We Made It!!!

We're here! We left on Friday at 4:30 pm est in the middle of a snowstorm and arrived Sunday morning at 2:30 am est (34 hours.... not bad). I'm glad we didn't wait to leave later because the snow just kept coming. School was canceled on Friday and again today. It's sunny and 60 degrees here.... ahhhh.

I'm taking pictures and will post everything when we get back. Our computer is acting a little schizophrenic and it's difficult to type anything. Have a Merry Christmas (happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa) everyone!!!

Mommy Grinch

I have too much to do. I have to wrap up Christmas by this Friday at 3pm so we can load into a car and drive to Arizona for Christmas. I also still have to pack for the trip...ugh.

Either way, it will be nice to be done. Christmas is a bit scaled back on all counts this year...that's not so bad. However, it would be nice if my home looked a bit more festive. I've been lax in the home decorating department, much to my kid's dismay. It's hard to decorate when you know you are not going to be in town for Christmas. I'm planning on traveling and just enjoying my mom's decorating, plus she said we could trim the tree. I'm feeling a bit guilty though so I decided to highlight the decorations we have up. We have an advent calendar, an easy decorating addition....

These cute, little wire trees were in a chinese auction basket that we won at Tom's montessori school's Christmas party. They look quite nice on the mantle...

and we are hanging up the cards we receive on the doorways of our home. That adds a festive feel....


Ok, that didn't make me feel better at all. I can only pledge to myself to do better next year.....

Tommy's Christmas Party... and a Gary Update

Tommy had his Christmas party on Thursday. It was a cute event with a chinese auction (we won a basket!), potluck dinner, and a performance by the 3, 4,and 5 year-olds in the school. Very sweet. Tommy insisted on wearing his santa hat and the other siblings thought that would also be fun. They were the only ones wearing santa hats so it made it easy to locate them in the crowds...

Here they are before they hit the potluck line....


Here's Tom waiting for his opportunity to perform....


Here's Tom singing his songs (he's a little obstructed by the kid with the antlers). Check out the kid who is picking his nose... hilarious! ....


Also, Gary is not dead. He laid around for a while and then started ambling around the tank again... crazy. I guess that means we can expect more snails.... ugh.

I Think it's For Real This Time....

I admit it, I have no life. It's no secret. Zero. Zip. Nada. My form of entertainment is watching the snails in our tank for a few minutes every day. We have a whole new crop of them since I bought some new plants for Bob the crayfish (they were stowaways on the plants). I've learned a bit about them too. For example, I have ramhorn snails. I even have a red ramhorn snail which is considered more rare.

The excitement with the snails, however, never were amongst themselves but rather between Bob and the rest of the group. Bob can pick off the little guys quite easily, but there are now three big ones that are proving to be pesky. Today, I noticed something quite strange. Two of the big snails were all tangled up (the red one "Scarlet" and Gary). I figured they were just looking for some "afternoon delight". Here they are below...

I have to say though, it's shaping up to be a real soap opera! When I came back later Gary was all shriveled, still attached to Scarlet, at the bottom of the tank, and looked to be dead (not a great photo, but trust me... he's looks very dead)!...

Is it possible that Scarlet the temptress has only lured Gary to gain control of the tank? How can it be that Gary, who has weathered so many attacks from Bob, can succumb to the siren call of Scarlet? Is Gary just recovering from a exhausting afternoon? Considering my exciting life, I'll be sure to post an update....

ps- I just walked by the tank and Gary is still lifeless and the other big snail is latched on too. Either there is some gang mentality forming in the tank or a three-way (much better than a soap opera!)

Tidbits and a Blackmail Photo

Nice quiet weekend. Everyone was a little sick or on the edge of getting a cold which made it a bit more subdued. Lots of little things to document though (five to be exact).

-#1 Probably the most important item is that school was closed this morning for Pete and Matt. There was a water main break (a pleasant surprise). Here they are showing their excitement....

-#2 We gave the dog a bath this weekend. Oh Man, she was stinky! In addition to the skunky dog and Febreeze smell she was sporting, she peed in her bed and reeked of dog urine. That was the tipping point for me, and she got her long deserved bath. I think wet dog is a pathetic/cute look, so I took a picture...

