road tripping the return

so we are back in rainy 'ol Knoxville. I was very happy to be back sleeping in my own bed next to my dear sweet hubby. When we are at my folks house I usually wind up sharing a bed with C this is better now that he doesn't snore so much but he tends to be a bed hog, kind of cute when he was 20 lbs not so much now that he is 83 lbs! My Dad is talking about cleaning up some space, getting rid of an old couch & buying a day bed in the new year which will be nice.
We tried to go to bed early Friday night in anticipation of the long journey ahead and it was fine till about 2 a.m. when C started tossing and turning which involved thrashing his whole body about, grunting and stealing the covers I threatened him repeatedly but it was a crummy night of sleep regardless. As I related this story to D the next day and C pipes up with his head & legs hurt-gotta love those growing pains! but I pointed out that he needs to say something next time so I can give him some tylenol to help!
The drive back was happily uneventful we were making good time so D decided to push on through normally we stop for a hour or so to have lunch and get out of the car but we grabbed fast food & ate on the go which made the trip only 12 hours instead of 14, we made really good time.
Around 6 C wanted to put a call into grandpa to find out how the Patriots/Giants game was going-grandpa being the die hard Giants fan-so I had to let C know the game had not started yet and grandpa was out at a party anyway.

the more things change..

-the lamp my parents had to replace this week it was older than I am
-the bed I am sleeping in well the bed frame was my parent's when they first got married it had also been mine at one point in time, it is the frame of death if I had a penny for each time I hit my knee or shin on the damn thing I would be a wealthy wealthy woman
-my parents replaced their windows several years ago and at the time just had them fitted with mini blinds. Evidently my SIL was giving my dad a hard time about that recently so he bought new curtains and asked me to help put them up. I was kind of excited to see what he bought imagine my surprise when I walked into the living room to see they were the same EXACT curtains we had growing up oh ok they were a little longer perhaps but the same style & color.
-he did get a cute that had some color & pattern valance for the back door so I suggested he should get something similar for the window over the sink. I am hoping he takes the suggestion

I am a little blue tonight as we are leaving in the morning and I hate living more than 800 miles from my parents! Luckily they will be in K-town in April

a little leftover holiday cheer

-buy batteries before Christmas day it's a pain heading out to Walgreens at 10 pm on xmas eve
-when re-using a gift bag remember to check for gift tags-D spent a few minutes trying to figure out who James & Ryan were, and why they would buy him underwear-in the correct size no less
-It dawned on me at mass on Christmas Eve that one downside to C attending public school over parochial is that he is not learning noels but only the secular Christmas songs
-huge Christmas dinner was good but the leftovers the next night were way better

little boy growing up

most of the time when out in public with C if he need to use a restroom I send him on his way to the men's room. I do keep an eye out on the time it takes and who may or may not be walking in but generally speaking no problem. When flying it is usually just the 2 of us so he just goes in to the ladies with me however we have not flown up north in over a year, past couple of trips up North have been road trips.
On the road Saturday first place we stopped had a single ladies room & a single men's room so no problem I sent him on his way. The second place we stopped was a very busy truck stop/gas station/fast food eatery(I use the term eatery very loosely) as D was pumping gas I grabbed C and took him with me to the ladies and for the very first time I got vehement protest as he hissed "this is so embarrassing" to me.
But you know better safe than sorry so tough noogies kid next time wait for your father then you can go to the gents! Should be fun this summer flying like I'd let him go alone at LaGuardia..

you can go home again

well just for a visit for a week I mean let's not get crazy I'm not about to move back here or anything! Christmas was wonderful-warning a little family bragging about to happen I had a fairly normal childhood no deep dark skeletons hiding in the closet so the holidays were always fun & enjoyable as was this one. I love hearing the shriek emanate from my son when he first gets a look at all the gifts under the tree knowing in particular this is probably the last year he truly believes in the jolly old elf-well he left a thank you note for the cookies and all..
It's is just nice to be home in the house I grew up in. It is nice to hang out with my parents and not have any obligations that need filling, no shuttling C to & fro, no dishes or laundry!
For us this is truly a vacation. I must admit sometimes I wish we do something touristy during time off but we don't really like the whole needing a vacation from the vacation sort of feeling

Merry Christmas!!!

for the little kid in all of us this site is the only one you'll need to visit today!

things I forgot living in the south

-aggressive driving, pick up the pace or get the hell out of the way
-snow while pretty at first becomes a dirty & gross mess
-cars covered in sand & salt don't brush up against them
-no flippin turn lanes?
-people do talk to random strangers in stores, I had a nice conversation in line at Kohl's(forgot C's nice clothes for church really smart of me no?)
-that parking space up front-it's empty because it is full of packed snow...

notes from the road

-when you witness a car wreck and call 911 near a rest stop they will ask you over and over what is the # of the rest stop, how in the hell should I know what number it is? I told you where it was located what more do you want from my life
-beer is not sold at the grocery store in PA
-I should have held onto the Christmas cards and mailed them from Bethlehem PA
-evidently the operation was helpful C does not snore so much anymore
we are safe & sound in scenic Danbury CT home of the groped Santa and in a repeat of the trip this summer it is raining-raining a lot today

let's hit the road people

C my normally stumbally & bumbally boy in the mornings is set and ready to go see grammy & grandpa! Now don't get me wrong he still stumbled & bumbled his way down the hall this morning but fully dressed, well except for sock & shoes I pointed out he might need those.
so we are set
-charged dvd player altough it does have a car jack thingy
-charged nintendo ds & gameboy
-some transformer learning thing he got from his cousin yesterday
-couple of activity books
-snacks & drinks
-gifts
-clothes
-dog is off visiting-thanks again to feed the monkeys
what am I going to do without computer access for 24 hours?!?

can I just say

if I indeed owned a mink jacket Kroger is exactly the place I would want to wear it.

little known fact

D is actually the nice one in this couple. Don't cross me

random christmasness

-love being able to get gift cards for multiple locations at Kroger or Walgreens it makes my life a smidgen easier
-got out Christmas cards for the first time in THREE years this morning-it's a miracle anyone actually sends us cards any more
-the post office was surprisingly quick & efficient this morning
-did not bake cookies but our rum cakes kick butt-have to make the last 2 tonight
-still have no idea what to buy my mother for Christmas
-just talked to my Dad he was no help on the mom Christmas gift idea problem
-I have not seen Christmas Story in it's entirety just yet but I think there is a marathon on Christmas Eve

not going to work for me

this whole let's wake up every hour on the hour the entire flippin night...
it is going to be a very long and cranky day for me...

hooray!

my brother is home safe & sound-an early Christmas gift for my SIL & neices. Welcome home Chris!

CHRISTMAS

now this is a meme I can get behind!
link to the person that tagged you-thanks to house of flying monkeys
post the rules on your blog
share Christmas facts about yourself.
tag 7 random people including links to their blogs
now that the rules are out of the way

1. wrapping or gift bags? wrapping all the way and in an OCD sort of way I usually assign each family a specific roll of paper. Santa of course has his own paper as well. I found it odd that Santa used the same paper as my mother when I was growing up.

2. real or artificial tree? I must hang my head in shame yes we have a fake tree but we also have a vacuum that works(see post from last week)

3. when do put the tree up? just after Thanksgiving. The Christmas season does not start in my household till the day after Thanksgiving

4. when do you take the tree down? after Jan 6 the feast of the epiphany. I am still Catholic after all

5. do you like eggnog? yes with rum or in muffins I really need to get my mom's recipe

6.favorite gift received as a child? wow I always got really great gifts but honestly I would say the best was my annual trip to NYC with my Uncle. We would leave on the 26th and do whatever I wanted to in NYC for a few days, museums, book stores, Macy's & Bloomies, Rockefeller Plaza, The Russian Tea Room, South Street Seaport, Empire State Building just about anything I wanted to do they were always WONDERFUL trips

7. do you have a nativity scene? yes well sort of I have a hand carved manger that my grandfather made but no figurines currently. The ones that I inherited were a sad mixed bag of broken items I suppose I should buy a set one of these years

8. worst Christmas gift ever received? the old lady track suit my dear hubby gave me our first holiday together

9. mail or email Christmas cards? mail even though they are sitting on my kitchen table waiting to be addressed & stamped hell I still have a few days

10. favorite christmas movie? Christmas Story hands down. If you had asked about cartoon that would be The Year Without A Santa Claus although it would not be Christmas without at least 1 viewing of the Grinch

11. when do you start shopping for Christmas? I have become a last minute panic shopper. Each year I vow to be finished by Thanksgiving so I can enjoy the season but that has happened yet

12. favorite thing to eat at Christmas? christmas cookies

13. clear lights or colored on the tree? colored but not blinking. Blinking lights make me want to have a seizure.

