Happy Birthday Dad!

I hope you had the best one ever! I would have loved to spend it with you and bake you a fancy spice cake (yuck!) but, well, you wouln't come up here and see me. Sigh... but I'm not sulking or anything like that! We love you bunches!

Holey Moley!

I feel it’s only fair to give you an “EEEWWWWW Alert” and the “TMI Warning” before letting you read about this one. I don’t think it’s too gross, but my children certainly do! So, read on at your own risk. Also, it seems to have gotten rather long...you might want to just skip it!

I have about a zillion moles. I’ve always had them. (I think I was born with them so we’ll just blame my mother.) I’d never really thought about them much before Shaun came along. Shaun who tends to tease people unmercifully when he thinks he can get away with it—and often when he knows he can’t. In fact, my moles were the cause of our first big fight. I nearly ended it with him that day. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that the heavens opened up (think Monty Python here) and I saw a vision that foretold of the day that our future children would feed him Bertie Bott’s beans spiked candy.

Anyways, that’s just background and doesn’t really have anything to with anything. Moving on, I have this mole under my arm. It’s always been bigger than the rest of them. Over the years, I have learned to not shave it off in the shower and to just generally ignore it. Over the last few months I’ve noticed it growing. (eeewww) I mentioned it to Shaun and he offered to cut it off for me with his toenail clippers. (EEEWWW) Naturally, I had to ignore him as I often do. Yesterday morning, I told him that had been hurting me and was getting worse. He went into a mild panic and strongly suggested that I go see a doctor. I’d say he told me to go see the doctor, but, well, I have him trained better than that. So, I called and made an appointment.

The doctor took a quick look at it and quickly assured me that it was non-cancerous and that it was hurting because it was half strangulated. He also informed me that it was probably growing because my body was maturing. (Now wasn’t that a nice way of saying I’m getting old?) Then he asked if I’d like it removed. Almost before I could finish answering him, I found myself propelled down the hall into a room that was labeled “Minor Procedures”. It was a very white and very sterile looking room. I’m not sure if that was supposed to reassure my anxiousness or not. In the middle of it was an ominous looking platform with a huge glaring spotlight overhead. The nurse quickly had me situated on top of it with one of those lovely gowns draped over me toga style. Then she aimed the spotlight directly at me.

Within moments the doctor was back and instructing the nurse to go find a cauterizer. Then he placed a face shield over his head…something that a welder or maybe Darth Vader would wear. Quickly putting two and two together I simply had to ask him exactly how much blood he was expecting with this “procedure”. He never really answered my question but proceeded to tell me all about the different cysts he had dealt with that reminded him of Old Faithful. Huh.

Then we were ready to begin. As he was injecting the anesthesia I told him for the third time that my body eats that stuff up like candy. Seriously. He just gave a smug little smile and muttered something about how we would just have to work quickly. Then, without giving the drug time to start working, he got to work. My hapless mole was grasped in what looked like oversized tweezers. He pulled that poor hunk of my flesh out at least an inch then laid his scalpel against me.

“Let me know if you can feel this” he said.
“Ahhhhhh, I feel it!” I screeched in reply
“Hmmm, maybe you were right about the anesthesia” he mumbled, “I’ll just…” and with a sudden sharp pain my mole was sliced off and placed on the tray with a flourish. Before I could say a word he popped the top off of a long white cylinder. He swiftly placed it against me and I could hear the sizzling of my flesh and watched as tendrils of smoke curled up towards the light. He asked me if it hurt. I replied that it didn’t hurt, but was making me a bit nauseas. I think to take my mind off what had just been done, he showed me his little cauterizer and explained how it worked that that it was like a little solder iron. That perked me up! “Do you just toss that now?” I asked “Can I have it? Pretty please?” He looked at me rather oddly then told me sure, but not to let anyone know. I was so thrilled with my new little toy that I instantly forgave him the needless pain he had caused me.