Allie and Tommy were enjoying the entertainment, I was just trying to stay out of the picture....

Here she is warming by the fireplace...

-#3 I'm keeping up with my winter "challenge" so far. The driveway is current on it's shoveling. My bigger challenge, however, is trying to get outside before my father-in-law shovels it first. He can get a head start on me in the morning because he doesn't have five kids to feed. My intention with not getting a plow contract was not to try to get my 74 year-old father-in-law to shovel (!), it was for me to get exercise and save money. This adds an additional element of excitement and urgency to my "challenge". Here's a picture of our home with a nice and clear driveway. Ah.......

-#4 Every night, when I put Tom to bed, we talk about the best part of our day. Last night, the dialogue went roughly as follows...

Me: "So what was the best part of the day?"

Tom: "Spending time with you." (awwwww!)

Me: "What was your second best part of the day?"

Tom: "Discovering I liked canned fruit." (!)

I love our little chats.

-#5 Speaking of Tom, I have come to the blackmail part of the blog. Yesterday Tom and Allie were playing in her room before dinner. They both came running down in bathing suits. I had to snap a picture...

To make it funnier, Tom told me he likes Allie's suits better because they are softer and he likes the pictures on them. He would like me to buy him one for the upcoming swim season. =)

Sammy's Christmas Concert

Sammy had his Christmas concert yesterday. I know it's probably more politically correct to say "holiday concert" but it really was a Christmas concert. Sure, they started off with the token Hanukkah and Kwanzaa song, but then they went full blast into the Santa story and left everything else in the dust. I honestly don't have much passion about it, just an observation.

It was a really cute play (better than most), and it was nice to give a nod to diversity in our whitey christian town. I think in our town, Pete, with his darker complexion, is considered "ethnic" for heaven's sake... but I digress.....

Allie and I went to see the concert together. She was really excited to see Sam on stage....

Here's a picture of Sam. I tried to zoom and take the picture, but it didn't really work... at all. It's all blurry, I really need a better quality camera. Honestly, the only reason I'm posting it is because I always forget to bring my camera to events like this and I'm just pleased with myself for remembering. If you can decipher kids in the photo, Sam is in the second row from the top, right in the middle, and looks like he's peeking out from behind a girl in the row in front of him...

Sammy did great. He didn't have any speaking parts or solos, but he knew all the words, and did all the hand gestures and signs (some songs had sign language signs as well) perfectly. Yea Sam!

Eh...

I've been lamenting my holiday photo. It's not really what I want. My kids are all just lined up with goofy looks on their faces. I think there's too much space between them. I usually like to give a nice photo to the Grandparents every few years, but this one will not cut it. Oh well, it's going out with the cards anyway. Here's a sneak peek....

A Silly Diddy...

Ok, I'll admit it. I look at failblog every day. I can't help it. Bobby thinks the site is juvenile and most of the images have been photo-shopped. He's probably right, but every few days I still find a photo, video, or drawing that cracks me up. Check out this one.....

I Did It!!!

Phew! What a month! I can't believe I completed NaBloPoMo. Not to say there weren't any hiccups, but I had 30 posts in 30 days. Now I can return to my regularly scheduled mediocrity.

Besides noting my paltry accomplishment, I have a birthday wrap-up as well... I truly feel like I have been run over by a train. It was an action-packed day yesterday which ended with a meltdown last night from Tom, and Allie's slight sniffles morphing into a full blown cold. The big guys are tired but doing ok. The day went pretty much as planned, except for dinner.

We had to get our dinner tacos to go because Allie was under the weather. When I came home I discovered that Matt's taco had sour cream on it (big problem). There was huge pressure on this day to have it executed perfectly and sour cream was not part of the plan. I realized as Matt's eyes were welling up that I would have to return to get new tacos. Despite the dinner hitch, everything else went swimmingly.

I love that Matt loves to plan his day, but to be perfectly honest, I wish his birthday was at the end of the birthday marathon. He sets such a high standard, and gets all the other kids in a birthday frenzy. Tommy is now planning his day (bigger and better, of course). It's almost all he talked about yesterday. Oh well.... one down, four to go.

I forgot my camera for the bounce house facility and for the Pokemon league (surprise, surprise) but I remembered to take a picture of the birthday boy blowing out the candles of his rice krispy treat cake. Here's my big-shot-nine-year-old blowing out his candles...

