global warming?

I love this article!!!

The headline on the Drudgereport is: Cyclists 'braved freezing cold temps' to promote global warming awareness...

This would be funny if it wasn't so ridiculous!!

Why I don't buy the good candy for halloween

I bought our Halloween candy at Costco yesterday. (Walmart seemed expensive...can you believe it? They wanted $12.97 for a kinda little bag.) I admit it. I didn't buy the good stuff. I don't think my husband has seen the bags yet, in fact I know he hasn't.

I'd know it if he did.

I got A & W Rootbeer barrels. Laffy Taffy. Werthers drops. Twizzlers. Smarties. DumDums. Need I go on? Not the good stuff. There's no chocolate or bubblegum. But here's my theory:

My peanuts will get good candy. They'll get plenty of chocolate and bubblegum. I don't need the good stuff sitting around the house. Its too tempting. Some would argue that kids will label us a 'lame candy house'. I beg to differ. I give out handfuls. The kids don't really see whats in the bowl...I hold it up higher than their little heads. Then I drop a handful in their bag, bucket, pillowcase. They know they got a handful, but they won't know exactly what they got from me, because its all mixed up anyways! (I AM smarter than a 5th grader!)

So, I'm just waiting now for my husband to notice the lame candy bags on the counter.

Wha?

I had a 'blech' moment yesterday. Did I spell that right?

I was at a public place and a mom was sitting on a bench with a wiggly toddler. She was trying to feed him but he wanted to see what was happening around him. Ahhhh, I remember the days. You get one spoonful in them and they're wiggling around to see what caused the noise behind them. They sit up, they flop backwards. They try to stand up. I had to give the mom credit for being patient. She set the little container she was feeding him out of on the arm of the bench to rearrange him in her lap.

That's when I had my 'blech' moment.

She was feeding him Taco Bell refried beans. Now, keep in mind that he's about 8 months old. Maybe I'm crazy, but it never would have crossed my mind to feed either one of my peanuts Taco Bell at that age. (I'm not opposed to Taco Bell, I lived on it in high school, back in the day.) I don't think I can name a mom who fed their kids Taco Bell refried beans at that age. My older peanut has had Taco Bell twice, my youngest...never.

I hope I wiped the look of suprise off my face before she saw me. All I could think of was how much sodium was in that little container of beans. I don't want to judge anyone, but I'm thinking that the side of beans was about $1.50 (dunno, like I said, its been a while.) I'm sure she could have gotten a jar or two of baby food for the same amount.

Blech.

life gets in the way

Life has definately gotten in the way of my blogging lately. I can't say that my life is crazy hectic right now, its actually moving along at a nice clip. Not too busy, not bored silly. I've been running the kids to soccer and dance, volunteering in both classes, trying to do yard work when needed. I got all of my fall decor up last week and I have to say that I LOVE my fall decorations! Right now it's a mix of Halloween and fall, with some Thanksgiving thrown in. After Halloween, the spider webs, witches and pumpkins will go a way and more Thanksgiving things will come out. After Thanksgiving, of course the Christmas will come out. (I can say Christmas, right? Its my blog, so I don't need to be politically correct. Anyone who knows me and is reading this knows that I'm Catholic and celebrate Christmas.) So the fall silk leaf swags and pilgrim people will be packed away and out will come the pine swags, burgundy and gold candles, pinecones and santa collection. The stockings will be hung by the chimney with care, the giant wreath will hang over the garage. My DH will go crazy trying to read his handmade map of where all the lights get plugged in. Creative profanities will be muttered under his breath.
All of this will happen IF...life doesn't get in the way!

When Stinker the Pumpkin grows up...

Check out this link...http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/10/03/pumped_up/?s_campaign=8315

So Stinker may never get to be this big...but its something to aspire to. I still need to take a picture of Stinker to post here. I can't believe they said in the article that pumpkins can grow up to 30 pounds in a day!! I'd be lucky if Stinker packed on a couple of ounces. I think I'll start shading Stinker, though and see if that helps. The birds haven't been back, so that's good. The leaves are looking better.

