land of the icks....

I think just last week I was going on about how my kids are hardly ever sick. I am such a pin-head. Who does that? Who brags about being disease free? Someone who wants to run 4 loads of bed sheets in one day, that's who. We spent a good part of the weekend cleaning up vomit. We meaning mostly me. Matt on the other hand had an el-primo ticket to the OSU-Michigan game. Being the good-natured and loving person I am, I grudgingly allowed him to go. While I washed the bedsheets and toasted bread and made soup. What I thought was the flu, is actually strep. I took Justin in this morning because he was complaining about his throat. Strep, indeed. Then I took Ryan in because he was among the pukers this weekend. His strep was negative but he has a raging ear infection and a throat that looks "suspicious". Not sure if that means his throat is about to commit a heinous crime or what, but we are to keep an eye on it. We meaning me, of course. So if I am absent the next few days I am preparing for turkey day and keeping a watchful eye on that suspicious looking throat of Ryan's. Leave it to him to have a suspicious anything.

EDITED TO ADD: Matt did clean up a little vomit this weekend. I am not going to listen to him howl at me for making people think he skipped out of the house while I scrubbed the mess. He was in on a little of it. Very little, but he was present.

I think I have become my mother....

poor Hannah.
You see when I was a child, my mama was a beautician. This, for me, meant that I was probably the only 4 year old with highlights and a perm. She had to practice on someone! She also could wield a brush like a lethal weapon. Because of this I have one of those heads of hair that can be pulled in 12 different directions and I can sleep through it. Dance team moms loved me. I was the only girl who didn't whine about those too-tight french braids.
Fast forward to today. Hannah has been wearing the same headband day in, day out for about 2 weeks. She loves it, so she wears it. I'm kind of sick of looking at it, so I think if I offer to do something fun and snazzy with her hair she will put away the hair band at least for a few hours. No. Not the case. She screamed and cried and it became a battle of wills that for some reason I wasn't giving up. When it was over she sobbed that her head hurt so bad....it was as if she was dying. The ponytail holder might make her brains ooze slowly out of her ears. Something of that nature. Now seriously, it was not tight. But apparently what the princess wants, the princess gets. I was seeing red so I jerked the ponytail holder out in "I'll give you something to cry about" fashion. My sister chose this time to place a phone call to me. After telling her my side of the story I realized immediately that I had become my mother. ***ACK*** I cannot tell you how many times as a small child I would think in my little head "I will never pull my daughter's hair like she pulls mine". In the end it was to my benefit since I now have hair follicles of steel. I didn't know that when I was Hannah's age. Maybe she'll thank me later??? I doubt it. She'll probably just share the horror stories with her friends. My sister reminded me of her childhood hair trauma with mom. She begged and pleaded for weeks to have bangs cut into her hair. She has naturally curly (it's beautiful. I hate her for it) hair and bangs will only look like pubes. My mom told her over and over again it was a bad idea, but Manda was unrelenting. Finally my mom decided to shut her up and cut some bangs for her. Only it must have been a PMS day for mom and Manda chose the wrong time to do battle with her. Mom cut those babies to about 1" in length. They were LOVELY. My sister has never had bangs since that day. We had a good chuckle about it today while we were reminiscing our childhood hair traumas. I know Hannah will have fun talking about 'the bad ol' days' with her friends someday too.

the awwww...so sweet factor....

so, my husband...he has his ordinary husband moments. You know- the ones that make me want to box his ears, or smack him repeatedly upside his head. He has a penis, so this is normal. He can't help it, it's just the way they are. Then he has other moments. The ones where I realize how lucky I am that his friend talked me into going out on at least one date with him. I wasn't in the mood to start with a new guy right at that moment, but I got talked into it. I'm lucky. Damn lucky that I decided to go out on that one date.
I realize it frequently, but especially on mornings like this one. He thanked me. I still am not 100% sure why he thanked me, but he did. This after he had the kids alone from last Thurs-Mon. with no complaining. That's right- no complaining. He sounded cranky at one point around day 3 on the phone but if I had been left for that long while he was say, golfing with a friend, I would have been more than cranky by day 3. I would have been an evil bitch. He just got a little cranky. And then last night when we both just wanted a quiet-ish evening, I was called off to help my mom with dogs because grandma had to go to the hospital again. Matt took Ryan with him to Justin's scout meeting so that I could get all of the dog stuff done and not have to worry about Ryan flushing a stuffed turkey down a toilet at my parent's house while I was off being otherwise occupied by feeding a dog. That may seem like a little thing, but Ryan really adds a note of quirkiness to any event he attends. He can make it hellish in no time flat. Then, my loving husband didn't whine when I realized I had left my keys in the van so he had to drive all the way back over to my parent's house to give them to me. AND HE DIDN'T BITCH, COMPLAIN, OR MOAN ONE TIME.
This is the same man who will help with the dogs anytime he is needed. Again this may seem like no big deal, but it involves scooping lots of dog shit and dealing with nastiness that the average husband would say "hell no" to. Not Matt, he does it. With minimal whining.
Also this man didn't slug me over the head even once last night when I couldn't sleep. He tried to make the dripping in the bathroom stop around 1 a.m. when I decided that might be what it was that was making me want to climb the walls. He didn't even do one of those exaggerated sighs. He just got up and got the shower to stop dripping. He really is a good guy.
On top of all of this, it is a major understatement to say that I am not an easy chic to live with. I bitch, moan, and complain on a regular basis. I have a vagina, so this is normal. I can't help it, it's just the way we are. :) Not to say he probably doesn't want to box me in the ears sometimes too. I'm sure he does. But he never has.
Instead, on days like today, he thanks me. Just for being me. Awwwww... he's so sweet!

you can't ever have too much fun...

not with Carol anyways. I have never been a birthday present before, but I was this past weekend. It was fun being a present. Although I'm thinking I shouldn't have had to make any decisions on how the weekend was going to play out. Shouldn't Carol have been the one to decide how and what she wanted her birthday present to do all weekend??? Damn. She made me make decisions all weekend!! :)
Let's see... we shopped, and ate, shopped some more, had a few cocktails, ate again, shopped some more... do you see a pattern? South Carolina has some damn fine shopping of the bargain variety. And Carol is the champion bargain hunter. Just ask her about her $11 mirror and the .37 cent serving bowl set she scored. Bitch. She is fun to shop with though.
I'm pretty sure she was happy about her surprise birthday present. She had a few moments of panic over a dirty toilet and some hairy sheets on my bed, but we remedied that before she had a stroke. Then I spent the rest of the weekend off-setting her placemats because it makes her twitch when they aren't all lined up and that makes me laugh. Aren't I just the best friend ever? I think she had fun even though I was trying make her insane and making fun of her for having OCD. Because seriously, the girl lined up the sleeve on her Starbucks cups so that the picture on the sleeve matched the picture on the cup. How can I not make fun of that?? She is more than welcome to make fun of my collection of dry erase boards when she comes up here to be my birthday present in a few months (**HINT MATT. HINT, HINT**)
End of weekend note to self...never make a Rachel Ray cocktail again. The girl has some good recipes, but pumpkin martinis ain't one of them. Other than that fiasco, all of our other cocktails were divine. Although just the thought of those pumpkin nightmares sort of makes me twitch. Did I mention how nasty they were?

it can only get better...

this morning I went over to my parent's house because my mom needed help with the dogs. She had an early morning appt. and couldn't get them all done. I let the Pointer pups out for their breakfast and potty time and as I was cleaning out their pen, I stuck my hand in a pile of dog shit that one of them had artfully hidden under a piece of newspaper. Really, it's a good thing they are cute puppies because otherwise I might just set them free near the freeway someday.
The day can only get better now, right?

do you know one??