I also posted a picture of the rice krispy treat cake for those who inquired. I usually don't frost it, but he wanted it frosted (it's better without). It's really amazing what you can shape rice krispy treats into; quite a "miracle food" really....

The Big Day

I didn't really get a chance to write my Thanksgiving wrap-up because of my need to comment on the Christmas music but to make a boring day brief, it was really nice. The kids did great, the food was great, it was nice to relax afterward, and the driveway got shoveled (twice!).

I have to gloss over that a bit though because today is the day Matt has been preparing and planning for. This day has been thought through, refined, tweaked and retweaked for months. I have to write this the night before because I know when I wake up, there is a schedule that must be kept.

It's hard to believe my baby will be nine. He is such a sweet little guy, but as I look at him, he's not so little anymore. He's a big guy, with a wonderfully developed personality, wit, and sense of empathy. I wish I had my baby pictures scanned into my computer so I could post a baby picture, but I'll just have to settle for a more recent picture of him doing what he loves; winning pokemon tournaments....

Happy Birthday Matty-man. We love you and hope you have a great day!

Worst Christmas Song Ever....

I'll have to do a Thanksgiving wrap-up tomorrow, this post cannot wait.... In a previous life, when I worked at a radio station, I used to be inundated with Christmas music during the holidays. The first week was fine, but by the end of the holiday season it felt like I was listening to fingernails on a chalkboard. Time has helped to heal this wound but it's taken me nearly a decade to look forward to Christmas music again, especially the new releases by contemporary artists.

This song must have been released while I was on hiatus; I think it's been out for seven years now. Have you heard this one? It's called "The Christmas Shoes". I just heard it for the first time the other day. It's about a little, grubby boy who is trying to buy some shoes for his mom because she is dying and he wants her to look good as she meets her maker. She's been sick for a while, she always made Christmas really nice in her home, and the shoes are just her size, so he wants them. Problem is that he is short money and cannot afford the shoes. He looks to the man behind him who is narrating the song and asks what he should do. The man forks out the money for the shoes and feels grateful that the boy has reminded him of what Christmas is all about.

Ok, the first issue I have is the sappy style of the song. You know it was written with one purpose in mind: to make us cry. I think it was authored by the same people who wrote those Hallmark commercials in the 1980's. It bothers me when people purposely try to tap into the cry emotion to make a buck. I have a hunch that this is probably the only hit this artist will ever have. They were probably aware of that too, so they had to make it count.

Next, the song was definitely written by a man. If I'm on my deathbed, I don't want a red pair of sling back pumps. I want my family around me, I want chocolate, I want a massage. Every woman knows that.

Lastly, I'm offended that the only reason the narrator would help the boy is because the woman is on her deathbed. If she was only kind-of sick, or not sick at all, would he tell the boy to "scram"? How about if he was just hungry? Would that merit his help? Why does the situation have to be so extreme in order to get this man to act? Yea guy, you're a real hero. That's what Christmas is all about... helping little kids buy inappropriate, uncomfortable, shoes so they can jam them on their mom's swollen feet before she dies. Kudos to the songwriter.

I know I sound like a real Scrooge about the song and some people are going to comment that they like the song. Do as you may, but I feel the songwriter took it too far, and sent me over the edge.

Bah Humbug.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It's a medium busy day over here. There's great benefit to living with a mother-in-law. One, she's a great cook. Two, she likes to make Thanksgiving dinner (all I need to do is make mashed potatoes- woo hoo). Three, now that our homes are connected, I get to smell all the good cooking without any of the worry that I could mess it up. I love the community dinners where everyone brings something. I can not imagine trying to make a full dinner by myself (my mom used to do that).

I do need to clean up my house though because we'll be eating in this part of the house. It's a small price to pay. Jeanne (Bob's sister), her husband, and three kids will be coming too so there will be fourteen this year.... a modest number for us. The kids are excited about seeing their cousins but probably most looking forward to Aunt Jeanne's lemon pie.

The other item I need to address before dinner is our driveway. It's a mess and it needs to be cleared by noon when company is expected to arrive. We received our first significant amount of accumulation and I need to shovel it.

