Making It Work Mom

I Am Sick and My Family is Mocking Me

2012-01-26T22:20:00.001-05:00

For the past week I have had a nasty cold. A use a box of tissues a day, cough up alung, all I want to do it curl up on the couch and play Words with Friends and watch Bravo cold.

And my family has been totally unsympathetic.

In fact I would go so far as to say they are annoyed by my cold andhave even enjoyed laughing at my expense.

Heartless and cruel

Now to be fair I am not exactly Florence Nightingale. I don't have alot of patience for adult sick people (i.e. SuperHubby). Ihave already assured SuperHubby that I would find the best nursing home hismoney could buy when old age finally gets the best of him. I would not be the one to nurse him through his twilight years (and yes I am joking, kind of, maybe)

And oh SuperHubby has many tales of woe about how incredibly coldand callous I have been in his times of needs (tales of woe that he feels the need to tellover and over again to anyone who will listen).

Like the time when we were still a young married couple with two verysmall children and he came down with a horrible case of the stomach flu in themiddle of the night. As he pitifullywhimpered from his spot on the cold hard bathroom floor where he was cradling thetoilet I asked him to pipe down because I would need to get up and be with the children in the morning.I don't remember being as harsh as all that, but yes the logic remains that one of us needed to be coherent in the morning and me rubbing his back as he threw up wasn't going to help anyone. I told you I have no patience.

Or the time when he foolishly broke two ribs sledding with our 5 and 3year old and I made him drive himself to the hospital the next day for x-rays andconfirmation of the broken ribs. To befair I was at work and taking care of our two small children, it wasn't like I was home eating bon bons. I also had to spend the next several days being a solo parent while he recovered from his unfortunate injury. So yes I obviously got the worse end of the deal, he got several days in la la land with his pain meds.

I don’t really think of myself as being unkind. It is more like I am toughening my family up. Life is hard and doesn’t slow downfor sick days or injuries. They need to be tough.

I do have a little more patience and sympathy for my children’sillnesses. After all they are justchildren. But they still don’t get awaywith too much. You have to be prettysick to garner a stay at home day in my house.

So when I woke up on Thursday morning with that oh god I am getting sick feeling I wasn’t expecting a boat load ofsympathy. I didn’t need a boat load ofsympathy. I was tough. I haven't taken any sick days (I prefer to reservemy time off for days that are more fun and enjoyable). I still cooked, cleaned, did laundry, andschlepped everyone where they needed to be. I mean honestly except for a few sniffles, a couple of coughs, and maybeevery once in a while a really heavy sigh or mumbling of “I really don’t feelgood” you wouldn’t even know that I am sick.

For real.

I was totally unprepared for the ridicule and exasperation of my family.

For example, last Thursday night on our way home from dinner I stoppedat the local drug store to pick up some DayQuil and a coupleof boxes of those really soft tissues with the lotion. I was steadily going downhill at that pointand knew that both of these items would be necessary over the next few days.

My girls were highly put out by our unexpected pit stop and voiced theirdispleasure loudly about this 5 minute inconvenience.

At that point I should have known that I was to get no sympathy AT ALL withthis cold.

And certainly the complaining my children did because they couldn't hear the TV over my loud nose blowing seemed a little unfair.

Over the weekend my energy level was pretty low. But still I walked the mall with TweenStar onher quest to spend her birthday/Christmas giftcard/money and find the perfectoutfit for our Pop Warner banquet this weekend. Was she even the least little bit appreciative of my effort? No in fact she found my disheveled, feverish(the temperatures in the mall are just ungodly in the winter from store tostore), nose blowing, disorientated appearance a tad embarrassing. Oh yeah and let’s not forget about the bagfull of tissues I was carrying around

TweenStar then had the gall to suggest to me on Sunday afternoon that Iwas slacking a bit on laundry.

That comment didn't even get an acknowledgement.

On Monday I developed a bit of a cough. I am not a good cougher. I have always had this weak kind of pitifulcough that sounds half fake and kind of ends in a little bit of whine. I know that it is pathetic, but honestlythere is nothing I can do about it. It’s just the way I cough. My family on the other hand finds it amusingand perfectly acceptable to make fun of me.

Can I just tell you that when you don’t feel good for the 6^thday in a row and your family is walking around mocking your cough it is alittle irritating?

So now I know. The next time I amsick I am checking into a hotel for the duration. I am sure the concierge and housekeepingstaff will be more sympathetic to my plight. At least they will have room service.

How does your family treat you when you are sick? Hopefully better than mine!

I am sharing my Awesome with Momma Made It Look Easy.

My 6th 100 Days Project

2012-01-24T23:11:00.000-05:00

This weekend I completed my 6th 100 Day project. From 2005-2009 I had one each year. I very much appreciated the break from 2010-2011.

For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of a child in grade school the 100 Day project is a project that celebrates the 100th day of school (this is not rocket science). Typically this project involves making something with 100 items or bringing a collection of 100 items into school. Most Kindergartners and First Graders participate in this project.

So prior to this weekend I had already done five of these projects. And just to be clear any project assigned to a 5-6 year old is a parent initiated and parent supervised project. I did three with TweenStar (she did Kindergarten twice because of the time frame when we moved between states) and two with Golden Boy. To be clear my enthusiasm for the 100 Day project has waned considerably since 2005.

I readily admit that one of the my first thoughts when I finally came to the realization that yes I was dropping my BABY off in Kindergarten was that we I was going to have to do another 100 Day project.

*Sigh*

And even though I had a cold and we had a busy weekend planned the 100 Day Project had to get done. And I admit that I had more than a glimmer of guilt when I think back to how enthusiastically I embraced my first 100 Day project back in 2005 and how much I was dreading completing the 100 Day project for my youngest child. In a perfect world I would be able to parent all children equally and by equally I mean maintain the same level of enthusiasm and wonder about every single thing they do. My world is not perfect. Far from perfect.

So I totally had to fake it. I think I did a pretty good job.

Princess and I spent the week prior discussing all our ideas on the rides home from school. We did have some differing opinions on the scope and expense of this project.

We finally agreed on a crayon theme .

We bought our poster board on Saturday morning after dropping TweenStar off at the gym for tumbling and cheer practice.

We then went home and picked crayons out of the crayon bin.

And sorted them into 10 groups of 10 colors.

We then had to unwrap each crayon. I have no picture of this activity because it so much more annoying than I thought it was going to be. Go ahead try and unwrap 100 old crayons with a five year old. Not fun.

We then had to try to figure out some design for the crayons. We finally decided that simplicity was our friend and went for a straight side by side design. We did run into a little snafu when trying to find the glue - honestly I have no idea where things disappear go in my house.

Obviously the people and things in my house are dedicated to mocking me and any attempt I make at organization.

Princess stuck some letter stickers on the poster board just so there was no doubt what the project was about.

The next morning we decided to reinforce the crayons with some packing tape. One of the benefits of having done this project 5 other times is that I knew that very rarely do all 100 items remain secured to the poster board during the trip to school. And losing 1 or 2 of your 100 items can incite a meltdown of epic proportions. Only of course I couldn't find the clear packing tape, only the brown packing tape.

*Sigh*

*Seriously*

So we used Golden Boy's clear hockey tape. And it worked great.

I schlepped the project through the snow and into the car and then through the snow again and into Princess's Kindergarten classroom. All the while thinking how many times can a mom stay sane doing the same project over and over again.

And then the payoff. The look on Princess's face as her friends ooohed and aaahed over her project, she was glowing with pride.

Note: Though she was proud of her project I was not allowed to take a picture of her in her classroom with her project because that is EMBARRASSING. Just in case you were wondering.

What can I say a mom will do just about anything to be a part of that kind of pride.

Right?

Now if I can just hold onto that feeling next year when I start working on 100 Days Project #7.

I am linking up for Wordful Wednesday with Parenting By Dummies and Seven Clown Circus.

Happy Birthday Golden Boy

2012-01-23T06:35:00.001-05:00

On Saturday my sweet Golden Boy turned 10.

Seriously how am I old enough to have two children in double digits? But this post isn't about me.

It's about my only son. My Golden Boy.

sweet

low maintenance

good natured

boy

sandwiched between his two high maintenance drama queen sisters.

There are many many many days were he is my saving grace.

My calm in the storm.

He is loyal to everyone he loves and cares about it. A real loyalty - the kind that runs deep and can always be counted on.

He is fun. He loves to laugh and watch Adam Sandler and Mike Meyers movies. He is a movie line quoter.

He is an athlete. Not always the kid with the most talent on the field, but always the one with the most heart.

He is a worker. He does everything we ask with only the minimal of grumbles (I mean he is not an angel). He accepts hard work as a part of life and doesn't shy away from it.

He never forgets to give me a goodnight kiss and hug. It's the little things that make me happy.

As he enters his Tween years his curiosity about all things puberty is growing.

Also his joy in asking his older sister (oh so innocently) if she has had puberty yet. (I told you he wasn't an angel)

To say that I will embrace the break of being the puberty spokesperson for the family, that job will clearly fall to SuperHubby for Golden Boy, is an understatement.

But then perhaps I have put too much work into this whole explaining growing up and puberty thing to TweenStar.

Certainly SuperHubby and Golden had a much quicker conversation about puberty.

Golden Boy: "How will I know when I have puberty?"

SuperHubby: "When your balls drop and you grow hair on them."

Golden Boy: nodding appreciatively "Okay"

Sigh

So Happy Happy Birthday to my dear sweet boy.

My dear sweet boy who without a doubt will now be taking a quick peek every morning to see if he got puberty yet.

Sisters

2012-01-19T22:05:00.001-05:00

My children are 12, 1 day shy of 10, and 5 1/2. They are also girl, boy, girl. As I have mentioned before their constant bickering and put downs is a source of anxiety and irrational worry for me. I worry that 20 years from now they will not even pick up the phone to call each other, let alone consider each other a friend.

I also have a tendency to second guess myself about our 'family planning'. Now obviously there is no way I could have determined the sex of each of our children, but with the news of our third being a girl I seriously questioned why we waited so long for the third. My girls are 6.5 years apart. At times it seems like a huge gap.

I worry that my girls will never reach that place were they are equals and friends. That TweenStar will always be the bossy big sister and that Princess will always be the needy baby. And the fact that they can't overcome these roles will effect their adult relationship (or rather lack of adult relationship).

Truly you would think that I could find more productive things to worry about. Things that I have a little more control over. Your know like the economic crisis and world peace.

I decided to take one of my most favorite pictures of my girls for my memories captured post. A picture that reminds me that I shouldn't worry so much. That my girls do love each other. That even if they don't end up having the adult relationship that I envision for them that they will carve out a relationship that works for them. A reminder that all I can do is create a warm loving respectful home that will allow my children's friendships to grow and blossom.

Now if I could just make the voices in my head be so reasonable.

I am linking up for Memories Captured with Galit from These Little Waves and Allison from Mama Wants This.

I am also Sharing My Awesome with Momma Made It Look Easy

Her "People"

2012-01-18T06:34:00.003-05:00

I have never been the type of person who has a kajillion friends. I am more of the type of person who has a few people who I consider close friends and then a lot of acquaintances. In fact when SuperHubby and I first started dating I was a little taken aback because he called almost everyone he knew his friend. It was just one of the differences in the way we socialized with other people and the way we viewed our relationsihips with other people. I am more cautious and introverted while SuperHubby is more outgoing and open. It is part of the ways in which we just seem to fit as a couple. As Golden Boy and TweenStar have gotten older (the jury is still out on Princess. She seems to be somewhere in the middle right now.) it is obvious that Golden Boy is very much like SuperHubby and TweenStar is (for better or worse) more like me.

TweenStar gets along well with everyone and seems to have no problems socially. (This used to be one of those questions I would ask at ever parent teacher conference. You know does she have friends? Does she have a group she hangs out with? Teachers would always look at me strangely and insist that she was great. But I worried that she hadn't found her best friends yet.)

But I knew that for TweenStar there is always that difference between having acquaintances and having those friends who you can tell everything to. I also know how crucial it is as a tween and teen to have those true friends that you can count on. You need to have your "people".

On Friday TweenStar had her belated 12th birthday party. She opted to have a Sleepover Party and invited her 4 closet friends.

She didn't even hesitate with her guest list. I vaguely knew all of the girls, but none had ever been to our house. I was interested to really get a chance to meet these four girls that TweenStar had been talking about all year.

As part of her Sleepover I took all the girls to dinner at TweenStar's favorite restaurant and they even graciously included Princess. Which was one of my first indicators that these were definitely TweenStar's "people".

Though the girls largely ignored me through the dinner I couldn't have been happier. Everything about the friendship between these five girls just felt right. They giggled their way through dinner. Reaching that sweet spot in any "girls night out" when everything is funny and there seems to be that bubble insulating you and your friends from everything else going on around you. It was immediately clear to me that they had one of those friendships. A friendship where they have their own jokes, and stories are told by at least 3 of them at a time, where they kept each other truthful, but never put each other down.

They are nice girls, but not sappy nice. They are polite to me, but not so much that I question their motives. They are athletes, but not necessarily involved in all the same activities as TweenStar. School is a priority for them, but not an obsession. They seemed to be good for each other.

Once we got home from dinner the girls quickly settled into sleepover mode. Pajamas on, sleeping bags out, popcorn and candy plentiful, and of course a chick flick on the TV (Their choice was The Notebook). It did not take long for the conversation to become 99.9% boy talk (the boy talk put SuperHubby over the edge and he quickly made his exit upstairs). The giggling, laughter, teasing, and gossiping was non-stop. I stayed up until almost midnight watching Top Chef episodes on my DVR and happily absorbing the sounds of a Tween almost Teen friendship. It almost, almost made me wistful for my own Tween days.

I couldn't even get too upset when Princess wandered into our bedroom at 3AM because the girls' laughter and voices had woken her up (They were all the way downstairs, in a room with the door closed. I think they were getting sillier as the night/morning wore on).

I couldn't even muster up too much irritation when as soon as all TweenStar's friends left she turned into the crankiest person alive and needed to be sent to her room to sleep it off.

I couldn't be angry because I was ultimately happy. Happy because I knew that nights like the one they had were friendship making and memory creating ones.

Conversations were had THAT WOULD NEVER LEAVE THIS ROOM. Hyserical laughing, I think I am going to pee my pants and definitely spit out my soda, fits were had over absolutely nothing. Text and phone calls to boys were made that would never have been made without that ring of friends standing around you urging you on.

And so I was happy despite my sleep deprived state as I picked up smooshed skittles and set aside coats and headbands that had been left behind. And I was grateful. And I was content.

I love that my TweenStar has her "people". And I am so happy that I like them. That I can honestly say they are good girls. And that they are a good fit for each other. Giving each other unconditional support and honesty.

My fingers are crossed that these five girls can make it through the trials and tirbulations of teenhood together.

That they value what they have right now as much as I do.

I am linking up with Shell today for Pour Your Heart Out Wednesdays

http://thingsicantsay.com/

Disney Tips

2012-01-15T23:06:00.000-05:00

Yes, we are still in recovery from our Christmas and Disney trip. Thanks for asking. Eventually we will pull it together.

I hope.

We love love love Disney. This was the third trip for TweenStar and Golden Boy and the second trip for Princess. We had so much fun. I thought I would share my top ten tips for a successful Disney trip.

At least according to me.

1. Bring your walking feet and at least two pairs of good walking shoes. According to my nephew's phone app (which I am sure is incredibly accurate) we walked close to 80 miles during our trip. It certainly felt like more. Packing for this Disney trip was a little bit of a struggle as we had to pack for just about every weather imaginable and because time was at a premium. I was a little stressed making sure everyone had what they needed. My plan for myself was to pack a pair of flip flops and two pairs of sneakers. I wore one pair on the plane and when I went to put on the second pair the next day this is what I found.

Sigh

They were both gray...

Needless to say I was not happy and ended up wearing the same pair of sneakers all week. And I don't plan on wearing them again for a long time.

Just saying.

2. Loosen up on the rules. Because SuperHubby and I are the "No" parents 99% of the time we love to loosen up on vacation and become the "Yes" parents. That means drinking diet coke, cake for breakfast, and candy. It also means letting the occasional fresh comment slide and letting them bounce off the walls a little (I mean after all that sugar you can guarantee they were bouncing). It was fun for us to be able to "Yes" a little more and fortunately my children are old enough to understand that when we return from vacation the rules are back in action.

