curent day anachronisms

Connor was faced with his first busy signal this weekend when trying to call his grandmother on her home phone...he kept trying to tell me that  Meemaw's phone had been disconnected, much like bar soap & hand crank windows it had the boy confounded

it is all about the side dishes

honestly I like turkey, ham or whatever sort of meat/protein product is served at a holiday meal but my favorite part of any large meal is the side dishes. This year I panned on contributing 2 sides and a dessert but I keep adding side dishes that I really want....corn bread thingy, roasted cauliflower, creamed spinach, glazed carrots....oh my too many ideas swirling about and not enough time. And I have not even started considering dessert recipes yet

random holiday thoughts

-tree is going up this weekend
-really really really want to buy a pink or white tree...maybe I'll wait till after holiday clearance sales
-one of these years I really want to host a cookie exchange....do I know anyone who bakes?
-sending out cards this year come hell or high water! I love getting Christmas cards and it's a wonder we get any I am so lame about sending them out
-kinda sorta feel the need for a tacky holiday sweater this year
-holiday sweater vests are truly awful

halloween 2013

costumes get less cute & cuddly as you go along don't they?

tricky business

trying to fall asleep yet fighting falling asleep just in case you wake up feeling lousy again....

mom jeans

I must admit I still am not so clear on what constitutes mom jeans but whatever I am a mom I like wearing jeans and luckily have a job that lets me wear jeans. This losing weight trip means that jeans I could not bear to part with fit again, including my favorite favorite purple jeans which strike me as not mom jeans but I digress...my favorite regular blue jeans no longer fit they are too big and of course they do not have belt loops so off to the donation pile they go!

omlets all around!

while I really love having a source for fresh eggs we now have 4 dozen on hand

inquiry listings

currently found on our computer
"why are so parents so mean to their kids"
all because we would not get C a smart phone

how many points does that equal?

let me start out with a warning this post is gonna be gross if you are delicate of nature go on ahead and click that next blog button.....no really go ahead

Alrighty then I have been doing the weight watchers thing for a few months now and the basis for the uninitiated is to give a point value to foods & exercise and you track all that to help in weight loss. So last nights migraine followed by severe barfing how does one track that? It was physical of sorts at least certain muscles this morning seem to think so and cleaning out the contents of my stomach should have a negative point tracking of sorts should it not?

random factoid of the day

graham crackers taste better just a little stale...in my opinion. Finding the pack in the trash must mean my husband does not agree

have I been replaced with a pod person?

-setting my alarm to get up early and go to the Y? on my day off no less?!
-making my mind up that I am going to skip water aerobics after a late night at work and getting up to go anyway
-leisurely Sunday morning...BEFORE coffee I went for a brisk walk around the park
clearly I am not myself and for once it is a good thing

I really need to hire better help

I had just started prepping dinner and my phone rings, C runs to get it for me as I have ground beef hands which is great he answers the phone then hands it to me and my ground beef hands I ask him 3 times before he finally manage to let me know it's David. OK I wash my hands in the minute they converse and as I reach for the hand towel and go to grab the phone C hangs up and passes along the message from David.......
ugh these two boys do their best to drive me crazy

golden parenting moment #746

kiddo: I feel terrible
me: go feel terrible someplace else while I get dinner on the stove

pizza & Italian pastries are better up north

which may very well be why we won the war.....

not exactly living off the land

but my container gardens are starting to yield! These 2 beauties are going to make a lovely cucumber salad 

those little kids have a lot of energy

on the camp field trip yesterday some of the older children were enlisted to assist in keeping up with the younger kids, C was with 6 years olds and was wiped out last night to the extent he chose to go to bed early because "those little kids have a lot of energy"

from a big fish in a little pond

to a much larger pond.....kiddo attending the day camp at the Y was bumpy the first few days he decided he hated it early on & what did we do to him?! Since he was a toddler he had been in much smaller settings as far as daycare/camp were concerned. The first week was apparently torture, or so we were lead to believe- he was given the option to stay at home with David that Friday which got an enthusiastic yes & a happy dance I seem to recall. Imagine my surprise walking out of the bathroom that Friday morning to find C with towel in hand, ready to shower oh and his lunch was ready to roll could I pleeease drive him to the Y he did not want to miss anything fun

no chip nail polish?

