Happy Thanksgiving!

We have much to be grateful for. But instead of telling you, I want you to watch a little video card that was sent to me. I loved it! I hope you will too!

http://www.cpmsglife.org/tg/2006tdm1.html



Happy Thanksgiving!

I feel SO trendy!

I have a cute background now! And now I know how to change it! Woo-hoo! I've joined the cutesy background blog club (if there is one!)

I have the BEST view out my kitchen windows!

Now that the garden has been torn down for the year we can let the new "girls" wander in the backyard during the day. It's so much fun to look out the window and see them scratching and hunting. Lady is the brown chicken and Annie is the white chicken.




Hunting for bugs at the apple tree. Lady started laying eggs two weeks ago. She's quite friendly now.


Scratching in the peach tree. Good thing we have two trees so they don't have to fight!

Disney's Desperate Housewives

This is one of my favorite cartoons-- even though I've never even seen the "Desperate Housewives" show and have no interest in viewing it!

Har har! Enjoy!

My MOST favorite quote about being ourselves

Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?"

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God; your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others.


(this is by Marianne Williamson in her book "Return to Love." Nelson Mandela quoted it in a speech once and then people on the internet started attributing it to him. )

Irony

Irony is waking up at 2 am with the flu when you are scheduled to take all of your children to get their flu shots at 4 pm. Blah!


I feel crappy. Just had to whine a bit.

Uh, Toto, they definitely aren't KIDS anymore!

So let's just start off by saying that I am old. Not in the old-old sense, but I am old as in "fuddy-duddy" or boring-- that kind of old! Saying this up front will make it easier to understand my comments.

Mary Ellen and I had a FABULOUS time together! We ate dinner at Applebee's. I had a steak, shrimp, and a baked potato. Yum! She had soup and salad, but I tried not to let that spoil my hearty, calorie-laden meal.

And then we went to the E-Center to watch our "boys" perform. The pre-opening act stank. She was hideous! I don't know where they found her, but if she sang more than one song over the 25 minutes we were forced to watch her on stage, we couldn't actually tell. It was bad. Very bad.

The opening act was Great! Natasha Beddingfield. I love her song "Unwritten" which she sang as her closing number. From my perspective (way, way back) it looked like she was wearing fish-net stockings. Huh.

Oh, and by the way, when we got there they switched our tickets from the upper bowl, nosebleed seats to the main section so we were actually closer. That was a nice perk! All the people looked only 2 inches tall instead of like one inch!

So, Natasha was great and then we waited and waited and waited. The concert started at 8 pm and the boys-- who are not boys and tried very hard to show that to us-- didn't even come on until almost 9:30 (which happens to be my preprogrammed pajama time; yes, this is why I am old!). We went to the bathroom, went to the souvenir stand-- Mary Ellen bought me a keychain!--, and then went back to sit down.

Finally! It was NKOTB! The back of the stage blew open, the lights flashed on, the music blared and there the 5 of them were singing. And the crowd went wild. I'll admit it, even I screamed. I screamed for that 12 year old girl I once was that never got to see them in concert. I screamed because it was cool to see 2 inch tall NKOTB boys-not-boys live! LIVE! Wow! I screamed and clapped with the best of them.

I didn't not cry, however. That would be ridiculous for me.

The group was very determined to show that they are not the New KIDS on the block. There was a lot of um, how shall I say this: grabbing, wiggling, thrusting. Oh my! It was, uh, well, shocking! They must have watched too many Michael Jackson videos.....or something. Or do all major singers now grab themselves while singing? I don't know because, as I stated earlier, I am old.

They sang their new songs (two of which I won't ever let my daughter listen to OR watch the video!!!! even I had to look away! Yikes) and their old stuff. And, are you sitting down for this, Jordan can still sing the high notes?? Remember that "Please don't go girl" song? And we thought the high notes were just from pre-pubescent teenage boys?? Wrong! He can still sing like that.

Speaking of Jordan, he looked good, but he has fallen victim to the practice of "Manscaping." You know, manscaping. At one point he sang a solo and the wind machine was on him and he did this little flip of his shirt and suddenly it was flying open and exposing his sculpted chest and even from a considerable distance (and thanks to the large screen TVs) you could tell that *I* have more chest hair than he does! Yikes! Not a single hair on that waxed, polished chest. Plus he had the attitude the whole time of being one who is too worthy and glorious and incredible for human consumption. It got a little overbearing, I mean, come on-- he shaves his legs just like the rest of us! Duh! He's not a god or anything!

Joey, that fine specimen, looked good and was fabulous with the crowd. He's so great. Love that boy. Danny can STILL breakdance. And he's helping raise money and awareness for breast cancer research since he lost his mom 9 years ago. Kudos to him. Donny was great. He could milk the crowd, but still seemed totally down to earth. I mean, he said he ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel! That makes him human (plus he still had hair though he did like to wiggle his bum a lot....). Jonathan looked great, but never got much air time.