Then I caught a glimpse of a small pink item on the tray. I couldn’t help it. “Is that ME?” I asked. (Remember about me being a dead cat?) So, I got another odd look, then got to see my mole (which turns out wasn’t really a mole, but a large skin tag) It looked like a cross between the eraser on the end of a pencil and a small glob of steak. He started examining it, prodding and turning it every which way causing another small bout of nausea in me. (I’m not that curious)

I’m glad I picked a slow day to go in. I don’t miss my mole at all. And I’m going to love my cauterizer.

King Kong

We’ve been meaning to go see King Kong since the day it first came out.  It almost got to be a joke.   It seemed as though there was always something more important that we had to do.  Today was the day we could finally go and see it.  I seriously considered coming up with a perfectly valid excuse to delay our seeing it yet again, but I really hate to watch a grown man cry.  (You’d think this movie had been out for months from the way certain people were carrying on!)

This is an amazing movie!  It drew us in from the very beginning and kept us all enthralled for the next three hours.  I’m not a big movie fanatic, I just don’t get excited about them, but this is one flick that I would watch over and over.  It has shot to the very top of my short list of All Time Favorite Movies.  You have to understand that, for me, this is Big Stuff.  After all, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is still on that list.  It made us laugh and made us cry.  It had adventure, romance and everything in between.  Go see it.  Bring tissue.  

National Dontyoudaregetdressed Day

In honor of this little known, but beloved holiday, we didn’t get dressed all day.  That’s right, we were bums hanging out in our pjs.  Actually, I didn’t realize that it was the actual holiday until around 5:00 and that’s when it hit me! No wonder we hadn’t gotten dressed!

It all started with KT insisting that we actually play all those games that she talked me into tucking under the tree this year.  Silly me, I thought we’d be able to tuck them in the closet with all the other games and just leave them there.  Sigh…I’m not really a board game player.  

I have to admit that I was a bit astounded at how competitive my little girl had gotten.  She actually wailed in frustration when we tried to alter the rules just a smidge.  She even sulked when she was losing! She is getting more and more like her daddy every day.  

We played games pretty much all day long, finishing up just in time to eat the prime rib Shaun had been working on. Yum! (The girls wouldn’t eat it, of course, so they had vegetarian pizza.) and watch one Christmas special.

Right here is the point where I would gush about how much I loved spending a lazy, fun filled day with just my family.  I would write about how much fun we all had together and how special I thought each member was...but I’m not gonna.  Shaun says I keep ending things in a “sappy” way.  So, I have to  prove him wrong.  I’ll just say…hmmm…I know…it was a good day. Wait, is that sappy? I won’t say  that either.  Hmm, ok here it is, the perfect ending to my little whatever it is.  Are you ready? No sap here…The End.

HA!!!  

Our Christmas

I can’t believe the Big Day has finally come and gone. I could say that it was a letdown, because often the anticipation of things is so much better than the reality of them. But that wouldn’t be true. It was a most wonderful day!

It started about two hours after I went to bed (at three in the morning) when my “Mom Radar” went off. I went to investigate and caught my child red-handed with her stocking dumped out on the floor and a mouth stuffed full of chocolate. I should have been angry at her, but the rule in our house is that anything Santa leaves in your stocking is fair game as long as you don’t wake up Mama! (Isn’t it interesting that the sweets always quickly disappear, but they never eat the oranges?) Anyways, I shooed her back to bed as she hadn’t had much more sleep than I had. Then, of course, I crawled back into bed myself.

After a few more hours of sleep (and only because the girls wouldn’t go away) Shaun and I trudged out to where the presents were piled under the tree. Much to our delight, Santa truly spoiled us this year. It took us a while to open all of our fun gifts…not because we were that spoiled, but because Shaun wasn’t feeling well. Not to be too indelicate, but he had to make several mad dashes out of the room. We chose to believe that he was just giving us time to examine our new toys. Then we had a few hours to relax and do our own little thing. Poor Shaun took a nap. If you know Shaun at all he just doesn’t do that, so we know he was really, really feeling bad.