14. favorite christmas song? Oh Holy Night but I pretty much like them all

15. travel at christmas or stay home? prefer to stay home but don't mind traveling to my parent's house which use to be home. We haven't had christmas with my parents since C was 1 so I am looking forward to the trip(except for the driving part)

16. can you name all of Santa's reindeer? you bet your sweet bippie I can

17. angel or star on top of the tree? we have a star currently but my mother gave my a gorgeous Louis Nicole angel that I will use when we have a better tree-don't want that angel to fall & break!

18. open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? hell Santa comes Christmas Eve what are you doing opening them before he comes? 30 years ago I would have answered this differently

19. the most annoying thing about this time of year? that retailers start the season earlier each year.

20. do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color? all about family I have ornaments from my family growing up and my family now

21. what do you leave for Santa? growing up he would get cookies & Jack Daniels these days he gets a single malt Scotch and cookies

22. least favorite holiday song? Grandma got run over by a reindeer-hysterical when I was 8 but a little over done at this point

23. favorite ornament? I have lots of favorites but I suppose the little gold guitar that was picked out for me when I was an infant. As I previously blogged growing up each family member would get a new ornament each year when we got married my mom sent boxes of stuff to each of us so my tree is rich with family history.

I don't think I know 7 people to hassle with this but I can get a few-please feed the monkeys, retro-moderns, appalachian feminist breeder , my brother if he had a blog...

goatman chronicles

yes I know it is probably not a great idea to post things about my boss but here goes anyway...
-9 days before xmas I have a message on my phone we are out of the Hillary nutcrackers at one of the stores I NEED to order more and get them in this week. This from the man who was freaky about us carrying them-he didn't like the George Bush toilet paper we sold last year either but that sold without complaint. He thought we sold these so well because people equated it with the nutcracker suite?! as in Tchaikovsky?? alrighty then I just deleted the message and did not respond at all besides it's not like I can wave a magic wand manufacture them and have them in the store this week.
-wanting to improve our web site he took a bunch of really bad pics of some of the novelty & accessory items we carry(this is part of my job I order all of the "crap" for both stores) anyway photos with price tags on them, bad backgrounds just bad pics. we have a guy on staff who is a photographer in the sense that he has been paid to do this sort of thing so last week we well he took a bunch of pics I just got to play assistant. Great photos but I got an email that the owner felt his were better
-he also tends to email a lot even though he is sitting almost next to you in a small office
and there are a few more stories that further illustrate that he did not know Christmas was so close I guess?! Maybe he though the date changes like Easter? It seems like a lot of his instructions lately should really have been dealt with oh before Thanksgiving

weekend part 2

yesterday we went to visit D's father who is in a nursing home. Now I must admit that I do not go as often as I should usually D& C go as part of their weekend boys only jaunts about town. So it was no big surprise the first thing out of his mouth yesterday was where is C? ok so he asked for D who was standing right in front of him but he meant C.
In fact all of the grandparents really view as us the bringers of C apparently no one actually wants to visit with us. again another story for another day..
I was amused to see that pee-paws room appears to be a tribute/shrine to the oldest grandchild A who is married now and lives in Oklahoma and C the youngest grandchild. Now there are photos of the 3 in-between but clearly pics of the first & last out number the rest

lazy weekend

honestly I should be in full on panic mode at this point, not all gifts purchased yet, some that are need to be shipped, christmas cards are still down at the store, stamps, need to bake, road tripping in less than a week and am I ready no not all, hell I didn't even grocery shop or finish the laundry this weekend. But you know that is ok I had a lovely weekend nonetheless. D found a proper English tea house in Chattanooga so we drove down with some friends and had a spot of tea. To counter balance for the boys we also stopped in for wings & beer at another local establishment. A really enjoyable time was had by one & all!

a little inappropriate perhaps

C little classroom "holiday" party is next Thursday first thing in the morning. Evidently they are going to make pancakes and do festive crafts or something. The cheap thrill is you can wear you pajamas. C sleeps in his underwear and he would sleep in less if I let him.
Think we'll have to dig out some sleep pants for him to wear, might be chilly next week.

real snow

all of the this inclement weather talk, my parents are having real snow and expecting a nor'easter to hit this weekend-yuck! My poor SIL & her entire family are headed up there for a family funeral and I'm hoping they don't wind up sleeping in an airport somewhere! I am also hoping this mess clears out by next weekend as we trek north ourselves.

pet peeve #378

at the grocery store while checking out, clearly my items are still being scanned, I have not even retrieved my card out of my wallet to pay yet-don't come stand with me I don't know you. Personal space is all I'm saying dude.

ack run for the groceries!

they're talking snow for Saturday night. better stock up on bread, milk, eggs and toilet paper!!!
My parent's always want to know do people make french toast & go to the bathroom when it snows down here?

bad flashback

nasty wreck in front of the store as I drove in this morning reminded me of my own wreck in the same spot almost 8 years ago. 7 months pregnant and what do I do why total my car what a great idea! I thought an ambulance ride to the hospital might be a good idea at the time but I tell you unless I am bleeding out of my eyeballs I won't do that again. Totally freaked me out, I told them I could not be flat on my back-when you are preggers you need to at least have feet elevated otherwise it cuts off circulation or something-so they put me flat on my back. I was trying to take some deep breaths to calm myself down so they shoved oxygen up my nose even though I told them I did not need it. Wanted to go to hospital out west well they could not do that which turned out fine I was at Fort Sanders Regional and wall taken care of for which I am eternally grateful.
I was having contractions so I spent the first night in labor & delivery. That sealed the deal on the whole epidural debate some poor woman was screaming her lungs out at 3 in the morning-she had waited too long & could not get the epidural. Then comes C favorite part of the story-he was pissed at mommy kicked moved and carried on ALL night. I was on a fetal monitor but he kept moving off of it my nurse would come in wake me & shift everything after several visits in she finally let me go an hour at a time so I could get a little sleep.
My SIL told me she was ready to hit the road and help if we had C prematurely. Now she has some serious experience as her daughter was born at 24 weeks. My niece was not even 2 lbs at birth but the ultrasound indicated C would have still been 6 lbs even as a preemie a monster child! largest premmie they would have ever seen is my guess but luckily contractions were stopped and I went home after a really long & boring week in the hospital.

alright already

so I got tagged this weekend and instead of the if you were a cookie which one would you be? what's you favorite color? where were you born? when did you last cry? what movie did you last see? no I got 3 things you can't let go! I think perhaps I have been over thinking the whole thing so here goes
Physical-I am a clutter queen from hell. I come by it honestly through my maternal bloodlines ask my father & uncle it's a female family trait! so I have lots of things from my past however one treasured item is sad chewed upon stuffed panda who is missing his nose. He has been lovingly gnawed upon by 3 different dogs, named monty because he at one time wore an I love Vermont tee shirt he now sports a pretty red sweater.
Mental-Love to read! again another maternal bloodline thing I have lots of books around the house & way too many magazine subscriptions coming in. Thank god for used book stores and visits home to trade books with my mother! I am happily passing the love of reading to my son who as soon as he could read started going to bed with a flashlight so he can read under the covers before falling asleep. This is a discipline area I tend turn a blind eye to-most nights.
Emotional-I would have to say the birth of my son and I doubt that I could convey the emotions that can well up around his little(well not so little) existence. Yes I am the mom that can fire up the waterworks at each assembly, concert, belt awarding & first day of school-hell sometimes even a good report card gets me going. D finds endless amusement in it and C has not noticed or become embarrassed by it yet.
I am going to tag retromoderns!

more christmas tales

I've got a million of them as Christmas is my favorite holiday! The first xmas D & I were together was a mere 4 months before our wedding, we had moved in together in September I had knee surgery in October and by xmas had just started driving again but was still doing the physical therapy routine. Let me just say surgery easy but PT kicked my butt!
I had convinced D that we needed a live tree so he obliged not a great tree but good enough until illness set in. D had some sort of flu type thing one weekend and we had the heat so high it was like a sauna in the apartment. There went our tree! It went from decent little tree to Charlie Brown tree in a mere 24 hours. I wish I had a scanner to show just how sad it looked. Of course that would also involve finding the picture..details! details!
D was not so good in the gift department back then he got me a shiny track suit you know the ones little old ladies would wear. He also got me underwear and for those who do not know women's under garments are not sized the same as say their jean size I was not amused. I thought I was going to call off the wedding. Luckily he is much improved in the giving of gifts and spa packages or shiny baubles are the norm these days!

real or fake?

