27 February 2009

Yet Another Friday!

And time for Fill-In's!


1. I'm doing it, I'm doing it, I really am doing it, right?

2. Why do I have short legs and not long lean ones?

3. How does this damn thing work, anyway?

4. Every morning, I put on fresh new socks on my cold feet.

5. I consider myself lucky because I have wonderful kids, a husband who loves me and is totally awesome and for everything I've been able to achieve so far.

6. One day we’ll see my not so flabby arms in a sleeveless top.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to a Heritage Makers conference, tomorrow my plans include another fun day of HM conference and Sunday, I want to hang with the fam!

26 February 2009

Am I Really THAT Bad?

Here is a picture that Sweet Girl drew. It's our whole family and a house. Besides the fact that none of us have actual bodies just a head with legs and arms, have you noticed that only one of us looks basically crazy? Well that is ME. I am the red faced character with my mouth wide open. So am I to assume that she views me as a crazy person who yells all the time? When I inquired about my face, she initially told me it was my tongue...yeah right. That's a nice way to say 'Mom I'm only 4 but I think you're a crazy bitch'.





Sorry I know it's not very dark but I'm sure you can see that I am red faced and crazy looking one.

I guess I need to modify my image according to one of my kids...

25 February 2009

Work Hard For Your Money

I was so proud of Leo. He got a good bonus. He worked hard to make his company successful and got a bonus. Working hard to make his business successful and ironically helped the economy by providing jobs for other people. Amazing how that works.

And we were so excited about the bonus. Only to find out that 53% of it went to taxes. 53%!!!!!!!!!

We didn't even get to keep half of it. We wanted to be sick. Literally sick.
If the government is so concerned about the economy, they could have let us keep more of it so we could have stimulated the economy by spending some of the bonus.

Maybe you feel that 53% is OK, and if you do that is fine. We however do not. IT IS NOT FINE. NOT ONE BIT. Something is seriously wrong with things if this is what we've become.
I am not here to provide assistance to everyone else who feels they do not need to bust their own ass to get ahead or sustain their own livelihood.

I think it's time for revolution.

24 February 2009

Fat Tuesday

Happy Fat Tuesday! Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, if I was a good Catholic girl I would be heading to church tomorrow for my ashes. However, I am not a good Catholic girl so I will not be going to church.

And if I wasn't trying to be really good diet wise I would be eating a big fat jelly doughnut in honor of the Pacacki's that we used to get while living in Michigan. Ironically the grocery store over by our house had some and I passed them up. And they did look good, they were a little bigger than their normal jelly doughnuts.

I've never been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Maybe one day I will go to experience it just once. I imagine it's one of those things you have to do once in your life. That and New Years Eve in Times Square.

23 February 2009

You Would Think

You would think, I would feel better since it's been almost a week that I got strep and started taking antibiotics. But the answer is not really. I don't really feel better. I feel better than I did when I had the sore throat and body aches. But I was lucky enough to get some sort of secondary infection that has left me so congested I can't breath through my nose, my body still hurts and I just want to go back to bed. Add in coughing and sneezing and starting my period and I have the trifecta of goodness. This past week has totally sucked ass.

So what the hell is up with that?

I want to feel well again. Soon. Like NOW.

20 February 2009

A Short But Long Week

A short work week that seemed like it lasted forever because I was sick but now it's over and I feel better and just in time for the weekend! And in time for Fill-Ins!


1. Give me some more time and I'll spend more time with my kids before they grow up. (sadly Little Man has not let me rock him before bed the last two nights, he just wants to get right into his bed)

2. Whenever I'm around donuts I could always eat them.

3. I wish my parents lived close by again.

4. (Ironically it was) A donut was the last thing I ate that was utterly delicious.

5. To live in this world you have to have a damn good sense of humor or "you'll have blood shoot out of your eyes" (quote from Glenn Beck).

6. Other than this one, Bad Mom is the last blog I commented on.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a joyous time at Peter Piper Pizza with friends, tomorrow my plans include taking Sweet Girl to one of her friends house and cleaning up the disaster that has become our house and Sunday, I want to I have no idea right now!