Raise your hand if you know an adult that acts like a spoiled teenager... everyone does?? Of course you do! They are everywhere! I have to shake my head at adults that can't step away from High School. Grow up already. The day I graduated from HS, I turned away from all of that nonsense. I don't understand the point in re-living it for years and years. The cat fights in the hallways, who was on homecoming court, who made the cheerleading squad, who didn't...none of the crap matters in 'the real world' so why hang on to it?
I have a neighbor who is a total bizarro. Her daughter is a total brat and does cruel things to other kids. 2 other parents on the street have confronted her and she literally goes off like a bomb. Screaming obscenities in the street. Instead of saying anything to her daughter about being nasty to other kids or even asking her what happened like a sane person, she starts screaming about things that have nothing to do with anything. What is that teaching her daughter?? I can tell you one thing for sure. Her daughter is likely going to grow up to be one of those bitches everyone hates in HS and no one will talk to at the class reunion. That's what her mama is modeling for her. She is in 3rd grade and she is already a bitch. I hate to say that about a child, but some of the things I have seen her do with my own eyes would take your breath away.
I can't even count the number of people I have known in my adult life that leave me shaking my head in wonder at them. Concerned more about the brand of clothes their toddlers are wearing than anything else in the world. I guess that lesson never got to them in High School. I just assumed everyone learned eventually that whether you are wearing Tommy Hilfiger or Circo you can be a good person. Silly me.
I met another person this past weekend who is still flipped out over the fact that she wasn't on homecoming court. Seriously. She is going on 40 years old and still is angry at the world because she wasn't on homecoming court. She still has a grudge against people who were on court, and now their children as well. Did I say psycho already?? I wonder if she thinks the girls who did get on court still wear their sashes to work everyday? Really. WHO CARES?? No one even remembers that crap 10 years, 15 years, 20 years later. Let it go....
As I was listening to one of the neighbors talk about the latest neighborhood fight involving the 1st mom I talked about, all I could do was shake my head. My kids aren't involved in it and the crazy mom hasn't even stooped from her high horse to introduce herself to me yet, so I am hoping to never be involved in the crazy plot she lives in. Their house is for sale and all I can say is good riddance. Hopefully a sane family will buy it and move in and we can have less High School drama on the street.

i don't want to be THAT MOM...

I spent a long day on Saturday at a dance competition. If my husband was worried about me wanting to hop back into coaching and teaching dance, he need not worry a moment longer. Just a taste of the psycho moms at the competition on Sat. was all the reminder I needed for the reasons I quit doing it in the first place. One mother has a daughter who is in FOURTH GRADE. She spent the entire day hounding her about a back walkover. The poor girl was not comfortable doing it, but mom wanted it in the routine. Did I mention this mere child is in FOURTH GRADE?? I want to pull this woman aside and tell her that psycho bitches like her are the ones who have daughters who walk out on the floor to compete and freeze because of stress. Who wants to stress out their kid that much?? She was almost in tears over it. She has YEARS to perfect and perform a back walkover for the judges. These are also the kids that are oooozing talent and walk away from it when they are at the top of their game because they have had it with their parent's constant pushing. I've seen it everywhere- at soccer, football, pretty much anything sports oriented. I just know for myself, I have never coached a team that didn't have at least one of those moms. I don't have the patience to deal with them anymore. Nor do I have the ability to bite my tongue long term and not tell them they are being freakish. I would not make a good dance coach anymore :)
The beauty of it is, I will never be that mom. I have seen too much of what it does to the kids when their parents aren't standing there. When they come to me hysterical because they just can't take it anymore. I never want that for my kids. They will do what they want to do. I may do some gentle prodding, but that's it. Everyone thinks I'll flip out if Hannah doesn't dance. Nope. If she decides in a few years that she isn't having fun, then she's done. That's what it's all about to me. If she has fun with it for years like I did, then I am happy. If she wants to play soccer for the rest of her life, I'm happy too. Psycho mom, I ain't.

just say no...

I can't do it. I can't say no. People ask me to help with things and I immediately blurt out "sure! I have nothing going on that day!" Why??? Why do I do that to myself? Now I have a calendar that is so full for the next 2 months that I literally have ZERO free weekends. Some of my weekend activities are fun, some are not, either way it will be 2007 before I have a weekend with no plans. No exaggeration. In 2007 I think I have a free weekend. It probably won't happen though because someone will ask a favor of me and I'll quickly answer that I have nothing else going on that weekend before I can stop myself.
What can I say? I am one of those 'people pleasers'. Much as I hate it sometimes, it's what I am. It's good and bad. Most of my friends and family appreciate it about me. My husband probably hates it. He would give anything for a plan free weekend. Good thing he is patient. He is usually the last in line of people that I please. Poor guy. Plus his mom only let him eat 2 friggin' pieces of candy at Halloween when he was a kid. He has been underprivileged his whole life!! I did try to make up for that by sending him to work with a basket of all the good stuff. Damn if he isn't a people pleaser too. He gave it all away.

soggy Halloween...

I wish I had some cute pictures to share of my darling trick or treaters today. I don't because last night would be the all-time suckiest trick or treat night in my memory. It was 40ish degrees and raining. WOOHOO. Lovely weather. Now, the day before, it was 60 and beautiful but who am I to question Mother Nature and her fall insanity plan?
The kids still had fun and I guess that's what it's all about, right? I don't enjoy bundling up and walking door to door looking like a drowned rat, but the children were unfazed by this. Unfortunately, it wasn't good picture taking weather. I tried to snap a couple indoors but we had trick or treaters ringing the doorbell 15 min. early (talk about ignorant) so they couldn't focus on me or my camera they just wanted out the door to go beg for their own bucket o' candy.
This is the best shot I got....















Isn't that a lovely shot of the chiclets? Oh yes...straight into the scrapbook with that one. Last year I made a whole photoshow of how cute they were. This year I got one lame picture. What's a scrapper to do with that?? Oh well. We have more candy than we could eat in a lifetime and they were bouncing off the walls until 10 p.m. I nixed Matt's idea of a 2 piece of candy limit. I went with the plan my mom always used...eat candy till you feel sick. I think the kids liked my plan better. 2 pieces indeed!! Whoever heard of such a thing? I was making fun of him in front of his mom for this ridiculous plan and then found out it was actually HER plan and that's what Matt had as a rule when he was a child. Don't you feel sorry for him now?? I do.
At the end of the evening we dried off and drove over to my parent's house so they could see them in their costumes and instead of candy I got a tumbler of Bailey's with caramel on the rocks. Who needs candy? I was feeling much better about my soggy Halloween after that.

just because it made me laugh...

not whining. won't do it.

I promise not mention how bad my teeth STILL hurt today. I won't mention the fact that I can barely be understood because I can't open my mouth all the way to speak. My family is enjoying it immensely. I will mention that I got a good chuckle at my ownself this morning. I woke up and couldn't believe how much better my mouth felt. Just as I was marveling over how quickly the pain ended it occurred to me that in my drunken stupor last night I forgot to put the damn rubber bands back in after I ate dinner. DUH. No wonder I felt better. Then I trudged into the bathroom to reinstall the torture devices (rubber bands) and almost cried at the pain flooding back. I think even Matt felt bad for me. This was a good sign in our marriage because I think he was ready to kill me last night. I wasn't kidding when I said I needed a big bottle of vodka with which to drown myself. I really did dive in with both feet. I think I irritated him with my alcoholism last night. I guess if he felt bad for me this morning that must mean he likes me again.
But I won't mention the pain in my mouth. Promise I won't.

whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiining...

