Momathon

Moving My Blog

2010-12-09T17:20:00.000-08:00

I am moving and renaming my Blog! What a change!

The new blog name is Rufflebutts and the new link is:
http://lilrufflebutts.blogspot.com/

I wanted a new name since so many of my hits are apparently people looking for running advice. I don't run. Ever.

And with four daughters, I thought rufflebutts sounded cute and appropriate for what I generally discuss. I just loved dressing them in ruffles when they were babies! Remember the tights with ruffles on the butt? My favorite!

I will still check here and try to make sure my archived posts don't disappear into cyberspace. Ok, come on over to Rufflebutts and read my latest parenting adventures!

I stabbed my tongue. Ow!

2010-12-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

Wearing braces is just not as easy as the teenagers make it look. I've seen so many teens and tween wearing braces and they seem unaffected by it all. Fakers!

I keep getting food mashed up in my braces and it's very difficult to get out. Then it feels like my mouth is all stuffed with mush, because it is. Very icky and uncomfortable. I have been brushing after eating and getting all of the extra bits of food out of the fence. But I also try to unwedge the bigger bits with my tongue.

I was eating rice or something, don't remember now, and I had a big hunk of it stuck on my upper molar. I just reached over with the tip of my tongue to dislodge my meal and I stabbed my tongue with the sharp hook on the metal bracket! OUCH! Really, I stabbed my tongue. It hurt so much!

There are hooks on the metal ring that hooks the wire onto that last molar tooth way in the back and that's what I jabbed my tongue on. So, I now have this tremendous puncture wound on the tip of my tongue.

And it freaking hurts! Why won't it heal up? I dunno, maybe because I'm always smothering it with food and things (brownies) that are not conducive to healing. In the meantime, I am suffering from a wounded tongue and my speech has completely gone south. I need speech therapy.

I can no longer say anything with an S in it. My poor little tongue owie and my braces are just too much for trying to say things like "Sally found seashells by the seashore" and "Stop slapping your sister". My lips have to wrap around all this extra hardware when I speak making me sound goofy and now with a stabbed tongue it's even worse.

I sound funny and my tongue hurts. I also have a bit of brownie stuck in my braces, but I'm just going to enjoy the chocolate taste all day.

Preschool Christmas Program

2010-12-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

December is off to a busy start! Gracie's preschool had their Christmas program on the 1st. They sure don't waste any time getting right to the holiday! I told Gracie that it is "Christmas season" now and she said "Already?"

Really, the 4 yr old thinks Christmas came along pretty fast, just imagine what I think. You probably don't need to imagine, it seems like everyone agrees that Christmas sure happens fast these days.

Anyway, the preschool had their program the other night and it was an experience to remember! We sort of thought it might be since our daughter has more personality than the average bear. When our older girls were in elementary school, my husband and I loved going to their spring singing concert every year. The Christmas thing was chaos, but the spring show was great! The kids came out grade by grade and sang. The best, absolutely the very best part of the show every year was this kid named Chance.

Yeah, we always went to watch someone else's kid. He was super entertaining! Our girls were nice singers, walked in line, stood nice and still in their assigned position, did the correct actions to the song... sure, love that. But that little guy, Chance, he was so exuberant that he was hilarious! Chance's mother was always the most embarrassed woman in the crowd, but everyone else just loved the boy's antics on stage. He sang the loudest, waved, danced when everyone else stood still, you know the type. He was Chance!

Well, as it turns out, our sweet little Gracie is a lot like Chance. And we were very very afraid. We said to each other, "I think she's Chance" and "Oh no, the Chance of this school is our kid!". The Preschool Christmas Program was scheduled for a Wednesday night, the night my husband teaches a college class. This means I'm going alone. The lone parent of the new Chance. I took the video camera and the jealous two year old.

If you have been reading with me for a while, you might remember that Gracie is a ballet school dropout. She was dancing to her own music, and it was very energetic powerful music that took her out front and the other ballerinas were merely back-up dancers. We didn't even have her go to the recital, practice was bad enough! Although this is a singing concert, whose to say she won't be dancing? One just never knows!

I decided to wear a dress and brush my hair for once. I guess I was thinking that if my kid was going to be the show-hog and everyone was going to stare at me with that "is that your kid?" look, at least I was going to look presentable. Gracie looked fabulous! She got a really cute haircut, a miniature manicure, and a new red and black holiday dress with bright pink shoes. She was just adorable! Right down to the ankles, below that needed some work.

We left three hours early. I know, that seems excessive, but you see.... we also had Charlie. And Lexie. We dropped Lexie off at work and then drove to Charlie's dad's house and dropped off Charlie for an evening of fun rather than an evening of sitting still and being quiet. He's a baby. It wasn't gonna happen.

Then we went to Payless to buy some black or red shoes. Success! Also ended up getting Libby some shoes. After shoe shopping, we went to In-n-Out for burgers and fries and lots and lots of napkins. We took our dinner to the Preschool, and check-in time was only an hour away now. Then I got the kids out of their carseats and we all sat in the back of the van and had a picnic in our beautiful dresses. It was fun! My van still smells like french fries, but we had a good time and we were on time for the concert.

We had time to take Gracie to the potty and I reached in my bag for my travel toothbrush to get all the fast food out of my braces. Ewww. After a lot of rummaging around in my purse, sifting through diapers, lollipops, nail clippers, spare socks, toys, and coins... I remembered that I tossed my toothbrush in the dishwasher and that's where it is. Ugh. I had to pick and swish with water. Oh well.

It was almost 6pm now and Gracie was supposed to report to her classroom at six. I took her to her room then Libby and I went to the big room to find our seats. This place is a contemporary church, so they don't have pews, but chairs. The chairs are all set in rows, does this matter? Anyway....

I went straight to the front row. I want a good video for my husband since he has to miss this. There were very few people in the room and one lady was in the front pulling some papers out of her bag and placing them on every chair in the first two and three rows. I looked and the papers said "Reserved ". Really? Before coming tonight to watch your kid, you sat at home and wrote out Reserved chair markers? Who does that? Who goes and saves 20 - 30 seats? While she was so rudely placing her signs on the front row chairs, I sat in the third row aisle chair and put Libby next to me. Took two of her spots! HA! In hindsight, I should have just taken a front row seat and tossed her reserved signs in the back. Wonder what Chance's mom would have done? I should call her.

Reserved seating started to fill in. Tallest guy in the audience sat right in the front row. Nice. The family right in front of me hit the cookie table pretty hard. Over and over and over again. In the 15 minutes that they sat there, they inhaled a dozen cookies at least. There were crumbs everywhere! Not sure why they couldn't eat them without scattering crumbs all over themselves, the chairs and the carpet, but they sure made a mess. And the cookies are for AFTER the show. Great, now Libby wants a cookie too.

The show started at 6:30 and by this time, Libby was fidgeting and fussing and wanted to run around and play. But she didn't want to leave me, she's clingy like that. Luckily, the program started and she was happy! Yay!

The kids were escorted from the back of the big room, up the middle aisle and onto the stage. People came from the back of the room and filled in along the sides of the audience for a better view of the little runts.

First the two-year olds sang. They were adorable! They didn't really sing, but they went on the stage and jingled their bells. Only one was crying.

Some people came up the sides of the room and ducked down and sat on the floor in front. And by some, I mean lots. Hmm. Well, that's different. Sitting on the floor.

Next the three-year old class came up. They were all dressed in green and they stood in the shape of a Christmas tree. Very cute! More of them sang then I expected. None were really trying to be the star of the show. I was really hoping there would be a few more kids like Chance on the stage. Just gonna be Gracie. Sigh.

There are two classes of 4 yr olds. I looked back to watch them come forward and, Whoa! What is this? A stampede? What the helk?!!!

Coming up the center aisle is a herd of crawling moms. All of them dressed nice and wielding cameras. They were crawling! CRAWLING! On hands and knees charging up to the front trying to beat each other in this race to the front for the best spot. I have never in my life seen an audience behave like this! I was in such shock that I had two cameras in my hands and didn't take a photo of the stampeding crawling moms. My jaw dropped to the floor and my eyes took in this incredible sight in shock. They filled up the floor in front of the stage and they all stooped in the aisle clogging it up completely.

The 4 yr olds couldn't get through. The teacher escort had to inch her way up to the front saying excuse me a hundred times. I wanted to will her to kick these crawling freaks out of the way, but she was too polite for that. That was naughty, I had visions of being mean to the floor huggers while I was sitting in a church! I'm gonna pay for that later.

Finally, a path was cleared and the kids came forward. The crawling paparazzi snapped away and took video of the processional. Gracie waved.

The other class was first and they did a little nativity play and then sang a song. Yeah, yeah, cute, lets move on. Libby can't take much more.

Gracie's class was next. They lined up on stage for their two songs. Turns out, my kid wasn't a complete show-hog! Yay! She stayed in her spot! Yippeee! She sang her little heart out and I could hear her above all others, but she sang great and knew all of the words! She wasn't too overly exuberant with her actions. A bit, but the stage is for drama isn't it? She was just GREAT! I was a wee bit disappointed that she wasn't more of a ham, guess I had myself all psyched up for it.

Libby was totally done now. Terrible two took over. She cried during the entire performance of Gracie's class, she kept trying to yank my dress off or up or something. She was crying for "boo-boo Now!" Oh, no, not here and certainly not in a dress! I really have to just quit nursing. She was tired and there's only so much sitting still a two year old can do. After seeing the grown-ups in this crowd act like a bunch of untrained monkeys, I really didn't worry about it and I let her fuss.

I video taped as best I could. I had to hold my arm way up in the air to get a good shot without tall-guy's head in the way. Gracie sang and sang! Loved it! But, it was the Sylvia-Show not the Gracie show. There was some relief in that. Sylvia had a microphone in front of her and the rest of the class were her back up singers. Hmmm. Must be the teacher's kid? Sylvia sang one song with Gracie and the rest of the kids doing the back up, and then Sylvia lead the rest of the class in song #2. Gracie did really well and sang as loud as Sylvia did. And Sylvia had a mic! Plus, Gracie stayed in her own spot and didn't dance around the stage like she did in ballet class. My girl is growing up!

After the grand finale of a rousing chorus of Jingle Bells, the show is over. YAY! What an experience! I sure learned a lot tonight, but I left very proud of my daughter. She's got a long way to go to be as entertaining as Chance, but she's off to a good start. In the end, it was the parents who left the biggest impression in my mind. This audience of crazed moms and dads and whoever else they brought with them was just insane. Scariest thing about them... they are raising the little people who are my daughter's peers. Her social interaction is with children whose parents crawl in public.

Maybe we should homeschool. Nah, my little Chance can hold her own and I'll just have to teach her that her friends are being raised by packs of wolves with cameras. Not far from the truth.

Portobello Mushroom Pizza

2010-11-28T14:08:00.000-08:00

Ingredients and their Calories:
Mushroom (100g) 26 calories
Ham 1oz, 30 calories
Motzerella Cheese, 1/3 cup shredded, 90 calories
White Sauce, 2-3 spoonfuls, 30 calories
Pineapple Chunks, just a few, 20 calories
Total: 196 or close to it

Use one large Portobello Mushroom cap and flip it over. Cut off the stem. The upside down mushroom cap is the pizza crust. Genius!

Spread white sauce or tomato sauce or pesto, or whatever sauce you choose. It will drip down into the mushroom. Yum yum yum!

Put the toppings on. I used a couple of bites of ham and a few chunks of pineapple. I also love to use tomatoes, spinach, bell peppers.

Cover with cheese. Sprinkle some Italian seasoning on top for taste.

Place it on foil and curl the edges of the foil up to catch any mushroom juice. Bake till done. I usually put it in the convection oven for 15 - 20 mins at 425.

I just love this little pizza. It tastes great and the kids do not want a single bite! How often can a mama enjoy a meal all by herself? This is one of those rare meals that does not get toddler slobber in it while you are eating. Gotta love that little bonus!

Another bonus: hardly any calories. Probably burn off all the calories just chewing and swallowing. This of course means you can have 6 soft peanut butter cookies for desert. Now, those you will have to share with the runts.

I've been Marathon Momming

2010-11-26T15:47:00.000-08:00

I'm not gone, and I haven't forgotten my little blog. But, I've been super busy with my mom duties! It's just been a marathon of momness for the past couple of months.

The oldest moved home from South Carolina at the end of September. Then she found a house to rent and moved in with her air mattress, a towel and a saucepan and spoon that she "borrowed" from my kitchen. After a week in her empty lonely house, she flew to Connecticut to spend a couple of weeks with her husband. He will be stationed out here beginning in December. Katie will be back in San Diego next week. Yay! We're going to pick her up at the airport and then "camp out" in her empty house.

Lexie and Charlie have been home more frequently, in fact, they stayed here all week this week. So nice to have them around more! But, three little kids is sure a lot of work! They exhaust me and I love it. I'm so glad I get to babysit my grandson while my daughter works. Since she's been working till midnight more often, she just spends the night instead of waking Charlie just to take him home. Plus, since she doesn't have a car I would have to wake up the girls for the ride too.

Gracie and Libby are having so much fun! Libby just had her birthday and then it was Halloween and then Thanksgiving, yikes, it's almost Christmas now! It's really going that fast. I've been taking them on lots of outings since it is cool out and has been kind of rainy, if I don't get them out they feel too cooped up. Besides, outings are fun. We tried to get in as many outings as we could on nice days, just in case we didn't get another nice sunny day for a while. My mid-western mentality kicks in every fall. Must hurry and get out before we are stuck at home all winter! I still forget that life in Southern California is different and I'm never really stuck at home.

My husband has the whole week of Thanksgiving off from work. As soon as he was home from work on Friday, he packed up and headed out. Off he went for a hunting trip to South Dakota. He should be back Sunday evening. Of course, he won't have any time to catch up on sleep before he goes back to work on Monday. I imagine next week if we see him, he'll be snoring.

If all of those excuses for not blogging more aren't enough, there's this: I'm working on changing my blog. It will include a name change and new pages. Hopefully it will be more manageable for me and you all won't lose me when I shift it all over to the new one. Exciting changes for my Momathon Blog! I want to work on it a bit more before the unveiling. Stay tuned.

Yellow Dress

2010-11-13T17:22:00.000-08:00

Yellow dresses are totally IN right now for a certain 2 year old who lives in this house. It does not matter that it is November and there isn't a yellow dress to be found in any retail store or online. She wants yellow.

Luckily, she has two yellow dresses. We are rotating them with one on and one in the wash. I don't dare get behind in the washing of the yellow dresses.

I've been shopping and shopping for another yellow dress, and I told anyone who asked that she wants a yellow dress for her birthday (which was in September). So far, nada. It's a spring color and we are still a long way from spring. By then, she'll probably want a brown dress.

I did find some yellow fabric at Walmart recently. It is pretty cute - all yellow with bumblebees printed on it. I'm going to whip up a little dress for her and add one more dress to her wardrobe.

When a two year old wants to wear yellow in November, the social rules of fashion do not apply. Mom and her sewing machine to the rescue!

All Fenced in

2010-11-10T15:07:00.000-08:00

I got the wires on my braces. My teeth are all fenced in now! And I can't say I am enjoying it much. It doesn't hurt, it's just uncomfortable. Getting the wires on was quite an ordeal!

I got the brackets glued on two weeks prior to getting the wires. Felt like I had a mouthful of cactus, but I guess my cheeks got used to the abrasive feel of the brackets. They also stuck little rubber "spacers" between my molars at that time. I really didn't like the feel of constantly having something stuck between my teeth, but it is what it is.

This trip to the dentist, oh, I suppose I should call him the Orthodontist, but whatever... anyway, this trip I was to get the spacers out and wires put on. Sounded easy enough. I am slowly realizing that nothing is ever easy at the dentist office. The dental assistant, real job title unknown to me so I made that one up for her, yanked out my rubber spacers. Oh joy. She used this fishhook on a stick as her spacer removal tool. My teeth are very tight together and the spacers didn't ever get any wiggle room, so pulling them out was no easy task. She pulled with all her might and her fishhook on a stick slipped sending the sharp instrument up into the roof of my mouth. I was stabbed!! Stabbed at the dentist office! It freaking hurt like crazy! I flinched and winced and hopped right up out of the chair and said "Oh My God! I'm bleeding and everything!" She looked at me like I was over reacting and then told me the spacers didn't move my teeth very much. Yeah, I understand that.

After she got the rest of the spacers out, without stabbing me, she put metal rings on my back molars. Wow, that was not pleasant at all! I'm not sure what she had to do to get them on, but it felt horrible! She used some sort of pinching tool and she pinched the inside of my cheek in her tool. Seriously? Is this her first day? I'm being abused here! Plus the rings were painful and felt just awful. She told me I would get used to it. I was ready to just call it quits right then and there, so she did some more adjusting and it felt a lot better.

I asked her how long she'd been doing this. She said since 1991. Well, if this is 20 yrs of experience, I'm sure glad I waited and wasn't her first patient. Can you imagine?

The orthodonist came over and gave the nod of approval for her work. Apparently, he didn't notice the gaping stab wound on the roof of my mouth. Ok, now I am ready for wires. At this point, I decide to just be a pest and request unscented gloves for the rest of my work. I was tired of holding back my gag reflex with those disgusting scented gloves right under my nose. I've suffered enough. They had to go hunting for some unscented gloves but it was worth it.

Clumsy experienced assistant lady is ready to continue her work. First, she yanks off a ring. I bolted up, "what are you doing? He said they were ok!" She says she has to put the glue on. Are you freaking kidding me? I said "so you have to do this twice? Really? Twice?" She again gives me this "you are over reacting" look, but dang, I was just mad. So, we start all over again, this time with uber disgusting glue. Once the glue set she says she has to chip off the overflow of glue and that it will wear off over time. Ewww! Honestly, I no longer know why I'm doing this!

Finally, time for the wires. She gets them on without too much trouble but I was pretty concerned when she stuck wire cutters in my mouth. After the wires were anchored down she added little rubber bands to each bracket and tied the teeth to the wire. She couldn't engage every tooth because they are just too crooked. I asked her if it will be this uncomfortable for the duration or just a few days. She says to get used to it, that's just how it will feel until we are done and I get them off in 2 yrs. I will always feel like my face is being pulled off. Great. I'm just gonna cry now.

Then she adds that I will only be able to eat soft food, and I won't be able to bite with my front teeth. This is normal and I'll get used to it. I am now screaming inside and fighting the urge to say really bad words out loud. The orthodontist never did come and check the glue and wire job so I hope it is done correctly. My teeth ached like crazy for three days and now they are just fine. I'm biting and chewing with care, but I'm doing it. It's really not bad. My fishhook wound is healed now too, and my pinched cheek. I'm hoping for a different assistant next time.

Just think, in two years my teeth will line up like chicklet soldiers!

Happy November!

2010-11-02T09:53:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it? It's November already! I'm not sure how that happened so fast. Next thing you know, I'll turn around and November will be gone too. The months have just been flying by this year.

We started November off with a trip to the zoo. The girls were so funny, each with their own map telling me which path to take. I did find a path I'd never walked on before. Kiwi Trail is pretty much a free fall and very challenging to walk on the meandering steep slope with a stroller and kids. The whole way down, I was thankful that I wasn't going the other direction!

The girls had fun and we saw some animals. When we go to the zoo I take it easy and we only see one part of the zoo. If we wander all over the entire place, I get too tired. Plus, this way the zoo is different every time we go! Today we saw the zookeeper let six macaws out of a cage and they flew across the zoo. We got to see them take off and soar into the air, very pretty birds!

After the zoo, we went to Katie's new house. It's pretty empty inside! So far, she has one chair, an airbed, her guitar, and a saucepan. That's pretty much all she owns. The little girls sure had fun running and screaming in the empty house. The moving truck should arrive with Katie's furniture and things in mid to late December. I told her to go to Ikea and SuperTarget in the meantime.

From there, we went to a pizza place to eat. We just tried to find anything and that's where we ended up. It turned out to be a sports place with tvs everywhere. The whole place would burst out in cheers every now and again. They were playing a baseball game on every tv, apparently the world series was going on? eh, whatever it was, people sure got loud in short bursts. The pizza was fantastic! We ordered fried zucchini for an appetizer and then we had a tomato, spinach and goat cheese pizza. It was delicious! I sent the leftovers home with Katie since she didn't have any food at all.

We finally got home at 9pm. Much later than I thought we would be out, but it was a fun day. We were all so tired from Halloween and then kicking off November with an outing was fun but exhausting. Ok, for me it was exhausting! The girls weren't phased one bit, neither one of them slept through the night after all of that.

Some people take in stray animals... some people collect stamps...

2010-10-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

Not Me! I take in and collect children! So much more exciting than pets or stamps.

I have my own four daughters, my grandson, another grandbaby on the way, and I also count in my "collection" several of my girls' friends who have stayed with us from time to time. There are the neighbor girls, the kids we've hosted from Up with People and the exchange student we had for a school-year. I still think about all of my little daycare kids (who are all in college now), and my DI and 4-H kids. They are all my kids. I have more kids in my little people collection than I can count.

Gonna get one more!

We are going to host another exchange student. This one is a girl from The Netherlands. She'll be 17 when we get her, which isn't until August 2011. A year away. When we hosted Anna (student from Germany), we had a big whopping 20 minute notice and we kept her for 10 months. Feels odd to have so much planning time, but that's probably good to have time to think things through.

When I was in high school I was pretty good friends with one of the exchange students who attended our school in my senior year. Her name was Brigette and she was so nice! We kept in touch for a little bit after school, but like all of my other high school friends, I just quit making contact. After I got into college, I shook off high school and didn't look back for a long time. Too long. Now with facebook, I've reconnected with many of my old high school friends and discovered how nice it is to have longtime friends back. One of the friends I reconnected with is Brigette.

Brigette's daughter is the exchange student we will be hosting. How wonderful that I already know her mom and can communicate with her on facebook! In English! We had a very big language barrier with the parents of our German exchange student. It would have been so nice to talk with her parents once in a while. Sometimes mom-to-mom is the best way to find out what our kids are doing.

We have already discussed some of the practical things about merging her into our family for a year, just to make sure she will fit in well. Now we just need to do the official paperwork. Looks like we have plenty of time to get ready. Sure looking forward to having another teenage "daughter"!

Time to Light a Fire under my Blog

2010-10-20T02:00:00.000-07:00

Seems like I went through this last year too. Slowly getting lazier and lazier with my blog. I don't want to get to the point where it dies from neglect because I really do enjoy blogging. But, time slips by and then a little more, and I find myself thinking "I have to write about this on my blog!" but never getting around to it. Next thing you know.... I need to light a fire under my blog and get it fired up!

November is coming. I'm going to commit myself to blogging a lot in November. Actually, I think there is a blog challenge to write daily in November, but I'm not sure about that. I know there is a novel writing challenge. Oh gosh that would be nice to be able to whip out a whole novel in 30 days! But, that seems out of my league.

As part of my challenge to liven up my blog, I am also going to cruise around and read more blogs. I think I'll be like Hansel and Gretel, leaving a trail behind me. A trail of comments, that is.

Stay tuned, I promise to be a better blogger!

Remembering Hunt Week

2010-10-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

I worked at GOED (Governors Office of Economic Development and Tourism - and yes, I used to answer the phone like that and then added 'This is Mary") Every year the office hosts a pheasant hunting event and invites CEOs and company executives from all over the place to lure them into expanding and doing business in South Dakota. Half of the problem with companies not choosing the state is that, well, they'd have to live there. So, the hunt provides an opportunity to show off the good life on the prairie.

People going to the hunt are the governor and other state politicians and those who just think they are important, local company executives, potential company executives, landowners, and a bunch of others. Usually about 800 people total.

The GOED office takes a break from their regular office duties and gets the whole weekend event ready. It's "volunteer" if you work there, but really it was part of the job. During hunt week you work your 40 hrs and then you volunteer another 20 - 30 hours. They say that it is a pleasure to be a hunt volunteer and it is a job perk.

Really though, my duties for the hunt really were kinda fun. I carved pumpkins, decorated the banquet hall, drove people around (oh yeah, I was issued a brand new suburban every year and I got to keep it for the week), helped sew tablecloths and costumes for the wait staff, put together gift bags, and I had to go hunting and take photos of the day. It really was a lot of fun!

There were some drawbacks, I really didn't like peeing in the field, dealing with drunk men, or the one guy on my team who shot another guy and 2 vehicles. oops. Or riding in the back of a truck while a ten year old drove us through the fields, thanks little landowner's kid, glad you could see over the dash. And I really didn't like getting up early on Sunday morning to go clean the hotel.

So, it's hunt week right now and instead of working and going hunting, I get to stay home with my family. So much better! I am not kidding, I'd rather not be hunting and doing the event. Yay for not "volunteering"!!

Got a New Grin

2010-10-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

I got braces!

It wasn't easy, but I got all the brackets glued on and separators stuffed between my molars. I get the wires on in 2 weeks. Feels So weird! I hope I get used to the feeling soon, because it's bizarre.

