those crazy kids from around the block
Current Mood:
Cool
I decided we should have a cyber snow ball fight. It was kinda fun to make…..even funnier to watch. Oh, and yes…Clare is now a twin. Apparently for this one you have to use 5 faces…and I only had 4 (unless I started using fish pics). It’s still fun to watch. If you’d like to make one too; go visit jibjab. They have some pretty funny stuff for you to add your creativity & photos to. Happy Holidays!
So…this weekend was a marathon of Star Wars movies. Clare is REALLY into this for some reason. She says her favorite is Yoda, because he’s slow like she is. It was rather hilearious though, as we were watching episode 5…and you hear Yoda talk for the first time to Luke. Clare exclaimed, “Yoda talks like an idiot!” I am extremely impressed that she even likes these movies, as they aren’t much for young kids. We decided to get the origional first 3 as a family gift for Christmas this year. She watched episode 4 on Saturday, and then 5 & 6 on Sunday…and yet she wanted to watch them again when we finished on Sunday. I couldn’t handle it….so the answer was NO! The movies were more filled in for me this time, as when I was younger I wasn’t much for them….so I never watched them entirely through I don’t think. Now, after the New Year I have a feeling that we’ll be getting episode 1 & 3. I don’t know how much Star Wars I will be able to handle…but I’ll give it a try!
Current Mood:
Mischievous
I don’t believe I know anyone that actually has this on their car…but if I do, I’m not sorry. Why do people think that this (pictured left) is funny, cute, or otherwise festive? In case you didn’t get the memo…it’s not any of those. It’s rather distracting, retarded, and just plain dumb! A few years ago I saw a few people with them, now…I see at least 2 every day (and it’s not the same 2). Maybe I’m a little Scroogish this year…I don’t know. I think seeing the holiday garb in stores 3 months before the actual holiday came has gotten to me finally.
Current Mood:
Alarmed
Somebody gets poked in the eye!
I know….the picture is a bit disturbing, but it’s kinda funny when you think about the saying. Of course you’re wondering why I am writing with such a disturbing picture now aren’t ya. Well, here’s the tale of the 5 year old that didn’t pay attention at the grocery store on Wednesday.
We stopped at the grocery store on Wednesday to pick-up a few things for dinner after school. It’s become a habit because the grocery store is literaly just up the street…and their prices are cheaper than the other one on the way home. So, I try to be a tad frugal and shop there for last minute items just to get through the few days before pay day. We were in the check out line, and my groceries were being rung up. Clare was at the end of the register doing her usual “la la la” Not paying attention thing that most kids do while Mom is trying to pay for her stuff. I turned to see that she had dropped her hat about mid way through the check-out line, so I took a step back to have her go and get it. She took two steps forward and was in tears screaming about her eye. Yes, she ran into those metal things at the end of the register that hold the plastic bags, and poked her eye. It’s not as gory as it sounds, she actually only scratched the white of her eye. I think she was looking at her hat while walking, as the scratch is way on the inside of her eye and she has to look hard to the right in order for us to see it. There was a little bit of blood in her tears, so I called her pediatrician’s office from the car. They of course said…take her to the ER, as they have Optomotrists there. I called Brad to have him meet me at home to look at her eye, and see if we truely did need to go to the ER. Not that I’m not an advocate for the ER when necessary…it would just cost us some money that I’d rather spend on other things, and if it’s nothing and their just going to send us home after sitting there for 8 hours…I’d rather not go. Brad called his mom because she used to work for an Optomotrist when he was younger, and has seen things like this many times. That, and Brad has scratched his eye many times playing hockey and the like, so he’d have an idea if it were serious. It’s gotten slightly better in the past 2 days, and she says she can see normally.
So, for those of you with young children…be aware of those metal things sticking out at the end of the register. They’ll poke your eye out!
Current Mood:
Violent
Dear Postal Carrier,
Do you not see the sticky label on the inside of my mail box that says our last name? Also, do you not read the mail to see the address number is the same but really it’s the street to the South of my house? I am not the retirement home that is accross the street, I am not the previous owners of our house, and when I write on the envelope “Return to sender, addressee DOES NOT live here” do not return it to my mailbox. With it being the season of Christmas cards I eagerly await my mail to see who has sent me some holiday love in the mail. I am extremely disappointed when I see mail in there that is not addressed to me, and then I get even more disapointed and angry when I have to place 3….yes it was 3 today…pieces of mail back in the mail box. I am getting to the point where my niceness is running out…I fear that the next batch of mail that ends up in my mail box that is not mine will end up in the trash. And I don’t think that’s fair to those that the mail does belong to. So, please…take 3 seconds to read the mail before you slide it into my mail box.
