This morning I drove the kids through the gray, rainy morning and dropped them off at school with a small spring in my step. I'm starting to get the old holiday spirit going. This is manifesting in strange ways this year, since I'm not so interested in holiday gift buying [...]
My youngest will turn seven in just over a week, which is shocking in and of itself. It seems only yesterday that she was appearing here looking like this:
NaBloPoMo #FAIL
So, here's a thing about me... I rarely wear earrings. I wear them so infrequently that my holes in my ears will actually close, and I have to jab them mercilessly with the post to force them through my abnormally thick earlobes and then leave them in place for [...]
NaBloPoMo #12
Iiieeeeee! I just noticed that tomorrow is not only Friday the 13th, but it is also pajama day at school for the kids. Guess I better make sure that their cute pajamas are clean.
I'm running on fumes over here. Things are getting done, and I did manage to' [...]
NaBloPoMo #11
I know Veteran's Day is an important day. That said - having the kids home all day on a Wednesday was giving me flashbacks to this last summer of full-time hours with no child care. The inmates were running the asylum today and I white-knuckled it through.
That seems like [...]
NaBloPoMo #9 & #10 - it's a twofer
Look, I know. I KNOW. Here we are only 10 days into the month and I've already messed up my NaBloPoMo record. I'm still going to keep at it, and we're all just going to overlook that blip in my otherwise awesome progress.
So,' [...]
NaBloPoMo #8
This entry is a total cop-out. I've got so much wonderful to report on our outing, but I'm too tired right now.
Happy Birthday to my lovely mom!
[...]NaBloPoMo #6
My six-year-old just spent the last hour sitting in a basket in the middle of the living room. My other two kids also wanted to sit in the basket, and when given the chance, likely would have stayed there all night, just to prevent their siblings from sitting in [...]
NaBloPoMo #5
Seriously, someone needs to slap all the Star Wars references out of my head. Must be the CPAP breathing machine that makes me identify with Darth, and the newly honed Jedi (Jen-nai?) Mind Control powers I'm busting out all over the place. All I know is I've been running [...]
NaBloPoMo #4
You know what I hate? Trying to get through to insurance companies, doctors, medical centers and government offices.
I have a feeling I'm going to be an expert at kicking down doors very shortly.
This means I need some new boots, I think. Or a white' [...]
NaBloPoMo #3
In order for me to go to my sister's doctor appointment this afternoon, I needed to find someone to watch all three of my children for several hours. As usual, I hit up my buddy Kim, who would have been delighted* to help out but was already taking on [...]
NaBloPoMo #2
Although I've had my CPAP machine and mask thingie for over a month now, I've only used it for about 10 nights, and most of those have been partial nights. I think I'm not smart enough to use it properly.
Remember when I first had it, I had a triangle' [...]
NaBloPoMo #1
Seriously, people. My kids are Hallowussies. More on that in a minute.
So, apparently some new people moved into the neighborhood in the last year or two, and [...]
I'm realizing that my oldest looks more like Bootsy Collins than a White Cat, but there she is, feeling mighty awesome in her furry ensemble.
A closer look at my boy:
I looked up at the calendar this weekend and realized that holy craperoli, we only have a few days before Halloween. Not only are the kids' costumes not quite done yet, but we also hadn't done our annual trip to the pumpkin patch to score some seriously overpriced gourds.
Wait, are [...]
Well, the news, such as it is, is that they did find cancerous cells. We'll know more on Monday, after she meets with the team, and schedules an MRI. She's more angry than anything right now - which is probably exactly what she needs to be.
As for me? I'm numb, [...]
Doo dee doo dee doooo
We still don't have any details about my sister, although they say tomorrow mid-day. So ahoy then, tomorrow it is. Moving right along.
Today, let's talk about my kids, because I haven't really mentioned the little dears for a while.
My oldest is 10 and a half now, [...]
These last couple of weeks have been full of low-grade drama, of the mundane sort that isn't very interesting, even to those of us who are slogging through. I've held off on writing about a few things, because they weren't MY things, exactly. But it sort of dawned on me' [...]