19 February 2009

Gee, Thanks Kids

In our family we like to share. Sharing is good right? In most cases the answer is Yes. Unless you want to share your sickness. As in strep, yes you could have kept that to yourself. I didn't want it. But alas as a grand ONE year living in Arizona gift I got strep. From the kids, which I am assuming was their one year of living in Arizona gift as well.
I haven't felt that bad in a long time. It kicked my ass and I felt like crap. I got antibiotics and took advil and I slept. I slept A LOT.

I'm going to have to modify our sharing lesson I think.

But the kids are fine now and I'm on the mend so all is well. Let's hope the sicknesses stop here!

17 February 2009

Isn't It Monday?

It feels like Monday. I guess for me it is Monday since I was off from work yesterday so today is the first day back from a long weekend.
Going back to work is never fun, at least for me. Leo is lucky he enjoys going to his job. I just tolerate mine. I'm not super excited to get up and do my job.

But thankfully I am at home today. That's a good thing because the line of laundry I have is astounding. All the piles are lined up OUT the laundry room door. It's like a laundry train.
I think I'm finally down to about 4 more loads.

I love laundry.

I also have a lot of work to do, but it's overwhelming me and I'm getting confused. I have so many different scenarios to work out it's boggling my mind. I'm sure that's a sign that I don't use it enough, right?

Well I should get back to it. And the laundry needs to be changed out too...

16 February 2009

How To Make Yourself Feel Old

Go play in the snow. Hike up a hill carrying a sled and a kid in a snowsuit. Then torture your own body as you get on the sled and go down the hill, that lucky for you has a few ramps in it that make you get air and slam you down into packed snow so you roll over a few times. And then you do it again...and again. Then you go home and after you relax for a few minutes you realize just how much your body hurts from this adventure. And add on the fact that Leo and I had to shovel through almost 4 feet of packed snow to make a trail to get from the street to the house. It was my workout for the weekend! And it was worth it. Despite my bruised arm and sore body I had an awesome time. It was great and I would do again.

The kids had a good time in the snow. They did have fun going down the smaller hill that didn't have the aforementioned ramps. They had a smooth ride down. They made snow angels and threw snowballs. Then we came home and had hot chocolate.

And that was my fun weekend!

13 February 2009

Yay! Friday!

Today is Friday, just in case you forgot. And it's Fill In day!
Check Spelling
1. It seems like my children are growing up way too fast!

2. Put those in the dishwasher when you're done, please?

3. If I thought you were unhappy I'd try to make you laugh!

4. Happy thoughts is what I think of most when I think of you.

5. To me, Valentine's Day means not much, we don't really do much for it.

6. Having Leo in my life gives me strength.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a yummy dinner and seeing Robin Williams, tomorrow my plans include heading to Flag and playing in the snow (woohoo) and Sunday, I want to play in more snow and then take a warm cozy nap!

11 February 2009

No Ideas

I have no idea what to write about today. I have some random thoughts. But all pretty blah. We finished watching Dexter last night so now we have to wait on Season 3 on DVD. It is kind of distributing how much I enjoyed a show about a serial killer. But it's really good.

My feet and hands are cold today. And I'm hungry. I am not sure what I'm going to eat for lunch.

I am having a difficult time remembering exactly what day it is, I am confused.

I am not motivated to work. I think I would rather go to the gym or something or really I would really rather go out to eat for lunch. Anything BUT work!

I need to find the kids some boots for our trip to Flag. Do you know how difficult it is to find boots in the desert?

Sorry for my randomness (word? probably not, but I like it).

10 February 2009

I Love You, You Love Fruit

So Sweet Girl has strep. I knew she had it on Friday when she had a fever and complained of a stomach ache (her classic strep symptoms. How do I know this? Well strep was the first sickness of the many we got when we moved here. And ironically we are less than a week from it being a year so maybe this is some sick practical joke by mother nature?) Anyway I took her to the doc and they did the rapid test, it came back negative. Odd I thought. So they advised they would send off the culture to the lab. And sure enough after being around bunches of people over the weekend, since she acted like she felt better and had no more fever, she does in fact have strep.
The doctor calls on Monday morning to advise me of this. So I have go to day care and get her out. It was right at lunch time so I asked her if she wanted to eat. We head to In-n-Out Burger.

She is acting perfectly fine. Nothing is wrong with this child. She is really in a great mood and being silly in the back seat.