Growing up we always had 2 trees a live one upstairs and a fake one downstairs(fireplace is downstairs). In retrospect it is so freaking weird that we would have TWO trees-my mom has always loathed christmas she did not have the best of kidhoods and christmas was not a particularly special day, my father on the other hand all about christmas and the holiday season!
Decoration day was always a big deal hell we had 2 trees to decorate and family tradition actually my mother's tradition was each year each member of the family would get a new ornament to put on the tree. A fantastic tradition that I have forced on my family. On the first xmas after we each got married my brother & I got boxes of ornaments a mix some that were our own and some of each family members. It is a very special feeling to put up ornaments with such history. Anyway as we got older they switched to all fake as my mother would get a horrible rash from the live trees. They were really large nice fake trees but fake & I always swore that when I had my own tree it would be real. The first few years together D & I had real trees 2 holidays in a row the needles from the tree killed our vacuum cleaners and then one year we headed to my parent's for the holiday so we made the switch to a fake tree and have not turned back. However looking at our sad little outdated fake tree I am thinking we need a live tree next year, I'll just ask Santa for a vacuum

I absolutely DO NOT need this

but I want it for some stupid reason. I might use it 2x that I can think of in the next year but my guess is it would be relegated to the appliance graveyard that is our garage

fellow foodies

Anthony Bourdain has a Christmas special on Monday night travel channel 10 p.m.(I think-check your local listings kids). Oddly enough Queens of the Stone Age will be playing so be sure to tune in!

I hate kids

ok not all kids. and maybe I don't really hate them per se some of them just bug me! manners are they truly that difficult to teach? C is not perfect not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but I expect him to behave when we are out shopping, no running, shouting, grabbing things, knocking into people, running into to them with the cart and no wheelies or heelies whatever they are called-mainly because we won't buy him a pair but if he had them he would not be able to use them in a store!

yuck

it is just rainy cold & gross out there today in k-town. blah! I was going to head out and do some shopping, run a few errands & get the grocery shop done but I think I am going to make a pot of coffee and settle down in front of the tv & watch a trashy movie! The boys are about to head out for haircut, wings & a movie I wonder if they could get away with bringing the dog along...

not a morning person

not a night owl either-maybe a mid-afternoon lark? that's another post for another day perhaps.
yesterday I started my day late having set my alarm clock for p.m. instead of a.m. I woke up with a start at 6.20 there was no way C was going to make a 6.50 bus but we rushed around and got him to school by 7.15. You want to get on the drop off line before the school actually opens otherwise you get stuck in long lines just trying to turn into the school parking lot-it is amazing what a huge difference 5 minutes makes in traffic patterns..
This morning all was timed well, I must admit in the cold weather I do drive him down to the bus stop. So we head out the door at 7.45 and as we got to the car we could see the bus drive up-5 minutes early? what is up with that? I guess he knew he was early because he sat and waited while we drove down and the neighbors next door drove down as well. I felt bad for all of the cars that had to sit and wait I know they were sitting there cursing us out but it was the bus driver not us if you were delayed in wilds of Farragut this morning!

yipee

last class was today! I have survived my first semester back in school, pretty sure I am getting an A
yay for me!

cookie exchange

clearly it's too late at this point to organize one hell we can't even get an evening organized with friends but next year I want to do a cookie exchange. You know take say 5 people each bakes 5 dozen cookie then you get together for an afternoon maybe a tea or a dinner then exchange cookies so each person goes home with 5 dozen different cookies. fun huh? My sister-in-law has done these and evidently the PTA is doing this for the teacher's at C's school so I am jumping on the band wagon late but just a warning to my friends this will happen next year and I'm forcing you to participate!!!!
Speaking of a tea D has found a proper English tea house in Chattanooga as part of my birthday celebrations next weekend we are going to take a jaunt down to check it out.

Crabbygrump Rascalnose

we watched the Grinch last night, still one of my favorites!

confession

so C is having his first penance this evening at the advent services at church. It is meant as sort of a family thing but as D is not catholic and I am not dragging him along to this- it's not a biggie in the whole sacraments sort of thing so no need to make him suffer more than necessary. He'll get stuck going to first communion and the odd sunday or 2 when C talks him in to joining us. Anyway my problem is actually going to confession myself. I have not been since oh hell high school maybe? Seriously at this point I would be in there for HOURS...
How much of a hypocrite am I? Should I just go and give the highlights? start at a previous decade and tell him I'll be back next week?

on a happier note

my brother's ship is headed home! they should be back just in time for christmas!

more funeral talk

the grandfather of a friend passed away last week so I went to the wake yesterday evening. Are they not called wakes anymore? family receiving friends, visitation hours-is wake just a catholic thing or a northern thing or a catholic northern thing? No idea but I went anyway he was in his nineties poor health so it was one of those "it was a blessing" "it was quick at the end" **
sort of wakes however they still just creep me out a little ok a lot. My parents have always had a large network of friends, acquaintances, co-workers etc so it seemed like my brother & I were dragged to a whole lotta wakes as kids. Quite frankly an inordinate amount of wakes if you ask me and I always hate them they are like cocktail parties without the cocktails and oh yeah a DEAD body up front yuck, when I go I want cocktails to actually be served.
**note to my brother I did manage to work it in :)

still improving, mostly

C slept through the night last night! No 2 am I'm in pain mommy wake-up call! When I did wake up it was reminiscent of that first night as an infant that he slept through, I fought the impulse to run in & check and make sure he was still breathing. He was but his stomach is bothering him today so it will be another stay home do nothing sort of day. Puts a damper on the big father/son doings D had planned but they will keep for a week.
Wednsday back to school went well, Thursday he made it to lunchtime before I got the call to pick him up, luckily mil was close & was able to get him. I called to see about sending medicine with him on Friday but it apparently takes an act of Congress-notice I did not say act of God public school, separation of church & state you know. It is however ok to swing by and administer the medicine ourselves so mil stepped in & brought his some tylenol at lunchtime and he was in fairly good spirits when I picked him up at aftercare. I have of course had to promise mil a really good christmas gift this year-no not really there is nothing she wouldn't do for that rugrat!
So some more TLC is on tap for today and a little Vols football this afternoon and hopefully he will be right as rain by tomorrow.

no one to blame but myself

or rather santa..It would seem that Santa can not bring a Wii for christmas as they are impossible to find. Part of that problem is that santa did not decide that a Wii would be appropriate until way too late, santa had one opportunity to obtain one for list price a few weeks ago unfortunately santa's credit card was maxxed at the time and santa did not appreciate how much in demand the toy would be still this year. Sooo santa is bringing an electric guitar with amp just a little starter sort of thing but I am a little afraid I will find my garage overrun with second graders jamming or something

there's a hour I'm not getting back

but I won't have to renew my license again till 2012. horrible horrible photo I look like a deer caught in headlights

damn school fund raisers

anyone want to buy cookie dough or a cheesecake? ah well at least it isn't wrapping paper, really nasty chocolates or dodgy looking fruit. When my brother & I were in grammar school the big fund raiser was magazines & in fact my niece's brownie troop sold mags last year. I think that is my favorite because I feel like I am actually getting something I want for my money.

can't trust someone who doesn't drink coffee

Mitt Romney just plain creeps me out. I always get the feeling that if elected he would ban caffeine and make us all drink hawaiian punch. I'm just saying...

so far so good

might be jinxing it at this point but it seems like C has made it through his first day back to school. Yesterday was rough in fact the worst pain he seemed to have the entire time, his scab came off when he was eating lunch at his grandmother's, it freaked him out and then he was really in miserable pain the entire evening-completely normal the doctor said it would happen this way but I never like to see my baby hurting. I thought about keeping him home another day but decided against it as his brain is turning to mush with all of the video games & tv and there is really nothing more we can do for him at home. Of course I have been expecting a phone call to pick him all day long with only a hour left in the day I think he's made it through. I am going to pick him up early from aftercare I'm sure he'll be needing some tylenol by then and off to home for dinner & Charlie Brown Christmas!

even if she is crazy

mil did
- watch my son all day today so D & I could work
-kept him well fed, hydrated & medicated when he needed to be
-gave him the love & attention only a grandmother can
-made kick ass spaghetti for us for dinner, dare I say the sauce is better than mine?
-she is doing it all over again tomorrow
-in a couple of weeks she is keeping him for a weekend so D & I can celebrate my b-day and hopefully hang out with some friends sans child
maybe she's not so bad

mothers-in-law

I get along well with my mil most of the time we have most definitely had rough patches mostly because she is crazy, another story for another day. But what is it her that makes her always right when it comes to health matters especially concerning my son? Apparently C's throat is bothering him because I have been giving him cold drinks "they should be room temp"?!?? At least I am smart enough to just let it go these days....

back to the grind

back to work today which is probably a good thing my brain was turning to mush. C is spending the next 2 days getting spoiled by his meemaw then he is back to school Wed. Improving but he has woken up in pain the past 2 nights so a little medicine & he is right back to sleep. It did suck last night because I couldn't fall back to sleep till about an hour before I had to get up for work. There is a ton of work for me to be doing-which is why I'm blogging of course! It is retail at christmas so busy busy busy

just how lazy am I?

tragedy struck this evening when the tv remote stopped working-yes I tried the batteries-we can not get a new one till monday! Whatever are we going to do oh wait is that one of the perks of having a kid? back in the old days we did have to get off our butt and change the channel after walking home in the snow 2 miles uphill and all but that was like a million years ago!
Out of sheer laziness I wound up watching women' s murder club or something it wasn't half bad.