Two weeks ago, I managed to cram in three parent-teacher conferences in two days, six outfits and my laptop into a carry-on approved piece of luggage, and I headed off for NYC. I attended an event that I'll detail later this weekend over on my review blog. Never one to' [...]
The approach of autumn is palpable, even as I close all the shades in preparation for another 100 degree day. Maybe it's the shelves stuffed with halloween goodies at all the stores, or the fact that my trees have been dropping leaves and spiky balls filled with pollen that has [...]
I haven't written all that much about my ongoing saga to figure out what the heck is going on with my health. My doctor started me on thyroid pills - well, pill. Once a day. And so far so good with that. He also suspected I might' [...] Oh, my friends. My boy has turned nine.
Well, actually, he turned nine back on Saturday, and I'm just now getting around to writing about it because I decided that we should switch around the kids' rooms so that he had his own room and the girls are now sharing [...]
We had a good school week. I'll give us that. But it's 97 degrees and muggy at 7:30 pm on a Friday night.
Work was all-consuming this week. Not in that happily busy with interesting projects kind of ways, either. Not a complaint, as I know how very lucky I' [...]
Why the heck is this song stuck in my head?
And you know I don't actually know all the lyrics, and probably never did, so I'm singing some sort of other nonsense words to make up for the parts I don't know.
I'm not the hugest Olivia Newton-John fan, but I do [...]
The first week of school was fantastic.
Here's the part where all the rest of the people who do this stuff too are going to start rolling their eyes:
The kids were well-dressed this week. No funny outfits!
We were on time. Early, even.
The lunches I packed were a) healthy [...]
Standing at my kitchen sink just now, I saw shades of pink painting the western horizon. The light of day is faded now, and my yard is bathed in a deep blue.
My 6 year old has already gone to sleep, exhausted after her second day of 1st grade. I [...]
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More on this tonight...
[...]
Morning two of the camping trip to Bodega Dunes had me groggily swilling down my daily thryoid pill and rousing sleepy-eyed kids while waiting for the coffee to percolate.
The hubs hiked the kids over [...]
Camping trips are some of my favorite childhood memories, and while I want my children to love camping as much as I did growing up, I've been reluctant to plan any camping trips for our family. I don't know - it is a lot of work to get ready for [...]
I always swear that I'm going to write some sort of BlogHer wrap up post, and I fall down on the job every year. It could have something to do with the fact that I return home exhausted and blissed out. Or, it could be the stark realization that we've [...]
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This cracks me up every. single. time. I [...]
It's Saturday morning and I'm a bit bleary-eyed after another late night of events. Working for BlogHer, I am always aware of the talented women who are part of this community, but somehow, putting them all in a hotel creates a shockwave of energy that changes everyone it touches.
I've been [...]
We're entering the last month of summer, and I cannot believe it. Not even a little bit. Usually, by this point, I'm crying uncle, and counting the days until school is back in session. This year, I find myself wishing each day had about 12 extra hours (and that I [...]
Just in time for the BlogHer conference, my hair has begun to fall out. Something happens every year at this time that makes my scalp decide to just let go of inhibitions along with handfuls of follicles. It has happened for the last 5 years. June through October. We're not' [...]
Man, I don't have anything intelligent to say about the loss of both Farrah and Michael Jackson today, but I'm tempted to break out the curling iron and attempt a moonwalk in my own private form of mourning.
I sort of left the whole "drama camp" thing hanging, didn't I?' [...]
For years and years, I've been telling my dear friend E to get herself a blog.
All the cool kids are doing it, I'd tell her.
Your art is amazing, and it should have a home online, I'd say.
She made charming, bashful aw-shucks noises and never got that darn blog going...' [...]
BlogHer is partnering with Discovery Health to share some amazing birth stories in honor of Baby Week. It's like Shark Week... except with babies! Baby Week runs Sunday, June 14th through Friday, June 19th at 8 pm, with an marathon on Saturday, June 20th from 10am to 5pm, so [...]
My eight-year-old son and ten-year-old daughter are attending a two week drama camp held at their elementary school. I'll admit, my motivating factors when registering them were not pure, exactly. I didn't think "hmm, what enrichment activities would rock their socks off, and allow them to blossom?" I was more [...]