Princess after inhaling excessive amounts of colored sugar otherwise known as a giant pixie stick

Though it doesn't stop them from asking when we get back.

3. Don't be afraid to be silly. That kind of goes along with loosening up on the rules. Relaxing and just being a kid are pretty much mandatory at Disney. For us that meant watching my father hula with a dancer at our Luau and my mom and myself taking Princess for her first ride on Space Mountain at 3AM. Yes, 3AM on Space Mountain with my 5 year old. And of course spending the whole walk to the exit of the park chanting with Princess and my Mom "Space Mountain at 3AM" is kind of fun too.

My dad and his "teacher"

4. Make every minute count. We sure did that. Sleeping was not a priority for us at all. See still recovering from vacation more than a week later. We stayed up for all the extra magic hours and took advantage of every little minute we had together. It was crazy, but so much fun.

5. Take advantage of all those character meals. I am a meal booking junkie. I totally love to book all the character meals and other special Disney dinners and am relentless in getting what I want. I love watching my children interact with the characters while I sip my tea, eat my eggs, and chat with my family. No lines, no stress that the character will leave before we get to the front of the line, no stress about moving quickly once the character is reached. This time we did breakfast at the Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, and Donald's Tusker House Breakfast. LOVED them all.

6. Force your children to do things that normally they would have opted out of. For example, there was no way that Princess wanted to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean (yes she went on Tower of Terror, but was a raving lunatic about not going on Pirates - I totally don't get her). I forced her to because well everyone else wanted to and I knew there was nothing on it that was going to scar her for life. She wasn't thrilled, but she survived. I also forced TweenStar to sit through THREE Disney Parades even though she insisted they were lame and there were a million other things she would rather be doing. Whatever. I can safely say that TweenStar was tickled pink when Arielle pointed at her own hair and then pointed at TweenStar's hair and made a face like "we have the same hair". You are pretty much never too old for that kind of magic.

Princess and TweenStar after her ride on the Tower Of Terror. Princess looks a little shell shocked,

7. Totally eat like the calories don't count. Because they don't. Right? Because you are on vacation. I am sure I read that somewhere.

8. Don't let the small things ruin your day. Let them roll off your back sometimes unfortunate things do happen on vacation. One of the things I was most looking forward to on our trip was our girls lunch in Cinderella's castle. It was the first time we had done this meal and I could not wait. About 25 minutes before our reservation I realized that we had left Princess's autograph book back at the hotel. Crap! But no big deal I just shelled out $10 bucks for another one. And as Princess pointed out her other one was almost filled up anyway. And then as we were hanging out in front of the castle waiting to check in for our reservation Princess announced she had to go to the bathroom, even though we had literally just gone 10 minutes before. Sometimes when she gets nervous she has to go alot. So I left TweenStar and my mom at the castle and hustled Princess to the nearest bathroom. Only we couldn't quite get her underwear down in time (negotiating a princess dress is hard and time consuming) and so there was a litle "accident". The accident did not involve the princess dress (thank god!!), but did involve her underwear. So with the clock ticking I hurried Princess back to my mom and TweenStar and then ran like a crazy woman to every gift store in the park (actually only three, but it felt like a lot) to find new underwear for my Princess. Ten minutes and $20 later (yes I paid $20 for 3 pairs of girls underwear) Princess was good to go and our table was ready. All crisis averted and we had a great time.

Princess and TweenStar with Princess's idol Belle.

9. Bring snacks for the hotel room. We were lucky enough to have my parents drive to Disney from South Carolina and they totally hooked us up. They brought water, soda, juice boxes, crackers, chips, granola bars, just about everything you could think of. And it was perfect. I don't know about your children, but my children (with the exception of TweenStar) are never hungry when we are actually in the restaurant sitting down to eat the meal. Oh no they are too busy to eat then, but they are starving whenever we get back to the room. The snacks were lifesavers. As in saving my children from me killing them.

10. Keep on reliving those memories. At this point my children are still talking about Disney every day. Whether it is wistfully wishing we were still there (I still can't quite bear to take the Disney Apps off my phone) or talking about something we did that they loved we aren't quite ready to shake Disney. And I love the fact that my children are old enough now to talk and discuss and dissect our vacation. Talking about vacation always gives me that nice warm fuzzy I love my family feeling.

Golden Boy with his cousin getting ready to celebrate on New Year's Eve

And just because I love this picture of TweenStar and SuperHubby (this would only happen on vacation)

I hope everyone gets to have a vacation like we did. It was truly something we will be talking about for a long time!

Hockey Practice

2012-01-10T22:57:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, Friday, and Saturdays are hockey practice days at our house. So far except for a random once or twice I have avoided bringing Golden Boy to hockey practices. It is not that I don't like to watch Golden Boy play, but the rink he goes to is just way too cold and too far away.
But starting this week I have officially taken on Tuesday hockey practice duties.

Sigh

TweenStar has started a new intensive Softball training program that requires the person who brings her to catch her pitching for the first hour. Unfortunately I can not catch her pitching. She pitches way too fast for me and I would likely get hurt. If I got hurt during her practice she would be horribly embarrassed and then be very irritated with me. So it is best for me to just avoid the whole situation and suck it up and go to hockey practice

Sigh

goodbye relaxing Tuesday nights

hello cold ice rink, cold metal bleachers, and stanky locker rooms

So for our first practice (Oh did I forget to mention that I also get to bring Princess with me, my good fortune is never ending?) of what I am sure will be a long couple of months I decided to share a few pictures of the hour we sat at practice.

My old, but very warm and toasty favorite UGGS. A must have for the rink with a fleece tie blanket.

Princess in her warm and of course very trendy winter hat

Hot Dunkin Donut beverages are a must have for any ice rink in New England

Weirdo hockey drill that they do at the end of practice in which all the kids race up and down the rink while the coaches shoot pucks at them. If you get hit by the puck you are out. It is quite a sight.

Golden Boy a hot and stanky mess after practice. Good thing this isn't a scratch and sniff picture or you would be running for the hills. The stank almost brought Princess to tears in the car when she realized that not only we were shut up in a car with him, but she was sitting next to him. No joke. Fortunately he made up for his stank by pointing out constellations in the night sky to her. How he knows these constellations I have no idea, but that is the mystery of Golden Boy.

So yes I am a little bitter about having to trade my nice peaceful Tuesdays this winter for a cold and stanky ice rink. But I will suck it up. Not because I am all that self-sacrificing, but because I haven't figured a way out of it yet.

I am linking up with Parenting By Dummies and Seven Clown Circus for Wordful Wednesday

New Year's Resolutions A Week Late

2012-01-08T22:34:00.000-05:00

Yes I do realize that I am a week late in getting resolved.

I really meant to write my resolutions down and have them ready to post while I was in Disney.

And then when that didn't happen I really meant to write them on Thursday night to post on Friday, but I was wicked tired.

So here I am a week late in writing my resolutions down and getting started on them.

Though in my defense I did start my resolutions this weekend, so it wasn't too bad.

As I started thinking about what resolutions to tackle this year I started to get a little depressed. I mean honestly there were sooooooo many things that I could ~~should~~ be working on. From the little things like being on time (it would really make TweenStar happy if I actually made being on time a priority) to the huge things like spending more time with each child and showing them how much I value their individuality or appreciating my hubby more.

If had time to wallow I would have probably been pretty miserable, but fortunately there is no time for wallowing in my life.

So instead I decided on three resolutions.

Resolution #1

Create a more organized (i.e. less cluttered) home environment. It is not like we live in a Hoarder house, but in the past year I have taken on a few extra activities and my tenuous grasp on the organization in our house has pretty much fallen apart. The end result is that there have been ~~several~~ more than one occasion where I have not been able to find something I KNOW we have. Usually I can't find what we need right before we are ready to walk out the door (see above about not being able to be on time). It is incredibly stressful and incredibly frustrating.

I don't need any more stress or any more frustration.

So I am cleaning up and putting systems in place that my family WILL FOLLOW THROUGH ON.

Do you hear me, family???

Resolution #2

A real master bedroom. SuperHubby and I have been married for thirteen years and we have never really had a master bedroom. I mean we have had our own bedroom, it's not that bad, but never a real sanctuary a place away from the children.

For the first year of their lives our children always co-slept with us so there was that for several years. You know a bedroom filled with baby gear and an actual baby.

And then we moved and the makeover of our bedroom (we have three different types of 1980 wallpaper on the walls) always seemed to get moved down to the bottom of the list in favor of things that seemed more important at the time.

Our bedroom also tends to get used as a storage facility. Bins of clothes that need to be moved down to the garage, luggage, anything that the children no longer want in their room, but don't feel like bringing downstairs. You get the picture.

And I really ready to end that. I want a grown up bedroom. A pretty place, but not too pretty because then SuperHubby wouldn't like it.

Resolution #3

My children must clean up after themselves. Or at least make some attempt to clean up after themselves. I am so over picking up gum wrappers, Gatorade bottles, candy wrappers, shoes, underwear off the floor, etc. My children will bring an empty Gatorade bottle into the kitchen and set it on the counter (for me to take care of) instead of moving one foot to their right and putting it in the recycle bin.

I am so over it.

My children are 12, a few weeks shy of 10, and 5. It is seriously time for them to get with the program. Their sports and activities take up so much of my time that they need to start pulling their weight.

This one will probably be the hardest resolution to pull off. It will require months of non stop nagging from me. Though it may seem logical that it would be easier to just take care of your Gatorade bottle, underwear, gum wrapper, whatever my children don't see it that way. I am predicting right now that they would rather hear me rant and rave than pick up after themselves.

Sigh

I will win this one.

So that is it. My three resolutions. And of course I am going to eat healthier, exercise more, run another 5K, get more rest, blah blah blah.

But those three are my big ones

Eyes on the prize, baby.

It's Not Crazy, It's My Life

2012-01-05T08:20:00.000-05:00

The last few weeks have been a little CRAZY around these parts.

Christmas was not the well synchronized choreographed event that I intended it to be, but instead the hectic chaotic craziness that it always seems to turn out to be.

And before I could even get a handle on the Christmas Day explosion that happened at my house (seriously you have no idea what my house looks like right now) it was time to jet off to Disney World for a back breaking and memory making six days with the grandparents and cousins.

It was pure craziness and it is definitely going to take me a few days to recover. I don't think we made it into bed before midnight any night we were there and I know of at least two nights that we didn't get to bed until after 3AM!!! Yes my five year old Princess was out riding roller coasters at 3AM. It doesn't get much more off schedule and out of the routine than that.

I am hoping to spend some quality time this weekend catching up on rest (who am I kidding that will never happen) and all things blogging.

All the craziness and the sheer exhaustion SuperHubby and I feel now are all worth it for pictures like this:

There are very few places on earth where an oversized mouse can bring this much happiness to a five year old, a nine year old, two twelve year olds, and a seventeen year old. (And yes Princess is in her pajamas, more on that later).

I hope everyone had as wonderful a holiday season as we did, though I hope you got a little more rest.

Ding Dong Ditch Christmas Style

2011-12-26T23:45:00.002-05:00

Way back at the end of November I had this fabulous brainstorm about how to celebrate each day on our Advent calendar. Each child was going to be assigned a good "thing" to do each day rather than get the little junky things they were used to getting each day.

My initial thought was that this would actually reduce my day to day holiday workload (you know the elf moving, tree watering, advent calendar workload), but yeah not so much. It was a lot of work making sure they had a new task each day and then following up and making sure that they were doing what they supposed to.

Sigh

Way back in the first week of December (Way back when I thought I had this holiday thing completely under control and was feeling all cocky and such. And then by midway through the second week of December I realized that I was so not in control and chaos reigned for the next two weeks.) I had another great brainstorm. I suggested to my children that one of our good deeds would be to prepare goodie bags full of our holiday baked goods and then hand deliver them to our friend's houses by running to the door, ringing the doorbell, and yelling Merry Christmas before running back to the car. The children thought this was wonderful idea and surprisingly enough even SuperHubby was interested in the idea (usually he likes to stay far away when I am having one of my brainstorms). So with an official unanimous vote we started plotting and planning.

And then December got waaaaaaayyyy out of control. Waaaaaayyyy too much fun and frivolity on our part. And all of sudden it was the last week of December and I had not done any work on our Ding Dong Ditch ChristmasStyle. Um yeah time was ticking and if I didn't do something soon it was going to be a Ding Dong Ditch New Years Day Style.

So after consulting our schedules we decided that December 22nd was the only possible day to do our Ding Dong Ditch Christmas Style. That also meant that I was staying up until 1:00 AM on Wednesday baking. Baking alone in your house after midnight when you know you have to wake up in a few hours and have another full day ahead of you is not nearly as much fun as you might think.

Just saying

But the bags did get done. They were filled with cookies, fudge, brownies, and jars of Jolly Rancher flavored vodka (recipe courtesy of Scary Mommy). So at 7PM on Thursday night we loaded up the car and headed out.

The Vodka - so pretty

The bags!

Think old fashioned Christmas Caroling without the singing and with lots of chocolate and vodka, at least that was my vision.

SuperHubby did have the common sense to advise the children not to throw the bags on the doorsteps. As he pointed out broken glass and smooshed chocolate would just make us vandals.

Not fun holiday loving good friends

Good point, SuperHubby.

At first Princess was reluctant to get out of the car. I think we kind of freaked her out with all our talk of secret missions and not letting yourself be seen. So the first house was all Golden Boy and he did a great job. TweenStar was busy being a 12 year old Tween and opted to stay in the car the entire time and just hand the bags to her brother and sister to deliver.

Welcome to the Tween years, family fun is a challenge.

Once we got into the swing of it we did have fun. We had a good time despite the emotional ups an downs of my girls. It was fun to share all the texts that were coming our way as we drove around town dropping off our goodie bags.

And I am hoping that my children learned that gifts don't always have to big expensive things. Sometimes a surprise bag of cookies and a Merry Christmas on a Thursday evening can bring unexpected joy to everyone.

Especially the giver.

I am hoping (fingers crossed) that this is something we can pull off again next year.

Maybe I will plan better and it won't be so crazy.

Seriously who am I kidding? It is always crazy.

Christmas was busy and wonderful here, but incredibly chaotic. How my little family of five all manages to create so much chaos and mess is beyond me. I hope your day was fabulous too!

Happy Birthday TweenStar

2011-12-20T23:48:00.002-05:00

Dear TweenStar,

Today you turn 12 and I am simultaneously saddened that your kid days are almost over and awestruck that I have made it 12 years as your mom.

You are truly the best and most challenging thing that has ever happened to me.

Your drive, focus, competitiveness, tenacity and athleticism continue to amaze me.

You are a fighter

Your kindness, patience, and empathy with young children is a continued source of sweetness for me.

You are a teacher

Your organization, project-ness, and time management skills are a mystery to me.

You are a leader

Your sarcasm, sharp wit, inability to stop while you are ahead can be a complete frustration to me.

You can be your own worst enemy

Your silliness, sparkle, and laughter always make me smile.

You are a gift

I am still trying to unravel all the complexities and contradictions in your personality. You are not easy person to figure out.

I plan on taking it easy this year, though. It is officially your final kid year. It is important to me. I plan to revel in your youness. I plan to take advantage of the fact that you still spend time with me (whether forced or by choice - I will enjoy it). I plan to make memories. I plan to strength our mom/daughter connection because I know that it will be tested during the teen years. Oh how I know it will be tested.

So even though I can feel your teen years looming like the monster in the closet, I refuse to let that monster out yet. Because this year, your final kid one, is going to be a good one.

Happy Birthday TweenStar.

Love,
Mom

P.S.

I do find it amusing that you have to watch the puberty movie in health class on today, your 12th birthday. Happy Puberty Day - I mean Birthday. And yes I may say that a few times today.

I still stand by my advice that when you are older a great line to use when you want to break up with a boy would be "It's not you. I just feel like we are from two different millenniums." Get it ... you were born in 1999 and most of your friends were born in 2000. It is totally funny.

And last but not least I do find it ironic and amusing, okay hysterical, that the Mayan prophecy states that the world will end on your 13th birthday, 12-21-12. And yes this will be an endless source of material for me for the next year. Get ready.

