2007 November Archive at eastowners

Monthly Archive for November, 2007

Why did I buy that again?

Published

charmaspice

on November 30, 2007

in Kid-friendly and Movies

. 1 Comment

Current Mood: Tired or Sleepy

So…on Monday I went to do our Costco grocery shopping trip. I try to go faithfully at least once a month to stock up on things, but for some reason I think it’s been like 2 months since I’ve last been shopping there. I like to shop there for things like bulk Organic Milk, orange juice, toilet paper, bread (I freeze about 6 loaves, and yes we go through that in a month), cereal, apple juice, healthy snacks, and sometimes whatever else I can manage to find that I think we need to have. For the most part my bill is pretty reasonable, and I have a lot of things on hand that I wouldn’t otherwise have. When I went into the store on Monday they were handing out their Christmas flyers…sure I’ll take one I said! I was glancing through their Manufacturers Rebates add when I noticed they had The Original Christmas Classics DVD for $12 or so. 7 of your holiday favorites including “Frosty the Snowman”, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”, and “Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town!”. There are extra’s on each DVD with “The Little Drummer Boy”, “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol”, “Cricket on the Hearth”, and “Frosty Returns” with a bonus Music CD. I remember watching most of these on tv (or copied VHS from the tv) with my brothers as a kid. We spent many a Sunday afternoon’s watching these when the holidays came around…mostly because we didn’t have cable, and there was nothing else on the 8 channels we got from our antenna ontop of the house. So, I saw a deal and scooped it up thinking how much fun it’d be to watch these with Clare. Boy was I wrong! She wants to watch them over and over and over and over and over again. Yesterday she watched Frosty twice, and Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town once before I put the kiabosh on it. First thing she says this morning when we come down stairs is I want to watch Frosty! I protested, so she moved on down the line of the other movies in the set. I don’t know if I’ll ever get out of Christmas town after the first of the year! HELP! I could always pull something my mom & dad did to my brother Frank. He had an obsession with Ghost Busters & Backdraft as a kid….they hid the movies from him telling him that one of my dad’s co-workers wanted to borrow our copy, when really they hid it in their bedroom. Sneaky!

Holiday Jet Lag

Published

charmaspice

on November 29, 2007

in Family and Updates

. 0 Comments

Current Mood: Martini Mood

Sorry for the delay in posting. Thanksgiving made me super sleepy, and highly unmotivated. Last week we left on Wednesday for what is the LONGEST trek accross the state I’ve ever taken. My parents live in Goodells (just outside of Port Huron) on the East side of the state. It’s usually a relatively easy trip to make in about 2 1/2 hours with my lead foot. How much easier can you get than take I-96 to I-69 to the Whales Center exit? It took us 5 hours from when we left home to get there. We left about 1:15ish, stopping for lunch and coffee before leaving town. It took me 15 - 20 minutes to make my way from Breton Rd to the highway on 28th street! I got on the high way, dodging the horrible drivers in the rain. We got on I-69 without too many troubles to be halted to a complete stop for oh about half an hour. It literally took me 1 hour to go 5 miles, all because people don’t pay attention to construction signs. The highway went down to one lane for about 10 miles, but of course everyone has to swap lanes and be 3 cars ahead of you causing the highway to halt while they try to cram into one lane. We were stopped in front of a rest stop, and people were cutting through the rest stop to get ahead….only causing more traffic to pile up. We finally made it to my parents house to have some pizza, and then ship Clare off to bed.

Thanksgiving Day was relatively quiet. My brother Frank, his fiance Cari, and their baby girl Olivia joined us for dinner with my Grandpa. We all over ate of course, leaving me to lounge on the couch feeling bloated and ready to explode. I think those last few carrots I ate did me in! Clare had lots of fun, and she got to try to give Olivia toys to play with. It’s funny how baby toys become big kid toys just because they are new, and make noise. Olivia is getting so big, and makes lots of noise to feel like she’s part of the party too. I have a great shot of Clare holding her…now I just need to get them off the camera

On Friday morning we joined the other fellow crazies in the cold for a bargain or 4. I set the alarm for 3:30am, and we were out of the house by 4:00am to make it into town by 4:30am. We got in line at Best Buy and awaited the warmth of the store. Man was it cold out…and I forgot my scarf! We picked up an HD DVD Player (which came with 5 free cd’s), Brad got a new LCD Monitor, and I got the remainder of the Sex in the City DVD’s I needed to own the complete series (because they were 1/2 off). We ”thought” about going to Kohl’s…but we heard someone say they waited in line to check out for 45 minutes (and we were out of Best Buy by 6am). That and the parking lot was a mad house. Toys R Us was much the same….so we skipped them and headed to Tim Horton’s for some coffee, a breakfast sandwich, and a donut. We were going to stop at Game Stop too….but they didn’t open for another hour, and Brad claimed Food trumped Video Games. Never mess with Brad when he’s hungry! We went back to my parents for a nap. My parents took Clare to see The Bee Movie that afternoon with a stop at my mom’s McDonald’s to play in the play area.

