Christmas Spirit

Do you wonder why I have to escape to the internet only to find bare bottomed girls? This is why.

These all make various noises and playes many, many Christmas tunes. We are actually missing one or two more that are scattered throughout my house.

These are fun, especially when played all at once, which is what makes my children happy. And they do it over, and over and over again.

help.

At Least Let Your C-Section Scar Heal First!

Is it too much to ask to roam freely around the internets, ready to soak in all the knowledge and answers the universe is ready to give me, without seeing Britney, Lindsey or Paris' bare vajayjay??

Anyone?

Apparently it is, because I have seen more naked vaginas in the past two weeks then Charlie Sheen on a bender.
WTF?

Doesn't anyone where underwear anymore?
A thong perhaps?

Under garments aren't even a fleeting thought when you wear a short skirt, enter and exit cars frequently on your way to becoming America's Next Top Whore, and are endlessly followed by guys with cameras??
Hmm.

I am just glad to see that two children under the age of 15 months isn't slowing Britney's partying.
Good for her.

Say Cheese

Today is picture day at R & L's preschool. Wasn't it just yesterday where I was sitting on my school's stage waiting for my turn at picture day? A free comb and the satisfaction of a job good done is a memory. I will last forever.

Ok, maybe not but I still remember it clearly.
Now it was my turn to do my daughter's hair and find a nice outfit for both of them. Surely I wanted them to stand out for the class picture!

Wow, it is true, I have turned into my Mother.

No Spoil Zone

For the first time in a couple of years I didn't go out shopping on black Friday. I really wasn't in the mood and I didn't really have the money to spend anyway.
Instead I am carefully selecting gifts for the kids, something that they will love and has lasting playing power. Not just anything that is a great price like I will usually buy, with no thought to if they will like it after the first ten minutes.

I don't want my kids to become spoiled, I don't want them to assume, like other children in our family, that if you ask for it you will get it, no matter the cost. I want them to know about giving, about how some children have no toys, never mind the decision of which one to play with.
Every year I buy gifts for a child R & L's age. We also donate to other charities, but this makes me feel better about teaching my kids what the season is all about. I let them pick out gifts for a boy or girl (each year I switch) and we wrap them together.
This year they really get it.
I love that.


Oh, and visit me over at my other site and let me know what you do when you have a child with a BAD cough.

Amanda

Amanda has received some terrible news. During the holidays she will need a huge amount of support from her family & friends. I consider her a friend and this makes my heart hurt.
Let's all go over to her web site and show her some support.

Give Thanks

I went to the grocery store today. I know, the worst day of all the days to go. I woke up early so I thought I could get a head start on the crowds.
I was wrong.

I pulled into a spot and went to get out of my car when I saw what appeared to be a young man in the car next to me with shaggy hair. He looked so strange, he was staring straight ahead, so I eased out of the car to get a better look.
I jumped back, it was a dog!
A dog with shaggy people hair wearing a cut off sweatshirt, a bandana and driving a Honda.
WTF?
I swear it freaked me out.

So this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for not having a heart attack in the Shop Rite parking lot. Because then the dog would have to drive my kids home and I don't know how well he drives.

Food

Continuing our Thanksgiving theme this week, I want to know what is your favorite thanksgiving day foods? Is it the appetizer? Apple pie? Do you like your stuffing with fruit and nuts or traditional? Is there any strange thing you eat this day? Any recipe you want to share is welcomed too!

I loooove white trash green bean casserole. It is the only casserole I like, usually I hate foods all mushed together, but this I love.
I also heart this pumpkin cheesecake I make. I don't like pumpkin pie or muffins, but in this recipe it is to die for. YUM.

The only strange thing we have is lasagna for the non turkey lovers.

Bad Turkey Day

Many people are traveling far and wide to spend Thanksgiving with their families. Some do it willingly, others do it begrudgingly.

I love my family, I have a ton of Aunts, Uncles and cousins that I love to spend time with. Because of the large size of our family it isn't the small sit down Thanksgiving dinners I am accustomed to. Up until I was an adult most dinners were my immediate family, my maternal Grandma and my Mother's sister and her family, we didn't see my Father's family on Thanksgiving, Christmas is their holiday.

So we have a buffet style Thanksgiving now, with everyone bringing something and I love it, but it isn't the same. E & I usually have a small turkey feast the weeks before Christmas, so we can have all of our old favorites just the way we like it.
So, while that is not the worst Thanksgiving story ever, I would like to hear some of yours?
Do you hate your family? To much football? Do people always burn the turkey and the gravy sucks?
Tell me what you do NOT like about Thanksgiving.