Getting the separators in was not easy, my teeth are so tight together. There was some blood involved when the guy rammed the floss down between my molars, then he commented on how tight my teeth are. Super crowded. Then he threaded the little rubber things in and got them shoved between the teeth. Not exactly the most fun ever, but no shots involved, so it was fine.

The brackets attached to each tooth look like they were glued on willy-nilly, but in the end they will be all lined up. Crazy crooked! It feels like I have a cactus glued to each tooth. And I just discovered that eating is a whole new adventure with all of these prickly plastic doohickeys in my mouth.

The thing that bugged me the most was the dentist's bubble gum scented gloves. OMG so gross! I was holding back my gag reflex and he kept asking me if it hurt, um no, you just freaking stink! Really bad! So, when he was all done and I got the vice taken off my mouth that was holding it open I told him I wasn't a fan of the bubble gum scented gloves. Next time I'll have to remember to ask for unscented. Who knew! Oh, and the vice or whatever it is called, geez, can it spread my lips out any farther? Holy crap! Can't believe they didn't split apart. Ay Ay Ay!

When they originally gave me my options for the style of braces I could get, my choices were metal or clear plastic. They showed me pictures and I decided on the clear. They are far from invisible, but they aren't as eye-catching as the shiny metal. I thought it was more "grown-up" to get the clear braces. So, as the guy is gluing on the last of the clear plastic brackets he casually mentions that they have a tendency to stain. Wait, stain? Ewww. Yeah, they will absorb the colors of foods, especially coffee and soda. I should quit drinking soda for sure and coffee.

Quit drinking coffee? Um, metal braces please!!! Oh boy. Are stained braces all that bad? I did quit drinking pop 5 years ago though, so at least I have that part of the battle won already.

When he was all done with me, I got to rinse my mouth out, goodbye glue and glove taste! And I was given a cleaning kit of floss and toothbrushes and wax and all sorts of fun things. Then he handed me some literature that said to quit drinking soda and candy and have my parents make an emergency appointment for me, even if it's during school hours, if I break my wires or brackets loose. Heh, I'm just a kid again!

I was done in 2 hours, and at least an hour of that was just waiting.

Keith went too, but he was mostly getting stuff done on the general side and I was only on the orthodontic side of the place, so I didn't see much of him. He was in ortho when I was and I heard the dentist telling him that braces might not be a good idea because of his bite, he has a skeletal problem that would require surgery involving the breaking of the jaw. Leaving his teeth as is would be better since the teeth are compensating for the misaligned jaw. Hmmmm. He's rethinking the whole braces thing which means I'm in this alone now. Dang it. But really, if it was me I'd opt out without even thinking about it. No freaking way would I do this if it involved that kind of reconstruction of the jaw. After his consultation, he was sent over to the dental side and the dentists worked on him for 5 hours. He was prepped for 4 crowns! Cripes! Poor guy.

We both go back in two weeks, but it won't be a date this time. I'm going on Wednesday to get the separators removed and the wires put in place, and he is going on Thursday to remove the temporary crowns and put on the permanent crowns.

In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out how to eat and smile with all these gizmos on my teeth.

When you are married this long...

2010-10-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

My husband and I just celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary. That's a good long time, but not nearly enough for us. We're going for the long haul, gonna see how long we can string this out.

Next week, we are going on a hot date. "Hot Date" is a relative term, when you've been married this long it really just means we are going to be in the same place at the same time. We're going to the dentist together!

I've been going to the dentist and getting all fixed up. My smile is nice and healthy now. Knowing he should do the same, my husband decided to finally get in the dentist chair too. After my appointment today, they gave me my next appointment for Wednesday at 10am, so I made Keith's appointment for the same time.

He is a few appointments behind me in the process now, but he will catch up. I'm sure he will need similar work done, although I doubt he will have to get a wisdom tooth pulled like I did. That should save him some trouble.

While he is getting his exam and x-rays and all that new patient stuff, I will be in the next room getting braces put on. Oh yes, I'm getting braces! It will be so nice to have straight beautiful teeth, of course, that will take a couple of years to achieve. Keith is going to get braces too, but he first needs to get any dental health issues addressed.

At my appointment today, I just had to get my teeth polished with pumice and peroxide. Ick, but they feel so smooth and lovely now! The dentist said my gums look healthier than they did (before the root scaling aka deep cleaning) and my teeth look very good, no tarter buildup since my last visit. Yippeee! Good news from the dentist! He said if I'm getting braces to get the Sonic toothbrush, which is what the other dentist told me too. I've seen three dentists and one orthodontist in that office so far.

So next week, Keith and I are going to the dentist together and soon enough, we'll both have matching tin grins. How romantic!

Limited Opportunities

2010-10-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

Every fall, my husband gets homesick and his desire to move back to the middle of nowhere returns. His urge to live on the barren prairie grows deeper. And I cringe at the thought once again.

Looking at our hometown paper at the jobs in the classified section, I was wondering what a busy mom with a BA in English would do in a little one-horse town. Hmmm.... Here are the opportunities as listed in the paper:

Concrete finisher, oh darn they want 2 yrs of concrete finishing experience.
Maintenance Man, I'm certainly not qualified to be any kind of a man.
Assistant cook at a hunting lodge, this one has potential even though I don't enjoy cooking.
Childcare worker, Hey! I could do that!
Newspaper delivery, um, no.
Cell phone store manager, ugh, can you imagine that headache?
Data entry, yawn.
food service worker in the prison, why don't they make the prisoners do that?
Motel housekeeper, it would be fun to play "guess that stain"
Nurse, I don't qualify for this one either
Caregiver, the job description of care and cleaning sounds like what I do now.
Administrative Assistant, I had that job, it drove me to college so I could get a better one.
Carpenter for "Hire-A-Husband", again, I'm not of the qualifying gender to be rented husband.
Truck Driver, darn, I don't know how to drive a truck.

And he wonders why my excitement doesn't just bubble over when he tosses around the idea of moving back to the land of nothing to do.

Happy Birthday!

2010-09-30T13:00:00.001-07:00

Terrible Two's, here we come! Little Libby is two years old today. So hard to believe these past two years went by so fast, but they came and went and here we are. Amazing how time flies.

Then again, it seems like ages ago. Seems like we've always had Libby around; what did we do without her? When she was born, we only had one little girl. Now that idea seems odd. When she was born we had two teenagers, one still in high school. I was in college! My how life has changed in two short years.

Now that she's two, her personality is as big as the moon. She's not as big as the moon though, in fact, she's pretty tiny. Only 24 lbs and 32.5 inches. She might be little, but she's strong, agile, healthy and smart. She can talk like a four year old! She knew the alphabet by the time she was 21 months old. By "know it" I mean she could recognize every letter and say what it was, plus sing along to the alphabet song. She can count to 12 and recognizes most 0-9 numbers too. She sings lots of songs, most of them are Disney songs. She's got a great memory for names too. I think she's ready for kindergarten!

Totally sounds like I'm bragging. I am!!!

To celebrate the day, I threw her a little party. I decided to have the party at noon on a Wednesday since that is the regular baby play group picnic time slot and I knew all of her favorite little buddies would be available then. Plus, the daddies don't have to tag along. Dads don't like to go to little kid birthday parties, especially when they don't know, or aren't related to, the birthday kid. So I broke tradition and didn't have the party on a Saturday. Wednesday party! Her birthday was on Thursday, which also would have been a good day for it, but Gracie has preschool on Thursdays so I decided a day early would be easier for us.

Via Facebook, I invited all of the mommies and toddlers from baby-group. I don't know what I did wrong, but I accidentally invited all 233 of my facebook friends. Whoops. Twelve said they were coming. Wow, that's a lot, but it's not 212! Whew!

I ordered a Minnie Mouse cake for her. Libby just loves Minnie Mouse! Luckily, a friend of Lexie's decorates cakes as a little hobby business. She's just getting started with cake decorating, so I thought I would help her out. The baby group mommies would go crazy over a cute little cake and she would get some more business for sure. A week before the party (cutting it close!) I ordered the cake, told her what all I want, agreed on a price and gave her the delivery date, time, address, got it all firmed up. Exciting!

The night before, I asked Lexie to give her a call and make sure she knew where we lived to deliver the cake. Guess what. Cake girl hadn't heard from me since I ordered, so she assumed I didn't want it anymore. So, no cake. I was so very disappointed! Lexie and Katie went to Albertson's on Wednesday morning to grab a generic cake out of the bakery bin. It was really cute! Libby loved it! She has a passionate love for her "flop-flops" and the cake had flop-flop shoes on it. Perfect!

I made a green tossed salad and some penne pasta dishes for lunch. Added a tray of broccoli and carrots, baked cookies and opened up a bag of chips and goldfish crackers for the little ones. Ended up with a good spread for lunch. We gave up drinking pop a few years ago, so I set out a cooler of water bottles and juice boxes. I also made sun tea which I remembered the next day. Whoops.

Libby's favorite little friends came with their mommies. Jillian, Liam, Kaelyn, Justin, Nora, and the babies Mallory and Charlie. Fun, fun, fun! One daddy showed up and he was out running around the back yard with the kids so he was having fun too. Looked like a very tall little boy (with a receding hairline).

Kids played, everyone ate, we sang Happy Birthday and had cake, then all of the kids opened her presents. Libby had such a fun time!

After everyone left, I rocked the birthday girl and her new nephew to sleep in my lap. That was sweet!

Lightning McQueen Dresses

2010-09-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

My latest sewing project was to make Lightning McQueen dresses for the girls. They just love the movie Cars but the merchandise, especially clothing, is all geared to boys. To be fair, boys don't get much merchandise to choose from when it comes to Cinderella. There was a prince in that movie too! That's ok, Mom to the rescue! Gender-equity for Lightning McQueen!

I decided to keep it simple and avoid buttons and zippers. I got a new sundress pattern for Gracie that has a halter style top and an elastic waist. She has a dress this style already that I bought for her at Kohls, so I know it will work well. I measured her and got it all cut out and sewn up fairly quickly. Somehow, I still managed to get it too big around the middle. I'll just add ties, I almost put ties on it to begin with but decided not to. The pattern does not call for a waistband or ties. I thought the waistband was cute though, because it broke up the busy fabric print a bit.

Libby's dress was easy! I used the same pattern that I had just used on her Tinkerbell sundress so I knew it fit and I knew how to sew it already. I made a couple of modifications, very slight. I shortened up the armhole; I thought it was too big on the Tinkerbell dress. And, I put the straps at the edge of the yoke instead of moving them in a bit. With the Tink dress, I moved the straps in to be sure that the dress would stay up on her shoulders, and that worked, but, it made the yoke look goofy with the corners sticking out. So, I shortened the width of the yoke and put the straps on the edge where they belong. Ta-Da! I also trimmed up the dress with some plain red to limit the busyness of the fabric print. Lightning McQueen comes in some very exciting print!

The dresses turned out so cute! The girls were playing and dancing around me while I sewed waiting for me to finish. Very distracting! I decided to move my sewing machine to the wide space in the upstairs hallway. The light there is excellent. I can peek over the edge to see the girls downstairs, and I'm closeby to watch them if they are upstairs. Seemed like a good idea in theory. But the space is small.

I've been sewing for 18 years. My first machine was a Mother's Day gift in 1992 from my husband. He had no idea if I would even be interested in the slightest, and we sure didn't have the money for it! But he took a chance and it paid off. I love it! For the first time ever, I got my finger in the way of the needle. The needle went right down through the very tip of my middle finger. It hurt! I've had worse paper cuts, but in the moment I kind of forgot about that. The girls made sure I got a Dora bandaid and some kisses, ahhhh, all better!

I also tried to figure out how to work that serger of mine. I still can't figure it out. I'm about ready to sell it and get a simpler machine. I wanted top-of-the-line so that I would never have to upgrade, but maybe that wasn't such a good idea. I'm hoping to find a serger class, but so far I haven't had any luck with that either. I think my problem is tension, but maybe that is just the result of another issue. Hard to say.

In only one weekend, I was able to cut and sew the dresses! Cute new Cars dresses needed an outing, so on Monday we went to Disneyland and California Adventure! Highlight (one of many highlights) was seeing Lightning McQueen and Mater!

Learning Too Much in Preschool

2010-09-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

Me: Gracie, what did you do in preschool today?

G: I watched a boy pee.

Me: WHAT?

G: I was watching David go pee.

Me: Why?

G: He hadda go potty.

Me: (at a loss for words, I believe I just made some sort of a grunting noise)

G: He has a different kinda butt.

Me: You saw his butt?

G: Yeah. It's different.

Me: ugh. And what were you doing?

G: Washing my hands.

Me: Hmm.

G: He can stand up and squirt the pee!

Me: Oh my.

G: It was so totally awesome!

An Open Letter to Kenneth the Commenter:

2010-09-14T17:44:00.000-07:00

Hey "Kenneth", yeah, you, the guy with no profile when I click your name,

Usually, I just love comments on my blog posts. Not this time. You are just a jerk, or a bot, I haven't decided which one yet. Probably a bot.

Did you search for blog posts that contained the words "dentist" and "child"? That must have been it. Obviously, you didn't read my blog post. I don't need a dentist that caters to children, or where they are experts with caring for children and have child friendly dental chairs. I really don't need a dental chair that gives me "the ambiance of playing". Oh, that's right, you didn't actually read what I wrote, you just assumed because you picked up two key words from your search.

I also do not need a dentist office located in South Carolina. Nice of you to leave links to the office where you want me to go. Again, you didn't read my blog, you just crapped out your spam on it. I cruised around your web site and there is a section "Meet the Staff". Hmm, where is Kenneth? Oh, Kenneth, the spam advertiser for this dental office that I won't be going to... he's not listed.

Kenneth, thanks but no thanks for your concern about spending too much time in the waiting room with a child. But, you see, if you had read my blog post and knew what you were commenting on, you would know that the waiting room was just the place where she wanted to be! Bot.

If you are having a more difficult time getting through the comment security crapola, curse Kenneth. I'm beefing up the anti-bot options on the comment settings which will make it more inconvenient for my one or two lovely much appreciated comments to get through now.

Five Generations

2010-09-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

Grandma wanted a five generation portrait done, and we all thought it was a great idea! We tossed around a few ideas and ended up deciding that Grandma and Mom would drive over 1000 miles to my house and we'd do the portrait here. The key to the plan was that we wanted Michael Fletcher to take the pictures, he is awesome! Last week, they drove from Wyoming to California and we had our picture taken.

Starting from the top:

Gracie is my grandma. She is 102 years old, but only chronologically. She's "younger" than a lot of old folks who are only in their 80s. She was born in the same town where she lives now.

Helen is my mom. She is the daughter of Gracie. I always forget how old she is, 70 something. It doesn't matter because she looks and acts at least 20 years younger than her true age! My grandma often refers to her as "The Kid".

Me. Mary. I'm the daughter of Helen. And the 3rd in line in this five generation thing we've got going on now.

My daughter, Lexie. She is 19 yrs old and just had a baby in August.

Charlie. He is 3 weeks old and very happy and healthy. And that makes 5 generations! Isn't that cool!

Here is a photo from one of our point and shoot cameras... not nearly the amazing quality as the professional pictures, but good enough for the blog. All of us in one place sitting together. So nice!

How to Have the Quickest Dentist Appointment Ever

2010-09-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

It's easy. Take along a two-yr old. (she's 23 mths and 2 weeks to be specific, but the attitude is totally two!)

A week ago, I had my worst dentist appointment. Got it done. The left side of my mouth got a deep cleaning, 4 cavities filled and a wisdom tooth extracted. No fun. I'll blog about it later and backdate it so that it all fits in the stream nicely - yes, someday when I have time. Anyway, I had a big gaping hole in my mouth from the tooth being pulled. Yesterday, I went in for a follow-up to see if I was healing ok. Which we all know is code for "so we can charge your insurance again".

I knew it would just be a quick check so I took Libby with me. She'll be fine..... Why do I think crazy thoughts like that? When will I ever learn?

She was fine in the waiting area. We waited for 20 minutes. She sat at a cute little children's table in some small little pint sized chairs. She just loved the chairs! She sat in every one of them and decided the green chair was the best. On the table was on of those beads on wires things. Happy little girl content in a little green chair playing with beads. And then they called my name.

I plucked my happy toddler out of the little green chair that was just her size and it was like I turned on the sirens. Let the wailing begin! She was screaming "Chair". I asked "Can I bring the little chair back with me?" The mean lab coat man said "No". Ok, then. Remember you said that.

I went back carrying my squirming screaming kid and was shown to a dental chair. I tried to sit in it, but Libby just bucked and screamed and she got away from me. She went screaming and running through the big room of stalls with me chasing her. I caught her and held on tight, got in the dentist's chair and I heard them say, "let's just do this one quick" and Poof the dentist and his entourage surrounded me.

The dentist took a quick peek with his little mirror on a stick and said I was healing nicely. Then he said very loudly so I could actually hear him over her high pitched screams, "she reminds me of my 2 yr old little girl". Haha. Then he yells, "Did you know you have a huge canker sore right next to where we extracted the tooth?". No, I did not. He said it isn't in the tooth hole, it's next to it. He says very loudly it looks sore but it'll heal. Ugh, no wonder I'm in this much pain. Canker sores hurt like crazy all by themselves! Libby is still screaming and kicking in my arms. Ok, you can go he says.

That took all of a couple of minutes, just like I thought it would. And, I got to be seen right away and didn't have to wait my turn. Haha!

I shift Libby around and get a better grip on her flailing little body and reposition her so that I don't get smacked on my sore side of my face and walked out.

I really wish this was on video. Really! As I walked down the short hallway to the reception area and the waiting room, it was like I pushed the pause button on everyone. Nobody moved. The now full waiting room was fill of faces with jaws dropped, all of them staring with big fearful eyes. Even the reception area froze solid with fear.

I could read their minds. "What did they do to that child back there?" I said to the nearest receptionist as I passed by, "She just wanted to take the little chair back with us". Hahahaha!

The Answer

2010-08-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

So many nagging questions left unanswered for so long. No fear, Libby has the answer!

What's for dinner?
Does this need salt?
Are we out of salt again?
Where's Daddy's other boot?
What is in this boot?
Where's Libby?

My Disneyland Birthday

2010-08-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

My husband asked me the other day, "What do you want for your birthday?" And I replied with all sincerity, "I want to go to Disneyland!" So, I did!

We have annual passes to Disneyland, but they are only good for 170 days of the year (as opposed to the 365 days that my calendar claims are in a year, but I'm way too cheap to buy the Premium Pass). After being blocked out all summer, we finally were allowed back in!

All week long it was over 100 degrees here. I was afraid we wouldn't be able to go; we went last year when it was over 100 and I swore I'd never do that again! Way too hot! But the weather worked out nicely for us yesterday. It was 94 when we left the house at 10am and it was 81 when we got there! So nice! Oddly enough, it was those same temperatures when we left and got home again. Ten degrees warmer at home. I'm sure it was over 100 at home while we were in Anaheim, but we didn't have to suffer in it, so all was well. The dog might disagree though, she had the unfortunate experience of being shut in the house after I turned off the air conditioner. Poor fur-ball.

The day was great! We saw a lot of characters, which surprises me since it was so hot. Gracie was hoping to see Daisy Duck. I don't recall ever seeing her, that would be fun. We didn't see her this trip either. We saw Donald Duck, Chip 'n Dale, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, White Rabbit and Queen of Hearts, Woody, Jessie, Fairy Godmother, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, and Snow White. We were able to visit most of them, but a few of them we just waved instead of standing in line to see them.

We didn't go to many attractions. We went to the Tiki Room, Small World, Talk to Crush, and Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. For some odd reason, we just didn't get into many attractions. We did spend an hour or more in Bugland at Princess Dot's Splash Garden. We've never done that before and the kids loved it on such a hot day! We did catch a little bit of the Glowfest show while we ate ice cream and then we caught our bus back to the parking lot.

The day flew by so quickly!

Now that we've done so many different things at Disneyland and California Adventure, the kids want to do it all each time we go back. We just can't do everything so I told them to think of one thing they wanted to do but we didn't get to and we'll be sure to do it next time. Gracie said she wanted to ride "Winnie the Pooh". And then I asked them what was their favorite thing we did all day long. Gracie replied "Princesses" and Libby said "Minnie Mouse". They just love the characters!

My Big Blog Business Profits

2010-08-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

Did you hear what happened in Philly? I'm a long ways from Philadelphia, but that doesn't mean much these days. Philly Bloggers are being told to pay for a business license!

Read about it here: Philly Requiring Bloggers to Pay $300 For Business License

Good thing I never did figure out how to monetize my blog! Besides, I didn't figure I would ever make much from putting Google ads on my blog, maybe a few pennies per year. Hardly worth it for me to have it full of advertisements. I prefer my blog to be ad-free.

But, I was thinking of montezing my other two blogs. I write one about all the fun places I take the kids, so it is a tourist review type of blog. And the other one is product reviews. I have not been writing much lately on any of my blogs, but I'm always thinking of great things to blog about. I keep thinking that someday I'll get caught up and I'll put Google ads on my review blogs.

Hmmm, maybe I won't! My blogs are certainly not a business! I'm not out to get "customers". Should be interesting to see where this story goes. My guess is it will be a nice liner for a bird cage.

I'm a Grandma!

2010-08-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

Meet my new grandson. His name is Charlie. Born 9 days overdue on August 16, 2010 at 8:17pm. He was 8 pounds and 5 ounces and 20.5 inches

Venturing out on a Dental Adventure

2010-08-13T09:43:00.000-07:00

That's right, I said "Dental Adventure". Sure wish I would have said "Disneyland Adventure" or anything more fun than a dental adventure, but it's time for me to face the fact that I do own teeth and they need occasional care. I'm bucking up, putting on my brave face and going to the dentist.

I took the girls to a babysitter and headed over to the torture chamber. After twirling around and around the strip mall where I thought the dentist's office was, I tried another one, and another.... found it! Got to my appointment 20 minutes late. They said that was ok, just sign in.

I actually had two appointments, one at 10:30 for an orthodontic consultation and the next appointment at 11:30 for something I wasn't clear about on the dental side.

I didn't wait long, and then they called me back to the Orthodontic room. Lots of chairs all in one room, kind of weird, but whatever. The dentist came over and looked at my teeth, had me bite, open, bite, open... and then he made some notes and dished out the news. Bad news: My teeth are crooked. That was hardly news to me!

Then I went to the office to discuss the cost and payment plan for orthodontic work. If I get braces to correct my bite and straighten 'em up it will cost $3800. I about crapped!!! That is $1200 LESS than what it cost to put Katie in braces when she was 13 yrs old. Why is everything (except salaries) so much more expensive in South Dakota than it is in California? My insurance, which I was told is amazing coverage, will toss in $1500 leaving me with the balance. She thinks I'm having sticker shock, and I am but not like she thinks so I just keep that little tidbit to myself for now. So, the question is... Do I want clear (nearly clear) or metal with colorful rubber bands? Hmmmm... Colorful would be fun. Clear might be more mature. I have to think about that.

Time to go to the dental side of the office. I had to go back to the waiting room and sign in again, then right back down the hall to the room across the hall from where I just came from. I guess the jog up and down the hallway was good for me even though I thought it was kind of silly.

I sat in a little tiny room with an xray machine and got a ton of "bitewing" xrays done. Those are brutal. I think I have bruises inside my mouth from biting on the stiff square things. Why do they make them square? The corners just dig in and it hurts to get those xrays! I might be a wimp.

When that was done, I was escorted to another big room full of chairs but this time they each had a little wall divider between them. Well, that'll save the others from hearing me scream. The lady offered me a magazine because I would be waiting a while for the dentist. I had a book, so I opened that. I read one page and here comes the troops. Ugh. It's time. I screamed in my mind.

Had to give myself a quick little pep talk as the monsters, er, dentist people, came toward me. Be brave, Mary, be brave. You can do this, or, at least pretend you can. Buck up, Mary. Ugh, they were upon me.

An office lady, a hygienist (I think?) and the dentist. Office lady explains that she will be taking notes for billing purposes, hygenist sits behind me and says absolutely nothing, dentist says "Open wide". ugh. Right away, I'm impressed that the chair has a dip in it for my pony tail. The dentist pokes and prods and blows air on my teeth. Ouch. Ouch. Wince. ouch. This seems to take forever. He looks at my xrays. Apparently, I have hundreds of teeth, like a shark. I resist the temptation to bite him.

My teeth

Exam done. Tiime for the bad news. I don't even pretend that I am expecting good news. My teeth hurt.

The guy says "For someone who hasn't had a cleaning or exam in ten years you have very good teeth" I say in my defense, "It might have been 9 yrs ago and I did try to go 5 yrs ago but I panicked and they asked me to leave before anything got done". Great, now he knows I'm a freak as well as negligent. I should know better, people who work in dental offices go to the dentist every day, no way would they understand how ten years can just "slip by" between visits. I decide to shut up and listen.

