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Friday, January 30, 2009

Happy Birthday Mom!


I love that I am a part of you. That you are a part of my life - the best part of my life. I love that we think alike and I don't have to explain myself to you. I love your generosity. I love your smile. I love your crazy laugh. I love your cooking, too! I love your basket fetish. I love that I can give you a hard time & tease you. I love that you didn't give up on me when I was a teenager. I love that you are "Bad Nana". I love the sound of your voice. I love that we both love Dar Williams. I love to hear you sing. I love playing "made-up" games like 37 Dice Yahtzee with you. Did I mention I love your cooking? I love that you can fool people into believing that you are me on the phone. I love that I am your password. I love that you are finally employed somewhere that you are appreciated for the amazing person that you are. I love that we have the same size feet. I love that you aren't afraid to keep your Christmas tree up until February. I love that I inherited some of your craziness - most of the time. I love that you get up with the girls when I come to visit. Oh, and by the way, I love your cooking.
I love you all around the world and the tunaverse! I hope you have a special day today. You are my most favorite mom. Seriously.
Love,
Me

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Dentist!

So I'm sure you'll understand by now how I feel about going to the dentist. I have great teeth and have had very few problems with them, but I still can't stand going to the dentist. Don't even get me started on my orthodontist....sadistic person that he is, he is always glad to see me go for how much of a fuss I make.

My girls on the other hand love the dentist. Idolize her is more like it. When they play "doctor" at home, they both want to be the dentist and they each fight over who gets to be Dr. B. I'm not quite sure what is wrong with them. My feelings were reconfirmed today when we went to the dentist for a check-up. There was another girl there who was terrified and her mother had to practically drag her into the office. When my girls jumped up, excited and clapping when their names were called, the kid gave my girls a look like "Are you kidding me?"

Sigh.

On a side note, R has a bifed uvula. That means that the dangling thing at the back of her throat has a split it it. Much like a forked tongue. I always forget until the dentist calls her assistants over to "check it out". Freak show that my daughter is....

Monday, January 26, 2009

What A Way To Start The Week!

Today started badly. I went to bed late last night thus I got up late this morning. Big Surprise. Then I went to wake up the girls but they were already awake - half-dressed and fighting. The morning routine turned into a yelling match between the three of us. Them yelling at each other. Me yelling at them trying to get them to stop yelling (counter-productive I know) and get ready for school.

Then they did this at breakfast:

They propped up the place mats so they wouldn't have to look at one another.

Which upset me even more.

Which made me go hide and get on this:


Which breaks the only resolution I've kept 100% since January 1st.


Resolutions broken this morning: 3/5. What a way to start the week.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Live Happily

It's that time of the month again....NO! Not THAT time of the month! It's my turn to teach in church again.

This month's lesson is titled "Finding Joy in the Journey". I felt inspired to try harder and make more time for what is important after I read this talk. Usually, when I hear, "Spend more time with your babies, they grow up too fast, ignore your housework, do what is important first, blah, blah, blah, I start to tune out. I've heard this enough already - I get it. This time however, it struck a note with me. Very appropriate for me at this time in my life, I guess. Maybe it's the timing with the whole new year/resolutions thing that I am attempting to conquer.

“Later, not right now, tomorrow…” I find myself often saying this to my children subconsciously, without even listening to what they are asking me. Sometimes I have to pause, stop what I am doing and listen to what they are actually saying.

P when she forgets what she is about to say, will say “I love you.” I'm trying to do the same thing especially when I find myself about to say "Not right now". I say "I love you" while I pause to collect my thoughts and assess what I am doing….whether it can wait, be put on hold, or is truly important. In my head I think there is always tomorrow, but today is what is important. Tomorrow will be a different day and today may not ever happen again. Childhood doesn’t happen twice.

Here are a few bits from this lesson:

"You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays."

"I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. "

"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly."

“Whatever hour God has blessed you with, take it with grateful hand, nor postpone your joys from year to year, so that in whatever place you have been, you may say that you have lived happily.”

"When I was around thirteen and my brother ten, Father had promised to take us to the circus. But at lunchtime there was a phone call; some urgent business required his attention downtown. We braced ourselves for disappointment. Then we heard him say [into the phone], ‘No, I won’t be down. It’ll have to wait.’
“When he came back to the table, Mother smiled. ‘The circus keeps coming back, you know,’ [she said.]“‘I know,’ said Father. ‘But childhood doesn’t'."

"We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us."

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Bacon-Wrapped, Pineapple-Filled Dates

I know what you must be thinking right now. Dates=gross. But think of the first ingredient, bacon. Anything wrapped in bacon has to be good, right? It is, trust me. These are the best appetizers ever.


1 package bacon, don't use flavored kind
1 bag pitted dates
1 can pineapple CHUNKS
steak rub, I use Rub with Love
toothpicks
tinfoil
jellyroll pan
oven
you

Soak toothpicks in water for 20 minutes.
Take bacon and cut as many pieces as you want into thirds.
Stuff same amount of dates with pineapple chunks. You might need to cut the chunks down to size to fit in your dates. Then again, you might not.
Wrap bacon around dates and secure with toothpick.
Dip bacon in steak rub. Coat both sides of bacon. Place on foil-lined jellyroll sheet (sheet with sides are needed to catch the drippings).
Broil for 5-10 minutes on EACH side. Watch them! Each oven is different and you don't want it raw or burnt.