And finally yes people do think I am funny. Okay so maybe I am my own biggest fan, but other people think I am funny too. Maybe even you a little bit.

Pouring my heart out today with Shell...

Home for the Holidays

2011-12-17T23:38:00.000-05:00

This post is sponsored by T-Mobile.

When our oldest was 2 and I was pregnant with our second SuperHubby and I made the decision that we would be spending our Christmases at home. We decided that we did not want to be schelpping our young children all over the country during the holidays. We decided that it was time to start making memories for our family.

So SuperHubby and I decided to start cut and pasting holiday traditions from our childhoods. We started ordering Chinese food on Christmas Eve just as SuperHubby's family had always done and we let the children open a gift from each other just as my family always had. And we started creating our own traditions like matching pajamas waiting for the children after their baths on Christmas Eve. It felt good.

In 2004 we moved from North Carolina (where we were within a few hours drive of my parents) to Massachusetts (a little bit longer of a drive from South Carolina). Our first Christmas in Massachusetts was a little bit of a mess as we had moved into our home the week before. By 2005 though we had settled into our home and my parents and brother decided to hop on a plane and spend Christmas with us.

And it just sorted worked out that my parents spent every Christmas at house after that.

So we started new traditions. Like going out for breakfast on Christmas Eve and then going to a movie (all in a feeble attempt to distract the children from the incredible excitement of Christmas Eve). My dad joined SuperHubby in the ritual of picking up the Chinese Food and TweenStar eventually was old enough to get paid by her Poppa to wrap Grandma's presents.

And though Christmas Eve after the children are all snuggled in their beds is always long and late. It is fun. Wrapping presents, enjoying late night cocktails, and lots and lots of laughing with my parents, SuperHubby, and my brother is something to look forward to not dread

We love our traditions for the holidays. And now my children are old enough to eagerly anticipate these traditions. It truly feels like we are home for the holidays.

This year will be a little different though. My parents and brother will not be making the trip to Massachusetts for Christmas. And we are a little sad here. My children are a little jittery, wondering how different things will happen without my parents around.

It is not all gloom and doom. In fact it is far from gloom and doom. The reason my parents won't be joining us in Massachusetts is because a few days after Christmas we will be meeting in Disneyworld for a fabulous vacation.

So really it is all good. And even though my head knows this I know that this week leading up to Christmas will be a little hard for my heart. And a little hard for my children.

This video from T-mobile definitely hits home and gets me a little teary. But teary in a good way because I know that I am so lucky to have such a great family to share so many Christmas traditions with.

(And I really love this song)

(And I really love Glee and the girls totally remind me of Lea Michele in Glee)

(And I think Flash Mobs are da bomb)

Enjoy!

The Rockettes Giveaway!

2011-12-16T08:04:00.000-05:00

Last night my girls and I had the opportunity to attend The Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring The Rockettes. It was everything that we could have hoped it would be and more. I definitely think this will be something that we will be doing every year from now on. In fact I kind of got all mushy seeing all the families with generations of women coming together for this holiday tradition. It definitely gave me visions of hosting my daughters and granddaughters some day. And I can guarantee that there was no way that you could leave the show without being in the Christmas spirit.

We started the evening by getting all gussied up in our holiday finest. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this prepping because, as always, we were in a hurry. That is kind of what happens when you try to do anything on a school/work night. But we made it into the car and started our trek into Boston. Now on a good day it is about an hour into Boston from my house, unfortunately yesterday was not a good day. It took us a LOOOOOOONG time to get into the city. So long in fact that Princess (after drinking a whole cup of hot chocolate) had a pee emergency. I mean like a real emergency. But we are resourceful women and refused to let a pee emergency ruin our good time or our pretty clothes. So as we sat in bumper to bumper traffic my friend (who was a last minute fill in for Golden Boy who upon discovering that SuperHubby was not going to this event declared it a girl-only show and refused to go) assisted Princess from her car seat, out of her leggings and underwear, and in peeing into a bag. And then helped her back into all her clothes and into her car seat. It sounds like a long process, but in reality probably took under 2 minutes and was completely and totally necessary as there was no place to pull over in the tunnel and we were still a good 15 minutes away from parking.

After that Princess was good to go.

We grabbed a quick (and I do mean quick) dinner and then headed to the Wang Theater. Anytime you walk into the Wang you are totally blown away by its beauty. The theater gives a specialness and glamour to any night.

As we were being led to our seats the opening act was performing before the real show started. Every night the show spotlights a local dance company to perform as the opening act for The Rockettes. I thought that was pretty awesome. Imagine being able to say that at 14 you opened for The Rockettes. Very Cool.

We found our seats and waited patiently to be amazed. We didn't have to wait long.

All four of us were instantly mesmerized by the show. From the opening seconds in which snowflakes dance across the whole theater and you feel like you are inside a snow globe to the nativity scene you truly can't take your eyes away from the stage. Honestly I don't think Princess blinked for the entire first half. She did not want to miss anything.

As I was trying to gather my thoughts to write this I was thinking about my favorite parts of the show. The only problem I had was that as soon as I thought of one I would think of another until I was pretty sure that I had named every act as my favorite part. So I really did try to just think of my most favorite parts. I loved the The Nutcracker scene. The dancing ballerina bear was wonderful. I loved the Santa Everywhere scene, that was so much fun. I loved the dancing doll scene and we totally ended up with one of the streamers from the end of that scene. A huge bonus! And the beauty of the Nativity scene gave me chills.

I loved that TweenStar, who had been to see The Rockettes last year, kept excitedly whispering to me during the show "oh wait until you see this".

The show was so much fun and I think we were all a little dazed when the lights came on and we were transported back to our seats in the Wang Theater. Of course I paid for the late night in the last fifteen minutes of our drive home when my girls lost it. And I am sure they will be extra grouchy tonight. But honestly I wouldn't change a thing about our whole experience because we had that much fun and it was such a special night.

And, And, And, And .....

The best news is I get to give away four tickets to the December 28th 5:00 show and a meet and greet with the World Famous Radio City Rockettes before the show. (I totally can't mention the meet and greet part to my girls because they would be soooooo jealous!) It is a fabulous prize and a great way to wrap up the holiday season.

To enter all you need to do is leave a comment below telling me who you would bring to the show! Please make sure to include your email address so that I can contact you if you are the big winner! Really it is that easy. Entries will close on Monday, December 19th and I will pick my winner on Tuesday, December 20th. I am so excited for whoever wins.

Just a reminder that if you don't win the tickets you can still get a 25% discount off of tickets. Go to my post HERE to find out how.

Good luck everyone!!

I was given a four pack of tickets to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring The Rockettes, but as always all opinions are my own.

A Wake-Up Call

2011-12-13T23:12:00.000-05:00

I have one child in middle school and one who will be in middle school next year. This whole parenting thing - yah I am right in the thick of it.

Up until now I have pretty much stood by my parenting philosophy of "so far, so good". Just so you know this is not a philosophy that you will find in any of the parenting expert books. It is kind of just my thing and well "so far, so good".

And as a parent sometimes dealing with the day to day dramas, trials, and tribulations narrows your focus and stops you from seeing the big picture. You instead become fixated on whether Golden Boy's shirt is clean, who has done their homework, who is taking TweenStar to tumbling, and what is for dinner.

And then one day you are happily scanning status updates on Facebook and you see something like this.

And all of sudden you start to question every parenting choice you have ever made or will ever make.

You wonder what you should do /could do so your child never feels like Jonah.

You don't just get wistful at the idea of your oldest turning 12 in a week, but instead feel a stomach churning panic because you know that in some way she deals with the all those things that Jonah talks about every day.

You start to question every decision you have ever made as a parent.

Because you wonder how a child who looks so normal who looks so much like your children could do those things to himself and be in so much pain at such a young age.

You fight the urge to sequester your children and subject them to hours of interrogation about who their friends are, what they are feeling, and if they are HAPPY.

But then you wipe away the tears that have fallen while you watched that boy's pain.

You reign in your emotions.

You decide that you have no choice, but to continue parenting the way you have been parenting.

You have no real reason to do anything different, no evidence that you have done anything wrong.

But you vow to be a little more vigilant. A little more observant. A little more respectful of your children's mood swings and what they represent.

Because people this parenting thing is no joke.

I am linking up with Things I Can't Say for Pour Your Heart Out Wednesday.

Hello! We are going to see the Rockettes!

2011-12-13T21:36:00.000-05:00

My girls and I are so excited because on Thursday we are going to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring the WORLD-FAMOUS ROCKETTES.

SQUEE!

I am sure you have heard of the show before.

This holiday season, THE RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR® starring THE WORLD-FAMOUS ROCKETTES® returns to Boston… and if you’ve never seen it before, this is DEFINITELY the year to go! Playing the City Performing Arts Center-Wang Theatre Friday December 2nd – Wednesday, Dec 28th!

This year’s show features brand-new scenes and songs, spectacular new sets, dazzling new costumes, an amazing 50-foot LED screen, and an unforgettable new finale! You’ll marvel at the incredible precision dancing of The Rockettes® in beloved scenes like the legendary “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” and the stunning reenactment of the first Christmas in the “Living Nativity.” An you’ll adore the new number “Christmas in New York,” featuring a chorus of Broadway-style singers and a life-sized double-decker bus! This year, through new technology and jaw-dropping new special effects, Christmas becomes more magical than ever before!

TweenStar saw the Rockettes last year in New York City with her grandmother, but neither Princess nor I have seen them before.

We are going to the 7:30 show on Thursday so it is totally going to be a late night, but I know it is so going to be worth the crankiness in the morning.

We are also going to the beautiful Wang Theater in Boston which just adds to the whole glamour side of our Girl's Night Out. It did occur to me that since all my girls wear are sweatpants and leggings that perhaps they didn't have anything appropriate to wear to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring WORLD-FAMOUS ROCKETTES!

SQUEE! Again!!

So we took a quick shopping detour to see if we could find something appropriate. Did I mention that Princess loves trying on clothes?

This was her pick off the rack

Which totally doesn't surprise me because it was short, tight, and sequined. So her.

I loved this one. Doesn't she look like an angel. She hated it. *Sigh*

She thought this one made her look like she was a member of the Duggar family. I kind of have to agree.

In the end she picked this outfit. She thinks it makes her look grown up and it is comfortable. I totally don't hate it. And it suits her.

So now it is just a waiting game. Thursday night can't come soon enough!!

And guess what?

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring WORLD-FAMOUS ROCKETTES would love to offer my Boston area readers a 25% discount to select shows. Seriously!

How to Buy Tickets at 25% off*:

1. Log onto: www.citicenter.org/radiocity

2. Select a NON Peak Performance between Sat, Dec 7th – Dec 28th for your 25% off discount:
12/14/2011 at 2 pm, 7:30 pm 12/28/2011 at 2 pm, 5 pm
12/15/2011 at 2 pm, 7:30 pm
12/20/2011 at 2 pm, 7:30 pm

12/21/2011 at 2 pm, 7:30 pm
12/22/2011 at 5 pm, 8 pm
12/23/2011 at 2 pm12/26/2011 at 5 pm
12/27/2011 at 5 pm
12/28/2011 at 5 pm

3. Enter Promo Code: ROXMOM11

*Offer is not valid for Gold Circle - $130 seats, for which there are no discounts. There is a 8 ticket limit on this event.

Pricing Peak Non-Peak Orchestra (Pit & Rows A-D): $130.00 $130.00 Orchestra (Rows E-O center): $99.00 $89.00 Orchestra (Rows E-O sides, P-EE): $83.00 $73.00Mezzanine: $83.00 $73.00

Balcony (Rows E-J): $83.00 $73.00 Balcony (Rows K-S): $74.00 $64.00 Balcony (Rows T-Z): $58.00 $48.00 Balcony (Rows AA-FF): $29.00 $25.00

Prices include a $3.00 Facility Fee.

What a great gift or a special treat for your family!

Check back at the end of the week to hear about our Rockettes adventure and maybe just maybe a special giveaway!

When You Push them a Little Too Far

2011-12-11T20:23:00.001-05:00

We had a crazy busy weekend. It was full of lots of fun things, but it was very full.

The girls and I left the house on Saturday at 11:30 and didn't get home until 10:30 that night.

The next day the girls, Golden Boy, and I were out of the house by 8:45 and didn't get home until 5:30.

That is a whole lot of fun, folks.

And in retrospect it was kind of asking a lot out of my little band of merry makers. I mean they are getting older, but that doesn't mean that they don't get overstimulated and overtired and maybe just maybe meltdown.

To add to the business of the weekend. Princess has a little bit of cold. Not enough to really slow her down (especially not with some nice cold medicine in her), but enough to make her little more tired and a little more prone to a meltdown (especially after that really nice cold medicine wears off).

I knew that I would be pushing things by going hard all day on Sunday, but you know it's the time of year, "go big or go home". Maybe we should have just gone home.

The day started out pretty good. We actually made it out of the door on time with a minimal amount of drama. Of course it was only 40 degrees out and Princess was in a short sleeved dress with no tights and no coat, but well what can I say. Don't even mention her cold, yes I am aware.

My three had a ball at the Christmas get together we had with my two college girlfriends and their children (Actually it ended up being only one of my friends because my other friend made it all the way to the front steps of the house when her youngest promptly threw up. It was the saddest thing ever. We quickly cleaned up the little one, got her back in the car, exchanged gifts for both girls, made plates for my friend and her oldest and set them back on the road to their home. Really sad.)

There was ornamenting making and gingerbread house making.

And lots and lots of food as there always is at these sort of gatherings.

After we left the holiday party we had to stop and run a few errands. One of which was grocery shopping at Wegmans where ...(drum roll please) the Manzos were appearing to promote their Black Water. Yes, The Manzos from Real Housewives of New Jersey. I figured since we had to get groceries anyway and it was kind of (not really) on our way home we might as well stop there. We didn't wait in line for pictures because that would have been pushing it a little bit too much with my children, but we did do a couple of drive bys and were able to get THIS close to Caroline!

By the end of the grocery shopping experience we were all pretty much done. And it was inevitable that someone was going to meltdown in some way. (Luckily for my children it was not me.)

And predictably it was my Princess. She received an Elf microphone in our gift swap from earlier in the day. The Elf microphone changes your voice to make you sound like an elf. Pretty cool, huh? It was the perfect gift for Princess because just last week she had spent about ten minutes in Wal-mart trying to convince me to buy one for her.

Unfortunately the Elf microphone has no volume control and is a little loud. Especially when you are in a car. I have to admit that even I was a little annoyed by the noise. And if I was a little annoyed that means that TweenStar was completely over the top annoyed (she is just a smidgen less tolerant than me). So I did ask Princess to lay off the Elf microphone for a little while. This request prompted an annoyed rant from Princess. I had TweenStar record a little of the rant and then Princess got all movie star v. paparazzi when she realized that TweenStar was recording her.

The good news is that a short time later Princess looked like this.

So yeah maybe I pushed them a little too hard this weekend.

He Deserved More Birthdays

2011-12-09T22:50:00.001-05:00

When I was 13 my grandfather died. He died of lung cancer. It wasn't an easy death. It was a hard painful one that ended with hospice care and the thought that we were just trying to make him as comfortable as he could be before he passed.

The death was devastating to my family and to me. He died way before he should have. Many many birthdays too early.

He still had kickball games to organize

He still had wildflower picking adventures to lead

He still had jokes to tell

He still had practical jokes to play

He still had games of HORSE to win

He still had grandfathering to do

The day of his funeral was probably the worst day of my life.

I miss him everyday. I missed him at my wedding. At the birth of my children. At my professional accomplishments. At all of my children's birthdays. At every milestone.

I miss him every time I look at my son and think of how they would be like two peas in a pod. How they would enjoy each other's company so much.

Cancer research has come a long way with the help of organizations like The American Cancer Society, but there is still a long way to go.

The American Cancer Society fights for more birthdays.

Why We Fight For More Birthdays

We believe every birthday you celebrate is a victory. Another year that cancer has not prevailed. Your birthday means everything to us. That's why we're dedicated to creating a world with less cancer and more birthdays. Thanks in part to our work, 11 million cancer survivors will celebrate another birthday this year. But we can't stop there. With your help, we can create a world with even more celebrations, more laughter, and more birthdays for all. Join us.

