Saturday, December 22, 2007

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Darling Hubby, Bug and I will be heading out to visit family tomorrow and I'm trying to get some last minute things done before hitting the hay tonight...like bake those cookies for Santa and dye my hair...I hope everyone has safe travels, enjoys spending time with their tolerated loved ones, and gets what they asked for from good ol' Saint Nick!

Oh, here's a quick quiz to tide you over until I return with a barrage of pictures from our holiday.



You Should Have a Blue Christmas Tree



For you, the holidays represent a time of calm, understanding, and peace.

You avoid family fights, and you don't get too stressed out - even when things are crazy!

You like to make Christmas about making everyone's life a little bit better.

You don't get caught up in greed or commercialism. You're too sincere for that.

Your blue tree would look great with: Lots of silver tinsel

You should spend Christmas Eve watching: It's a Wonderful Life

What you should bake for Santa: Chocolate chip cookies

What Color Christmas Tree Should You Have?

Sounds about right, 'cept I don't watch It's a Wonderful life and I'm making chocolate peanut butter chip cookies for Santa. Mmmmm....yummy!

Monday, December 17, 2007

A Doozy of a Giveaway!

What girl wouldn't want something sparkling and shiny peaking out of her stocking on Christmas morning? Well, if you head on over to Bloggy Giveaways, Shannon is giving away a doozy of a Christmas present to one lucky person. In association with Helzberg Diamonds you could be the winner of a Radiant Cut Green Amethyst Pendant. What do you have to do to enter? Well, head on over to the Helzberg Diamonds site and poke around. See something that catches your eye? Then pop in to visit Shannon at Bloggy Giveaways and leave a comment telling her what you liked. She'll enter your name to win the pendant. Spread the word in your own blog, too. It's that simple!

You know what? On second thought...don't do any of that stuff. You'll mess up my chances to win!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Holiday Hoopla!

I wasn't specifically tagged by anyone for this, but since Christmas is my favorite holiday, I thought I'd join in the fun.

Rules
1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas

2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word (which, for you bloggy newbies, is meme)

3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.

4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

Let the randomness begin!

1. My parents planted a pine tree in the front of my house when I was born. Every year we'd hang lights on that tree to help Rudolph find his way to my house. I could reach the top of it at one point. Now it's so tall I can't see the top of it when looking out the front door anymore.

2. One of my greatest Christmas memories was watching the Santa Bear cartoon on Christmas Eve before going to bed. I decided that I really wanted a stuffed Santa Bear that year and so I left a note with the hot chocolate (Santa needed something to warm him up) and cookies asking Santa if he had an extra one would he leave it for me. The next morning there was a Santa Bear under the tree with a note from Santa saying he found an extra on in the sleight. I very much believed in Santa that year.

3. My mom used to tell me that if there was something I wanted for Christmas and she bought it, we had to leave it for Santa's elves to come pick up so he could bring it for me on Christmas Eve. One year she bought me a brown teddy bear and we left it out on the dryer in the back room for the elves to come pick up. A little while later I checked on the dryer and the bear was gone. I really thought elves picked it up. Turns out, mom tossed it into the dryer hoping I wouldn't check for it.

4. My parents would only set up the Christmas tree the week before Christmas and take it down the week after. Now I set up my tree the day after Thanksgiving and leave it up until New Years.

5. I'm looking forward to those handmade ornaments Bug will bring home from school. I still have most of the ornaments I made in school, even thought they are not on my tree.

6. When I got married my mom gave me the big box of Christmas ornaments that we had collected over the years. I'm talking those old glass balls, and bags of tinsel, strings of lights (those big bulbed ones and the little ones, too). I finally went through it all last year and tossed a bunch of stuff that was broken or I just wouldn't (or shouldn't because it was a fire hazard) use. I still feel guilty about that. I did keep a few things like the glass Christmas tree topper my parents had for years, but never used...

7. I love getting Christmas cards in the mail every year and string them above my mantel with a string tied between 2 wall sconces and mini clothes pins from my baby shower.

8. I mail out as many cards as possible, but if I'll see you before Christmas, prepare to have a hand delivered card. I'm kind of a cheapskate.

9. On of my favorite Christmas presents was when I was 3 years old. I got a Fisher Price Little People House. I played with that thing for hours. Now I've recently passed it down, along with my Farm and Merry-go-round to Bug. I hope he enjoys the hours of fun I had with that house.

10. I grew up with a wood burning fireplace, but my parents always said it was difficult for Santa to get out of the fireplace since it basically locked from the outside. We used to leave our front door unlocked so Santa could get in easier. We lived out in the country where there was no one around and Dad locked the door as soon as Mom had me in bed, but still. Since we, too, have a fireplace that latches from the outside and don't want to teach that leaving our door unlocked is ok, we created a Magic Key to leave for Santa. We are going to give it to Bug this year and every year we will put it outside by the front door so Santa can let himself in.

11. My favorite holiday treat is Hot Chocolate. I recently found an awesome recipe for Hot Chocolate that I modified for my taste. I'm thinking a cup sounds mighty good with lunch on this cold snowy day.

12. I hate coming up with a list of things that I want for Christmas, even though it makes it easier on those who want to buy for me. I always feel greedy by asking for things that I normally wouldn't buy for myself. And Darling Hubby is so hard to buy for. I don't like to buy things from his list because I feel like I didn't put any effort or thought into it. I always feel like I have to top the gift from last year...but I know that's just silly and I really don't try to do that anymore. I've never been able to top the $300 Lego Star Destroyer I bought him in 2003.

I'm tagging Annie and Shell, since they are blogger newbies and need to have a bit of Hoopla to really get them initiated to the blogging world.