The best part was when they ran out of the doors just to my left. So those boys-not-boys were like 15 feet away from me! And then they sang and danced on this spinning round thing that got lifted up off the dance floor and then they were only 5 inches tall. Boy did that make them more life-like! Except, some of them were wearing more makeup then me. Isn't that discouraging??

It was loud and bright and crowded and smoky (thanks to the indoor fireworks and fog machine) and I felt old as I plugged my ears a lot. Nuts, I should have bought those ear plugs for $2 at the souvenir stand.

But I am glad I went. It was super fun with Mary Ellen and we'll never forget it. And we have such good memories. And we totally rocked out with all the other middle aged, mini-van moms who were there-- especially when they sang "Step by Step" and "Hanging Tough." And I screamed a lot and jumped up and down and accidentally knocked the guy in front of me. And I had a great time.


And I will never go to a concert like that again (it's the old thing again, remember???) ;o)

Hangin' Tough! NKOTB fans are in the house!

Go ahead, be jealous!! I am going to the NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK REUNION TOUR CONCERT TONIGHT!!!!!!

(Girl giggling and jumping up and down, throw in some squealing!
Wave the hands as if to fan the face. Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!)

Like, No WAY!!

Way!

That's Totally Unfair!

Bummer, dude!

They're so hot! I love Joey. He's such a hunk!


Okay, so seriously, my best friend from when I was 12 and I are going to the concert. We used to LOVE these boys! And now we get to see them in concert! Yippee! Why are we doing it?

I have no idea! But it sounded great at the time we bought the tickets! ;o)



They are pushing 40 now, and they still look pretty hot. I am excited to go. It'll be a lot of fun! I'll give you a full update later. I just KNOW you'll want one!

Belching Backpacks! or Holy paper tidal wave, Batman!

It seems that everyday the amount of paper that flows into my house increases. Gadzooks! It's so frustrating. All I do is get rid of a pile of school papers and then my kids open up their backpacks and another pile of papers is belched out. One day missed and suddenly I'm wading knee-deep in papers-- and that's not even including the newspaper that we get only ONCE a week and the mail and the other papers from other sources.

Somewhere in the world there is a very naked forest thanks to all these papers.

But luckily we recycle. We empty our paper recycling bin frequently-- especially thanks to the school's MASSIVE contributions to our daily output. Oh, but I'm just getting started! Do we really need SO many worksheets and reminders and freebies and newsletters and the like? Do we?? While the rest of the world is moving to an electronic society, the school is still sending home mounds of paper. Piles of paper. Pounds of paper.

I'm shaking my head. Only slightly behind them is the amount we used to get from working with DCFS-- the state's child support organization. That was enough to make your eyes bug out too except it all had to be shredded and then recycled.

So thank you for bearing with me while I vent about spending ALL morning sorting and saving and recycling and throwing away piles and piles of papers only to have to excited school children come home and have their backpacks belch more all over.

I guess it was so much fun (eyes rolling) that I'll do it again tomorrow. Sigh.

the Circle of Life

I think I'm finally figuring out this whole "Circle of Life" thing! Finally! Now, I'm not talking about lions and antelope and grass-- I've seen that movie and I don't buy into that circle!-- I'm talking about the circle that affects all of our lives, that revolves around us, intertwining itself in the very fabric of our beings. And what circle is that, you ask?

The circle of life that says that our parents inflicted certain things upon us in the name of good parenting and we-- no matter how many times we swore we wouldn't-- now inflict them upon our children. And one day our children-- no matter how many times they swear to the contrary-- they will inflict it upon their children and we, as grandparents, will sit back and watch gleefully (and laugh behind our hands).

That Circle of Life!

For example, as I child I was forced to eat Fruit Loops mixed with Cheerios. Ugh! The horror, the injustice, the depravity! Why I was positive that when I became a parent, I would let my children eat Fruit Loops plain! But no matter how much we cried and begged and pleaded, my mom still mixed the cereal.

Fast forward many years. I now mix cereals for my kids except I don't even buy the name brands! Gasp! I buy store-brand or Malt-o-Meal! And I force my children to eat it for breakfast and ignore their whinings and beggings and pleadings. Just a few weeks ago when I ran into the store to buy some more Cheerio-type cereal, my 5 year old informed me that when HE is a parent HE will let his children eat Fruit Loops AND drink soda every day AND eat all of their Halloween Candy.

I just smiled at him and kept pushing the shopping cart. "You call me when you do that and let me know how it works out for you, okay?"

He then said it again in an even STRONGER voice that he would let HIS children eat all of those things I deprive him of. And again, I asked him to give a call and tell me how he likes how his children behave. He got really quiet after that and said maybe he'd mix the cereal too.... Ugh, the agony of defeat for such a small mind.

Some other circles: forcing them to not talk to each other when they are fighting, sending them to their rooms, making them CLEAN those rooms, eating veggies, doing homework... the list goes on and on and on.

It's enough to make me want to set aside extra money for their future counseling because until they have children, all of the ills and troubles in their lives are surely MY fault.