Then we headed over to the home of one of our good friends for a wonderful Christmas dinner. We enjoyed lots of good food, good conversation, and howling with the dog. (do you really want to know?) I guess most of our friends are about as normal as we are! For the first time ever, I was ready to go home and get to bed waaaay before Shaun was. I guess his long nap and just a bit of time really perked him up. It was near midnight when we finally got home and got the girls settled down.

To me, that’s what the whole Christmas Season is all about. To just enjoy slowing down and to spending extra time with family and friends. It’s a form of homemade magic. I can’t wait to do it again!

We Wish You a Meowy Christmas!

Hope you have the best Christmas yet! From our family to yours!

I Forgot To Mention...

Shaun made the rice crispy treats ALL BY HIMSELF!!! (that's your cue to say "aaaaaahhhhhh" and "ooooohhh" and then burst into spontaneous applause) Mimi did help him by patting it down smoothly, but he made it very clear that he didn't need her to help him. He just let her because he was being nice. Uh huh. He's been telling anyone that would listen so I thought I might as well share it too. Aren't we all proud of him?

I also heard a little more about the walnut brittle (out of peanuts). Shaun had never made this before but was feeling pretty cocky because he had The Cookbook and could follow a recipe. He scoffed at my suggestion to only make one batch at a time, but did grudgingly agree to use the big stock pot instead of the small saucepan. He told me later that he thought I was nuts to use such a huge pot to cook such a small amount of syrup that it barely reached the candy thermometer. Boy was he surprised when he added the baking soda and the whole thing POOOFED up! He only suffered a little burn on his finger.

Off to bed with me. I think I hear sleigh bells...

Cookies, Cookies Everywhere!

Today we had to finish up the task that we started yesterday of baking cookies . I'm have no idea how much stuff we made, but it was a LOT. Actually, I say we, but it was mainly Shaun and the girls. I think it was good for them to do the bonding thing together. (I also have to 'fess up and say that I went and took a nap. I've been staying up way too late and getting up too early...makes for a very grumpy mama.)

They started their cooking projects and then realized that they needed to make a run to the store. They had orders not to go without me, but they did not obey them. I heard some sort of muttering that they didn’t want to wake me up, but I know the truth. They snuck off without me on purpose because I tend to monitor what goes into the shopping cart. So they had a wonderful time shopping and came home with bags and bags of groceries…not to mention a receipt that nearly put me into shock!


They made gingerbread men and walnut brittle, Snickerdoodles, brownies and rice crispy treats. I’m sure there was more but that’s enough for now. Then we decided to package them all up to give away. We laid out 10 big plates and divvied out all of our goodies. Then we popped into the Jeep and started delivering them to friends and neighbors. It was so much fun…especially at the houses we sang to!

At one point during the day we got our gingerbread making house kit and put it together. We worked long

and hard on that. All I can say is that, well, it’s unique. It looks nothing at all like the picture on the box. But that’s ok. Ours has much more character. Who needs ninety degree walls anyways, curved is good, says I.

Now, it's time to go cuddle with a little girl for a bit and watch a classic Christmas show. Then put little angels to bed, because, as everyone knows, "The sooner you get to sleep, the sooner Santa can come!"

It's Beginning to Look a Bit Like Christmas

It’s only a couple days before Christmas and we are just finally getting into the spirit. We’ve gotten a slow start with celebrating the girls’ birthdays and then all of us being sick…but we are making up for it with a vengeance.