The Dreaded 8 Things Meme!

My friend Lori over at Fairytales and Margarita's tagged me to do the 8 things meme...so here goes. I really hate trying to come up with a certain number of things. It always makes me brain hurt! So, fear not, there will be things left blank!


Oh, and I don't know why there are only 7 things on the 8 things meme...maybe 7 got hungry...you know, 7 ate 9...I always did have a punny sense of humor.


8 Things I Am Passionate About
  1. My family
  2. crafts (scrapbooking, crocheting, quilting, etc)
  3. reading
  4. tv
  5. writing
  6. photography
  7. food
  8. role-playing
8 Things I Want To Do Before I Die
  1. Watch Logan grow up, get married and have a family of his own.
  2. See the pyramids in Egypt
  3. Visit the Titanic wreckage (although I know this will never happen)
  4. Meet Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Jensen Ackels or Jared Padalecki...any one of the 4 would do.
  5. Travel out west
  6. Write a novel
  7. Learn to drive
  8. Win the lottery (which would be a miracle since I don't play!)

8 Things I Say Often

  1. Get your finger out of your nose
  2. Get that out of your mouth
  3. I love you
  4. Sweet dreams
  5. Get down from there
  6. You can play the computer when mommy is finished
  7. Turn the tv off
  8. Oh, for the love of Pete
8 Books I Have Read Recently
  1. Honest Illusions by Nora Roberts
  2. All the Harry Potter books (1-7 in order from start to finish)
  3. Bogeyman by Gayle Wilson
  4. Grave Intent by Deborah LeBlanc
  5. Copy Cat by Erica Spindler
  6. Revenant by Carolyn Haines
  7. Boo Humbug by Rene Gutteridge
  8. The MacGregor Brides by Nora Roberts

8 Songs I Could Listen To Over And Over

  1. Wizards in Winter by TSO
  2. Carol of the Bells
  3. Weird Al's I'll Sue Ya (mainly because Bug ALWAYS wants to listen to this in the car)
  4. Any of the songs on the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks

OK, I really need to start expanding my music selections...

8 Things That Attract Me To My Best Friends

  1. Honesty
  2. Sense of Humor
  3. Dedication
  4. How much we have in common
  5. Support
  6. Caring
  7. Willingness to listen

8 People Who Should Totally Do This Meme
  1. Annie
  2. Rachelle
  3. Corey
  4. Shannon
  5. Megan
  6. Meghan

Wow, I was able to come up with more things than I thought I would. Those of you I tagged better get crackin'! I want to see those answers! Oh, and even if I didn't tag you and you want to join in on the fun, feel free!

Friday, December 14, 2007

Bug's First Snow Fun of 2007

We had our first big snow of the year recently and after much shoveling and snow blowing, Bug and I headed out for some fun. The weather was nice with blue skies and decently warm temps. Our goal was to create a masterpiece Snowman.

We bundled up in our warm clothes and headed out. As we were getting dressed, Bug said, "This is so exciting." The first thing Bug does is run right into the snow where he gets "stuck."

With some help out from mommy, we go about building our snowman. Well, I should say I built a snowman. Bug had much more fun wading through the knee-deep (to him anyway) snow than actually helping. He was keeping our dog Max highly entertained by throwing snow at him. Max loves that.

When I completed my snow boy, as he turned out to be only 3 feet tall, I grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures of Bug with him. At first, he had to say ''hi snowman'' to him.

Then he tossed some snow at him. Then he gave him a hug.

Overall, it was a great day outside in the white goodness. Bug had a good time and slept very well for his nap. Coming inside was a fight, but I promised he could go back out tomorrow with daddy. More snow is coming Saturday night into Sunday so there will be many more days to play.

Oh, we read the book The Snow Family at nap time. If you've never read it, you should. It's one of my winter favorites. We may have to go out and build snow parents for our snow boy, or at least a snow dog he can romp with. Who knows What Snowmen Do at Night. Guess we'll know in the morning.

And one of my favorite quotes (and Bug’s too) from The Snow Family:

"... and a kiss on every carrot nose…just like that."

Friday, December 7, 2007

Food For Friday - 12/10-12/21

Going shopping tonight. Here's my menu for the next 2 weeks.

Monday - Craft Night - Rose is cooking
Tuesday - Cabbage Rolls
Wednesday - Tuna Mac Wiggle
Thursday - Game night - dinner to be determined later
Friday - Stuffed Shells with salad

Monday - Craft Night -Sadaf is cooking
Tuesday - Tacos
Wednesday - Pork Roast in Crockpot with veggies and potatoes
Thursday - Chicken Paprika
Friday - Cordon Blue and Fries

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Christmas Update

So Christmas is coming along nicely. Most of the presents have been bought and wrapped. The Christmas card picture has been taken and has been sent to be printed and most of the cards have been addressed. I'm just waiting for the photos to arrive so I can mail them out. I still need to buy a couple more things for Darling Hubby's stocking and I should be all set. Now I just need to figure out what to buy...any ideas? I still need to buy something for my Secret Santa gift for my little baby board. I've got some ideas. I just need to make them become a reality.

Today Bug got a letter in the mall from Santa. I believe it came from Grandma R. I'll have to show it to Bug when he wakes up from his nap. Speaking of naps, he actually went down pretty easily today, Maybe we are getting back on track. I don't want to jinx myself. I'm sure having just said that, tomorrow will be a nap day from hell for both kids.

OK, I must have just jinxed myself. I think I hear Bug waking up from his nap. Its been about an hour, so I can’t complain, Plus it's almost time for Baby Girl to wake up for her bottle before she needs home.

