Remind Me Never To Do This Again.....Until Next Year

Well, this past Saturday night was my much aniticipated Halloween party for the kiddies. What fun, what fun, what fun we did have! Just a few glitches:

1. We were expecting 15-20 kids to show up at this shindig. HOWEVER, the other neighborhood kids just looked so pitiful we told 'em to come on in and stay a while. So the group went from 20 to 50 in about 10 minutes. The more the merrier I always say (I'm just reallllly glad we bought all that extra "just in case" candy:)...not to mention the air horn came in really handy as well;))

2. My best friend's cousin-in-law made the pinatas. Two of them. Now, she didn't know that most pinatas have a little thin spot in the middle to help with the breaking process. So hers did not have one. In other words, they were just like little boulders on strings. We had to have two grown men finally, FINALLY break them open for the kids...five good whacks with really big sticks. Okay, so we'll know better next time;)

3. We had kids over there and we didn't know who some of them were and where their parents were. So, we fed them, candied them and waited for their grown people to come and get them...didn't take too long. But I don't know how you can let your little one go over to someone's house that you really don't know and just leave them. Good thing we're safe, normal, sane people. (okay, okay....scratch the sane part....and the normal;))

All in all we had a great time.....even though it took about 24 hours to clean up all the mess.....and I don't even want to THINK about that many kids in one place for at least another year.

Not sure if we'll have many trick or treaters around the neighborhood tonight, but I've got plenty of leftover candy just in case. Oh, by the way, did you know that if you don't get the candy mix for candied apples JUST right that it will eventually slide off of your apples?? I didn't either but I do now. Oh well, live and learn.

I will not clean my house today...I'm still trying to figure out how to get melted chocolate out of my socks. (Don't ask..it's a long story).

Happy Halloween everybody!!!!

Peace allllll.......

One of These Days

One of these days:

I will have a clean house for over 2 hours at a time.
I will find a job that I truly enjoy.
I will look in the mirror and like what I see.
I will be able to say something tactfully;)
I will tell my boss(es) off and leave for something better.
I will tell those girls with the belly button rings how ridiculous they are going to look in 20 years.

I will be my own boss.
I will wear ugly hats and sit on the front porch with my cat.
I will be known as 'the really cool old lady down the street';)
I will have pretty feet.

I will buy a belt for every man I see with sagging pants.
I will buy an extra yard of material for every girl I see with not enough clothes on.

I will be satisfied.
All of my questions will be answered.
I will not grieve any more.
I will be a role model.

I will look back on all of this and laugh....and maybe cry a little too.

One of these days is not today....
But one day it will be.

Peace alllll...........

Rosa

Thank you Rosa Parks.

Thank you for expecting to be treated like an equal at a time when equality was unheard of.

Thank you for 'standing up by sitting down'.

Thank you for being at the forefront of the civil rights movement without even realizing it at the time.

Thank you for living a life of dignity when there are so many who have abandoned that principle.

Thank you for not being interested in your 15 minutes of fame but rather your lifetime of influence.

Thank you for being good, kind and decent. There are fewer and fewer who are and now there is one less.

Thank you for being one of my heroes.

God bless you and yours.

Peace alllll..........

Bizarro Family of the Year Update

Lukas is three years old. You would think that his favorite programs would be....oh, I don't know....Barney, Blue's Clues, Dora..something like that right? Oh, nooooooo....not my child! His favorite shows all come on one channel....The Food Network....that's right...the food channel. Do you know how tired I am of watching Emeril, Everyday Italian and the Barefoot Contessa???? Yeah, I've improved my cooking skills but that is not the point.

We just got a new addition to my already fun filled family: a fox terrier named Foxy (yeah, I know...how unique. That was already her name when we got her) Our apartment managers gave her to us because they had rescued her from an abusive home and thought we would be the perfect people to take care of her. She's still really skittish but she's coming around slowly but surely. The kids absolutely adore her. (Lukas won't give me a kiss but he'll kiss the dog when she's not looking. Go figure.) And she has already developed a serious taste for macaroni and cheese (Alpo London Broil I buy this dog and she wants mac and cheese.) I figure a few months of living with us and she'll be losing Grover's keys too.