Thanks - Me
Hi. Glad to see you’re here and reading still. Or maybe you’re new? That’s really good too. I’m kind of a ghost here lately. Not sure exactly why, but perhaps I’m really an introvert. I generally dislike quoting popular culture, but there’s a single line from the movie, Clerks, that continually rings true for me.
Dante Hicks: “You hate people!” Randal Graves: “But I love gatherings; isn’t it ironic?”
So that’s it, then? Why in the hell am I writing this for people if I dislike them, you ask? Well… let me tell you. It’s been a rough week and a half or so and I need someone to pawn my misery off on. You seem like just the kind of person; disconnected, not responsible for the goings on of the eastowners; a casual observer if you will. Like I said, I’m glad you’re here.
“So… what happened?”
I’m not sure I should tell you, now that it seems that you care. Hopefully you’re just being pleasant; I don’t want any emotional involvement here. Since you’re prying and I have nothing better to do, I guess I’ll tell you.
I lost my wedding band in the goddamned Michigan snow.
Yep. Great, huh? The thing simply disappeared. Thus far, it has defied frantic searching and even multiple sweeps of the best metal detector that cost me nothing. I figure only a priceless metal detector will detect a priceless bauble. I apparently figure wrong.
“So, what’s the story?”
You’re gonna get on my nerves if I feel like you’re care too much and I’m gonna tell you to shove off. But since ya asked, I guess I’ll tell. Like I said; nothing much better to do.
I had to go to a conference in Kalamazoo with my boss. His “traveling vehicle” was unavailable the day of the conference so he asked me to drive. I asked Char and she ok’d use of the Audi. Only problem is that the driver’s side windshield wiper on my car, which she would be using, doesn’t work. It was supposed to rain.
I went out to cobble the mechanism back together (I really need to just go to Weller and get a new/used one) , got about halfway through the job and slipped and fell flat on my back in the snow. When I got up, the ring was gone.
It’s been really loose for a while, so I probably shouldn’t have been wearing it. I’m a little pissed at myself for continuing to wear it despite it’s size issue. We took it to the jeweler to ask about sizing and they said that they couldn’t really size it without cutting it and making it ugly (it had a braid in the middle that would be impossible to match up after cutting).
Char helped me search, but it didn’t show up. I borrowed a metal detector from a friend. The ring still hasn’t shown. I’m going to do a couple more sweeps with the sensitivity turned way down and see if anything pops up, but I’m not too optimistic.
So that’s it. Pile the usual crap from work on top of it and I’m not exactly in the greatest of moods.
Well… thanks for listening. Hope you made it to the end and your past weeks have been less “exciting” than mine.
Current Mood:
Tired or Sleepy
My darling funny Clare asked me this question today as we decorated the tree. She had her fist snow icy road day today, and when I asked her what we were doing today she told me that we NEEDED to get our tree up. She was right, I have been procrastinating for some reason since the weekend of Thanksgiving. I don’t have my normal house hold chores done…why should I take a day to put up a tree when I could be doing laundry that desperately needs to be done, bathrooms that are in need of a good scrubbing, and floors that need be swept. You’d think that it’d be the opposite…but for some reason I always use house work to keep my self occupied from doing other things. Of course there are other times when I use television or cuddle time on the couch to occupy my time instead of doing the above mentioned…but I always have a good reason (or at least it sounds good to me). Oh well…I guess everyone has their things that keep them from doing those things that NEED to be done.
Anyway, back to the title of this blog. While we were decorating Clare asked me what I was asking Santa for Christmas this year. She reminded me that last year I asked for a vacation. I did, and Brad suprised me with a holiday away from life & motherhood. We spent 5 days up in Traverse City for a romantic birthday get away being “us” again. There are some pictures of us wine tasting, and having a good time somewhere…don’t know if they made it onto the revamped site or not. I enjoy our “us” time away from home (although this summer we suprisingly had a nice time home being “us” while Clare was with the grandparents), and every year I look forward to that time. It takes us some time to get to relaxing and enjoying “our” time alone, but once we do…it’s wonderful.