KT fixed our tree back to looking like it might actually be a Christmas tree. The poor thing had been attacked by our cats. It’s a fake tree (I know, I know…we live in the Land of Trees, thus should have real one, but we can just step outside if we want to smell cedar or get pine needles on our feet) and our precious little felines like to jump from branch to branch. In doing this, the fake branches fall off of the fake trunk. This makes for an interesting looking tree…crooked with huge gaps. Of course, ornaments and anything that dangles are much too tempting to leave alone and I don’t even want to talk about the poor lights. It looks a little more normal now. I tried to do something in the photo edit to it, and it turned rather green. It’s not very realistic, but I like it. J

There has been an awful lot of whispering going on in the house today. Along with closed bedroom doors and the sounds of rustling paper and tearing scotch tape intertwined with the blasting of Christmas carols. (It seems as though she’s gotten to the age where music is everything and the louder the better) Gifts that had been stashed away have come out to be wrapped and then mysteriously arrive under the tree. (Well, except for me. I tend to hide things so well that even I can’t find them!) It’s so fun to see the girls interesting in giving as opposed to getting. Don’t get me wrong, they are still pretty excited about getting.

This evening it dawned on us that we hadn’t done any holiday baking. Even though our youngest is now 12, there is still the slight fear that Santa won’t come if he doesn’t have chocolate chip cookies and milk left for him. Oh yes, and we mustn’t forget about the carrots for the reindeer. So, we have a batch of yummy cookies all ready. Of course, being who we are, we simply couldn’t stop at one type of cookie. So there are also a couple batches of dough in the fridge ready to be baked in the morning. We plan on delivering a small assortment to a few lucky (depending on your point of view) friends and neighbors.

Tomorrow promises to be a very busy and exciting day. I’m glad that my babies still see the wondrous magic in this time of year.

Who's Reading This???

Call me a dead cat! (You know...as in, curiosity killed the cat...keep up with me!) As of this morning there have been 120 views of my blog and 24 views of my profile. And I've only been doing this for about a week. It’s driving me nuts! The only place I’ve sent out the info on my blog so far is on my Christmas cards (I'm rather proud that I actually managed to get out this year) Yet the only ones who have 'fessed up to reading this are my parents and Shaun. I don't really care who's reading it...I just want to know who! LOL

So, I got an email from Mom saying she wrote me a nice comment then couldn't figure out how to make it post. So I'm going to tell her how. Keep this for future reference if you too are challenged in this area. (You may also want to scroll down to the post titled "It's not just me!" before you completely believe what I'm about to tell you. I'm not really a techie type)

Click where it says "0 comments" on the bottom of my posts. A window will pop up. Type your very nice comment :)

Then scroll down to where it says "Choose an identity" Click "other" then fill in your name.

Then click the blue button that says "Publish your comment"

Yea! You did it!! Didn't you? Didn’t you??? Right???

Christmas Shopping

Yesterday the girls asked me to take them on our third annual shopping trip to their secret shopping spot…Long’s Drug Store. OK, so it’s not the place everyone thinks about when they want to go shopping, but it works for us. It is in the perfect price range for a young girl, it has everything from small electronics to bath salts. And best of all, for me, it’s not the dreaded mall! For the last two years we’ve gone with Grandma. We would each go our separate ways hunting for that perfect treasure for that special someone. If we happened to spot one another, we would immediately either hide what we had or rush to show each other. Most of our shopping would be completed in about an hour. Then, bursting with secrets and completely delighted with ourselves, we would go out for dinner somewhere.

This year wasn’t nearly as much fun. Maybe it was because Grandma wasn’t with us. She’s a bit of a character and makes any outing more, um…interesting. Instead of coming to spend the holidays with us this year, they decided to stay in California for some very selfish reasons. Like Grandpa recovering from his surgery (all the way back in September, he should be better now) and something about the price of gas that making it financially difficult to drive that big ol’ RV all the way up here. Oh and mutterings about how cold it can get up here. Sigh. No, I’m not sulking. Honest. Anyways, for some reason, being in that cheesy little drug store really made me miss my mom.

I can’t say for sure if we will go back to our secret shopping spot or not next year. Especially if I am still without my mother. There’s also the fact that the girls seem to be getting a bit more sophisticated, and may actually realize that there is a huge mall out there. So far, I’ve done my best to hide that fact from them! Hmmm, I think I will have to haul them into Long’s for Christmas shopping no matter what next year…for tradition’s sake of course.

Speaking of Willful...