The guy says "You only have 6 cavities!" Only? Ugh. No wonder my teeth hurt. He says "They are all small and you don't need any root canals or crowns". Oh goodie. "And you only need one extraction". Wh-wh-what?

He reminds me that I have one lower wisdom tooth already extracted, leaving the upper one without a mate. It is descending and part of the root is exposed. He says it will be an easy yank. Yank? Oh geez. I told him how the lower extraction went and really, I don't care to relive that experience. So, if there is any chance that I need the other two wisdom teeth out, I want to do it as an oral surgery and not have to experience any of the extraction. Getting that one out was like pulling a car out of my mouth. My teeth are huge and well anchored. He says this one is big, true, but it is not well anchored. The other two are just fine and removing them will not benefit me any as they will not give me more room for my overcrowding issue and they do not have cavities. Amazing because I can't get a toothbrush way back in there.

So, he says, you need a cleaning and fill the cavities and extract the one tooth. He just needs a minute and he'll get right to it.

Now? OMG!!!

But first, they want more xrays. Ugh. Nooooo. I am taken to another xray room with a different machine. This one is for the orthodontist. And I just had to stand there and a big machine whirled all around my head. It was painless and easy. They did a panoramic xray. Very cool! Oy, very crooked. You can really see it in the xray. Wowza.

After this, they take me to the orthodontic side again and take pictures with a little camera of my teeth. Nice. I have always wanted close up digital photos of my teeth. Love the flash going off an inch from my eyeball.

Now that I'm blind... they want to clean my teeth and fill my cavities. Wait, wait, I'm not ready for that. I need to know what time it is and go get my kids from the sitter sometime before the day is over. So they say I should come back this evening or tomorrow or Saturday or next week.... I say "two weeks". I think they were afraid I'd never come back. So, I explain, I'm busy. I have a daughter starting preschool next week and another daughter having a baby on Sunday if not before, and I have to arrange babysitting for my toddler... my turn to see them with the shock look on their faces! ha!

So, I am getting the left side cleaned and filled in 2 weeks and then the other side probably a week later. After the health issues are fixed, I get the braces put on.

Before I am let go, they want to make impressions of my teeth. It'll just take a minute. Ugh, Ok, fine. one more thing and then I'm out. I had been there almost 3 hrs and quite frankly, I was just done.

This guy fills up a tooth shaped tray with foam which had a strong bubble gum smell, ewwww, and shoved it in my mouth. Gag! I might die!!! He babbles on and on about how his buddies and him would practice this on each other at dental school. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up! He takes it out, whew! Noooo, gotta do the top teeth now. We repeat the torture and as he's choking me to death and I'm resisting the urge to puke all over the place, he continues to tell me all about how him and his buddies would make the mix too thin and then it would run down their throat and they'd puke on each other... seriously, dude, shut the hell up.

Finally, that was done and I was set free. I had bits of bubble gum foam all over my face and I fled like the place was on fire.

Got in my van and I didn't even care that I left my water bottle right in sun and toxic plastic chemicals probably leeched into the water, I just drank up that hot water and it never tasted so good! Blech, the dentist goo was gross! It was after 1pm and I'm sure Libby needed to get home for a good nap by now.

My big crooked divit filled teeth hurt.

Manning up

2010-08-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

My pink baby swing was just too girly to pass along to my daughter for her new baby boy (who has still not arrived!). It needed to "Man-Up".

It used to look like this: (I had to find an image on google because I forgot to take a before pic, but this is the exact swing)

I very gently removed the seat and the mobile and smoothed them out on the table, then I laid tissue paper over them and attempted to draw a pattern of the various pieces. Then I tried laying the tissue paper under the swing seat. All I got were crazy scribbles. Sooooo.....

I ripped the thing apart. Using each piece as the pattern for a new piece turned out to be the best way to get the proper shape and fit. And, I just peeled off the pink top layer leaving the padding, backing, snaps, tabs, and straps that came with the swing originally! Bonus!

Putting it back together was a challenge. I forgot to take "before" pictures, and I forgot how the pieces all came off! This turned into a swing seat puzzle. I contemplated running out and buying a new swing. $129.99 for a swing! Egads! Ok, motivation returned.

I even decided to try piping, something I've never done before. It turned out pretty good! I'm happy with it, but next time I will make the effort to go find my zipper foot before I do the piping. Might make sewing it a lot easier. And I really like the piping of the solid brown to break up the "wild" look just a tad.

I did it! I put the pieces together, sewed the back attaching pieces on, added the bias tape trim and straps, put it back on the swing frame, snapped it and there it is! Yippee! Now, let's just hope it holds together.

I had a volunteer to test it and see if it would hold. Only took about a minute and she was fast asleep! Hmm, maybe I should keep the swing after all!

It's not totally done yet. I still have to "Man-Up" the pink head stabilizing pillows and the mobile. I'd better hurry, my little grandbaby boy will be here soon! He's overdue!

Conversations with a 4 yr old

2010-08-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

I'm just going to type what comes out of her mouth in the next few breaths. Here we go!

Mom, Why my grandpa died when I was a baby?
Is Pumba a pig?
Look there's a fly on the wall.
I have two tisters, Katie and Lexie. Libby is my baby.
Why does Lexie like boys?
I'm going to school in August.
I want nothing to eat.
Mom, where's my jelly samwich?
Last morning, I had a bad dream.
What's Dad doing?
I have uncles?
You're cute, mom.
Mom, why Sandy is nine?
What does Sandy start with?
Well, Gracie starts with a G!
Why does Tinkerbell have pointy ears?
I wanna be upside down. I'm not going to fall!
Um, I was wondering why Lexie wants to be a mommy.
Want me to tickle your armpit?
How about if you don't be a Grandma. You can be Aunt Mommy.

Mom, what are you doing?
Why you like pony tails?
Mom, you need a new car?
Mom, you need a new mop?
Mom, Cealis is ready when you are. You want that?
Hey, I liked that channel. What's this? Yay, cartoons!
Where's my flip flops?
Can we go to Disneyland tomorrow?
How about next morning?
Hey mom, Oxnard! hahahaha!
Remember when a bird came in our house?
Oh that was so funny!
Mom! Will you wipe my butt!

Whew! I can't type as fast as she can fire off questions!

What's on the other side of that mountain?

2010-08-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

The laundry is not a pile, it's not a mound, it's not anything that can be described by a lesser word than "mountain". If you turn your head, you can see the dishes in the kitchen are piled up in the sink about the same height. Mountainous! I'm going to have to get some hiking boots and ropes and scale my mountains today. Ah, the adventures of motherhood are taking me to new heights!

There is a reason for the pile-up. Several, actually.

Last week Gracie wet her bed twice and had a bloody nose so many times I lost count. The sheets and blankets piled up and that's all I did for laundry last week, leaving all the clothes to wait their turn in the washer. This built the foundation of today's mountain.

This week we went camping at Big Bear. Do you know how musty and dusty three sleeping bags smell when you haven't rolled them out for a couple of years? Ewww. Those darn things along with our camping clothes and towels were tossed onto the laundry mountain. And the pile of dishes grew.

We went to Oxnard this week too. Another quick overnighter. We went to visit Grandma, Aunt Patty and cousin Jennifer who were visiting Cousins Jason and Jenni. For this trip, we left Daddy at home to fend for himself. Since I wasn't home to keep the dishes and laundry going, it piled up some more.

Also, my brother came to visit last weekend. I didn't waste any time doing housework while he was here, just had a nice time relaxing with my little brother. Dishes multiply in the sink. When he left, I tossed his towels and sheets from the bed he used onto the laundry hill.

For three weeks we had Lexie's friend staying with us, and her husband and their little girl. A nice little family of three. They cleaned up after themselves nicely by doing their own laundry and adding their towels to my growing mound. And they helped out with dishes a bit too. If not for their help, I'm sure we would be buried by now! They just left our home and I have hurled to the top of laundry mountain the sheets from the bed.

Guests, traveling, camping and just our general every day living have created these mountains of crud and grime. I am ready to go forth and conquer! First, I will climb to the summit and view the world from the highest peak. Might as well enjoy the view in this great adventure!

Vision and Hearing Evaluation Entertainment

2010-07-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

Ever take a four-year-old for a vision and hearing evaluation? I just discovered what a great form of entertainment that can be!

Gracie will be going to preschool in the fall (which is only a month from now) and part of her preschool registration is a medical form to be completed by her pediatrician. Off we went for a check-up. Vision and hearing screening was only part of the fun, but it was the best part. We opted out of the worst part of the check-up: Shots.

Had to pass on those this time because I accidentally traumatized the poor kid a month ago when I took her little sis in for shots. I didn't have a helper for that visit which meant that Gracie got quite an eyeful as her sister got her pokes with the very sharp things. Gracie tried, but she couldn't "attect" her baby sister. She was declaring "I will attect you, Yibby, I will attect you!" But, try as she might, she just couldn't. For Gracie's check-up, I thought it would be best to skip the trauma and the drama.

That aside, she was measured (43" tall) and weighed (42 pounds). The doctor listened to her heart, it was in there and worked just fine. And the doctor asked her a few little questions to get an idea of socialization: can she respond? make eye contact? yes, yes, yes, she did just fine with all of that.

The nurse took us down the hall for the vision screening. Gracie stood right in front of the chart and rattled off what all the shapes were. Ok, she can see up close and she can identify the shapes on the poster. She was given an eyepatch on a stick to cover one eye at a time for the test. The nurse told her it was a pirate patch. She gets to be a pirate!

Perking right up at the idea of being a pirate, Gracie got right into the act! She stood on the red tape on the floor and covered one eye. The nurse pointed to a shape and asked Gracie to say what it is; Gracie replied, "R". It was a heart. What is this shape, dear? "R" It was a circle. What is this one? "R" It was a boat. The nurse looks confused, but I recognized the tone of the way she was saying R. I must intervene.

I said "Gracie, tell the nurse what the shape is. Tell her if it is a square or a triangle or whatever it is". "But Mom, She said I am a Pirate!" This is true. That's what she said.

Moving on to the hearing screening, the nurse held some sort of gizmo up to Gracie's ear and told her, "When you hear a beep, say 'beep'". Gracie said, "Beep". "No, not yet, wait till you hear a beep then say beep". "Beep" "Ok, we're going to start now, say beep when you hear a beep" "Beep" Pause.

"Do you hear any more beeps?" "Yes" "Say 'beep' every time it beeps" "Ok. Beep" Pause. "Is it beeping?" "Yes" "Mom, can you explain it better?" Oh yeah, Mom to the rescue again. I say to Gracie, "Every time it beeps, you beep". There, that should clear up the confusion.

Gracie said "Beep. My sister gave me the Princess and the Frog movie. Lexie has a baby in her tummy. His name is Charlie". The nurse says, "Let's try this again next year at her 5-year-old check up unless you have any concerns". I didn't.

Between the Pirate act and the Beeping, we had a very entertaining afternoon!

Hansel and Gretel used Breadcrumbs, I am one-uppping them big time!

2010-07-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

I am leaving a trail of expensive electronics. Just dropping them in my path as I go along. And just like Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumbs, the birds are swooping in behind me and picking up my trail markers.

Last year, or was it the year before? I lost my bluetooth at the beach. I've lost other electronics here and there too. Can't remember what all has disappeared from my sights, but I really don't want to know either.

Yesterday, I lost my fairly new-ish little camera in San Diego. Nice little pocket sized digital camera and it took great photos.

I retraced my steps, but it was gone. Of course it was gone, it was awesome! I was hoping it got run over and I could at least get my memory card out of it and maybe even the battery (then I'd have a spare if I had to buy a new camera), but I didn't find it.

Do you think the seagulls swooped in and scooped it up? Those skyrats are always stealing things! Bet they are grinning and taking pictures of each other today. Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumbs are all gone, now they are scooping up my trail of electronics.

I won!!!

2010-07-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

I won! I won! I WON!!!

I don't get to say that very often, so I'm saying it with lots of passion while I can. I clicked "Like" on a facebook status from my favorite local little bookstore and won a $10 gift card for the store. Not like I had to do anything showcasing my multitude of talents, it was just random. All the same, I'm pretty excited!

Knowing me and my love of owning my own books (never did like giving books back to the library), I will most likely spend more than $10. I'm kind of like that I guess. Not sure where I will put any more books or when I will have time to read anything, but I will sure have fun buying something new.

Sewing Baby blankets!

2010-07-06T13:20:00.000-07:00

Not much time left till I'm a Grandma! I am not finding a whole lot of extra time to hide away and sew. So, I moved my sewing machine downstairs to a temporary little sewing table where I can keep my eye on all of the action and still get something done.

I am running up and down the stairs for pins, scissors, different thread, etc. Who says sewing isn't a sport?

With my "sport sewing" I finished three baby blankets for Charlie. My new little grandbaby should be arriving in about 4 weeks so I don't have much time. I certainly don't have time to try to figure out how to work my serger. I am very frustrated with that thing. I wanted so much for it to be my new best friend, but it just doesn't like me.

I am not doing anything fancy with the blankets, just adding blanket binding or rolling the edges for a little hem. I am making receiving blankets that are large enough to use forever and some soft and cuddly blankets. Next on my list is a swing seat cover. Charlie doesn't want a pink swing.

Here is my pile of fabric!

Evil Picnic Table Spider!

2010-07-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

Watch out for the nasty spider under the picnic table!!!

I got bit on the leg yesterday. I sat at a picnic table and noticed there were some spider webs on one end, so I sat on the other end, just for a bit to help Libby take off her shoes and then put them back on two seconds later. Then I had an itch on my leg, so I looked to scratch it. Dang, I had a little red welt. I scratched and looked again and it was like an m&m and turning blue with red around it. Then I said to my friend "dammit, something bit me" and then it was quarter sized and raised. My friend said "OMG that looks awful!" And it did, it looked like a tumor.

I got the kids packed up and was ready to head for the van and looked at my leg cuz it was burning and hurting like crazy and it was HUGE. Like a golf ball now! A blue golf ball! No wonder it was hurting so much! I told my friend, "Look at this!" And she said "it must have been a spider"

I got home and it was about 4" x 3" in an oval shape, still raised like a giant zit. I googled, I found that I should put it up, don't scratch and put an ice pack on it. So I did all that. It still hurt pretty bad but the swelling started to go down. I decided to tell my husband and he just raised one eyebrow and said "sneak outa here and go to urgent care". So, I did.

I'll never know how he does that eyebrow thing.

The swelling was going down and it wasn't as intense blue by the time the doc looked at it. He said the spider bite was right on a vein that is very close to the surface of my skin and the vein must have blown out and so that was just all blood. Then he says "so, it's just a bruise". Are you kidding me? I felt like such a dork! Who goes to urgent care for a bruise? He said ice it and elevate and don't google spider bites, that's a very bad idea. I felt about a foot tall.

But, it still freaking hurts and it's still blue and tender and I'm still thinking that it grew so fast that it was a good idea to get it checked out.

Stay away from the second picnic table on the left at Harveston Lake Park!!! Evil spider lives there!!!

Is it possible to over-Disney the kids?

2010-06-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

My children may be over-Disney'ed. I guess it is possible.

Libby is 21 mths old and can sing several Disney songs. So can Gracie, in fact, Gracie can sing lots of them! Gracie's favorite is "Small World" but lately she's been singing "You've got a friend in me". Libby chimes in with "me" in all the appropriate places. Libby sings, "I know you walked upon a dweem" (pretty close to the real lyrics!). This is a Sleeping Beauty song.

Gracie can identify every Disney character, from which movie, and who then tell you all about the movie or story. Libby is not too far behind. She can identify lots of Disney characters too! Not too many slip past her. She doesn't know her colors yet, but she knows her Disney characters!

They both know their way around Disneyland. We don't even use the park map. But neither one know where we live. Hmmm. Gracie knows for a fact that there are seven dwarfs, but she isn't sure how many sisters she has.

Our Disney passes aren't good until the end of August (and it might be too hot then). We might have to try to normalize the kids a bit. Not sure if I can counter-balance the Disney influence with nursery rhymes, colors, and the alphabet but I'll give it a whirl.

Belle has a yellow dress. Yellow. Sleeping Beauty has a pink dress. Pink. Cinderella's dress is blue. Blue. Snow White's dress is not white. I know, that one is too confusing. Let's move on.....

A is for Alice in Wonderland
B is for Beauty and the Beast
C is for Cars and Chick Hicks

This might be harder than I thought.

Happy Father's Day, Honey!

2010-06-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

My kids are so lucky! They have a GREAT Dad!

Happy Father's Day!

First Swimming Lesson

2010-06-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Gracie is 4 years old now (as if you didn't know!). Time for swimming lessons!

I happened to be on the city website (looking for more parks, of course) and I noticed it was the day for swimming lesson registrations. Now, I had heard before that on swim lesson registration day, you need to get online just after midnight to get registered into a class. They fill up just a few minutes after midnight. It was 10am so I figured I had a snowball's chance in hell to get her signed up, but I thought I'd take a peek anyway.

There were all kinds of openings! I picked a Level I class that didn't require "parent participation" and Ta-Da! She's registered for swim lessons!

Her first lesson was yesterday. Oh how cute! A little line-up of 4 yr olds in the pool, I almost had a cute attack! Her teacher is a boy named Hunter; according to Gracie he is really big and strong. I thought he was a great teacher too. He learned all six of their names in no time. Oh sure, the girls were all named Isabella except Gracie, but still, he got them all right. He had lots of fun little songs that he sang to get the kids to do their water exploration.

It was so funny. He had them all put their face in the water. Five of them put their chin in and Gracie turned her head so the tips of her hair dipped in. He kind of chuckled like he had a trick up his sleeve for these little hooligans. He said "Who wants to play Pirates? He got them all to say "R-R-R" and collect a "treasure", and then he dunked them one by one. Every one of them looked scared and not one cried. He was really quick with his "Good Job!" and a high five.

Before Gracie's lesson started we watched another class, the kids were older. They were all jumping off the edge to their teacher. Gracie said "I am not doing that! No way! I will not jump!" Guess what? She jumped to her teacher twice! And he dunked her under both times.

I'm glad she's in a class with a bunch of kids who are at the same level as she is. I was afraid she would be the biggest chicken in the class or that she wouldn't listen. But, it was great! And Gracie did a very good job!

Itty Bitty Kitty

2010-06-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Rest in Peace Little Itty Bitty Kitty.

My 19 yr old daughter, Lexie found an abandoned baby kitten. There were two of them on the edge of the parking lot, but only this one survived. Since Lexie's cat had kittens 3 weeks prior, she took the baby kitten home and added it to the litter.

The mama cat licked it and nursed it and let it join the family, but she didn't give it the extra care it needed as a newborn. She was treating it like the older kitties. He wasn't getting enough nursing nor enough snuggling, so Lexie bottle fed it and kept it snuggled safe and warm.

When Lexie was at work, we babysat the kitten. That was fun!

He lived for ten days under Lexie's care. One day his eye puffed up and was infected. Two days later, he wasn't feeling well. Meowing and not taking his bottle. She took him to the vet. While she was waiting to be seen, the kitten died in her hands. The vet couldn't believe she had kept him alive at all. Apparently, the kitten was premature and didn't have a chance.

This Stay-At-Home-Mom doesn't know how to stay home

2010-06-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

Know why I don't blog as much lately? Because the weather is too beautiful to stay in! It's not too cool, not too hot. I love May and June in California!

We've been getting out and about quite a bit. My neighbors even commented that I take the kids out almost every day. We're like Phineas and Ferb, "Hey, whatcha wanna do today?" Then we do it.

I started a new blog to write about all the places we go and just give a quick run down of parks and fun places for kids in the area. I have about 15 blog posts in "draft mode" for that blog! We just go and go and go! Quite a few of the moms in the mommy group that I belong to ask me about parks and places like that, so I decided to write a blog and refer them there. Now I just have to slow down long enough to write a full post someday!

When we are home, we are potty training, babysitting, visiting and helping my pregnant daughter and her cats, trying to sew baby things, swimming in the plastic wading pool, and the normal every day stuff like cleaning, shopping, doing laundry. Ho hum.

It'll be too hot to step foot outside soon enough and then I'll plant the kids in front of the tv all day long and catch up on my blogs.

Diggin'

2010-06-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad I had my camera handy when Libby started digging for a booger today. The faces she makes are just too funny! And I have an awesome photo of Gracie picking her nose when she was about the same age, so now I have this wonderful photo to embarrass them with later in life. All's fair in love and boogers.

When I looked at the picture on my computer later, I realized I just had to send it to the Ellen show! Ellen has a category of viewer photos on her web site called "What you're doing while watching Ellen". So, I submitted this wonderful capture of my sweet daughter's quest for a clean nose.

Happy Birthday, Lexie!

2010-06-03T18:18:00.000-07:00

My daughter, Lexie, turns 19 today.

She was born in Minnestota 11 days over due and she was my easiest delivery. I wasn't in labor but I had an appointment for a stress test and a possible induction. We first stopped at the radio station where my husband was moonlighting as a DJ and they let him get on the air. He announced to the world (as far as the radio waves would go anyway) that we were on our way to the hospital to have our baby and his wife was outside in the truck. He said he'd better go and get her to the hospital, but he neglected to mention that I was not in labor! I'm sure people thought I was out in the truck moaning and groaning with labor pain! What a goof. We got to the hospital and they so kindly offered to let me go home and wait it out and I said "I am not leaving her without a baby in my arms!" My good friend pitocin convinced her to be born that afternoon. After she was born, Keith called the radio station and they put him on the air. He announced all the details: Girl, 7 lbs 2oz, jet black hair, cries like a champ. It was June 6th when we finally named her. She was just "Baby Girl" for a while.

Her first year was rough, she had colic and food allergies. She was really cute! She had a whole bunch of hair. A mouthful of teeth at 5 months, they all came in at once, fast and furious. She walked at 10 months and talked early too.

When she was three, she saw her first movie at the theater. Lion King. She wanted to know why the mommy lion couldn't be the king. I knew I had a budding feminist on my hands. She rode her tricycle into the ground that year too when she rode in a trike-a-thon and wore out the axel. She got a prize for that. At six, she started kindergarten and got her first ice cream cone. When she was eleven, a kid in her class took his scissors and cut off a lock of her hair in class. From then on out it seemed like her life revolved around her hair. Teen years were spent dying it, straightening it, spending all kinds of time on it.

Lexie's baby is due Aug 5th. She decided to name her baby Charlie Matthew. I'm really excited for her and hope her delivery is easy like she was. I sure hope Charlie sleeps better than she ever did. She didn't figure out the sleeping thing until she was a teenager and then she overcompensated.

She was a great kid. Although this last year, the 18th year, by far my hardest one as her mom. So freaking happy that the 18th year is over! Welcome, 19!!! So happy that Lexie's birthday is here and a new year of her life begins! Hope its a good one!

Just to get this 19th year off to a great start, I spent the day with her and it was so nice! We took the little girls to the park, went out for lunch and had Pazookies! (warm cookie with a scoop of ice cream on top). After that we took Lexie to get a pedicure which she just loved and then we went shopping for a birthday outfit for her. She got a skirt and two tank tops. Gracie and Libby love their big sis so much, it was a nice day for all of us. I'm so happy that we celebrated her birthday together.

Happy Birthday, Lexie!

Wheels are turning

2010-06-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

My favorite little bookstore here in town was in the newspaper recently. In the article, the journalist sort of went off on a tangent and started to discuss a new machine at the library. It sounds so cool!

It's a book publishing machine. You can print a book that the library doesn't own, if it is available in the database of thousands of titles, or you can print your own book. It comes out all printed, covered and bound. Isn't that the neatest thing?

And did you catch that bit about printing your own book? Yes, my friends, a person could self-publish. Self publish. Hmmmm. I've got wheels spinning in my head.

I was on the phone telling my husband about this machine, and I started to tell him there was this big exciting thing at the library and then I interrupted myself and said, "I've turned into my mother haven't I?" My mom the librarian, always telling me library news. Haha! Now here I am spouting off library news. Oh well, I told him anyway. He thought it was pretty cool! And next thing you know he's encouraging me to write a book. He even had a bunch of ideas for me.

Wish it was as easy as blogging!

Solicitor Super Star

2010-05-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

Today's Solicitor Super Star award goes to.... the kid who just knocked on my door! He was selling newspapers and magazines. I was saying, "No, Thank You... Good Luck... Bye Now... No, really, No Thanks..." He was having none of that!

Finally, he made me an offer I couldn't believe. He said, "If you don't have time to read newspapers, I could just put it in your recycle garbage bin when I deliver it to your house. Then you don't have to pick it up yourself."

Isn't that something? I could subscribe and pay for the newspaper and he would deliver it and put it right in the trash for me! How convenient! I said "Thanks for offering, but NO." Then I hated to do this, but I shut the door. He was still jabbering away.