The driveway is my "winter challenge". Bob wanted to get a plow contract as we have in years past, but I didn't want to because it seemed silly to pay someone now that the kids are older and it's my slow season. Plus, it's good exercise for me, and it's money that we could use elsewhere. Bob just laughed and told me to "have a good time with that". So it's my challenge. It seems like it should be more fun if it's a "challenge", I'll let you know how it goes. I'll post some picts of the snow tomorrow.

Well, I'm off to shovel. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm thankful for my family, friends, healthy children, and warm winter boots.

We Should Have Named Her Hoover

I haven't thought about it much, but since Kiko's arrival a couple months ago, I don't have to sweep anymore (more disinfecting, but no sweeping). She'll eat any crumb that falls to the floor, she'll eat dust bunnies, she'll eat discarded wrappers. She'll eat anything. It's so great, I brought her out to the van and let her have at it. I did draw the line when she found a fossilized chicken mc nugget in there though. Heaven knows how long that was there and I don't want her to get sick. That's the point after all, to eliminate mess... not make more by having her throw up. Here's a photo I snapped yesterday while she was eating a dust bunny, you can see part of it hanging off the right side of her mouth.....


ps- I was joking about bringing her to the van just to eat the food off the floor. She does do that when she rides in the van, but I don't take her out there for that specific purpose (the chicken mc nugget part was completely true). I'm sure PETA organizations all over the world are preparing their legal attack.

Unpacking and Reflecting

It's nice to be home. Don't get me wrong, I really liked my alone time with Bob, but it is nice to be home with the kids. It won't be long before we won't have to make such grand preparations for a three day weekend and will be able to hop into a car and go. It's a little bittersweet. I sometimes wonder what I did with my time before kids.

If my writing sounds subdued, I'm just a little tired. We really had a great time and, for the first time we have left for a weekend alone (this is our third time), I felt like everyone was ok at home. That was comforting and allowed me to relax a bit.

Jerry Seinfeld was really good. He wasn't great, but really good. His opening act (Tom Papa) was excellent. If you hear of him coming to town, you should see him... he's hilarious. In Seinfeld's defense, it's a lot harder to keep up an act for an hour than it is for fifteen minutes. The evening was really fun though, which is what matters.

I think the best choice we made was to rent a car. It was very liberating to hop in our car and not wait for a cab, plus it was extremely cost effective. We drove around (with the windows down!) to Lake Las Vegas, down the strip to gawk, and even to the mall. I don't remember the last time I went to the mall, let alone with just my husband. It was nice (being with Bob, the mall part was so-so).

We played two low buy-in poker tournaments (~$45). Bobby won the first tournament and I came in third. I came in sixth on the second one. It was fun, but I'm a little sick of poker. That's Bob's game anyway, I'm just along for the ride.

I did have a few trip related and post-trip thoughts....

1- Vegas is a weird place. It was fun, but I've never been a partier and can't understand the party lure. I fought with myself from saying something to the women I saw primping (and pimping) themselves (i.e. "c'mon ladies... have some respect for yourselves and put your 'girls' away! They don't need that much air.").

2- The cool thing about Vegas is there is so much to do that there is something for everyone, except children. I don't think people should take their kids to Vegas for vacation and stay anywhere near the strip. Whenever I saw someone pushing a stroller it made my stomach turn, especially in a casino or on the strip. It's just not a place for them...

3- I forgot I had a dog. I feel kind of guilty about that. When I was gone, I thought about my kids often. I called the house twice a day and Lola once a day. The night before we left Vegas, I noticed a billboard addressing abandoned dogs and was struck with the fact that I owned a dog. It's not that I don't like her (she's actually growing on me), but it's still too new and my brain was too preoccupied thinking about the kids.

4- I hate snowy, cloudy weather. It was great to come home and see the kids but so depressing to descend through the clouds, into Buffalo, and see it gray and blah. Perhaps that has me a bit morose. We are here because family is here and we live in a great community, but there has to be some other great community in a warmer climate that Bob's family would move to. Perhaps this merits more investigation.