Jakob is in the terrible twos full force. He runs full speed through the house as often as possible and yells as loudly as possible. No reason....he just likes to yell. Not like the 'oh, I'm pitching a fit' yelling but the 'oh, I'm at a football game' yelling. And when the dog licks him in the face, he just licks her in the face right back.

Grover is still Grover....working all the time, sleeping when he can, grouchy most of the time and he still hasn't learned how to wash the pans in the kitchen. However, he has learned how to give the kids a bath when I ask him to. What? Do it when I don't ask him to? Now that would be too much for me to take.;) He also is still telling corny jokes. For example:

Two snails were in a car race. (Don't ask how a snail can drive a car....I don't know) Anyway, to identify the cars, each one had a letter on them. The blue car had a "B" on it. The red car had an "S" on it. In the middle of the race, the red car pulled away from the blue car and was well on his way to winning the race. The snail announcer became so excited that he shouted "Look at that S car go!!!. Get it?? Snails....S car go (escargot)???

This is what I live with. Someone please help me. Please.

And now my children are sharing a coffee cup of BBQ chips with the dog. Why a coffee cup? Why BBQ chips? Why the dog? If I could answer those questions that whole 'meaning of life' question would be a snap ya think?

Peace alllll.............

Bracelets, Baubles and Other Trinkets

Sorry I have been slow to post lately.....lots of hours at work and lots of work at home. It won't happen again....today anyway;)

I have noticed a lot of people wearing these bracelet things lately. You know the ones...."Live Strong", "Hope", "Freedom". And quite frankly, I hate 'em. I don't hate the concepts, mind you. Living strong and being hopeful are certainly admirable and freedom is something I don't take lightly. I think that may be why I have a problem with these bracelets. It's the same problem I have with the ribbon craze....you know the red ones for aids, the pink ones for breast cancer, the yellow ones to show support for our troops.

Now before you all get in a tizzy, let me explain myself......it all started off with a cross.

I am a Christian. Anyone that knows me knows this. I have one cross. It is the one that Grover gave me a long time ago. It belonged to his dad and I was quite moved that he gave it me because he and his father were very close. It means a lot to me. I don't wear it very often, however, mainly because I 'm kinda tough on jewelry and I don't want to accidentally break the chain. I also don't find it necessary to wear it all the time because I don't need a piece of jewelry to advertise what I am. Talk to me long enough and you will find out what I am and what I am about. (Not to mention there are plenty of people who wear crosses all the time and the word "God" never escapes their lips unless it is in the middle of a curse word....but that's another story for another day.) Christianity is my lifestyle. It is about who I am, not what I wear. It is not about paraphenalia.

Same thing goes with the bracelets. You wanna live strong? Then do it. You wanna be hopeful and fight for freedom? Then do it. Don't advertise it. Don't fall into these ridiculous trends just because you want to appear fashionable and cover it with a label of social consciousness.

Ribbons? Do I support aids research? I most certainly do. I have a couple of friends who have died from this disease and I have seen the absolute horror of it. Breast cancer research. Yes I support that as well. Our military? I wholeheartedly support our armed forces. I may not agree with this particular war, but I certainly support the men and women who are fighting it for us.

See, the thing is....when I say I support something......that's what I do. I donate money and time to aids research, breast cancer research, the homeless, the hungry, the abused. I don't, however, walk around with some pointless accessory to let everyone else know about it before they even speak to me. Trust me, talk to me for 5 minutes and you will know what I support and what I don't.

The Bible says that when you do something for someone, do it in private. Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back for it and don't make a big production of it. See, it's not really the rest of the world at large's business what you are doing for someone else. As long as you know it and God knows it, that's all that really matters.

And I don't think that something as important as aids, breast cancer, the abused, the homeless, the hungry, the impoverished and so on and so forth should be reduced to a trinket. That in and of itself is absolutely insulting to me.

If people would take the money that they spend on these bracelets, ribbons and 0ther baubles and actually donate it directly to the charity of their choice, then maybe they would actually start BEING socially concious instead of just looking like they are.

Peace allllll............

