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.