Wonder how big Stinker will get...

Levis?

I'm thinking that Levis needs to fire their advertising company. Are they serious?
http://www.unbuttonyourbeast.com/?33a4b1b9d34d1a69aa4c186ea65b4742
This is just one of many to choose from. All equally disturbing!

Pumpkin Suprise!!

While I wasn't looking...a new little pumpkin sprouted! My husband noticed it yesterday and I rushed out to find it. It's actually bigger than the other one when it went to visit the Great Pumpkin in the sky. I don't know how this little stinker snuck past me. I was just out there the other day weeding, fertilizing and doing some yard work. I never noticed it.

I think I'll name it Stinker. I've heard that if you name a wayward pet, it'll never leave you alone. Think that'll work with a pumpkin? Maybe it'll actually stick around. I can only hope! I'll fertilize tomorrow. If it's not 98 degrees again.

Pet Peeve Of The Week

Okay, so I'm at the grocery store check out line yesterday. I'm checking out the magazines, double checking my list and next thing I know, its my turn. I hand the lady my earth-friendly reusable bags (I can't say "green", it makes me throw up a little in my mouth), and she checks me out. I slide my card and push all the appropriate buttons. Meanwhile, I'm all bagged up and the checker is scanning the groceries of the lady behind me. I kid you not, I wasn't done signing my name on the charge slip and checkerlady is giving the lady behind me her total.

Did this make me feel rushed? You betcha.

Have I called the store manager about this problem before? You betcha?

Have I left the store without an onion because it got mixed up with the groceries for the lady behind me? You betcha.

Have I been double charged because the checkerlady didn't finish with the lady ahead of me before starting to scan me and scanned an item twice because she had to go back and give change to the lady ahead of me? You betcha. (Was that a really long run on sentence? You betcha.)

Next time, I think I'm going to ask the checkerlady to wait until she finishes with me to start the next customer. I'm tired of my bag being shoved at me while I'm trying to put my credit card away. I still wonder what the lady who got my onion thought when she got home and found an extra onion in her bag.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Youtube must see

If you haven't seen this video yet, it's absolutely hilarious. I think I channel this woman sometimes. Other times I wish I could!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anSpBUxsgAU

My iPod

I heard someone say once that their iPod would be someone else's hell. I guess they had a bunch of obscure funky songs on it that no one else would be interested in.

That got me thinking. What is on my iPod that someone would say, "huh?" to? I have the old stand bys like the Eagles, Billy Joel, some Pat Benatar, Journey (old stuff, not that new guy), a lot of random 80's stuff, the Valley Girl movie sound track. I also have some more current songs like Fergie and the Jonas Brothers. But the one song that no one else would know is "Come in from the Rain" by Captain and Tenille. (Check 'em out: http://www.tmz.com/2008/09/18/love-will-keep-them-together/) LOVE that song! It starts and ends with the sound of rain. Very cool. I used to listen to it on 8track when I was a kid. I'd love to find an old 8track tape to show my kids. They've seen the old vinyl records (I have my Thompson Twins, Journey Escape, Culture Club and Loverboy records...still!!) One day I mentioned that I had gone for a walk that morning with my walkman.
"Who?" asked peanunt #1.
Oops, I meant my iPod. Glad my husband knew what I meant!

So what's on your iPod that no one else would 'get'?

More fun things to do with your kids...

The other night, my son wanted to find some new songs for his PSP. He asked for 'Where is the love' by Blackeyed Peas. (Okay, he's 9, where did he hear that?) I pulled up my iTunes library and played it for him. (Yes, I have that song on my iPod, but he doesn't listen to it, so I still don't know where he heard it.) As we looked through the list, he pointed to 'Hotel California' and asked to hear it. I told my peanuts that 'Hotel California' is a classic rock song, one of the best, by an amazing old group called the Eagles.
"Are there words?" asked peanut #2.
"Yes, just wait..." I responded.
I guess the intro was too long and they lost interest. (Mom's ADD is rubbing off on them.) So we went on to a few more songs. We were dancing, singing, twirling (not so much my son) and shaking it.
Try it sometime. Take the lead, they'll follow. Its fun to teach them the words to old classics while dancing like no one else is watching.