Confusion Ahead

The temperatures around here have not gone above 82 degrees this week and that means only one thing: SUMMER IS OVER!!!!!!! Ah, what a glorious feeling....oh, what a glorious day! I have made it through another summer season and am reaping my reward of cool, crisp, clear fall weather:)

We are forging ahead with our work for the Halloween party for the kids. We are making two pinatas....a pumpkin and a spider...which are medium sized. I have 50 pounds of candy to fill them with. Will that be enough? I'm a pinata virgin so I really don't know. I am also making a haunted gingerbread house....my first gingerbread house ever. (I'm okay at the arts things....just the crafts things I have never really tried my hand at so.....anyway....moving on.)

Parents: a question for you. Do you ever feel like a split personality, kind of like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing sometimes? I mean, you are one thing for your kids....you love them and nurture them and try your absolute best to lead by example....but sometimes you are another thing completely around grown-ups or co-workers (which are not always the same thing ya know;)). Let me explain my situation here...

At home, I love playing with my kids, doing stuff with them, having quality time, snuggle time..I just absolutely LOVE being a parent. I try to teach them to be nice, and to resolve disputes peacefully as much as I can.

At work, I am sometimes referred to as a 'pit bull'. The reason for this: you all know that I work 3rd shift at my local IHOP...well, sometimes we have a customer(s) who are drunk, rude, belligerent or all of the above. When one of my co-workers has a customer or customers who are giving them a hard time, they ask me to please go and deal with them. This may be because I am loud, or because I am not intimidated by most people or it may be simply that I will not, ever, let a customer reduce me to tears. Don't get me wrong, most of our customers are very nice people. But occasionally (2 or 3 times a week), we have some people in there who have to be educated about proper restaurant etiquette and my 'teaching methods' have been known to be quite effective.

My problem is my kids don't know me as this person .....they know me as 'mom'. (some of my customers call me 'mom' too but that is a whole other story for another day:)) And I often feel like two people sometimes with one shared, very confused brain.

Sometimes I want my kids to know me as a real person one day. Sometimes I don't want to disappoint them with the reality of me so I just want them to know me as "mom" for as long as possible. Is this confusing you? Not half as much as it is me.

I read a drunk woman the riot act the other night because she referred to one of my co-workers as a b**** because we were out of carry out boxes (don't shoot the messenger right?) and then I went home and made my kids bacon and eggs for breakfast like any other mom.

The older I get the dumber I feel sometimes.

I think I'll go bake something now;)

Peace alllll........

7's, 5 and 3's

I got this from Bav/Andrea, who got it from someone else. Anyhoo, I decided I liked it so here goes:

7 things I plan to do before I die:

1. Stop smoking completely
2. Learn how to ballroom dance
3. Watch my kids grow up
4. Become a grandmother (after my kids grow up of course....no babies having babies for me please!)
5. Get my degree in Romance Languages
6. Write a book (it may never be published but I'm gonna write it anyway!)
7. Design and grow a real English tea garden


7 things I can do:

1. Speak three languages
2. Calligraphy
3. Offend people (I am a little pushy ya know;))
4. Car repair (good for every woman to know)
5. Multi-task
6. Make up a good bedtime story
7. Carry two kids on my back while playing horsey


7 things I cannot do:

1. Fry chicken
2. Sew (Grover does that!)
3. Swim
4. Shut up
5. Origami (tried it....just can't get the hang of it)
6. Rub my belly and pat my head (or vice versa) at the same time
7. Wiggle my ears


7 things that attract me to my husband:

1. Beautiful eyes that change color depending on his mood ...from light blue to blue green to bright green
2. Great legs....great, great legs
3. An almost bald head
4. A wicked sense of humor
5. His work ethic
6. The finger that he broke that's now kind of not exactly straight but not crooked either
7. His nose (I have a thing for ....ahem....'unique' noses (aka big noses;))


7 things that I say most often:

1. Lukas....stop that!
2. Jakob....stop that!
3. Come on with it
4. Peace
5. Let's get it done
6. What's goin' on?
7. Take it easy


7 celebrity crushes:

1. Victor Garber
2. Kevin Spacey
3. Anthony Hopkins
4. Jeremy Irons
5. Vin Diesel (don't ask)
6. Hugh Laurie
7. Lou Ferrigno (a holdover from my childhood:))


5 things about myself:

1. I laugh like a braying donkey
2. I am loud
3. I have horrendously ugly feet
4. I have one tattoo on my upper right arm (a phoenix)
5. I am ambidexterous