Holidays By The Numbers

Number of pieces of Halloween candy still left in my house: 29

Number of Days after Halloween when I called a store and they answered the phone with a not so cheerful "Happy Holidays": 1

Number of days before Halloween I saw Christmas decorations and stock going up: 10

Number of holidays that seem to be rushed through and nearly forgotten: 1 Thanksgiving

Number of gifts I have bought so far for Christmas: 2

Number of gifts I have yet to buy: 34974

Number of dollars I have to purchase the gifts: $0.00

Number of days left in this depressing year: 42

Playstation Hype.

To the man who stood outside Best Buy for three days to be first in line for a playstation 3 game console, I have only one thing to say to you: You are a fucking loser.

You are a grown ass man standing outside a store to get a video game. Don't you work? Contribute to society in any way? Don't give me BS about it is for your kids either, it is for you, because you are a loser.
Teach your kids how to earn $600 for a game then I bet, they will make big changes to their "must have Christmas list".

I know E wants this and maybe I will get it for him for his birthday when the prices go down and "availability" goes up. There is no way in hell even if I had $600+ dollars to spend on my husband either he or I would pay that much a stay on line that long for it.
Fuckity, fuck, fuck you Sony.

[end rant]

TGIF?

After one weeks worth of rainy, gloomy, depressing days, the sun is finally out here in NJ.
Just the clear sky and sun makes me wake up and feel so much better about life. I don't know why I let the weather dictate my moods, and I really try not to let it, but it does.

Today at the grocery store my daughter chatted up anyone who was in hearing distance and some that were not. That girl will talk to anyone. Do you want to hear her spell her name? Her brother's name? The alphabet? ALL the colors in the rainbow in Spanish? Her count to 30?
No? Then do not approach me in any way shape or form.


I am now trying to tell them what to do if they were ever lost from me. They have started walking off in stores and it scares me to death. It stressed me out so much that I try to only take one kid to the store at a time if I have a choice.
Really, I like to leave them both at home!

I have a question for all you ladies, if you have a fight/argument/disagreement with your husband does he just let you go to bed mad wake up and act like nothing happened? Does he just ignore it? Even if there was no resolve to the problem and/or argument?
Men! I swear!

O's list

I am with the majority of you and take the free shit from O, sick as a dog or not.
Whatever you think of the big O, she is giving away diamond watches, cashmere robes and video camcorders and shit. This isn't some rinky dink gift basket from Hickory Farms.
This is big time.

I would take the good stuff from Hitler if he was giving it away.
Ok, maybe not Hitler. We are talking about the best hot chocolate in all of the land and if you haven't had it before, it is worth booking a trip to NYC for it. At least order some for yourself and for me. Jeesh.

Perhaps this says something about my character, about my person. Perhaps it says I am greedy.
It would be right.

Hump Day

I am off to tour New Jersey with a stop in the northern part for a little girl time with my friends, one of whom is trying to get pregnant, one of whom is pregnant and the other who had her baby two months ago.
I do need a little friend time so I am excited.

Here is a question for you while I am at play:
What would you rather do: go to Oprah's favorite things show
or
not get one cold, sniffle or cough this entire year?

PJs

New Jersey is cold in the winter. That may not surprise you but it will shock the shit out of pajama manufacturers. Why, you ask?
Because every pajama I have seen sold in stores lately is a tank top and pants. Who the fuck wears a tank top to bed in January in the northeast?

I received my Victoria's Secret Christmas book yesterday and more of the same filled every page, tank tops, flannel pants and warm slippers.
Now I keep my house warmer then E & I would like to at night in winter because the kid's rooms are cold. I don't like warm pajamas either, like long sleeve flannel sets. I would love cotton pants and a nice fitting (read: not so TIGHT as to sausage in my boobs and not short so when I awake in the night the bottom of my shirt is around my neck) t-shirt.
Is that so much to ask for?
Apparently.

Isn't there a happy medium? Do you have to sweat to death all night or freeze?

Maybe I am crazy, do you peeps wear tank tops to bed in the winter?

Traditions

I was listening to a radio show today, that I sometimes listen to in the car if nothing else is on. The hosts are fairly annoying and they make fun of callers who don't agree with them. I didn't like them before today and now I hate them.

They were talking about how the female host would pick up her husbands clothes because he will just throw them on the floor when he was done, that was her role. She went on to say that she will give a little slack to women who work outside the home because they work very hard. She clarified that if you "get to stay home and raise the kids" that cleaning up for your husband whose gift it was to let you stay home you should clean up his shit.