Today was the first day of Drama Camp for the two oldest kids. Upon pickup my son recited a list of all the new friends he had made.
Elliott, Blake, Michael, Sean... and he spelled it out for me S. E. A. N.
At that point, my six year old chimed in [...]
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The kitchen has been stocked with groceries. The kids are dressed in playclothes and are sort of playing nicely with each other while I work. I'm not ready to call it yet, but I think we will have survived week one of summer vacation.
' [...]I was up at 6 am, but no walk today. Why? Because I have a knot in my muscles in my upper back, and while I know and you know that exercise would only help, since it is probably a stress-ball, I'm sitting here sipping decaf and reading blogs.
Bah.
I wish' [...]
Oh, my friends. Summer vacation is upon us, and the weather has been rather bleh. The mornings have been socked in with fog and chilly, and the skies don't clear until mid-afternoon. It hasn't exactly inspired me to pack up picnic lunches and take the kids to the park. It [...]
Last weekend, I was on the phone with my mom when I heard a blood-curdling scream from the front yard. I got off the phone and headed for the front door, and was greeted by my 10 year old daughter, clutching her arm and yelling her head off.
It seems that [...]
I do most of my grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. For the few things I need that they don't carry, I typically shop at the Safeway around the corner from my house. And yet, whenever I send my husband to the store, he always goes to the Raleys that is [...]
Oh, we've gone and done it now. We went out and purchased a new car for the hubs this weeked. Just like that.
Except it wasn't exactly unplanned. The timing was sort of a surprise, but the need has been there for years.
See, my husband bought his Acura Integra back [...]
We're T-minus 2 regular school days plus a half day until summer vacation.
Truthfully, I've made my peace with it. Now I just have to stock up on Popsicles and water guns and hope that the mix of summer classes, sports camps, family outings and kicking around the house days [...]
Last night, my sleep was disturbed again and again by uneasy dreams. I can't even tell you what they were about - only the vaguely sick feeling in my stomach lingers. This has been a long, crazy week, so I think my subconscious is getting in a few kicks, reminding' [...]
Someone hold me. Summer doth approach, and I am quaking in my boots.
The kids gleefully pointed to the school days left and counted together this morning while I hovered by the kitchen sink. 15 days. 14 really, since I have to get them at noon.
OMG OMG OMG I am [...]
The day of the Bat-a-thon started off a little chilly, but with a very clear sky. By the time we made our way to the field, my daughter was giving me the stink-eye every time I tried to psych her up to swing the bat.
I wisely shut my mouth before [...]
Since we started this baseball season, my daughter has been suffering from what I can only describe as performance anxiety. She would get up to home plate, clutching her bat and would just stand there. At first we thought she might be afraid of the ball, but that wasn't it' [...]
A few years ago, I got this sign, and hung it in my hallway, where I walk past it 500 times a day. It never fails to make me smile, and I think that is exactly why it is in the perfect spot.
Like me, it's a little [...]
I worked all through my kids' spring break this year - a combination of too many factors kept me at my desk. The kids had a four day weekend, what with Good Friday and Easter Monday, so I decided to take a couple of days to spend with my yahoos' [...]
Yesterday was the kids' school's 2nd annual walk-a-thon. About a month or so ago, I guess they held an art contest, with the winning drawing to appear on the walk-a-thon t-shirts. My ten-year-old daughter was the first runner up, so she received a laminated copy of her drawing and a' [...]
Trader Joe's Very Mini Vanilla Meringues are these bitty, wee, chocolate chip-sized versions of their Vanilla Meringues cookies. Not only do they have only one calorie (of pure sugar woooooo!) per mini-meringue, but they have the same satisfying crunch and give as the stale "marshmellows" in Lucky Charms cereal.
Having [...]
The morning drop-off at the school went rather smoothly today, and I was congratulating myself on a job done properly for once, if you ignore the fact that I forgot to pack lunches and was wearing my pajamas for the drive, when I got a reality check. No, this was [...]
We're making a pizza for dinner, using Trader Joe's pizza dough. Yep, we busted out the pizza stone, and spread out the dough, added sauce and cheese and we're standing by with the giant rubbermaid lid, waiting to flap ourselves silly.