My teeth hurt. Bad. I am currently waiting for my knight and shining armor (Matt) to arrive with my liquid pain killer (vodka- in the vanilla variety) so that I can drown myself in it. Hoping the bottle is that big. Must drown myself in it.
I thought once I got over the initial pain and whiny-ness of getting these bitches (ooops, braces) put on my teeth, I would never again feel that kind of pain in my mouth. The kind that makes you want to just jerk the *#$&ers smack out of your mouth. The kind that makes even my inner pig not want to look at food, let alone be forced to chew it. Sadly, I am again experiencing the pain thanks to my friends the rubber bands. I have them going in 4 directions currently in my mouth and I want to shout at my short, pudgy orthodontist and tell him what a rat bastard he is for putting people in this pain. I know it isn't his fault. It's actually mine. I brought this on. It doesn't matter. He is still a rat bastard (he really isn't. He's really a nice guy. He can't help this). I might feel differently in a day or so when it stops. Please tell me this will stop in a day or two. Probably until they put thicker rubber bands in a different location, going in a different direction. Then it'll all start again. Curse this bad bite of mine!!!!
I found out today that my blood pressure meds prevent me from taking ibuprofen. I refuse to ask if I should be limiting my alcohol intake. I'm sure I don't want to know the answer and quite honestly tonight, I just DO NOT care one iota. I'm havin' the liquid pain killers in vanilla form. Several of them. Do not call my house tonight and expect anything more than slurred speech. The fault of both the vodka and the rubber bands.

grey skies...

We are supposed to have "November grey skies" all day today. It was cold yesterday but the sky was blue and the clouds were puffy. It was a crispy fall day- my favorite. Today we are November grey. Blah. Except they were wrong at the ol' NBC weather station today. They said we wouldn't see the sun at all. Nary a bit, all the live long day (my words- not his. He isn't a total hillbilly. I am). And yet I saw it. Just as we were headed toward the bus. It came up over the field behind us and peeked through the November grey. Just long enough to hit the tress on the opposite side of the field and light up the oranges, yellows, and reds on the leaves. It was bright, fantastic, beautiful. I made a mental note to run home and grab my camera and take a picture of it as soon as I could dump Justin out of the van. Sadly, when I got home, it was November grey again. None of the fiery, bright colors were still illuminated by the sun. They are still pretty, but it isn't even close to the same.
Still...for a moment today, I saw the sun. They said I wouldn't, but I did. I think that means it's going to be a good day.

Avoidance is my friend...

I am avoiding several things today. Cleaning being the biggest one. My house is a pit. I need to get it clean before Fri when we have a visitor coming. Matt's mom. She hasn't seen the house and it'll be the first visit. I REALLY need to get it clean. Yet, here I sit, avoiding.
I am avoiding getting on the scale because I have been on an ice cream kick this week and it is going to be U-G-L-Y.
I am avoiding figuring out what is on my nerves today. Something is. I am in a mood and I don't know why. I feel a storm brewing in my brain and I have no idea what the deal is. Could be hormones, but I fear I blame 90% of my current pissiness on hormones. I'm starting to think it's not hormones so much as it is just me. Who I am now. What I have grown up to be. I think when I was little I wanted to grow up and be a veterinarian or a teacher. Instead I grew up to be the wicked witch of the west. Who'd have thunk?
I am also avoiding what to make for dinner. Maybe if I avoid this long enough it will turn into pizza night. This is my hope.
I have a long list of avoidances. I won't bore you with it all. This is already an ignorant post. No need to ignorant it up any further.

Oprah strikes again...

That Oprah. She has more money than anyone. Yet she always reminds me what a heel *I* am for not appreciating what I have. Her show yesterday was "moms around the world". Hannah was watching it with me so it was enlightening for us both. Some of the women (like the hot mom from Brazil- and I don't mean temperature hot) had more riches than they could even handle. Nannies, maids, drivers, all the goods. Brazil mommy was spouting how lucky she was to be able to spend time with her children. Yes...because someone else is cleaning your toilets and mopping your floor. Plus she is married to Brazil's version of Brad Pitt. That could go either way on the good-bad scale. I wouldn't want to be married to any form of Brad Pitt- even Brazil's. Thanks Matt.
Then, of course, there were the moms of Africa. That Oprah, she refuses to let us bury our heads in the sand and pretend what is going on in Africa is not. She shows us these horrible things regularly. Things that makes anyone with a soul uncomfortable. What she said that stood out in my head, was that those moms in Darfur, Africa want the same things for their kids that we do. They have the same hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Except they live in a refugee camp and can't sleep at night because someone might invade the camp and rape them or their children. Oh...and they don't know when they'll have their next meal. Or sip of clean water. They are lucky if they get one meal of grain a day. Yet, they hope the same things for their kids that I do.
Yep...Oprah knows how to make me appreciate that I have time to play Candyland. That I even own the board game. She even made me appreciate my crappy water and ignorant clean-nothing dishwasher. Even better than that, my daughter saw this same thing. Last night as we were saying our prayers, she prayed for the mommy that didn't have food for her babies. Yes, Oprah. We got the message.

Earn bad mommy credits for the day...check that off my list.

Help me try to make a 5 year old understand why I am backing out of a field trip to the pumpkin patch. We were supposed to go last week but they cancelled because it was muddy. That's nice of them, but now it's muddy and freezing. It doesn't sound like a fun trip to me. Especially not with Ryan in tow. Of course, I have devastated my daughter. Just earning my bad mommy award points. Yes indeed. It isn't just cold, it's bitter...and did I mention the mud? A 2 hour trip through the pumpkin patch just does NOT fit into my plan for the day. It would be different if it was even partially indoors. It is not. It is 1 hour and 45 min of listening to "the life of a pumpkin seed" and 15 min of picking pumpkins. In the freezing cold, bitter wind, and mud- wait did I already mention that? Blah. I have scarred her for life by telling her we aren't going. I'll pay for the therapy later, I'm sure. Whatever.

Friday funnies...

For your reading pleasure I am going to share 2 conversations I had with Justin last night.

Background on conversation #1- they are talking about seeds in school. They were supposed to bring in seeds to share with the class. We walked back to the Buckeye tree and found a buckeye (which is indeed a seed I just learned) and also a buckeye still in the hull (which is cool and porky in Justin's words) (porky=spiky for those who don't know that already) (DUH). I put them in a baggie and he takes them to school. Fast forward 2 days...riding in the car...

Justin: Mom! Why didn't you name my nuts??

Me: Uhhhh... what?

Justin: {sighing in complete exasperation} My nuts mom! My nuts! Why didn't you name them??

Me: Justin, I can't begin to figure out what you could be talking about.

Justin: My nuts! When I took them to school I couldn't remember what the porky one was called.

Immediately my brain clicks because remember, porky=spiky...

Me: You mean your SEEDS? I think you mean why didn't I label your seeds?

Justin: Yes, mom. Seeds...nuts...whatever.

Me: Big difference, son. And I didn't label your seeds because it was your homework. Name your own nuts next time.


Conversation #2. No background available. I still don't know what the heck he was talking about.

Justin: Mom is a chicken wild?

Me: A chicken? No it's a farm animal so it's not really wild.

Justin: How about a spider? Is it wild?

Me: Umm...sure I guess a spider is wild.

Justin: A worm? Is a worm wild?

Me: Gosh, I guess if a spider is wild, then a worm is too.

Justin: What about an acorn?

Me: Ask your dad.

I'm still figuring that one out. He was cracking me up, though so I thought I'd share :) I'm sure in a day or 2 the lightbulb will click on again and I'll know why he needed to know if an acorn was wild. If any of you know about the wild-ness or lack of wild-ness in acorns, please share. Janet- maybe you could ask Alex. That would be a Bubba-ism, correct?

How do you not love a man in uniform?