About ACS

The American Cancer Society combines an unyielding passion with nearly a century of experience to save lives and end suffering from cancer. As a global grassroots force of more than three million volunteers, we fight for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. We save lives by helping people stay well by preventing cancer or finding it early; helping people get well by being there for them during and after a cancer diagnosis; by finding cures through investment in groundbreaking discovery; and by fighting back by rallying lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and by rallying communities worldwide to join the fight. As the nation's largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing more than $3.5 billion, we turn what we know about cancer into what we do. To learn more about us or to get help, call us anytime, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org.

This post is sponsored by the American Cancer Society. All opinions are my own.

PETER PAN threesixty

2011-12-09T21:57:00.001-05:00

Last weekend my family and I had the amazing opportunity to go to the PETER PAN threesixty show.

The show was unbelievable. We had such a great time.

The whole experience, from the moment we glimpsed the huge dome like tent/theatre that transformed City Hall Plaza in downtown Boston to the moment Tinkerbell first flew on the stage to our backstage tour to meeting the actors who played Wendy and Peter Pan as we exited the theater, was pretty awesome.

The show was witty, engaging, and most important magical.

The threesixty experience is not something that my family will not be forgetting anytime soon.

Conceived by an award-winning creative team and featuring 23 actors, stunning puppets, epic music, dazzling flying sequences performed in the world's first 360-degree CGI theater set, PETER PAN is an extraordinary experience.

12 projectors, delivering 360 degree projection
10 million pixels
15,000 square feet of CGI
400 square miles of virtual London circa 1904 were rendered
The largest surround CGI venue in the world
The world's first fully 360-degree projected movie for live theater performance
The tent, which stands 100 feet height, was shipped via boat, 6,000 miles from London to San Francisco.
200 computers took four weeks to create the images - it would have taken eight years for a single computer to render.

I have to say that both of my girls were pretty enamoured with Tinkerbell. I have no idea why they identified with her sassy and spunky attitude? (Yah right!) Tinkerbell may have even sprinkled a few well placed *asses* throughout the performance that totally had my children giggling hysterically. My little one may have actually been sprinkled with a little too much fairy dust. As we were walking to the parking garage Golden Boy and Princess were enjoying themselves by running and laughing through an empty Government Center. During their high spirited play Princess may have screamed at the top of her lungs "I am going to kick your ass." After I stopped laughing I had to remind her that she was not Tinkerbell and that little girls do not go around using the term "ass". Thankfully she was pretty agreeable.

If you are in the Boston area or if Peter Pan 360 comes to your town I highly recommend you get your tickets NOW! Seriously it is that good.

During our backstage tour, posing with Nanny the dog and the puppeteer.

If you are interested in tickets to the Boston show check it out here.

My family received tickets to the PETER PAN threesixty show, but all opinions expressed are my own.

Capturing Memories

2011-12-07T23:13:00.001-05:00

So as soon as I saw this linky I knew I was going to have to do it. Because well I love pictures and I love talking about my children.

And now I am totally addicted to Picnik and capturing my children with words and pictures. Because I don't want to forget all the little details of what they were like when they were almost 12, 9 and 5. Those little things are too important.

Linking up with Galit and Alison today for the Memories Captured Linky

Do You Still Believe in the Magic?

2011-12-06T21:58:00.001-05:00

TweenStar and Golden Boy have reached that age.

That age where believing in Santa is not a guarantee.

That age where more "informed" friends proclaim loudly on the playground that there is no Santa.

That age where the magic can die.

But that won't happen at our house.

I refuse to sit down and have the big talk with my two older children.

I refuse to lay out the facts for them that there is no Santa.

I refuse to let them give up on the magic.

If they ask SuperHubby and I simply tell them that as long as they believe the magic is alive

That is all - no more, no less

But honestly they don't really ask.

I don't think they want to give up on the magic just yet either

I don't ever want to be a family that doesn't have the Christmas magic

A mom who takes her children shopping to buy their own Christmas gifts and then wraps them for under the tree

A mom who doesn't worry about hiding presents or doing everything during the month of December under a cloak of secrecy

I don't want my magic taken away

I want my children to continue to dream big and believe in magic for as long as they can.

Because we live our life longer not believing than we do believing

I know most people think we are silly

They believe we are setting our children up for ridicule because we allow TweenStar and Golden Boy to still "believe"

But my kids are smart and savvy they know by now that not every family is as magical as ours

I am not worried about them.

I am more worried about the children that feel the need to tell everyone they knew in school that there is no Santa

Those children are hurting

Not having any magic in your life kind of stinks

And when my almost ten year old son gives me a letter already addressed to Santa and asks me to mail it even though I know he has been told that Santa is fake my heart skips a beat.

I know he still feels the magic.

I know that he is not afraid to dream big.

And that makes me happy.

Now if only he didn't dream quite so big. Not quite sure what we are going to do about this...

But what I do know is that this boy is pure magic to me

I am sharing my Awesome with Momma Made It Look Easy today and you can too!

I am linking up with Shell today for Pour Your Heart Out

Christmas Tree, Couponing, and Compliments

2011-12-04T22:16:00.001-05:00

Earlier in the week it seemed that we would have a relatively quiet weekend. And then, well, things kept on happening.

I realized that equipment return for our Pop Warner organization was Saturday morning so that meant my morning was shot.

I realized that the birthday party invitation that had been on our refrigerator for over a month was actually this weekend.

We had the opportunity to go see Peter Pan 360 in Boston on Sunday. More on that tomorrow because it was all kinds of AWESOME!

On Wednesday morning on the way to work I decided that I MUST finish my Christmas shopping this weekend. A quick phone call to SuperHubby confirmed that he wanted to be a part of this shopping excursion and he quickly made babysitting arrangements for Saturday night.

We absolutely had to get our Christmas tree this weekend because obviously all the good ones would be gone if we waited any longer.

And of course there was hockey and tumbling and grocery shopping to be done.

So fortunately for you I have written an amazing catch up post...

Couponing

I took TweenStar and her coupon binder with me to the grocery store on Friday night. I am not usually all into the grocery shopping on Friday night because honestly it is the last thing I feel like doing, but after reviewing our weekend schedule it seemed to be the only time to do it. And it ended up actually working out well. The grocery store was quiet and TweenStar didn't feel too self-conscious as she consulted her binder.

Drumroll please....

TweenStar saved me a grand total of $40.00 this week!

I think the actual total was like $39.41, but I decided to round up. She was really pleased and obviously so was I. We talked a lot during and after our shopping trip. We dissected our strategies and our looking to fine tune our next shopping excursion. Stay tuned.

Christmas Tree

Every year we cut down our own Christmas Tree at a local tree farm. I am sure that at some point in my life I had an artificial tree, but never that I can remember. A live tree is an absolute must for my holiday. Luckily SuperHubby is in agreement with me (or at least he says he is). My children's Advent Calendar challenge was about our Christmas Tree hunt, they were to work together (that meant a minimal amount of arguing) to find our Christmas Tree. SuperHubby and I were staying out of the decision making process and leaving it all up to them. The only reason we were there was for the brawn and the bucks.

They tried really hard to make a decision without arguing and they did a pretty good job. The biggest problem was that both Princess and TweenStar wanted to be the one to find the tree. So it didn't matter what the tree looked like if one suggested it the other one immediately rejected it.

*sigh*

My two pig headed girls.

Golden Boy was like Switzerland. Totally neutral. Which is also kinda frustrating, I would love it if he stood up to his sisters more. He was more interested in the cutting down of the tree than the picking of the tree. Finally, after walking the farm a few times, the girls were able to agree on a tree.

And Golden Boy tried valiantly to cut it down, but eventually needed an assist from SuperHubby.

He definitely looks the part of christmas tree cutter downer

Crushed by the tree (not really crushed more like having fun)

He loves this cart for the tree. Every year he wants to push it around

My little angel ( I don't think so)

They did a good job

So for now the Christmas tree is sitting in our living room, looking pretty good, just waiting for us to decorate it. At this point I have my fingers crossed for Wednesday night.

The Advent Calendar

Things are going surprisingly well with it. They don't object too much to doing their act of kindness every day. The bigger obstacle for me is thinking up new ones ~~to torture them with~~ for them to do. I think I will end up repeating a few.

On Friday they all had to write a compliment to each other and put the compliments in the next day's box. So the next morning not only did they get a new challenge, but they also got to read their compliments.

And I have to confess I loved their compliments.

Princess complimented Golden Boy on his superior garbage taking out abilities.

Golden Boy recognized Princess for all the praise she receives from her teachers.

Golden Boy recognized TweenStar for helping him with his homework when he needs it. (Oddly enough this is something that she does really well with him.)

TweenStar complimented GoldenBoy on his sense of humor even if it is kind of "whackjobish". What you expected her to just give him a straight up compliment?

So we will press on with it. I am hoping they do a good job this week and we can take a trip to the Muppet Movie sometime during the weekend.

But please keep the ideas coming for my Advent calendar. I love them and need them.

So that is it. My to do list for this week is a mile long, but that is okay. Because I love holiday prep even if it means I stay up way too late some nights.

How was your weekend?

My Advent Calendar Odyssey

2011-11-30T22:02:00.001-05:00

A few things you need to know.

1. My children aren't incredibly kind to each other. If you were a fly on the wall in my house you might say that they were wicked mean to each.

Like Wicked Mean.

2. I feel like my children are losing (not sure if they ever had it) an appreciation for the little kindnesses in life. They don't seem to appreciate it when they are receiving kindness and they don't seem to realize the importance of passing on these little kindnesses on a daily basis.

3. This will be my 7th year of doing an Advent calendar with my children. (I see my and not our because SuperHubby refuses to have anything to do with it. Obviously smarter than he looks.).

We were given our Advent calendar in 2004 by one of my best friends. It is a large calendar with each door opening to a little box.

(many thanks to Golden Boy for being my "Vanna")

It came at the perfect time. TweenStar was 4 and Golden Boy was 2 (That doesn't even seem possible????) and we had just recently moved from North Carolina to Massachusetts. We were still living in our temporary housing, a small townhouse, while we tried to finalize the process of buying our house (our 3rd try at purchasing a house as the first two deals has fallen through). Most of our things (including holiday decorations) were in storage. SuperHubby and I were not exactly bubbling over with Holiday Spirit.

The Advent calendar was perfect in bringing a little joy and holiday excitement into our lives. My friend had filled each little box with little trinkets for the children.

They loved it.

The Advent calendar continued to be fun for the next couple of years. And then we had a third child and my older two children got well...older. And the logistics of the calendar started getting complicated. I couldn't fit three trinkets in the day's box and my older children started getting bored with the trinkets that were in the box.

So I took it to the next logical level.

I started putting clues in the box and hiding little presents around the house (Thank God for the $1 stores and the $1 bins at Target).

So this is where it starts to get complicated and annoying. Last year my children loved the idea of getting up each morning and finding the clue in the box (if loving the idea means fighting over who gets to the open each door on the Advent calendar and fighting over who gets to read the clue), but had pretty much out grown the $1 store crap I had found for them. I mean honestly how many tubes of chapstick could TweenStar get during the month of December? And I spent the 6 months after Christmas finding all the junk scattered around my house and throwing it away.

It was annoying.

I was not looking forward to doing it all again this year.

So 1 + 2 +3 = a brilliant (if I do say so myself) new plan for our Advent Calendar.

Each night I will put a piece of paper in each "box" (in a perfect world it will be the night before unfortunately I don't live in a perfect world so more days than not I will probably be running around like a crazy person in the morning trying to get the note in the box before they wake up). Each piece of paper will instruct the children on an act of kindness they have to do that day. At the end of the week if everyone has done well with their acts of kindness we will do a special event as a family. It could be something as simple as a special night at home with pizza and movie (my choice) or maybe going to see the Muppet Movie (SuperHubby's choice, apparently 40 year old men feel very nostalgic about The Muppets) or maybe even outdoor ice skating at Patriots Place (my children's choice).

As you can imagine this plan was met with much excitement and enthusiasm from my children.

Yah. Not. So. Much.

But I really don't care. They are going to do this and they are going to like it.

Because I said so.

But now of course I have backed myself into another corner. Now I have to think of 24 acts of kindness for my 11, 9, and 5 year old to do. That is easier said than done I am finding. I have spent the past few days brainstorming and well this is what I have come up with so far:

writing an unexpected thank you note to someone who has done something nice for you
doing a chore for a sibling
Writing a note/picture to a member of our military
Completing some Fill in the Blank Questions about their siblings (only nice things)
Working together to do something special for SuperHubby

And....I'm done.

Seriously. That is all I got so far. Definitely not 24 days worth. I need some help. Please give me any ideas of some acts of kindness I can FORCE my three children into doing. It will be fun. It is always fun to make 9 and 11 year olds do things they don't want to do.

I promise I will share all the funny details.

I am linking up with Mama Kat's Pretty Much World Famous Writer's Workshop.

The prompt was:

The first of December is upon us! Describe an Advent Calendar or a special way you count down days until Christmas (past or present)

TweenStar, the Extreme Couponer

2011-11-28T21:50:00.001-05:00

TweenStar is officially an Extreme Couponer.

Well kind of. She is definitely on her way.

TweenStar has always had some eccentric interests for her age.

As a preschooler she watched countless episodes of a Baby Story with me. By the time she was six she knew more about birthing babies than most adults.

Once she started grade school her interest was piqued by food. Specifically the Food Network. She was kind of obsessed. She loved Rachel Ray, Paula Deen, and pretty much anyone on the Food Network that wasn't named Emeril. For some reason she couldn't stand Emeril.

She would spend hours at the old play kitchen set in the play room "hosting her own cooking show". To this day TweenStar playing Food Network host is one of the cutest things my children have ever done.

As a Tween her TV viewing habits have changed and as a result some of her interests have changed. She now loves Jerseylicious. Thankfully she has not developed a penchant for animal prints, tight clothes, hair spray, and glitter make up. She loves Untold Stories of the ER and has lately been declaring that when she grows up she is going to be an ER nurse. She is also currently obsessed with the show Extreme Couponing.

So needless to say she was a little annoyed with me a few weeks ago when I told her that I had no intention of becoming an extreme couponer. Not that I am opposed to extreme couponing I just literally do not have the time to invest in it. I would love to save wads of cash each week and have a huge stock pile of food and health and beauty items. (I do confess that I love huge stockpiles. Not in a hoarding kind of way, more like we could survive a couple of weeks on what I have on my shelves kind of way. ) But honestly with everything else going on in my life extreme couponing is just not going to fit in.

So TweenStar was annoyed, which frankly is pretty much the norm.

And then last week she approached me and asked if she could be the extreme couponer for our family.

Ummmm I guess so.

What do you say when your almost 12 year old asks if she can extreme coupon for your family?

Yes???

I agreed to pay her 5% of any money I save because of her extreme couponing prowess. She negotiated her cut to 10%.

(I love that she negotiated)

I bought her the Sunday papers and gave her the weekly salesflyers from the local grocery stores. I set her up with some couponing websites. She found a binder and convinced SuperHubby to give up some plastic business card pages for the binder.

A couple of hours later and an Extreme Couponer was born.

She is very pleased with binder and all the organization. She spent all night giving me the low down on all the great coupons she has and whether they can be doubled or not (apparently there is some numerical code that indicates if it can be doubled, she could give you all the details). She even added some more coupons this evening.

And...

She requested to go on my next grocery shopping trip with me.

I guess to make sure I use the coupons and don't get lazy?

It's probably a good idea that she comes.

So hopefully her extreme couponing pays off. I save lots of money and she makes some money.

And seriously I am just happy she didn't go the Jerseylicious route.

Are you a couponer? Any advice for my TweenStar?

TENZI Review and Giveaway

2011-11-27T09:57:00.001-05:00

I was recently sent a new game for my family to try out. Well maybe not recently, maybe more like a month ago, but really who is counting.

Anyway I received, TENZI, in the mail a couple of weeks ago. And now that Football/Cheer season is over we actually have a little time to breath so I decided that it was the perfect time to introduce my children to TENZI.

And guess what?

My children love it.

Even SuperHubby likes it.

And of course that means I love it.

Rules of the Game:

Each player chooses a set of dice. Players hold all ten dice in their hands. Someone says “Go” and everyone rolls at the same time. Quickly look at your roll and decide which number you are going to go for. (For example, if you have more 3’s than any other number, that’s what you want to go for.) Put all your dice with that number aside, collect the remaining dice and quickly roll again. (You do not have to wait for others to roll again. Everyone rolls together only on the first roll.) Keep rolling until all ten of your dice show the same number.