Oh, here's the picture I promised of the Santa's magic key for Bug. I blurred out the personalization on the top part. What do you think?


Mommy Has Left The Building!

Have you ever just wanted to change your name? I'm not talking about changing your birth name your parents saddled you with, I'm talking about the name you are given the day a new life enters your world... "mommy." I can't even count the number of times I've heard, "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mooommmy!" in the past day and a half...(I'm sure Rachelle, if you are reading this, you can relate) and it's not like Bug even wants anything. I think he's just trying to get on my nerves...grrr!

You know, I really can't shouldn't complain. I do really love that he calls me mommy now and that he has really picked up on talking. I remember that I was pretty upset until about six months ago when he first started saying mommy. Until then I was Baba, Bobo or pretty much just "hey you." Now he talks up a storm and repeats everything (better watch what you say) but sometimes I think he just talks and talks just to hear his own voice.

Anyone else out there in blogland feel the same way?

Monday, December 3, 2007

Testing out the Toy, Part II

All is quiet in my house now. Bug is finally sleeping. It’s almost time for Baby Girl to wake up. But for now I have a quiet few minutes. Does anyone else feel like this week should nearly be over already instead of just beginning? It is most definitely a Monday, but it feels like it should be Thursday.

We did get some nasty weather last night, but it wasn't so bad that things had to close. Just a few delays. I did have one heck of a time trying to clear ice from the front walk. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t get the ice to go away.

I ended up just putting down salt in the hope it would start melting some. Darling Hubby said it was freezing rain this morning on his way to work, so it may gave been refreezing as I was working. Who knows?

Oh, so I finished the magic key we will leave out for Santa. It came out very nicely. I really hope Bug appreciates it when he is older. I'll post a couple pictures of it later on when I get the chance.

Well it is nearly time to wake Baby Girl. I’d also better get my things ready to take with me for craft night. It's my turn to cook. Don't want to forget the spaghetti or the sauce. I'm hoping to finish my quilt tonight. If I do, I'll post some pictures of it tomorrow.


Sunday, December 2, 2007

A New Toy and Some Random Thoughts

I'm currently sitting on my Couch testing out new toy. Now don't think perverted thoughts. Saturday Darling Hubby bought me a Fly Fusion pen, It cost a decent amount, but it will be useful for my role-playing game and for my blog as well. I can now write on special notebook paper and upload my thoughts directly to the computer without having to type them all again. Now I can blog while in my warm living room and not worry about waking up Baby Girl. So far, it seems to work.

Today Darling Hubby and I watched “Hogfather” that we recorded last week. It was a movie about how Death becomes the Hogfather (aka Santa), It was a really good movie. After that I worked on making the Magic key we will be leaving out for Santa on Christmas Eve. I painted a wooden door knob fob, like one you would find in a hotel (a do not disturb sign, so to speak) and will attach a key (an ornament key painted gold with yellow gemstones on it so it looks magical) to it later, We plan to "mail" it to Bug, like Santa mailed it to him and give it to him Christmas Eve. It’s something that we can use every year and then give to him later when he has a family of his own. Yes, we have a fireplace, but it’s one that locks from the outside so we though that this would work out rather than trying to explain how Santa gets out of our wood stove.

After that Darling hubby set our oven on fire. Nothing serious, just-a small fire. Apparently, when I baked my pumpkin Cheesecake the other day butter spilled out of it and mingled with the other pan drippings in the bottom out of my oven and were ignited by the heat element, We know the smoke detector works and I'm thankful we didn't have to use the fire extinguisher. A little splash of water did the trick, At least our pizza didn't taste funny and the house doesn't small bad. The dogs have determined that they very much dislike the smoke alarm and Bug could really care less. He didn't even leave the computer to come see what was going on.

I'm waiting to see what the Weather brings for tomorrow. The great Northeast is expecting a snowstorm. We are only supposed to get 3 or so inches of snow, but we may be getting some freezing rain, sleet and ice. Travel may be pretty treacherous in the morning. Depending on if the college is open or closed, that will tell if I'll be watching Baby Girl. I just hope the evening travel is better. I want to go to craft night and finish my quilt.

Well, I'm going to finish this up and upload it. Hopefully my new toy is worth the money we paid for it.

**************

And just a note…the Fly Pen worked pretty well. It has a little trouble with reading some of my letters, but now I know what to work on and I’ll be blogging and recording notes for our game easily in no time!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Very Belated Thanksgiving Report

Wow, it seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve actually blogged a decent post aside from menus. I haven’t had much in the way of computer time recently with Darling Hubby being off from work for the week and it being Thanksgiving and all. Plus, it doesn’t help that Baby Girl naps in my computer room and I can’t be in there (how I wish I had a laptop that could connect to the internet from any room in the house…Anyone want to buy me one?) I’m finally getting myself back on track after having my schedule thrown off for several days. Today was the first time I’ve vacuumed my rugs since Tuesday morning, and with 3 dogs, a cat, a kid and a husband, you know it was in dire need of a good vacuuming. Hairballs and crumbs were everywhere.

We had a good Thanksgiving. (Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, by the way) Better than we’ve had in the past, in my opinion. Thursday morning we got up, got all spiffied up, snapped our Christmas card picture and headed down to my parents’ house 2.5 hours away. We enjoyed a delicious turkey dinner with my mom and dad, talking about this and that and listening to Bug sing his ABC’s in between handfuls of peas, carrots and cranberry sauce. It was a nice quiet dinner and I could actually hear myself chew it was so quiet. I was very thankful for that quiet meal. Holiday get-togethers usually give me a headache they are so loud. After some more chatting, playing around with pots and pans and Grandma and some pie and jello for dessert, we bundled back up against the wind and headed to DH’s grandpas’ house.