This is a picture of Rub with Love to help you find it.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

TP Roulette

Have you ever played this game in your house? It is so much fun! Not as deadly as Russian roulette and not as costly as playing roulette in the casino. This is a game for the whole family, and anyone could be the winner. The rules are this: you take a fresh roll of tp and each person takes turns pulling various amounts of tp off the roll without letting your opponents know how much tp you have taken. The object of the game is to be the last person to take a turn and leave exactly 2 sheets (no more, no less!) on the roll. Then you are the winner! Loads of fun for the whole family.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Peanut Butter Popcorn

This is sooo good, easy to make and very addicting.

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/8 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
bag of butter-flavored microwave popcorn

Microwave the popcorn first. Stir sugar and corn syrup together and cook over medium heat until mixture starts bubbling. Remove from heat and add peanut butter & chocolate chips. Stir until smooth and then stir in vanilla. Wait for alcohol to burn off then pour over bowl of popcorn. Make sure to remove unpopped kernels or you will destroy your teeth! Mix the peanut butter mixture completely into the popcorn and enjoy!

Note:
Don't use organic peanut butter, it won't taste very good. You need all those things that are bad for you in this.
Don't use plain popcorn. Same reasoning. It won't taste good if you try to make it healthier.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Relativity in Regards to Age



I am now the age my mother was when I first realized how old she was. Old being the relative term.


I was 8 years old and just couldn't get over the fact that she seemed so old. I don't know what made me finally realize how old she was, or what difference it even made. Nonetheless, it is a memory that has stuck with me. It has been creeping back into the forefront of my sub-consciousness as my day of reckoning drew nearer.


I also remember realizing how old my grandparents seemed to me at the time, absolutely ancient. But looking back now, my mom is the same age they were when I was 8. She doesn't seem old. Do my girls think the same way about me, about their grandparents?


Is that the trick with aging? You don't feel it all at once? I feel about the same as I did when I was 22. Minus all the baggage that comes with having kids, and I do mean baggage. And I need to sleep more, even though I don't sleep more.


I don't feel old, I feel good, but the number is starting to betray me. Is this the same way I will feel when I am 56, but just a little more tired?


P.S. I'm only 32. Happy Birthday to me!

Monday, January 12, 2009

I Luv My Seesters

This one does this crazy thing with her retainer that makes her look like the Predator. She is amazing with a camera in her hands and she has an awesome laugh. And you should see her dance.

This one is my baby sister. She is awesome, sometimes frightening (with love my dear) and is not afraid to speak her mind. She loves cows. And needles. And poking people with needles. She is allergic to just about everything. Much like the dog she had growing up who was allergic to himself....


And this one taught my oldest child how to say "no." Big thanks to that one. I guess it is payback for me teaching her how to say "icky ca-ca" when she was two.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

My Guardian Angel


I received a pin, much like this one years ago when I was in high school. I half-jokingly attached it to my backpack during my freshman year of college to "watch over me". It stayed with me all through my college years and travelled with me to school, Alaska and France. Every once in a while I would glance at it while getting something out of my backpack. Once I noticed it had lost a wing. I joked that each time it lost a body part, it had gotten me through or kept me out of a bad situation. Over time it lost one appendage after the next. I rediscovered it a couple of years ago, still on my backpack. It had one arm, one wing and one leg left attached to its torso. I removed it from my backpack and attached it to my purse where it has been for the last few years. It has not lost any other appendages since then. Until this Sunday. When I was roaming through my bag at church looking for something to appease my starving child, I discovered that the backing of my pin was rolling around loose in my purse. It made me pause and wonder what kind of predicament it had kept me safe from recently.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Resolutions

I'm keeping it short this year. And real.

1. Get up at 7am on school days. No snooze button.
2. Do not get on the computer in the morning on school days unless it is vitally important. Bloglines does not count as vitally important.
3. Be better about morning prayers with the girls.
4. Be in bed by midnight on school nights. I need to be in bed in 20 minutes. Crap. Breaking that one already.
5. Lose that last 25 lbs.


You get my theme right? Any glaringly obvious points indicating where I am failing slash struggling with right now?

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Henoch-Schönlein Purpura, or Don't Ever Ask What Next, or The Hungry Thing


One should never ask, what next? Even half-jokingly. I think I learned my lesson. My last post was only the starting point of our little adventure....


Monday was uneventful, minus one sleep-deprived, very sick mom. P was not all fine and dandy the next day, however (the Tuesday before Christmas). She started to get hives. Everywhere. All over the place. Really, really bad, very, very itchy, and she was still throwing up. Then the day after Christmas she started to get these purplish bruises all over her legs. And then red splotches all over her legs. It looked like we were alternately caning her and giving her hickeys on her legs. And she still had hives on top of it all. And I was still very, very sick.

Enter the trip to Children's Hospital. She was diagnosed with something called Henoch-Schönlein purpura, it is a vascular disease. Go check it out at Wikipedia. Real fun. The pictures aren't for the faint of heart however....


Thankfully
we caught it early enough, so she is doing better already. The bad part however is that she has to take steroids for a month. The really bad part - P on steroids. If you have ever been on large amounts of them for a long period of time, you know the joy of the side effects. Roid rage is not a joke people. Roid rage in a 5 year old is even worse. Not to mention her raging appetite. Seriously. She can eat everyone under the table right now. She must have asked me for more food at least 75 times today. I am not exaggerating. You remember that steak that John Candy ate in The Great Outdoors? She would ask for seconds after finishing that bad boy.