WINNING:

The first player to get all ten of their dice to match (ten 3’s, for example) shouts out “TENZI” and wins the game

Each round takes less than five minutes. Honestly I kind of really love this game.

I love that the directions are so easy. That means that even 5 year old Princess can play without needing any help. It also means that my children can explain the game to a friend playing at our house or a grandfather at Thanksgiving without needing an adult interpreter. I love that.

I love that each round is short which means that their are lots of opportunities for lots of winners. Really great for playing with children. If you didn't win that round chances are five minutes from now you might be the winner. That doesn't mean that Princess didn't shed a few tears after losing a few times in a row, but she is five and competitive so it is what it is.

I love that the game is literally ageless. Everyone who has played TENZI with us has loved it.

I love that it is small and easy to store and transport. It comes in a plastic tube with a cap, but I ended up putting all the dice in a ziplock storage bag so my children can easily pick up after themselves.

I love that it is affordable. At only 14.95 a game, you really can't beat the price.

It can get a little loud and a little rowdy. I mean you do have four people rolling dice at the same time, but it is all in good fun and holding all ten dice or really anything more than five dice in one hand is a little tricky for Princess, but if she uses a little cup she is a pretty good. But honestly those are minor complaints.

I think this is a perfect stocking stuffer, or Yankee Swap gift, or even a great hostess gift for a family party.

And..... drum roll please. I have been given one Tenzi game to give away to one of my lucky readers!

WooHoo!

To enter all you need to do is Like TENZI on Facebook and then leave me a comment telling me you did (please include your email address so I can contact you if you win). You can find their Facebook page here:

http://www.facebook.com/ILoveTENZI

This giveaway will end on Sunday, December 4th and I will pick a winner on Monday, December 5th.

And if you don't win I have a coupon code for you! See everyone is a winner!

Visit the TENZI website,

http://www.ilovetenzi.com/

use the code,

familyfun

and receive 20% off your order.

Making TENZI even more affordable. 20% off of $14.95 = a pretty good deal!

Happy Shopping!

I was sent a TENZI game for my family to review. As always all opinions and remarks are my own.

We went to the Theatre!

2011-11-27T08:48:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I was offered tickets to Disney’s Phineas and Ferb: The Best LIVE Tour Ever at the Hanover Theatre for Performing Arts in Worcester, MA.

I jumped at the opportunity for a few reasons:

1. TweenStar and Golden Boy brought home report cards that were all kinds of awesome. And even though we don't reward for good report cards I thought that this show, coming a few days after report cards, would be a nice treat to show them how much we appreciated their hard work.

2. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my brain I knew that Phineas and Ferb was one of about 3 shows that all three of my children could sit down and watch for twenty minutes without arguing...much. And apparently it is also a show that SuperHubby enjoys, a bonus. (I have a confession to make. I really don't enjoy any children's television programming, I never even really liked cartoons when I was a kid. As a result I don't really watch that kind of stuff with my children and maybe don't know quite as much as I should about the shows they watch.)

3. I love going to the theatre (TweenStar does too). I have never been to the Hanover Theatre, but had heard a lot of great things so I was eager to see what it was all about.

So on a Thursday after school we piled my three angels into the car and set off to the theatre. On the way we filled them in on the surprise. They were excited and of course had a million questions. Neither SuperHubby nor I were very familiar with the area where the theatre was located, but we were able to find it easily with our GPS. And I was thrilled to discover that it took us less than 30 minutes to get there. That is about the same amount of time that it takes us to get to the theatre we usually go to.

On our way to the theatre we had stopped to get some cash knowing that we would have to pay for parking. Now I have no idea what people pay for parking in other parts of the country, but parking in New England can be astronomical so we were prepared with a wad of cash.

Parking = $10.00.

I can not tell you how thrilled we were. It is the little things, like $10 parking, that make me all kinds of happy. And as if paying just $10 for parking wasn't enough, the parking garage was well lit and directly across the street from the theatre. Seriously people that is a big deal for anyone shuffling children in and out of shows.

What can I say about the theatre. It is gorgeous. The theatre really has an interesting history and subsequent transformation:

The original structure, known as the Franklin Square Theatre, was built in 1904. Later it became known as the Grand Theatre and was owned by Pauline L. Taylor. At that time, the theatre extended to the line of the former Norwich & Worcester rail line, which is approximately the front edge of the present balcony.

In 1925, Sylvester Poli of New Haven, Connecticut hired Thomas W. Lamb, one of the world's leading theatre architects to make major additions and alterations to the building. Lamb designed a 3,000-seat theatre, decorated with ornately painted plasterwork, marbleized columns and many elaborate furnishings. It offered its early patrons mirrored walls, a grand staircase, a large chandelier and a two-story lobby.

In 1967, National Amusements, Inc. purchased the building, closed the theatre and renovated the space into the Showcase Cinema. This renovation required major interior alterations including the removal of the stage, proscenium wall, upper seating boxes, balcony seating, and theatre seats and then dividing the space into four smaller cinemas. Showcase Cinema IV was closed in the late 1990's and the building was only minimally maintained for the next decade.

Edward Madaus and Paul Demoga, Founders of the Worcester Center for Performing Arts, started the non-profit in 2002 with the intention of purchasing the former grandiose theatre and turning it into a performing arts center. National Amusements transferred ownership to the Worcester Center for Performing Arts, Inc. for a nominal fee and the Light the Lights! Capital Campaign to restore the theatre began!

It is a smaller theatre and I don't really think there is a bad seat in the house. We had fabulous seats, center and about ten rows in. Aside from the woman behind me who knew waaaaaayyy too much about Phineas and Ferb and was waaaaaaayyy more excited than an adult woman should be the seats were awesome.

We had a great experience and a great night.

Apparently Perry the Platypus is kind of a big deal...

Princess with one of the performers during the intermission

This is definitely a theatre that I will be looking into for future shows. TweenStar has already been buzzing about what shows she wants to go to. I would love to take the kids to see Shrek - The Musical, Seussical, and maybe just TweenStar and I to see South Pacific. I would love to go see Rock of Ages (anyone wanna go???). Ticket prices are extremely reasonable so who knows I just might make it to a show or two.

Many thanks to Matt Parker, Manager - Event Marketing & Sales, NE Feld Entertainment, Inc for providing tickets to my family to the show and for introducing us to this great theatre!

My 3 Children in a Video ... Together

2011-11-22T22:16:00.001-05:00

I truly have a lot to be thankful for.

A job. (that I don't hate)

A home. (even if I don't love it)

Great friends. (like really awesome ones)

A Supportive family. (who have always been very supportive)

A SuperHubby. (doesn't everyone deserve a SuperHubby???)

And of course my three healthy beautiful children. Who shockingly enough ALL agreed to sit together and record a couple of minutes of video for my little blog. And they didn't even really fight. I mean it wasn't all hearts and flowers, but fists didn't fly.

So that is something.

For those of you who have younger children you can watch the video to catch a glimpse of some Tween attitude.

Oh and I do believe that the only reason TweenStar agreed to star in this video (because usually she would have nothing to do with an activity like this) is because she was particularly proud of her hair. She straightened it herself after school and she was feeling very generous.

Doesn't matter I will take what I can get.

I am linking up with a belle, a bean, & a Chicago Dog for #KidsTalkinTurkey 2011

13 Years, Baby

2011-11-20T23:00:00.001-05:00

Yup today is the day. 13 years, Baby. Thirteen years and going strong.

Or something like that.

Today I have been married 13 years to the love of my life, my SuperHubby.

I have to say the thrill of the anniversary is kind of gone when you have been married as long as we have.

So without further ado:

Five Ways You Know You are Celebrating Your 13th Wedding Anniversary

1. When people ask you how long you have been married you have to stop and think. I mean like really think. And instead of recalling that blissful day in 1998 and doing math that involves subtraction and carrying numbers and such (because that math is really hard to do in your head and people look at you weird when you start writing air numbers) you think of how old your first born child is and how many years you had been married when she was born (in our case months - 13 exactly) and go from there. So much easier.

2. Instead of an anniversary date you are resigned to an anniversary lunch. An anniversary lunch is cheaper (no babysitter) and less complicated to arrange. But in reality even the anniversary lunch is questionable at this point, trying to fit it in to our busy schedule has become a real trial.

3. Your children are incredibly bitter about the aforementioned Anniversary lunch. I mean shouldn't they get something for your anniversary. They are the ones who are subjected to the disgusting middle of the kitchen hugs and kisses and embarrassing talk about nice butts.

4. No cards. No gifts. Yeah we love each other. Yeah we appreciate each other. Blah Blah Blah

5. Your wedding video is on a VHS tape and your wedding pictures are rolls of negatives. We really need to do something about this. Hello 1998.

Oh and one more.

You know it is your 13th wedding anniversary when you don't need a date to remind you that you love and appreciate your spouse or to know that he feels the same way about you. Your family's day to day existence just proves that your love and commitment to each other is just as strong as it was on November 21, 1998. Actually even stronger because Holy Cow! we had no idea how much work this whole marriage and parenting thing was going to be.

So Happy Anniversary SuperHubby. Thank you for 4,745 days of wedded bliss.

(My God! We were babies!)

Why I am a Parenting Genius...

2011-11-15T17:48:00.001-05:00

I have a confession... I am totally funny.

Well at least I think I am and I love ~~sharing~~ harassing my children with my humor.

To be sure there have been times when I know that my hilariously sarcastic parenting tone has backfired.

Another confession... I am also a wicked good liar to my children.

Maybe to you parenting purists that doesn't seem like an asset, but it has totally weaseled me out of more jams than you can imagine.

A third confession... I have found it difficult to talk to my TweenStar about "delicate" tweeny topics in the past year. Things like basic hygiene, boys, "womanly things" (see also basic hygiene), etc. Basically anything cringe worthy. Anything that would make you say "Whew! Glad I don't have girls". Whenever I broach one of the above mentioned topics TweenStar generally cuts me off by protesting loudly "I KNOW!" and then puts up what might as well be a brick wall. Sometimes this wall consists of her covering her ears and singing loudly La La La La La, PLEASE LEAVE!"

For real.

I can't say I really blame her.

And because I am a coward and basically hate discussing with my "little girl" these cringe worthy topics almost as much as she hates hearing them I generally run out of the room patting myself on the back because at least I tried.

Obviously that is not good enough.

But it is not like I haven't tried several different methods to help create an environment that invites conversation. I have attempted talks in the car (I heard it's less threatening in the car), special "dates" for the two of us, books for her to read and then ask questions about, and of course just awkwardly barging into her room and blurting out the topic.

So yah nothing has really worked.

But I think on Sunday I may have stumbled onto something. Hence my Parenting Genius Moment.

We were driving home from Princess's ear piercing and I reminded TweenStar that she needed to take a shower that night because it had been two days since she had had a shower. That comment got the agitated and annoyed "Duh." followed by a huge sigh and the you really are the dumbest parent alive eye roll.

Now usually when this happens I want to stomp my feet and scream "Why are you so mean to me!!! I carried you in my womb for 10 months. I bathed you, I fed you, I buy you Uggs and North Face, I listen to your endless stories about every inconsequential thing that happens during the 6.5 hours you are at school. I deserve better!!" and then break down into a sobbing mess. I generally refrain from doing this (it tends to freak the tween out) and instead just change the topic or walk away.

But for whatever reason this time I decided to pursue the topic.

"I am sorry. (Using my overly exaggerated annoyed voice.) But in my parenting Tweens book it says that I have to ask this questions every other day because you know some tweens forget to shower. I am just doing what it says in my book."

"Your book?" This time it is her annoyed voice.

Now this is where the skilled parenting and lying comes in. Feel free to take notes..

"Yes my book. I have a parenting book for every developmental stage you guys are going through. Like right now I am reading one about Kindergartners and one about school age boys and of course one about Tweens. Ummmm how did you think I knew all this stuff?" I am totally playing up the incredulous bit.

(Now all of this is believable because I am a book fanatic. And I do enjoy a good "how to" manual.)

"Seriously Mom?? A book??? Where do you keep these books?"

"By my bed. For easy access."

"I have them for all the ages. I even have one for teens and young adults. I totally use them all the time. And the tween book said I have to ask you about showers so you don't start stinking because apparently some tweens do. But maybe that section was more about boy tweens. I don't know I will have to go back and look."

Laughter and a smile from TweenStar (the smile and the laugh... huge, folks, huge!). "Mom, you are so weird!"

"Whatever. It was in the book." And for the record I know my children think I am weird. I am just hoping that someday they will grow to appreciate my weirdness.

For the past couple of days whenever I have asked TweenStar something or requested something she frequently smiles and asks me if "it is in the book". And of course I lie and say yes.

I totally plan on milking this book thing for as long as I can. It makes her smile and she listens a little.

Well at least she isn't saying La La La La with her hands over her ears.

So there you have it, proof that I am obviously an incredibly funny parenting genius who is a wicked good liar.

Not a bad week so far.

Tell me about one of your Parenting Genius moments?

I am sharing my AWESOME with Jennifer from Momma Made It Look Easy

I am Pouring My Heart out with Shell today.

Kingston DataTraveler Givaway

2011-11-14T22:59:00.001-05:00

Thank you to Kingston for sponsoring this review. Please click here to learn more about Kingston. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.

I recently received a Kingston DataTraveler loaded with urDrive software to review. My first thoughts when seeing the drive was how Teeny Tiny it was. I just knew that I would lose it. Because well I have a tendency to lose things. But then I saw that you could easily attach it to a key chain to make it very portable and less losable (is that a word). Of course I haven't done that yet...

It is actually smaller than this picture!

But there is a good reason why I haven't secured my teeny tiny DataTraveler in a way that would ensure that I would not lose it. My children have totally been monopolizing the drive. The Kingston DataTraveler has software loaded on it that is perfect for children. The application is called Fooz Kids and it is really pretty awesome. It is loaded with lots and lots of games. Games appropriate for preschoolers all the way up to grade schoolers. It was such an easy click for my children to have all the games at their fingertips. I loved it because I did not get the endless requests to find a different website for them. It was also nice because none of us had to suffer through some of the awful ads that are attached to the different child friendly websites (perfect timing for the Holidays).

At first when we downloaded the software to my computer the computer kept on freezing up with the Fooz Kids application. I think that perhaps my children were a little too click happy at the beginning. They get that way sometimes...click happy. Ever since the glitches that first day though it has been smooth sailing. My Princess loves the Holly Hobbie games and the Strawberry Shortcake games. What can I say she is totally retro. And I love that she can turn on the computer and access a ton of games on her own. So easy!

I haven't fully explored all the options on the Kingston DataTraveler loaded with urDrive software, mostly because my children have been hoarding it - so far downloading the Fooz Kids application on three of our computers. I do think that I will be attaching it to my key chain tomorrow and start to utilize it in a more "grown up" way or I may just play a few rounds of Strawberry Shortcake...

Check out this video for more information about the Kingston DataTraveler.

Kingston has also graciously agreed to give away a package of five drives to one of my readers.

Woo Hoo!!!

You totally won't have to share if you have five!

All you have to do is leave me a comment letting me know who you could give a Kingston DataTraveler to.

Don't forget to leave your email address so that I can notify you if you are the Big Winner!

The Giveaway will close on Sunday, November 20th at 11:00 PM and I will pick a winner on Monday, November 21st.

Good Luck!!

Wrap It Up and Put a Bow On It

2011-11-13T22:39:00.001-05:00

This weekend was monumental for my family. Okay maybe monumental is a little dramatic, but it was a big weekend. It marked the end of another Pop Warner Season. Our fifth. The season is always long. Like long long. This season was even longer because for the first time we were working three different schedules with all three of my children participating. There were weekends that were enough to make your head spin.

So though it is always sad to see the season end I am pretty much more than ready to move on to the Holiday season and maybe a free weekend day or two.

Maybe?

We did go out with a bang. Both girls participated in a competition and Golden Boy had a playoff game. And of course they overlapped. Grrrrr. The story of my season. Golden Boy had his first two playoff games this season and I didn't get to see either of them, but it is not like I am bitter or anything.