Generally, we have lunch with DH’s family first and head over to my parents’ house, but we did things a little different this year just for a change of pace. Anyway, we went to Grandpa’s house and had a quick (and again quiet) meal, just the 4 of us. It was nice to spend some alone time with Grandpa. Usually when everyone else is there we can barely talk to one another, so again, I was thankful for the quiet time we spent together this year. He’s getting on in years and has several health problems so who knows how much time we’ll have left to spend with him. Overall, I was thankful that we got to spend some nice quiet time with family. I do feel bad that we didn’t get to see all the aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, but if you read my prior post about my state of mind you know that I was really stressing this get together because of all the noise, plus it really makes Bug act out because the other children as terrible influences. It really is a zoo and I’m glad we managed to avoid it this year. Some how I don’t think we’ll be as lucky come Christmas. I was also thankful that Bug was a good boy for the whole trip. He hardly had any meltdowns while we were out and about, despite the fact that he only had a 10 minute nap in the car. Bedtime was another story, but at least he was good the rest of the day.

I cooked a turkey for the three of us Friday and we put up our Christmas decorations Friday and Saturday. The outside lights are up and finally working properly, after 2 nights out in the cold checking bulbs, forays to three stores looking for replacement bulbs that would fit and not blow out the second you plugged them in and finally the purchase of 2 new strands of lights. The Christmas tree is in a new place in the living room and looks good, as always. Now if I could get Bug to leave a couple of the ornaments that he’s obsessed with alone we’d be in business. Baby Girl on the other hand hasn’t touched it. Go figure. On another happy note, we are pretty much done with Christmas shopping. We bought only one gift per person and a few extra for each other and for Bug from Santa. I feel like we are being stingy, but with a limited budget we had to go easy, so one present a person. At least I didn’t have to go out on Black Friday. That was a relief. I don’t think I could handle the crazy crowds. I hate going to the stores anytime between Black Friday and Christmas even if it’s for something other than Christmas shopping. Too many crazy people, if you ask me!

Oh I don't think I could write a post without a complaint, so here it is. Gotta be good at something...LOL. A family member on DH"s side of the family has a son who's a year or so older than Bug and a son a year or so younger and we've been swapping clothing back and forth since Bug was a baby. Hey, it saves on having to buy a ton of clothes every year and I'm not one to say no to hand-me-downs. This time I brought down two diaper boxes full of clothes that Bug has out grown for her youngest boy in return for a big garbage bag of clothes her older son outgrew. Everything in my boxes was clean and folded. I didn't send anything down that was super stained or that I wouldn't let Bug go out in public in. When I opened the bag of clothes they smelled of old cigarette smoke (which isn't unusual since DH's dad lived there for a while and was a smoker) and many of the clothes were stained...very badly. I always wash the clothes before I put them away, but as I was attempting to get the dinginess and the stains out, I felt disgusted, almost dirty. I started to feel like I shouldn't bother and that I should just box the clothes and return them in the next swap. I'm not talking the occasional stain here...No grass on a pant leg or ketchup stains on a sleeve. I'm talking all over stains. I mean, the stains were so set in, I was sure nothing would work and I was right. And as the clothes were going through the wash cycle, I peeked inside and was sickened by how dirty the water was. I know that wash water gets dingy and turns gray, but this was nasty brown water, like when I wash the dogs bedding. I had to give them a second rinse just to make myself feel better. Granted many of the pants and some of the shirts and sweatshirts were stain free or mostly stain free, but still…I mean…how would you feel opening a bag of clothes to find what I found? Would you say anything? I mean she is family and we’ve been friends for a long time but I’m just not pleased about getting a bag full of stained and filthy clothes. She has three kids, a husband and several animals, but that doesn’t mean the clothes can’t be clean. I do Bug’s laundry once every week in addition to everything else I do around here, and hardly anything of his is stained as bad as this stuff is. I’m not ashamed to let him out of the house in my clothes. I don’t even want to let him go out to play in these clothes. I feel like people would look at me like I’m a lousy mother allowing my child to wear stained and dirty looking (even though they are now clean) clothes. I know kids get dirty and stain their clothes, but come on! Am I being petty? Am I thinking too much about what others will think than about what’s reality? I know that kids get dirty, but would you share your stained up and dirty clothes with someone else? Ugg…it still gets my goat thinking about it.

OK, rant over! LOL

I'd better go get busy around the house and do something productive. I'm gonna try to be better about posting...really, I am....lol


Friday, November 23, 2007

Food for Friday - 11/26-11/30 & 12/3-12/7

Ok, here's a late rendition of my food for Friday. I haven't had much time to post lately with Darling Hubby being off from work this week and all our traveling for the holiday. We still plan to shop tomorrow so here's my menu.

Monday - Craft night - Sadaf's turn to cook - dinner to be determined later
Tuesday - Cabbage rolls with ground beef and rice
Wednesday - Rotisserie Chicken Breast with potatoes and fresh carrots
Thursday - Game night - Dinner to be determined later
Friday - Homemade pizza

Monday - Craft night my turn to cook - Spaghetti
Tuesday - Oven-fried Chicken Fingers and Fries
Wednesday - Sloppy joes - Bernie style
Thursday - French Toast
Friday - Barber's Chicken Cordon Blue and fries

Thursday, November 15, 2007

My State of Mind

Have you ever felt like the world is out to get you?...that nothing goes right no matter what you do?...that you just feel angry all the time? That's how I've been feeling lately. I feel like I am going to loose it. Bug drives me nuts and Darling Hubby drives me nuts. It seems I'm going nuts.