5- Not all buffets are the same. We had a coupon for our hotel's buffet (buy one, get one) and it was OK, but the Bellagio buffet was the best by far. Luckily, we were able to eat the Bellagio dinner buffet for a discounted price and everything was divine. The sushi, pasta, crab legs...everything was excellent; don't even get me started on the desserts. (As an aside, why do I crave the stuff that is bad for me? Why can't I lust for steamed veggies after a tiring day?) If you get to go to Vegas, you have to eat at the Bellagio buffet.

6- My dog really smells bad, worse than I remembered. She stayed at a great place that has three dogs and came home happy but more fragrant than ever. I'm too lazy to give her a bath right now so I sprayed some Febreze for Pets on her. It sort of worked but now she's a weird hybrid of smelly dog and fresh flowers. It's a Jekyll and Hyde sort of thing where sometimes she smells good and sometimes smells repulsive. I'll have to give her a bath before Thursday.

7- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was perhaps one of the worst movies I have seen in years. It didn't even make any sense. Hello, aliens? What the heck is that? The writing was terrible and even the action scenes lacked any spark. I can't believe I paid money to watch it ($11.99 in room movie). It was so bad I started packing while watching to feel like my time wasn't completely wasted. We watched a bunch of movies (that weren't animated!). Get Smart was great and laugh out loud funny. Mama Mia was just weird. Anytime you string ABBA songs together and try to work a story in between, it's going to be odd (and I even like ABBA). Also, Pierce Brosnan cannot sing. I just felt embarrassed for him.

8- It will take me a week to recover from this trip but it's worth it. I'm glad Bobby thinks it's important to take time out to be together. Spending more time with him reminds me of all the things I like about him and why I married him. He's such a great guy. I can't wait for our next weekend trip together. Next time, I want to go on a three day cruise to the Bahamas and hope for an absence of hurricanes and food poisoning.

Home at Last

We're home. Phew. We had a great time and everyone did really well while we were gone; even the dog. It's late though, and I'm really tired and still playing a bit of catch up with work so a longer post will have to wait until tomorrow. It sure is nice to be home though.

It's a start....

I signed the handmade pledge a few weeks ago and things have been moving slowly. I have made a little progress though. Here are some barrettes that I made with the help of my friend Kristina. They definitely have a homespun feel. Hopefully the recipient won't find them repulsive....

I'm going to try this one more time....

Greetings from Las Vegas!!!! If I'm being completely honest, I'm still in Buffalo but working a little ahead so I can truly enjoy my vacation. I stumbled across this about a month ago and have wanted to post it.

However, since I really don't know how to load videos, it's proven to be a problem. I've read all the tutorials and I'm going to try again. I hope this works. It's titled "worst best man" and worth a giggle...





Ah ha!!! Success!!!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

We're off today. Off to sunny Vegas for a few days of hanging out in warm weather, sleeping in, and seeing Jerry Seinfeld. We're staying off-strip so we might meander around town and see if we can find some interesting restaurants, shops, and slightly less touristy places. If anyone has any suggestions, let us know. As fun and exciting as it is to go have some time alone, form complete thoughts, and have conversations without being interrupted, I'm really going to miss the little guys while I'm gone. I'm sure when it's time to go home, I'll be chomping at the bit to see my gang. I miss them already... *sniff*.

Again?

I guess if you tag someone, you get tagged again...or so I am finding. Ok. I suppose I had it coming. This is a fun one though so here I go.....

1. Go to your pictures file.
2. Go to the 4th file.
3. Go to the 4th picture.
4. Post it and tell the story.
5. Tag 4 more people:

http://moreyfamily.blogspot.com/
http://workman.blogspot.com/
http://cosmo13.blogspot.com/
http://warners-world.blogspot.com/

Last winter in January of 2008, when we were living in the rental house, we had one day of unusually warm weather. I think the high was 58 degrees and sunny, which is unheard of around here. It was such a glorious day that we stopped everything we were doing and went outside to enjoy the weather. Because of the warmth, the snow had melted and the driveway was dry. The kids were thrilled at the prospect of skateboarding outside on the ramp and riding their bikes, especially Tom (he's almost 4 in this picture). It's rare to ever have a day in January where the kids don't have to load up with hats, gloves, boots, and especially jackets. It was a wonderful respite even if only for a day.

Two days later there was a foot and a half of snow on the ground.... =(

Jerry, Baby!!!

