Spring Break!

OK, so apart from SMA FRIDAY, I'll not be blogging next week.

Reading your blogs? Yes.

Commenting on blogs? Of course.

Twittering? Probably.

Facebook Updates? If I have something good.

I've just decided that Tracey is right - I can run off a line on Facebook faster than I can blog, so I'm going to try to save this for better stuff. I need to work on good ideas and better stories. A blog should be something special, something greater than facebook.

So... HAVE A GREAT SPRING BREAK!

Are you kidding me?

Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God!

Who knew about this? Did YOU know about this? Were you withholding the information from me?

I HAD NO IDEA!

THE COLORADO

CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL

This proves two things to me:
1) there is a God
2) He's awfully fond of me!


Who's in?

The second award Rae Ann gave me this month....

The Friend Award!

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers are fun to find and be friends with. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.

I give this Friendly Blog Award to:

Vanessa - and not just because she's having a shitty month! I've always known that if we lived in the same city, Vanessa and I would have a standing monthly coffee date. She's totally interesting and fun!

Danielle - or SIS as we love to call her. She's a neighborhood friend that happens to live in the very most southern part of our neighborhood! I wouldn't be shocked if she ever showed up at our pool with drinks and fun stories for us moms.

Martha - what can I say about Martha except THANK GOD FOR MARTHA! She makes me giggle, and understands about the dark side of my soul that needs to snark.

Tracey - Tracey is a neighborhood mom that I don't get to hang with nearly enough. We are so much alike, and the times I've been able to hang out with her I've felt like I am with a really good friend.

*****

So, there you are. Pass these awards on to Blog Friends around the globe, and I thank you each for your the unique friendship we have shared.

Excuse the hot mess...

Blog undergoing some changes in layout... pretty blog back soon! Until then, please enjoy a picture of my family up in Oregon that was taken 4 years ago.

I've been given a couple blog "awards" lately...

From CRITICAL MASS. I've never had anything like that happen to me before, so I thank you, Rae Ann.

(Here's the thing: I don't really follow enough blog to give them out to 15 people, so I'm going to give each award to 3 or 4 blogs. I hope it's OK to bend the rules as I see fit?!)

FIRST UP:

THE HONEST SCRAP AWARD


A) First list 10 honest things about yourself - and make it interesting, even if you have to dig deep!
B) Pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you feel embody the spirit of the Honest Scrap

************
Here are my 10 things, honest!

1) I would listen to any kind of gossip. I even watch made up gossip on television... it feeds a horrible, dark corner of my soul.

2) I doubt my abilities as a mother. I love our daughters beyond comprehension, but mothering does not come naturally to me. This does not, however, exempt me from being judgemental as to how other people raise their children. I am a walking contridiction.

3) I love sleep. I really need sleep. Like, if I want to stay healthy I need 9-10 hours a night. Crazy, but have always been that way - since I was born.

4) I follow Ashton Kutcher on Twitter.

5) I love, love, love THIS WATCH from Tiffanys. The thing is, it's a $5100 watch and how many orphans could that feed? I would be sublimely happy with a $200 knockoff. I wouldn't care about patents or illegalities, I just want that watch. (But not for $5100 dollars!)

6) ...and yet, I spend an obscene amount of money on hair care products.

7) I really wish the Harry Potter series wasn't finished. My mom and I awaited those books like 13 year old girls, always had them on pre-order with Amazon so we'd each recieve our copy in the mailbox the day of release.

8) My greatest fear in life is that one or both of my daughters would become a drug addict.

9) I don't give my dogs enough attention. They love me to distraction, and follow me everywhere, and I love them back... but I don't stop and play with them or love on them enough. The send nothing but unconditional love my way, and they deserve more. I don't think I want another dog until the kids are more grown up and I'm at a place where I want to really spend time with a dog.

10) When the kids bring word searches home for homework I like to do them for them. They happily oblige mom in this.

For this award I nominate the following three blogs

Chocolate Chip Cookies for Lunch Ganelle is raising three sons. A foreign world to me, and I appreciate her honesty about the ups and downs.

Doubting Thomas Aimee is open enough about her Zac Efron obsession that we can hardly doubt her honesty!

The Rumour Mill Rumour is a lawyer, and has two daughters - just like me except for the law degree part! I appreciate her honesty as she writes of her experience with infertility and the challenge of raising the two girls

My second award will be given out next week, and again - THANK YOU Rae Ann! I am honored

SMA FRIDAY!

Because last week's picture was bad, here are two amazing pics to make up for it! (You knew I'd deliver, yes?)

So, it's time....

My sister is flying out from NY next week and we'll be meeting with other siblings at Dad's house to pack up mom's stuff. It took my dad a while to be ready - but I think this is good for him. He told me, "I'd like to have a closet!" (He had 1/2 the closet in their bedroom for his entire life no matter which house it was they lived in. As we kids moved out, mom moved in to our closets... but never relinquished her 1/2 to Dad!)

I think he's ready for some changes now, and I can hardly wait for him to be ready to look at some senior communities where he can be around people more his age. There are so many places, and they're so different from each other. You have full service places where he can go downstairs to have his meals in a large dining room, to condos in places where lots of seniors live. Something for everyone, and I think he'll like looking.

At the same time, it's surreal. The year mark is coming up, which is unbelievable. How could she have been gone that long?

Maybe it won't be so hard to visit him at the house if some of her things are gone? Her pile of books she was reading is still on the lamp table in the family room, and there a vignettes of her like that everywhere. If you open the coat closet, her coats are there along with her purse. Her purse - just as she left it. I'll bet there are even still a few dollars in her wallet and her lipstick is still in there. Her drivers license and stray receipts... Kleenex and pens.