I just went upstairs to wrap a couple more Christmas presents and then get to bed as it is past my bedtime. I went into my girls' rooms to give them one last goodnight kiss and alas, one was missing. So I went into my own room expecting to see my youngest curled up with a dog in my bed. Instead, I encountered the defiantly glaring eyes of my child. She was so angry that I didn't give her more pity when she told me she couldn't fall asleep because she didn't feel well. (We've all been under the weather with nasty colds) She had, through sheer determination, willed herself to stay awake for the two hours I was downstairs. I told her to get herself to bed, and she fell asleep immediately.

And they think I’m stubborn…

He's famous...kinda

Shaun just called me over to look at a scene from the 48 Hours show he was watching on TV. "Look at her monitor" he said, "What do you see?"

"Um..a puppy?"

"Keep watching, now what do you see?"

"um...looks like a kitty now" I replied not really caring about the computer monitor of a show I wasn't even watching.

"and?"

"Oh!" It just dawned on me "It's your screensaver isn't it? You're even more famous now!"

He just beamed.

A few minutes later he asked me if I had posted anything to the blog today. (was that a hint? Probably not, but I'm running with it) I told him I hadn't but I'd let him know when I did. I also asked him if he wanted to put him on the announcement thingy that I found that would email him when I made a post. He said he would do it himself. I knew I shouldn't have let him know my password!

Cat Tales

Big loud crash from the other room

Me: "Is everything alright in there?"

Kid #1: "No, she killed the cat!"

Kid #2: "No I didn't! He's still alive, he's moving!"

Kid #1: "She ALMOST killed the cat!"

Sometimes it's better not to know...

Sweet Little Girls

After Mimi’s candy making party, KT got the bug. She wanted to make more candy. Lots and lots more to give to her family, friends and hapless strangers on the street. What kind of monster had we created? So we took a trip to our local craft store and stocked up on some festive candy molds and all the fixins’ to make perfect candy. Of course, being The Season and all we ended up doing a bit more shopping and got home quite late. So we struck a deal that they could start as soon as both girls had awakened on their own and no burning the house down as I didn’t want to be woken up.

I’m not sure it was quite light out when KT came into my room the next morning asking if she could please wake up her sister so they could get started. She already knew that the answer was that she would just have to wait. And wait she did. Mimi didn’t wake up until nearly 11:00. We probably would have taken pity and woke Mimi up, but it was just too much fun to watch KT agonize about it. Yes, I know, we are cruel parents.

Then the fun finally began. KT was so deliciously meticulous about getting her candy just right. She used small paint brushes, bamboo skewers and squeeze bottles to do her work. Naturally, her father kept stopping by the table trying to eat some of the masterpieces. Not because he actually liked candy, but because he knew it would drive KT nuts. She told him time and again that she would make one for him later.

So between our two wicked children, they did make a very special candy for their daddy. Hidden inside the festive green and red candy was a little extra flavoring in the form of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. If I recall correctly they gave him earwax, rotten egg and vomit flavored jelly beans. They so sweetly brought him the candy while he happened to be distracted on the phone. With a grin, he took a huge bite and we curiously watched his face transform into one of horror. He didn’t want to offend our budding chefs so he managed to calmly say though gritted teeth that he thought there might be something wrong with the candy. His face turned to astonishment when we burst into peals of laughter.

Interestingly, when they went back to their candy making he didn’t seem to be pestering those sweet little girls anymore. I don’t believe he’s had anymore of that candy either. Hmmm…

It's not just me!

I'm not stupid by a long shot, but all things electronic and/or technical confound me.  I haven't a clue how to use the TV remotes (heck, I can never remember which remote goes to what device!), I got ecstatic when I figured out how to program my new coffee pot.
 
So, what made me think that I would be able to figure out this blog thing with little effort? Could it because that everyone from kids to little old ladies can do it? I really, really wanted to do this.  All I wanted to do at first was to know how to put a picture up.  I tried.  I struggled.  I said muttered and sent evil thoughts to my computer, until I finally had to cave in.  I had to ask my not-so-friendly personal computer guru to help me.  