So I tell her 'You're funny Sweet Girl. I love you.'
SG: I LOOOOVEEE FROOOT!

And there you go. Told you she was acting perfectly fine...

09 February 2009

Clouds!!!

After a week of unseasonably warm weather including temps in the 80's, I was happy to see some clouds and cooler temps over the weekend.

And cooler temps today and tomorrow too, with highs only in the 50's! Woohoo! Love it! And then we'll get even COLDER this weekend when we head to Flagstaff where the highs are only 30 and that includes some SNOW in the forecast! Yay!! We are all ready for our snow play and have everything, well except boots, to keep the kids toasty in the snow. Little Man walked around the REI store with his gloves and hat on (his hat that is size 6-12 months but he refused to take it off so thank goodness it was on sale for only $4, he wouldn't even take if off for them to scan it so I had to pick him up and they scanned it on his head...). He kept repeating I'm ready for snow day! After having them try on gloves I asked them 'Think you can build a snowball with that?' Then they attempted to scoop up a snowball on the concrete and they excitedly replied 'YEP!!'. Funny.

I must admit I am so looking forward to sledding! I love sledding and I think the kids are going to love it too. We'll have to pick up some hot chocolate to enjoy when we get back to the house. I just feel my face burning after coming in from being outside! I love that feeling!

I am looking forward to a short work week and then enjoying some sight seeing of things we haven't seen yet around town. I am really hoping we do go to Taliesin West in Scottsdale. It's a Frank Lloyd Wright house.

06 February 2009

Is It Really Friday?

I have had one of those weeks where I've really been confused as to exactly which day it is. But I do know today really is Friday! Yay!

And so that means it's Friday Fill-In's!

1. Please don't tell all the gory details you know about me.

2. Can you watch the sunrise with me in the morning?

3. The color blue makes me want to head to the beach!

4. I have a craving for an ice cold coke.

5. If my life had a pause button, I'd pause it after each of children were born to enjoy them being that small for just a little longer.

6. Eyes are the window to the soul.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to probably replacing the ceiling fan with the one we took down last weekend (woohoo), tomorrow my plans include getting ready for the inlaws arrival and Sunday, I want to just go with the flow and maybe go to the gym!

05 February 2009

Barbie Fun

Lately Sweet Girl has been obsessed with asking me to play with her barbies and the Diamond Castle. I don't mind playing with her of course and she's pretty good at playing barbies because she understands that its the barbies who are supposed to talk to each other not me and her. My sister (sorry Deanna) didn't grasp this concept and would talk back to ME whenever my barbie talked to hers. Anyway, last night the entire family was playing barbies. We were somewhat re-enacting the Diamond Castle movie.

At some point Leo and I started having more fun playing barbies then Sweet Girl. No we weren't doing anything perverted with the barbies but just talking and spelling words that we couldn't say (now if Sweet Girl also starts spelling out b-i-t-c-h then well we might have to refrain). We were laughing and playing and Sweet Girl is just kind of staring at us like 'who the hell are you people?'. Sweet Girl joined in when the "giant" starting talking to the little barbies. The "giant" is an over sized Sleeping Beauty doll. She is probably 3 times the size of an actual barbie. I'm not really sure why she is lumped in with all the other barbies actually but alas it did provide good entertainment with a lot of laughter from everyone. An enjoyable evening.

And an interesting look into her imagination.

04 February 2009

Go In For Runny Nose and Leave With EpiPen

Keeping in line with how things go for us, Little Man now has his very own EpiPen in the event of anaphalaxis. I am sure I've blogged about Little Man's lack of speech and hearing issues and so in yet another effort to get to the bottom of it we were sent to an allergist. And the fact that he has been constantly congested from the time he was born basically. Our regular doctor gave us some Nasonex, has anyone ever tried to administer Nasonex to a 2.5 year old? It was not fun and after a week of semi success and a lot of practically pinning him down we opted to not traumatize him anymore. However in that week he woke up with a clear nose, none of his pea size, rock hard boogers that he is prone to have in the morning.