So while the girls and I were gathering with the cheer teams preparing to carpool to the competition Golden Boy was playing in a do or die playoff game. But because football moms are da bomb and always looking out for one another, Sarah from In the Trenches of Mommyhood agreed to text me score by score updates during the game. She even included this picture which made my day.

My boys

Unfortunately the boys lost, and it was a heartbreaking loss. I am kind of glad I didn't see that part because 9 year old boys heart broken and crying because their season is over is really hard to take.

SuperHubby had not been to a cheer competition in a couple of years and all week TweenStar had been putting some major pressure on him to attend this one. To be fair to SuperHubby most of the cheer competitions conflict with a football or hockey game. But if we are keeping it real SuperHubby also really doesn't like to go to them. He would much rather sit at one of her softball games or lacrosse games. He agreed to go though and even when Golden Boy's football game started an hour and a half late which meant that it was questionable that they would make it to the competition (almost 2 hours away) in time to see TweenStar compete they came anyway. And they made it with only ten minutes to spare. Of course TweenStar barely acknowledged that they were there, but I know she was pleased.

Right?

I mean she had to have been pleased?

I am not going to lie. It was an exhausting night and whether it was worth it or not is very questionable. The competition did not even start until 6:40 and awards were not handed out until 8:45. Waaaaay long. In end though TweenStar's team was crowned Grand Champions, the boys got to see her perform, and Princess got to spend one more night with her beloved cheer teammates.

So that makes it totally worth it, right?

*Sigh*

I realized that I did not have any photos of the three of us "cheer girls" together even though we had spent many many hours at many many games and competitions. Unfortunately I remembered this at about 9 that night. As you can tell Princess was pretty much all done. So much for my Kodak moment.

The next day was another big day in our house. Princess was getting her ears pierced. I have no hard and fast rules about when I allow my girls to get their ears pierced. I just want my daughters to be able to ask for it and I want them to be old enough to take at least a little responsibility for keeping them clean. TweenStar was 7, but I felt good about letting Princess getting it done at 5. She was so excited because she had been waiting since the beginning of cheer season.

Feeling so grown up!

She was so serious about listening to all the instructions.

Seriously could Kayla B (that is what she told us to call her) work anyplace other than Claire's???

I think it hurt a little more than she anticipated, but she didn't cry.

So proud when it was all over!

Unfortunately the night ended with her fast asleep on my couch after complaining of a headache and running a slight fever.

Hmmmmm.

Just another weekend in paradise.

How was your weekend?

THEY'RE YOURS!!!!

2011-11-10T07:06:00.001-05:00

I knew from the moment I held my beautiful first born daughter that THIS day would come. I knew that someday sooner or later she and I would reach this point in our relationship. But somehow even knowing about it for 11 years and 11 months did not stop me from being caught completely by surprise (I have to admit that it does seem like motherhood is always catching me by surprise) when it happened on Wednesday morning.

I was blindly making lunches at 6:15 AM, my typical weekday morning routine, when TweenStar came prancing downstairs and asked me if I liked her pants. After I quick glance in her direction I proclaimed she looked "cute" and resumed my lunch making duty.

TweenStar let out a triumphant HA!

I turned to eye her warily. Enthusiasm that early in the morning is always suspect.

She pulled up her shirt to reveal that the waist band of her sweatpants was rolled over. She then pirouetted to model the pants.

"Do you recognize them?" She was grinning from ear to ear.

"Ummmmm...." I am not my sharpest at 6 AM.

Not willing to wait for my very slow moving elderly brain to catch up with her youthful enthusiasm any longer TweenStar yelled out gleefully

"THEY"RE YOURS!!!!!"

Huh?

I looked a little closer.

Oh yup. Yes they were.

In my defense TweenStar wears some variation of sweatpants 6 out of the 7 days of the week. And the pair of sweatpants she was wearing were sweatpants that I certainly had not worn in over a year (and not just because my thighs and booty would have stretched the fabric in a way that looked unsightly).

"I found them in your bin of winter clothes. Don't they look cute? They are sooooooo comfortable."

With one final spin she happily turned around and set off to search for the pair of shoes she wanted to wear.

Leaving me dazed and confused. As I turned back around to finish making TweenStar's turkey sandwich I couldn't help but wonder how my 8lb 8 oz baby girl had somehow, in a split second, transformed into a tween wearing my clothes.

How does that happen?

So now for all intents and purposes my sweatpants have become hers. Which is fine because right now she looks much better in them than I do.

And I have had a glimpse into the future when I will have to protect my shoes, purses, and "nice" things from grubby teenage hands.

Sigh

Seriously when did she get so big? And how can I make her stop?

My cool Tween wearing my sweatpants.

I am linking up with Momma Made It Look Easy this week to Share My Awesome!

Monday Musings

2011-11-07T07:05:00.000-05:00

I was away from home Wednesday to Sunday for work. And my family actually did... pretty well without me. I didn't receive any texts proclaiming Daddy to be evil or any phone calls from SuperHubby telling me how awful MY KIDS were. It seems that everyone was well behaved. They were all completely exhausted when I got home. Maybe from being well behaved for so long?

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Because of the freak winter storm my children actually got to go trick or treating twice. Once on Halloween and once on Friday. Monday was really fun, but the kids raked in the loot on Friday. They now have a ridiculous amount of candy. TweenStar calculated that if she ate one piece of candy everyday her Halloween candy would actually last her more than half the year.

That is a lot of candy.

Princess also leaned a new word on Friday.

Double Dipping: the art of nonchalantly returning to a house that has "good" candy to trick or treat again.

For example: "Mom, I double dipped at all the houses that had full sized candy bars."

So proud.

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The Christmas catalogs are out.

There is something so Christmassy about seeing a child hunched over a magazine, brow furrowed as they circle their wish lists.

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Is there really a reason for this time change thing in 2011. If you have children you know that there really isn't any such thing as an "extra hour" of sleep. Instead you just have crabby children.

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I really love the show "The Amazing Race" and absolutely must be on it someday. I have to have a really good partner, though. Because if I am on the show I HAVE TO WIN. And I couldn't be partners with SuperHubby, well because we would fight, and because he would have to stay with the children. Any Takers? Who wants to go on The Amazing Race with me.

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I feel totally unprepared for the work/school week ahead.

Which means it is going to be a long week...

What does your week look like?

Anxiety...

2011-11-02T00:17:00.001-04:00

By nature I am not an anxious person. I don't have any of those irrational fears and anxieties. Certainly I don't like mice or snakes or big hairy spiders, but none of those things make me crazy. In fact I frequently give SuperHubby a hard time because he tends to be a little more... anxious about things. He doesn't like flying, or heights, or bridges. All of those things have the potential to raise his anxiety level. He doesn't like the children to stand to close to the "edge" on the second floor of the mall.

And yes I do love to take the opportunities to give him grief about all his "phobias". And you know he soooo appreciates that.

I do have one thing that makes me anxious though. A totally irrational anxiety.

Being away from my children puts me on complete edge.

Which is where I am now, on the edge. Tomorrow morning I leave for a work conference. I will be gone until Sunday morning. And right now that seems like an incredibly long time.

It is not that I don't think SuperHubby can handle the day to day responsibilities of our three children. I know he can, though I know it will be a challenge, because our three children are literally a full time job on their own. It is not that I don't think he can handle the emotional roller coaster that our girls sometimes ride on. I know he can, though I do try to shelter him from the majority of their mood swings. It is not that I think SuperHubby will crack under the pressure or that my children will not be well cared for (certainly showers may be skipped or more meals than not will be eaten at McDonalds or Subway). I know he is a wonderful father and will handle all the challenges beautifully despite what the texts from TweenStar may lead me to believe (she is a little dramatic).

I do not see my children through rose colored glasses. I know that they can be difficult and challenging. And I know that there are more nights than not that I wish for just a few moments of alone time. But somehow all that irritating day to day stuff doesn't change the fact that I don't want to be away from them. The fact that I can't get around my enormous anxiety is annoying. I would love to be able to just sit back and enjoy my alone time.

This irrational anxiety makes it impossible for me to relax when I separated from all three of them. Logically I can appreciate the novelty of being childless. The peace and quiet. The doing my own thing. The loveliness of just "being".

Emotionally though I am on edge.

I have always been this way, from the moment I became a mother with the birth of TweenStar. At first I attributed my reluctance to leave her to my working mom status. My time with her was so limited that I wanted to soak up every minute I did have. I did almost have an anxiety attack in the middle of Pier One when TweenStar was about 4 months old. I ran out to the store without her. I knew that logically it would be easier to run this errand without my 4 month old in tow. What I had underestimated was the extreme anxiety that would overtake me in the store when everything seemed to take soooooo long. All I wanted to do was drop everything and run to my car.

*sigh*

There are still times I feel that way. Even though my children are so much older now.

So right now the thought of being away from my family for four and a half days is making me an emotional wreck.

Even though I will be in sunny Orlando, Florida attending a conference that is interesting and enjoyable.

Even though I know that I am guaranteed at least 5 hours between the two flights to just sit and read.

I am still anxious.

Irrationally anxious at the idea of being away from my three children.

Do you have any irrational anxieties?

I am linking up with Shell today for Pour Your Heart Out Wednesday

A Snowy Halloween

2011-10-31T23:35:00.001-04:00

It was definitely a Halloween to remember in New England. Anytime you are out trick and treating and there is snow on the ground is memorable.

The Halloween weekend started out like this

That was our view driving home on Saturday afternoon. This kind of weather on October 29th is even a little difficult for us hardy New Englanders to swallow.

But even with the stormy weather SuperHubby did earn his Father of the Year prize by taking TweenStar to her Halloween party that night.

She had a lot of fun and I got to hear all the stories when she came home.

Just the two of us sitting together talking. It was nice.

And it gave me some hope that we will continue to have these talks even as she gets older.

Our power flickered a little in the middle of the night, but fortunately we never lost it. I honestly don't think my family could have handled losing power again. After the horrendous experience we had being without power for four days post Hurricane Irene we were a little weary.

Unfortunately when we woke up in the morning everything was covered in this.

We also learned that many of our friends and families were not as lucky as us and were without power. Even as I write this there are still many people we know without power. And I can tell you that is not fun.

Golden Boy and Princess though were quick to see the silver lining of an early snow.

He begged me to include this picture because he thinks he looks so cool!

Sledding didn't look nearly this dangerous (tree branches all over the place) from the comfort of my back deck! Yikes. Definitely a Bad Mommy moment.

We even managed to fit in the pumpkin carving on our "day off". All of our activities were cancelled on Sunday because of the horrible weather so Sunday turned into a very rare day off for our family.

Princess was very impressed with her ability to scoop all the "guts" out of the pumpkin.

Pumpkin carving is always one of those things that kind of sneaks up on me. We put it off and put it off and before I know it we are doing it the day before or even worse the day of Halloween.

Every. Single. Year.

TweenStar and Golden Boy were actually kind of thrilled to learn that school was cancelled the next day. SuperHubby and I, not so much. A snow day in October is just depressing.

For awhile on Monday it looked like Halloween could be in jeopardy. Many many many towns in New England postponed Halloween until Friday or in some cases cancelled Halloween all together, which is soooo sad. Can you even imagine explaining no Halloween to your children?

Fortunately our town did not postpone or cancel Halloween. We did have to change our Halloween plans though. Originally we were going to trick or treat with friends in a nearby town, but that town postponed Halloween until Friday. So instead we had friends come to our house and trick or treated in our town. We ended up having a great time and we saw lots of great Halloween spirit. The weather cooperated. Not too cold, though there was a little chill in the air, probably low 40's, and the children were simply fabulous. Really and truly fabulous. It was the most laid back trick or treating EVER.

Here is our crew. Cute, huh?

My three children all loved their Halloween costumes. Which was kind of weird. Usually they like something in the store, but by the time Halloween rolls around they either don't like it so much or something about the actual costume bothers them.

TweenStar was a "dark" Alice in Wonderland. She really felt pretty and confident in her costume, which is great for a Tween. Even if I had no idea what a "dark" Alice in Wonderland was I totally supported her costume because she loved it.

Golden Boy was a gangster. He was way into his costume and even taped a flashlight onto his gun.

Princess was a referee. It was the perfect costume for her. The costume itself was very comfortable, no itchy parts. We blinged it up with some sequined "flags" and a glitter belt to put her flags on. She also agreed to wear a black shirt and leggings under her costume because it all matched and looked good. Which was great because I really did not want a repeat of last year.

Everyone went to bed happy and exhausted. Just the way I like it.

And the best news is my children get to go out trick or treating again on Friday with more friends .

So despite the wintery weather and the craziness of our life we managed to have one of the best Halloweens ever.

And that makes me smile.

How did you celebrate Halloween?

Linking up with Four Plus an Angel and Sellabitmum For Boo! In the Blogosphere

I Have a Sickness

2011-10-27T07:19:00.000-04:00

I have a sickness. And it definitely has impacted my way of life. I have"Putthingsinasafeplaceandneverfindthemagainitis" (PTIASPANFTA-itis). And I have it bad.

I am not sure when I first acquired this illness, but I am pretty sure it coincided with the birth of my first child. You know right around the same time I stopped being able to put two sentences together coherently.

*Sigh*

More often than not my husband and children are annoyed with me after a full blown case of "Putthingsinasafeplaceandneverfindthemagainitis". Mostly because... well they can't find anything. And unfortunately even though I know I put the sought after item someplace that was logical and "safe", for the life of me I can't remember where that place is.

My intentions are good. To keep my house as neat and well kept as possible. The problem is that my family does not share my standards of keeping things organized and tidy. Instead they prefer to find things where they left them.

On the counter tops

In the middle of the kitchen table

Strewn across the floor.

They, in fact, are often outraged when they return to where they ~~carelessly tossed~~ thoughtfully set down their beloved object and do not find it there. And my explanations of needing counter space for food prep or the potential for broken bones (mine) if aforementioned item is tripped over one more time often fall on deaf ears. My objections seem inconsequential when faced with the facts that they can not instantaneously find what they NEED. But alas even with their frustrations loudly communicated to me I continue to mount my fight against clutter in my house. Unfortunately I am also absentminded and often don't fully concentrate on the task on hand. My lack of concentration may in part be due to the fact that the word "Mom" is more likely than not to be echoing through the house and some new "crisis" will need to be averted. My absent mindedness I contribute to my advancing age, forty is just around the corner.

A common bout of Putthingsinasafeplaceandneverfindthemagainitis would look something like this:

Child or SuperHubby bellowing about not finding something they need NOW and start aimlessly walking around the house making very LOUD attempts (really non-attempts because apparently SuperHubby handed down his inability to find anything to all of our children) to find object.

I swoop in to the rescue before child or SuperHubby reaches the point where it looks like the house has been ransacked and they are in a full meltdown.

SuperHubby or child expresses their frustration at not finding the object they need NOW in the place where they LEFT it.

I reassure them that I put the object in a safe place to get it out of the way so it did not get ruined.

I hesitate because for the life of me I can not remember where that place is.

I walk through the house, muttering under my breath that I know I put it someplace good.

SuperHubby or child follows behind me at first. They are eager to have object in hand.

After about five minutes of my reassuring them that I put the oject someplace GOOD and will remember where in just a minute SuperHubby or child loses interest and moves on to something else.

I continue searching because I know the object is SOMEWHERE. If only I could remember where.

My frustration peaks after about 20 minutes and I am in a bad mood for several hours.

It would make things so much easier (and my family so much happier) if I could just remember where I put their things.

Putthingsinasafeplaceandneverfindthemagainitis is not an easy sickness to live with.

Unfortunately the cure is not a realistic one. The cure would actually entail them putting their crap away.

*Sigh*

And I don't think that is going to happen.

Do you have Putthingsinasafeplaceandneverfindthemagainitis? Please tell me I am not the only one.

I am linking up with Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop this week. I was insprired by this prompt: Write the last item you looked for. Why did you need it?

I am also sharing my Awesome today with Momma Made It Look Easy

Facebook Faux Pas

2011-10-25T07:42:00.005-04:00

I am definitely raising children of the social media generation. They are well acquainted with Facebook, blogging, and twitter. Not that they have access to any of these social media outlets, but they do know that Mommy is completely addicted to all social media forums. They are most familiar with Facebook, though, as TweenStar has many friends who already have accounts and I have been known to share funny videos, pictures, or posts with them.