On Saturday we left, and made it back home in our normal 2 1/2 hours. We unloaded, put some things away, and then headed out for some dinner. On Sunday I had planned to put up our tree….but lack of motivation, and just wanting to hang out watching tv in my comfy pants got the best of me. It’s Thursday, and it’s still not up. This week has kinda gone by in a flash…with grocery shopping, helping out at school, and some Christmas shopping keeping me busy. Tomorrow will be much of the same, as I have to await our exterminator. We found ants in the wall of the project room we are turning into Clare’s room. I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll ever get her in there! Which leaves it to be done this weekend. Ah well.

What Would I do?

Published

charmaspice

on November 19, 2007

in Rants

. 0 Comments

Current Mood: Surprised emoticon Surprised

Today I went to school to drop off Clare, and I saw one of the moms that has been MIA for the past week. We became friends quickly the first week of school, and I always look forward to chatting with her and a few other mom friends I’ve made while waiting for the kids to go in at drop off or while waiting for them at pick-up. Her mom had been bringing her son to school for the past week, and we all thought she was sick.

Now let me get a few things straight before you continue reading. I’m not about gossip…but I feel that this is valuable information for all of us stay-at-home moms to think about. I will under no circumstances divulge the name of the mom or her child in my blog, as I feel if she wants to tell more people she will.

I guess a few weeks ago they had gotten home from school, and she was about to get into the shower when she heard someone breaking into her house. 2 large men broke through a heavy aluminum door that was dead bolted to meet up with an angry mom in her undies. The mom quickly locked her 2 kids in the bathroom telling them not to make a sound unless it was her at the door. Even if it was someone saying it was the police, do not open the door…if the police wanted in they would have to break down the bathroom door. She approached the men, as any Momma Bear would…and she defended her cubs. She started beating up one of the men, and went into hyper protection mode doing anything she could to protect her kids. The men decided not to persue and left. She grabbed her cell phone and chased them down the street…in her underwear. After calling 911 they found her, and arrested the men she was persueing. They are apparently related to 7 other break-ins in the area. I think this mom is oh so very brave, so brave I don’t quite have the words to describe it. My heart goes out to her as she heals from this. She was so messed up from all that happened, that after discussing some things with one of her church pastors, she went on a mental leave. Her body was on such high alert that she almost beat a man up in a grocery parking lot for speaking to her son (he didn’t do anything wrong or was even trying to harm him), her senses were taking over her mind. Apparently it’s a lot like Post-war syndrom.

This just got me to thinking. What would I do if I found someone breaking into my house while I was home with Clare? Where would I go? What would I do? Could I be brave enough to fight them off like she did? All of these questions are swirling around in my head as I finish this post. I think I need to go back to the gym…maybe this is the motivation I need to get back in shape; so I can fight off the bad guys - just in case.

Random 7 Meme

Published

charmaspice

on November 18, 2007

in Memes and UFO

. 1 Comment

Current Mood: Flirtatious emoticon Flirtatious

Okay….so I’ve been tagged by my pal Adventure Mom to do a Meme about me. Since I don’t ever have a problem talking about myself I figured why not!

The meme: 7 random facts about me

The rules: Link to your tagger and post these rules. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them). Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

1. I was in Color Guard for 2 years in High School during marching season (yes, I was a flag twirler - and I loved it).

2. When I was younger I wanted to be a Veternarian - I think it had something to do with how active I was in 4-H with my rabbits.

3. I wanted to have 3 kids when I was younger - now I think we’ll just stick with the 1 we have…she’s enough trouble to keep me from staying sane most days.

4. I wanted to have a horse when I was a kid - my parents wouldn’t let me despite the fact that we lived on a farm. I think they knew I’d loose interest and try to pawn the care of it off on them. It’s what I did with the rabbits.

5. After graduating High School I went with the Michigan Lions All-State Band to Korea, China, and Hawaii for about 2 and a half weeks to the International Lions Convention in 1995. It was the trip of a life time, and I’ve seen some sites that are amazing!

6. During my years at Western MI University I became known as Charma - mostly because on one boring night my friend Beeko took me out dressed rather ~~slutty~~ provocatively and we took pictures around town. It was lots of fun to do, and it helped me come out of my shell even more. No, I wasn’t drunk during the photo shoot…it was just something funny to do - we even harassed some security guards at Meijer!

7. I wore green chuck taylor tennis shoes to get married in 6 and a half years ago. The whole wedding party did in fact. Brad wanted to wear Bozo shoes….I said no, so this ended up being our comprimise. I still have them in the closet, and on occasion wear them. It’s kinda funny to put them on and say that I’m wearing my wedding shoes.