Cute kid, he's got quite the entrepreneur spirit! He'll go far. I 'm pretty sure he'll get that college scholarship from his Alternative School for troubled youth and stay out of trouble on the streets, even though I didn't buy anything from him today.

Moms Night Out

2010-05-22T10:10:00.000-07:00

Note: I wrote this on two days, the first part on Friday morning, and the second part on Saturday morning. Mom's Night Out was Friday night and here it is, Sunday, so you just have to play catch-up!

Friday:
I'm going!!! The local moms group that I attend infrequently is having a Moms Night out tonight. We are all abandoning our husbands and children and going out to eat without wrestling a long-armed toddler, no taking a little kid to a public restroom mid-meal, no watching Daddy eat a good hot meal while I'm letting mine get cold cuz I don't have enough arms, no falling out of my chair while reaching into the depths of my diaper bag (I'll never forget that).

I don't know these moms very well, just as acquaintances. I would know them all better if I could actually stand still long enough to have a decent conversation, but I end up chasing my kids and running away from any adult conversation that actually is happening. Most of them (ok, all of them) are younger than me, but that is the nature of the beast that is my life anyway.

I'm so excited to go out. I haven't had 5 minutes alone for weeks and weeks. Except in the shower and even then, they are right there waiting for me, yelling for me, sure wish my bathroom had a door! I did take the trash out, alone, just the other day. I needed a minute. They were watching me out the window and crying the whole time I was "gone".

I'm going to leave early for the moms dinner and linger as long as I can. I'm going to be pissed off if our table is next to a table with a little kid. No offense, but really, I don't want to deal with it for just one meal. Everyone in Temecula who is going to the Macaroni Grill tonight.... get a sitter. Seriously, don't come near me with your runts. I'm a woman on the edge.

Saturday:
Had a great time!

Went out with "Nora's Mom", "Becca's Mom", "that drooling baby's mom", "cutest baby at the halloween party's mom" and some other mom I've never met before. It's hard to get to know them very well when you don't go to baby group very often anymore and when you do, you just chase your toddler around and never engage in any actual conversation. Last time I went I spent most of my time crawling under the tables that were shoved to the side of the room in a long row trying to rescue Libby who kept trying to stand up under there and bumping her head. They were all very nice and a couple of them looked fabulous! I should have brushed my hair.

I ate a whole meal without anyone grabbing my plate, food or my silverware. I drank a full glass of water that didn't have slobber in it. I had a glass of wine too! Party on!

When I got home, Keith looked ragged. Geez, dude, you had a nap before you had to watch the kids. I made them dinner and gave them a bath before I left. How hard could it have been? Well.... they wouldn't eat their dinner, they wanted bites of his bowl of chili. So he had to struggle to get any of his own food. Then Libby grabbed his full spoon and he spilled chili all down his shirt. He says "this explains why you have food on your shirt all the time". Yes, yes it does. Then Libby had TWO dirty diapers. This man does not do diapers. He had to change TWO poopy diapers! He wasn't happy about that at all. Gracie was all upset because I was gone and she wouldn't move more than 4 feet away from him so he kept running over her every time he turned around. Yup, sounds familiar. She's 4, but she doesn't let me out of her sight, she really freaks out about that. Then he said he understands now why I needed some time to myself because it probably has been a while and three hours was exhausting. I told him the last time was when I got a babysitter for one hour and got my hair cut - last month!

All in all.... it was a fabulous night! When I got home Libby was still up and she hugged me so tight it felt wonderful. Gracie was sound asleep and she was super happy to see me this morning. Big adorable smile! It's so nice to be appreciated by the little runts! And the big guy too.

Two New Blogs

2010-05-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

In my spare time.... I'm writing two new blogs. I felt like I wanted a place to channel my thoughts in a more focused arena. This blog is all about everything - anything goes really.

I will still write here about what it is like to be the mom of a 21 yr old married daughter who wants a tattoo, an 18 yr old pregnant daughter, a 4 yr old stick of dynamite daughter, and a nearly two year old cheesy grinning daughter. I will still write about my life as a breast-feeding soon to be grandma. I'll still tell you about life as a college grad with no job prospects. I'll write about life as a teacher's wife. This is where you get to find out about bad haircuts, trips to Disneyland, funny things my kids say and do, crazy ideas my husband comes up with, and the antics that make me laugh and thank God that I didn't get to plan my own life. It's my kind of craziness that you all keep coming back for, right?

I continue to get a lot of hits on my one post where I reviewed a diet and exercise product. It amazes me how many people stop by to see what I had to say, every day! Well, I'm a consumer and I have an opinion about everything I buy. So, I decided to start a blog to review products. It'll be limited to products I actually purchase, so don't be looking for too many more diet products! Mostly toys and books and movies and that sort of thing. I'm calling it "Mama's Big Bunch of Opinions".

I also want to put together my little adventures in a blog. People have taken notice that I venture out with the kids and we go a lot of places. We try to play in lots of different parks. We have a pass to the Zoo, Wild Animal Park and Disneyland. We've been here and there and places in between. I am writing a blog about the places we go, an outing blog. Hopefully, it will be handy for other local families. I actually get questions from others such as, "Do you know of a good park for a two-yr old? What kind of playground fill does that park have? Are there bathrooms at this other park? Have you ever been to ?" We are blessed with so many places to go for a day trip or a little park outing. It'll be fun to keep track! This blog is called "Oh The Places We Go".

Neither blog has very many posts yet. They are both a work in progress! I have a ton of catching up to do if I'm going to do either blog any justice. This blog will still be devoted to randomness.

Disneyland in Mismatched Shoes

2010-05-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

Last week: Wyoming and Montana. This week: Disneyland. Next week: Catalina Island. May is a busy month for outings!

Going to Disneyland is a physically demanding day and I wasn't really feeling like taking the plunge into the pool of exhaustion that follows a day at Disneyland. But, if I was going to get the kids to the Happiest Place on Earth at least once per month, I figured I would just ignore my laziness and get going. I had another cup of coffee and mustered up some energy.

The kids slept great the night before, they woke up happy, ate a great breakfast of sausage and eggs. Libby filled up a diaper (always good before an outing!). They were clean and wearing matching dresses that they picked out themselves. My husband had to work late, so if we come home late they won't miss any Daddy time. My gas tank was full. The weather was perfect too! All signs pointed to a great day at Disneyland. How could I argue with that?

I didn't tell the kids where we were going; I just asked them if they wanted to go out and do something. They ran to the door! Guess they were done resting from our roadtrip and ready to go again. I insisted we all wear shoes, and the hunt for footwear ensued. I could not find matching shoes for Libby anywhere! I found one white, one red and one blue shoe. Three mismatched shoes. Oh well, I stuck a red and a blue on her - they were the same style and there was one for each foot. Good 'nuff! I put on the Minnie Mouse ear hat and took them out to buckle them up. Finally, Gracie said, "Are we going to Disneyland?" The ears were the big tip-off.

We parked in the Woody parking lot at 11:30am and we hit the freeway to head for home at 7:30pm. It was an 8 hour day and I'm sure feeling it today!

We managed to do quite a bit. Even found some new things we've never done before! I love discovering new attractions (new to us). Of course the first thing we did was walk up Main Street to the Castle and tour Sleeping Beauty's story. This is one of our favorite attractions and we never leave until Princess Aurora's dress is pink.

Then we made our way to the Princess Fantasy Faire to see the princesses. The line was as long as it gets! Gracie actually told me "Lets come back later". Fine with me! We walked right onto the Small World without waiting. As always, the puppets were awesome and the song never gets old. Both girls were singing along this time - I love that Libby sings now! She knows the tune and mimics the sounds well enough.

Then we went to Toon Town to visit Minnie Mouse. She was beautiful and sweet as ever. She even gave Libby some kisses.We checked on the Princess line again and it was just too long. Looked to be over an hour wait. Gracie was not excited about it one bit. I was shocked, but I'm not going to argue. We've met all of the princesses except Pocahontas and she is rare. Plus, the girls were not wearing princess costumes, so it was ok to miss the princess line-up. We made our way over to Pixie Hollow to meet Tinkerbell.

The line for Tinkerbell was pretty long too. But the waiting area is fun and you have some elbow room. The line is a bridge over a little pond complete with ducks and ferns and fairy statues hiding around the foliage. Today they had water shooting from one side of the sidewalk to the other over the top of the people. The girls just loved it! When it was our turn, Gracie got super excited because she saw *gasp* The Blue Fairy! She was beautiful! We rounded the corner and visited with Tinkerbell herself. She blew kisses back and forth with Libby and gave Gracie several very nice hugs.

Gracie wanted to go see Winnie the Pooh next. He's a long walk away from Pixie Hollow, so off we went. On the way, we stopped at the Tiki Room. I thought I knew where the Tiki Room was and headed for it, but Gracie was pointing and telling me to "go that way!". Sure enough, she led me right to the Tiki Room. Who needs a map when you've got a 4 yr old Disneyland enthusiast?

Singing with the birds and flowers and drumming with the totem poles is a highlight! The girls sing and whistle and pat their knees. They love the Tiki Room! Gracie is getting good - she covered her ears right before the clap of thunder. She is still amazed that it stopped raining when we go outside. One of these days, she'll figure that out too.

Right next to the Tiki Room is a meet-and-greet area for Aladdin and Jasmine. Today, Jasmine was there and the line was exceptionally short! We hopped in and got to visit Jasmine. She's been the favorite princess around here lately. Gracie loved seeing her and Libby loved, well, herself. Libby stood right in front of the Disney Photopass photographer and said "Cheese!" He ignored her for a bit, focusing on his job to take photos of the princess. The people in line behind us were Ooohing and Awwwing over Libby's antics.

As we passed by New Orleans Square, Gracie searched the area for Princess Tiana. No sign of her, but wait! Who is that! Singing pirates! We stopped to watch them play music and sing pirate songs, they were great! The girls watched with caution, just in case. They were pirates, after all.

By the time we got to Critter Country, Pooh and his friends were gone. Aw, pooey. We just flipped around and headed back the way we came. On Main Street we saw a quartet of singers, they were fun to watch. Then we headed over to California Adventure.

In California Adventure Park, we found some new things to do. We went to the Muppet 3D Movie where Gracie laughed her head off! And we went to the Disney Playhouse show which was awesome in so many ways. Mickey and friends puppets, singing, and bubbles fell from the ceiling - the girls were beyond thrilled! When we came out of there, it was time to find a spot to sit and watch the parade. We had a great spot for viewing, but Libby fell asleep in the back of the stroller so she missed the whole parade. Gracie sat in the front seat of the stroller and I parked it so she was right on the front line and I sat on the sidewalk next to her. We had a little picnic while we waited for the parade to start.

The parade was the best! It was the Pixar Play Parade. Characters from some of Gracie's favorite Pixar movies marched right past us. Boo from Monsters, Inc. came right up to Gracie and a dancer gave Gracie a high five. We saw characters from Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, Bug's Life, Toy Story and Cars. When Gracie saw Lightning McQueen from Cars, the real Lightning McQueen, she got super excited!

After the parade, California Adventure was closing and the entire mob of visitors headed out. Most went back to Disneyland. I suggested we go home now and Gracie was having none of that! So I took them back to Disneyland. Rather than fight the crowds on Main Street where the California Adventure visitors were entering and the Disneyland visitors were gathering for the Celebration Parade, I parked the stroller at the train station and we hopped on the train. We rode it all the way around the park. Gracie lit up with excitement when we traveled through the Small World! After the train ride, the girls were ready to head for home. Perfect timing since the crowds were staying for the parade (same one we've seen three or four times now).

Both girls slept all the way home. When we got home, Daddy pulled in the driveway before I even had the doors open to get the girls out. Gracie never did wake up, she slept all night long too! Love that! Libby just had a nap in California Adventure, followed by a nap all the way home, so she was ready to rock and roll when she got out of the van.

It was a really fun and wonderful day! So glad I didn't give in to laziness and just stay home today. The weather was perfect all day long and the girls were so well behaved and happy! Can't beat that!

One of the funniest things about the whole day was Gracie telling everyone we met (attraction workers, bus drivers, people in line, anyone who could hear her voice!) something new. Rather than her daily declaration that it's her birthday today, she changed it up a bit. She told people, "This is my new dress I got for my Grandma's birthday. It has stripes." I'm so glad she found something new to say instead of "Today is my birthday, I'm turning 4" and I was really glad she didn't whine about not wearing a princess costume! Double bonus!

Great Grandma is 102

2010-05-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

In my previous post, I said that we went to Grandma's birthday party. She turned 102 on Mother's Day. What a great day for a birthday!

Just going through my pictures from the trip and wanted to share these two. This is my Grandma's place. She lives on her ranch, which used to be a cattle ranch back in the day. Now it's just a tumbleweed ranch, but still a great place. Tumbleweeds don't smell anywhere near as bad as cows, so I'm not complaining one bit! In this photo, Grandma's house is horizontally center, vertically, it's about 1/3 across the photo from the left. The other place further to the left in the photo is across the road.

And here is my Grandma Gracie.

Destination: Wyotana

2010-05-15T15:51:00.000-07:00

Just took the little girls on an 8 day outing. We drove 2746 miles (approximately) through 7 states. I picked up a pretty good travel buddy when I hit Las Vegas, my brother who shall be referred to as "Wubby" forever more. Libby renamed him and it just might stick! Together, the four of us covered a lot of ground.

The trip was for Mother's Day and my Grandma's 102nd birthday was the same day. There was a nice little lunch party for her. My husband woke me up in the middle of the night a few days before the trip with this crazy idea: "You should go! Take the girls and go. You can do it! It'll be fun." Really? Go on this super long roadtrip without the husband? Ugh, the thought of going it alone was not appealing in any way. My husband says, "pick up your brother on the way". Hmmm....

After a sleepless night of thinking and scheming and planning and mapping out the trip in my head, I decided it was a good idea and I would go. I called my brother and he said he was game. I called my mom and she stammered around a bit before giving me the unfortunate news that my crazy idea to just pop on over and crash the exclusive birthday party was not a good idea. She suggested I stay home and come another time. As usual, I did not listen to my mother. After 44 years of that, you'd think she would know that I never listen. Wonder where my kids get that?

The trip was a good one. The birthday party was great! Being home was a lot of fun and very refreshing. The girls had a wonderful time, and they loved seeing their Grandmas! They also got to play in the snow - so much fun! The road was good to us, the weather was just fine. All in all, the whole trip was nice and we got lucky in many ways making it one of the best vacations home we've ever had.

Now I'm road weary and having fun trying to catch up on sleep with two little girls who don't need roadtrip recovery time. Oh, how I wish I had their energy level!

Once we got home, I quickly discovered the reason why my husband sent me off on a long trip by myself. He hired a crew to demolish my ugly kitchen counter, and replace it with granite! I hated that counter. It was 4" white tiles and hundreds of grout lines. Blech, cleaning that counter was awful and it never looked clean. I hated it every day we've lived in this house. Also, the beat-up-scratched-stained sink has been replaced with a wonderful deep new sink! Love it! It's topped off with a new beautiful tall functional faucet! I'm so excited to have a squirty thing that works! And the faucet doesn't leak! These little things don't seem important but they really are. He also replaced the stove cook top. New stove! It's one of those kind that just goes on the counter, the oven is separate. This new stove is nice! The burners work! All of them! I love that - it's handy and pretty!

This is why my husband convinced me to get out of the house for a week. He wanted me out of the way. Didn't want my input or my stressing out over what was being done. Honestly, this is the best way to remodel - just come home to it all being done. Love it! He knows me well.

A Trip for Two! (and me too)

2010-05-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

I won a trip for two to Catalina Island! The ticket is for two people to ride on the Catalina Flyer, which I learned from google is a boat.

"Our Catalina Flyer, the largest passenger-carrying catamaran on the West Coast, features a richly appointed interior, sweeping sun decks, full-service cocktail lounges, stately viewing windows and Ride Control. So if you want comfort, service, a friendly crew, or just want to work on your tan, the Catalina Flyer is your choice. The Catalina Flyer is not only the FASTEST boat, but the BEST way to the island."

The boat ride takes an hour and 15 mins so it should be long enough to be lots of fun! I think the little girls will enjoy it. There are two set times of day when the boat goes and comes back, so we'll have to be sure to be prompt so we don't miss the boat. Literally!

Of course, I'm taking my two little outing buddies to Catalina instead of my husband or a friend. I have more fun with these two than I ever thought possible. I just know they'll love going for a nice boat ride, spend the day at the beach, do a bit of walking around the shops and then another boat ride back. We'll just go for a day. The time between boat rides is about 6 hours, which is long enough for us. It would be nice to camp out or get a hotel and stay overnight, but I was looking at the websites for lodging and it's very expensive! Plus, everything you do is very expensive too. The girls and I don't need to go snorkeling or horseback riding or journey to the middle of the island to see the buffalo. We'll just beach it!

I can stake out the place for a future date with my husband. Wink Wink!

We have to go soon. The free tickets expire on May 28th. I'm really looking forward to the Catalina outing with the little girls! Now, I just have to decide which stroller to bring.

Mama Wants Her Body Back Review - Company Founder Listens!

2010-04-29T20:17:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited about a comment I got on an old blog post! Just thrilled! Lisa Druxman commented on my "Mama Wants Her Body Back Review" post! Do you know who that is? She's the woman who designed the diet and exercise program. She's the head of the company, this is her product! And she read my blog! Not only did she read what I wrote, but she took the time to type out a reply and muck through the secret word security thing to post the comment. I've been heard!

This is what she had to say:
I do hope you post this comment. This is Lisa Druxman, the founder of Mama Wants Her Body Back. Because you were part of a University Study, I cannot know if they gave you the actual program. But if they did, the real calories are much higher than that. The nutritionist's analysis was 1238 kcal/day for A choices, 1562 kcal/day for B choices and 2003 kcal/day for C choices. Since people will most likely eat a mixture of the choices, then their nutritional intake will fall somewhere between the A and the C (i.e. 1238 kcal/day to 2003 kcal/day). Our clients are having phenomenal results. My goal is to help moms get their bodies back but also to realize their unbelievable strength. I thank you for sharing this with your readers.

"Mama Wants Her Body Back" must be out on the market now because my blog has been hit hard with Google searchers looking for reviews on the product. There have been a few comments left behind, but not many at all compared to how many hits that one post has been getting. It has been hit multiple times a day for the last month or so.

I left out one important piece of information on my review that Lisa and other Google searchers who stumble upon my blog won't know from reading that single post. My usual audience of readers know me well, and so I don't mention it all the time. The fact is, I'm a breastfeeding mama. This made a huge difference in the way the diet worked, or rather didn't work, for me.

My baby is 20 months old now and I'm still nursing her every three to four hours, all day and night. At the time that I did the diet study, my baby was 13 months old. I didn't feel that the diet made any allowance for breastfeeding, especially since the people running the study never asked me if I was nursing. They asked a ton of other questions, but that was never one of them. And there wasn't any information in the materials provided that addressed breastfeeding. So, I was left to guess how to compensate for the extra calories I needed to maintain a milk supply. I am not a nutritionist nor am I a lactation consultant nor any other type of credentialed diet or lactation specialist. I'm just a 44 yr old breastfeeding mom carrying around too much weight around my middle. Breastfeeding doesn't bode well with dieting; however, breastfeeding and making healthy eating choices do go well together. I wouldn't say that eating a pan of brownies is a healthy choice. Guilty!

To those of you purchasing the program, best of luck to you and stay away from the brownies! I'll join you after I quit nursing and I can better focus on just me.

Diet and exercise aside, there's just something amazing knowing that my opinion was heard. My little nonsensical blog that I just write mostly for myself stood on top of the Google search engine and said "Hey!" My voice via blog post is resonating and Lisa Druxman listened! Amazing and Exciting!

Bribery Works!

2010-04-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

I'm bribing my 4 yr old. It's working great! I love it! That's how I potty trained her too, she has a price. She can be bought! Whenever I hear that "He can be bought!" phrase, I hear it in Robin Williams voice as the Genie in Disney's Aladdin movie. And now you know what the voices in my head sound like.

Anyway, Gracie has been getting in my bed in the middle of the night and then I'm squished and sweating between two little girls and a dog and a pile of unnecessary blankets. The hubby usually looks pretty comfy clinging the edge of his side of the bed, but this is just too much for me! The dog will usually figure out that she doesn't have enough room to sprawl out, so she'll go get in Libby's toddler bed which is just the right size.

Bribery is giving me a bit of breathing room lately. I told Gracie if she will stay in her own bed in her own room all night long and sleep all night until morning, I'll take her to the park. It's working! She loves going to the park. What 4 year old wouldn't fall for that? And, she just figured out how to pedal her tricycle, so we have been taking that with us to the parks and she's putting on some miles, then playing on the playground equipment too. This is wearing her out every day, helping with the sleep issue and earning the reward.

And, it's been fun! Tomorrow I'm taking the little girls to the zoo. If she doesn't stay in her own bed, I'll tell her that her little sis did! Aren't I devious?

Earth Day Rebel: The Planet is in Peril!

2010-04-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my neighbor's house and my house, it is behind the tree on the right. This photo was taken a few years ago and aside from the toilet paper, it hasn't changed much. We've trimmed it and it grew right back, over and over again. Because I'm an Earth Day Rebel, it sure looks different now!

My pictures might be too big in your browser window, just click a pic to see the full view then use the back button to return.

Bzzzzzzz Bzzzzzz Bzzzzzzz Big ugly sap spitting tree, this is my friend Mr. Chainsaw. This actually happened the other day, but since it was during the week of Earth Day, I'll tell you today. We rebelled a couple of days early.

We had a great big huge tree in our front yard. And the front yard is about the same size as an average bathroom, very small! We park under the tree and so do our next door neighbors; it hangs over their driveway too. The thing grows so fast, it was hard to keep up with trimming the branches and they get so long that they hang down and get in your face. The tree was constantly raining sap, leaves, bird poop... you name it, tree gunk! Yuck!

I have to say, it did provide some nice shade. But, on a cool day in April, the shade didn't seem so important. Now that the tree is gone, my daughter warned me against third degree burns if I touch my steering wheel this summer. Eh, I will just wear mittens. Maybe I'll start keeping my mitts in the freezer.

Yes, I said it: the tree is gone! We hired a couple of guys to cut it down and they hauled it off to the dump. Back to the earth - hey, maybe I'm not such an Earth Day Rebel after all! Killed a tree but gave it back. The landfill is a mountain in the making, right?

The girls and I watched all the excitement from the safety of the upstairs window. Might be killing a tree, but I didn't want to get konked on the head and become a victim of my own curiosity.

I don't know much about logging, except what I've seen on Ax Men (the reality tv show about loggers), but it seemed to me our hired loggers went about cutting the tree all wrong. First, they flung a rope up into the top branches and then tied the chainsaw to it. Then one guy scampered up there like a squirrel and used the chainsaw on a rope to cut off branches. This is not how they do it on TV! Once all the branches were on the ground, they cut the trunk down to a tall stump, then a shorter stump, then a stump that was nearly flush with the ground.

Why didn't they just chop it down at the ground level first and then instead of climbing the tree, they could have cut off the branches with their feet on the ground. Eh, what do I know. Maybe it's just more fun to use a chainsaw on a rope.

The guys made a couple of runs to the dump and that's that! We are the proud new owners of a stump! And we killed a tree. This is the 4th tree to be sacrificed for my happiness. Three of them in the back yard met Mr. Chainsaw in years past. The planet is in peril!

Thankful for No Job

2010-04-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

I don't have to be out of town on business today. I don't have any board meetings. I don't have any pressing deadlines. I don't have to sit in a cubicle. I don't have to carry a briefcase. I don't have to wear a dress and panty-hose. I don't have to clock-in or watch the clock.

I don't have to carpool. I don't have to make my kids get up and dressed and out the door at 7am. I don't have to worry all day about my kids in daycare. I don't have to worry about my job during the night when my daughter spikes a spontaneous fever. I don't have to mask her sniffles with cold medicine and "forget" to tell the sitter. I don't have to put my career pressures on my little kids.

I don't get a paycheck. That's ok. I don't feel underpaid. I work 24 hours a day without a day off, ever. I work when I'm sick. I work when I'm tired. But I don't mind too much and I don't call it work. I don't have a boss; I have two. I love them very much! And, they won't fire me.

I am so very grateful that my husband works two jobs so that I can stay home with our two little daughters. I don't have anything against daycare or babysitters or working mothers, I am just happy to be free from adding all of that to our lives. I don't take these days at home for granted. I love not having a job!

Noddy is not Naughty

2010-04-19T16:04:00.001-07:00

We were watching a little preschool program on PBS called "Noddy". He's a little wooden boy who lives in Toyland. I think he might be British, not sure, but the next cartoon is Kipper and he's a British dog. No mistaking Kipper as anything but British!

Noddy drives a taxi around Toytown along with his sidekick, Bumpy the dog. The mutt barks incessantly! The other characters are pretty cute. Noddy is adorable.