I'm gonna cry bulls**t on that stuff they must mean it's no chip if you do nothing all day in particular anything that involves using your hands. I will however say I do love the fast drying stuff that is a little bit of alright!

onward to 7th grade

first year of middle school has been survived by all parties, thankfully. C passed along to 7th grade some days we wondered if it would happen...as it were he failed art, yeah art although he did raise  his points..to what a high F asked David. Frustrating to know that if he would just do all of his assignments and hand them in on time his report card would be straight A's with little effort. We are going to try a few new things next year to hopefully motivate him as we would seem to have run out of tricks in our bag of tricks.

misgudied gardener

or maybe the accidental gardener whatever I am very much faking it as I go but some wildflowers I planted around the mailbox appear to be sprouting of course it also looks like some weeds are growing back too so I have to guess what to pull or just let everything grow as it is. I also bought a bunch of different sorts of seeds and spread them up near the front door, likewise something is growing a combination of flowers & weeds. The containers in the back seem to be doing well the cherry tomato plant has 3 small tomatoes about ready to pick and the other plants just look good nothing sprouting as of yet-jalapenos, green peppers, cucumber and a tomato plant. Fingers crossed nothing is going to chomp on these this summer!

damn I hate that

when things you don't like about yourself are mirrored back from your kiddo...not a pleasant experience likewise the things about your own parents you disliked oh so very much that you see yourself doing

happy bunny day...a few days late

Easter has come & gone in a flash I worked many hours so it seems like this holiday was not particularly big on our hit parade this year. And as C grows older the bunny aspect of things is not so very important, don't get me wrong the giant creepy rodent delivered a basket but heck the kiddo had spent the night at his grandmother's & didn't even see his basket till Monday evening. Dinnre was low key with MIL thankfully taking care of the meal all I had to do was bring a cake easy enough! Honestly I would have been just happy to have ordered in pizza or Chinese food...maybe next year

freak show continues

eyelashes on both eyes have fallen out top row on the left eye, bottom row on the right eye and now the eyebrow on my right eye appears to be disappearing...good grief i am so over the alopecia! I keep thinking the hair on my head is growing and it is over a lot of the head but not all and as it is getting to any kind of length at all the drain in the shower starts to get increasingly full, like I cannot make it through a complete shower without a water backup which has me about ready to go ahead and shave my head again, easier on me than seeing the tufts of hair all over the house. ah well such is life I suppose I will make a trip by the wig shop & pick up something new

ahhh parenthood

most of kiddo's school difficulties stem from a certain laziness as far as handing in assignments and it is always exacerbated by any kind of long weekend, spring break etc etc...so poor C had pep talks from the both of us this morning, he ran out the door just to get away from us rather than any excitement to catch the bus I am guessing. After he left David turned to me and said "I think I may have run out of cliches"

it's like having a whole new wardrobe

perhaps a slight over exaggeration but cleaning out my closet has resurrected several pieces of clothing I forgot I owned..imagine what would happen if I actually cleaned out the garage?!

oh and the stupid hair again

sort kinda growing mostly white instead but still with huge gaps so while I let it grow in some to see what it's doing I am still shaving it off. Hats are a no o at the p/t job so I have been wearing the wig a bunch and it has seen better days, the second wig that I loved in the shop but not so much when I got it home well I am hopefully gonna fix it so it is not so pouffy & big haired. I also went by the wig shop yesterday to price some new wigs I think it's time to get more of a collection going that I can rotate some.
when I went for my facial yesterday the girl mentioned entering a contest for a free hair color & cut...needless to say I didn't enter LOL

best mis-read of my day

you know when you look at a headline quickly and see something that is not what is written on the page... I read "voted for unicorns over Fedex" which is infinitely more amusing than "voted for the unions over FedEx."

I never win anything

except every now & again I do and over the holidays I won a facial at Spa Visage from Family Friendly Knoxville. Of course because I am horrible about making time for myself I came perilously close to letting the darn thing expire which would have been tragic because
1) I never win anything
2) I don't make time for myself
3) 40+ year old skin needs more work than it did 20 years ago
4) facials are awesome!
I am gonna go out on a limb and say a facial might be even better and more relaxing than a massage and I have gorgeous pores this morning to prove it

dancing lesson 101

according to C it is not a good idea to be taught dancing by a bunch of women that had been drinking margaritas...namely his grandmother, aunt & cousin

and in other news

when you do not constantly remind the kid to watch his time and to get ready with a little more haste he will indeed miss the bus
"ohhh is it already that late?"

how I know we won't have any snow whatsoever this season

MIL bought the kiddo not 1 but 2 new sleds just this weekend, guaranteeing we will not see any significant snow this year.