All right, tag! the following people are it…

Good Idea Momma

Ang

And anybody else that would like to participate - since I can’t think of anyone else right now!

I’ve Got a Friend!

Published

charmaspice

on November 17, 2007

in Annoucements and Awards

. 0 Comments

Current Mood: Happy emoticon Happy

Well….really I’ve got many friends (plural). My sweet pal Big Binder though gave me the “Friend in You” Award the other day, and I am very touched. Big Binder and I go back a few years in real life. She was my first recruit as the membership person of our MOMS Club chapter. I still remember the first of many great play dates we’ve had - hanging out at the zoo that sunny summer afternoon with our little ones running around the petting area harassing all the animals & splashing in the animal drinking fountain. Who knew years later we’d still be hanging out both in real life and in the blogosphere. Thank you so much Big Binder.

In the spirit of friendship I would love to pass this onto the many friends I have. However I can only pick a few, and since most of my friends don’t blog; it should make it pretty easy to pick a few friends that haven’t already gotten this award to bestow upon them. Thanks for being such good friends in college: Ang’s Rants & Raves, and The Artistic Pursuit of Life on Earth . Both were roommates of mine (during different times of course), and they were the best roomies one could ask for during those fun times at WMU. GO BRONCO’S!

They Might Be…

Published

charmaspice

on November 17, 2007

in Date-Night and Music

. 0 Comments

Current Mood: Happy emoticon Happy & Jammin’

Giants. What or Who’s that you ask….an awesome geek rock band that we went to go see on Tuesday night. I still have “Particle Man” and “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”stuck in my head. We had a great time seeing the show at The Intersection; as we always do. We ended up meeting up with one of my pal’s from playgroup (no the playgroup is not for us….it’s for the kids) after talking about it at playgroup earlier that morning. I’m so glad that M & J were able to get tickets to join us because we had a great time hanging out with them. Not that we don’t love our children, but it’s always nice to get out with adults and discuss adult things. We found out that we had a lot more in common than just belonging to our MOMS Club, and our daughters being great pals. Hopefully we’ll be able to hang out again soon outside of playgroup. The show was awesome, as I said, despite the opening act sucking…badly. They were a 2 man band (literally) playing instruments over a loop (bad ones I might add), and they even used an air horn during a song to see if you were paying attention.

The pictures above are not from our show, just ones I saved by searching for They Might Be Giants in Google’s Images. We tried to get a couple of pics on our new cheap bar cams….but the camera’s turned out to be just that - cheap. Apparently the pictures we did take were quite blurry, and the videos we tried to take didn’t come out that great. Which is a bummer, because they played “Alphabet of Nations” one of Clare’s favorite songs. Yes, people, this band is Kid Friendly - one of the other great things I like about them. They even have a couple of kid albums out, one entirely about the alphabet “Here Come the ABC’s”. Clare loves to sing them, especially “Flying V”. Most of their songs are about things that you learn about in life - real things, not just love and heart break, and how to shake your booty…one of the reasons I call geek rock. That and I’ve never seen so many guys in one bar with striped sweaters on in one night!

Oh, and if you’d like a free listen and another site to look at feel free to check out their MySpace page.

Article brings Awareness…I hope!

Published

charmaspice

on November 12, 2007

in Interesting and Raves

. 0 Comments

Current Mood: Jammin’ & Martini Mood

Disclaimer: This blog posting is of my personal opinion, and in no way is a jab at any one person’s religion or beliefs. It is what I have always believed, and is one of the reasons why I left the Catholic upbringing. If you feel that your sensabilities may be hurt, then I urge you to read no further.

So, with the fundraiser Clare’s school did for magazines I decided to become a regular subscriber of People. I love reading it…the latest dish on celebs, fashion, and what’s going on in the social world (besides politics - which I find boring). In this weeks issue (Nov. 19, 2007) there was a great article called “One Mother’s Tragic Lesson”. It was about how a mom disowned her lesbian daughter just because she was a lesbian, and the mom was a Christian ( and as a Christian we are taught that homosexuality is a sin). This mom, spent many years disliking her daughter, and the fact that she brought partners home for holidays, graduation parties, and the like, felt that she was completing a horrible sin just for being a lesbian. Years went by and their relationship suffered. They went to conselor’s, and of course nothing helped mend their relationship - as most mom’s can understand, her dream of her daughter growing up to get married and have a family was no longer going to be fulfilled. As the years went on her daughter pulled away, and sent an angry letter home. Her mother did nothing, until it was too late. Her daughter had commited suicide. That year the mom began reading about homosexuality and studying the Bible…and in the end she found herself thinking ” This is not a sin. These people are just like we are; they want the same things we do.”