martha stewart I'm not

but everyone left the house well fed last night. We did prime rib & D smoked some turkey legs and I overdid on the side dishes so we now have tons of leftovers plus 3 lbs of shrimp that never even made it to the cooking stage. I believe there is a soiree in the making for saturday to get rid of the rest of this stuff I hope!
I must say I am pretty bored being at home with the convalescing kiddo. I know that sounds crazy normally my weeks are filled up running around working, school, chauffeuring the boy you would think 4 days home at home would be just the thing but bored bored bored. I need to break out some of my new books and catch up on my DVR'ed tv shows and clean the kitchen-ugh the worst part of entertaining so I really have no excuse for the boredom..

not a mom

typical holiday I had to run out to the supermarket for a few last minute items. I was walking out behind a couple with a toddler and clearly the girl was not his mother. She was busily telling the guy she was with that she could not take the barely full grocery bag and watch the boy at the same time. HA HA HA clearly not the kid's mom if she was she could have handled at least 4 full grocery bags and the boy with no trouble at all!

pavlov indeed

oscar the superpug comes running when the lid is being screwed off of the peanut butter jar

I am thankful for

Dr Little and the great nursing staff at Children's Hospital west! C had his tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy & nose thing done yesterday and it all went very well. All of the doctors and nurses were so amazing they made a kind of scary thing very bearable for all of us! D & I went back to pre-op with C and stayed with him while they went over exactly what was going to happen, got his vitals, visits from the doc & anesthesiologist then they gave him the "happy juice" and within 10 minutes he was in la la land. D was trying to score some happy juice to go but they weren't biting. Then they wheeled him off happily not knowing he was leaving his parents. Surgery was over in about 40-45 minutes first words out of the doctors mouth were "he had really large tonsils & adenoids" about 20 minutes or so after we were allowed to go back with him in recovery. Although they have a 2 person limit they allowed meemaw to come back as well which was great. C evidently takes after his grammy in the recovery room-he did not want to wake up, he would sit up every now & again and have a sip of sprite but right back down to sleep. My mother, veteran of numerous surgeries is notorious for settling in in the recovery room and sleeping.
So far so good minimal pain he had some oatmeal-meemaw had to make it she is in his eyes the only one that makes it correctly-some scrambled eggs & lots of sprite. He is busy playing his nintendo ds and watching a football game for now. After some more coffee I will tackle cleaning the house, laundry & start some baking for tomorrow!

so how did you sleep mommy?

well baby it's 1:47 in the morning mommy is still sleeping I 'll let you know when I'm finished.

santa aka

Klaus or Klaus Von Bulow(even though he spells his name as Claus).
In an utterly silly moment in the mid 80's during the assembly line wrapping my mother & I would be subjected to each holiday we started signing tags from Santa Klaus which lead into Santa Klaus Von Bulow . Each christmas my mother and I still send & receive gifts from Klaus Von B.

santa quandary

as far as I can tell without probing to far C still believes in Santa Claus. Now he is 7 in 2nd grade and hangs with the older boys on the bus and at aftercare so I really wonder if this will be the year he figures it all out. D hopes so he is apparently tired of the jolly old elf getting all of the credit for um well what I do but I guess we shouldn't go there..
I really do love the excitement in his voice first thing christmas mornings nothing beats it! My favorite christmas was his third he was 2 1/2 and it was the first year he really got christmas it was more than just playing with paper & boxes. The wide eyed look as he trotted out of his bedroom and the oh my goodness HE WAS HERE in his voice for me that is the reason for the season.(Not looking for a religious discussion raised Catholic, understand the seasonal stuff but for me the holidays are about family and how freaking wonderful they are!)

laying in supplies

we have all been busy today D & a buddy road tripped to Nashville to stock up on scotch & such for the holiday season. C went off to spend the night with his mee maw after a trip to the toy store to stock up for his week of convalescence. I hit the stores myself. First a book store so I won't be completely bored this week plus a few new books & activity books for tonsillectomy boy. I also picked up a few of the plug into the tv arcade games to hopefully help keep C somewhat occupied. I'll grab some dvds from work on monday as well. Then I did a little of the grocery shopping trying to drum up ideas for soft food jello, ice cream, pudding, scrambled eggs, pasta, pancakes? they are soft aren't they?. I am running out of ideas I guess we will just wing it and see what happens. I also picked up a standing rib roast not exactly a soft food but it is for thanksgiving day. Now I just have to figure out what sides to go with it and finish my grocery shopping tomorrow!

football

it is all football all the time here at the house. Old football games or vintage if you prefer are the new standard they have replaced saturday morning cartoons around the 'ol homestead. Saturday is full of college football and sundays pro games, luckily C does not know of monday night football yet. D is letting it all unfold which I find amusing. In the past he never watched sports on tv. D played the major 3 when he was younger and felt no need to watch them but as C has shown overwhelming interest the 2 boys well & oscar will spend most of sunday afternoon in front of some ball game or another and I must admit to watching some myself but only the new games not the random old ones on ESPN.
C's loyalties are amusing the Colts because of course Peyton Manning was a Vol and naturally the NY Giants as Peyton's younger brother is the quarterback but more importantly that is Grandpa's favorite team. I see my father in C very clearly sometimes. A few weeks ago C was almost in tears because the Colts lost to the Patriots in a very close game. Growing up on sundays when the Giants were playing dad would slip away from dinner intermittently to check on the score of the game. If the Giants lost you knew to stay away from dad as he would be cranky although we never saw tears!

day of reckoning

so the BEHAVIOR folder comes home this afternoon. I have been assured each day except for tuesday that he has gotten an A each day thus far. C got a B on tuesday for spitting out his snack at snack time?why I don't know but also he was playing tag in the hallway. It was a rainy day & they were cooped up inside for recess so I am not too upset with him he is 7. And honestly the more I have thought about it the past two weeks can be explainable. The grades and schoolwork he has brought home each day have been fine so the education part is not slacking off. His behavior was questionable the week after a fall break-a week off that is unnecessary in my opinion, the following week he was fighting a cold not sick enough to stay home but he did not feel well. On top of it all is the upcoming tonsillectomy which may have him weirded out more than he is letting on. My mom a teacher for 30+ years and the mother of a formerly rowdy little boy who grew up just fine concurs. I am not one of those parents who believe that their child can do no wrong but I am going to hang back a little on the punishment department and see what happens...

funerals

so I suppose funerals must have been on my mind yesterday because my great-aunt passed away several days ago & her funeral was in fact yesterday. Mom called to let me know last night not sure why she waited but sometimes my mom can be strange about things. It's not like I was super close to the woman in fact she was not my great-aunt she was my grandmother's cousin but they were basically raised as sisters as her mother died in childbirth. My great grandfather died when my grandmother was 2 so they had the loss of parent at young age bonding thing going on as well.
Any whoodles my great aunt was a nun who lived for a number of years in Hawaii. Mama would visit her once a year and I was promised a trip when I was 13 but of course she was living in NY by that time so all we got were afternoons in Ossining. They were interesting afternoons, we usually would ask to hear about the morning of pearl harbor as she had been on the big island that morning. The Maryknoll nuns are missionaries so the gift shop always had all sorts of neat things from around the world and the sitting room had interesting displays specifically I remember a thing about chinese women and feet binding and some teeny tiny shoes in a display case.
hard to believe all of that generation in our family tree has died off.

random thoughts of the day

-my husband, son AND dog all snore I suppose if I want a good night of sleep I'll need to check into a motel
-I like silly entertaining movies I don't always want to think or be challenged by a film
-I am a firm believer in the christmas season not starting until the day after thanksgiving but for some reason this year I am having trouble waiting to play christmas music, decorate and bake
-I am baking christmas cookies this year something I have not done since before C was born
-I am going to try and talk my Dad into baking as well I have very happy memories of him doing this when I was younger and his cookies rock!
-I will use my son to sweet talk grandpa into baking cookies. I am without shame when it comes to those cookies
-I am not a holiday sweater wearing person however I saw a really cute red christmasy sweater with penguins that I think I may go back and purchase
-the penguins reminded my of my grandmother who collected penguins. I miss the old broad and make no mistake she was a broad in the best sense of the word. I find it hard to believe that is has been 22 years since she passed
-missing her has made me a little weepy this morning
-it also made me laugh our family funerals are generally a three ring circus we should sell tickets really!

maiden name

yesterday I was dealing with the transcript/course description nonsense I had to give the chick at SLC my maiden name, a last name you ALWAYS had to spell it for people. that was just a given. I found myself using my brother's form of spelling it
D as in david
et as in the movie
still cracks me up!