twists & turns of middle school

I saw something about a middle school dance held just after school and as C had not mentioned a word about to me & I asked if was planning on going as money & a permission slip were required. I was given a very terse and very quick "I am not going and don't want to discuss this matter" response. Naturally my first inclination was oh quit being silly this stuff is fun I am going to make you go. Obviously not a stellar parenting decision so while I entertained the thought I did let the entire matter drop. Imagine my surprise at the frantic phone call from school Friday asking for money & a signature for the dance the same day. Thankfully MIL handled it for me including spending money so he could buy pizza. Reports back were that C took no part in actual dancing but played basketball with friends the entire time and did indeed have fun!

little helping of bitter this morning

sure let's give credit to someone else for my work....

some folks just do not get social media

no matter how hard you try to explain it to them!
Yesterday I was trying to explain something to a certain albatross and my logical argument was countered with
"well I took an economics class and a psychology class so I do understand and it will not work"
of course these individual classes were taken some 30+ years ago so I am betting against his understanding.....

ramen noodles should be their own food group

I am sure they are horrible for you, quite honestly I don't look at the nutrional values on it because I really just don't want to know exactly how much sodium I am consuming, but they are super cheap, super easy and sometimes they just hit the spot

maybe you aren't as hungry as you thought

C decided he was hungry & was going to fix himself a snack I pointed out that I was just about to cook dinner but he could help himself to grapes or grapes, he chose to wait till dinner was ready

using his stern voice

C found himself locked out of the house yesterday afternoon-it's what happens when you leave your keys in your coat in the closet inside the house, but I digress, the "system" failed and he had trouble getting a hold of anyone right away but it all worked out fine with little muss & fuss I was amused listening to my voice mail this morning to hear his "As soon as you get this message I need you to call me the FLIP back"
bwahahaha sadly I hit delete before I had time to think hey this is funny I need to save this voice mail

the family picture conundrum

It has been many years since we have had a family portrait, maybe only 3 years or so but the kid changes almost on a daily basis so this is something we should do more frequently. David has agreed so it is on me to settle in on a appointment except I still have no hair so I am unsure I really want a family picture just now. I could wear a wig I suppose, I have 2 and I wear one to the p/t job as a necessity but in the rest of my everyday life I wear hats and I am more comfortable with hat wearing me. And at the end of the day this is me my hair loss is not such a big deal, for the most part although sometimes I do get twingy & really really miss having a head full of hair. Guess I need to suck it up & just make an appointment huh?!

when in doubt

I do not sniff the kiddo's clothes to see if they are dirty I just throw them in the laundry

why no access to twitter could be a good thing

p/t job has no computer/phone access thank goodness because this would have probably been my timeline earlier this week


-5 hour shift easy peasy
-should have brought more coffee
-lord it is boring working alone
-is it too early to break
-are there enough people working that I can take a break
-only 3 hours & 45 minutes to go
-where are all the customers
-I may have to break down & dust
-a 5 hour shift with only a 15 min break
-I brought a snack bar with me to register should I eat is now?
-sounds like other side of store is busy
-send some customers my way!
-2 hours & 54 minutes to go
-a project or two done
-10:10 reminds me of the radio station up north 1010 wins
-still no break
-getting busier
-music loop is awful
-1 hour 34 minutes
-oh good gravy busy
-finally end of shift never got a break but at least last hour was busy
-now off to other job
-fun fun

the average customers

usually very nice people, understanding when a mistake happens etc etc etc you as an employee want to go the extra mile for a person but every now & again you get one that makes you want to remind them that you are being paid $7.50 an hour to wait on them and what in the high holy heck do they expect for that exactly? Please be kind when out & about shopping.

the funniest thing you have ever said to me

"do your parents eat Indian food"
alright if you don't know my folks maybe it is not nearly as hysterical as I may think but my Dad is a fairly strict meat & potatoes kind of menu sort and Indian food is so completely out of the realm of possibility so when David asked me this I thought it the funniest thing I had ever heard.

I can't wait till I'm a grown-up.....

and I can do whatever I want. Ok we've all said it or at the very least thought that but does anyone know when it starts exactly?

tibits from the trip home

-I wish I lived closer to my folks
-I have lived more years away from this house than in this house at this point in my life
-although it's currently an office I still love the purple paint in my old bedroom
-Danbury meh still would not want to live here
-did enjoy seeing some old friends I wish we could get togther more often
-I really want an old english sheepdog as our next dog, so does C & David is amenable to the idea
-we need a larger house before that happens
-it's is colder up here than I remember
-not a trip to CT without some kind of adventure this time it was baatery & connection problems with our car, fingers crossed that is completely fixed
-bagels are better up here
-buying long grain rice I had one option but the choice of pastas at the grocery store is ridiculous some I don't think I had even heard of before