Normally I do not find myself promoting anything religious…I try to stay open minded, and allow others to believe what they believe, while I believe what I believe. I have no one philosophy, and I believe in many things. The mom in this article could no longer be kept silent, and has told her stories to many; finally coming up with the name “TEACH Ministries“….it stands for To Educate About the Consequences of Homophobia. You can visit their website at the above link. After doing so I found that they are part of 5 families that were interviewed for a movie that won prizes at the Filmdance Film Festival. I think this is an absolutely wonderful organization and I can only hope that more people will become more accepting of those around them that happen to be different in only their sexual orientation - and in no other way, we are all humans after all.

I think I’m going to get off my soap box now and relax. Be kind to all humans, everyone wants to live the life that they want….and so long as nobody is dieing what’s the harm!

The Force

Published

charmaspice

on November 10, 2007

in Family and UFO

. 0 Comments

Current Mood: Tired or Sleepy

One of Clare’s latest obsessions is Lego Star Wars. She even refers to Darth Vador as her sweetie! Yes….that’s our child. It all started about 6 months ago or so when Brad bought a copy for the Playstation, then he bought Lego Star Wars II for the Game Cube…..and now they play it in HD off of our media computer that’s hooked up to the tv in the living room. She asks to play it EVERY night after dinner with him. I’ve tried playing with her, but she tends to wander and it’s very hard not to get frustrated with her not following the leader. I have to laugh though, as today I was sitting out at the dining room table eating lunch when I hear Brad say “Clare….DON’T USE THE FORCE ON ME!” One of her favorite things to do is “Whack daddy’s head off with the ax or light sabor” in the game. Usually I try not to promote violence, but who can pass up giggling at your 5 year old girly girl that wears skirts & dresses every day she can, that likes to beat up on her cartoon dad in a game. I think it’s her way of getting back at him for picking on her in real life.

The flying Dutch Man

Published

charmaspice

on November 7, 2007

in Family and UFO

. 0 Comments

Current Mood: Sad emoticon Sad

Well, he really isn’t flying…although he may be tonight in my dreams. Dutch was a lone pup I found when I was about a senior in high school from our dog Brandy. Yes, she had 1 puppy…only 1, so we knew that he was special. He was so pudgy and round as a pup, and oh so lovable you wanted to just smother him with hugs and kisses. I am saddened this evening to find out that he is no longer on this Earth, and has been sent to doggy heaven in the sky to be with his mom Brandy. My mom called this afternoon to let me know that he had to be put down. He was old, and lived a long life as a hunting dog, family dog, protector, and best of all a loveable dog. I want to say that he was around 13 years old, almost 14 as his birthday would have been this month.

Dutch was special to me because I found him. I had gotten home from school that day, and I went to let Brandy out of her pen (as we kept her as an outdoor dog). She got to the one corner of the house and let out a yelp, running back to her pen. I went to find out what was going on, and opened the roof to her coup (aka the house she slept in) to find her nursing one single little pup. He was so cute, and my mom named him Dutch, as that’s what her dad called her when she was younger. He was so dependent on his momma, she carried him around in her mouth everywhere, and he refused to walk. I remember sitting around the Christmas tree forcing him to walk, while we held down his mom Brandy. Soon enough we made them both house dogs. About a few years later Brandy was so old (16 years old), and her hips had fallen apart so we put her down. I remember my dad heating up the ground to burry her on the farm where we grew up.

Dutch was always there through fun and sad. He would lay on the living room floor and I (or my brother’s) would fall asleep on him using him as a fluffy pillow. He always listened to me, even though I’m sure he had no clue what I was saying. Soon enough I went away to college and my parents adopted another dog, Shelby, into their house. I think she was a replacement for their oldest that flew the nest….but I’m sure they’d protest and say otherwise. I’d go home and there’d they’d always be….the dynamic duo Dutch & Shelby.

After Brad & I married, and had Clare we’d go back to my parent’s place…and they were always there eager to great us as we pulled into the drive way, the dynamic duo that is. Clare too kinda grew up with Dutch, and will always remember him as the dog she could ride as a toddler. Yes, he was that type of dog. Kind, wise, snuggly, and oh so smart. I will miss him, and I know my parents will miss him too as I think he was secretly the 4th child. As I finish this I leave you with some pictures of my “Bufalumps”, it’s what I called him - don’t know where it came from, but it suited him. I will miss seeing him when I go home in a few weeks for Thanksgiving, but I know he is in a better place now with no pain, no worries of dealing with is deafness, and his lumps are all gone now. I hope that my parent’s are healing too from their grief in missing him, as he was truely one of the best dogs anyone could have known. Not that my dog isn’t great….but we all know Moonshadow isn’t the brightest crayon in the box, as she’s still got A LOT of pup still left in her. I can only hope that she will become as great of a dog as he was….she’s on her way there, she just needs a few more years.