Anyway, we were watching Noddy and his yapping tail wagger when my 4 yr old says, "He's a bad boy."

I said, "Who?"

"The naughty boy"

"Naughty? Noddy? Oh, Noddy isn't naughty!"

Wait, that sounded confusing. Why on earth did they name the wooden kid Noddy anyway? Wonder whose idea that was? The more I try to tell her that Noddy is not naughty, the more she looks at me like I'm nuts.

"They said he's naughty"

Oh, she's got me there. They call him Noddy countless times in the 15 - 20 minutes cartoon. PBS, what is going on with you people? Why did you call the kid Noddy? That was just naughty!

Wonder what Kipper is up to today?

Disneyland or Taxes

2010-04-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

The girls and I escaped to Disneyland on Tax Day. Keith stayed home to do our taxes and we didn't want any part of that! We gave him a nice quiet house so he could argue with Uncle Sam without interruption. He also had papers to grade, lesson plans to write and other work. Good thing he took the day off!

We were approaching Disneyland on Ball Road, about a mile to go when Libby pointed to the road in front of us, gasped, squealed, clapped and said "Yay!" She was bouncing and smiling in her carseat, waving her little arms! She knows! How does a 19 month old know the road to Disneyland? This makes me feel good knowing her days at Disneyland are wonderful enough for her to take notice of the route.

Honestly, Disneyland smells great! The parking structure, eh, smells like exhaust. Cough. Cough. But then you get into the Happiest Place on Earth and the wonderful scents are everywhere! Breathing deep at Disneyland makes my heart and soul very happy! Main Street smells like candy and cookies and wonderful unimaginable sweets. Do not arrive hungry! The rides have smells in them too. In the Caterpillar ride you can smell watermelon and cookies. Sweet! And the best: Disneyland flowers! Oh the landscaping is not only beautiful but very fragrant. It is so nice to walk around and breathe deep. So good for the heart and soul when you fill your lungs with the best perfumes in Southern California!

The girls wore their Princess Jasmine outfits again. I let a friend borrow Libby's Snow White and Sleeping Beauty dresses and we don't have them back yet, so Libby only had one costume. Gracie wanted to wear it anyway, so it worked out very nicely.

In fact, the Jasmine costumes were perfect for the day! We saw Princess Jasmine three times! First we saw her at the Princess Faire along with Belle and Tiana. Then while we were in the Tiki Room, she must have gone to get Aladdin and we saw them both just outside of the Tiki Room. Two Jasmine hugs! Twice the fun! (Shhh, don't tell the girls there were two different Jasmines) Then we went to California Adventure to see the Aladdin show and guess what - Aladdin and Jasmine were there too! They had to be there, they were in the show.

The Aladdin Show was amazing! And because the girls were so adorable in their costumes, the gate attendant said to me, "If you take them out of the stroller we'll park it for you and you can follow me. Little Jasmine, would you please carry the lamp? Be careful, the Genie is inside!" So we followed her to the VIP seating line which was very short. We should have been in the mile long line for the door like everyone else. Gracie gave up the lamp and we got to go right into the theater and choose any seat we wanted. After about 20 minutes, the handicapped people came in and then the mob. The show was awesome! They are ending this show in August, so if you haven't seen it, hurry!

As always, we left happy and exhausted. When we got home, the taxes were filed, Domino's Pizza on the table and my husband poured me a cold beer. What a magical day!

365 Birthdays per year!

2010-04-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

"It's my birfday aday. I'm turning 4." This is what I hear Gracie telling everyone, everyday. Anyone and everyone. Nobody escapes the announcement. Just one little problem... aside from talking to strangers... it's not quite true. A wee bit misleading. Yes, she had a birthday. Yes, she turned four. But, not today.

Most of the time, I just let her tell people that it's her birthday. They usually respond with "Happy Birthday!" and that's that. No harm done.

Today I took my three daughters out to lunch at Red Robin. Oh, so good! And Gracie announced to the waiter that it's her birfday with her usual flair. He just said that was nice, no big deal. When we finished eating, I asked for a to-go box and next thing you know our table is surrounded by clapping waiters singing Happy Birthday to Gracie! She got a free birthday sundae too!

Apparently, every birthday needs a celebration. Even today's unofficial birfday.

Catching up

2010-04-10T17:58:00.000-07:00

Oh, poor abandoned blog o' mine how I've neglected you. All of my adoring fans have had nothing new to read here for a couple of weeks. Good thing you still love me! I'll get you all caught up so sit back and relax a spell.

And to think, I am toying with the idea of starting another blog. Wonder if I can double-blog? I want to write one that is focused on product reviews. I have a lot of stuff, and even more opinions! I guess it would mostly be reviews about toys and householdy type of things, I'm sure there are a thousand mom-bloggers that review products already. But really, it would be nice to get my opinions out there just so I feel that I have a voice. Now the hard part... what should I call it?

Katie and Andrew came home for two weeks! Loved it! You probably figured that out though because in my last post Katie is in the beach photos. That, and I told you more than a hundred times. Didn't I? Well, I told someone repeatedly and now I don't remember who knew and who didn't. My girls can tell you that I'm famous for that. I tell one of them the same thing five times and I think I told them both.

I'm also famous for saying I'll do something, but then I don't. Even though I do this, I hate it when other people do it! But I tend to say Yes too quickly, then realizing what I just got myself into, freaking out about it, and then ducking out. Usually not very gracefully. I did this twice to Katie and Andrew while they were home.

Their flights got all messed up on the way here and they landed at LAX instead of Ontario. So Katie called me from Washington DC and begs me to pick them up at LAX later in the afternoon. Of course, she was upset because their flights got all switched around and that meant they lost their ride from Ontario to home. To ease her mind, of course I agreed to pick them up. Then I looked it up on the map. No freaking way! The map looked like a tangled ball of yarn and I'm supposed to find my way around in that mess with two little runts in the back seat? Nobody who can help me navigate? No way! Of course, I couldn't tell them that I changed my mind until after they landed and discovered I wasn't there as promised. They had to take a bus to the train station and take a train to Ontario, then my husband picked them up and took them to that airport to get their luggage.

I'm famous for getting lost too; can you imagine how long I would have driven around LA trying to find the airport? I shudder at the thought.

Because the kids never learn, they asked me again. And because I never learn, I said Yes, sure I'll take you to the airport when you have to leave. No problemo! They had to fly out early in the morning, eh, ok, I can do early. I really should have said "define early", but I didn't. By "early in the morning" they meant that we had to leave the house no later than 3:30am. Well, kids, that's not morning! That's the middle of the night! My husband had to step in and run the taxi service again. Mom taxi is quickly becoming Dad-Taxi. I kinda like that!

Lexie is just past the mid-point of her pregnancy. Baby is half-baked! I took her to an ultrasound portrait studio. So cool! She got a good long look at her munchkin, a dvd and some printed photos. This was so much better than the doctor's office, plus she got to bring anyone she wanted. She had a small audience of four, and I was happy to be one of them. Of course, I was paying. She's really doing well; I'm proud of how healthy she is despite her 18ness. Teenagers are so lucky! Fast food, crazy sleep schedules, working hard and pregnant - she's awesome.

I think I'm turning into my mother. This is a good thing, but sometimes a little bit nutty. I'm understanding more of the nutty things my mom does and starting to think they aren't nutty at all. Of course, if I do it, it's not nutty!

My mom always takes pictures of us when we are all together - no matter what we look like! Drives us all crazy, but we smile at her camera even though we know she's going to adore this picture of us looking awful. She's taken pictures of me and my sisters and brother all together when we were road weary, wearing comfy traveling clothes, no makeup, ratty pony tails, tired, or just woke up. When Katie and Andrew were home, Lexie came over and the five of them were together but never photoshoot-ready. Didn't matter. I snapped pictures and gushed over them! And I suddenly understood my mom better, or maybe I'm just nutty.

The little princesses are constantly busy. Libby learned how to go down the slide on her bottom rather than flipping over to her belly and going feet first that way. She lands with a bump, but she keeps going back for more. She can't get up to the top of the slide by herself, her sister helps her with that feat. I always seem to miss it too. Gracie says she helps Libby. Libby says, "Hup".

Libby's vocabulary is growing like crazy! She says all sorts of things, mostly nouns. She is much more verbal than Gracie was at her age, but she's right in there with Katie and Lexie and how they learned to talk. Gracie was my quiet child. How is that possible? She never stops talking and she yells every word!

So, there you have it my adoring fans. The update. I'm talking to you, all four of you!

Life is about to get back to normal around here. We had two weeks of Katie home followed by a week of Daddy home on his spring break. Next week, it'll be back to just me and the littles. I think they will be disappointed with the lack of chaos so I'll have to take them for some fun outings.

Winter is Officially Over! as evidenced by my sunburn

2010-03-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

When you make your first trip to the beach for the summer season, then Winter is officially over! We went yesterday and the weather was perfect for beach bumming! Sunny and warm and beautiful! There were sailboats on the horizon, kites in the air, kids in the water and sandcastles on the beach. What a wonderful way to start off the summer! Er, Spring. Whatever, they're all kind of the same around here.

Apparently, I have to relearn how to apply sunscreen. How do I forget this every year? Maybe the level of difficulty in this task is just something I have yet to master.

1. Remember to bring sunscreen along
2. Squeeze lotion into hand
3. Rub it around to all exposed spots.

Sure sounds easy enough. Surprisingly, it's a complicated process. First of all, where is the sunscreen from last year? Didn't we have 8 bottles of it? I found one and brought it along, it was SPF 60. No sun can penetrate this stuff! Till the teen says, "60?! Maaaaawwwwmmmmm!" Ok, you got me, she's not a teen anymore, she's 21. But I still call the big girls "the teens". I'll figure it out someday. So, we stopped at Target for sunscreen with a more reasonable SPF number so that some sunrays could get through and tan up the pale tall one. Besides that, she needed new flip flops. Now! Ok, so now we've accomplished step number 1. We have sunscreen!

Step two. We're figuring this part out as we sit in the sand with the breeze blowing and the runts kicking up more sand. Why do lotions and everything have that really tough little piece of foil on the top of the bottle under the lid? It's so hard to get off! By the time we get a dollop of lotion in our palms, we also have it mixed with sand. On to step 3.

Rub it around. Easy! I rubbed the 60 lotion on the little fair one, all over. Then the sand stuck to her. All over. She was trying so hard not to get a single grain of sand on her. She wasn't complaining much, but she wasn't thrilled with the beach either. Then I smother her with sticky lotion making her a sand magnet. I tell her, "Sorry honey, it's the beach, there's sand." My 4 yr old can't stop running long enough to get much lotion on. She got a mix of my super sun guard and Katie's light protection. And she just got the spots we could swipe as she ran by. She was already covered with sand, the lotion just made her sand stick to my hands. Blech! Now Katie wants me to put sunscreen on her back, sans sand. I manage. Let's see.... I sunscreened the baby, the kid and the string bean. That's everyone!

Three hours later.... Hey! Did I sunscreen me? Ah, man! I burned the part in my hair, my face and neck. Everything else got some color with just a hint of pink. Today, the pink is faded, I'm just smiling with a tomato face is all. Gracie was pink in spots. Mostly her back because the kid spent a lot of time bent over playing in the sand or looking for seashells and that type of thing. You can see where I actually did get some lotion on her. She isn't burnt enough to notice though. The other two are still pale as can be.

Next time we go to the beach.... I will lotion up the kids from head to toe before I put their swimsuits on them. Then I get the edges that I always miss once they have their suits on. The lotion will sink in and not be all sticky once we get into the sand. And, any extra I put on them while we're at the beach is just extra. I should try to remember me too!

Hopefully, I'll get it right next time. We sure had fun!

Disneyland with Princess Jasmine x2

2010-03-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

This was such a fun trip to Disneyland! One of the best! Katie and Andrew came with us and we loved having them along to share our day.

When we were approaching Disneyland and sitting at the red light on the corner of Harbor Blvd and Ball Road (you can't really see Disneyland yet because an overpass is in the way), Libby starts pointing and squealing and waving her arms in excitement. She knew! She knew where we were! She is 18 months old and she knows the approach to the Happiest Place on Earth - How cool is that!

We ended up parking in the Jesse Parking Lot, not the best, but it wasn't too bad. There were plenty of buses shuttling people from the Toy Story parking lots as opposed to the minimal number of buses that transported people from the Pongo parking lot last November. I don't like having to park in the overflow parking lots because that just means the whole day will be nothing but crowds and long lines. This was true in some parts of the park, but in other areas it really wasn't bad at all.

We got in the ticket line because I needed a new annual pass. There wasn't anyone in the lines for tickets! We were at the window swiping my credit card in no time. This time I added the parking pass to it. It was expensive, but taking these little princesses to the Happiest Place on Earth is well worth it when they are this enchanted by the Disney magic. And, we made Walt happy, right?

We went up Main Street, through the castle, up and inside the castle to see the Sleeping Beauty story, rode the carousel, went through the Small World, saw the Princesses, toured Toon Town, rode Winnie the Pooh, and went to the Tiki Room. All of those things were very very fun. But the highlights of the day were the Celebration Street Party Parade where Gracie got to dance with Pooh Bear and the Princess Tiana Show where Gracie got to go up and dance with Tiana and play a tambourine! We also tried two rides for the first time: The Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland caterpillar ride.

The Pirate ride was pretty dark and scary, but we made it through without any crying. A wee bit of screaming, but that was just me. You ride a boat through this ride, very similar to Small World. But as you go into a dark tunnel, your boat takes a dive down a steep slope. Not far, but far enough that you sploosh at the bottom of the slope and get splashed. Then, it happens again. This is right where Libby woke up from her nap. In the dark pirate cove in a boat, splashed with cold water while falling down a river. She was wide-eyed and clung to me fast and hard through the whole ride. Gracie clung to Katie for dear life through the first half of the ride, then when we finally got to the cute puppets, she was fine and had fun. When we left the ride, Gracie was singing "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me", so I think she had a good time on that ride.

The Alice in Wonderland ride is one I've never been brave enough to try. The reason is: back in June of 1997 when Katie was 8 and Lexie was 6, we stood in line for this ride. It was a hot day and the shade of the two big trees was refreshing while standing in that long line. We worked our way back and forth toward the front of the line when the unthinkable happened. Directly overhead, a big fat bird in the tree released all of his pent up poop and it landed ON MY HEAD! This must have been a 5 gallon bird. It was all over my head, down my neck, on my shoulder and down my front and my back and on my arm. I screamed under the white slime and the crowd parted like I was Moses. I ran screaming and people pointed the way to the bathroom as I ran by looking like a horror film character. The ladies room had a line, but everyone backed away and let me through and I stuck my head in the sink and tried to wash up as best I could. Of course, nobody helped me, ewww, yuck. Luckily, my long hair was pulled back tight, gelled and braided, so it didn't penetrate much through my helmet hair. I was able to wash off pretty good but now my shirt was poopy and wet too, so I ran over to the nearest gift shop and bought a new shirt. When I got back to the Alice in Wonderland ride to meet up with my husband and daughters (pre-cell phone era, I was just hoping they'd be there), I saw them emerging from the ride on a caterpillar. The girls were all smiles. Since that day, I haven't been brave enough to stand under those trees in the Alice in Wonderland ride again.

Today, we did it. We waited till it was dark to avoid birds. It worked! We successfully made it to the caterpiller cars and boarded a pink caterpillar! Poop Free! The little car went into the ride and just as we entered the "rabbit hole" and went over the little peak for the gentle drop into the rabbit hole and Alice's Wonderland when our caterpillar car jerked to a complete stop. We were maybe 3 or 4 feet into the ride. All the lights came on and an announcement that the ride was broken, stay put and a Disney cast member would come help us soon. 20 minutes later, they found us in the rabbit hole and let us out of our caterpillar. We had to walk through part of the ride and they opened an emergency exit door and let us out.

Score: Alice 2, Mary 0.

Oh, by the way, the Princess Jasmine costumes were a big hit! The girls were comfortable, the costumes held together and they were just adorable! We heard comments from people all day long about how cute the little Jasmines were. Here is a pic of both of them. Libby didn't get beads, but now that I had to spend a day man-handling her all day, I'm glad I skipped the beads on her outfit. Here are both the girls in all their Princess Jasmine Glory.

Finished the Jasmine Costumes

2010-03-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

Yippeee! I just finished sewing the Princess Jasmine costumes. Two pair of pants, two hoochie belly showing shirts, two headbands. Everything is glittery and gold.

Gracie is so excited to wear her costume! She asked me sixteen times today at least if she could wear her Jasmine outfit. Every time, the answer was the same. Yes, tomorrow!

Libby's costume didn't get any beads. Sewing them was difficult and frustrating. Besides, she's a baby, she doesn't need beads on her outfit. Her costume is still pretty cute.

I'm taking the kids to Disneyland tomorrow in their Princess Jasmine outfits. They will be so cute! I'll take loads of pictures. I'm going to leave you in suspense; you will have to wait for Disneyland pictures to see the end result of all that sewing! It'll be worth the wait because you'll get to see the girls modeling them at Disneyland. Hopefully, we'll see the real Jasmine too!

Happy 4th Birthday!

2010-03-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

My little girl turned 4! (A few days ago) This year, she figured out that kids have birthday parties when their turn a year older. A birthday party involves friends, family, cake, and presents. And she wants all of that! She was never too thrilled by the pinata; she didn't make that a requirement. Since she discovered birthday parties, she had to have one too.
Four years sure went by fast. But, I made sure to lay down the rules for being four. Even though it snuck up on me, I had to make sure she understood her more mature status.

When you are four, you don't use the potty chair anymore; toilet only. And you will learn how to wipe your own butt.

When you are four, you don't cry over silly things every day. Cry if you are bleeding, not if we run out of apple juice.

When you are four, you sleep in your own bed. All night long.

When you are four, you brush your teeth. No, I mean you brush them, not suck the toothpaste off and tell me you are all done. Brush. Scrub. Get 'em clean!

Any questions?

No, you cannot get married when you are four. You have to be older. Sixteen? No. Yeah, well, Ariel was too young. Mermaids do things differently. You can have a boyfriend when you are 16, but you can't kiss him or marry him till you are 20. Well, maybe 30. We'll see.

New Glasses Arrived!

2010-03-15T13:23:00.001-07:00

Yay! I can see! I ordered three pair of prescription glasses online at EyeBuyDirect.com for nothing more than chump change. They arrived a few days ago and I'm so excited!

Of course, now that I have them, EyeBuyDirect is having a buy one get one free sale. My timing is always wonderful like that. You can still take advantage of it, but I feel kind of weird ordering two more pair. I think. Well, maybe I should. Would two more pair be too many? Hmmmm....

Here are my new glasses. As you can see, I'm favoring the small squarish style frame lately. I just cannot get into the big giant round googley eyed sunglasses that are popular right now. They are so froggy looking on me.

If my head was shaped like a pretzel, I could wear my old pair. These are only a year old but they did not survive a recent tangle with a toddler. My sunglasses met the same fate on the same day. Sigh.

Yay! I can see!!!!

It's Free or $17, your choice

2010-03-10T09:14:00.000-08:00

With Gracie's first ever birthday party coming up for the big number 4, I went to the grocery store bakery to order a cake. Seemed like the thing to do.

I ordered one small doll cake like she had last year for her to blow candles on. I don't want her to spit all over the cake we will then cut and serve to everyone at the party. For some reason, I've never thought of that before but one day I did and got creeped out. I think I was watching America's Funniest Home Videos and it occurred to me that the blowing of the candles is kinda gross. Anyway... I ordered her one little doll cake. That'll be $7.99. Kind of pricey for an oversized cupcake with a plastic doll head jabbed into the top, but whatever.

Next I needed to order the sheet cake. I decided to go with the larger 1/2 sheet size (so I can have cake for breakfast the next day). The cakes in the display bin are $19.99. Well... fine. Sheesh. I'm either a tightwad or cakes have gotten more expensive recently.

I talked to the cake decorator lady and we decided on the flavor, what kind of frosting, colors, what it should say, how to spell Gracie... all that good stuff. I repeated that I want the $19.99 size cake and she said "Ok, that'll be $37.00" Um... What? No, the $19.99 size. "Yes, the $19.99 cake is $37.00 when you pre-order it but it's 19.99 if you just come pick one up". Really?

Anyone else confused yet?

So, I said to the lady... "Will you have cakes on Saturday?" Yes, yes they will. And she says "You can pick out a cake and we'll write on it for you free".

Wait, now a minute ago, that cost an extra $17... "So I can come and pick up a decorated cake and get her name on it for $19.99 and piping 'Happy Birthday Gracie' on it is free or an extra $17?"

Free. Free writing with frosting. Whatever I want it to say. Even in pink. But the cake will cost $19.99. It's only $37 when you pre-order it.

Ok, well that must make sense to someone. See you Saturday when I pick up the little doll cake and a random cake from the bin.

Making Jasmine costumes

2010-03-08T12:29:00.000-08:00

I've realized that my sewing skills are pretty rusty. My stitching lines are a little crooked here and there. Ok, fine. They are crooked everywhere. Oh well. It's still fun!

I am using a variety of patterns. The pattern for the pants is a sweatpants pattern, and it is unbelievably high waisted! I'm annoyed about the waste of fabric, I've had to cut both pair of pants down several inches. Princess Jasmine does not wear her pants up around her rib cage. She should, but that's another story.

Since I'm using a light satin and organza, the raw edges are a constant battle to deal with. At first, I just sewed up a quick seam. Oh no, that won't work. I went back and trimmed and tucked the seam in and made a french seam out of it, well, sort of. It's all tucked in and neat now, even if it isn't done correctly. I don't think this backward french seam would win me a ribbon at the county fair.

After I spent some quality time tucking in my seams, I went with french seams the rest of the way through. They look much better, even if the stitching lines look like I was drunk when I was sewing along. I wasn't, I swear!

Honest, Ossifer, I'm not drinking while sewing! Did I do that?

The tops either need a lining or facing. I just hate to use satin facing since it just adds to the fraying problem and doesn't solve anything. I ran out of fabric to cut out linings though, and didn't find a matching color at the store. hmm. I came up with a solution! I zigzagged the seam, tucked it french style, used Fray-Check where I clipped the seams, and top-stitched it all down. Now, you can see the seam right through the organza. No problem! I thought of that!

Princess Jasmine has a lot of gold bling on her outfit, Disneyland Jasmine does, not movie Jasmine. I got some gold trim and will be trimming right over the visible seams. Poof, they are out of sight! I used a loopy decorative ribbon on the armholes and will use the same on the neckline, and I used a pretty beaded ribbon trim on the waist. I did not realize the ribbon was beaded too. I thought it would be quick and easy, just sew the ribbon and the beads will hang. Oh, not so easy! The ribbon is beaded too. I did a "stitch in the ditch" trick that I learned from quilting, worked great.

Well.... it worked great most of the time. Didn't work so well when I missed the ditch.

This is Gracie's top. It isn't done yet, but it's close. I forgot that my child has a big head, and didn't make an allowance for that ~~little~~ problem. I had her try it on and I managed to sqeeze her big melon through the head hole, but just barely. Otherwise, it fit just fine. I will be making a faced placket in the back so she can get her head in and out. Might come in handy. Then I'll finish it off with gold trim around the neckline to cover the visible interior seams.

Joining the Grandma Club

2010-03-05T09:05:00.000-08:00

I am going to start growing gray hair, get me some of those deep wrinkles and learn how to bake cookies because I'm going to be a Grandma! And, I want to do it right!

My daughter, Lexie is having a baby boy. He is due to arrive August 5th, give or take a few days. She is feeling great, she looks great and she is happy. Gracie has been asking me for months for a baby brudder; she is pretty happy that Lexie is giving her a baby nephew. Close enough!

Lexie isn't quitting her job, so I get to be chief babysitter! And why not, my house is filled with toys and fun kid stuff. I'm hoping I get to take the little guy to Disneyland! And the zoo! And the park and all sorts of fun places. We are going to have fun.

Sew All Night

2010-03-02T08:07:00.000-08:00

Gracie commanded me to "Sew all night, Mom". I've got my orders! Her plan was this, "Sew all night and tomorrow we can go to Disneyland!" She must think I've got more energy than a firecracker. I'm not exactly that vivacious.

Last spring I bought some fabric to make Gracie a flower girl dress for her big sister's wedding. Got home with it and the bride informed me that the fabric was not mermaid blue, it was pool blue! Duh! So, this lovely pool blue fabric has been sitting around hoping for a future as something pretty. I finally decided what I could make with it. And I sifted through my patterns to find pieces of this or that and get the project started. The fabric will become:

Princess Jasmine! She wears pool blue pants and skimpy little top with beads. Frankly, I'm really tired of her Sleeping Beauty dress. Gracie could use a new princess costume.

Gracie got so excited when I told her what I was making that she demanded I work hard and sew it right now. Sew all night! Then, she can wear it in the morning and we'll go to Disneyland.