Pumpkin Update...sad news

Sadly, our one hope for a pumpkin this year fell off the vine this morning. sniff, sniff. The bottom was rotted out and it had black spots on it. sniff, sniff. It didn't get much bigger than a tennis ball and even that's being generous. Now, we have to hope and pray for the best with the 5 little buds that are stil there. I told the kids just last night that we could let the pumpkins go until Thanksgiving to see how big they got. I didn't tell them Thanksgiving of what year. Could be '09 or '11 at this rate. Its not like we have to worry about frost here, folks.

So the vines keep growing and producing these beautiful flowers. But sadly, our pumpkins aren't taking to life in our little town.

I heard a blurb on the news last night about growing lettuce. After paying $1.49 for a really little, lame head of lettuce yesterday, maybe I'll give that a try. I have to be able to grow something besides pink geraniums and silk plants.

Book Update

Okay, I finally finished 3 Cups of Tea. Phew. Finally. I had a hard time with that one, don't really know why. I almost stopped several times, but I kept thinking something else would happen. It didn't. Don't think that I'm just blowing off this Greg Mortenson's life work. He is drawn to a part of the world that I have never had much interest in. He understands their culture better than I could ever hope to. It took till the end of the book for me to really understand that educating the kids in Pakistan and Afgahnistan is the way to avert the terrorist training that is happening over there. I kept thinking, though, "what is keeping the terrorists from taking over one of his schools and making it a madrassa?" I occured to me that they might let him do all the work, then take over and start the indoctrination of little terrorists.
Here is my other thought. After doing a little research about him on the internet, (http://www.gregmortenson.com/welcome.php) I found out that he is gone most of the year either to central Asia, on speaking tours or book signings. When he's home, he's in the basement online, answering emails and on the phone in the middle of the night. He has to sleep at some point. So while he's building schools for kids half way around the world, did he make it to his own childrens' Back to School Night this year? Does he know what book is daughter is currently reading? Does he know the names of his childrens' teachers? Just a thought. I'm not judging him, just asking the question.
Again, I know what he's doing is important. But so is one's own family.
Now on to some lighter reading...Lean Mean 13 by Janet Evanovich, here I come!

Pumpkin Update...

I finally got some pictures of the pumpkins! For reference purposes, I've compared it to a golf ball. I'll keep using a golf ball so we can track the progress. I've been fertilizing about every 2-3 days. Its been really hot during the day, so I think I'm going to put our soccer umbrella up so the leaves don't get so droopy during the day.

I'll post a new pic in about a week so we can see how its grown.

Now...what should we name it?

Fun things to do with your kids....

I'll add more to this post as I think of them, but here are a few light-hearted fun things to do with your kids that they'll always remember as fun things from their childhood:

1) Piggyback rides! Come on, you can do it! My almost-10-year-old still loves it. Every morning, I take my daughter to breakfast piggyback style. Its her extra 10 seconds of sleep before two leggo waffles with cinnamon.

2) Speaking of breakfast, make breakfast for dinner once a month. I need to get better with this, but really, its fun! Try pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs and juice. Whatever your family likes, they'll love having it a 6:00 pm as much as 6:00am.

3) When the weather is good, pitch a tent in the backyard one night. We got in this habit on the 3rd of July. (Dad always has the 4th off no matter what day of the week!) This year we were out of town, so we camped on my daughter's birthday. Kids LOVE it!

4) Go to Party City and get something called window chalk. You know that stuff you see on people's car windows that says, "GO TEAM! We're #1"?? Guess what? It works on the bathroom mirror, too!! So, on my kids' birthday eve, after they're tucked in bed, I graffiti their bathroom mirror with birthday messages to them. It's the first thing they see when they wake up on their special day and it's always something they look forward to.