*****!!?!

damn school crap. I got a lovely postcard in the mail last week saying my registration and transcript and everything was on hold because I did not take my placement tests. Can't get my grades or register for next semester. That's ok I will call over to records and inquire about my transcript which PSTCC has had since August. Now I will give them the math placement test I have avoided it thus far but I will take it especially since the plan is for me to take math next semester. But reading & writing NO damn it Sarah Lawrence College is all freaking reading & writing I will not concede on that point.
After 3 phone messages the lady who was suppose to be reviewing my transcript finally called me back today asking if I could get course descriptions from SLC as they were no longer on line. no flipping duh that was 1985-89 no big surprise the info was no longer available. So a call to SLC they can find out and fax it over but it will take some time. Why this didn't happen in AUGUST when I submitted my transcript I do not know.
I need to get a lottery ticket tonight on the way home and some ibuprofen I have a headache...

alrighty then

So one of my bosses just handed me a list of top rates horror dvds that he wants ordered for the store. A halloween top rated horror films list. I wonder is he late or just really early for next year?
I need to freakin win the lottery....

punishments

so C is being punished today no computer, television, dvd player or nintendo ds. Why is it that I feel like I am being the one punished? it is 9.42 and he is driving me crazy! And it is sort of goofy punishing him but he needs to know how to act and not act in school. he had a "off" week behaviorally at school. He still got a B but I had the note to go along with it-all typical 7 year old boy stuff but I still had to play the stern parent-poking someone with a pencil, head under the desk, something about laying on the floor at one point but my favorite was getting his friend to spell ICUP. spell it out loud and wait for it....

dear santa

I think might need a remote starter for my car for these damn cold mornings when I want to warm up my car but it is so very early I am trying to get out of the house without waking everyone up.
I also need more hours in the week. I am looking into what to take next semester and I am thinking microbiology and saving the math for summer. The only problem is I will need to find 4 more hours in my week because it will entail 3 hours class time & a 4 hour lab. Won't that be fun?

is there a support group?

I think I may be a Target-aholic.

my list for santa

I really need a scanner to try and organize the multitude of baby photos I have floating around my house. I was great when the boy was first born taking pics, getting them developed and putting them right into a photo album. Around 6 months that sort of fell apart and now I have boxes of loose photos that could do with some serious organization. Of course we also need a new computer, if I can't even get the antiquated thing to recognize my camera a scanner is out of the question.

fall back

daylight savings time ended in the wee hours of this morning. I let C stay up a little late as he would be gaining an hour, unfortunately he was still up way too early but I tried. When my brother and I were kids my mother used both the spring change & the fall change to "get rid" of us a hour early. It didn't matter which time of year it was always "oh you have to go to bed early because of the time change". Sadly we never caught on...

fall festival

The festivities are over for this year and a pleasant day was had by one and all. We worked the apple harvest toss game first thing so we got to the school before the fun officially started. I was pleasantly surprised to find plenty of parking on the school grounds so unlike previous years we did not have to park off campus and walk. Games are much more laid back and fun to work compared with the frenzied bake sale. As far as the bake sale goes I learned my lesson, last year I waited to buy bake goods till the end of the day so we would not have to carry our purchases-bad plan all of the good stuff is gone by 2pm! So this year after our booth duty & lunch we hit the bake sale and since our car was not miles away we safely stashed our goodies. We did typical festivally type things games, crafts, the 2nd graders all did little musical performances throughout the day-C's was at 1 and it was a nice little break in the day. And then at the gift basket auction we actually had the winning bid on a Transformers gift basket! I am still amazed about the gift basket I bid every year on something but never win or really expect to win, this year C was ogling the 2 transformer gift baskets so we bid on both. Neither had very many bids so as time was winding down I wanted to check to make sure we would not get stuck buying both baskets, we had been outbid on both so I tried to bid again on the one he really wanted but an eagle eyed mother was watching and out bid me in mere seconds so I bid on the second basket now another child was hoovering about and let his mom know they had been outbid but as she went to outbid us they yelled pens down so voila the basket was all ours. I felt a little twinge of guilt as the child burst into tears but losers weepers and all that jazz...
And I might add for the third year in a row D escaped attendance.

bake shop 101

tomorrow is C's fall festival at school-games, crafts, those inflatable jumpy things, face painting, cupcake walk and what seems to be a big money maker-the BAKE SALE. I worked the bake sale last year-scary business people take their baked goods very seriously. So I have been baking this evening, my mother's world famous brownie cupcakes, ok maybe they are only famous in my world but famous nonetheless. I also bake a signature spice cake made with tomato sauce-sounds odd but it is really good or it would have been but I was out of tomato sauce, well I was out of plain tomato sauce somehow I don't think the pepper & onion sauce would be a good substitute. I do have a second recipe that is made with tomato soup which I did have but somewhere along the line I have incorrectly transcribed the recipe. The cake does not look right and since I can't very well taste it then send it along to the bake sale I have whipped up the applesauce spice cake which is a cheater cake that uses packaged mix.
My house smells like a bakery.

halloween 2007

yet another halloween has come & gone C was death skull rider-essentially a knock off of ghost rider without the licensing fees. It was fun but he lacks that killer drive to walk for miles & miles and get lots of candy like we did when we were kids. But these days you generally get a handful of candy at each house so you don't need to visit a a million houses for a decent haul. And honestly I think he would have more fun in group maybe next year I will arrange to go trick or treating with one of his buddies.
I have happy memories of halloween when I was younger, it is my aunt's birthday and each year my best friend's family would come to dinner for a spaghetti, why we had that every year I do not recall but during dinner the 4 of us kids would race to the door to give out candy and after dinner our father's would take us out to make the rounds of the neighborhood while our moms & my aunt would hang out at the house.

I doubt my parents felt guilty..

well it never seemed like they did, if we couldn't do something or they didn't let us do something it just did not happen. They did not necessarily explain reasoning to us and near as I can tell there was no guilt involved. So why do I feel so guilty telling C he can not play basketball this fall? I feel horrible but with all we have going on it seems silly to sign up and miss a bunch of games & practices, these things cost money and if we aren't going I consider that a waste. He has surgery & convalescence time coming up, we are planning on a trip to CT for xmas, plus he still has CCD on wed nights , tae kwan do tues & thurs and I am thinking I will take a biology class next semester which is 3 hours class time & 4 hours lab per week. Basketball seems unreasonable at this juncture but I feel like crap telling him no.

or did he?

as C was getting in the bath last night I noticed a dime sized scab on his leg and in a MRSA craze I started asking him when he got it, how he got it, how long it had been on his leg etc of course he had no idea. So I planned on dragging out the hydrogen peroxide cleaning it, putting on anti-bacterial stuff band aids etc maybe even a doctor's visit? After his bath & before I started first aid D asked to see the scab and we as we looked noticed a little bit of dirt still stuck on his leg but no scab so much to my relief just a dirty little boy no MRSA. I need to stop watching CNN...

my son the television star

his teacher mentioned seeing him on the news last week. I am happy to report he came home MRSA-free

gay high holy day

why halloween of course! Designing Women? Will & Grace? I don't remember where I first heard that line but it cracks me up and reminds me of my roommates from about a million years ago. Yes they were gay and when we lived in CT they always threw an annual halloween party that was always so much fun black lights, spider webs, dry ice, a killer grain alcohol punch-they would go all out plus I love costumes!!! I have friends that I know went to a party Saturday night but the slackers have still not posted any photos hint hint...

sandwich theory

I like sandwiches but my belief is that they always taste better when prepared by someone else, D feels similarly about salads although I think that is just his way of conning me into making him a salad but that is another story for another day. The sandwich theory has come back to haunt me as C is under the current belief that I make better peanut butter sandwiches than he can they are "creamier" when I make them.
I get a kick out of Peter Pan's labels these days
new look!
great taste!
they should add
salmonella free!

otolaryngologist update

looks like turkey puree will be on the menu for C this turkey day he will be getting his adenoids & tonsils out for thanksgiving break this year. It's a good thing he started to like ice cream!

orthodontist update

took C this morning in & out really quick almost drive by sort of visit, filling out the new patient paperwork took longer sort of visit. They want us to take him to an ENT-ear nose & throat or if you prefer an otolaryngoloist not a specialty that rolls off the tip of your tongue now does it? His bottom jaw is growing at a faster rate than his upper jaw & it maybe due to lack of oxygen-who knew? anyway the whole mouth breathing think we are always fussing at C about may be medical so I am soliciting worst parent of the year votes this week!