Yesterday could have been the straw that broke the camels back..thankfully, it wasn't. I haven't had a decent nights sleep in a long time and if you know me, I NEED my sleep. I'm cranky and grumpy...which seems to be my constant mood lately. Anyway, I was awakened in the night by Bug's coughing and after that, I had trouble going back to sleep because my stomach was bothering me (which it does most of the time...) After DH left for work I conked back out and either Bug was very quiet or I was just dead to the world...This spells DISASTER! I was finally awoken from my slumber by a great crash and Bug saying, "All done." This can't be good. I just think about the fact that we rearranged his room the night before and I'm sure he's found an all new thing to get into.

As I toss on my robe I push open his door and hurdle the waist high baby gate. I've failed to place my glasses on my nose and therefore can't see completely clearly. What presents itself is this:

I see Bug, dressed in blue car PJ's with what I at first glance assume is powder ("No big deal," I think, "powder comes out easily")....that is, until he politely hands me the empty jar of Seudocream (diaper rash ointment from Ireland) saying, "Here you go, Mommy." I am very quickly annoyed and he's quickly ushered into the bathroom where I try in vain to remove the white cream from him...he was coated up to his elbows and had some on his face and hair...This stuff is a great solution to diaper rash as it stays on the bum very nicely...that was the problem with it being on hands and face...it doesn't come off easily. Thankfully after several scrub downs with baby wash and warm water, it came off...Next was to get him out of the soiled jammies and survey the damage done to the room.

Without glasses on, it looked pretty grim. I could just see white everywhere. After stowing Bug in his bed and telling him to stay put (and removing the very smeared top blanket (fleece) on the bed) grabbed my glasses and a wet cloth to try to clean up. It was everywhere...all over the rocking chair (which thankfully isn't fabric), all over the changing table, on the side of the dresser, the bottom of a book, all over an old pair of slippers, all over the fleece blanket in his bed, his blankie and his jammies.

I got him dressed, tossed the soiled fabrics into his laundry basket and ushered him down the stairs. After parking Bug in the chair at the table and giving him a bowl of cereal I attempted to tackle the job of getting white zinc oxide cream out of everything. After tossing the slippers in the trash (they were getting small anyway and I didn't want to mess with them) wiping up everything with paper towels as best I could, I sprayed everything with a liberal coating of spray & wash. Hey, it says it works great on grease and grass so I figured if it would help break up the greasiness of the cream, why not. I rubbed it in a little and then poured on some water, followed by a good scrub with Dawn dish washing liquid. I figure if they can use it on ducks in oil spills, it should be safe to use on a fleece blanket. After that, everything got tossed into the washer with warm water and washed...twice...just to be safe. Thankfully, it all came out and you can't even tell it was ever there.

The book on the other hand is still up in the air whether it is a lost cause or not. At first glance, I saw that there was a little cream on the bottom of the pages and the sides, like he was flipping through reading it with dirty fingers...this was far from the case. Two whole sets of pages where lovingly fingerpainted with white goodness and stuck together. I wiped off what I could with paper towels and then, after DH's suggestion, used a spackle knife to scrape the pages clear of the rest of the mess. The pages are mostly dry now and they are see-through...They still feel a little on the slimy side and I'm not sure what I'm going to do. On the brightside...it smells ok...

So as punishment, Bug was without his favorite TV shows and his favorite computer games for the day. I don't know if he truely understood the punishment, but everytime he asked for one of those things, I reminded him about what he did that morning, explaining that what he did was bad. He knew Mommy was mad and he did apologize, only after I told him he had to...

So this set my mood for the day. I was on edge all day. The littlest things set me off. Don't get me started on our dog Max who barks at the drop of a hat and is very needy so he's right next to you following you around all day. I can't take a step without kicking him or put my feet down from the couch/chair without stepping on him. Needless to say, his clingy behavior got old VERY QUICKLY. Poor DH came home and after dinner he was planning to go to the local game store for a bit. We made it through dinner and afterwards he said something benign, but I just snapped, told him to drop it, that I wished everyone would just leave me alone and told him to just go to the store. He left without another word. Of course, I cried after wards.

I don't know what it is. It seems lately the littlest things set me off. I have such a quick temper it's not even funny anymore. I think I'm feeling overworked, under appreciated, and stressed. I'm stressed because of the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. I'm stressed about all the noise that I have to deal with when the families get together, which is often like visiting the zoo on giveaway day. Everyone is there and it's loud. I'm stressed about the fact that we are low on funds and the number of presents that we have to purchase. I'm stressed because we ordered a bunch of presents online this past weekend and when the package arrived...it wasn't our order. Now we have to have those items shipped back and the order redone. I just want to get everything done BEFORE Thanksgiving. I hate shopping after Black Friday. I'm stressed because I have No. Bloody. Clue. what to get DH for Christmas.

I'm feeling over worked because it seems that I'm constantly doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, babysitting, etc. I know I have free time each day during naptime to do what I want, which generally consists of reading or watching tv since I need something quiet to do since Baby Girl is such a light sleeper. Sometimes I want to sew, but can't because my sewing machine is in the room where she sleeps. I can't bake because even the slightest clanging pots and pans and the opening and closing of the fridge wake her through the walls. I just feel like my free time really isn't mine because I'm so limited.