I'll post more fun things when I think of them...

A note about my booklists...

If some of my books don't seem like grown up books...they're not! I like to read the books that my kids are reading and make sure they aren't getting anything inappropriate for their age. Its hard sometimes to find books for young kids that read at a higher level than their grade.

The Gregor the Overlander series is FANTASTIC. I wish they'd make it into a movie. What a great story, great characters, love-love-love it. The other series I really like is City of Ember, People of Sparks, and Prophet of Yonwood. The Ember movie should be out later this year. Its similar to the Gregor series, as they both take place underground. Really, underground...no sun. I don't know how they don't all have vitamin D deficencies, but then again maybe I'm looking too much into it!

My most favorite book from the summer, though was The Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. Wow is all I can say. You need to read it yourself. Really. Pick it up at Costco, Amazon or Borders, wherever, just pick it up. Its about Littrell, the lone survivor of a group of Navy SEALS (20 or so men) who where killed in Afganistan all in one day. Its a story of committment, honor, trust, family and hope.

Right now I'm working on Three Cups of Tea. I say 'working on it', because to be honest, it's not all that intriguing to me, sorry to say. I have a lot of friends who read it and loved it, but I'm working on it a chapter at a time.

I'm not in a book club, don't really have the time, I guess, so I'll just post my books here and give you my insight, however shallow it may be! Sometimes I'll throw in a token paperback novel from the used paperback store. I need an easy read every now and again.

Next up: Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich...I really want to be Stephanie Plum when I grown up!

Big Pumpkins!

A co-worker of my DH's gave us some seeds from his ginormous (is that a word?) pumpkin from last year. We got the area all ready, fertilized it, added some good soil and planted the seeds. About a week later, there were little sprouts! For a long time, we just had big leaves, then some vines, then some flowers...now we FINALLY have a little pumpkin! It's about the size of a ping pong ball right now, and hopefully growing everyday. Keep in mind that we planted these things in June. It took long enough to get one little guy, now were worried that we won't have a normal sized pumpking in time for Halloween. I'll probably end up buying them again this year.

That would kill me though. Last year, I took my two peanuts to a pumpkin patch. "Have at it!" I said, turning them loose! "Pick out your favorite!!" I grabbed the little wheelbarrow and followed them around until they picked the perfect gourds. Peanut #1 picked a pretty good sized one. Peanut #2's was a little smaller. I picked a nice medium sized one for the front porch. We proudly wheeled them to the cash register. The lady took one look a them and said, "That'll be $65.00".
Huh?
Seriously?
Really now, for 3 pumpkins?
I could get two really nice pairs of shoes at Steinmart for $65. I could get a haircut for $65. I could get a mani-pedi for $65. When in doubt or in a precarious situation, blame Dad.
"Wow," I said. "Kids, Daddy will have a heart attack if I tell him we spent $65 on pumpkins. Whaddy say we go to Albertson's and look through the $10 bin in front of the store?" I said this so the lady would hear me. It was, after all, the day before Halloween. What else was she going to do with a field full of pumpkins on November 1st? They should have been on sale like all the other Halloween decorations at Michaels and Target. Luckily, the Peanuts agreed with me and we went to the grocery store to get our pumpkins.

Did I mention that while we were at the Saks of Pumpkin Patches, I got some great fall pics?! Ha! on you, Lady!!

Anyways, DH was talking to the seed guy last week about the proper care of pumpkins. Turns out the guy put down 4 feet of manure before planting the seeds. Holding back on us isn't cool, man! We're rookies here and he's laughing while we struggle! Now we know. I guess he didn't want anyone to show him up. Now I'm fertilizing about every other day. I'll post pics as the ping pong ball turns into a bowling ball, and hopefully into one of those big rubber work out balls!

Favorite things...