I let her watch me smooth out the fabric, lay out the pattern and cut out the pieces. I have enough fabric so that both girls get a Princess Jasmine outfit. The fabric is a light satin and I have some matching sheer beaded organza. Should be very pretty when the costumes are done, but these aren't my favorite fabrics to work with. In fact, they might be frustrating in the machine. Two Jasmine pants, two Jasmine tops, two fabrics... cutting took me over an hour. Gracie fell asleep supervising the cutting process.

She also needs the headband and necklace with a big blue jewel on it.

I hope I'm not in big trouble when she wakes up (which should be any minute now) and the Princess Jasmine outfit isn't done yet. It's just a pile of funny cut pieces! Guess what my little slave-driver will be demanding that I do today; I'll bet she will make sure I get in a lot of good sewing time this afternoon.

The Prescription Pretzel aka my glasses

2010-02-28T11:01:00.000-08:00

When you are 17 months old, the world is a playground and everything is your toy. Including Mommy's glasses. Libby can say "Eye" and twist a pair of glasses into a knot quicker than I can leap through the air over an obstacle course of real toys screaming "Nooooo! My glasses!!!" She's fast, destructive and very cute.

Amazingly, her Minnie Mouse sunglasses are in perfect condition and she wears them often. How does that work?

Since twisting my glasses into a prescription pretzel was so much fun, she got my sunglasses and performed a similar maneuver. Not satisfied, she got Daddy's reading glasses and nearly snapped them in two. I've managed to bend the three pair of glasses back into shape, somewhat. My clear glasses ride crooked on my face now and my sunglasses have a floppy bow, but they'll do till I get some new ones. At least I didn't have to resort to duct tape repairs.

I went directly to GlassyEyes to see what he recommends for online glasses shopping. His mission is to save the world from overpriced prescription glasses. Love that! His blog was promoting a company that I've already ordered from, so that's great! His blog said it was buy one get one free weekend, so I hopped on over to EyeBuyDirect to get in on that deal. Turns out, I got too excited and didn't read the date on that special deal. But there was a 15% off coupon code that I was able to take advantage. Yay!

I ordered three pair: Two with normal clear lenses, and one pair of sunglasses. I am nearsighted, just need a single vision correction. I really do need them to drive, and to facebook when I'm using the wireless keyboard with the tv. Here is what I picked out. The top pair will be the sunglasses with 80% brown tint.

Three pair of glasses including frames, lenses, protective coatings and shipping came to a grand total of..... drum roll please.... $117.23! Thanks, Baby-cakes.

Disneyland - What an Expensive Bargain!

2010-02-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

We just barely got our February trip to Disneyland in before February turns into March! I'm trying to go once a month and it seems like we were just there for our January trip. The February outing was our 7th trip to Disneyland. My pass expires in mid-March, so I'm hoping to get our March trip in before my pass fizzles out.

My pass was $134 last March and I wasn't sure how often we'd get to go, I was hoping for 3 trips in a year. Because I wasn't sure, I didn't buy into the parking pass too. I figured I would come out ahead or even if I just paid for parking at the gate each time. Parking was $12 and now it's $14. If I can squeeze in one more trip to the park, my pass will average out to $16.75 per admission. Plus, I've "hopped" over to California Adventure twice. I'm not sure how much that would have cost to hit two parks in one day, but it's more expensive than just paying the one park entrance. A one-day admission to Disneyland or California Adventure is $72. I'm glad I've been getting in for less than $17. What a bargain!

I had to buy a pass for Gracie in November, and I paid for parking each time, a few souvenirs, one churro, a couple of lollipops, and a few meals. It was never a $20 day, but it was never a $100 day either (ok, yes it was, but only twice). I think we did pretty good as bargain tourists!

When I renew my pass, you know I have to, I can't just spoil these girls rotten and then say "that's all folks", that would just be so... so.. Warner Bros! Anyway, when I renew my pass for another year, I'll have to pay $169 for the pass. Prices skyrocketed at Disneyland. I have the cheapest annual pass option that they sell which allows you in the parks on 170 days of the year. I am ok with that, the days that I'm blocked out are the busier days. Since I'll be paying more, I should squeeze in one or two extra trips to get more bang for my buck, right?

It's funny how Disneyland admissions and merchandise all went up in price, but all of the other Southern California theme parks reduced prices for annual passes. You can buy two years of Seaworld admission (365 x 2) for $109 and that includes parking. You can get a year (365) at the zoo and Wild Animal Park, bring a guest every time for free, receive 4 coupons for guests to come along free for $99 which includes parking. Universal Studios is giving a one day pass to all teachers. And Universal Studios is offering a deal on annual passes too: Buy a pass and your kid gets a pass too. They have three options for annual passes and the most expensive one is $99 which includes a free guest and free parking. Knotts Berry Farm has always been the least expensive park and I haven't heard that they've raised any prices.

For what I'm paying at Disneyland, I could be going to the Zoo, SeaWorld, Universal Studios and Knotts. Ugh. Knowing that makes me wish I hadn't done the math. Then again, none of those places have the Disney Princesses or the Small World boat ride.

I'm trying to make our Disneyland outings as much of a bargain as I can and take some of the guilt out of the big splurge. But, really, when I see these little faces light up and these little eyes get as big as saucers trying to soak it all in at once, I know the trips to Disney are worth every penny and every bit of exhaustion too. This is the face that makes makes me forget how much admission and parking cost:

Why am I the last to know?

2010-02-26T12:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got a message on my cell phone and it went like this:

Mrs. Schumacher, this is Mr. (whatever his name is) the Assistant Principal from Mira Loma Middle School. I was just told that your husband is being hospitalized and so I wanted to call and see how he's doing, wanted to see if everything is ok, let us know if there is anything you need. The number at the school is XXX-xxxx.

Huh? Really? Hmmmm....

The call came in at 4:12 pm and I was too busy to answer, let alone even hear, my phone. From 3:45 - 4:00 I was standing in line at Disneyland holding a screaming crying toddler. As soon as we were seated for the Aladdin show, I fed Libby and talked to Gracie. The show started at 4:15, so I just missed it. At 6:30 pm my husband called me and I was having dinner with a friend in a Disneyland Resort Hotel restaurant and my girls were being angels, so I told hubby that I was having dinner and I'd call him when I hit the road for home. I didn't give him a chance to tell me much but he didn't seem anxious to tell me any big news either.

At 7:06pm I noticed I had a collection of texts and voicemails, so I checked all of it and found that gem from the AP. Remembering that my husband stayed home today with a sore throat and snuffy nose, plus I did cut him off so I could eat dinner, and he may not have wanted to ruin my day... a little part of me could see this happening. Just for a minute though. 7:07pm, I called Keith and said, "Where are you anyway?" He said, "in my man-room". Ah. Thought as much. So I told him what my message said from his AP and he was very confused.

I've never spoken to this guy before and he sounded genuinely concerned, so I didn't think it was a joke phone call. With Middle School teachers, there are a lot of jokes between them; they are a crazy bunch! But, I'm not in on that and none of them have ever called me before, much less on my cell.

When I got home I made fun of my husband, teased him about the nurses asked him if he needs a bedpan, stuff like that. Today he went to school ready to hear how he ended up in the hospital. Should be an interesting story full of confusion and "he said" and "we heard". The rumors are rampant in middle schools but they've never entertained me this much. Can't wait to hear the rest of this story!

Cloudy with a Chance of Inspiration

2010-02-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

This is my cloud. A cloud of inspiring words, ideas, topics... call 'em what you will. My husband found this thing, it is intended for songwriters to inspire ideas for song lyrics. Thus, it is a Lyric Cloud. Eh, I'm not looking for lyrics - just blog ideas.

Get yours HERE.

I mentally have a long list of blog post ideas that grows all day long, but then I sit down at my laptop with the kids playing, dog snoring and the Yo Gabba Gabba crew singing in my face and I can't remember what I wanted to blog about. In fact, I go blank. I'm sure you don't want to hear my thoughts on how bizarre DJ Lance Rocks and his friends are.

My husband is a middle school teacher. Guess what he did with the Lyric Cloud? He used it as a lesson! The kids thought it was pretty cool. He had the kids pick a number between one and ten, then he refreshed the page that many times. Each time you refresh you get a new cloud of words. Then he told them all to write something and it had to contain at least half of the words on the screen. Fun writing challenge!

I'd write something today, but we have a different project to tackle. We are going to implement Michelle's good deed paper chain idea! I really think it's a wonderful idea to help develop good character while taking the "abstract" out of the concept. Gracie is more of a hands-on learner and the paper chain is something tangible even though she can't read yet. We're gonna give it a try. Thanks for that idea, Michelle!

Middle of the Night Phone Calls! Ugh!

2010-02-18T23:18:00.000-08:00

You know, I just get so mad when the phone rings in the middle of the night!

The other night, Gracie woke up three times. Twice I carried her back to bed and the third time I just let her sleep with us. I gave up. Every couple of hours, she'd show up again, ugh, forget it.

Libby woke up twice. She just needed to be nursed and snuggled back to sleep. But that always takes a while. Between the two of them, they got me up 5 times!

Then my husband woke me up early when he was getting ready for work. With sympathy he said "nothing like getting up every hour, huh" and I agreed. Then I told him that the kids were bad enough but the middle of the night phone call just pissed me off! He said "what phone call?" I said in my mad voice"Logan called".

Logan is our 19 yr old nephew. Nice kid. Knows how to tell time. Never calls.

Keith didn't remember the phone ringing and I told him that I nudged him but he wouldn't wake up so I answered it. Keith said he didn't hear it, so he was checking his cell phone and no call. He checked the house phone, no call. I said I'm pretty sure it was the house phone. Well, what did Logan want? What did he say?

So then I started thinking about the conversation... I'm coming out of my morning fog and recalling the whole dialogue. Oh, wait a minute, now I'm wondering if it was a dream. Yeah, maybe I dreamt the phone call. The words come to me more clearly and I admit, Ok, never mind, it was a dream.

Keith is curious now, because two seconds ago I was angry and now I'm just saying "never mind". So I had to tell him what Logan said on the phone...

He said "I can kill the whales. I can do it, Aunt Mary, I can kill the whales"

My husband started laughing so hard he had to wipe tears from his eyes. He kept saying "What? Whales?" and then laughing harder.

In my dream, we had this problem with whales swimming in our back yard, which was an ocean. Gracie and Libby couldn't go out to play because of the whales and I had a polar bear suit that I was wearing trying to scare them away, but it wasn't working. So, Logan said he could kill the whales. Why he had to call in the middle of the night and wake me up I don't know.

Sleep deprived even when I'm fast asleep. I can't believe I dreamed that I was being woken up from my sleep! The real wakings are enough!

Dell suffers tragic death by toddler

2010-02-14T16:22:00.000-08:00

My poor old laptop was chucked to the floor last week and suffered a fatal blow. One year olds and laptops do not mix well.

This was my second laptop. The first one, an Acer, (I can hear you laughing) met the same fate. It was repeatedly damaged by the kids. Caught one of them dancing on it at one time. They knocked it to the floor and stood on it and well, I did too. Just the knocking it over part - I never stood on my Acer. That little laptop wasn't a quality product but it served its purpose well. I used it for school and toted it back and forth every day. It couldn't take the abuse longer than 2 yrs. It also had a hard drive replacement for being knocked to the floor by a toddler. See a pattern? By the time its life was officially declared over, mainly because it wouldn't work at all anymore, the screen was hanging onto the keyboard by a wire. The hinges were busted apart and it was a sad sad looking laptop.

Coincidentally, the Dell laptop is 2 yrs old in May. Not bad! I got it right after the Acer died. My husband ordered a bright pink Dell for me and it showed up very purple, but I loved it. Now, it's purple and broken.

My husband checked it out and thinks that the only thing wrong with it aside from the cracks in the casing is the hard drive. He ordered a new one and I'll be back on the laptop as soon as it arrives. Yay!

I lost some stuff, not a lot really, but some. I did a backup to the server in January. Good thing I'm done with school and didn't have important lecture notes and papers on there.

In the meantime, I'm using the bedroom computer. Sitting on the bed with the wireless keyboard staring at the 37" HD tv for the screen. Living Large! It's kind of fun being online on the big tv, but I'm tethered. Can't really go outside or in the toy room or the dining room or the living room... so inconvenient. Am I getting any sympathy? I thought not.

But you all feel sorry for my purple dell don't you? Poor baby. Landed on the hard floor and died. With a toddler looking at it and saying "Uh Oh". What a way to go.

Run-In with the Law

2010-02-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Must be hard to be my neighbor, having to put up with me and my shenanigans all the time. There's one gal on our street who just can't handle living near us; it's tough, I know. She's just too good for the neighborhood, especially when she has to deal with hoodlums like me!

Now, I realize I may be jumping the gun here in my assumption. And I'm pretty quick to point the finger of blame at my neighbor, but who else would do that? She's known for calling the cops every time someone on the block has a party or a dog barks too long. The police know our nice little neighborhood all too well. And now, The Garbage Police are watching me.

Someone, i.e. Crazy Mailbox Lady (that's what I call her because 1. she's the crazy mailbox lady and 2. I don't know her name) called the cops on us for leaving our trash cans out on the curb too long. I can't remember when the last time was we left them on the curb too long, but my memory is no match for the Crazy Mailbox Lady. Our city code gives us 24 hours to get the cans off the curb. Or else! We got this letter in the mail warning us to behave. Note the threat of fines is underlined in red.

I see that my next door neighbors took their trash cans all the way back to the back yard. Betcha the cops are after them too. Hmmm, wonder why. Must be Crazy Mailbox Lady!

I guess the mailbox drama is all over now and we've moved on. Wonder how often she calls the cops on the people in the neighborhood? Think they are as sick of her as the post office was? Some people belong in an expensive neighborhood with strict HOA rules. I think Crazy Mailbox Lady would be so much happier behind iron bars! No, not jail, a gated community!

I might have to start calling her Crazy Mailbox/Trash Can Lady.

I don't know if I ever finished blogging about the mailbox drama. It finally came to an end and I didn't think too much more of it. Crazy Mailbox Lady finally drove the postmaster and postal workers insane; it's amazing that they didn't "go postal" on her! Hahaha, oh, I crack myself up! I'm so punny! Anyway, after her daily visits to the post office to complain about our mailbox situation (our letter carrier said they used to all run and hide when they saw her coming), they finally found a solution that pleased her. Or maybe she just settled for it, who knows. Now they sort her mail out and deliver it to a locked mailbox cluster on another street. It had a vacant box. Wonder if they gave her a personal zip code so it is easier to sort her out from our street. Can you imagine being such a pain in the post office that you get your mail sorted out of order just to shut you up? Amazing.

After the mailbox saga was resolved, she started in on our neighbor who was her next door neighbor about his dogs. Guess she gave him a very hard time and when something really did happen at his house, her calls to the police about the dogs barking were ignored because she called so often. A police officer actually told us this little bit of interesting trivia.

Well, Crazy Mailbox/Trash Can Lady... I pulled my garbage bins in up to my house within the 24 hour time limit. Hope you are happy! (But of course, we all know people like that are only happy if they are complaining)

Pooptacular!

2010-02-10T17:35:00.000-08:00

Someday, Libby is really not going to like me for retelling this story.

Gracie pooped in her potty chair, I know, she's still not going in the toilet and if she would this probably wouldn't have happened... So she pooped this gigantic turd in her little potty chair and then stood up. Libby, the little observer, was standing there watching and was very impressed by this turd. She reached out and GRABBED IT!

Then, her little poopy hand was headed for her mouth, I imagine to lick off the mess? Mouth wide open, tongue out, hand getting closer, Me flying through the air screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I got there just in the nick of time and held her arm away from her face. Got her scrubbed up with LOTS of soap and water and still managed to get G's butt wiped and the turd flushed. We really avoided a near catastrophe!

If there are any poop events in the Olympics, I would win the Gold!

Slumber Party!

2010-02-05T08:28:00.000-08:00

My husband is having a slumber party. Yes, my husband. The man. His grown man friends are coming over to play, eat and spend the night. Yes, grown up. Not ten-year olds. Closing-in-on-50 yr olds. Thank you for your sympathy; I need it!

I kind of wish his friends were slobs, but they aren't. They are very neat. My house is very messy. Hmmm. This means only one thing: I will be cleaning everything today! Ugh. And I only have a few hours, the guys all get off work at 1pm today so they'll be here around 2:00 or so. So what am I doing with my precious limited time? Blogging!

I arranged for the little girls to have a playdate for a couple of hours so I can scrub the floors and bleach the bathrooms without any helpers. These things need to be done anyway, but I feel kinda cruddy and I just want to lay on the couch all day. Mama isn't allowed to have a headcold, gotta get the house in shape for the slumber party.

I'm also nursing a broken heart. We went to the mall last week and lost Libby's cutest hat ever. She liked it and she would actually wear it! I've been searching online, but haven't found one like it. It was the perfect size, the yarn was the perfect weight, it matched everything. I guess I'll get over it, but I'm sad that I didn't shove it deep into the diaper bag to keep it safe. Poor little lost kitty cat hat! Good-bye. We'll replace you soon.

January Disneyland Trip

2010-01-31T08:29:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to get the girls to Disneyland once a month, and I just barely squeezed in the January trip! This was our 6th trip (my 8th trip because I went when I was 12 in 1977 and when the big girls were 8 and 6 in 1997). Hey! Stop doing the math! I'm still very young! The weather this month has been chilly and wet, not very conducive for having little ones out and about all day long and staying healthy. Finally we had a beautiful day, and it was absolutely gorgeous! Blue sky, sunny, and 76 degrees!

As usual, we try to see lots of the characters. Main Street was full of them! And we found a variety of characters all around Disneyland. We still have a bunch of characters that we've never seen but we'll keep trying. We saw some fresh faces this time including Donald Duck and Mary Poppins. Libby was a lot more interactive with the characters, she's getting used to this. Gracie really wanted to see Prince Phillip because she had to tell him something. I have no idea what was on her mind, but we did see Prince Phillip one time and she wouldn't go near him. We didn't run into him. Oh well.

We also explored areas of Disneyland that we've never seen before and made a quick run through California Adventure. We sure have lots of new things to discover in that Disney Park! We rode the Casey Jr. train and the Storybook Land boat ride for the first time. They were a lot of fun and the girls enjoyed them quite a bit! We also did the favorites: Sleeping Beauty's Story in the castle and the Tiki Room.

The Small World was still closed for Holiday Decor Removal. Try explaining that to a three year old who cannot get enough of Small World! She would ride that one ride all day long if I let her.

One of the most exciting new things Gracie did this time was.... drum roll please... she went potty at Disneyland! She never does, she holds it all day long. No matter how much juice I give her, I don't know how she does it, but she is a strong willed child. She does not like public toilets, they are big and scary. I always take her to the Baby Center on Main Street where they have little miniature flush toilets for young children, but she won't even go on those. I really prepped her for our trip and told her repeatedly for a couple of days that Disneyland is a Magical Place, even the toilets are magic: Nobody falls in! Ever! They are magic like that! She totally bought it. She went potty on a big toilet with an automatic flusher (scary!) not once, but twice during the day! I always bring along an extra outfit for her in case she wets herself in all the Disney excitement with her full bladder, but she's never had an accident. We always stay all day long too.

I do keep a potty chair in the back of the van for emergencies, and every trip to Disneyland she's used the van potty as soon as we find our parking spot. Then of course, I have a long drive home with a very full potty! I prevent spillage by sticking a diaper in the potty and sacking the whole thing up in a large plastic bag, then I have a lovely cleanup job to do at home, but hey, it works for the ride. Not anymore, I took the potty chair out of the van and make it very clear that the potty was staying home. We would use the magic toilets at Disneyland. It was risky, but the potty gamble paid off!

The most exciting part of the day for me was meeting up with a fellow online mama! I finally met Lori! I "met" her on a pregnancy forum back when I was pregnant with Gracie, roundabout 4 years ago. I was fortunate enough to "meet" some very nice ladies on the forum and have stayed in touch via instant messaging, facebook, email and a parenting forum. Sounds like I spend my every waking hour socializing online doesn't it? You're right, I do! My poor neglected children suffer for my online social life. Anyway, we spent the day together roaming Disneyland and California Adventure with our daughters and it was very very fun! I must say, having a buddy is much easier than doing Disney by myself with the girls. Gracie had someone to play with in every line - not that the lines were long, but some of them required some patience. Now we can say we are real life friends. Awwww!

It was another wonderful day at Disneyland for us! Can't wait for our February trip!

Little of This, Little of That

2010-01-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

It's time for an update, but I don't have much of anything to report. Just tidbits of chaos. That's how we live out our days though, we do a little of this and a little of that and next thing you know, the day is done. And the days go so fast!

Katie broke her arm. Actually, she fractured her right radial head (elbow). My poor girl! I still don't know what happened; she fell. That doesn't explain much but I'm sure there is a story. Her husband just graduated from Powerschool (I think) and he starts his next phase of Navy school in the same location. For his graduation, his parents went to visit the kids. When Katie fell, her husband and her inlaws were there. Are you confused yet? Me too. Anyway, she's fine now, just a little bit broken.

Lexie didn't start college. She is still "taking a break". Guess she is turning into her mother! Katie too, for that matter. Anyway, Lexie got a job in the mall for the holidays and the store decided to keep her. She's busy juggling her two jobs and not making any money because it all goes into the gas tank to get to and from her jobs. Vicious circle.

Gracie and Libby are quite the duo! Constantly busy! Gracie is learning her letters and numbers, so we are reading everything! Ever read a book letter by letter? Libby is funny because now she points at letters and says E E E I I E O E E... She gets them right once in a while. Gracie is catching on fast! I took the little girls to the library in the next town over and they have a little used bookstore around the corner with library discards (our library does the same thing). I let the littles pick out a few books and I grabbed a couple of paperbacks for Lexie and me. The prices ranged from 25 cents to a dollar, pretty good price for some quality entertainment! Libby grabbed up a book with Mickey Mouse on the cover and she's been loving Minnie Mouse a lot lately so that seemed like a great one. Sure enough, that book is awesome! It's all about Mickey and Minnie walking around Disneyland going on the rides and seeing the attractions. Very fun for us to read!

It's been raining so much lately. We got pretty soggy, but we didn't wash away. We have been going a little crazy from being cooped up too long. Things are still pretty wet. The girls went out to play yesterday and they were so busy having a grand ol' time making "Hot Soup". It was a bucket of very cold rain water, dirt, rocks, leaves. They were stirring like mad and they just kept making their "Hot Soup" for a long time! I got a lot done while they played. I just went ahead and let them get wet and muddy and cold, it was worth it. They're washable.

Tomorrow, I'm taking them to Disneyland. I'm a bit worried because the Small World ride is closed according to the website. I can't imagine skipping the Small World ride. Wish us luck! But they have Princess Tiana in the princess meet and greet lineup, so I'm hoping we get lucky and get to see her. Gracie would be thrilled! The real excitement will be meeting an online friend of mine. I've never met her in real life but I have been talking to her online quite frequently since we met on a pregnancy forum over 4 yrs ago. Our little girls are almost the same age, both coming up on turning 4! Libby wants to see Minnie Mouse. We all have our favorite character we're hoping to see tomorrow. Wonder if my online buddy realizes she's a Disneyland character now. Hmmm. Hey! I wonder if she is referring to me as a Disneyland character! I am more of a Goofy type character than a Princess, hahaha!

Looks like the sun is about to break through the clouds. Time to go out and find more puddles and mud!

My Awesome Taco Salad Recipe

2010-01-20T08:58:00.000-08:00

Well, here's a first: A recipe from ME! Not to brag or anything, but.... no wait, I totally mean to brag about it! My taco salad is the best! Unless you are my red-headed niece who very sweetly told me her mom doesn't make it like that, good thing she's cute. On to the recipe that'll leave the whole family so full they can't get up to do the dishes.

Mary's Taco Salad

1.5 lbs of hamburger
1 can of Refried Beans
Salsa
Grated cheese
Lettuce and other taco toppings
Chips

Brown the burger. Mash it up while it's browning with a potato masher, this is really what a potato masher is for. Potatoes, ha!

Drain and place back on the stove. Stir in one can of refried beans and a couple of glugs of salsa. Reach into the spice rack and give the meat a shake or two of cumin if you are looking for that taste in your taco. It doesn't need cumin; I usually forget. You can also add onions and green peppers to the meat, or serve them freshly diced as toppings. Your choice.

Heat and stir until the meat and beans become a wonderful mix of meaty beany goodness.

To Plate: Crumble chips onto your plate, add a layer of taco meat, then the fresh diced onions. Onions should go on the meat or in the meat, they are just better that way. Cheese on top of the meat, it should melt because the meat is nice and hot! Yumm! Next layer on the lettuce, tomatoes, olives, avocado, cilantro or whatever you put on your tacos. Top with a couple spoonfuls of salsa.

