Wednesday, October 29, 2008

She's Back!!

The "Louisianna Caller" has returned!! I'm beginning to think that this is more than a coincidence although she insists she can't see the buttons and thinks the eight is a zero. This woman has called at least half a dozen times in the last two weeks. Half of those times have been after 11 o'clock at night. I did a reverse look-up on her phone number and am seriously considering sending her one of these:

Friday, October 24, 2008

Like the Willows

I've been feeling kind of weepy the past day or two. Why? My only explanation has to be hormones. I'm not normally an overly emotional person. Let me redeem myself before I go too far: I have one SUPER good friend that I get emotional around when we visit but that's just because I'm always overwhelmed by her greatness. She is a beautiful woman with a beautiful family. I feel very blessed to know them, let alone to call her and her husband our good friends. So when we do visit them maybe 2 or 3 times each year I do find myself getting sappy when we're together. Usually it's when she and I are walking through the grocery store or something equally ridiculous and I realize how fortunate I am to have a wonderful friend who is perfectly content just doing normal "mom" stuff together. Yeah, she's great. I love her!

Anyhow, for the most part I really don't allow myself to get emotionally overwhelmed very often. But over the course of the past two days I've found myself actually starting to tear up a couple of times. I don't like it. I'm kind of calloused and have developed a laissez faire attitude about people and things around me so I was surprised to suddenly just get sad over seemingly nothing. Go figure.

I must be getting ready to shed.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Last night DH and I were snuggled up to each other to watch a great couples flick: The Incredible Hulk. For some reason I get suckered into staying up and watching all sorts of random testosterone breeding cinematics lately. I had a feeling that the movie was going to be man candy when he said to me, "This one's going to be a bass rumbler." Anytime that a man starts to talk about subwoofers and bass speakers before the movie/song/video game starts you can take the hint that it's going to be a man fest scenario before long. You might as well dig out chips and salsa for him and grab yourself a book or go take a bubble bath.
I didn't avail myself to any of the usual options last night. DH didn't have any man friends to pal around with so I got to revel in all that was incredible about The Hulk. Yeah, the night before he put on Iron Man (I just typed Iran Man and that was funny) my hubbie said that I was "going to really enjoy this movie--it's got some sappy stuff in it". One of said "sappy" scenes involved the Iron Man pounding a bunch of bad guys and then taking their lead bad dude and dropping him off in front of a bunch of vandalized villagers and declaring in a uber gravelly voice, "He's all yours" before he took to the skies again. I was moved to tears. Almost.

So around 11:30 as the Hulk and the really bad guy are tearing it up all over NYC, the phone rings. Normally I'm not the type to jump at the phone but it was late. I jumped. I mean, we're not talking, "it's dark out and bad things happen at night", we're talking "it's so late that somebody must be in the hospital" kind of late. I kind of froze in my tracks and pushed DH off the sofa to go answer the phone. After stumbling around in the dark for a few moments he found the phone and pressed the *talk* button but said nothing. After listening for a few moments the other party hung up and DH followed suit. Why I asked why he didn't say anything he replied, "I didn't know who it was." A few moments later they called back and he sent the call to voicemail.

Now maybe I should have prefaced this with a little tidbit: The same "Louisianna Caller" that is showing up on my caller ID last night at 11:30 also showed up on my caller ID at 1:30 in the morning on Monday. I was itching to get to the bottom of the situation. After we finished the last few minutes of our movie I was referencing our mystery call when DH suddenly gets frisky and dares me to call our mystery caller from LA.

So I did. Turns out it was a little old lady who was fumbling around in the dark for her phone and trying to call her mother in California. Say what?!? Weird. She apologizes a few times and then tops my evening off with a "Blessings on ya!" before we disconnected. That was a new one for me. I have to admit though, I'm a little tempted to use the "blessings on ya" line the next time I'm on the phone with a friend. Just for fits and giggles.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Suggestions?

So my 4 year old (almost 5 year old really) has all but stopped drinking milk as of late. Always lovers of milk, my girls have gulped through gallons every week for years and recently my #2 child is scorning milk. She drinks her carton of milk at school during lunch but that's pretty much the cutoff. So... any suggestions from you veteran moms out there? She says she loves strawberry milk but Nesquik isn't doing it for her anymore. Chocolate and vanilla flavoring syrups/powders aren't slipping by her either.

::help::

Neat Ideas

Fall is really here and I'm loving all the reds and golds this year. I've been trying my best to embrace all of the hues of the season and I've branched out from the chocolate and cranberry mold that I enjoyed last year and am crooning over this very natural arrangement I saw today:

I just stumbled across a new blog earlier this afternoon centered on some fabulous deco ideas that feature some great ideas to create splendid things for less....

My blogroll isn't behaving right now but I thought I'd post a linky so you all can check out Eddie Ross. Some really good ideas there. :) Especially this whimsical eye pleasing ric rac pumpkin arrangement!