WEN!!! Love my Wen by Chaz Dean conditioning shampoo. "Wen" is "new" spelled backwards. Kinda cool, so yup.... I watched the infomercial and got online to order the stuff. It's really cool. One step. Well, actually, a couple of steps. You rinse your hair, put about 12 pumps of the stuff in your hand and massage it through. (My hair is shoulder length and very fine, so I don't need a ton.) Then shave, wash up, do whatever you do...then rinse it out. My hair really is much softer and easier to brush out. It smells really good, too. Of course I don't have hair like Half Pint, who pitches this stuff, but nice to know that it works on ordinary people like me! Now I need to get to my hairdresser and get a good haircut, its been way too long.

Here is the website if you're interested: www.wenhaircare.com Surf the site a bit and see what you think. I like that there aren't tons of chemicals in it. It doesn't lather like regular shampoo, but it still makes your hair feel clean.

After using it for about a week, my DH said, "What did you do to your hair?"
Uh...wasn't sure where he was going with this.
"It looks longer. I like it."
Phew!! Good ending to that conversation. We'll see what he says when I get a haircut!

(Disclaimer: This blog is entirely my own opinion. I don't work for this company, I don't know Chaz Dean although he might be kinda interesting to hang out with. This stuff works for me...order at your own risk...use at your own risk!)

A wake for my printer

Well, not really a wake, more like a ceremonial walk to the garage to put it in the recycle pile. I guess I could say a little prayer as I set it next to the old shoe rack and bag of clothes for AmVets. "Thanks for all the millions of copies you made for me the past 5 years. I'm sorry for all the times I let you run out of ink and paper. You'll be missed. There is an empty space in the office, now that no other printer can fill..." At least until Costco opens at 10:00 and I can get a new one.
I have to say I was suprised that my husband told me to just go get a new one. With electronic purchases, he would usually do his homework and check out Consumer Reports, shop around, get online to look at customer comments, look at the Sunday paper for sales, then double check with Consumer Reports. The only thing he asked this time was if the new printer would take the same ink cartridges. That really threw me for a loop. I was hoping to get a new printer by the end of next month, but he said I should just go to Costco today. Wow, that was easy...what else can I ask him for?!!
I think I stick with HP. The one that just died (sniff) lasted longer than expected. I think I'll call my sister and tell her I put it in my trash bin. Then I'll sit back and listen to her blood pressure rise.

"NO!!! You can't do that! It's toxic! There are places that will take things like that and recycle it!!"
"Yea, but I'd have to drive it across town. Gas prices, you know...do I use the gas to get the printer to the recycle place or dump it in my trash and call it even?"
"Hmmm...you have a point there. Why don't you sell the gas guzzling Durango and get a Toyota Prius, then drive the old printer to the recycler? That would solve all your problems, save you money AND save the planet."

No chance. The Durango stays. The printer goes. But I will wait until my husband's office does their monthly recycle day and send it to work with him. Meanwhile, I'm off to Costco for my shiny new printer!! Don't tell the old one I said that!

Adult onset ADD?

Is there such thing? If so, I think I might have it. I'm a little worried about myself. I can't concentrate on anything! I'm always doing about 65 things at once. I can't walk down the hall without stopping to organize the hall shelf. But when I go to put my keys away (because I left them on the shelf) I can't find my purse. Which leads me to the laundry room (where my purse might be) and I remember that I need to start a load of stinky soccer clothes. I go to my son's room to get his soccer jersey out of his laundry basket and I stop to make his bed and open the window. The light from the window shows the dust on his desk, so I go to the kitchen to get the pledge and dust cloth out from under the sink. When I open the cupboard, I see the garbage can and remember that I wanted to clean out the fridge because garbage day is tomorrow. So I get a bag out from under the sink and remember that I need to add garbage bags to my Costco list so I go back to looking for my purse. That's where my Costco list is...I think.

Gotta Share my favorite things!!