After the death of George Carlin, Bobby and I were lamenting the fact that we never saw him perform. He had come to Buffalo not too long before his death, but we opted not to see him.

We were talking about all the comedic greats of our time and we decided Jerry Seinfeld has to be one of the best. We had downloaded some of his performances from iTunes and, after listening to them, made a pact that if we had the chance to see him, we should. A couple months ago, Bob found that Seinfeld had just announced some performance dates in Vegas. So we booked a trip! We're in the nosebleeds (front row nosebleeds though) to see him, and are doing the trip on the cheap, but are really excited for a long weekend together in a warm location. We are staying off-strip in a really nice hotel with a bowling alley and a movie theater and renting a car ($10 a day!).

It's amazing how many days of preparation it takes for a four day trip. Between food preparation, shuffling the dog off to a babysitter, making arrangements with the human babysitter, and just packing, it's going to be a busy few days. I hope it's worth it!

New Game

Tommy made up a new game and got Allie to play along. The game consists of Tom taking all his clothes out of his closet and dresser and stuffing it into a laundry basket. Then he helped Allie do the same! Yeah! My favorite part of the game is when I get to hang it all back up!

On a less sarcastic note, it would have been more irritating if Tom wasn't so adorable, it's hard to be annoyed at this little guy.

Milk, Butter, Eggs..........

So it's come to this. The publishing of the grocery list in order to fulfill my NaBloPoMo requirement. I'm really not sure how I'm going to do this, I'm barely halfway through the month. My life is just too darned boring. I just spent my morning trying to find a lower price to get my dog spayed (my vet wants $400!). I also need to make cookies as "thank you" gifts for a few clients. It's truly riveting, I know. There's nothing blog worthy here.

Yesterday was fun though. My friend from middle school, Heather, came by to visit for a few hours. She was in the area and brought her three boys as well. It's hard to believe that it's been almost four years since I last saw her.... how time flies. I forgot to take pictures until just as they were getting their shoes on to go. Figures......

Of course she's as cute and as funny as ever. If she wasn't so nice, I'd hate her. ;)

Recovering

I brought the kids in for their holiday picture yesterday. I only have their picture taken every other year because it's such a hassle. I don't know how people can do it more often than that. We only started taking their picture that often because we wanted a kid photo with the new baby which happens every other year. This year the new addition is the dog.

The bummer is the pictures didn't turn out so great. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but it's knocked the wind out of my sails a bit. There is ying for the yang though (or is it yang for the ying?). About half an hour after unloading from our long photo morning, my neighborhood Girl Scouts dropped off my cookie order that I had long forgotten about. Hallelujah! Thank goodness for thin mints.....

It's pathetic when chocolate can completely change your mood.

Tooth Fairy Blunder

Sam lost his tooth unexpectedly yesterday. He mentioned it was loose and asked me to tug it. I tugged it and it popped right out! He was thrilled at the promise of another payout. Teeth are big bucks for six-year-olds thanks to the Lola supplemental tooth fund ($5 per tooth).

Sam put his tooth under the pillow that night and happily fell asleep. However, much to Sam's dismay, when he awoke the next morning, the tooth was still there. What happened to the Tooth Fairy? Why was Sam's tooth still there? Where the heck was Sam's money? There were lots of questions to be answered. While I can't speak for the Tooth Fairy, I'm sure it probably had to do with the fact that the Tooth Fairy can be flighty and forgetful sometimes (as most fairies are) and Mr. Tooth Fairy probably did not remind her that she had to collect a tooth that night, but that is just my guess.

I did help Sam inspect his bed and we did find the $1 that somehow made its way into Sam's pillowcase. He hadn't thought to look there I guess. But there was still the issue of the tooth left behind. I offered to mail the tooth to her P.O. Box in White Plains, New York. We once had to mail one of Matt's teeth to her White Plains P.O. Box when she accidentally left it behind. Sam declined, however, wanting to opt for the possiblity of collecting twice by leaving his tooth under his pillow for a second night.

Well, the Tooth Fairy cannot be fooled (flighty, yes. sucker, no). She collected her tooth and left Sam a note explaining her tooth bag had a hole in it and the tooth fell out. His tooth is now safely at her palace (in White Plains) and Sam has a good story to tell.