Today is Justin's first Tiger Scout meeting. Could he be any cuter? I'm thinking no, but I'm a little biased. He is so excited. I'm hoping he isn't bummed when he figures out he isn't camping out tonight. I've tried to explain that's it's a meeting, not a camping trip, but he is one who needs to actually BE THERE to catch a clue.
Do you know how hard it is to sew those little patches on the shirt? HARD. Even using all of my mad housewifey skills, it took a lot longer than I thought it would. The numbers are still crooked, but I attempted 3 times to get them straight, and then I called it good enough. I'm sure one of the other moms is Martha Stewart and her patches will all be perfectly level. Mine aren't and I'm good with that. I'm wondering why those patches aren't iron-on anyways??? That would've made it loads easier.
Anyways...that's all I've got for today. Cute boy in uniform. You're welcome.

Domestic goddess...yes indeed...

I'm not sure why it is that the term "housewife" makes me cringe. In the technical sense, that's what I am. But when someone calls me a "housewife" I just conjure up images of a frumpy woman in slippers and a robe with those pink spongy curlers in her hair. I may be frumpy sometimes, but I can at least throw on a pair of sweats everyday. And those curlers? Not since I was in elementary school thankyouverymuch. I impressed my grandmother with my homemade pumpkin butter and canning skills this weekend. She said at some point yesterday that I have turned into a good housewife. I *think* this was a compliment, but it was said in a way that made me think that she figured I would amount to nothing, so at least I can mop a floor with the best of them. She also said I should hang on to Matt because I'd never find someone as good as him. I know that to be fact, but again it was said in a way that screamed (to me at least) that I barely deserved him , so I better keep mopping the floor and keep him happy. I know old folks say rude things. They think they have earned the right to say whatever, in front of whoever (or is it whomever?). At least my grandma has. Sometimes it is downright funny. Sometimes it makes you want to crawl in a hole and die. Recently it seems to always happen at a holiday gathering and it makes me want to cry. She always seems to strike a nerve with me and make me feel like all these years she has thought I would end up a loser. I can't help but wonder why. I was always a pretty good kid. I made good grades, I went to college. I didn't finish, but I went on to a respectable career. Bless her heart, she has no idea that what she is saying is hurtful. She was a nurse in the army during WW II and then for many years at Children's Hospital. She can tell stories that make your toes curl. Over and over, we get to hear those stories :) I know that she thinks I done good, but it just seems it's not good enough. Maybe if I had become a nurse...
Anyways, apparently I make a damn fine housewife. Though if you don't mind, I'd prefer to be referred to as the domestic goddess that I am.

Edited later to add: While I was making lunch for the chiclets today (using all my mad housewifey skills to whip up PB & J) it occurred to me that possibly the reason she says I make a good housewife with a note of disdain in her voice is because she would've rather been strung up by her toes, than be a stay at home mom. She loved her work and needed it. I can totally get that. Not everyone wants to do this job- I don't even want to sometimes! That was a lightbulb moment for me.

When I am old...

I hope I am healthy

I hope I am active

I hope my brain still works as well is it does now

I hope my kids will sit with me when I am not well

I hope I don't say mean things about people as though they can't hear me when they most certainly can

I hope I am surrounded by love

I love the 80's....

No really, I do. Nothing made me happier than to hear that some of the 80's styles were coming back. I remember fondly my 80's clothes (most of them). Baggy jeans, 10 button shirts (layers and layers of them), big chunky sweaters, Eastland shoes...I could go on for days...
I just wish the fashion police would check with me before they pick what they are bringing back. I'm scared. No really, I just gave up my last pair of what I'm sure my sister would roll her eyes at and call "mom jeans" for a cool pair of straight leg jeans that were "in" last year I'm sure of it. Now I'm watching the Today show this morning and they got a 'hot styles for less' segment on. What do mine eyes see? Leggings. Hello?? Fashion police?? I'm going to be your latest victim. Ain't no WAY I'm am going to stuff my thighs into leggings EVER AGAIN. I can just see it now. Me, thinking I am all cool in my leggings, walking down the street. All the people behind me wondering if that's cottage cheese on my thighs or if I have just been sitting in gravel. Why didn't they bring baggy jeans back? I still know how to peg them! Does that count for nothing???? Instead they bring back skinny jeans. I cannot wear skinny jeans, for I am not skinny. I can still do kick ass big hair if need be. Maybe that will save me from the fashion police paddy wagon? Doubtful.

The impossible to-do list...

I have this to-do list. It is, oh say, as long as my arm. I have written down all the stuff I want to accomplish today and tomorrow morning. It is completely impossible as it stands right now to get it all done and, like a complete moron, I keep adding stuff to it. A bunch of family is coming over tomorrow afternoon for Hannah's birthday. A few of whom have not seen the house yet. So, I want it spit shined. Totally needless, since most of them will likely not be looking for dust with white gloves on. Yet, I must trudge through the motions of cleaning it up as if they might. We have 2 soccer games tomorrow morning and it is supposed to be frozen tundra here in the a.m hours. Should be a blast! Especially when I'll barely be able to think about anything but my to-do list that is left un-done.
I get a little sick pleasure out of crossing stuff off the list though, so I must make one. So much pleasure that after I cleaned the fish tank this morning (which is, by the way, thriving with our store-bought water) I realized I had forgotten to actually put it on the list. So I wrote it on there, just so I could cross it off. How ignorant is that????
Happy Friday to all. I'm off to do my to-dos

At least you have your legs...

I am the first to admit that I whine. A lot. Too much. Give me a topic and I can find a way to whine about it. Yesterday I was in a "woe is me" state of mind when it occured to me that I have a pretty damn good life. So maybe (and this is a BIG MAYBE- big like my ass if that helps you gain frame of reference) if I focused on the positive instead of the negative, I'd feel a little better. I know. It doesn't take an afternoon of watching Dr. Phil to figure that out. Anyone can tell me the same thing. So why, oh why, do I not do that? Not sure. Maybe because it easy to count up all the bad stuff? Well, brainiac, how hard is it to count up the good stuff? Not so hard. So here I go:

1. a great husband who makes me laugh. He also makes me roll my eyes at his ability to pull ignorant, who gives a shit, facts out of the air at any given moment. Wait..this was supposed to be positive...that one may at first sound bad, but it might serve a purpose someday, for him to be able to tell me that running in a zig-zag pattern will confuse an alligator and give me time to get away from it. See you're rolling your eyes aren't you? OK...most of the time he's funny and he loves me, so he gets the #1 spot. I am not easy to love.

2. 3 healthy & happy kids. They are blessings. They are also total pains in the arse sometimes, but I love them like nobody's bidness. They are now and will forever be my babies.

3. a house. A really cool house. A house that we fit quite comfortably in. A house in a cool neighborhood, with fun people (now that I know them). No matter what, we have a roof over our heads that we all like. For that we are thankful. If it weren't for the stupid sliding glass door... STOP...positive, Amy, positive. OK, so I hate the door, but at least I HAVE a door, right???

4. My family. They are zany. I don't have an "average family" by any stretch of the imagination, but they are all wonderful people. People who would give you the shirt off of their back, even if it was the last shirt in their closet.

5. a bunch a WONDERFUL friends who I can count on for anything. And I do mean ANYTHING at all. I could show up on almost any of their front doorsteps at any given time and be welcomed in with open arms. Maybe it's because they know I tend to come bearing gifts & alcoholic beverages. Whatever the case, I'm pretty sure I have the best group of friends on the planet.

See...that's only 5 things and I think anyone would read that and think I was a lucky girl. And...wow...I am lucky. Intensely lucky. Because I have a ton more good in my life than even those things, but if I typed them all out you'd be rolling your eyes at me, not at Matt. I'd hate for that to happen.
In case I forget how lucky I am, and fall into the whiny-ness again, I am also so lucky to have my mama who will be sure to remind me. I may not have buckets of money to pay my ever-increasing stack of bills, but at least I have my legs. There are people who can't say that. I told you they weren't average people, that family of mine.