Next week will be bittersweet at best. Dad is ready for a closet, so we'll get it done. At least we'll be able to put that package of Kleenex in her purse to good use. Imagine that - she's still finding ways of taking care of us.

Wordless Wednesday

A note from my brother-in-law

I got the following note in my email:

"Someone touched the SMA's balls on Japanese TV, I thought of you immediately."


Do I have the best brother-in-law or what??? Love him! Blogger won't let me upload the clip, so CLICK HERE and have a laugh!

Things I don't want my husband to know (but will probably tell him over dinner because I feel so guilty) #143

OK, so I met a mom from school today for coffee after drop off. 8:15am, it's the second time we've met for coffee and I'm so enjoying her company.

We got our coffees and sat down, started chatting.... I swear to you the next thing we knew her phone was ringing and it was 1:15pm.

WE TALKED FOR FIVE HOURS and didn't even notice. I would have sworn it was about 10am.

....but, no - honey, I don't have time to get a part time job!

SMA Friday!

And, except for the chest hair, this is exactly what my husband looks like after he gets out of the shower! (You know, those times he showers without undressing first.)

(my first thought when I found this picture? "Ugh. Wet jeans.")

Too lazy to blog? Is there a pill for that?

Funny posting has been slow this month. But, if I was blogging about good stuff, here is what I'd be blogging about:

REALLY funny picture of DD1 and her "scooter gear." Need a new card reader to get it off my camera.

It doesn't matter how bored you are being home sick from school for days on end... it is NEVER OK for a nine year old child to draw all over the phone with a Sharpie.

Is "9" some sort of magic age where children start testing out their "lying" and "sneaky" skills to get out of trouble? Because, seriously? It would have been easier to just admit you made the mess and wipe the lake of water off the bathroom counter than to lie about it and be punished... right?

I had forgotten that six-year-olds smile back at you when they are being yelled at - which infuriated me the first time around and now is a vicious reminder of how much I've forgotten about my kids' childhoods already.

How can a child go from eating nothing but refined carbohydrates to asking for apples and strawberries 5 times a day? Not that I'm complaining -but it does create more work for me. I'm going to have to work a lot harder to qualify as Worst Mother of the Year if she cuts her empty calories any further.

OK, you know how when your child says something funny and you laugh and then they repeat it about a thousand times over then next four days expecting the same reaction? Well... it's really funny when you do it BACK at them. DD1 was all, like, "Mom, that's NOT FUNNY ANYMORE." I still laughed every single time, just because she got that look on her face. It's good to be the tormentor!

There is a film canister (with unused film in it) that has been in our fridge for over 9 years. We even put it in the new fridge last fall when it arrived.
Why?

**********

So, go ahead and flesh these starting points out in your head. Imagine how funny my stories about these would be... I may get back to them. I WILL have to post the picture I mentioned above at some point because I have family that read the blog, and they'll appreciate it.

Wordless Wednesday

(Because I'm getting overly anxious to see this on my damn floors! This way I can come here and gaze at it until it's underfoot.)

Sorry

My blog was depressing me, so ugly this month. It had to go. I'm not sure if this is "it"... but it will have to do for now.

Have a happy Tuesday!

If the saying fits...

Yesterday, after seeing and spending time with three of my friends (two meetings unplanned) and my daily phone call with Mrs. Kravitz (yes, she does live right next door), I was reminded of the following... which I saw once at a craft fair*:

I am only as strong as the caffeine I drink, the hairspray I use and the girlfriends I have.


Yep.


*Seriously, good folksy wisdom to be found at craft fairs!

A contest??

We interrupt SMA Friday to ask the question: who doesn't love a good contest???

Chased by Children is sponsoring a contest to provide her with an idea for her 400th post. She's a much better woman than I am - I have no idea how many posts I've written! The prize is EXCELLENT, btw, gift cards from Target!!!

Her blog is great, also. I've only just found her, but can tell I'm going to have lots of fun going through her blog archives when I need a giggle.

CHECK HER OUT!

SMA Friday!!

Holy Cow, how long was this week? Right? We need a little something extra with our SMA this week! See, this is a guy you can love. He is a dad, he's cute, he's sexy... and he is the kind of man who would appreciate that you took the time to not only lather and rinse - but to repeat. He'd appreciate the repeat, and I know that matters to some of us. (Yes Amy?)

He's practically perfect in every way!

Wordless Wednesday

Well, aren't I something?

OK, so I'm off to go help a group (gaggle? pack? den?) of girl scout cadets get their photography badges. I'm the guest speaker at the meeting. (Yes, talking about photography! Unless a better topic comes up - like my hair or something.)

So, if I haven't yet done your family portrait you might be in for a price hike. Free sitting fees for friends may be a thing of the past now that I'm starting on a public speaking career / lecture tour. Sure, it's only a troop of girl scouts today... but after my success on zazzle.com who can doubt my abilities?

Every heard of Zazzle.com?

A couple of years ago, my friend and I were on the phone. Their daughter does competitive cheer leading, and he thought it would be funny to get a shirt that said, "Who's Your Cheer Daddy?" I told her I was sure there had to be a place on the internet to get that done - I'll find it. In looking, I ran across zazzle.com. It's a site dedicated to being able to print your own stuff, and cool stuff that others have designed. I typed in a shirt that said "Who's Your Cheer Daddy?", and sent her the link.

That was in January 2007. They never ordered it... however 16 other folks have ordered it. Every once in a while, after I've forgotten all about it, they send me an email that tells me someone bought a shirt or two. Wanna know why I think this is hilarious? Because at zazzle.com you get a percentage of the profit. So, because of that shirt, I've had $32.15 deposited in my paypal account over the last two years.

(Someone also bought a "Team Nikki" shirt I had out there. Big Love is Universal!)


To quote a wise man:
Strange things are afoot at the Circle K!