Yesterday, I spent all day at the baseball field - it was the official opening day ceremonies, followed by my daughter's game. The sun was out, the wind was mild, and the call for team photos was at 8:50am.
Once we arrived at the field, we found the kids' teams' [...]
I know it is looking a little Las Vegas Strip around here - I'm doing some testing of different placements of my ad sizes for work purposes. If you do not see all three ads (the leaderboard/boxad/tall ad) visible on the page when it loads (without scrolling) will you leave' [...]
Apparently, we have a nest of snake hatchlings under our decrepit deck. I know this because my cat keeps bringing snakes into the house and leaving them places after she has had her fun.
She does not kill them. She's like - whee! Living yarn! Whoopie!
I do not kill them either, [...]
My youngest daughter is now six, and midway through her Kindergarten year. That would seem to increase the likelyhood that speaking regular words to her would have a greater impact, and that common sense is much more likely to apply. Generally, I'd have to agree with this idea, but this' [...]
Back in January, I mentioned that I was signing my kids up for Little League Baseball, and how excited I was. Oh, I'm still excited, but I wanted to make sure I could adequately capture how our season has been so far before sitting down to write about it.
At the' [...]
I arrived at the school this afternoon to pick up the kids and met up with my youngest daughter, who at 6 years old is suddenly very foal-like with long skinny legs and a near-galloping gait. I walked alongside her back to the classroom and she rushed inside, gathered her [...]
The sun is shining through my windows, I've got a giant cup of tea steaming at my elbow, and I finally remembered my password for this blog. I keep changing it in fits of petulance, and promptly forgetting it.
So, I've got rhythm - cardiac rhythm anyway. I'm happy to say' [...]
I've just come off of two weeks with my husband gone on business, and then a three day weekend where we were either blessed or plagued by non-stop rain. I know we need it, but I've gotten spoiled with our mild winter thus far, and seriously Mother Nature, why you [...]
My oldest's adult teeth are growing in at an alarming rate right now - often squeezing themselves in before the baby teeth have given up the ghost. As a result my daughter has a baby tooth still attached firmly to the gums at one side while the rest of the [...]
It is one of those glorious mornings where the sunlight is absolutely crystalline and promises a warmth that the surrounding air doesn't deliver. Not even close - it took me three gallons of water to clear the ice from my windshield.
I'm sitting at my kitchen table with my laptop and [...]
It's raining,
It's pouring,
I want to crawl back into my bed and start snoring
I am all signed up to go to BlogHer's meetup tonight - and I am honestly looking forward to it - but driving into the city when it is rainy and cold, having to find [...]
A year ago, I had my hair cut shorter than usual - it was a chin length bob-type thing, I guess. And it was cute enough, but it totally accentuated the fact that my head is shaped exactly like the moon.
Yes, that's me up there in the sky, shining [...]
I stopped Shredding. I am thinking of starting over tomorrow, but it has been four days since my last shred, and I keep looking at the DVD and at my weights and then walking away. I think maybe I'm done, and need to try something else for a week.
I've also [...]
This morning, I tossed my coat over my so-hawt outfit (sweatpants, a long-sleeved tshirt and tennies) and barreled out to the car. Once the kids were dropped off, I pulled into the driveway and paused for a moment, my breath misty even inside the van.
I walked up the front [...]
I picked the kids up at ten minutes after one and admired the ribbon my son was awarded for being a good runner. I listened to my kindergartener tell me about her day, and sent my fourth grader scampering back to her classroom to get the lunchbox that never seems [...]
I'm staring down the barrel of a Tuesday evening after a long day of work. The kids have homework to complete, I have about 700 emails that will have to wait until tomorrow, no matter my desire to empty my inbox, and the dryer just spun to a stop on' [...]
At the turn of the new year, my buddy Steph completed her ambitious year-long blogging project and decided that I was just the kind of sucker she could talk into joining her on a shorter-term project.
Let's do the 30 Day Shred
, she said. [...]