Happy Birthday Hannah...

Five is a big milestone birthday for most kids. Hannah is sure she is taller this morning. And her baby teeth will certainly be loose by the end of the day (never mind that Justin is 6 1/2 and still holding on to all of his). Anyways...she had a fun morning! New dollhouse, birthday cake for breakfast... Life is good in Hannah banana-land!

Your bonus smile for today...

Every mother learns the fine lesson about "choosing your battles" at some point when her child is around the age of 2-ish. Some battles are just not worth fighting about. Case in point: Hannah's outfit choices...

Daydreaming...

If I ruled the world…

All children’s pants would be adjustable waist. No exceptions. Really…this can only be a good plan.

Children would never whine. Again, no exceptions on this one.

I would be paid an hourly wage for this job I currently hold.

It would not be minimum wage.

I would have access to a jet and a spa so that my friends and I could go whenever we wanted and get a massage and pedicure.

I would have a beach house within a few minutes of the spa. Gotta be able to show off those new pedicures while sticking our toes in the sand and sipping a cold martini.

½ & ½ would automatically come out of the container and into my coffee, in just the right amount. The perfect amount if you will.

Caffeine would make you lose weight. Lots of it. As would brownies and chocolate chip cookie dough.

Mean people would fall through a trap door in the floor Scooby Doo style every time they acted like assholes. At the bottom of the trap door would be garbage. Weeks of rotted garbage. I’m guessing after a week or so of this plan, there would be a few less assholes in the world.

Stoli Vanilla Vodka would arrive at my home anytime I snapped my fingers. And a hot dude with washboard abs would be there to mix my drinks.

Home appliances would always work properly. Until you wanted a new one- then they would automatically be broken with no hope of repair.

Dogs would only be allowed to fart outside. Never in my bedroom while lying on MY bed. Shasta- this one is about you.

I would have an engineer on call to build the train tracks that my son desires. I admit to not having the brain capacity to do this. It only frustrates me. More so when the track falls apart 5 minutes after I walk out the room. Damn you, Thomas the tank engine!

I would have volumes of easy dinners at my disposal. They would be healthy and tasty. They would, of course, also cook themselves and I would always have the ingredients in my fridge or pantry.

Toy manufacturers would be restricted from placing twist ties of any kind on toy packaging. Any toy manufacturer caught placing even one (let alone the 27-50 they currently use) would be forced to spend the next Christmas day or birthday in the homes of small children everywhere, where they would be forced to get their own toys out of the freakin’ boxes.

Toy manufactures would also be forced to use the same battery rechargers, AC plugs, and remote controls for ALL TOYS. Do they have any clue at all what it is like to keep all of those stupid cords separate??

I would have never ending patience with my kids and husband. I’d never lose my temper or my grip on reality. I wouldn’t have to pretend to be excited about yet another game of Candyland or Chutes & Ladders, because they would actually be enjoyable to me (before you snort a -yeah right- at me, keep in mind the bit above about Vanilla Stoli and the hot guy mixing my drinks)

And there would definitely be world peace. All of the terrorists would be in the Scooby Doo trap doors, along with pedophiles, school shooters, kidnappers, etc. so we would have a peaceful and happy world.

Fun grandma...

My mom very rarely gets the "fun grandma" award from Hannah. They have a love/hate relationship. Grandma Joy usually wins the prize because she spoils Hannah like nobody's business and because she usually shows up to our house with bags of M&Ms and sometimes a twinkie or 2 in her pockets. So, in all rights, she should win the prize. How could anyone else even be in the running when she bribes with chocolate and twinkies?? This weekend my mom was able to take the lead away from Grandma Joy. She had Hannah over for a sleepover and they made haunted gingerbread houses. Hannah hasn't stopped talking about how much fun she had. My mom is probably still recovering because Hannah rarely stops talking, period. She doesn't believe in silence. Ever. She makes your eyes cross sometimes. I'm used to it, but my mom had a large dose of it this weekend and she wasn't used to it. I think she is likely still drinking it off. I'm hoping it was worth it in the end. She has the "fun grandma" prize firmly in her grasp for at least a few days. Even if she had to sport a 2 day headache to earn it :) No pain, no gain right??

A brighter day...

Nice stuff to ponder...

The changing of the leaves behind our house. This was taken as I was sipping my coffee (with perfect cream of course) (and it was REALLY GOOD JEN) in my chair on the back porch. The leaves have just started to change and I'm thinking once they hit their peak it will be beautiful...

And then of course my new mums...which I did indeed stop and smell. In case there are inquiring minds out there who are dying to know how mums smell, they smell..ummmm....unremarkable. They don't have one of the smells that makes you say "ahhhhh that smells great!" They look nice though!

Heavy stuff for a Saturday...

Why do people do bad things to children? All the violence in the schools this week makes me unbelievably sad. I mean really, the Amish?? What did they ever do to you? Nothing. They are peaceful and unobtrusive. And yet a man broke into their school and killed little girls. Killed them with the intent to rape them first. I can't believe I am saying this outloud, but at least he *only* killed them. Those poor girls in the Colorado school shootings were apparently raped first. The last moments of that poor girl's life were hellish. And that's the thought her parents have to live with.
Can I just say right now...this is my worst fear. My biggest nightmare. That someone will take one of my children and harm them in this way. I can't even think it without getting emotional. And really, God forbid this ever happen, the guy who does it better kill himself, because hell hath no fury like a mama. I would need to be locked in a rubber room for the rest of my life. I can't imagine losing a child.
I have been thinking about these horrifying things all week. I'm hoping now that I have written it down that it will leave the recesses of my mind. I think it makes me so insane because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. You want to believe that you can protect your children from the horrors of this world, but there are things out there that no one can protect them from. You can't keep them in a bubble. No matter how badly you want to. You have to let them ride bikes with their friends and look for bugs under rocks in the woods and just generally be kids. I wonder if our parents worried about predators lurking behind bushes when we were kids? I rode my bike down the street by myself in the dark. My best friend lived about 10 houses down from us and I often left her house after dark and rode home. I could never do that with Justin. Granted, I was in 4th grade at the time and he is in 1st, but in 3 years will I feel differently? I don't think so. We currently live at the back of a court. Justin walks to his friends house that is 4 or 5 houses away just at the edge of the court circle. I watch him out the window until he gets there. I wonder if I will ever not feel like I have to keep an eye on him while he plays outside. Don't even get me started on the Boy Scouts. Justin just joined and I informed Matt he will forever have to go on campouts with him. Sorry, not that I don't trust people, but how many stories have we heard about those 'trusty Boy Scout leaders' taking advantage of little boys. Makes me want to vomit on my keyboard right now. I want to protect my kids as much as I can. Unfortunately I have to send them to school. I can be thankful that there is only 1 unlocked door in the building and it is directly in front of the principal's office. There is a margin of safety, but it's never enough.
OK...go on about your lives. Sorry for the downer.

It's Friday again already...

I have a hard time believing sometimes how fast time goes by. I feel like I was just waking to the dread of Monday and here it is Friday already. Where did this week go? I have to remind myself to stop and smell the roses or whatever is blooming right now. Not the roses, the mums! I'll stop and smell the mums. Good thing too, because I don't even know what they smell like. Next week when I have a minute I'll stop and smell the mums for sure. I'm too busy right at this moment :)
I made fun of Amanda yesterday because she was talking about being excited for Christmas. It's too early to be excited for Christmas isn't it??? ISN'T IT??!!?? If not, I am in big trouble. But she's sort of right- it too will be here before we know it. Then I'll have to smell the poinsettias or something- do they even smell? I'll let you know if I have time to stop and smell them, but it isn't likely because I tend to procrastinate about Christmas shopping. Unless someone thrusts a poinsettia in my face and tells me to sniff it or else, you'll have to take time from your own procrastination to see what they smell like. Don't depend on me for that report.