But on a positive note: one thing that will NOT circle in my family: matching family Halloween costumes (sorry, Mom!). Nope, no tiger/bees/clown costumes here!

Hey, Jealousy!

So my dear husband is currently in Florida at a conference. The conference is close enough to his family's house that he is staying with them and traveling to the convention center each day for his workshops. Tonight he called me at 8 pm my time, 10 pm Florida time. Our phone call went something like this:

Him: Hi!
Me: Where are you??!!!??
Him: Driving back to my parents house.
Me: From where? It's 10 at night!
Him: From dinner.
Me: At 10?? (can you tell I was shocked?)
Him: it went a little long....
Me: Why?!?
Him: Well, we didn't get out of the conference till 6 pm. (He went with his committee chair and another doctoral student-- both from his department)
Me: That's still four hours!! (just in case he can't do the math).
Him: Well, we drove out to the beach, had to find somewhere to eat, ate, and then walked up and down the beach for awhile...

Alright, let's pause this image of him and his two colleagues walking up and down a partially moonlit beach in Florida in 70 degree weather for a moment, carrying their shoes in their hands, their pants rolled to avoid the incoming surf, and discussing deep and profound topics. Got the image? Good.

So here's my evening. My baby has two modes: destructive or whiny; he's either pulling something apart or he's climbing all over me and trying to bite me while whining and crying. My son has two speeds: oblivious or spastic. My daughter has two volumes: screaming or quiet. The snow outside has melted leaving a cold, gushy mess and the children won't go out to play in it. Shucks. And I have to trudge outside in it twice-- carrying the grouchy baby.

And conversation? Discussion? Profoundness? Here's a sample:

STOP COPYCATTING ME THIS INSTANT!!! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO REPEAT EVERYTHING I SAY!!! (This is from my daughter)
------------------------
Son: is our dog a mixed breed?
Me: what did I tell you the last ten times you asked the question?
Son: I don't remember.
Me: well, I don't remember the answer.
---------------
Wah! Wah! WWWWAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! (bite) Double WAAAHHH! (that's both of us crying)
-----------------------
Me: Stop talking to each other right this instant! Don't even look at each other. And for that matter, don't even breath on each other. And I mean it!
-----------------------
Me: Get. Over. Here. Now. Sit. Down. (I can only speak in short sentences now. So sad!)


So now that we have a nice rosy view of my evening let's rejoin the conversation with my hubby, shall we?

Him: so then after we walked up and down the beach I took them back their hotel and now I'm driving back to my parents house.
Me:
Him: proceeds to discuss a current event which he has been pondering on
Me: Oh. (long pause on my part-- he keeps talking and doesn't notice).
Him: continues talking
Me:
Him: (more)
Me: (watching baby pulling cleaning dishes out of dishwasher and throw them onto dirty floor, relieved he is no longer demanding to be held and screaming) You know, I'm really tired and the baby is a terror and I'm feeling jealous of your fabulous evening so I think I'll go to be now. Sorry, I don't have anything interesting to say.
Him:
Me: Sorry, but it's hard not to be jealous when you get to eat at a fancy restaurant and walk on the beach and not be whined at.
Him: Oh. Well, one day it will be your turn.
Me: (rolling eyes) uh-huh.

Well. So much for a great conversation.

And just for the record, next month or the month after I am flying to San Diego to celebrate a special event with my little brother and you can bet your britches that I am driving to the beach so that I can walk on that blasted thing and talk about something big and important and serious!! YOU just watch me!!

Me: Wow. It's big.
Brother: Yeah. It's the ocean.
Me: Yeah. The beach.
Brother: Yeah. It's big.
Me: Look at the dog over there.
Brother: Yeah?
Me: Do you think it's a mixed breed?

;oD


Good night!

I voted!

I'm wearing my little red sticker to show that I voted today. I did my homework beforehand so I knew who I was voting for and it went really quickly. There was no line at all. My only complaint was when I went in it was pouring rain and when I came out it was sleeting. Yucky weather.

In some ways this has been a tough election because I was never thrilled by either presidential candidate and I remained undecided until the end. Even as I cast my vote today, I wasn't sure that I was committed to my choice. But I had a moment while voting of absolute pride in my country. I am SO glad to be able to cast my vote and let my voice be heard. Not all my candidates will be elected, but I got a chance to say to my country and my state and my county: "Hey, I think this man or this woman will do a great job and I want to give them that chance!" What an honor!

I was at my daughter's school yesterday right after I dropped off my two older kids and instead of the pledge they played the Star Spangled Banner. I stopped writing a message and put my hand over my heart, but I could not sing. I was too choked up. I love this country. I feel blessed to be in this land and I can't ever get through that song without tears. It was especially touching because I've been "doing my homework" getting ready for the election.

If you haven't voted, VOTE! It is a right and a responsibility. It is an honor and a privilege. It is a blessing.

I voted. Have you?

My favorite Chicken video on You Tube

Enjoy this funny video for today's post:





And remember-- lots of comments and videos on You Tube are unedited. So just be careful. There's a lot of good stuff on the site, but also a lot of garbage.