I feel under appreciated sometimes because I do things around the house and no one seems to notice. The carpets are always vacuumed and the floors swept, the cat and dog pans are cleaned, the laundry is washed, hung, dried, folded and put away, Bug's toys are picked up, dinner is cooked, all the bills paid, the checkbook balanced and the finances and meals planned. I clean the bathrooms and bedrooms as necessary, gather the garbage, empty Bug's diaper pail, walk 3 dogs all on top of caring for 2 small kids. And sometimes I even do a bunch of they yard work outside. It's when I fail to do something that I get, not necessarily criticized verbally, but I can see the disappointment from DH in the way he acts. Our kitchen counter is a catchall for papers and I'm not always good about keeping it cleared and he gets annoyed when there is no counter space left to use. If I don't do the dishes and they pile up I can tell he get annoyed. It would be different if we had a dishwasher that actually functioned, but since the one that came with the house barely kept itself clean on wash cycles, we took it out and never replaced it. We needed the space it was in for the garbage can/returnable bottles and never had the money to buy a new one. Honestly, I'd just rather spend time with Bug and DH than be stuck in the kitchen doing dishes. It feels like all I ever do is clean anymore and no one appreciates that. I try to be good about saying thank you when DH does something like empty the dish drainer (which is his job). I just feel like I never get any thanks at all. I'm sure that's not the case and that Dh enjoys coming home to a clean house and a home cooked meal and is thankful that I do it all, but sometimes I just feel like no one notices.

So after getting in a small fight this morning when DH woke me up at 6 (which I really wish he wouldn't do) I had a good cry about how I was feeling. He told me he's felt the same way at his job and that you just have to keep doing what you are doing and get through. I'm still feeling like the world is out to get me, but I'm feeling a little better...at least I think can get through today and maybe tomorrow.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Food For Friday - November 12-16 & 19-23

Here's the menu I came up with for the next 2 weeks. Things are gonna be kind of hit or miss in terms of dinners at home with several get-togethers plans with friends for craft and game nights and the Thanksgiving holiday with family. Hopefully I can keep myself under my grocery shopping budget this month since I have a lot of the meat I need in the freezer downstairs. That way I can do a little Christmas shopping without feeling like I'm going to break the bank.

Monday
- (craft night, my turn to cook) Chicken Caesar Wraps
Tuesday - Beef Tacos
Wednesday - Teriyaki Chicken Salad
Thursday - Game Night - dinner to be determined later
Friday - Homemade Cordon Bleu, veggies and potatoes

Monday - Craft night - Dinner with Bernie and Rose
Tuesday - Hamburgers and fries
Wednesday - Pork Chops, rice and veggies
Thursday - Happy Thanksgiving! - Dinner with the families
Friday - Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce


Monday, November 5, 2007

Tuesday's Random Thoughts

I have many weird things floating around in my brain right now. I figured I'd write a random thoughts post.

  • Today was so chilly outside when I walked the dogs that I could see my breath.
  • They are calling for snow for Friday.
  • I was glad that I raked all the leaves from the backyard Sunday when I heard they were calling for snow on Friday, but after last night's rain shower my backyard looks like it did before I raked it...sigh
  • I'm ready to start listening to Christmas music and decorating.
  • I have the urge to organize and toss things, but I really have nothing to organize and discard...I guess that's a good thing.
  • I'm dreading figuring out our taxes for 2007 since I basically have had a home business babysitting this year. I have a feeling I'm going to get raped by the government. sigh...nothing ever changes
  • Bug has decided he's going to become a vocalist for Cirque de Soleil. His act consists of standing on the arm of the futon like it's a balance beam, swinging from the cat tree and singing Weird Al's song I'll Sue Ya and the ABC song. He needs to come up with a cool dismount for his grand finale.
  • I'm tired of snot. At least Bug now knows how to let me blow his nose instead of me sitting on him to use the booger sucker.
  • I hate the hiccups.
Oh, and I have to share this conversation that I had with Bug yesterday. Here's the backstory. It was laundry day (darks) around our house and Bug has become my designated helper. He has to help put the clothes hangers in the shirts so I can hang them to dry on the rack. He has to hand me each piece of clothing from the basket so I can drape it over the rungs of the little rack. If you are wondering, I hardly use the dryer except for sheets and things that I can't hang inside. I do hang things outside during the spring/summer when I can. Anyway, Bug's also very good at carrying small piles of dry clothes into my room to put on my bed for folding. This was our conversation while he was handing me Darling Hubby's boxers and shirts.

Me: Hand me the next one, please.
Bug: Here you go, Mommy.
Me: Thank you.
Bug: You're welcome (it actually came out like "webcomb" since he has a stuffy nose.) Here you go, Mommy.
Me: Thank you.
Bug: You're welcome. Here you go, Mommy.
Me: Ok, hold on, this shirt is inside out and I need to fix it before hanging it up.
One second wait
Bug: Here you go, Mommy.
Me: Hold on a second.
One second wait
Bug: Here you go, Mommy.
Me: Thank you, Bug. You are a good helper.
Bug: You're welcome...Here you go...

Either he's very literal when I said hang on a second or he's really gung ho about hanging up laundry. Either way, it was a cute conversation.

Well, those are my random thoughts for today. It was actually kinda fun and it made me feel good to get them out of my brain. I'm thinking maybe I should do this every week.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Turn Your Clocks Back, I'm a Winner!

Ok, my title may be a little misleading. I really just wanted to tell you 2 things.

First, tonight is the end of Daylight Saving Time. Don't forget to set your clocks back 1 hour tonight before going to bed. Can I just say that I really hate this time of the year? I hate that I lose an hour of my very precious sleep all because the congress feels the need to mess with my clocks...I also hate that it falls on a Sunday which is my day to get up with Bug to let Darling Hubby sleep in...now I'll be up super early...but I digress.