Where was I? Oh yeah..it's Friday again. Enjoy your weekend :)

Where are my ruby slippers anyway?

We had us a big ol' scary storm last night. Yes indeedy. Made me feel sort of bad because when the lightening first started I was thankful because I knew it would mean no soccer practice (bad mama). Then it just kept getting stronger and stronger. The local news never went onto National news because they couldn't stop talking about the weather. The TV showed maps which started out green, yellow and orange, but as it neared us it turned to all colors of the rainbow. Never a good sign. Especially when purple is on a warpath straight towards your house. Definitely not a good sign. Even worse when your own mama calls to make sure you and the family of chiclets are holed up in the basement (we weren't yet, but I could hear a margin of panic in my dad's voice in the background. Making sure we knew it was headed straight for us). Then the weather boy mentioned our specific city and go to the NE corner of your basement in the same sentence so we packed it in. When it was all over, it ended up breaking up before it reached us but the word tornado was mentioned more than once. We had no major damage but it sure was scary. The kids were a total mess, but storms tend to whip them into a frenzy. I think because trees fell on my parents house during a storm a few years ago, while we all happened to be there. Justin was scarred for life over it. Seriously, everytime the wind blows hard, Justin starts looking at trees with a note of worry on his face. He tried to be all cool and seem unfazed last night over our storm, but then he blew it when he asked whether or not any trees could hit our house. It's hard not to laugh at him because having a tree phobia is not normal for a 6 yr old & he has a bad one.
In the end we had some lovely golf ball sized hail in the yard to gaze at until it melted in the rain. No storm damage and we got out of soccer practice!

I saw a very funny thing today....

I went upstairs to Hannah's room to brush her hair and do something with it for the day. As I was perched on her bed, brushing away the syrup from this morning's waffles (frozen, not homemade. Martha, I ain't) I happened to glance over and notice that Hannah had taped a photo to one of the drawers of her Polly Pockets organizer. I seriously had to laugh out loud. You will too... Go ahead and laugh...

Yes...that (in case you can't see clearly) is Matt's college senior picture. I don't even know where she found it. But it is now very securely (4 pieces of scotch tape) pasted to the stack of Polly drawers right smack next to her bed. Isn't he a stud??? This is the year we met. Can't you see why I fell madly in love with him? What do you mean, no??!!?? OH!! That's right, I forget he isn't very photogenic sometimes :) Sorry Matt. I am now getting giggles at your expense. In all fairness, if there was a photo of me scotch taped to Justin's bedside I would totally share it as well. Alas, there is not.

Now you have all seen a very funny thing today too. You're welcome.

The water strikes again...

Not the fish. The fish are alive and well in their store bought water. The lovely city water we are drinking is now plotting to destroy my coffee pot. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. I had to throw out an entire pot of coffee this morning because it was leaking all over my counter. Apparently the nastiness that lives in our water also clogs up coffee pots. Again...water if you are listening...this is NOT ACCEPTABLE. You may not kill my coffee pot.
I had to spend time this morning tearing apart my coffee pot and cleaning it all out (am I supposed to do this on a regular basis?? DOH!). I don't have time for coffee pot maintenance today. It is toilet cleaning Tuesday and I have lots more toilets now than I did not so long ago. Toilet cleaning Tues sucks up a good chunk of my day. I did not have time to squeeze in a little coffee pot maintenance. I did fix it, and it is no longer leaking. It would've been an ugly scene if it was un-fixable. An ugly, ugly scene. It was bad enough that I had to waste a pot of cookie doodle flavor coffee. Hello...it's my favorite flavor.

Poor kitty....

"have I not yet endured so much in my life, that I need to deal with this boy trying to balance Hot Wheels on my head? I was trying to take a nap. Leave me alone child!"

Life in normal land

Mom is home from the last dog show for awhile so we get our normal life back. I can honestly say I don't know what our normal life is. It's been awhile since we did it! I do know it involves a MOUNTAIN of laundry and 4 toilets that are calling my name and begging to be scrubbed. This week is going to involve a lot of cleaning and honey-do lists (Matt is reading this and cringing at his desk- sorry honey) but it feels good to be able to have time to do some of this stuff! When mom is out of town it is impossible to have time to do anything extra!
On another note it occurred to me the other day that it was this day last year that my husband lost his job. Got downsized- such an ugly word. I will never forget the sinking in the pit of my stomach when he gave me the news. We had no warning that it was coming, just BAM!! it's over. When I look back over the last year it is a jumble of emotions. Some of them not so good. I can recall more than one phone call to him while he was here in Ohio working and I was still in Michigan, where I was telling him I was on the edge of insanity and I didn't know if I could take it much longer. Luckily everything worked out and we are at the other end of it all now. New job, new house, new state, new schools. Lots of new stuff and it's all good so far! There were times in the thick of the mess when someone would say to me "everything happens for a reason" and I wanted to knock their teeth out. Anyone who has ever been in the middle of a crisis and been told that, knows what I mean. In the back of your head you know it has happened for a reason, but you can't clear the cobwebs enough to see what the reason is, and therefore don't want to hear about that nonsense. All I knew at the time was that my husband was unemployed, we have 3 children to feed, and it all sucked. Now I know the reason. Matt's former employer had a major crisis of their own a few months after he was let go. A crisis that would have made his job pure hell. Which in turn would have certainly made him a bear to deal with at home. Beyond that, we now live minutes away from almost all of our family, instead of hours. My kids see most their grandparents all the time instead of once a month or on holidays. That is reason enough for me. I'm thankful for the blessings that got us through to this side of the mess. Without wonderful friends and family, we'd still be hanging out in Michigan waiting for the house to sell and I would be babbling to myself and rocking in a corner of a room.

Can I bring Spanky?

A little girl in Hannah's class had a birthday this week. Her parents bought her a new kitten for her birthday, and she brought it to school with her on Fri. to show everyone. It was very cute. Just a little ball of grey fluff. Hannah came out of class and immediately asked if she could bring Spanky on her birthday. I could do nothing but laugh out loud at the thought of it. I told her that her friend had a sweet little kitten and Spanky is a 14 year old, cranky cat with a crooked leg that makes most people wince when they see it the first time. He would NOT be a big hit with the preschool crowd. Hannah was determined to have her way and argued with me for quite awhile about it. She won't win this one. No matter how long she chooses to argue. I won't force Spanky to be cuddled/petted/tortured by a group of 18 4 & 5 year olds. He wouldn't tolerate any of that nonsense for a moment and would probably just pop a kid across the face a run out of the room hissing and spitting all the way. What fun!!

Spanky says "hell no"

Mean kids suck...