Though they appreciate the Facebook pictures, videos, and anecdotes I share with them OF OTHER PEOPLE they also live with the fear that everything they do or say is has the potential to be shared on my Facebook page.

Anytime I laugh too hard at something they do or say they are immediately suspicious that it will be the topic of my Facebook status update. Anytime I level my Iphone camera at them they demand to know "If I am going to post this on Facebook?". To which I always reply "of course not".

In other words I lie through my teeth. It saves us all a lot of drama.

I firmly believe that as payment for the excellent parenting my children receive they OWE me the right to post amusing and embarrassing anecdotes about them on Facebook. It makes me look clever and funny and those status updates always get the most "likes" so I also look popular. I know that some people believe that I should ask my children's permission before posting anything about them, but frankly I feel like it is my right as their mother. Certainly the amount of grief they put me through is not equal to the few laughs I get from a mildly embarrassing Facebook post about them.

Occasionally they will do something and demand that it be put on Facebook. My children are weird like that. The only problem is usually what they deem Facebook worthy I do not. So usually I don't post it, I just say I do.

Because I am a flawed parent like that.

And again I like to avoid the drama.

They want me to post things like gymnastics in the middle of the living room, jumps on the trampoline, or tricks on the dirt bike. Stupid stuff. I prefer to post the embarrassing and disgusting things that happen that illustrate the now lows of motherhood.

Posts like this:

"Just had Princess pee into a Ziploc bag on a moving bus on the way to Local Comp. Good times."

This was most definitely Facebook material. And as soon as I got us both cleaned up and Princess happily back in her seat on the bus I updated my status. Unfortunately Princess didn't think it was Facebook worthy. Not that that really mattered to me, but again I am all about avoiding the drama. Especially any drama that may occur after a very long day spent at a cheerleading competition. Unfortunately sometimes SuperHubby and I are not on the same wavelength. Which is why if I still had the Ninja like reflexes of my youth I would have knocked him out before he finished this sentence at 7:30 on Sunday night.

"Hey I read that you peed into a Ziploc bag today"

Princess's head swiveled around so fast I thought she was going to get whiplash. I was like a deer in headlights as she fixed her death glare on me with a mixture of disbelief, horror, betrayal, and anger. She correctly assumed that SuperHubby had read this information on Facebook. She was beyond furious.

Lucky for me I am a quick thinker and have no problem skillfully lying to my children.

"I texted him. That is how he read it. A text. Of course." And then gave her a look like seriously you thought I would post this on Facebook. I mean what kind of mother would I be to post something that embarrassing about one of my children.

SuperHubby chimed in "Yeah Mommy texted me."

Now it was my turn to shoot a death glare at him. He really just needed to be quiet.

Princess eyed me suspiciously and then because she is a better person than me and still young enough to believe that I would never lie to her bought my story and a major meltdown was averted.

Now if I could only convince SuperHubby to think before he speaks.

*Sigh*

Do you get your children's approval before you post something about them on Facebook?

Another Random Friday Post

2011-10-21T07:59:00.000-04:00

Another random Friday Post...

I only worked three days this week, but they seemed like a Wicked Long Three Days! Seriously.

I am making 100 chocolate chip cookies Friday. Golden Boy is bringing them for the football snack after practice. I really don't know how I get myself into these things.

I spent the week "blinging" up Princess's Halloween costume. TweenStar and Princess assisted. She is dressing up as a referee. I decided that the costume wasn't fancy enough (honestly I was trying to be proactive and avoid the meltdown when she starts realizing her friends are all being princesses and such - costumes she DID NOT want) so we blinged up her whistle and made some sequined "penalty flags" for her.

It was fun, but in the end it was just one more thing on my to do list.

I am heading to the IKEA on Friday. My girls share a bedroom and are desperate for more room. We are thinking of bunk beds for a Christmas present. I am totally in to giving them more space, but not thrilled about the idea of bunkbeds.

Princess loves the show 19 Kids and Counting. She totally thinks the Duggars are Da Bomb family. I really think she would leave us in an heartbeat if the Duggars were open to adoption.

I love my little 80's girl. She thinks she looks so awesome in this outfit today.

Golden Boy has always been the the King of Random. He rarely lets us down whether it is asking me at 6AM if I think the sun is going to burn out or an exchange like this one:

On Monday I was driving in the car with Golden Boy and TweenStar.

The car is quiet, a quiet that is rare in my car when I have more than one child in it. For whatever reason they think being in the car together means they should fight incessantly. I was enjoying the peace.

Golden Boy: (to TweenStar) "Have you gotten Puberty yet?"

TweenStar's eyes bug out of her head. Literally. Like a cartoon character.

I am frantically trying to decipher what he means by puberty. Is her referring to a "girl's puberty" (does he even know about that???)? Does he mean puberty in general (stupid ICarly)? Or is he not referring to anything hormonal at all, but really means a progress report (this is a very real possibility). Seriously what in the world???

Golden Boy: "You know the Puberty. Did you get it yet?"

TweenStar: "What are you TALKING about?????!!!!!"

Golden Boy: "I wonder when I will get my Puberty?"

TweenStar: "Oh my GAWD!!! You don't even know what you are talking about???

Golden Boy shrugs his shoulders. He is generally unfazed by the theatrics of his sisters.

I say nothing. NOTHING AT ALL. Because I refuse to deal with boy puberty, that is all SuperHubby. I got my hands full with girl puberty.

Enjoy your weekend!!!

Me Looking Like a Bad Mom... Again

2011-10-19T07:37:00.000-04:00

I am not the type of mom who normally gives much thought to what other moms think of my parenting style. Okay so maybe I give it a little thought, but then I just do what I know what is right for my family anyway.

I didn't think twice before dropping everything in the middle of CVS and carrying my screaming preschooler out of the store because she wanted bubble gum that I wouldn't buy her.

I don't cave in to parental peer pressure (much).

I have yanked my child out of practices that ran on too long because I felt it was time for my child to go home and go to bed.

I have carried on conversations with friends while my toddler thrashed and tantrumed at full volume in the background without blinking an eye. I may have been cringing on the inside, but on the outside I was a rock.

I am definitely of the philosophy that there is not a one size fits all parenting technique.

I am also of the philosophy that I know how to handle my children the best. I have studied them since they have been in the womb. I certainly feel confident in saying that I am an "expert" on my children.

And make no doubt that my TweenStar is complicated. And her personality is complicated even further by the craziness of her hormonal and moody tween years.

TweenStar is probably the most competitive person I know. She doesn't like to lose ever. She always wants to win. She gives a 110% every time.

At times this competitive spirit has led to some discussions on sportsmanship because not only is TweenStar competitive, but she is also very opinionated. And sometimes she lets those opinions and that competitive spirit get the better of her. She doesn't get that not everyone is as fired up about an 11 year old softball game as she is.

Yeah we have had some discussions.

She is emotional.

This weekend we had a cheer competition. TweenStar's team did not do their best. Her team did not come in first. And TweenStar felt like she had made a mistake during the routine. Did I mention that TweenStar is competitive and always likes to win? She was devastated when her team came off the floor. They were a lot of tears.

A. Lot. Of. Tears.

And this was before awards were even handed out.

Oh and did I mention that this competition meant nothing. It is called FunComp and is meant to be like an exhibition before the real competitions start. The competition meant nothing, but because TweenStar did not feel like she had done her best she was horrified. So she sat in the stands with her team and pouted and cried for an hour and a half.

I sat two rows in front of her and ignored her. And I know that people found that strange. The expected reaction would have been for me to go sit with her and console her and then to reason with her and insist that she stop crying. I mean it was only a FunComp, there was no reason for so many tears. That is what people probably thought I should do.

But I didn't.

I didn't even talk to her until after the awards ceremony. I knew she had to "get it all out" before I could talk to her.  A child who competes with the fierceness that she does also loses with complete devastation.

It is what it is.

Trying to talk to her before she was ready, before she had "gotten it all out", would have just ended with her being rude to me and me getting annoyed with her. Truly not a place a wanted to go to on that day.

And she certainly didn't want to be told that she shouldn't be crying because it was only FunComp.  There is no "only" in TweenStar's vocabulary. And honestly I would never tell my children what emotions they should or should not be feeling. For real. Doesn't that just seem ridiculous that we would tell a child that their feelings are too intense?   That they are wrong to be feeling the way they are.

Hello therapy bills.

When we finally got to the car that day and she was past her raw emotions we were able to logically (okay semi-logically; it is hard to be logical with an almost 12 year old) talk through what had happened in the competition. We didn't over analyze and we didn't talk forever about it. Instead at different times of the day points would be brought up, observations would be made, and advice was given. Advice that was actually listened (not necessarily taken, but listened to) because she wasn't sobbing her eyes out.

But no one was around to see that. Instead all they saw was an 11 year old girl crying very dramatically over a mistake that meant NOTHING and her mother sitting 2 rows in front of her stonefaced and completely ignoring the whole thing. I have to admit that it took a lot of restraint to do what I knew was the right thing to do and not do what I knew was the expected thing to do. I may have even mentioned to a couple of parents that I knew TweenStar was crying, but I didn't feel like this was a great time to talk to her.

That was me feeling insecure.

I know that I did the right thing. I know that I handled the situation the right way. And I know that my relationship with TweenStar is stronger because I am doing things that are right for our relationship not just things that make me "look" like a better mother.

But I do hate looking like a bad mom even when it means being a good mom.
*Sigh*

It just kind of sucks.

What do you do that gives the judgey moms something to talk about?

Linking up with Shell today

The Little Sister

2011-10-17T11:28:00.003-04:00

Sometimes it is hard to be the youngest. You are forever waiting. It feels like everyone else (your brother and sister) get to do things and get to have all the fun. And you have to wait. Until you are older. And you wait. And wait. And wait.

Sometimes it feels like you are spending your life whole life just waiting to be old enough.

Princess has spent a lot of time waiting. If you ask her she will tell you that she is forever waiting.

She is waiting to get her ears pierced.

She is waiting for sleepovers.

She is waiting for non parent playdates.

She is waiting to go to a Big School.

And until August she had been waiting for her chance to be on teams and participate in activities.

She had been waiting for her own teammates.

Princess and her teammate B. Are they not the cutest things ever?

And she has loved being on her cheer team. But there was one final thing she was waiting for.

And on Sunday she could finally stop waiting.

She finally got to take the mat with her cheer team in her first cheerleader competition.

SO HUGE for her.

And it was all sorts of awesome.

And I was all sorts of proud of her.

She did a great job with her cheer and her dance and her stunt group was flawless.

She loved being part of the competition just like her sister.

Love this picture of them!

And she loved hearing her team's name called for their participation trophy.

There are times when it is bittersweet to watch My Baby grow up. She has had so many firsts in the past few months.

But then there are days like Sunday when it is thrilling to watch My Baby come into her own and to not always be waiting.

What are your little ones waiting for?

Why I am so Excited for the Weekend...

2011-10-13T23:07:00.000-04:00

This week has been crazy.

Work has been day after day of meetings. I can not explain how much I hate meetings. Meetings seem to sap every ounce of energy out of me.

Cheer practices have also been long and hard. We have our very first competition on Sunday so things are getting a little intense. It will be Princess's first competition and even though it she is not officially competing it is still the first time she is getting up with her team in front of a crowd of people and performing.

My fingers are crossed that she doesn't have some sort of complete meltdown in the middle of the performance. She sooooo wants to do a good job!

TweenStar is also competing and even though cheer competitions are totally old hat for her now I think she is a little nervous. She had to sit out a couple of weeks of practices with a knee injury and I think she feels like she is a little behind. A knee injury that we are still going to physical therapy for once a week. Seriously I needed another weekly commitment like I needed a hole in the head.

We also have a football game and a hockey game for Golden Boy.

Oh and SuperHubby is gone for the weekend to be in the wedding of one of his best friends.

*Sigh*

So I am on my own. Well not actually on my own, there are several people who are stepping up to help me get everyone where they need to be.

Thank goodness for good friends.

But despite all the craziness that is planned for this weekend I am so excited.

The reason I am so excited:

Happy Dance. Happy Dance. Happy Dance. Happy Dance. Happy Dance

Wegmans the gold standard of grocery stores is finally opening a store in Massachusetts and I could not be more excited. The Grand Opening is on Sunday and frankly I don't care how tired my children are we are going. I will not be denied my Wegmans trip. TweenStar thinks I am crazy to be so giddy about the opening of a grocery store. SuperHubby thinks I have totally lost it, but honestly I could care less what they think.

It's Wegmans people!!!! A Wegmans is opening in Massachusetts.

Oh TweenStar will so be changing her tune after Sunday.

I can not wait!

I will be here on Sunday!!! *Squeal*

Sidebar:

Is anyone else as addicted to Words With Friends as I am? It totally brings out my super competitive side. I spend my whole night with my phone by my side plotting my words and waiting for my next turn. Sometimes I try to ignore the little briiiiiing from my phone signalling that someone has made a move, but it's impossible. Princess calls it my texting game and always knows to bring me my phone if she hears the signal. I am a complete Words with Friends Geek. I will own that.

What are you totally addicted to right now?

I am sharing my awesome this week with Momma Made It Look Easy!

Apples, the Laundromat, and the 7-Eleven

2011-10-11T07:25:00.001-04:00

I will be the first to admit that a typical Saturday in my life is nothing to write home about. Usually I spend my Saturdays shuffling children back and forth to practices and taking care of household chores like grocery shopping and Target runs. Predictably the day goes by way too fast and I am completely exhausted at 9:00 when I sit down.

But if possible this past Saturday I reached a new low of lameness.

The day started out with me feeling less than 100% after spending the night before "socializing" with some friends. You know the feeling when you think "If I just hadn't had that last drink". But there are no "sick" days in my life so a couple of Advil and a bottle of water and I was good as new. Well maybe not new or good, but whatever.

*Sigh*

Princess and I headed out to run some errands before having to pick up TweenStar at 11:15.

The plan was for everyone to meet back home at lunch time. We were going to eat a quick lunch and then embark on a Fall family tradition, apple picking. Only no one was really feeling it. And it was hot. I really prefer to pick my produce in jeans and sweatshirts not with sweating dripping down my back. But because it is a family tradition and obviously family traditions have to happen even if no one really wants to do them. That is why they are called TRADITIONS, people.

So in true Griswold family fashion we packed everyone in the car and headed off to have a FUN family time apple picking whether our children appreciated it or not.

And apparently half the state of Massachusetts also decided it would be a good day to go apple picking. It was crowded and hot and obviously my children don't understand what I mean when I say eat and drink before we go apple picking as they alternated between thirsty and hungry the whole time we were in the orchard.

I can't even tell you how annoying that was.

But we did pick a whole lot of apples and maybe snuck in little bit of fun whether my children acknowledge it or not.

On the hayride.

Hubby lifting up TweenStar because she must have the highest apple on the tree.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Princess wrestling a sunflower

A rare moment of civility between Father and Tween

And me, notice how I am schlepping so much stuff. Yup...

After a pit stop for an early dinner, because like I said my children were hungry and thirsty, we returned home so I could pack up our mountains of laundry for my trip to the laundromat.

Yes I went to the laundromat at 6:30 on a Saturday night.

Yes that is totally lame.

Fortunately it had been a loooong time since I had been to a laundromat, like over ten years. Unfortunately that meant I had no idea what I was doing. So because I am a total nerd the first thing I did after schlepping all the laundry in was read the directions posted on the wall.

I mean I know how to do laundry. I just wasn't sure how to do laundromat laundry. There is no denying how dumb I looked and I am sure I gave the very young couple (think teen mom young) lots of reasons to laugh at me while they waited in the parking lot for their laundry to finish.

So I sat in the laundromat (alone) with my Star magazine and my People magazine and alternated reading my magazines and playing Words with Friends. Which even though it sounds really lame was actually kind of nice and peaceful. I don't know if you caught that, but I spent over an hour without interruption reading magazines and playing Words with Friends. At this point an hour uninterrupted anywhere is pure bliss.

But my peace was shattered when I realized that I needed more money if I was going to dry my laundry. Which meant a quick trip to the 7-Eleven. I know, I know a trip to the laundromat and the 7-Eleven all in one night the excitement is overwhelming. It does not get much better than that. So I quickly ran into the 7-Eleven with the emphasis on QUICK because frankly all convenience stores/gas station stores totally gross me out. I am not a germaphobe, but there is something about a convenience store that totally makes my skin crawl.