Once again, back to the topic at hand (my mind seems to be wandering tonight - don’t know why). I replied to Clare that I wanted a maid for Christmas this year. She said, ” A what?” I said, ” Ya know, a maid - someone that comes and cleans the house for me.” She thought for a moment, and then said “Do you want a live maid or a robot?” The kicker is…she said robot in a robotty voice while making robot moves. It made me laugh, and added some fun to our afternoon.
The tree is up, and the stockings are all hung by the chimney with care. And the Santa Hats are out for some fun dress-up. This year I decided to take my decorating stride with ease, and have only put up the tree. It took me about 6 hours to put the tree up (we do fake, so there’s a process to get it up), and get it decorated all with the help of Clare. I also swept the floor after I was done, did some dusting, and tidied up the living room during that process. It needed to be done, and there were fake pine needles and pieces of red garland on the floor from all the decorating. So, I am chillin’ on the couch with a sleeping hubby, with my hot massager on my back (because my lower back is a bit achey) watching Everest: Beyond the Limit. I love watching people climb Everest…the dare devil climbing that they do, it can send butterflies into my stomach just watching them on the edge of the world. We started watching the series last year, and it quickly was added to our tv watching schedule (aka the DVR). If you haven’t watched it and you like Discovery Channel shows…you should catch it.
Current Mood: Tired or Sleepy
So, Friday night went by without one phone call from the sleep over Clare attended. I thought for sure I’d have to throw on my outdoor gear and drive accross town at 4am to retrieve a sleepy, teary-eyed, nervous girl. However, she did extremely well…and said that she didn’t cry even once.
I dropped her off Friday night around 6pm, and they house was full of lively girls all ready to party the night away. Personally I think the parents are crazy…as there were around 8 girls sleeping over. We went out to dinner, and crashed out on the couch almost immediately. Real exciting, I know…but we didn’t want to get too crazy as we didn’t know what the night would bring. Apparently my little party girl stayed up until 3:30am before crashing out. Her and a couple of the girls were up chatting the night away watching tv. In the morning they took all the girls to see The Bee Movie at the theater before the party ended. I picked her up yesterday afternoon around 2:30pm, to see a puffy eyed, VERY Really EXTREMELY tired little girl. She of course claimed that she wasn’t tired, but we knew better. We stopped off at the store to pick up some stuff for dinner.
Brad made some awesome cheese fondue for us to dip apples, carrots, and bread in. Then we had some sweet & sour shrimp to round out the meal. It was pretty good. Clare has been wanting to go to The Melting Pot for some time now, and we figured we’d give it a whirl at home first before throwing money down the drain. Apparently kids eat free on Sunday’s…so if anything we’d go then.
We started Clare to bed around 6:30pm, as she was just plain ole’ grumpy. Tonights bedtime routine looks like it will start around the same time. She’s slightly less grumpy, but not by much. Now I understand why my parents disliked sleep overs when I was younger. I think it’s only a sign of more grumpy weekends to come as she gets older. HELP!
Current Mood:
Confused
Clare got invited to her first sleep over at a school friend’s house. The sleep over party is tomorrow night after school, and on Saturday morning they are going to see the Bee Movie before being done with the party. I am slightly hesitant to send her, but I am trying to keep my cool Mommy on by allowing her to go. I don’t know the parents well, but I have met the dad several time at drop off at school and feel comfortable enough with him that I think she’ll be okay. 4 of the other girls from school are going, so I think she’ll be even more okay. Plus their will be 5 other girls from their church spending the night to round out the fun. Clare has been on only one other sleep over…and it was literally around the corner from our house at a friend’s that she has been on many play dates with. That and we know the parents extremely well! The main reason for the sleep over was, however, that we shared a babysitter to go out to see a show…so it worked to our convienence. I think this might be to our convienence too though, as it will give us a night home alone - so long as she actually makes it through the night. I’m trying to be positive, but I have a feeling I will get a phone call at 3am to come get her. Here’s hoping…!
Current Mood:
I’ve got an Idea!
I was reading my friend’s blog 3 in Under 3, and she elfed her kids in a post (Thanks for sharing Olivia). I thought it was so cute I couldn’t resist elfing Clare. So…enjoy!
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