Tagged

Wheee! I'm a day ahead on my blogging. That's cool. I can't believe I'm still doing the blogging. I purposely decided to opt out so I could avoid the mid-month drivel. Oh well.

I was tagged the other day from my friend Heather so I figured I'd post it on my blog (I guess it's one better than publishing my grocery list). It's not too long either. Original questions are in red, my response is in black...

4 Random Things I Like About Quentin (that's Heather's husband)

ummmm. He seems nice, but I don't really know him that well. I'll try my Bob...

4 Random Things I like About Bob

1- He makes me laugh hard at least once a day.
2- I can tell him anything.
3- He's a great dad.
4- Even if I cooked a bomb of a meal, he always pretends to like it.
5- (I had one more come to mind) He always makes me feel beautiful even if I look like a butt.

4 Jobs I've Had

(I'll choose my worst ones for fun)

1 - Collection Agent (that was just stinky- I would hit my goals though)
2 - Maid in a hotel (that was fun actually)
3 - Radio Researcher (I'd interview radio listeners to determine market trends- it was an in to the business)
4 - Waitress (I liked that job too)

4 Movies I've Watched More Than Once

I'm not a huge movie person but I'll see what I can do...

1 - Ocean's 11 (one of Bob's favorite)
2 - Some Pokemon movie that I sit and watch with the kids.
3 - The Christmas Story
4 - The Sound of Music (I don't currently have a copy and Bob hates musicals, but it could possibly be the movie I watched most as it was the first movie we owned when we got a VCR).

4 TV Shows I Watch

1 - 30 Rock
2 - The Office
3 - How I met Your Mother
4 - Heroes

4 Favorite Foods

1 - Chocolate
2 - Any Mexican
3 - Appetizers
4 - Good thin crust pizza with lots of good toppings

4 Places I'd Like to Visit

1 - Honduras
2 - China
3 - New Zealand
4 - Hungary

4 Things I'm Looking Forward to in the Coming Year

1 - Finishing the little details on the house.
2 - Selling my million dollar listing (I hope it happens this upcoming year!).
3 - Having a dog that is housebroken.
4 - Completely cleaning and organizing my attic and basement, it's driving me crazy.

4 People I Tag

I'll do this alphabetically since there is no preference.

1 - Beth
2 - Kim
3 - Kristina
4 - Tammy

and....

5 - Jen I. (She's newer to the blogging realm, and I figured I'd share the fun)

Birthday Bonanza

We're starting to gear up for the birthday season. It's a marathon of sorts where we celebrate five family birthdays within about fifty days, not to mention Christmas stuck in the middle. I'm usually beat by the end. Poor Bobby. His birthday is the last of the marathon and he's lucky if he gets a supermarket sheet cake and trip through the McDonald's drive-through. He's a good sport but I always feel bad about it.

Matt's birthday starts the season and he definitely sets the bar quite high. He's been planning his day (within his allotted budget) for over a month and just unveiled his plans last night....

Sleep in (I'm guessing to around 8).

Eat cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Hang out after breakfast for a bit maybe Pokeduel with his brothers.

Then go to an indoor bounce house facility and bounce for a while, then eat pizza there for lunch.

Go play at the pokemon league from 2-5 (free event- woo hoo!).

Eat dinner at Mighty Taco.

Come home and eat a rice krispy treat birthday cake (an Effie Morgan original) and open presents.

Have a camp out overnight on our living room floor.


Phew! It looks like I have a busy day ahead of me. Wish me luck!

You Have To Try This... Seriously.

I'm in love, I'm absolutely in love. Yes, also with my husband, but this particular love is for an amazing rice salad. My friend, Kristina, shared some with me and it was so good I had to make some for myself. Now it haunts me. I'm sitting at my desk finishing up some work, dealing with a constipated four-year-old, and dreaming about this wonderful salad. It's so good I have to share it....

Sir Wasaono's Infamous Indonesian Rice Salad

2 C cooked, cooled brown rice* (I used three cups of leftover rice from dinner the night before and adjusted the veggies accordingly)

1/2 C raisins (I used dried mangos- mmmmmm!)