I'm watching the inaugural coverage on television right now - Barack Obama will be sworn in in just under an hour and with all the waving flags and patriotic music and massive crowds...I'm sitting here weeping and sniffing - I always laugh about my penchant for crying on the Fourth [...]
The weather has been a balmy, spring-like 70 degrees for the last week, and I am completely unable to get anything done, due to early onset Spring Fever. We have this every year, late January or early February - we have warm temperatures long enough to freak all the plants [...]
Last weekend, we signed the two older kids up for Little League for the first time. Neither of my kids has played on a sports team before - we've done dance lessons, swimming lessons, English horseback riding lessons, but really nothing that required them to be part of a team.
I [...]
Over the last few years, our crappy assortment of stemware has slowly dwindled, broken glass by broken glass. I just returned from the grocery store with a bottle of Blanc de Noirs, in an attempt to, um, amend my pissy mood and, uh, close the romance gap [...] Just like that - the weekend is here. It has been one of those weeks where it felt like swimming in flood waters - the pull of the current moving me in directions I didn't necessarily go, the water was murky and there were all sorts of submerged objects along [...]
I forgot to plan dinner today, and looked up from my computer at 6pm. Rather than panic, I sent the kids out of the kitchen and pulled some shredded cabbage, a sweet potato, a half an onion, a couple of chicken sausages (already cooked) and a couple of eggs out [...]
Writing more, right when I have the impulse and fresh inspiration, rather than waiting for a "good" time.
This one is kind of a no-brainer for me, although I've been struggling with it for a year. I lost the impulse to grab those little funny moments or things that [...]
Today as I pulled out of my driveway to pick up the kids, I ran into my trash can, standing at the curb awaiting pickup. I knocked it over, spilling a bag onto the pavement.
Was I having a seizure, perhaps? Did I lose control of the car? No. I was [...]
Nice little cliff-hanger I left there, huh? I bet all four of you who still read this blog of mine were assuming that I had shanked an elf and lay rotting in a cell after attempting to shoot my way out the employee entrance to the mall. But no! We [...]
Here we are, four sleeps away from Christmas morning, and I was feeling pretty smug about our gift choices this year. We told ourselves we were scaling back, making the holidays about the memories and the family and whatever it is that kindly, good people do this time of the [...]
The holidays are stampeding towards me like a crash of rhinos, and I'm realizing that I'm so busy experiencing all the festivities that I'm forgetting to record as I go. Blogging as baby-book, here we go:
My baby, my youngest child, has turned 6. She's an official Big [...] It dawned on me and my kindergarten-attending daughter at the same time: today is Wednesday, and we haven't done diddly with the class mascot, Lucky the Leopard, and we've got to manufacture some quality family-bonding with the stuffed animal in the next 24 hours, or Lucky's week at the Lauck [...]
I'm having the hardest time getting anything accomplished since returning from the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It isn't that I'm not moving quickly or attempting to do 9,000 things at once. Au contraire, I'm doing lots of things, really fast and it has the net effect of trying to use a [...]
Oh, yes. Blogging. Riiiiiiight. All those NaBloPoMo folks are congratulating themselves, and likely taking a well-earned day off of blogging. Me? I'm blowing the dust off of this little corner of the 'net and am getting ready to share some minutia. Aw yeah.
I'm realizing that I totally botched an opportunity [...]
Now that my laundry is almost always caught up, it has become apparent that I'm a bit of an underwear and sock hoarding fiend. Granted, we did a sock and underpants review a while back, and got a box full of new unders, but still, there is no reason on [...]
The weekend flew by, and when I splashed some cold water on my face this morning, I noticed that my upper lip was curled into a slight snarl. Alas.
The one great thing about Mondays is the kids go off to school en masse, and I have some productive time. [...]
Once again, I'm working at the kitchen table. Even though it is raining and cold, even though the house temperature dropped to the high-50s last night, I still am a hot sleeper and can't handle having stuff on my feet. When I rose at 4am to begin my work for [...]
I'm sitting at my kitchen table, watching one of those tea-leaf flowers bloom in my glass tea pot, and stalling on answering some of the tougher questions waiting for me in my email. It finally feels like fall, and I'm going to pack away the few halloween decorations that we [...]
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