The other thing I wanted to say is that I am a winner! I entered several of the giveaways in the It's Fall Ya'll Giveaway contest sponsored by Shannon at Rocks in the Dryer/Bloggy Giveaways and I won one. I'm in shock! I was sure that I wouldn't be chosen. I guess all the time I spent entering wasn't for nothing. Sarah over at Short Stop was giving away 4 books and I am the recipient of one, The Dangerous Book for Boys. I can't wait for it to arrive. Thanks, Sarah!!!

Friday, November 2, 2007

A Superman Halloween

Halloween has come and gone. I'm happy it's past and sad all at the same time. Is that even possible? I'm sad to see all the all the scary decorations come down (except those creepy spiders. They just freak me out! I'm glad to see them go) , the creative costumes the people come up with be put away and I'll very much miss all that candy. Ok, I still have some candy left so I'm not going to be missing it anytime soon...I've got Christmas candy to look forward too. It's not like I haven't had enough candy over the past month (just ask my Darling Hubby about the 2 HUGE bags of candy we bought wholesale...just ask him how much was left Halloween night..Ok, you don't have to go pester him...I'll tell you. Of the 2 HUGE bags, there was less than 1/2 of 1 bag left. Yep..I have no will power when it comes to candy. I saw a picture on someone's blog this morning (I wish I could give credit where credit is due, but I can't seem to remember where I saw said photo. I've been entering all those wonderful Fall Y'all giveaways and it was one one of those 650 blogs) that had a whole handful of candy wrappers next to their computer...that was me weeks before Halloween...That's one reason I'm happy Halloween is overThe other is that I'm simply looking forward to Christmas which is only 54 days away!!! I'm so excited for the decorations and the music. I so need to get on the Christmas shopping ball. I love to be pretty much done by Thanksgiving. At least we've got Bug's shopping done.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic....what I wanted to do is share some of our Halloween pictures. Click the pics for bigger images.

Last Sunday one of the local malls held a Halloween party. We dressed Bug up in his Superman costume and took him down there. They had pumpkin decorating and cookie frosting. There was a dice game where the kids would toss 2 large foam "dice" with pictures of Finding Nemo characters taped to it. If you got 2 matching pictures you won a prize. Bug had some fun painting (he loves to paint) and the cookie was a big hit later when it was getting close to lunch time and we were doing some Christmas shopping in the bargain room of the video store. (Best place to shop...you never know what great finds you'll stumble over.) He did have a great time tossing the dice around. If you've read any of my prior posts you'll know that Darling Hubby and I are gamers and Bug loves to play with our dice, so this game was right up his alley. The most comical part of the day was during the dice rolling game when he dropped the 2nd die and instead of picking up up and attempting to throw it again he basically cherry bombed it across the room. Too funny!


Later that night we carved our jack-o-lantern. Let's say that Bug was less than thrilled to stick his hand inside the hollow pumpkin once he found out that it was wet and goopy in there. He sat off in the wings watching Daddy do all the work. I think that Daddy did a great job on it. He freehanded the outline of the skull onto the pumpkin. I couldn't have done it at all without it looking like a cartoon straight out of Bugs Bunny.

Here is the finished product.
On Halloween we once again donned the Superman costume and headed over to the public library where they were having trick or treating in the children's room. While I picked out a couple new kids books to read, Bug trick or treated from the nice librarians. He got a whole page of stickers and even a coupon for a free ice cream cone. After that we went to the "Malloween" celebration at the big mall across town. The stores were handing out candy and they have a costume contest at the end of the evening. We only did the trick or treating this year. He didn't get too much candy, but got a decent score, and most of it is stuff that he can eat- lollipops, tootsie rolls and chocolate bars. After that, it was up, up and away home (Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Superbug!) where we had a healthy dinner of mac and cheese with veggies and hot dogs and then played a rousing game of catch while waiting for the few trick or treaters to make their presences known by setting off Max, our alarm dog.

Oh, and here is my favorite picture of the night.Me and My Superman!

So, I have next Halloween to look forward too (as well as this Christmas). I think that we may get together with some friends of ours next year and create themed costumes and go trick or treating together. I think it would be fun.

Off to watch my all time favorite movie. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl...Savvy?

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Fall Ya'll Giveaway!

If you haven't already, head on over to Bloggy Giveaways and check out the Fall Ya'll Bloggy Givaway! There is a list of over 500 people who are just giving things away! All you have to do is visit their blog and leave a comment.

Go! Hurry! You have until Friday, in most cases, to enter! Oh, and make sure you have gone to the bathroom and have a drink before you start. I'm sure you'll be at your computer for a while!

Saturday, October 27, 2007

A Wiggly Contest!

I stumbled across this contest this morning from 5 minutes for Mom. They are giving away 5 new Getting Strong DVD's, the newest release by the Wiggles. I couldn't pass this up, especially since we just saw them in concert on Tuesday. If your kids are Wiggles fans, go here to enter. Drawing will be held November 2nd.

Friday, October 26, 2007

She's My Hero

A friend of mine from one of my online baby boards (whose daughter and Bug share the same birthday) recently participated in the 3-day Breast Cancer Walk in Atlanta, GA. She works for CNN and did a little video diary of her journey.

Jessica is a wonderful woman (and Mama) who, despite having broken her ankle in January (during a terrible sledding incident) and having a metal plate and 10 screws installed, was able to support the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, along with 25oo other men and women by walking 60 miles in 3 days. She has, thankfully, not been personally affected by cancer, but was courageous enough to get out there on a rebuilt ankle while 15 weeks pregnant and make a difference in the lives of others. She truly is a superhero. I can only hope to be like her one day.

Click here to watch her story. Don't forget to read the article she wrote at the bottom. It's a touching story.