I wonder...

open house night at C's school last night, we went got the 50 cent tour of his classroom, saw some artwork, special projects the kids have done-usual open house type stuff. I took a look at his journal and his last entry went something like this..
I wonder what my balls do. I think they will help me make babies when I am married.
followed by a picture of C fully dressed but with prominent balls.
The journal starts out with a remembrance of the time he was really really sick(he had rotovirus) and daddy stuck a stick up my butt(it was a suppository and kept C from a stay in the hospital)
this journal is definitely a keeper can't wait to see what he writes next!
or if we will get a phone call from his teacher...

it's not right

but haven't we all thought about this once or twice?

know what today is?

transformers comes out on dvd and luckily someone wrote that in on the family calendar for me so I would be sure to know.

term paper

my term paper is due in a mere 3 weeks so I thought actually choosing a topic & getting started might be a good idea. The teacher seems really hip on the autobiographical in a psychological context paper which honestly doesn't interest me so much.
What did catch my eye was the midlife career change & it's psychological impacts which will mean my paper will have an autobiographical slant anyway. It must run in the family I was able to send out questions to 2 uncles, an aunt & my father
come to think of it I also had a grandmother & grandfather who did the midlife career change too.

how much does that cost?

D killed my crock pot this week. A few years ago when my first crock pot which had been a gift to start with died I tried the whole just replace the liner path, it did not work and after going through 4 new liners, a few hateful phone calls and at least one hateful e-mail Rival finally sent me a whole new crock pot for my troubles. So for the first time in my cooking career I had to purchase a new crock pot the first one I found cost $80 and all it did was cook didn't do the dishes, make the bed or wash clothes $80?!?
and it gets worse I just logged onto bed bath & beyond's web site there is actually a crock pot for $150 even with a 20% coupon that is ridiculous!!!

maybe the week wasn't so bad..

-well I never got real sick which was nice but the sore throat & headaches are lingering so I have diagnosed the problem as allergies-fall has traditionally been my season of misery for many years. nothing lots of sudafed can't help
-the new fridge was delivered, early in fact no waiting for hours upon hours. It is pretty shiny & new and most importantly keeps food refrigerated. we also splurged and bought a stand up freezer so a trip to our butcher in Maryville on the list for the near future.
-D's b-day cake was really good
-D finally asked what I want to do for my b-day, he has been so busy planning that I was beginning to wonder who's birthday we were going to be celebrating.
-the new dining room table has been picked up, it is still sitting in the garage but it will be put together soon, very soon unlike the patio furniture bought in may, even if this means I have to do it myself.
-D was working & C had a party to go to yesterday so I managed to have 3 hours to myself very novel. on the downside of this EVERY store I went to had xmas decorations up it's freaking october people
-as far as october/halloween I bought a pumpkin yesterday, makes me happy I love halloween. I am taking C to buy his costume this week currently he wants to be optimus prime it could change between now & purchase so stay tuned
-it is finally fall and temperatures have dropped below the 90's FINALLY! I love sweater weather

I work with rainman

this place makes me want to hit my head against the wall really hard sometimes..the only problem is I don't think it would help

is it me this week?

so I ordered a b-day cake for D nothing fancy 8" round yellow cake w/chocolate frosting, happy birthday, boy colors, maybe balloons instead of flowers nothing over the top or anything but the bakery has a pre-pay policy? does that not seem a little odd? it's not like I ordered a wedding cake or a sheet cake for 50 people ah well at least they make really yummy cakes.

not enough time in the day

for sickness, I just can not work it into my schedule. i think I am getting a cold which if that's all it is C had it not really all that big a deal but I know strep is going around as well and I really don't have time for that

and just who is going to stop me?

ok just got back from a meeting at the church, C is having his first communion in the spring(big catholic doings and such) so they have to have umpteen meetings about this before april this being the first there was a bunch of silly blah blah blah info. my favorite part was the no photography of any kind at the church, now I understand during mass it's a little tacky but none afterwards? nope however there will be a professional photographer that you can pose for at the church that day.
oh really? so chris you are on stealth photography that day! what are they going to kick out a naval officer? or worse my atheist obstinate husband? this day might be kind of fun, maybe we should sell tickets or something?

wunderbar!

a huge danke schon (sorry no umlauts) to jim & anna for inviting us to the first annual oktoberfest at their house! the food & company were great and a good time was had by all. Plus the out late..well for us anyway has been the perfect excuse for a do nothing day sunday, I even slept till 8.15 that translates to something like noon for me these days. honestly I say do nothing but laundry & dishes are being done and sewing which quite frankly I really can't sew so it's slow going at best. D needed a button and C's tae kwan do uniform needed 5 patches, I've done 4 so far and need to check on the right way up for the south korean flag before I finish up.
The fridge has gone warm again and we decided to just bite the bullet and buy a new damn refrigerator with an extended warranty this week in the mean time it means take out for dinner so I have not had to cook all weekend yea!

cyberstalking

I have become addicted to blogs. I peruse about 20(ok maybe more some weeks) on a regular basis and when it's real slow at work those 20 can lead me further into the blogosphere (yes I goof off at work, hey at least I'm not down loading porn) For some reason if I happen to see someone out in real life who I do not know but whose blog I read I feel like some sort of stalker. Now I don't go up to them and engage in some sort of odd inane conversation but it throws me just the same.

walk to school day

yes the annual event rolled around once again. D took first year & last year I was an unhappy, tired & cranky last minute substitution but this year I planned on being the walk to school parent with C & it was much more pleasant for all involved. first of all no open toe sandals, traipsing through wet grass in sandals is just icky no way around that. we parked at the other location this year and the walk was much nicer I did not realize there was such a pretty greenway behind farragut primary school. this year they handed out books which was better than the crap that inevitably winds up in the trash by the end of the day that they handed out in the past. They have a little breakfast on the playground with muffins & fresh fruit but C is not a breakfast food sort of kid and had already had chicken & rice(with the good hot sauce you know the one daddy uses) I knew the coffee would be horrible swill so my thermos was already full and waiting for me in the car C bolted into to school to hang with his buddies-sadly no hug or kiss but barely a wave to dismiss me-at least he grabbed my hand while we were walking, he is growing up so damn fast!
I wonder in the intermediate school does the walk to school thing too?

fridge part 27..

so last night the refrigerator started leaking bluish purplish chemical smelling liquid anti-freeze? freon? I have no idea! a refrigerator repairman I am not. I did however call the repairman and even though it appears to be a new problem might as well stick with the same guy.So they can come out tomorrow between 6-10 my first thought was a little early but no big deal we are up by then but no it's p.m. He could show up at 10p.m. and quite frankly he has always run late so what is he going to show up at 11 or midnight? all I can imagine is telling him to put the dog up for the night, turn out the lights & lock up on his way out....

I think my ears are bleeding

seriously the boy does not stop talking from the second he wakes till he falls asleep-even then sometimes during the middle you will hear a conversation-usually it's just giggles but still his gums are flapping. Each and every thought, idea, bit of trivia he has or knows is verbalized. I suppose when we hit the teen years and I can only get him to grunt at me I will miss these days!

not a good way to start the day

the smell of Iams lamb meal & rice formula dog food. not good at all but I am hoping it helps poor oscar super pug extraordinaire he has been having some sort of skin allergy or rash or something for two weeks now. he has been to the vet, had a steroid shot & takes benadryl every day and I thought it was getting better but no, so I found a forum for pug owners-does everyone have a forum these days? it is apparently a pug thing so I am trying a food change & going by the health food store to look for some holistic stuff to hopefully help the poor little guy

school coupon scandal update

I have discovered the reason behind the horrible little girls selling coupon books for 1/2 price.
first prize to the top seller is 4 tickets to the the sold-out hannah montana show.
so glad I have a boy!

great way to start the day

the smell of freshly baking bread from the bakery up the street at work! Makes me want to bake some bread this weekend-yes yeast, kneading, rising the real deal-I use to bake more b.c.(before-connor). Or I could go the easy route I do have one of those fancy bread baking machine that we got for christmas oh 3 years ago and it's still in the box..

maybe when I grow up

I should be an orthodontist. I made an appointment for C first of all the more convenient office to us does not take patients??? I don't know if she meant new patients or just patients & I did not want to ask what the point of the office was if it did not take patients maybe that's were they go for cocktails or something? Earliest appointment of the day is 9 a.m. & latest is 3 p.m. must be rough...

gardening

I am resolved next year to put out a garden in our backyard. My sil was over last night & we were talking about all of the hepatitis, salmonella and food recalls this past year & a vegetable garden just seems to make sense-plus fresh veggies at the grocery store can get expensive! When I first married into the family my fil always had a huge garden each summer, I use to love family dinners it was like go to a farm stand that didn't charge you! His last few summers being up & about he only planted greens-but lots of greens, more greens than several families knew what to do with. We were living at the house the last garden year, and fil had told his church friends to come by & please help themselves to some greens. At the time we were living in the house, C was 1 & just walking so he would help pee-paw pick greens, very cute indeed but more importantly it was the good 'ol days when C took naps. Yes naps those wonderful couple of hours of bliss and quiet for mommy & daddy. We could nap as well, eat a meal or watch a movie good times, good times..anyway inevitably these church folks would RING THE BELL just to let us know they were going to pick some greens. I'm sure it was polite and all but come on did I need to know? If I looked out the window and saw strangers picking greens I was not exactly going to call the police or anything!