I so do not agree with the host but I do think that I am home with more not free time but flexible time that I can do things for my husband that I would not be able to do so easily if I worked outside of the house. I will let him know where his dirty pants can go if he wanted them clean, just as easily as he can beg me to check for my hair on the bathroom floor more regularly because it skeeves him.

BUT, my husband is great he has no troubles pitching in, or doing the chores I hate. We do not gender assign chores, we just do whatever we can, whenever we can.

Tell me what works for you in your house. Do you have traditional roles?

It is Friday Already?

What should we talk about today? The fact that my in laws are leaving for their daughter's house in two hours and I am already watching the clock?

Or that I really need some mom friends in my neighborhood so we can have cocktails every Friday night like these women.

Perhaps I should talk about how the candy from Halloween is rapidly becoming extinct. My hips and I have no idea why.

More importantly, am I the only one who looked at my calendar yesterday and realized that Thanksgiving is in two weeks? These holidays are coming fast and furious.
That means Christmas will be here in the blink of an eye or more like 2 more paychecks and where god, where is the money going to come from to buy all the gifts we have to buy???????
Yikes.

How Great Was LOST?

The in laws are coming! The in laws are coming!

They should be here in a couple of hours. Being a great daughter in law, I am cleaning, laundering and fluffing everything in this house.

With all this cleaning, I don't have it in me to write a decent post.
Desperate for something to read though? Join me at my other blog and lets talk about parenting scars.

Randomness

It is a rainy day here in NJ. The gloom and rain had me wanting to stay in bed all day but I heard my son coughing downstairs and coughing and coughing.
Why do coughs linger forever? Why don't cough medicines ever work?

I have a lot of cleaning to do today and I am already on my fourth load of laundry. My in laws are arriving tomorrow (cue scary music).

They will be staying at my sister in laws house mostly, just one night here with us I think. They want to spend time with our kids but my sister in law lives about an hour away so I don't know how often that is going to happen.

I have to finish my grocery shopping this afternoon, I am in the mood for potato leek soup. And snacks, definitely snacks, after all tonight is the last episode of LOST until February!
I am going to get the shakes.

Soup

I posted the potato soup recipe in my other, other blog.
If you make it let me know what you think.
Enjoy!

Dinner Conversation

Me: you know it is soup season. I think I will start with my red potato soup.

Him: Maybe I will make my world famous chicken noodle

Me: It really wasn't that good, plus I had to tell you how to make it so why is it "your world famous"

Him: because

Me: Actually, my doctors told me that it was your chicken soup that made me have a miscarriage

Him: ::blink, blink::

Me: Too soon for miscarriage jokes?

Him: No, I don't think so.

Him: I heard it was sooooo good it killed 'em

Me: Yeah, too soon.

Candy Coma

It may be just in my head but does fun size twix and snickers and Kit Kats just not taste as good as the full size?

I have done tons of research on this subject this weekend and both my fat ass and I agree that full size is where its at!

Inventions

Best Inventions Ever:
TiVo
Head tingler
Bagels
Dishwasher
Chapstick
Hair clips
Nap time
TV
Coctail hour
Kids pants with waist adjusters
Wrap Sandwiches
Table toppers
Memory foam slippers
Ice Cream
Vitamin water
Men

Worst Inventions Ever:
Any Tylenol cold product
Man thongs
Birkenstocks
PB&J in one jar
Anchovies
Pineapple soda
Patchouli
Itchy wool sweaters
Men




Now it is your turn, add to my lists.

Leaves

Today I want to go and look for some child size rakes. The heavy winds last weekend brought down a lot of leaves and for some reason swept all of the leaves in all of New Jersey into our yard.
Since we only have one rake, I need to get one for each of the kids. I mean why did we have kids if it wasn't for the labor??

Sugar High

The kids had a blast yesterday. My daughter looks adorable as Tinkerbell and my son was a muscular spiderman. They had a blast going from house to house. I went with them for a couple of houses then let E take over so I could man the candy at home. I don't know where they went to but I have about 5lbs of candy here that I stole from the kids baskets. Don't worry I left a few pieces of chocolate and replaced some others with raisins and teddy grahams.

We did get a lot of trick or treaters here, but I still have a lot of candy left over. I always over buy.

What I didn't need was a chocolate covered belgium waffle considering all the candy I have at home, but I bought one from Whole Foods anyway and it was one of the best decisions I have made in a long time.

That was gooood.