2 chopped scallions

1/4 C toasted sesame seeds

1/2 C thinly-sliced water chestnuts (didn't have any, didn't use them)

1 C fresh mung bean sprouts (didn't have any, didn't use them)

1/4 C toasted cashews

1 large, chopped green pepper (I didn't have one so I used a seedless cucumber instead)

1 stalk chopped celery

fresh parsley

dressing:

3/4 C orange juice

1/2 C safflower oil (I used canola)

1 T sesame oil

3-4 T tamari sauce (I didn't have any so I used high quality soy sauce and a tsp. of sugar)

2 T dry sherry (didn't have any, didn't use it)

juice of 1 lemon

1-2 cloves minced garlic

1/2-1 t freshly grated ginger root (didn't have any, didn't use it)

salt & pepper

Combine all ingredients and serve chilled on greens (we just ate the rice mixture although served on greens sounds good too). Also we used only half of the dressing for the rice (using all of it would be too much). I'm looking forward to using the rest soon though!

It made about 6 cups of salad and was not nearly enough. It was scarfed down quickly (mostly by me!). Here's a photo of it before dinner. It had already been sampled by me, my mother-in-law, Pete, and Bobby...


If anyone makes it, let me know what you think and if you're in the area, share some with me!!!

Diet Tips

Ok... so I'm still playing catch up a little. Yesterday (today in the blog world) was (is) a busy day which included, a lunch meeting in the city, showing a house in the city, baking browines for my favorite veteran (no, it's not John Kerry), and taking the kids to visit a friend's house on their day off. I have had this image lingering on my desktop that I have wanted to share for a while. This comes courtesy of fail blog. My brother turned me on to this blog a few weeks ago and now it's part of my daily ritual. This image just struck me as particularly funny...


P.S.- Happy Veteran's Day!

First Snow

And so it begins.... It's pretty to wake up to but a little depressing. It marks the beginning of the downward spiral. This will melt, sure, but eventually it sticks and then we have to start shoveling our driveways, scraping our cars, and bundling our kids like Randy in "The Christmas Story". At least we're almost halfway through November, just five more months to go. =(

Puppy Pros and Cons

It's been over three weeks since Kiko arrived on the scene, and I've been compiling my little pro and con list the whole time. I even had a blog draft floating around for a week or so stating how much I hated fleas, tapeworms, and dog poop (who doesn't?). It's hard for me to accurately describe this experience without sounding like a mean animal owner who is not fit to care for a sea monkey. So after more contemplation, and a blog rewrite, I hope I can convey my thoughts correctly...

#1- I have recently realized I will never be a dog owner that puts my dog on the same level as humans. She is a second class citizen (or perhaps more like a red-headed stepchild). I need to not feel so guilty about that. I actually think it's better for the dog that it's more of an employer/ employee relationship. The only problem is that as an employee, she is still a bit insubordinate.

#2- I am annoyed when she destroys my home. When she chews on my baseboards, when she pees or poops on the floor (especially after I had just taken her out and she refused to go) it bothers me.

#3- I like her better at night than in the morning. When we let her out of her crate in the morning she is crazy with excitement and that is when her house training accidents seem to happen most. I'm not blaming her but it can make for a hectic morning. She also likes to chew on anything she can get at during that crazy time. I know I'm going to be barraged with training tips so save your keystrokes. We follow all the recommendations of our vet, books, and dog savvy friends, but she still has issues sometimes. She also gets ample attention all day, every day. Bobby contends I give the dog more attention than some of my kids. That might be true because my kids are not about to poop on my floor at any given moment.

In the evening though, after the kids are in bed, we are able to snuggle with her every night. She is really a sweet lap dog in that respect.

#4- She has a "chug" face you cannot stay mad at. No matter what she has done, you can't stay mad at her for long. It is quite cute...

#5- The kids love her. Pete and Matt also share some responsibility in taking her out in the morning as well. They are developing empathy and learning to care for a creature that is dependent on them. I love that, and it is wonderful to see.

#6- She's a great animal bargaining chip. If my kids ask for any animals, I just have to point at Kiko and state "We got you a dog... we're done.".

So after some analysis, I think we'll be fine. We do love her, but she's a lot of work. It's getting better though and hopefully, one day, she'll be housebroken and not so "chewy".



ps- I know I'm still playing catch up with the NaBloPoMo, but I'll get there!!!