Mama bear instincts go into overdrive when I see other kids being nasty to mine. I can't help it. Both of my kids dealt with it yesterday and right in front of me- which makes it worse.
Hannah's class went on a field trip to the apple orchard yesterday. They all went to a park to play when it was over and she was happily swinging on a tire swing and I was talking to the mom whose little girl was sharing the swing with her. Then a third girl came over to swing with them. She hopped on and promptly started quizzing Hannah on why she had to wear glasses. Hannah put her head down and answered her back, "because they help me see better." Then the little brat face, snot head girl said, "well they really make you look funny. I wouldn't wear them". The other mom who was standing with me almost fell over. It wasn't snot head's mom. She, of course, was nowhere to be seen. So this other sweet mother said "I think they make you look beautiful Hannah. I wish I had a pair just like them for myself." I could have kissed her. Mostly because Hannah is REALLY self-conscious about her glasses. She hates having to wear them. After the sweet mom spoke up, Hannah giggled and was instantly happy again. I am a firm believer in letting them at least try to deal with things like that on their own, but I was having a hard time not stepping in and pushing snot head right off of the tire. I wouldn't have done that- but I wanted to. Why do little girls, even at such a young age, feel the need to bring others girls down? Irritates the shit out of me.
THEN...at Hannah's soccer practice last night. Justin was wanting to play football with one of the boys who was there. He's never played football and really hasn't even tossed it around much unless it's with Adam in the living room. Then it's just knocking lamps down and stuff so they don't get to play all that long before my mom threatens bodily harm if they don't stop. The kid who had the football was just kicking it around alone- no one else was even there yet. Justin walked over and asked him if he could throw it with him and the kid got all nasty with him about it. He couldn't have been but a year or so older, but he's looking at Justin and telling him he won't do it right and he should just leave him alone so he could play with the bigger kids when they got there. How does this kid know Justin isn't a total football stud?? He is, of course, NOT even remotely stud like and probably would've flinched and ducked if the ball came at his face (he's so like his mama that way) but the kid could've at least given him a shot. He was one of those kids who makes you roll your eyes anyways because he was acting like a total ass. Acting like he, himself was a football god, when he clearly was NOT. I'm guessing he didn't want Justin to be really good at it on the off chance that the other kids would come over and ignore Mr. holier than thou and opt for playing with Justin. If he'd have given him a chance, he'd have seen that Justin stinks royally at football. His playtime with the older boys was totally safe from Justin stealing it away. Still- once again why do kids do that??? Why do they have to make other people feel like dirt in order to make themselves feel better? What's worse is those kids who never grow out of it, and turn into brat face, snot head adults. I've known a few of them in my day. There is nothing worse than a kid like that who chooses not to grow out of that hateful stage. You know at least one, don't you? You've wanted to push them off of the tire swing more than once- admit it.

The evil uglies are back...

I can't even post anything fun. I am tied up in PMS and add to it first days of a diet (my favorite diet, but one that gives you a nasty attitude for a few days in the beginning). Add to that my mom being out of town AGAIN (thank God this is the last week for a long time). My brain is fried and I am not a nice person.
It is evil. It is ugly.

Princess in the land of not-so-great ideas...

Hannah: Mom! Look at these bells I found! Aren't they so pretty??

Me: Wow! Yes dear, those are beautiful bells.

Hannah: I have the best idea with them!

Me: Really? Please, share it.

Hannah: I think it would be so great if instead of asking for stuff, I can just ring my bells and you can get it for me!! I can ring it anytime I want milk or anything! Isn't that a great idea?!? It's like a princess!

Me: Hmmm...I'm thinking that is not such a great idea. But feel free to give it a rip.

Simple Pleasures

I have lists of things in my life that bring me pleasure. Most of the things are very random and simple. Things like; the very first sip of coffee with just the right amount of cream, the smell of coconut, any of my kid's laughter, Ry's first sweet kiss of the morning, etc. It's little things. Today I got a little sick pleasure at my husband's distress. Poor Matt. If he only knew the pleasure a wife can get when the kids act normal for him in the morning instead of her. You see Matt took the day of work today. It's a mental health day for both of us. I get to take care of errands without dragging kids and he gets to not have 17 people asking him to run reports that they needed yesterday for projects that were due last week. Mental health indeed. Anyway...part of my own mental health request was that he deal with taking the kids to the bus stop. Okie dokie- no problem, sweetie. Hee hee- evil laughter inserted here. You see Matt leaves about 5 minutes after the kids roll out of bed so he rarely is witness to the morning chaos here. Chaos being really not strong enough to describe most of our mornings. Today it was Ry that chose to be Mr. Chaos in charge of destroying the morning. He's good at it, so most days Justin and Hannah defer to his excellence in destruction. He is the only 2 year old boy I have ever seen who has a problem with clothes. The Terrible, horrible shirt post below is pretty average for him. He just flat out refuses to wear odd shirts at odd times. Sometimes it's the picture on the shirt that sets him off, sometimes it's the color. A shirt that he was perfectly happy wearing last week, is completely unacceptable this week. You can't just know that a shirt won't work because it is all random. To keep us on our toes, I believe. The only shirt we could always be sure of is the golfing bear shirt. He hates that one and has since he first laid eyes on it. I've tried it 10 different times on 10 different days and the reaction to golfing bear is always the same. Ain't no way, no how he's going to wear it.
Today it was just a random plain ol' orange shirt. Matt waited until too late to dress him and then Ryan stepped into his Mr. Chaos mode. Screaming and howling because the orange shirt was out of the question. Matt didn't have time to find another one which made it a smidge more funny to me. I know I'm horrible. I got to sit upstairs quietly applying my makeup and just listen to how Matt talked Ryan into the shirt. Have you ever heard a grown man try to bargain with a 2 year old? It is terribly humorous. Especially when it is usually me who is doing the bargaining and today I was slowly sipping coffee with just the right amount of cream :) It was a 2 for one deal for me. Double the pleasure if you will!
Hope everyone has a simple pleasure kind of Friday :)

The REAL desperate housewife...

As I was swiffering this morning, I started pondering how brilliant the person was who invented the Swiffer. She was definitely a woman. And she definitely had pets and messy children and one day tossed her broom in the yard because...well....because brooms just don't work for their intended purpose. Not if you have pets and messy kids anyways. If you know the inventor of the Swiffer and this person is not a desperate housewife please don't tell me. Let me imagine her in sweatpants just like me.
This brilliant woman didn't stop at the Swiffer. She went onto bigger and better things- like the Swiffer Sweep-n-vac. This product, my friends, is the answer to many of my prayers. If you own pets and messy kids you must- yes I mean it MUST- have one. I was thinking this morning (after I finished thinking about my version of the brilliant sweatpants wearing inventor) that if I had owned a Sweep-n-vac when our house was for sale I would've been sane on more occasions. In fact, if the sweeper babysat children, mixed cocktails, and drove to preschool I might have been totally sane. It does NOT do those things. Sit back down in your chair. No need to rush off to Walmart and get one this instant. It can wait until later. It DOES, however, do a bang up job on sucking up dog hair and poptart crumbs and things like that, that tend to make my daily job tedious. I am semi-in love with this new Swiffer. Two thumbs up to my sweatpants wearing, inventor friend. I consider her my friend now because she made my job so much easier :)

Eating bon bons....

So, I'm just sitting around today. Not doing anything much. Got my feet up, having a massage, watching soaps, eating bon bons. My personal assistant just brought me a fresh cup of coffee. A hint of toffee flavor & extra cream. Just like I like it. This is why I pay him the big bucks to be my assistant. Well...that and his washboard abs and mildly annoying (yeah right) habit of walking around with no shirt. The nanny got the kids off to school today and then took Ryan to his mommy/nanny & me class and then brought him home for his nap. I've been ridiculously busy planning the social club luncheon & the children's violin lessons. I'm off in few hours to meet Matt for dinner at the country club. I have to stop off and have my hair & nails done first so this will have to be a short post. Sorry to all of my hoards of fans for that. A girl must have priorities, mustn't she?? You wouldn't have me walking around with bad roots and *gasp* chipped nailpolish would you??
OK...wake up from dream land :) Really not even my dream land. That would likely be a miserable existence for me. Just watched an old episode of Wife Swap. One of the wives was Buffy McRichbitch or something similar to that & I was in awe of her ability to call herself a mommy. Not that I wouldn't enjoy the occasional spa day which involved a bon bon or two (what the hell IS a bon bon anyway?? I'm assuming it involves chocolate which makes it a good thing in my book) but everyday of that crap?? It would SO get old. After a day or maybe a week LOL :) Sorry to offend if any of you know Buffy- it's really nothing personal. Just not my cup of afternoon tea :)

Ryan and the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad shirt

The following events took place in our home this evening

approximately 1 hour before bedtime...