shysters

Each fall knox county school students sell coupon books to make money for the school system. $10 will get you a really valuable book of coupons that you can use around town throughout the year. The sales kicked off this thursday-or at least the info came home in the backpack thursday, they were off friday so we did not get any books for C to sell yet, I suppose I could have gone by the school thursday & bought some them but I didn't. C did come home with stories about what prizes you can get if you are top seller, allegedly $300. Now he won't be a top seller. Top sellers sell crazy amounts, he will sell around 15-20 enough to get a tee shirt & a few other silly awards. The top sellers are usually kids with parents that own a business & can sell them at the front counters, if it came down to it I could probably do this where I work but you have to front the $$ for the books and I don't have hundreds of dollars to do this plus 15-20 is just fine.
So friday after work we stopped by the supermarket only to be accosted by these little shysters selling coupon books for $5! They also had the nerve to ask me if I wanted to buy one! I was walking with my clearly school aged child! What am I going to say no C I won't buy a coupon book from you but I will send $5 less to buy it from these strange girls?

pet peeves of the week

-put down the cell phone and drive your car
-that stick coming out the side of your steering wheel, it's call a turn signal you can move it up & down to indicate to drivers around you which direction you are moving your car in
-those cars & trucks that have sirens & flashing lights, they are called emergency vehicles, pull over for them, they are headed to an emergency
-SLOW DOWN IN SCHOOL ZONES

color me thrilled

just got back from taking C to the dentist. C my lovely mutant sized 7 year old, just turned 7, 7 year old apparently has the mouth of a 10 year old. This means we have to go to see an orthodontist for a consult like now at the age of 7. damn we need to win the lottery, damn we need to play the lottery so we can win the lottery

fair update 2007

fried twinkies rock!
that's all I got tonight more tomorrow...

no child left behind?

I know this is a knox county school thing but I am guessing it is tied to the no child left behind crap. spelling last year: we would get a list on monday the kids would have a spelling test on friday, great straight forward we would work on these words each night as "homework". This year they have decided this is not the best way to learn or test spelling, students should learn in context? So we have no specific list to work with, they do send home a list of sentences that have key words to learn for the week-maybe one or two will be on the spelling test which consists of inane sentences-
When we hike we will mix a cake.
really?
My pet has a fine fin.
so?
and these 2 were just last week's there are many many more! They may technically be correct grammar but they sound stupid.
Plus the grade is not just for spelling it includes grammar & handwriting. Handwriting???!
Poor C keeps getting an S on handwriting because he is not using the correct denealian method, I have a hard time counseling & correcting him on this one I cannot recall the last time I put so many damn curly loops on my letters...

R.I.P. Anita Roddick

while living in England in the late 80's I discovered & fell in love with the Body Shop. wonderful products, no animal testing with real commitment to the communities where the employees lived & worked. when I was first back in the states the stores were hard to find but there was one in NYC near Astor Place that I would frequent. Now they seem to be almost everywhere-even in airports, which was handy traveling last summer with the ban on all lotions & liquids, during lay overs I would pop in and use testers. In K-town there is one at the mall I use to frequent but I must admit a certain loathing for the mall, I worked at one in CT for years, so I tend to avoid them at all costs but maybe I need to stop by this week for moisturizer & peppermint foot lotion

latest craze for kids

ok so it may not be the latest or even a craze but C came home last week asking to buy a webkinz.
I had seen them at hallmark about a month ago so we stopped in during our travels Saturday and picked up a chihuahua because that was the closest looking to a pug-well only if you squish his nose back and of course C keeps calling it a chinchilla but regardless..stuffed toy, it comes with a code so you go on the interweb & create a little virtual world for your pet. Very cute sort of build-a-bear meets beanie bears and they go online.

the fair

I am going to go out on a limb and say my favorite, fondest memory of kidhood was the Danbury Fair. Came to town 2 weeks every fall and the friday before Columbus Day was fair day. All of the Danbury schools had the day off & all kids were given a free pass to the fair for that day. Columbus day being a larger holiday up north(more Italians) we would have a 4 day weekend but that friday we would go the fair. It was christmas & your birthday all rolled into one-there were rides, games, elephants, the big top with all sorts of silly things to buy-mom & dad still have their first ginsu purchased under the big top, cap guns, those little popper things,oxen pull, cows, horses, the Clydesdale's, chocolate covered frozen bananas, lumber jack contest-I guess that would be strong man now, ooh zeoplis, the Sleepy Hollow Ichabod crane statues & bridge, Paul Bunyon & babe statues, sheep, pigs, Dutch village windmill and all, cowboy hats(Danbury is hat city after all), the cannons where we would eat warm gingerbread & drink hot cider before heading home, the paddle boat ride, car racing-if you've seen Arthur you've seen the track at the Danbury fair. They also had races every saturday night in the summer you could always hear it from the house, we even went once or twice. God I could gone on for days! I remember one year mom had surgery or was sick or something Dad took us for just 2 hours & we were heart broken. The first year I was allowed to hang with my friends for a few hours without adults-of course we kept loosing people and spent our precious time unsupervised riding trams back & forth looking for 1 or 2 people. The last year of the fair in '81 we were allowed the whole day with friends, well we were "grown-up" freshman in high school after all..and yes the beloved fair grounds is a
mall-granted it did give me a job for several years and sort of eventually kind of brought me to the south so it wasn't all bad I suppose but I wish the fair was still around!
And all of these leads me to the Tennessee Valley Fair in Knoxville each fall, in the 15 years I have lived here for some reason I have never been until now. We have plans to go next Saturday and I can't wait I am so excited been talking it up to C who is clueless about it all so he doesn't even know he should be excited too, so I will excited enough for both of us!!

work

ever have days where it seems like you can not accomplish ANYTHING? and it is stressing me out more than it should because I have a little weird headache or I having been having a stroke since last night-one or the other. What age is that you start thinking every odd ache & pain is cancer/heart failure/stroke?

you know it's early

when you have to wake the dog up to let him out & when he is done he comes in and promptly goes back into to his cage & falls back asleep....

it was inevitable

C is a Vols fan. Yes a dyed-in-the-wool head over heels orange wearing UT football fan. Oh where did we go wrong?! He was allowed to watch part of the game last night and first question out of his mouth this morning "did they win?" And football is yet another sport he is aching to play, we have ruled NO on that sport for right now. I think he is too young and D just never wants him to play football EVER which I think in this area where football is a religious experience and with C's size and apparent natural abilities in sports(courtesy of daddy's gene's not mine) that will be hard to enforce. And D played baseball, basketball & football growing up so it might be hard to explain why it was ok for dad but not for C. The problem is D now looking back feels that he was always playing or practicing for something and we don't want C to be over loaded with extra-curricular activities especially at such a young age plus some of D's physical stuff is in part due to football related injuries & he only played high school not college ball. I can already see that we might fall into to the year-round sports track he takes tae kwan do weekly plays spring & fall baseball and I am letting him add basketball this year. Ultimately I think as long as he is doing well in school, not over tired and enjoying playing what he is playing it'll be fine. If C stops enjoying a sport we will quit right away, I am striving not to be the pushy parent.
I did have some interesting insight into my hubby's psyche yesterday at the baseball game he admitted to it being difficult in the competitive situation to be sitting on the sidelines and not actually playing the game.

hooky

yes D& I played hooky yesterday-ok so we actually took vacation days but that makes us sound so responsible & all and we can't have that. After dropping the boy at school I had & facial & massage to start my day compliments of D. I had never been to Oasis but if you are in the Ktown area I highly recommend it-excellent service, I did not pay an arm & a leg and the up selling was kept to a minimum. On to a quick sushi lunch at Gohan-Ya, no alcohol please because our next stop was meeting a friend at the gun range. Yes people I have shot my first handgun, didn't drop it or kill anyone in fact the boys said I hit target about 85% of the time-I think I improved once I stopped shutting my eyes when I pulled the trigger. It was not as horrible as I thought it would be and by the time we left I was much more comfortable with the whole thing than when we went in and most likely I will go again. I must admit V's 9mm was easier to handle than D's 40cal oh look gun talk I may be a southerner after all! I know C is itching to try but he has a few years before D will take him to the range. On the upside I think I range membership is what D will get for his b-day this year. Then it was off for a pitcher of margaritas to round out the afternoon. And a movie last night Bourne Ultimatum was great or maybe it was just great to see a regular movie at the theater but I enjoyed it. C went to his grandmother's last night for an evening of chuck e cheese, pizza & dvds He has been retrieved and we are off the the ball field for his first game in the machine pitch league.

how cute

C got his first phone call last night from one of his new buddies in 2nd grade. Big discussion of yu-gi-oh cards ensued.

mommy guilt to start the day

C woke up this morning with a headache, bellyache & complaining that he did not sleep very well last night. Not such a huge shock he had symptoms last night but I hoped a shot of motrin & an early night would clear all of that up, unfortunately no.. Normally my schedule is flexible and I could stay home with him or my mil lives less than 5 minutes away and she happily will take him for the day. Except today, I have class-my first class not something I can really skip & mil is in NYC for a few days., so I feel guilty sticking my husband with the sick kid for the day which is ridiculous, he is a hands on father who in fact had more experience with babies than I did when C was born, he has flex days to burn they "expire" in October and one of the reasons he saves them is just in case someone gets sick & he needs to take a day. So why do I feel guilty???