Dear Diary

Today is one of those days where I could just sleep the afternoon away. Cool, drizzly and quiet. I am fighting to stay motivated to get anything done: sort the laundry, work on sewing projects, wash this morning's dishes, etc. It doesn't help that I snuggled up on the sofa with Little One and a heating pad earlier. She's been alternating between wild and goofy and trying to get me to give chase to sweet and snuggly.
Right now Little One is sleeping and I'm trying to stay awake. I think I'll go start on dinner--cooking always perks me up. And it's nice to smell dinner hours before it is ready because it piques even the kids' interest. Ahh... here's to hoping I can stay motivated long enough to still be awake in 45 minutes when I have to leave and pick up the children from school!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Win This Quilt!


Elizabeth Cranmer over at Pigtails and Snails is giving away this FANTASTIC quilt on her blog... but you have to enter by tonight to win! Please, please hurry scurry on over there and post because you wouldn't want to miss out on a chance to have this lovely quilt in your hot little hands. A lot of love went into this gem; it's a Lizzy Anne original--her own pattern and it could be yours!

I can't say it enough, YOU WANT THIS QUILT! Now go!!

Total TMI

I was talking to a Mommy Friend of mine the other day and I ended up taking the conversation to the "you don't want to know this, and I know that you don't want to know this, but I'm going to go there and nothing you can say or do will be able to stop me from going there" stage. You see, I have a tendency to voice some of the most inappropriate things known to the female kingdom. Becoming a mommy has made the color of poo a socially acceptable topic of conversation. Afterbirth, stitches down there, kids putting fingers in yucky places and then inhaling deeply just to check out the new aromas... yeah, I talk about it all. Yesterday I caught my 18 month old dropping ice cubes on the floor at a local diner and trying to lick them up, I'm sure that'll come up in conversation soon, along with all of the other weird and, sometimes gross, stuff she does.

Which brings me to one of my more recent things that I derive pleasure/amusement from. I initially tried saying that it's so funny to watch the kids when this particular thing happens, but I know it's more because I know that (TMI here, you'll understand later on) I have the very same experience! It's like, did you ever see your kid pick their nose and tell them that it's gross and then later on you're driving your car or sitting on the can picking away yourself? Exactly.

So without further ado: Little One is doing great with the idea of the potty and I think she's more ready to toilet train than either of us REALLY wants her to be. Lately she's telling me she's poopie right before, during and after the blessed happening actually takes place. Speaking of, she's doing it right now in the living room. Grunt, watery eyes, holding her breath while pushing, yeah. (Taught her to say "turd" last week, absolutely hysterical!) Problem is, she just doesn't want to go #2 on the toilet. I've heard the pediatrician say that children sometimes view their poo as a piece of them and they have a hard time disposing of it in the toilet, which kind of makes sense. I mean, if you've ever toilet trained your child and had to stay with them and watch them take care of their business, you'll know how much it takes out of a wee one, litterally, when they go. The focus, strained facial expressions, pursed lips, glassy eyes, furrowed brows... and then, just as the object of their labors passes, they get The Chill. Yes, that little, unexpected shiver as the load evacuates the hatch. I mean, 4-6 ounces of 98.6 degree matter just left their body. It's like pressing the reset button on the furnace--shutting everything down, cleaning the old coal embers and ashes out, sweeping things down and then starting all over on a new batch of fuel.

So now every time that I shiver, even when my downstairs neighbors have their heat cranked and my apartment is holding at an even 82 degrees (yes, for real), I can't help but think of my kids' watery eyes or their furrowed brows and smile. After all, they take after their mother.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Long weekends

In our home, long weekends give reckless abandon to the usual bedtimes slated for our children. They stay up late, we hope they sleep in but they never do, we count our blessings when they pass out for a nice long nap when we get in the car to go "out". It's a cycle that repeats and we have grown rather accustomed to it.

Thursday last week started a FOUR day weekend for us and we decided to treat the kids to a pizza and movie night to get the festivities off with a big bang! By the end of our movie the two little ones were ready for bed but our oldest was begging to stay up with us to watch a show... or two. She had her pillow and blanket out on the sofa and was ready to camp the night away in the living room and well, we let her! After watching The Office with us her mind wandered into the realm of peaceful oblivion and we went to bed ourselves. Upon waking the next morning she took advantage of the fact that her other sisters were still sleeping and sidled up to me... "Mom, it felt really good when you let me stay up late and watch a show with you..." wink, smile, batting of the eyes... "It kind of made me feel like a grownup!" At this point I was tickled and just kind of going along with her: "Oh yes, it was so fun! Wow--a grown up, huh? Pretty special...!"

Then she tells me, "You know, when I get older I'm going to have lots of kids too! And you know what else? If they don't have school the next day I'm going to MAKE them stay up and watch TV with me; then we'll ALLLLL feel like grownups!"

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Hmmm...

Lots of flannel scraps laying around here and not much to do with them (1/2 yard to full yard sized cuts). Bought the flannel intending to make burpies and maybe a few rag quilts but now I'm wondering if anyone else has any suggestions for them? I know there are lots of talented women out there, anyone care to share your ideas?

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Drumroll please...

Without further ado...
The winner of our grand prize is...
# 5--Ang said "OOOH OOOH OHHHH PICK ME PICK ME!!!!" She also happens to be a big advocate of the team cleaning approach, enlisting family members to clean is always a plus!

Special thanks to random.org for the random integer generator used to select our winner! And stay tuned for some exciting news in the next few days or so!

Love you all!!
Heather