At this point, your plate should be piled about 5" high in the center. Grab a fork and enjoy!

I did not fall off the face of the Earth

2010-01-17T09:44:00.000-08:00

We've been busy and we aren't sleeping a whole lot, so I haven't been blogging much. Lame excuses, I know.

In January, we've been to three birthday parties and our Baby Play Group met at a place that qualifies that day as a party too. It was party-esque. I thought about taking the kids to Disneyland last week, but they had (and still have) sniffly snotty noses so we scrapped the outing.

I'm glad we didn't go - can you believe I just said I'm glad we didn't go to Disneyland! Gasp! Shocking, I know! I love going! But, I've been just exhausted lately. Neither one of the girls has been sleeping well. When one goes to sleep, the other one wakes up. Usually by morning, I wake up smothered under two kids and a dog. Sleepless nights are getting old very fast. I'm thinking about putting everyone to bed, and then I'll go camp out in the van in the driveway. I won't hear them and they won't find me. Hmmm... I might be onto something.

We got a Wii for Christmas and I'm trying to play that as much as I can. Which is to say, I'm trying to play Wii without kids clinging to my legs, jumping around in circles around me, singing and whining for attention... I've logged in 5 hours so far this month. It's not as easy as it sounds! I love the exercise and the games are fun, but the biggest challenge is getting some time to play!

I took another step toward "Being Green". I bought some reusable grocery sacks for my daughter for Christmas to stuff in her package, and found out that they really are kinda handy! So I went out and got some for myself too. Now I have a sack of sacks to use and reuse for groceries. Tricky part will be remembering to take them along when I go to the store. I'm not giving up on plastic and paper grocery sacks, but I do tend to accumulate a ton of them in a short amount of time. I do reuse them, I need them for sacking up stinky diapers and lining the bathroom trash cans and scooping up dog doo-doo. I usually pick through my giant sack of plastic sacks for the Target bags - those are the best! I always seem to have a lot more plastic sacks than I need, so I'll try to be trendy and use these green bags once in a while. I didn't get them in green though, I got them at the Disney store and they are all pink with princesses! Of course! If I'm going to turn into a hippy, I'm going to do it carrying pink princess bags!

Gosh, I thought I didn't have anything to blog about!

Stroller Fleet: Down By One

2010-01-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

Stroller parking in my garage just got easier. I sold my Peg Perego Twin Aria side by side stroller this morning. Ah, I shall miss it dearly! The fleet only has four strollers now, which hardly qualifies it as a fleet of strollers. Now it's just a collection, a small collection.

I bought it for $75 on Craigslist and sold it on Craigslist too. It was funny when I bought it because when I showed up to the seller's home to get it, the seller turned out to be one of the baby group mommies! Funny to meet up with your friends like that.

As much as I liked it, I didn't really use that stroller much anyway. I used it sometimes, but I prefer the bigger Graco Quatro Duo which seats the kids one in front of the other. I actually like having them side by side, but the Graco has better storage and lots of cupholders. It's much sturdier too. I only used the side by side for quick trips; for that type of use, I can use a single stroller and make the big kid walk.

Gracie is almost four years old and her legs go all the way up to her neck! The days of pushing two kids in a stroller are coming to a close. Together they weigh 60 pounds! I'm sure I won't keep the Graco much longer either.

I got $50 for my stroller and I turned it around and bought something else for the kids. I didn't come out even, eh, close enough. I think we'll get a lot more use out of this thing than the stroller! This was a Craigslist bargain at $100!

PS - yes, it's January and my kids are barefoot!

I could have written this book!

2010-01-06T09:07:00.000-08:00

I've been told a few times that I should write a book. Now I found one that I could have written! Really, I could have penned this thing in no time flat!

Amazon gives a review of the book as this, "Tackling everything from the peer pressure to have children to resisting the siren call of suburbia". Doesn't that sound like me? Except of course, I'm a forty-something woman so I'd have to add ten years worth of wisdom to the piece. I haven't actually read this book, but it says the author "mouths off" about being older, pregnant, raising kids, peer pressure, marriage, dieting, etc. That sounds like me! I can mouth off about all kinds of things! Have you read my blog?

My sister, the NaNoWriMo writer, really ~~pesters~~ encourages me to write a book. I just couldn't think of anything to write about, but shoot, I can rant till the cows come home! Could I rant a book? That sounds pretty easy!

I think I shall declare "rant" a verb! Maybe I'll rant a book! Right in between changing diapers, tripping over toys, plucking gray hairs and helping my husband grade papers (He hands me the essays students write in Spanish so I can roughly translate. Not like it matters, they can't spell in Spanish either.) In fact, I might be able to rant a whole series. Wouldn't that be fun! A full set of published PMS!

It's a nice idea; in the meantime, I have other things to do that tear me away from typing. Chasing my children! Currently, one is standing on her bounce and spin riding zebra and one is reporting a dead rat in the glue trap out by the garage door. Who has time to rant a book?

Moving Again, but not going anywhere

2010-01-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

Another bedroom shuffle is in the works. We are preparing to move Baby Libby out of our room and into a shared room with her big sister. Problem is, Gracie's pink room is too small for two beds. We've had two beds in that room before and it just didn't work very well. So, Libby and Gracie will move into my sewing room (which is bigger than the pink bedroom).

When I was moving Gracie out of our room I wanted to put her into the room where she and Libby are now going. This room is the biggest of the two bedrooms and it is a straight shot from my room making it easy to check on Gracie. Plus, the larger room has a very nice window and catches the morning sun. But, I was outvoted. Not sure how my vote counts less than my husband's vote but it always does. He wanted her in the smaller room around the corner. He won the location; I won the color. Much to his disgust, I painted the room pink!

Gracie loves her pink room. She always calls it "My Pink Room". She's not going to be happy to have to give up her pink walls. I have a feeling I will be buying pink paint again before too long.

The little girls will share the pale dull green room. The pink room will become a reading library/guest room, and my sewing area is going back into the far corner of the master bedroom again.

The moving begins!

I need to Specify!

2009-12-28T15:13:00.000-08:00

I haven't seen my yellow rose bush bloom in a long long long time. Got two pretty blossoms on it this week! What a nice Christmas present!

Today, my 3 yr old asked me if she could pick the flowers. Our conversation went like this:

Gracie: Can I pick da flowers?
Me: No
Gracie: OK

Later....

Me: AAAAA! You picked my roses!
Gracie: You said No, I juss picked the peddals.
Me: Ah, yes, yes you did.

She just picked the petals. Not the flowers. One of these days, I shall learn.

Merry GREEN Christmas!

2009-12-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

Santa gave Gracie a Princess Tiana doll in a GREEN dress. She loves it! Whew!

She also got some other things: Prince Naveen, Louis the saxaphone playing alligator, chocolate and bubble wrap. It was a great GREEN Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you too!

Green or Blue? or, Green?

2009-12-23T22:22:00.000-08:00

I am suffering from a bad case of doll dress stress.

Gracie asked Santa for a Tiana doll. Santa said "Ho Ho Ho", which of course means yes to a three year old material girl.

Tiana is the new Disney Princess from the movie Princess and the Frog. We have not yet seen the movie, just the trailers. We did catch the Disneyland Riverboat Show which was fantastic!

In the movie previews, and at Disneyland, Princess Tiana is wearing a green dress. A nice froggy shade of green. Prince Naveen is also wearing green, a darker shade of froggy green, but still green. There is a big poster at the Disney store and Tiana is wearing green. The girl wears green!

I was helping Santa with his quest to find a Princess Tiana doll for Gracie, so I ran to Super-Target and hit the Barbie aisle. There among the other Disney Princess Barbie dolls was the "Just One Kiss Princess Tiana" doll. This is the one that we've seen on the TV commercials. I think. Sure looks like it. On TV, the doll holds a frog and her dress lights up. I didn't notice on the commercials, but the doll in the package has on a blue dress. That can't be right. The girl is always wearing froggy green!
I walked around Target with Tiana in a blue dress trying to decide if I should put her back and keep looking or what to do. Christmas is closing in on us fast and Santa needs me to get a Tiana doll. I can't come up with a doll in the wrong dress. Arg, fine, I put her back. Back on the hunt for the right Tiana doll.

Got home and told my husband the doll dress dilemma. This all went right over his head and his expression just proved that men don't understand how important it is to have a doll dressed in just the right shade of whatever her Princess color is. He decided I am colorblind and cannot tell the difference between green and blue. That was helpful!

Off to the mall. I went to the Disney Store. No way I can go wrong in there! Santa will be proud of me! Sure enough, they had a huge display of Princess and the Frog characters. Oh gosh, there is Tiana in a green dress, a blue dress or a white dress with green ribbons. And another Tiana dressed in green but comes with 4 other dresses. Little plastic figurine Tiana dolls in green and blue. Hmmm, maybe she has more than one dress? I picked up a green dress Tiana doll that does not light up, a Prince Naveen doll and a Louis the alligator stuffed animal.

Still, I'm worried. The Princess Tiana doll that is currently hiding in my garage does not light up. She's not the one from the TV commercial. She is very pretty and matches the movie and merchandise ads. But maybe I should have gotten the blue one from the doll commercial? Or stick with the green one? Should I run out and get the blue one? Or keep the green one? If I get blue, will Gracie say, "Hey, Tiana wears a green dress!" but if I keep the green one will Gracie say, "I wanted the one that lights up!". Oh, why oh why doesn't the green dress light up?!?!!

I can't believe I am this worried over what a Barbie Doll is wearing.

A Magical Day

2009-12-22T08:46:00.000-08:00

I took the runts to Disneyland again. It was another magical day in the Happiest Place on Earth!

After my last Pongo Parking lot experience, I decided to leave earlier and have a chance to get into the Mickey and Friends parking structure to start our day off right! We arrived at Disneyland at 10:25am and the parking structure was closed already. Rats! I quickly prayed to park in a better alternate lot than the Pongo lot and did lots of wishing that we could park soon. Last time it took over an hour to get from the closed Mickey and Friends lot to the Pongo lot. Not fun. I followed the signs and was routed to the Anaheim GardenWalk parking structure. It was nice and close and the parking structure was nice too! We were parked within ten minutes of reaching Disneyland, so my quick prayers that I said at the red light worked! Yay! We boarded a red trolly type bus and rode to Disneyland.

Boarding the shuttle trolley was a challenge with two little ones and a double stroller and a diaper bag, picnic bag, jackets and purse. First I have to unload and fold up the stroller so the Disneyland people can watch me load it into the shuttle, amazingly, this guy picked it up and loaded it for me. He must be new. I like him! While I'm doing that, the other people board the bus. Ok, what is it with people? Why do the first people in line sit in the front seats? Then everyone has to squeeze past the filled seats to get to the empty seats in the back! After loading my hummer of a stroller under the bus, I grab my kids and bags and get on only to find (happens every time) that the bus is full and the only empty spot is the last seat way in the back. To all of the nice people who don't have enough sense to take a back seat when they are first to get on, I apologize for boofing you in the head with my bag as I walked by. I got almost everyone!

We didn't have to buy any tickets today since I got Gracie her annual pass on our last trip, so we were able to just go through security and then go through the front gate. We were in by 11am! Wow! We were off to a great start!

My mission for the day was trifold: 1. Visit Santa 2. Catch the Princess Tiana Riverboat Show and 3. Ride through the Christmas Small World. Today was such a beautiful sunny day and the last day for SoCal Select Annual Passholders to visit until January, so I knew it would be crowded - very very crowded. The crowd actually wasn't too bad, seems like the crowd was mostly adults and teenagers, not so many little ones. That's fine though because they prefer the rides and attractions that we don't go to. For example: the haunted mansion had a line a mile long!

Over the course of the day we managed to accomplish all of our visit goals and then some.

Visiting Santa was great! The little girls first saw Mrs. Claus. They both really liked her! She was great! Then we waited in line to see Mr. Santa Claus. He was great too! Libby didn't have the same opinion, so Gracie got to visit him without any competition for attention. Then we saw Pluto who was wearing Reindeer antlers. So cute! Libby woofed at him and he blew Gracie some puppy kisses. We also got to see all of Santa's reindeer. They were loitering in the hay, just taking it easy while Mr. and Mrs. Claus were at Disneyland.

We walked over to the Riverfront to see Princess Tiana. Not sure how this riverboat show will go, I wanted to get a great viewing spot so that the short ones could see. I took a spot on the edge of the crowd right next to the water. Turns out, it was a poor spot because the boat moved in front of us and then stopped, we could only see the back of the boat and cough in the fumes. I quickly ran the kids to a better spot even though we weren't right up against the fence, we could see just fine. The girls were mesmerized! At the end of the show, they shot confetti into the crowd; Libby caught quite a bit of it! For the remainder of the day, I picked confetti out of the stroller wheels.

Not even 2 o'clock and I've almost got my mission completed for the day. We have plenty of time to do lots of extras! We went to the Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, rode the Winnie the Pooh ride, caught the last half of the Tiana show again, watched the Christmas parade, and... oh let me stop here and tell you about the prelude to the parade.

Libby is 14 mths old, not exactly the age of patience. She walks fast and in any direction except where I want her to go. That's why I put her on a leash, so that when she does get out of the stroller to walk a bit, she won't get lost. This wasn't her idea of fun at all.

We arrived to the parade viewing area ten minutes before start time and there was a spot open right along the curb! How that happened, I do not know! Magic! So, I parked the stroller and we went to sit and wait for the parade. Most people claim their spots and sit for an hour at least for the parade. Libby decided one minute was long enough, two was too many and she wasn't going to sit still for TEN! She pitched a sreaming crying kicking fit that made all the people around me groan in agony. Two different people offered me food for her. I gave her a cracker but she just used it as a weapon. The screaming was loud and I thought she was going to clear the whole area of people. We might get to watch the parade all by ourselves! That didn't happen, but I imagine some people, or hundreds of people, were wishing I'd take little Miss Screamer and leave. As soon as the parade started, she flipped a switch and instantly sat up and waved saying 'Hi" in her sweet little voice. She was so happy! Waving her little hand off and dancing to the music, smiling and being cute! The parade was great! And Libby was too! Gracie was very well behaved and she waved her little hand like mad too. So cute!

We managed to see quite a few characters this trip. In addition to Santa and Tiana, we saw Woody and Sally from Toy Story, Pooh and Tigger, and... well, it seemed like more. They were all in the parade, maybe that's why it seems like we saw them all. We didn't go see the princesses this trip. First time!

Another first, Gracie rode a horse on the carousel! She was brave enough to get on it while it was stopped, but as soon as the ride started, she changed her mind. You can't get off in mid-ride though so she had to tough it out. When the horse was on its way down, she was all smiles and having fun, but when the horse started to climb up, she wanted off. My little bench rider is growing up!

The days are so short now, I knew it would be dark soon so we headed on over to the Small World. Wow, that was crowded! We might only ride it one time. First I had to find parking for the stroller. Found a sea of strollers and right in the middle them were two signs that said "Please No Stroller Parking". I found a lot of humor in the irony of the sight, so I snapped a quick photo of one of the signs, couldn't even see the other one as it was on the other side of the stroller sea. I kept moving and parked where strollers are supposed to park, you know, a long long long way from the Small World attraction.

The line for The Small World was super long. It wound around and around and across the path around over that'a way and back, we must have walked five miles before loading in the boat. I was glad that the line was always walking though, that's so much better than standing still. As expected, the ride through the Christmas Small World was amazing! Well worth the wait and the long walk! We only rode once, the line was way too long to do it twice. But I ran the video camera all the way through the ride. Hopefully I have some video worthy of watching. Knowing Gracie, we'll watch it a million times.

After the ride, the attraction wasn't lit up yet. It was getting dark and we did everything we set out to do, and I was wiped out. So, I headed for the front gate. Now that it was 5pm, the crowd was thick as pea soup! This is when all the annual pass-holders fill the park! Right after work! It was way too crowded, I could barely push the stroller through the crowd. Ugh! And now I could see that behind me, they lit up the Small World. I had a little argument with myself about turning around and going back to see it lit or continuing on toward the gate. The Good mommy won and I twirled around and went back so Gracie could see it all lit up.

I am so glad that I did. We walked toward it and she was so happy and excited! Next thing I know, I' m up against a rope and the crowd it so dense that I couldn't go anywhere at all. Stuck. Turns out the rope was set up because there was a light show and "Snow" on the Small World frontage. Cool! We had a front row spot for viewing! That was Disneyland Magic! The light show and ~~foam soap bubbles~~ snow were awesome! I'm very happy that I went back! What a wonderful way to end the day!

But, I was stuck in that crowd. It was nearly impossible to pass through and it took me 45 minutes to get from the Small World to the front gate. People were everywhere! Shoulder to shoulder! And on Main Street, they were lined up for the 6:30 pm parade. Fireworks were scheduled for 9:30 and I wasn't sticking around that long, crowd or no crowd. By the time I got to the end of Main Street both kids were asleep in the stroller, so I knew it was really time to end our fun and head out. I wasn't the only tired girl.

We boarded the bus to the Gardenwalk Parking structure, this time we had a seasoned bus driver - he watched me juggle two sleepy kids, bags and load the stroller myself, then he asked if he could help. Ay, ay, ay... I can only shake my head and wonder what ever happened to the morning gentleman driver. Wonder why they don't hire more like him.

We got to the van and loaded up, Gracie finally decided she would go potty in her van potty chair. Ugh. Why won't she go potty till we get to the van? I can't figure out how to force her to go potty during the day. I sit her on the toilet and she doesn't go, we get to the van and she finally goes for the first time since we left the house. I'm baffled. I couldn't just dump it on the ground because we were in a nicely lit parking structure with security guards driving golf carts around, so I stuck one of Libby's diapers in the potty chair and put the whole thing in a plastic sack for the ride home.

We left the parking structure at 7pm, Crazy, we left the Small World at 6:00pm. Got home shortly after 9pm. The 91 freeway was a jam packed slow going river of cars. Luckily, I went East on the 91 rather than West like I did last time. I had a hard time finding the East exit off the 5 North. All kinds of signs pointing you West, no wonder I took the wrong exit last time! The East 91 exit had one little sign and it was behind something. I nearly missed it!

Another magical day at Disneyland is done. The kids are making wonderful memories and once again, the hassle, the lines, juggling two little kids in the crowds, diapering and nursing in public, its all worth the hard work and the hours on my feet.... the smiles and amazed looks in their eyes, it's magical!

Pumpkin Bread for everyone!

2009-12-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

My house smells SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo Good! Today I baked 23 mini-loaves of pumpkin bread, and 3 muffins. Some of the little loaves got chocolate chips, I didn't think of adding those till I was half-way through the baking process.

I'm not really a domestic goddess, which is why I feel like I need to celebrate the days when I have a kitchen Goddess moment. And who knows, these pumpkin bread loaves might not be all that great. I'm hoping they are all done in the middle and didn't catch any floating dog hair in the mix.

What is it about dog hair? It just floats around in the air. No matter how much I clean, the dog leaves her hair all over the place. I"ll never get used to it.

As long as we are off on a tangent, I may as well take this time to inform you that I flunked out of my 9th grade home-ec class. The teacher had no hope that I would ever manage to stir things together and bake them successfully. Eh, what did she know?

The reason I was baking so darn many loaves of pumpkin bread is because my husband wants to give Christmas gifts to a few of his co-workers. They never cease to think of him. He counted on his hand the people he would like to give something to, then he counted on his other hand, then he continued to count off wonderful people. He looked at me and said, "Can you help me put 12 gift bags together?" Knowing how that goes, I figured he will think of at least two more before he's done. It might be nice to give a small gift bag to our neighbors, add two more.

I went to the dollar store and bought gift bags, boxes of candy, photo frames, and some adorable snowman figurines. But the bags are still more empty space than anything else. We decided baking pumpkin bread mini-loaves would finish off the gift bags nicely. And a couple of hot chocolate packets and a mint or two.

Today was the big baking day to complete these gift bags. In my tiny chaotic kitchen with too many little helping hands, I managed to accomplish what sounded impossible. I baked! I didn't wear a dress and pearls; I'm not June Cleaver. It was a comfy jammie day in the kitchen.

Something I just learned.... When it says to whisk the wet ingredients together (eggs, water, oil) that does not mean to use your cool electric whisk that you've never had a chance to try out before. No.... because that is much too whisky fast! And eggs will go flying all over you, the counter, cupboards, and anything in the way. And, when you call your neighbors to borrow more eggs because your very last eggs went flying in all directions, they will come over and laugh at you. None of that is on the box! All I'm saying is... I highly recommend using a hand whisk.

I'm out of eggs now. I had a package of 18, and two were breakfast. At least 3 or 4 coated my kitchen after the electric whisk incident, and two had huge cracks in them when I opened the carton so they went straight to the trash.

Despite the challenges, I managed to bake up a bunch of yummy pumpkin bread! Some of the loaves have chocolate chips in the middle. I thought of adding them about half-way through the baking day. It's anyone's guess as to which loaves have chocolate chip goodness inside. I've since mixed them up and forgot.

I wrapped them all in plastic wrap after they cooled and they are now ready for the gift bags! The plastic wrap was another trying experience because Libby was loudly insisting on being held, so I wrapped them one handed. A couple of them have a little baby finger poke. Gives them character! My gigantic roll of saran wrap doesn't have a cutting edge. The package says it is hassle-free with this new plastic zipper thing. That thing fell off and never worked from the start. I use a knife to slice off the plastic along the edge of the cardboard box, avoiding little helping hands that try to get in my way.

What a day! I do not envy anyone who bakes for a living! Especially if they have a couple of little overzealous helpers!

The Many Santas We've Seen!

2009-12-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

Grandma Came and Went - Next!

2009-12-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

Oh, gosh, we had fun! Grandma wore me out! The weather put a damper on some of our fun, couldn't go to Disneyland in the pouring rain, but otherwise we got out and about a lot and stayed busy while my mom was here.

The main purpose of her visit was to attend a wedding in San Diego. That was a very nice wedding! We had a great time, even took the kids along. We also did a ton of shopping, ate out as much as we could, and took the little girls to a movie. Lots of fun and interesting experiences!

Ever since she left, Gracie has been asking for her to come back. Or, when can we go to Grandma's house? And she wants to see Great Grandma too! We're going at the end of July, so let's hope Gracie can hold out that long. Only 7 months away!

Next up... Uncle Eddy. My little baby bro, who is almost 31. He's coming for a visit and hopefully will stay through Christmas. I don't think Uncle Ed is the Disneyland type, but he might enjoy walking the paths at the zoo. The zoo is a good outing and I have a pass plus a free pass for a guest, it'll be a cheap outing! Gotta love that!

This place is a very busy house! People coming and going like there is a holiday coming up or something! I love it!

Here Comes Grandma!

2009-12-03T07:51:00.000-08:00

Happy December!

I promised in November I would blog more, and I did. Whew! Now you don't have to come looking for me and force me to sit down and type out a blog post! I was afraid that would happen.

My sister did the novel writing thing and she "won". Meaning she wrote the required number of words and submitted them to the novel writing challenge site, she earned a little graphic saying she's a winner. Hopefully, her book will really be something and she can get it published. Now that would be very cool! She wrote a travel book about a place she visited in Mexico, so she really might have something there.

We're in full on Christmas prep around here. I brought the Christmas tree and decor tubs into the house out from the garage. Gracie wants everything she sees on TV and then some. She was so upset when I told her that Christmas is for everyone, not just her. Oh, the tears! She thought it was all for her. She's getting used to the idea now. Good that she's moving on. I ordered photo cards and got the tree half-way put together. I found the stockings too! I was thinking I need to make the family new stockings since the family has changed so much these past few years, but I've realized I only need to change the names on the stockings from Katie and Lexie to Gracie and Libby. We went from 2 kids to 4 to 5 and back down to 2. Ta-Da!

We got an advent calendar to help count down the days. I look at it and think, "OMG it's coming so soon!" She looks at it and says, "there are too many numbers on the calendar, can we turn more than one today?"

We are doing something very nontraditional this year. My mother is coming to visit! Yay! Grandma is coming! Normally, we don't travel in the winter. We're a midwestern family who understands that snow, bitter cold, and wind are not good travel companions. My mom is flying through Denver, we're all hoping that her stop there goes well. We're going to a wedding and will surround that event with shopping, having our Thanksgiving, decorating the tree, and listening to Gracie say "I want that!" to every tv commercial. It'll be fun! I'm hoping to sneak in a trip to Disneyland with Grandma, but we'll see what Grandma thinks about that.

Speaking of Grandma coming... she arrives this afternoon and my house is a total disaster. I should get busy cleaning. I dumped out my purses, diaper bag, every toy box, the kitchen cupboards, the magazine rack, and a few other junk containers looking for my lost cell phone. The battery was dead so calling it wasn't helping. After a full week of it being lost, my husband found it in the back yard last night. Wet. It rained a couple of times. Yikes! So now my house is a disaster (except behind and under all the furniture where I cleaned since I was doing the big search). It charged up and it works! Anyway, I should refill the toy boxes and repack my diaper bag, get some decluttering done before Grandma shows up and wonders if I've gone bonkers.