I'm nervous

and excited, after an 18 year sabbatical I am going back to school tomorrow. It's just one class to start with for right now and hopefully it won't be too taxing I am still working full time & running around after C which is equally a full time job. I figure I can study at tae kwan do and baseball games and I know both my boys are supportive of my decision and will help anyway they can. C is cute letting me know there is nothing to be nervous about"it's just school mommy!"

although...

he could fall back on a rasslin career

career goals

C's latest is indeed rock star. As I posted last weekend he has decided he wants to play electric guitar which he has mentioned several times this week. At the parent teacher thing this week rock star was listed in his little autobiography thingy and to cap it all off last weekend I dyed my hair and he has decided he wants to dye his green. I told him that would be ok in a few years but maybe not for 2nd grade although D pointed out with all of the crazy rules schools seem to be adopting these days they might freak out.

too much tv these days..

add this to my list of must watch these days and maybe this one as well

high school musical

or well high school musical 2 is apparently not just a girly thing. C dvr'ed the new show last night & started watching as soon as he could. Last night he mentioned that so & so was his favorite character because "he is the same color as you daddy", D asked him what color that might be "dark" was the answer, it cracked me up I guess he still doesn't get the fact he is "dark" as well, just a really lighter version. This new found interest in this musical high school thing has prompted the desire to play electric guitar. I told him not this year but maybe next. Thank god we only have one how do these families with 3 & 4 kids find the time & money to ferry kids to 9 million different activities?

siesta

I want to move somewhere that has them...

wasn't he just born?

seriously how did Connor get to be a second grader already? First day was just a half day it went well, although they DID NOT have snack time today as it was only a 1/2 day and horror of all horrors lunchtime is at 12.15 so he might need to bring along 2 snack just in case...Turns out he did know several people in his class one from daycare, one from mee maw's church & one from tae kwan do. Sadly I still cannot get the damn computer to recognize our fancy new digital camera, luckily I have held onto to the old crappy one which I'm guessing you could get in a bubble gum machine at this point but way back when it was new it ran us around $100 I think. So excuse the picture it's not great but it'll do. Being the cool kid that he is C requested a sling backpack this year & as his favorite team is the Yankees-because it's grandpa's favorite team-we went that route.

meet the teacher day

wasn't this just the first day of school back in the stone ages when I was in school? This year we went early got there right at 2 managed to find parking on the property got in & out by 2.30. I do understand when the school was built it was with the safe assumption none of the kids would need to park however any time there is a school function of any sort the parking lot is a madhouse. Last year we went late & wound up parking in an adjacent neighborhood. C's teacher seems nice unfortunately there is no one in his class that he knows from kindergarten or first grade which is a sham, luckily he makes friends easily & I've been informedby "himself" the second graders do recess altogether so he will be able to play with his friends then.
I do wish the school's would be a little more organized & let us know teachers & supply lists a little earlier, they have a generic 2nd grade need list but each teacher has specific items they want the kids to have & as the tax-free weekend was last weekend that doesn't help so much.

eureka

this show is great! For some odd reason I seem to be especially tired on tuesdays so I usually fall asleep during the last 10-15 minutes missing the end of the show pretty much every week, which is really annoying but I managed to stay awake last night!

myspace?

so I have successfully avoided creating a myspace page so far but as I am busy goofing off at work I have discovered several people I would like to get in touch with again however you must login to contact them..crap I might have to break down & join. I wonder if you can join without doing a page?

american favorite past time

the three of us went up to Sevierville for a Smokies game last night. Although the game was not a great one for the team(they lost4-0) we had a great time D was trying to sell me on the idea that it was all about the junk food anyway & I must admit the funnel cake was really good... I have no idea why we don't go to games more frequently it really is a "nine inning vacation".
Growing up in CT in a family of Yankees fans meant we would go to at least one game a season, luckily both my uncle & father had friends with REALLY good box seats, field level-one of the boxes on the visitor's dugout no less. So yes we were spoiled & I remember the shock to the system when for one double header Dad bought upper deck seats-a whole different crowd sits up there, the drunks were pretty funny to say the least. I think they lost both games and we wound up leaving half way through the second game,still fun though so maybe it is a little about the junk food.. Comcast(D's employer) is having a company night with picnic at the ballpark at the end of the month so I know we will make it to at least one more game this season but with school & fall little league starting up again our weekend will fill up fast, plus there has been talk of more camping which I hope pans out!

so they have arrived

Lot's of prayers, good thoughts and care packages headed to my brother in the Gulf and his wife & girls in Florida. I was happier when they were fighting pirates in the Caribbean..ok so it was drug dealers not Johnny Depp...

great just great

so I had an appointment today at 2 I got up early to go to work, left work early to make it to the appointment on time, which I did. as the girl was searching for my name I glanced back down at my date book to see the appointment written in for TUESDAY JULY 30 at 2 how embarrassing....

can you have sunday school on wednesday?

so our church has changed the day for CCD(the catholic version of sunday school) to Wednesday nights and it is on the whole inconvenient but unavoidable. When I moved down here I never quite understood the whole Southern Baptist we must go to church Wed. nights as well as on Sunday, I'm Catholic you go on Sunday for an hour maybe a hour & a half and now that is even getting messed with...And this is just the initial scheduling conflict fall baseball & swimming lessons at the Y have not even been added into the mix yet.

sleepovers

C had his end of summer sleepover at camp/daycare last night. They watched movies, ate pizza, drank juice & basically stayed up all night. He was a zombie today, we drove over to visit D's dad for a little birthday celebration, C did not make it out of the subdivision before he was fast asleep! We enjoyed the evening by using our dining card at an excellent Japanese restaurant Gohan Ya-very good sushi! I'm not sure why we had put off going there for so long but we will make up for it in short order, luckily it is really close to the house! C has moved onto his grandmothers for the rest of the weekend & we are off to a wedding this evening, an outdoor wedding, on a mostly rainy day. The weather seems to be clearing I hope it lasts!

clearly some tv exec was paying attention

to my pleas for new survivorman & no reservations, now I just need project runway to start again although I am enjoying the current season of top chef.

cursed fridge

yes the cursed fridge is at it again, freezer part working fine the refrigerator part not keeping cool just like in April when we had the thing fixed and then fixed again. If it had been an older appliance we would have just replaced it but now we have $$ plus several days of missed work in the damn thing to chuck it all in now-plus the thing is guaranteed for a year so I guess what another 9 months of dealing with silly crap, works just fine then boom out of nowhere warm milk. So tomorrow I wait to hear back from the repairman, schedule a day then sit and wait for hours for him to show up. I guess this also means I need to toss the contents again..

open toe shoes

it might be time to put them up there has been a RAT sighting at work
oh ick I just want to throw up....

rasslin

C is a big fan of the rasslin. He comes by it honestly there are fans & watchers on both sides of the family for generations in fact. His new thing is to play wrestling in his room, it involves taking his shirt off
" because the wrestlers do"
putting on long pants
" because some of them wear long pants"
then he ties a stuffed snake around his midsection as a stand in for the championship belt and proceeds to wrestle his build-a-bear-monkey who is the wrestler du jour. C is ALWAYS Rey Mysterio because that is his favorite wrestler.
Yesterday evening when I called him for dinner I got
"let me just finish my match mom"

neighborhoods

my brother & I were fortunate(as were my parents) when we were kids the neighborhood we grew up in was on a cul-de-sac and almost every house on the street had kids and we were all pretty much in similar age ranges so there was always someone to play with. Unfortunately C does not have that luxury. One girl lives next door & is the same age but she is away for the summer plus her parents seem to be busy people-at least busier than we are so she is frequently not home. We have an older couple right next door who get the occasional visit from their grand kids(a girl & boy), C plays with them, well mostly the boy who is maybe 3 years older but that is it on our street kid-wise the only other kids are jr high to high school older. There is another boy that was in C's kindergarten class that lives sort of behind us but there are fences & it involves dropping off & picking up or staying & being social which quite frankly is ok most of the time but not today..I hate arranging play dates & I hate calling them play dates it makes me feel like "one of those moms" you know the ones that arrange every aspect of their child's life.I wish I could just send him out the door & tell him to listen for the bell to come home-my parents have a dinner bell sort of thing or maybe it was for a boat, I don't know, but when they rang it you had to go one home. One boy ALWAYS thought it was the ice cream man-seriously for years he fell for it you could probably ring it today & that's what he would think it was!