MY CLOSET

3 Random Facts About My Closet:

1. It's too small
2. It has a light in it
3. It's too small!!

3 Items I've Never Worn But Still Haven't Tossed Out:

1. A pair of waaaaay too small jeans (hey, I'll be that size one day!)
2. A maroon turtleneck
3. A pair of faux snakeskin pumps (they were a gift)


3 Items I Never Get Rid Of No Matter How Ugly They Get:

1. My Winnie the Pooh sleepshirt
2. My old turnover fuzzy houseshoes
3. My plaid sleeping pants


3 Items People Wouldn't Expect to Find in My Closet:

1. Two knives
2. A boxcutter
3. A bag of rocks (from Canada...they're Grover's....I don't know either)


3 Items That Made Me Go "What Was I Thinking?"

1. A fuzzy red pullover
2. A pair of MC Hammer-esque pants
3. A lime green t-shirt with spaghetti straps


3 Things I Have A Surprising Number Of:

1. Socks
2. Hair clips
3. Rubberbands


3 Dominant Colors In My Wardrobe:

1. Blue
2. Green
3. Brown


3 Items That Never Fail To Put Me In A Good Mood When I Wear Them:

1. The cross that Grover gave me years ago that belonged to his dad
2. My overly big sweatshirt (if it's cold enough to wear it that means summer is OVER!)
3. Fuzzy socks

If you actually read all of this, bless you for tenacity!

Anyone who wants to do this one just jump on the bandwagon!!

Peace allllll...........

Gripes

In my line of work, I have ample opportunity to do something that I really enjoy...watch people. Since I was a little kid, I have had a fascination with people. I love to talk to them, to observe them, to see how they interact with one another, to try to figure out what makes them tick. I have an insatiable curiousity when it comes to how the wheels turn in a person's mind. Sometimes, I am pleasantly surprised;however, as of late, it seems that people, by and large are becoming....well....shallow.

I don't know when it became fashionable in our society to become so self-absorbed. Did it start with our parents and their unwillingness to 'damage' our psyche with such concepts as remorse, shame and accountability? Or did it start with my generation? The teens of the 80's (the biggest ME generation that has ever been)? Or did it start more recently, with our college students and their overwhelming sense of hubris and pomposity?

And, once it started, when did it become OKAY? Okay to think of no one other than yourself, okay to have the attitude of 'screw the world, I've got mine'? When did it become OKAY to acknowledge only your rights and never your responsibilities?

Money=class.....when did this become an accepted school of thought? Why do so many haves look down their noses at the have nots?

Why do so many 'children of privilege' not have a clue about what it means to actually work for a living? I understand the concept that parents want their children to have a better, easier life than they have had. I certainly do not want my kids to go through some of the things that I have had to go through in my life. However, what is wrong in raising kids with a sense of common courtesty, social responsibility and a real work ethic?

What is wrong with teaching kids to say 'thank you' and to hold a door open for someone? What is right with teaching kids that they are the big dogs on the porch?

I am full up to my eyeballs with rude people. People who think that common courtesy and civility are for everyone else, not them. The ones who think that 'me first' is actually okay. The ones who think they are the only reason for this world's existence. I have a couple of points for them to consider:

1. The world does NOT revolve around you. Never has, never will.
2. Money does NOT equal class. You can have all the money in the world and still be a tacky, classless slug.
3. You are NOT the beginning and end of my existence. Your thoughts and opinions have very little relevance to the rest of the world, just like mine don't.
4. No one cares if you are in a hurry, or a huff. Get over yourself.
5. I don't have to like you and you don't have to like me.....but can't we at least do that mutual civility thing? It really works well.

Well, as usual, I have probably made no sense to anyone but myself today. But, I have grown used to that over the years.;)

Peace alllll.............

Aftermath

My feet are numb.....still. My back is sore....still. And I have been having this recurring dream where I am being chased by a Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity. Every year I know this is going to happen on A&M homecoming weekend and every year I lack the common sense to just go out of town instead of going to work.

But, on the plus side, my voice is back...much to the dismay of the many drunks I have had to yell at over the past couple of days:)

Now I just have to clean my house. I know there's one here under all this mess.

Peace alllll.......

P.S. Thanks for all of the laryngitis remedies! I pretty much tried them all, so I don't know which one did the trick but one of 'em did!