Interestingly, I didn’t hear the usual “I’m not tech support”.  I’m not sure if this was because he felt sorry for me or if he was just tired of the angst coming from my side of the room.  Regardless, I know this is bad, but I’m thrilled to say that he started up with the grumbling about poorly written code and UI as he struggled to figure out how it was supposed to work.  Yea! It’s not just me!!

He finally got it figured out and now I know how to post pictures and do a few other things.  Thank you Mr. Computer Guru!

Basketball

Mimi’s first game of the season was on Saturday. It just amazes me how exciting a game between 12 year old girls can be. Shaun got a few shots and it really amazes me that in almost every single one of them, Mimi and most of the other girls just have these huge grins on their faces. They just have so much FUN playing together.

This is their forth year playing together. What started out as a bunch of little girls from different schools goofing off and trying to learn the game has become a great team. We are so proud of them.

Oh, I don’t want to forget to mention that Mimi scored two baskets! Way to Go!

Of Pigs and Chocolate

For Mimi’s birthday party last week, she really wanted to have two things involved with it, cute little pigs and every girl’s favorite treat: chocolate. So, after some negotiations, and against my better judgment, I agreed to let Mimi have a sleepover and give a chocolate making class as part of the deal. Now keep in mind that I taught myself candy making years ago using instructions found in the back of some book. I had decided that it really wasn’t for me and hadn’t done anything with my semi-skill in quite some time. Yet, for my little girl, I was willing to give it a shot.

Then, fortunately, I heard about a place where they have classes taught by someone who actually knows what they are doing. In addition to that they would let you bring in pizza and a cake. Best of all, and the major selling point for me, they clean up after you. :)

The day before the party was incredibly busy and we didn’t come home until very late. While Mimi and her best friend Angie went downstairs to hang out and do whatever it is that they do, I went into panic mode. For some reason, it is very important to my girls that I make their birthday cakes. Yet we hadn’t been home long enough that day to get a cake made. So, I found myself turning on the oven shortly after ten o’clock that night, ruing the day I’d first opened up a package of cake mix. I had to make it in two batches as I only had one pan of that size. I’d also planned on sculpting a pig out of candy clay. Only, I couldn’t remember how to make the clay. So, I looked had to look that up and held my tongue very tightly against the swear words that wanted to come out when I discovered that it had to sit overnight. There really wasn’t any way around that or I would’ve found it. Accepting that there really wasn’t much I could do while everything was cooling and setting up, I went to bed.

Naturally, my internal alarm clock did not wake me up as early as I wanted it too. Neither did my external alarm clock, I can be pretty good at hitting that snooze button. Somehow I finally managed to drag myself out of bed and jumpstart myself with some coffee. I started frosting and molding the cake while gathering last minute items, making a quick run to the grocery store and being sure the girls got dressed and ate. I just crossed my fingers and hoped that the cake would do.

We easily found the place located in a small converted house. I knew that the owner was my kind of person when I noticed that she was running around without shoes even on the icy ground. I really knew I liked her when she, and her staff gushed over my cake…did I mention they also teach cake decorating classes there?
Soon kids and adults alike were having a ball choosing which candy mold they wanted to work on. We quickly settled down and were ready to get busy making yummy chocolates. Who could imagine how much fun we would have? The next thing we knew it was time to eat and then open presents. Mimi received so many wonderful gifts, most of them involving pigs…everything from earrings to socks. It was a wonderful day for our little girl, especially as it included her two favorites, pigs and chocloate!

How could I forget?

I suppose if I'm going to set up a blog I should actually remember that I did so, and post to it shouldn't I? :)

My original plan was to just post my little stories. That's too much pressure, I hate having to do something, so my plan shall evolve. I think I will just post the various little things that happen in our lives like as so many other bloggers do. If a little story comes along, I'll post that as well. I guess I'll just play it by ear.

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