Happy December!

No Turkey or Stuffing - A Day At Disney Instead!

2009-11-26T14:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We are not having the big traditional dinner today, we are holding off until later because my husband does all the holiday cooking and he is out hunting today. I'm not going to knock myself out cooking a feast for just me and the little girls, and they don't know the difference. Gotta get away with sliding by while I can! Won't be long and they'll catch me breaking the rules like this!

Can't let the holiday go without some fun though. So I took the girls to Disneyland on Tuesday. We had a blast! The looks on their faces when we are there is so precious, it is worth all the money and all the hassle. It's just pure happiness!

That kind of happiness is more expensive, again. I noticed the parking and the entrance prices all went up. Funny, I noticed that last month too. I went ahead and got Gracie an annual pass so that I don't end up in Mickey Mouse jail for sneaking her in as a child under the age of 3. She doesn't look under 3, and I'm not going to risk it.

Parking was a nightmare! The Mickey and Friends parking structure was closed so once you got there you were rerouted all around Anaheim in circles until you got to the Pongo Parking Lot, which didn't look like it was anywhere near Disneyland. And since it took over an hour to get from the parking structure to this temporary parking lot, I assumed we were nearly home again. Then we boarded a bus to Disneyland which took another 15 mins. The bus was overcrowded and I had to squeeze me and Gracie and Libby all into one seat, plus the diaper bag, my purse and the snack bag. My double stroller was underneath the bus in the storage bin, but they wouldn't let me toss my bags in there too.

Finally we got to the Happiest Place on Earth! Stood in line for the security check, then stood in line for Gracie's ticket, then stood in line to show the tickets and get inside the park. Lordy. I was so thankful that Gracie didn't have to go potty! That could have really thrown a wrench into all this patience we were practicing. We did really well with patience, I must say.

I only had a temporary pass for Gracie, had to go get her picture taken and get her plastic card at "The Pavilion" on Main Street. Getting a pass isn't as easy as it sounds. I didn't see this place and was sick of standing in line for no big thrill, so decided to come back to Main Street and do it later.

My camera was flashing low battery in red. Which usually means I have 2 or 3 pictures left and that's all that I'm gonna get. Darn it. I managed to get quite a few pictures and we got the Photo Pass card.

We made our way down Main Street slowly. It was so crowded it was unbelievable! Today was going to be a day to be very very patient. Very patient. It was 2pm and people were claiming their spaces on the curb for the parade at 3:30. Yikes. Here we are on Main Street, look at the stroller in the background on the left. There are two kids in it! One is getting squished.

Got to the castle and we went up inside to see the story of Sleeping Beauty. This is always our first attraction. Gracie loves most of it. We don't look in the windows that have scary parts of the story. At the end, the princess is dancing with the prince and her dress turns from pink to blue over and over again. We never leave until it is pink. Then we boarded King Arthur's carousel. Libby rode a horse and Gracie ran straight for her favorite spot: the bench.

We moseyed along and found ourselves a great spot for the parade that was to start in 20 minutes. Great spot right on the curb and great timing! We sat next to a family with several kids who had bubbles and bubble guns, so they entertained Gracie and Libby as well as a few other children who were all right there. Note to self: bring bubbles next time. Great idea!

The parade was amazing! We saw several characters, the dancers were better than great, all of the Princes and Princesses were in it and it ended with Santa. Couldn't have been better! Libby really wanted to get out there and join in with the dancers, but I held her back. Gracie would like to be a roller skating snowflake when she grows up, but she needs to practice. I think she will be a very pretty snowflake someday.

Next stop, another long line of course! This time we were waiting to see the Princesses. This is a terrible line to stand in because you cannot use your stroller, there is nothing to lean on, and it takes an hour at least. Again, I had to nurse Libby standing up in line. Gosh, I'm good! There are three princesses to see, and you never know who you will get to visit with, it's a triple surprise! And well worth the wait. Each princess spends a little time with each kid and they get a little visit, a hug and maybe even a twirl around. You can look down the line and see total amazement and awe in little faces as they visit the princesses! So cute! Libby didn't want anything to do with any of them, she still thinks her mom is the best! Awww, thanks Libby! We saw Mulan, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.

We then made our way toward Toon Town. I was only going to concentrate on touring this one section of the park today, since I have never gone to this part of it before. Oh gosh, it was so crowded you could barely get around. Gracie recognized Minnie Mouse's house and wanted to go in, so we parked the stroller and got in line. Only one family got in line behind us and then the line closed down. Minnie would be making an appearance on Main Street and so they closed down the line to visit her. Another family showed up to get in line and they had a little girl about 2 or 3 years old dressed like Minnie Mouse and the guard didn't let them in line. I just about cried when I saw that little girl's disappointed face! I sure hope she got to see Minnie Mouse sometime during the day.

Minnie was cute! I handed my dying camera to the Disney worker to take a photo and hoped it would fire off a shot. It did. Just one. And it's blurry. Her house was adorable! Just a few rooms. Gracie and Libby had fun making the dishwasher go. Next door was Mickey's house and no line, I think you just go from one to the next, so we already stood in line and were just following. I had no idea Mickey's house was a mile long maze with no escape. We were in there for an hour at least, nudging our way forward. I ended up having to nurse Libby while standing in line inching forward and keeping Gracie near me with my foot. I didn't kick her, I just used my foot to reach to her and get her attention. Yes, that's me, the mom who is in line at Disneyland, standing on one leg while breastfeeding a toddler. I think I'll write that on my next resume.

We finally got to see Mickey Mouse! He was great! Libby wanted nothing to do with him, but Gracie gave him some love. The Disney photographer took some photos. These photos never did make it to the Disney Photo Pass web page, so I haven't seen them. Hopefully they will show up soon. Usually only takes an hour and your photos are there. The princess photos showed up a few at a time over the past couple of days. I'll check again tomorrow for Mickey photos.

By the time we got out of there it was dark! We left Toon Town for Small World. It was lit up with a billion lights! We parked the stroller and got in line for the Small World boat ride. The line was encroaching on the entrance to Toon Town. Wow! This line moves though because they are constantly loading and unloading boatloads of people, so at least you don't just stand there. Once again, I found myself battling a wiggle monster in my tired arms, and ended up nursing in line again. This time she fell asleep.

Gracie could have stared at the Christmas lights all night, they were beautiful and this was her first sighting of any lights this holiday season. We rode the boat through and Libby missed it all because she was fast asleep. It was great! The entire ride was decorated for Christmas, so many pretty details! The puppets sang bits of Christmas songs intermixed with the Small World song. It was so sweet to see Gracie's big eyes trying to absorb it all. At the end of the ride, she asked to go again, so we got back in line. This time the line was a lot shorter, it ended at the gate where you are supposed to enter to line up. And as we walked along the line, the parade went past. This time it was all lit up and since we were in line, we were on an elevated platform! Score! Gracie got to yell and wave to Santa again! Of course he winked at her and waved back. Libby slept through this and the second ride. We called Katie from inside the ride and left her a message, Gracie said "Katie! I'm at the Small World!" The music is pretty loud, so I'm sure she got an earful of that too.

Now it was 7:30 and I was worn out. Gracie seemed to have forgotten about the fireworks, so I was going to let her. They start at 9:30 and then its mass exodus from the parking lots. I thought sneaking out early might be a great idea, especially considering getting out might not be so easy, getting in was sure difficult! I strolled the kids across the park, down Main Street, and where is this Pavilion? Up and down Main street, and I asked, finally found it. Got there for Gracie's pass and she was sound asleep in the front seat of the stroller. Libby was wide awake, but Gracie was not waking up for anything. I held her head up and they took her picture like that. Her pass looks pretty funny! The lady said "Next time come when she's awake". Sure, great idea.

We went out and headed for the bus pick up area. Had to wait quite a while there. Wasn't too sure how I was going to get on the bus holding a baby, carrying a sleeping kid and fold up my stroller too. Somehow, I managed. I had to wake up Gracie and she was so groggy she wasn't sure what was going on, but I got her on the bus. This time we got 2 seats. yay! Found the Pongo parking lot, and I asked the bus driver how to get to the freeway. She said to Take a left, go a block to Harbor Blvd, take a right and it's a couple of minutes to the freeway, stay in the right lane. Really? It took me just a couple of minutes to get from Pongo to the freeway! Why did it take over an hour to get from Mickey and friends parking structure to Pongo! A Disney mystery.

Anyway, when I got to the van, Gracie finally had to go potty. This is the first time she said she had to go since we left the house! I asked her a bunch of times all day, but no, she won't go on big toilets. Good thing I keep a little potty chair in the van. The girl has a bladder of steel!

I was so glad to get into the van. My arms were ready to fall off! I had to carry Libby a lot because you can't use your stroller in line, and we spent more time standing in lines than we did strolling. Libby is definitely leash-ready! Next time, I'm bring a leash for her so I can put her down a bit here and there. Save us both some frustration. She is 22 pounds of pure wiggle!

I followed the bus driver's instructions to get out of the Pongo Parking lot, and she was right - I was on the 5 North in no time! She said the 5 goes to the 91 in only a couple of minutes, and that's the freeway I needed and sure enough, I found it! I merged and hopped onto the 91 West. Drove and drove, Gracie was wide awake now and Libby was fast asleep. After a while I thought, hmmm, these exits don't have familiar names, I must have a long way to go yet. Then I started to drive right into some fog and I saw a sign that said Long Beach Blvd. Oh no! The Beach! I drove WEST! I needed to go EAST! Oh Lordy!

I pulled off on the next exit, and in a panic I called Keith who was in South Dakota, he pulled up a map and said I could flip around easily there and head back. Then he said, "Wow, you drove a long way in the wrong direction". I made it to the edge of Compton. Went about 12 miles west rather than east. Ugh!

So I got turned around and got home just fine. I really need to learn the difference between East and West! Someday... someday...

We got home at 11pm. We left the house at 11am, making this a 12 hour outing. I was beat! And of course, the girls were wide awake now and ready to play! They'd been strapped down too long and needed to wiggle and be free of constraints. Guess we could have stayed for the fireworks after all. We were up till 1am when I finally declared an end to this long exciting day. It was great, but Disneyland was tougher than I was that day.

Watch out, Disneyland, the parking nightmare, crowds, long lines without use of a stroller, lollipops that shatter on the sidewalk, and trapping me in Mickey's house didn't do me in! I'm coming back for more! And I'm bringing a fully charged camera battery and a toddler leash!

Quilt Progress Report

2009-11-23T15:32:00.000-08:00

Fifteen 9-patch blocks done. Here they are laid out on my bed. Kind of looks funny - a quilt on a quilt. But, you can get the idea anyway. Next time I'll plan it out better and actually measure correctly. Oh well. This one is turning out good enough and it's much better than that old pile of useless jeans that I once had!

I Look GREAT!

2009-11-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

I took Gracie to get her hair cut the other day. As soon as the stylist twirled her around toward the mirror, Gracie lit up like the 4th of July and exclaimed, "I Look GREAT!" And she does!

Here is the haircut and "mini-mani" in photos: Remember if you cannot see a full photo, click on it and you will be able to see the whole thing. Then just use the back button to return here and look at the next one.

Salamander Crossing

2009-11-20T08:52:00.001-08:00

Only in California!

They've shut down a section of road to make a safe path for a salamander crossing. Yes. For a salamander to cross the road.

Here is a link to a news report explaining why the salamanders needed to shut down a road. It's so obvious! They are endangered! Save the Salamanders!

Ballerina Booger

2009-11-18T12:28:00.000-08:00

The last ballet class was very entertaining. You get what you get with a three-year old! Next Monday we don't have class since it will be Thanksgiving week; I am glad we don't go back for two weeks!

Since there are 20 three and four year old ballerinas and class is only 30 minutes long, all the parents stay. The class is in a gym and there are folding chairs along the wall for the parental audience. There are usually about 30 parents and people who stay and watch, most with cameras. The teacher can then have the parents help a bit if their child needs it. Sometimes a shoe comes untied or someone has to go potty, things like that happen.

Monday, Libby was fussing and crying and wanting to go with all the ballerinas. So the teacher asks me to leave. Is that embarrassing enough? No.

Gracie gets a bloody nose! The teacher announces, "Who is the mom for this ballerina?" I have to deal with that in front of everyone. I grabbed kleenex and baby wipes and my hand sanitizer, and I make sure to get her super clean and germ free cuz they have to hold hands.

This happens three times cuz it just wouldn't quit bleeding. It wasn't bad, just bad enough. And Libby continues to throw fits which causes the teacher to once again say, "Whoever has the unhappy baby, could you step out? Thank you!" Of course, I can't because I have a bloody ballerina to deal with.

And then Gracie sneezed and used her hand to wipe her nose and then yells to the crowd, "MOM! I got a booger!" She has to scan the line of parents because she knows I was jostling Libby on my hip and pacing behind the row of seated quiet parents trying to quiet little sis. Gracie is holding up this HUGE booger blood clot for the world to see. And Libby is still crying.

The teacher is getting so annoyed with my kids but she laughs along with everyone else. She wants me to hover over Gracie and take the baby out. I can't do both! Every time I left with Libby I left Gracie's kleenex and purell for her hands just sitting near her on the table that held the cd player, then the teacher would say "you left all your stuff here". Yes, in case Gracie needs it!

I was never so happy to see ballet class end! That was a very long 30 minute ballet class!

How to get straight As!

2009-11-18T12:27:00.001-08:00

It's easy. Go to the college where my husband works. They dish 'em out like candy. I'm so annoyed.

I try not to vent a lot and turn my blog into a stomping ground of things that frustrate me, but seriously, this university "policy" is on my nerves. They don't really have a "policy" its more of a "the way things are" type of thing. Unwritten, non verbalized way of how it works.

And this is how I understand that it works: The University has an excellent graduate program for excellent students who excel in everything they do. Excellent!

Except that excellence is just code for "we give them all As". Key word: Give.

My husband teaches students who already have been through middle school, high school, junior college, university undergrad school; they have Bachelor's degrees, job experience and proved themselves worthy of being admitted to the Master's program. Impressive, eh? Yeah, I thought so too. Until... I saw some of their work. And I saw my husband making squishy faces while reading their papers they turned in to him. And I realized that their written academic presentations were not much better than the essays he brings home from his middle school. These people are in the masters program? How did they get there? Shoot, how did they get out of the 8th grade?

The end of this term, my husband sat with a huge stack of final projects in front of him and he was scowling. He looked over and said to me, "these are all crap!" All but two got an A. I don't get it. I don't know how or why, but it happens that way. It just irritates me so much. I worked so hard for my grades and they weren't As all the time.

Not all students come out of class with an A. Some get an A-. OOooooOOOOooo, poor students! Apparently, A- is cause for academic review or something, and a B is just insultingly bad, and I'm sure the university doesn't want to waste a lot of time with those "bad" students. Just nudge them over the line. I wish I knew how they decide that everyone gets an A and how an A- is cause for review. I know if the teacher gives out too many "bad grades" he gets his ass chewed. Then his boss does.

Now that I know all this, I know where I'm going to get my master's degree. Yes, to the excellent school for excellent students who do nothing but excel in every excellent class. Then they go on to get excellent jobs with excellent salaries because they are so excellently excellent and win the job with that excellent transcript. And if I don't get a masters at this excellent school, I might end up working for one of these jerks who just purchased their degree. So, that's what I'll do. Can't beat 'em, join 'em! Buy a degree! Who has time to earn one?

Boy, I'm gonna catch hell for writing this, but I'm gonna hit publish post anyway.

"V"

2009-11-15T04:00:00.000-08:00

Hello, Mary's Blog Fans. Mary's husband here. I'm taking over the keys to the blog today. I noticed this new TV show "V" is a remake of an 80s show by the same name. Remember that one? This one seems the same with updates. Here are my thoughts on the new V show and my predictions:

It is all pretty predictable--and that Nazi-like allegory is still there. The son of the main character is signed up to be part of the "Hitler Youth" and I'm sure will eventually sell out his own mother to the "V's"

In fact, Here's how the rest of the series will go:

* The son will develop a romantic (albeit one-sided) relationship with the hot little blonde V as he continues to lie to his mom about being involved.

* As she leads him on, he begins to rise up in the ranks and gains more V trust.

* Eventually, the hot little blonde V will start to show some feelings for him, and reveal the truth of her reptilian heart, OR, she will go all psycho on his arse and reveal how she used him like the tool he is--THEN reveal her reptilian side. Either way, THAT is when this tool will realize Mom was right all along.

* Meanwhile, the younger priest will become more involved in the underground resistance--helping to lead it and gaining intel from the FBI agent. Also-- The priest will at some point end up killing his older Priest mentor--who is actually a V himself.

* The turning point will be when a large portion of the population realizes the true intent of the V's (to turn us into soylent green), and a V revolt erupts. That revolt willl involve the internet and hackers (because using the internet can solve anything) taking over tv stations for a worlwide broadcast of some video evidence that the V's are lying about who and what they are and why they are here. That might be the black guy ripping the human skin off his reptilian arm live on camera.

* By now, the jilted son has switched sides and provides valuable intel about the V embassy so the resistance can blow it up, which they do almost simultaneous to the "Here is the Real V" tv broadcast. Result: chaos and mass anti-V sentiment ending with multiple attacks against V's, (with lots of scenes of 15 year old cars getting blown up) and prompting the V's to use their superior weaponry in defense.

* Season-ending cliff-hanger scene will be of the cute bitch V leader with a nasty pissed off Nancy-Pelosi looking expression (or maybe Hillary) telling the weaselly reporter that if the humans want war, the V's will bring it.

...and there will be no season 2

Chicken Nuts

2009-11-14T10:55:00.000-08:00

That's what we just had for dinner. Rice, Sauce and Chicken Nuts.

I told Gracie that we are having Chicken Nuggets and she replied, "Chicken Nuts! I don't like Chicken Nuts!". She ate plenty of them though, so she does like Chicken Nuts!

Actually, I served up some General Tso's Heat and Eat Chicken Nuggets. It comes with some spicy sauce and says right on the box: "Just Add Rice". Coupled with Minute Rice, it's a quick and easy convenient dinner. Not gourmet, but we don't eat it very often. Not that we eat gourmet very often either... I think we should have General Tso's Chicken Nuts more often now that Gracie is a big fan.

Of course, now, I will always think of them as Chicken Nuts.

A Work in Progress

2009-11-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

I cut up piles of jeans! Old jeans that didn't fit anyone, worn out jeans, stained jeans, maternity jeans, baby denim dresses, you name it, I chopped it into squares 6"x6". I couldn't really make the squares bigger because the girls are too skinny to wear jeans that have legs wide enough to cut larger than 6" across. Took me about a month to cut all the denim that we had that was worthy of going into a quilt (meaning it was not worthy to wear!).

Here is a 9-patch block laid out. Dark, light, dark, light, dark, light... and so it goes. Square #7 is where I will lay and "interesting" square in the block. Plenty of those!

So far I have four 9-patch blocks done. I am identifying them by the shade of the center square and as you can see I have one dark and three light. I will alternate the dark, light, dark, light so that the pattern is consistent. But, for today, I just laid out the blocks that I have done to show you, and it happens to be that I have one more light than dark so the pattern is a bit off in this layout. No worries, I won't sew them together like that! I am happy with almost all of my corners!

I have a king size red flannel bedsheet that I will use for the backing, and I will put jeans pockets in the bordering blocks. My husband has been asking me to make a denim jeans quilt for years; it isn't my favorite fabric and I've always thought a jeans quilt would be too bulky, boring and ugly. I'm happy to say, it's a fun project and I look forward to taking this quilt camping!

It's coming along! A big warm denim quilt for the hubby will soon be a reality! And since it will be made out of the family's old jeans, it will have some extra coziness to it!

Cluck! Cluck! Cluck! Ribbit!

2009-11-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here I was worrying about swine when I should have been worrying about fowl! Turns out, Libby's illness this week was not swine flu, it was Chicken Pox.

Libby had her 12 mth vaccinations last month. 15 days later (last Sunday) she developed a fever and began her fever and flu-like symptoms. Friday she was splotchy and polka dotty. Saturday was more of the same. Her irritability increased, separation anxiety heightened and she wasn't happy. Saturday her skin looked a lot better, clingy as velcro with static. Now it's Sunday morning, we shall see how she is today. Hopefully, her skin will be cleared up and back to normal, but it could still take a day or two.

Not to be left out of all the attention, Gracie says she has a frog in her throat. Ribbit!

The Bed Saga

2009-11-07T12:25:00.000-08:00

*Click on photos to see the whole photo, my blog layout isn't allowing the entire photo to display in the skinny main column. I am trying to find a new template; in the meantime, click the photo then hit the back button to return.

We bought a new bed 4 years ago. We really needed it, our Queen sized bed had body dents and we wanted to get a King size. We had that Queen for ten years.

We kept the Queen and gave it to Katie; she had it in her room upstairs for a couple of years and then moved it downstairs. Now it's in South Carolina. I think it's been moved and shaken around so much, it shook out some of the dents. I'm sure it's forming new ones now. But, it'll do till the kids can buy a new bed of their own.

So, we got a new King bed four years ago. Sept 16, 2005 to be exact. I remember because that is also the same day that we found out Gracie was going to join us. Big Exciting Day!

Turned out that the bed wasn't so great. It was thick with memory foam and I always felt like I was drowning in it. I couldn't roll over so I"d wake up and fight my way out of my memory foam hole to readjust myself. Ick! Then, it started to sink almost immediately and we exchanged it for another one with no memory foam pillow top, but had the same result. At least it didn't suck us down like the pillow top did. After three years, it felt worse than our Queen did. We were both waking up sore and weren't sleeping well. It took us a full year of looking, actually a bit more, but we finally just bought a new King size bed.

Two weeks ago, we plunked down a fortune at Ortho Mattress for a new box spring and mattress. It's supposed to be amazing and hold up perfectly. After the first night on it, we both felt pretty good. Neither one of us thought it was amazing though. We decided to give it some time.

Well, I still don't love it. It's been two weeks. The thing has a hard as a rock raised middle. I think that's because of the box springs coming together in the center, but still. I have to stick to my own side. The mattress people don't realize that "my side" is 3/4 of the bed! I can't have this hard line limiting my space to only 50%.

And it has "Memory Foam" on the top layer over the springs. Springs, I like! Memory Foam, ugh, I do not like that stuff! Especially since it doesn't remember. It's a rubbery foam that doesn't bounce back, it slowly oozes back to shape. But it squishes under your body so that when you roll over, now the bed is lumpy from your previous shape. At least the foam isn't deep. And it's rubbery, which makes me sweaty. Gross. Why can't a person get a bed without memory foam in it these days? The memory foam people are taking over the world! And I seem to be the only one who isn't thrilled about that.

So here we are, in another expensive uncomfortable bed. I tell ya, I'm ready to just put a pad on the floor and camp out!

I also got Libby a new bed. She refused to sleep in her pack-and-play any longer. Every time I would bend over to lay her down, she woke right up. There must have been a magnetic force in there that jolted her awake. And it started to sag under her weight anyway, so it's time for her to get a real bed.

When Gracie reached this age, we gave her the twin bed and moved it into our room putting it up against the wall and using a bed rail for the other side. Our bedroom is crazy big and our King bed plus the Twin bed next to it lengthwise fit just fine. It's an odd room.

So I thought about buying Libby a twin and doing that again, but I also had a crazy idea that maybe a toddler bed would do. This is nuts because I've always thought toddler beds are silly. They look like a toy. But trying to fit two twin beds into Grace's pink room someday might prove to be a challenge, so I considered how a toddler bed in Gracie's bedroom would be a better fit someday. After we move it out of our room. It was food for thought anyway.

I checked prices online. A Toddler bed costs as much as a Twin! Plus you still have to buy a crib mattress for it. Ah-ha! I'll check Craigslist! It's very active in our area. Sure enough, there was a pink princess toddler bed with a mattress for $35. Well, for that much it's worth trying to see if Libby will sleep in it and to see if I like it as opposed to a "real bed".

We picked it up and it's the cutest thing! She sleeps great in it for half the night, then she gets up and comes to bed with us. That's better than she was doing in her little playpen during the last month. She slept all night in her new little bed a few times too, and it is so much easier to lay her down because I don't have to stoop. I'm surprised! I like this cute little bed!

The dog likes it too. If the baby isn't sleeping in the toddler bed, the dog is. She fits very nicely on it too. I guess if it doesn't work out for Libby, then Sandy has a new princess bed just the right size. It seems to be working out just fine for Libby and once she starts to sleep through the night consistently, we can move her little bed to the Pink Room and the girls can share. I'm looking forward to that!

So, that's the saga of the beds as it is now. We have a new King that we are not in love with and Libby has a new Toddler bed that she likes well enough. Gracie got new sheets, we can't leave her out!