Food For Friday

So this week I'm having recipe block. I don't want to keep using the same recipes I have been using. I want to try a few new ones, but I can't find anything that's really appealing to my tummy today. (I guess I should do this on an empty stomach!) Nothing is jumping out from the grocery store flyer either....Anyway, here goes!

Monday - Hamburger Helper
Tuesday - Bourbon Chicken with Rice served with broccoli
Wednesday - Mini Octopus Mac Wiggle - A variant on my tuna mac wiggle, but with a hot dog octopus. (based on this recipe) Something Bug should enjoy, plus it's Halloween-ish and a very quick dinner so we can hit the mall for some Trick or Treating fun!
Thursday - Game Night - dinner to be determined later
Friday - Homemade pizza in less than 30 minutes

Monday - Barbers Chicken Cordon Bleu or Sweet Italian Sausages with fries (Darling Hubby's choice)
Tuesday - Turkey Chili
Wednesday - Easy Pleasing Meatloaf (made with ground turkey) - served with mixed veggies and scalloped potatoes
Thursday - Beef Stew
Friday - left overs or Sloppy Joes (Bernie Style)

Ok, so that's what I've been able to come up with after scouring the Kraft website and my recipe box...Sounds like a decent 2 weeks to me!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

It's Wiggle Time!!!

As a perk from Darling Hubby's place of work, they have a few seats at the local sporting arena that they will give away via lottery for those that put in for them. Darling Hubby put in for Wiggles tickets and by luck of the lottery gods, Tuesday night Bug went to his first ever concert, The Wiggles Racing to the Rainbow Show.

At first, he was a little unsure of what was going on and why we were at such a big place with so many other people. It was so cute how he handed his ticket to the ticket lady so she could scan it as we entered the arena. So sweet. When we found our seats, each one had a little package neatly placed in the center of the chair. Inside was a paper wiggles photo frame with crayons for coloring. Bug had a lot of fun scribbling away on his photo frame. Hey, it kept him occupied before the show actually started and I can toss it in the scrapbook, too.

(I want to apologize for the lack of quality of my photos this time around. I was unsure of the camera policy for the show (the venue website said the rule was generally no digital cameras, but the tickets only said no audio/video recording) and I didn't want to take my expensive camera and risk having to leave it in the car in the parking garage so I dug up my old first digital camera and smuggled it in inside my purse.)


While we were sorta patiently waiting for the show to start, Bug noticed many other kids his age, all happily munching away on bags of popcorn and, of course, had to have his own bag. When the show started he sat happily nibbling on delicious buttery kernel after buttery kernel. He still didn't know what to make of the whole stage scene until the Wiggles came out and started singing and dancing songs that he knew. That's when he got excited. When they played one of his all time favorite songs, "Hot Potato," he happily did all the motions and sang along with them.

He was really impressed by the version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" they did half way in when they had all the parents turn on their cell phones to use as starlight. (We, unfortunately, left our cell phone home so Bug was unable to participate in the fun, but he was content just to watch.) They had a disco ball projecting "stars" all over the arena and there was even a moon. Bug loves Twinkle Twinkle (it's generally the only lullaby he will allow me to sing at night) and the display was really awe inspiring to a 2.5 year old.

One part of the show really made us all laugh, but I didn't get any decent pictures. They had 3 ducks come out (one of which was Captain Feathersword dressed as a duck). The Captain Feathersword duck was cock-a-doodle-doo'ing instead of quacking and Anthony (blue) was trying to prove that it was Captain Feathersword and not a duck and he made the Captain do all sorts of silly walks and Anthony spelled out Quack while walking funny and made the Captain spell cock-a-doodle-doo while doing the same walk. Course, he didn't spell it very well...which made it all the funnier, and all anyone on stage (including the Wiggly Dancers) was laugh at all the silliness. It was obvious it wasn't something that was rehearsed. You really had to see it as my description just isn't doing it justice.

Here are some pictures of the rest of the Wiggles show.
Dancing with the Wiggly Dancers at the start of the show.
There was one Wiggly Dancer that was cracking me up. He had this funny head move that he did ALL. THE. TIME. It was his signature move and it was so funny. Made my night. He's the blurry dancer between Sam (yellow) and Murray (red).

Dancing in front of the Murray balloon that was having issues standing up and staying up. It fell on Jeff (purple) and Captain Feathersword several times before standing upright.

Performing "Hot Potato" with Henry the Octopus, Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the Dog.

Murray testing his guitar out by playing Stairway to Heaven.
(a little something for all the adults in the room)

There was only one minor mishap during the show. The young boy behind me ended up getting sick about 30 minutes before the end of the show. His mom said that she thinks he gagged himself on a piece of popcorn which made him throw up. Lovely! She did a decent job of diverting the flow of puke, but unluckily a little got on the back of my shirt. It wasn't the end of the world (what was I going to do, get mad at her or her kid?) We had talked at the start of the show and her husband took her oldest son to confirmation so she had the 3 youngest all alone. I felt bad for her being alone with 3 kids and one of them sick. They ended up staying through the rest of the show and after she gave me a couple baby wipes and I used some hand sanitizer, I was all well and good and enjoyed the remainder of the show. I'm not sure if I would have stayed through the end of the show had Bug been the one to throw up. I think I would have gone home right away. What would you have done?

Anyway, overall, the show was a success. Darling Hubby and I were worried how Bug was going to be with all the people, noise, and waiting at the beginning, but he did great. I was very proud of him.

Oh, and the first thing he said to me when I walked into his bedroom Wednesday morning:

"Wiggles were fun, Mommy!"

I guess they made a good impression on him, too.