Our trip to the allergist was a fun one let me tell you. He had some skin tests done that made his back look like he basically laid down in a mosquito colony. The skin test he did pretty good on, yes a few tears but nothing major. But when they came in to measure his reaction with a piece of paper he had a holy fit. I had to hold him and he was fighting me hard, he had snot pouring out of his nose (and on to my shirt, I love a snot covered shirt, it really should be a new fashion trend), and I am in a position that is providing me with a serious ab workout (positive thoughts even though I am torturing my kid and want to cry along with him).

Wow he is allergic to a lot of stuff. Even the doctor was kind of amazed because he said usually it takes many seasons to get an allergy. So we probably will never have a dog or cat, we should get rid of our summer and winter grass, we can have no trees in our back yard. We need to freeze all the stuffed animals to kill the dust mites that we brought with us from TN. Dust mites do not live in AZ because it's too dry, good thing if you're allergic to them. Bad thing if you are allergic to them and you lived some where that had them and you brought them with you. And most certainly no nuts of any kind, especially not cashews.
Poor kid, cashews are so yummy.

We got our EpiPen lesson and the reassurance that we probably won't ever have to use it but he would rather be safe then sorry. I'm holding out hope we do not have to use it. And if we do have to use it I remember my thumb placement so I don't discharge the pen in my thumb. Because I paid attention. As much as I wanted to leave and go to my happy place in my head where stuff like this doesn't happen, I stayed with it. Shocked? I am.

To top off all that, we also have to have a blood draw. He just had a rough day. But was pretty much back to normal when I picked up the kids from school (yes I was a horrible mother and took him to preschool. I suffered the guilt of that for the remainder of the afternoon).

But I think now I'm going to my happy place...

03 February 2009

How Did You Know?

How did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up? I still don't know. I know it's not what I'm doing. I know I couldn't stay home full time as a mom either, and I think the kids like to get out of the house and go to school.
But I don't know what I want to do. I am sure every time Leo hears me say 'You know what I would like to do' he internally rolls his eyes. Because I've said it as many times as I've purchased weight loss stuff. Truth is I don't know what I want to do. I can tell you things that interest me, but not sure how and if they would translate into any sort of job or anything like that. And since there are so many things that interest me I can't just try something and if it doesn't work out move on to the next thing.

I actually do like providing good customer service, not really dealing with the public like at a customer service desk. But being a point person of sorts to help clients with problems, issues and project coordination. I think sometimes I would like to be wedding or event planner.

I like homemade cards, stationary and the photobooks. Pretty much the Heritage Makers thing. I think I would enjoy owning a stationary and cool gifts store.

And the list could go on. It's just getting from point A to B. And to be successful AND to allow me the time to spend with the kids and Leo. I guess I'm probably just asking too much.

02 February 2009

Just One Of Those Days

I can tell it's Monday. I really do not love Monday's because it means the kids go to day care (now I will admit there are some times I cannot wait until Monday so the kids can go to day care!), and it's back to work.

We had a good weekend, aside from our Saturday attempt at hanging a ceiling fan. Leo and I both hate this task. It is a serious pain in the ass. It was a good arm workout yes, but annoying as hell to get that bastard up.
I took a nap yesterday and even had a little bit of a nap with Sweet Girl who fell asleep in another room but then came and snuggled with me on the couch. It was so nice.

I am also dealing with my strange and overwhelming feeling of being homesick. It hits me every now and again and you would think that after almost pretty much a year (Feb 15 will be one year) these feelings wouldn't be as strong. But I just want to go back to our old house, shop at our old Publix (Jeez I miss the Publix) and eat at the Las Palmas down the street. I want our cousins to come over for dinner all the time and I want my parents to watch the kids. I think they were so much happier with that a couple days a week. And I want to hang out with all my friends as well. I want everything as it was before we had to move (with the exception of Leo having a job). It sure would have been awesome if he had his current job back in TN, everything would be perfect! Alas I'm sure this will pass or I'll suppress it as I always do until it pops back up again.

And then there was the disappointing loss of the Cardinals in the Superbowl. I'm not a huge Cardinals fan but was excited to potentially be in a Superbowl Champion city! And it would have been cool to go to the parade and take part in all that fun. At least they gave it their all. I will admit I didn't watch the entire game. They seemed to do better when I wasn't watching so I took my superstitions and went and folded clothes and watched the Little Mermaid.