if Miley can bring in the cash. But having the theaters charge $18/person for her 3-D movie? Which wasn't in 3-D the whole time? It was a bit painful. My girl small humans enjoyed it for sure but geez, that was a lot of money!

Thanks for listening Billy.

Best,
Lauri

A Peek Inside My Head

So here's a link to an article that I love...I can't read it without crying because it hits a little too close. And now I have to go buy The Velveteen Rabbit which I had somehow never read even though I have spent over half my life caring for children.

Oh perhaps

Let's see...what's been going on.

Well, we went on a little trip this weekend. Baby Addi was being dedicated so we(all six of us) trooped up to Alexandria for that and then went and stayed at my sister's new house for the night. All the small humans were very excited to get to stay at Aunt Shelley and Uncle Ed's new house. We also got to visit with Tales from a Former Michigander. We've lived so close to each other for the past 6 months or so and have only been able to visit twice. And now she's moving. Booooo. Oh well, now we have an excuse to travel to California to visit.

Oh and I also got to introduce my small humans to the Best Place On Earth a.k.a. IKEA. My girl small humans loved it as much as me. The older girl small human kept saying as we walked around the showroom, "I love this place. This is my kinda store." She also started coming up with elaborate redecorating schemes. She has declared that when we are ready to redecorate, she and her sister must be allowed to come along and help pick things out. We'll see. My big human has very definite ideas about what he likes and doesn't like in our house. He has the veto power. The boy small humans were less than impressed and in fact my older boy small human, who has now turned 13 by the way, was trying to make a point of letting us know that he was not happy. Ahh well, not everyone can love it. It would get too crowded then!

On an unrelated note, I may be taking a cue from one of my blog friends and making my blog private. I'll keep you posted.

Just about right...

Well, I got my wish. Sort of. It is snowing but it didn't start until about 8 AM this morning so when I woke up at 5 AM, the ground was bare and dry. Ugh. So I went back to sleep for a bit and then got up and got ready and went into work. It started coming down hard and heavy and by 10 AM, the schools had been closed and my boss said I should leave at Noon and work from home the rest of the day. Sooooo, now I am snuggled up on my couch in sleep pants and a sweatshirt, with my slippers on and I am wrapped in a fleece blanket. I opened the blinds in our living room so I can see the snow and it has started to ice a bit so I am listening to the tinkling of little pieces of ice hit the skylight in the living room. Ahhhh, so nice. One problem. My internet and satellite connection seems to be on the fritz. So I am stealing internet from one of my neighbors right now. I am afraid to move my laptop because I don't want to lose my connection. I really want to make some coffee but I don't want to move! Aghhhh! Maybe I will chance it. Wish me luck!

Do I know you?

I just watched Diablo Cody on Oprah. I haven't seen Juno yet but I really really really want to. I just haven't had the time yet. I prefer to see movies during a matinee cause it's cheaper and I haven't had a free weekend yet to see it. But anyways, here's the thing. I feel like I know her. I wonder why that is. She seems so familiar. And she's from Chicago so it's possible that I could have met her when I lived in Michgan. Doubtful but possible. But seriously. And when she first came out, all I could think was, I would have definately remembered meeting someone named Diablo. But Oprah had her parents on there and her dad called her "Brooke". So maybe I wouldn't have remembered meeting Brooke. Ahhh, I'm sure it's just that she is super cool therefore she seems familiar.

It's supposed to snow tonight. I really want it to snow. It's hasn't yet this winter and it just doesn't feel right. And truth be told, I would enjoy a day working from home. So let's do a snow dance, o.k.? O.K.

91 Days

I went to the gym this morning. I decided that I needed to get my rear in gear again after I spent the weekend chasing and hauling around 2 4 1/2 year old boys and it kicked my butt. So I woke up at 5 AM, got my stuff together and headed to the gym. I walked in and scanned my card and as I walked away from the reception desk, I heard a computer voice say "Status Check". The reception lady rushed over to the computer so I stopped and said, "Is everything o.k.?" And she replied, "Oh it is just telling me that it has been 91 days since you last checked in."

Oh.

Great.

Yes I have been avoiding the gym. But not anymore. It's so on.

Is it 1956?

Does it totally set back the women's movement that one of my favorite christmas presents was this apron? And that I specifically asked for an apron from my big human? I love love love this apron. I wear it almost the whole time I am home. My other favorite present was a medium sized open top tote from lands end with my initials embroidered on it. My friend at work said that if she got that apron and bag for christmas one year and she drove a mini-van like me, she would have to end her life. Hahahaha!

There is something else that I love about this picture. Notice my smallest boy human in the background. He has earphones in his ears that are connected to his brand new iPod Nano that Santa brought. Here's the thing. This pic was taken approximately 15 minutes after we finished opening presents. There was NO music on the ipod. But he's jamming out anyways...maybe music in his head?