FYI - Did you know that there are people who hang out in the 7-Eleven on a Saturday night. I mean seriously hanging out as in the 7- was the Saturday night destination. Those people may be more lame than me.

The good news is that my stay at the laundromat was actually quite short. It seemed like back in the day it took so much longer, but obviously there have been some advancements made in laundromats in the past ten years and I was in and out in a relative short amount of time.

And then it was back to my house to fold the piles and piles and piles of laundry. SuperHubby did help with the folding which I desperately needed. No joke there was a HUMONGO amount of laundry.

And then well that was it. Kind of anti -climatic. No late nights for me. The girls and I had to leave the house at 7:30 AM for our full day of cheerleading.

And that my friends may be the height of lameness. A 6:30 AM alarm on a Sunday morning.

Fingers crossed my new washer and dryer are delivered by Friday so that I am not forced to spend any more quality time in the laundromat.

What did you do on Saturday night? Was your Saturday night as lame as mine?

Can't a Girl Catch a Break?

2011-10-07T07:38:00.000-04:00

So last Friday afternoon we were finally able to pick up my poor minivan that had been the victim of Hurricane Irene. Woo Hoo!

Last Friday night my washing machine broke.

Seriously.

Can't a girl catch a break here?

Initially the machine seemed fine. I had already done about 5 loads of laundry that day and was just putting in my last of the day when it made a very loud, crunching, groaning sound.

Totally not the sound we want to hear from your washing machine. Or any household appliance for that matter.

So I pulled out the wet sheets in hope that maybe the load was too heavy. But yeah it didn't really make a difference, I just had a pile of dripping wet sheets at my feet.

Kind of sums up the way my Friday nights have been lately.

*Sigh* Ignore me while I have a little pity party.

SuperHubby called our local appliance repair place the next morning and made an appointment for a repair man to come take a look at our "sick" washing maching on Wednesday.

Yes Wednesday. Five days from the day it broke. Five days is a long time when you have a family of five people. A looooooong time.

We have actually had a lot of luck with this appliance repair place before so my fingers were crossed that they could fix my broken machine. Not that I didn't want a new washing machine. I just didn't want to PAY for a new washing machine. You know what I mean?

The very nice repair man came out on Wednesday morning and it took about 10 minutes for him to squash all my hopes of coming out of this ordeal with a minimal amount of money spent.

My washing machine was officially dead.

He did spend another five minutes "confirming" that our washing machine was officially dead. I think that was more for our benefit, though. I mean we needed to feel like we got something for our $85.00.

Yes we spent $85.00 for a repairman to tell us that our washing machine was officially unrepairable.

*Sigh*

We now needed to buy a new washing machine. We also made the executive decision to purchase a new dryer. Neither one of us could remember when we had purchased the dryer we have, which meant it was probably pretty old and it made a kind of squeaky grinding sound every time it dried a load of laundry. I don't think dryers are supposed to make a kind of squeaky grinding sound so obviously it was just a matter of time.

Apparently during our wedding I took the vow of laundry and from that moment forward has officially been in charge of all things laundry. This meant that I was also in charge of deciding what washing machine and dryer to buy.

*Sigh* I totally think I got all the sucky jobs.

The only problem which me deciding what washer and dryer to buy is that I become incredibly anxious anytime I am faced with making a major purchase. I tend to over research, over think, and stress over what decision to make.

I annoy myself.

So I started researching on the Internet and of course there are a million different reviews out there and a million different expert opinions to read. Seriously it is enough to make your head spin.

I texted my mom for her opinion.

I hemmed and hawed. I had about 30 tabs open on my computer as I compared and contrasted all the different brands.

I really annoyed myself.

Luckily for me we had to go out and buy the washing machine and dryer that night. The laundry mountain was gettting bigger and bigger and forcing me to make a decision that day. If hadn't had to make a decision that day I literally could have spent weeks agonizing about it.

Yes agonizing.

We knew there would be some sort of wait for delivery and we had already been without a washer for 5 days. I usually do at least one load of laundry a day. Can you imagine? Five days with no laundry done... and no end in sight

So I made my decision and we went out and purchased it. And I was able to quell the wave of anxiety that threatened to overwhelm me as as were were faced with row after row of choices once we were in the store. I stayed focused and made a beeline to the washing machine that I had picked out online. I asked a few questions, debated version A or version B of my chosen model and then agreed to purchase it. My fingers, toes, and eyes might have been crossed as the transaction was finalized, but I am convinced that I made the right decision.

I think.

The bad news is that we won't have delivery until Thursday of next week.

That means almost 2 weeks without a washing machine.

Yes that is me sobbing in the corner.

Do you agonize over big ticket purchases? Or do you just go for it?

I am sharing my awesome today with Momma Made It Look Easy and you can too!

It's My SITS Day!!! WooHoo!!

2011-10-04T23:42:00.004-04:00

Today is a big day!!! Like a really big day. I am talking huge.

Today is....

Wait for it....

My SITS Day!!!!

*crickets*

You know my SITS Day.

For the uneducated and therefore maybe unimpressed The SITS Girls are a group of almost 10,000 women bloggers dedicated to supporting one another and sharing blogging skills and tips.

Honestly the SITS Girls are all kinds of awesome. And it is a group that I am happy to be a part of.

So I am beyond thrilled to be their featured blogger today. And just so you know it is pretty impressive.

Because I am expecting a ton of visitors today (hint, hint) I decided that it would be the perfect day to give you the Cliff Notes version of who I am.

I am a working mother to 3 children.

My TweenStar is almost 12. She is gorgeous, brilliant, talented, whiney, argumentative, moody, and the most challenging child I know.

Some of my fave TweenStar posts are here, here, here, and here

My Golden Boy is 9. He is a good boy, totally my easiest child. He is an extrovert, a great friend, an athlete, a good teammate, a space cadet, incredibly distracted by anything on the TV, and needs to be told at least five times to do anything. *Sigh* I attribute the last two characteristics to his "maleness".

Some of the best about Golden Boy are here, here, and here

My Princess is 5. She is cute as a button, clever, fun, a big personality, temperamental, pigheaded, and not a morning person.

Some great Princess moments are here, here, and here

I have been married to my husband, SuperHubby for almost 13 years. I couldn't make our family work without him. Aside from the fact that he brings in the most of the moola each week he is also an incredible father and a wonderful support system.

Some other random facts about me:

My three children play a ton of sports. They will participate in just about any team sport known to man.

We have a practice or a game at least 6 out of 7 days of the week

We don't have a lot of down time

Sometimes I miss all that "home time" we had when they were little

I don't believe that my children are over scheduled

I believe they are scheduled just enough

I am totally over scheduled

I believe in structure and consistency for my children

I believe they need a consistent sleep schedule of 8-10 hours every night

I don't get nearly enough sleep

I try not to judge the way other people parent

But sometimes I do

I believe that children need to stay children as long as possible

Because of that my husband and I are the "mean" parents, definitely the "not cool" parents

I really don't care

I love to read

But now it takes me about 2 months to finish a book

It used to take me about 2 days

There are days when parenting is soooo hard that I wonder what I got myself into

But even on the days when my children are driving me crazy I still think they rock

So far I haven't met any children that I like better than my own

No lie

I don't care if my children eat chocolate or pizza for breakfast

Sometimes I have to tell them to stop eating vegetables at dinner and eat something else

I feel stupid when I do that

I started running this year

I totally hate it, well maybe I don't totally hate it anymore

But I know it is good for me

And I am not getting any younger

Sometimes I let my children go to bed without brushing their teeth

I never go to bed without brushing my teeth

I think having friends now, as a mommy, is so important

I think having a few really good friends is better than a lot of so-so friends

I love reality TV

I don't care if you think the Real Housewives are stupid

I like to socialize

But I don't like large groups

I am funny

At least I think I am

I am always late to everything

I used to never be late

I think I am a good parent

Occasionally I have really sucky days as a parent

I know I have a good life

But sometimes it is hard to appreciate all that "goodness"

I don't believe that it is possible to have a balanced life

It is way too much work to keep it balanced

So that's me. A 38 year old working mom of three. What's not to love?

My "Tired" Haiku

2011-10-02T22:53:00.000-04:00

I am tired.

Not the up all night with a newborn tired.

Or spending the night consoling a sick child tired.

I've done both those tireds and believe me I know they suck.

But no I am talking about a whole other type of tired. A tired that kind of just sneaks up on you after way too many late nights (and I don't mean late nights filled with fun, I mean late nights finishing projects, tasks, and chores). It sneaks up on you after too many days filled with non-stop activities and not nearly enough hours of sleep. The kind of tired where you are going along just fine and then BAM! all of sudden the caffeine IV and sugar supplements are no longer working and you just feel spent.

All. Done.

So tired I actually sat down on my couch in the middle of the day for no reason. I NEVER do that. NEVER. EVER. It was so unusual that TweenStar felt the need to comment on it. Usually I don't stop moving until it is time to sit with Princess at night.

Today, though, I sat because I was soooooooooo tired.

And tired is not a good thing. Tired makes me:

Cranky.

I don't think I have ever met a happy tired person. Sure there are moments where I might find myself doubled over with laughter at something completely not funny. But friends that is called hysteria not happiness.

Stupid.

Seriously I feel like my brain is on slow-mo. The easiest questions stump me. Ask me a question and there is a 50/50 chance you will get a coherent answer. That is all kinds of scary. Sometimes just talking is hard.

Forgetful.

I can't remember what I just said or what I just asked. As you might imagine people find this annoying. The person who finds it most annoying? TweenStar.

Great...

Completely unproductive.

Even the easiest of chores seems to take forever. In part because I can't remember what I am supposed to be doing as I move from room to room. It's incredibly annoying.

Did I mention that tired makes me cranky. Yeah well it does.

So my goal this week is to get more sleep.

Like I am not fooling around I must get more sleep.

I am not quite sure how, but failure is not an option.

So without further ado My "Tired" Haiku":

My "Tired" Haiku

(Get it. "Tired". Hahahaha. I warned you about the hysterical part.)

I am exhausted

Cranky, forgetful, annoyed

Too tired to think

How is your Monday shaping up this week? What are you going to get done?

This and That

2011-09-30T12:30:00.000-04:00

Because it is Friday.

Because I am having a hard time putting together coherent thoughts today.

A few little bits and pieces:

I flat out lied to my pediatrician's office this week. I called to make TweenStar an appointment to be tested for strep throat (or as Princess likes to call it The Strep) AFTER I had already sent her to school.   Honestly it didn't even occur to me not to send her to school and in my defense she didn't ASK to stay home. When the Dr's office suggested a 10:30 appointment time for her instead of 'fessing up and looking like a horrible mother I totally panicked and said that I had phone conferences all day and could only make it there for late afternoon.

I know I totally suck. And I am a big fat liar.

But seriously it did not even occur to me to keep her home. Which may in fact make me an even suckier mother, but I totally don't want the Dr.'s office to know that.

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Golden Boy is having a fabulous year in 4th grade so far. He absolutely loves his teacher, well as much as a 9 year old boy can LOVE (and I know he would be totally offended if he knew that I said that he LOVED his teacher because you don't love anything when you are a 9 year old boy.  If you do confess to loving something then it totally means you are going to marry it even if it is like a sandwich or something.). During the summer I had heard some mixed reviews about this teacher, but I was all about keeping an open mind for the school year. I am a firm believer that some teachers work for some children and some teachers don't so my fingers were crossed that this would be a good teacher for Golden Boy.

And oh boy is she.

All it took was about a 45 second conversation at Open House for me to see that this is a teacher/student match made in Heaven.  Both Golden Boy and his teacher are fruit loopy, head in the clouds kind of people. Both more concerned with the big picture than the little details of how to get there. So though this teacher might drive me crazy (she had enormous stacks and stacks and stack of books and papers piled up behind her desk) I think she is perfect for Golden Boy.

*Smile*

*****************************************

Speaking of Golden Boy and his spaciness... The other day in the car I asked him to hand me a Kleenex. He then went on to insist that they weren't any even though I could see the box out of the corner of my eye. Finally, exasperated, I reached back and grabbed the box myself. His reply "Oooooh you meant tissues."

I have no idea what he thinks Kleenex are.

*****************************************

Princess is learning the Pledge of Allegiance in school. As a result I am subjected to repeated dramatic (because everything she does is dramatic) recitations of the pledge every day. The only problem is her Pledge of Allegiance ends like this:

"With liberty, justice, and beyond!"

Thank you Disney.

Makes me smile every single time.

*****************************************

I hate squirrels. That is all.

*****************************************

And finally Cheer and Football pictures came in this week so I thought I would grace you with the loveliness that is my children.

You are welcome.

Enjoy your weekend.

I am also sharing my Awesome this week with Momma Made It Look Easy.

Just as Good

2011-09-28T06:53:00.001-04:00

TweenStar is my first born and for the first two years of her life we were practically joined at the hip. The love and adoration was boundless on both our ends. And then Golden Boy was born and my attention was divided as a result she did share a little of her hero worship with SuperHubby, but that didn't bother me because there she had more than enough to go around. Around the age of 7 though TweenStar started to outgrow her effusive and demonstrative love for us. The love fest started to wane the older she got. The "I love you's" started to come a little less frequently and usually only after I said it first. She didn't come willingly for cuddles and snuggles anymore.

*Sigh*

And now with TweenStar almost 12 there are some days I feel lucky to get a grunt in the morning. And most days instead of feeling like the best mommy in the world I feel like the most embarrassing mother in the world. Honestly most days I feel like she is just tolerating having me around because I have my driver's license.

I am not going to lie it kind of sucks when your child realizes that you don't hang the sun and moon.

*Sigh*

So sometimes when you are the mom of a Tween you will take any little positive sign that your child does actually still like you and transform it into this major event. That is if you are desperate like me. And you may relive this small little event over and over in your head for days on end especially when your Tween doesn't fell well and is even more grumpy and sullen then normal. Even a non event like the one below gets transformed into something epic. And my yes it actually did kind of make my day, well maybe even my week, okay my month.

Whatever wait until you are a mom of Tween and see how desperate you get.

TweenStar does not read my blog. I would never let her read it because well she is a frequent topic for me and we would both probably need a lot of counseling if she were to read all those posts. I am hoping that someday far far in the future she will be able to appreciate everything I have written, but until then yeah she's not reading it. But according to her the real reason she hasn't even attempted to read my blog is because she doesn't believe that there is anyway that I could possibly have something interesting to write about. Tweens are a little self- centered like that. And well I am just going with it.

TweenStar is a closet writer. Which makes me happy because I know she gets that from me. I like to pretend that she gets the sullen and moody part from her father. She writes up in her bedroom by herself. She doesn't often share what she writes, but every once in awhile I will come across something or she will share something she is particularly proud of. It makes me happy to know that she has an outlet.

With all that being said I did break my blog rule last week and asked TweenStar to read a post I wrote. It was my "Where I'm From" post. I thought she would like reading about my childhood and I also knew she would enjoy the format. So I set it all up on my iphone, and told her real casual like that I wanted her to read something. I was driving her to her Physical Therapy appointment and were alone in the car so I thought it was perfect timing. She was annoyed that I asked her to do something, but agreed to read it (because I forced her).

After she finished she asked a few questions, she needed a little clarification on a few of the dated items, like Dr. Schols, and Little Golden Books.

And then she told me that I knew a lot of words.

"What do you mean?" (not at all what I expected her to say)

"Well you just know how to say things." And then she gave me a few examples from my post. "Most people wouldn't say it that way. They would just leave it all plain."

"Yeah well I like it when people can picture it in their head." ( I had to be all casual at this point because if I get too excited it just freaks her out.)

"Hmmmm well it was good." and then she turned away to look out the car window.

And she was done.

But me I was practically glowing.

She actually acknowledged that I did something well. She actually appreciated something I had done that did not involve supplying her with food, a ride, or clothes. It was pretty heady stuff for this momma. And it felt just as good as the wet sticky kisses and "I wuv you Momma"s she gave me when she was two.

And now I can be reassured that somewhere buried waaaaay down deep is the supportive, loving, and appreciative daughter that I know. We just need to finish working through all this angsty teen/tween stuff.

*Sigh*