Have you used Downy Wrinkle Releaser yet? Hello?! Where has this been all my life? Not only does it work GREAT...but is smells nice, too. Love this stuff. (Disclaimer: I don't work for them, I don't own stock in Proctor & Gamble and they aren't an advertiser of my site ...obviously!) Here's what you do...lay a wrinked T-shirt on your bed. Lightly spray the Downy, now smooth it out with your hands. Flip the shirt over and do it again. It'll be a little tiny bit damp, but smell fresh and clean. I use it on my daughter's denim skirts where the hem seems to pucker up around the bottom. Just spray it on and smooth it out. If you don't want to invest in a big bottle (around $8 at Target), then look for the little travel size bottle to try it out. I've never bought the travel size because I take the big bottle with me when we travel so I can de-wrinkle the whole fam damily.
Give it a try...you'll love it!

I need a bigger plate

I told my husband last night that I need a bigger plate. Or another day added to the week. Either one would make me happy. I don't want you to think that I'm complaining about my life...I'm not at all. I love my life/family/home. It's just that I've been trying to cut back. Not doing so well with that. So lets do a run down of my current activities:
**Arts Attack administrator. I coordinate the art program at school with all the teachers and volunteers. Time consuming at the beginning of the school year, then tapers off a little.
**Arts Attack volunteer. In both my kids' classes, of course.
**Jr. Great books reading program with the GATE kids for my son's class. I pull the kids out once a week and we read and talk about a story we read.
**Posssible room mom for one or both classes. Depends on if anyone else ponies up to do it!
**CCD co-teacher. How did I, an adult convert, become responsible for the religious education of 10 second graders getting ready for 1st reconciliation and 1st communion? Dunno about that one!
**Taxi driver. Not really, but my kids do have soccer and dance lessons to get to.
**Neighborhood watch co-captain. Our meeting is October 2nd if you'd like to come. We've had a rash of car break ins and and episode of really bad grafitti. (The kind that gets the FBI and Anti Defimation League involved.) Really weird because my little 'hood is really nice and quiet.
**CEO of my house. You know, the one who cooks, cleans, does laundry, shops, does some yardwork and any other necessary tasks to keep my home running smoothly.

This is all kind of ironic, too, because I've been trying to SIMPLIFY my life and make things easier. If I don't find a bigger plate, I'm gonna be in some trouble!

Car Troubles, ugh

So my '02 Dodge Durango is having issues. Transmission issues. Luckily most of it is covered by the extended-bumper-to-bumper-extra-maxi-super-warranty we paid through the nose for when we bought the car. Turns out the FACTORY might have put the wrong transmission filter (whatever that is) in when the car was manufactured. We've never had transmission work done, so how else could it have gotten there? That might be a problem.
I've been car-less for 2 days now. Not real fun. We don't have public trasportation here like in other towns. I can't ride the bus or train to the grocery store. Okay, so I could walk there, but its really hot now, 87 least today. And besides, the closest grocery store is a big chain store that I don't like. I'd rather shop at the mom & pop shop a few miles away. Anywho, when I talked to the dealer today, I told them that I HAVE to have my car on Friday. (Appointments, soccer clinics, lots going on.) The service advisor picked that moment to tell me that my extended-bumper-to-bumper-extra-maxi-super-warranty covers a rental car at no charge. Huh. Could I have been advised of this YESTERDAY?

Gotta start somewhere...

So here I am jumping into the blogging world. Do you remember your first blog? I'm sure you're all sentimental about it. Not even sure anyone wants to hear what I have to say, but I've been a frustrated writer for a while so I thought this might be a good outlet. I'm not frustrated that I haven't been published...I haven't even tried! I don't seem to have time to write that great american novel. Its in my head, though! I'll get it out someday. Until then...



I'll be blogging about being an @home mom. Some people wonder how I can do this "not working" thing. Its really not "not working". I'm always 'working' on something. I plan meals and playdates. Keep the house in order. Laundry. Vacuum. Dust. Work in the yard (no mowing, that's my hubby's job). I'm with a direct sale company. I'm on the PTA board. I volunteer at school. (I get volun-told to do a lot of things!) I jazzercise. I walk and run a little sometimes. I'm always looking for ways to make things easier.



So my new motto SIMPLIFY. I'll try to incorporate that into my blogs.

Later...