"I know you think this shirt is cute mom, but I HATE it. Just because you bought Justin & I matching shirts does not make them cute, nor does it mean I'll wear it. Don't care what you say. Not gonna wear it."

"Don't take my PICTURE mom!!! What if one of my friends sees me in this totally dorky shirt?" Mooooooommmmmmmmmmmm put the camera down!"

"puuuuuhhhhhhhhlllllllllleeeeeaaaaaaaaaaassssssssseeeee.... don't do this to me! Not...going...to...wear...it...."

" *^%*$#* I don't know who you think you are. I'll just take this ugliness off and go find another shirt. Don't you forget who you're dealing with here."

"I am a 2 year old and I am NOT afraid to use my 2-ness powers against you when you are least mentally prepared to deal with them. Don't be puttin' me in no stupid golfing bear shirt. I'm way cuter in my spidey shirt"

Calgon...take me away...and mix me a martini too please.

My children are conspiring to drive me over the edge. When I'm gone off the edge they know they can have as many Cheetos as they want and no one will say a word. Why do I feel this way? I think they were whispering to each other in the mini van last night and plotting my demise. In fact, I'm sure of it.
And really, why is it that no one mentioned to me that the 3rd child tends to be a little bit more "into stuff"? As in: into the trash, into the freezer ( what 2 yr old doesn't like to suck on ice cubes all day?), into the toilet, into my makeup, into my mousse, into...well...pretty much anything that may in some way be messy or otherwise annoying to clean up. I was starting to think he just needed the attention, but I really don't think that's it. He's quietly destroying my sobriety. Several of you are chuckling now. 'Cause like, I really never HAD any sobriety for him to destroy :) Seriously though. Last night I was exhausted. Mom's out of town again, so I am on doggy duty. F-U-N. I was really wiped out yesterday from being supermom/daughter and Ry picks this moment to do his thing. Last night it was emptying 1/2 a box of Kleenex into the toilet and flushing. What, didn't they all go down the first time sweetie, well by all means...flush again!! Still not down and now there is water all over the hardwood floor? Well my little angel, you should FLUSH AGAIN! It took me 20 minutes to plunger that loveliness down and then I got to mop the floor. Am I the luckiest mom ever, or what?? Yes, that's right- or what. You may say to yourself, "self...what was Amy doing while he was emptying the Kleenex into the toilet and flushing thrice?" I was packing Justin's lunch, cleaning out his backpack, and quizzing him on spelling words. I was muti-tasking. Only I forgot to turn on my x-ray Ryan eyes to watch him. Silly mistake. What did I do after this debacle was cleaned up and the chiclets were in bed? Oh yes I did! I mixed up a chocolate martini. And promptly forgave Ryan for being 2 1/2.

Monday's rant

Much as I hate to admit it, summer seems to be officially winding down. Today will be our last nice-ish day for a while and it isn't even as nice as the ignorant weatherman said it would be. While I welcome the jeans and sweatshirt weather that fall brings, I know that horrifying snow will be soon to follow. I hate snow, really I do. The first snow is great and all, but then it turns to nasty old slush and my backyard just gets disgusting- a huge thank you goes out to my dogs for that loveliness. Chiseling frozen dog turds and trekking through yellow snow. Love my dogs, yes I do! This weather shift also means I really NEED to get out fall clothes for the kids. We have the in-between season wardrobe going right now. Hannah has sprouted some inches this summer so her pants are comical. Need to get on buying her some new pants :) Add that to my list.
As a side note, while discussing things I am not thrilled about, please add my dishwasher. I hate to sound spoiled. I told Matt he sounded spoiled when he first mentioned a dislike of the dishwasher. I must now eat my words. If it is humanly possible to hate an appliance then please let me hate my dishwasher. Let me loathe it's existence. It doesn't clean. What it does do is leave big white water spots in it's wake. Also, it sounds like a freight train is running through our home when it is running. It also does that fun thing where it tips all of your cups upright, so that when you open it up water spills out of everything and nothing is dry. Total piece of shit, yes indeed. I guess it's possible that our goldfish killing water *could* be part of the problem, but NAH...I'm blaming the stupid dishwasher. I know, I know, I should be happy to HAVE said dishwasher. I went through a dishwasher-less existence during both of my older children's bottle bearing years. I know what it is to live without one in this century. Don't start lecturing me. I'm sure there are starving people in Africa who have never seen a dishwasher...as soon as I have a new one to replace this steaming pile, I'll send mine off to a third world country so it can ruin all of their glassware.
So, in conclusion,I am down on impending winter doom and my dishwasher today, any questions?? Happy Monday

P.S. I just did a count on the number of times I used the word hate in that message. Note to self: get a thesaurus and don't be so hateful

What a difference a pair of scissors can make...

Ryan has these sweet, corkscrew curls. He just got them over the past summer. Since about May it seems like he wakes up with tighter, crazier curls everyday. He was in desperate need of a haircut- so was Justin- so off Matt went to whatever place he found to get them sheared. He went with EXPLICIT instructions not to let them go too short on Ry. I just wanted him to lose the Kramer-effect, not the curls. Instead, he came home with SHORT hair. Just waves, no curls. I know it'll grow back but it is bizarre how grown up he looks now. Those curls had a baby-ish effect on him. He is 2 1/2. I should let him look more like a boy now, but this is a tough pill to swallow. I loved me those curls and the baby-ish effect they brought to him. I look at him now and see a mini form of Justin. Which means before I know it, Ryan will be a boy, not my baby. Even Hannah said yesterday that she thinks Ry is going to stop being a baby soon and then our house won't have any babies. **SOB** No more babies?? No seriously, I am not longing for more babies. I promise you that. It just is like pouring cement on that chapter of our life to hear if from someone else's mouth. Especially since it was one of my children who spoke it outloud :)

Meet Jack & Alex...

These are the new fish, Jack & Alex. Wish them well. They survived the first night. We were a little concerned about Alex. He bumped into the driftwood chunk when I scared the bejeebers out of him by turning the light on. I think he hurt his eye, but he appears to be on the mend today.
Odd names for goldfish? Yes they are. They are named with love in honor of Justin's best friends from Michigan. They were his first 'real' friends. Having been forced together because their mommies were all best friends. They have been hanging together since they were all about 15 months old. This made our move back to Ohio especially hard for all of them. They have kept in touch over the summer through letters. Justin watches the mailbox pretty close :) I still wonder every day how I am going to survive the upcoming winter without my Michigan friends. I'm hoping I stay so busy that I can survive. They made survivng my years in Michigan possible and I still miss our girl's night out events very much. Not just because I want to escape- but because I miss the time we spent gabbing and realizing how very much we are floating around in the same boat.
Here (in case you are curious) is Justin sandwiched between the real Jack & Alex.

Fish tank drama...

So for anyone following the ridiculous nature of our fish tank drama, the latest chapter is about to unfold.
For those out of the loop, let me quickly get you up to speed...
Justin had a fish tank 3 yrs ago. All went well until the blackout of '03. It was horrifying on several levels, one of which was the loss of our fish because the pump stopped running for so long (3 loooong days without power. Ugly for humans and fish alike) Apparently they didn't get the oxygen they were used to. Anywho, when we got new fish, one of them had the dread disease known as ICK. We didn't know this or we'd have left his fishy arse at the pet store. This started an ugly cycle of dead fish that we couldn't fix no matter how hard we tried. Fish were hiding from us behind the aquarium plants when we came into the store. So I gave up. Cleaned out the tank and put it away. When we moved into our beautiful new house, Justin requested that his tank go back up in his new room. OK. No problem. I cleaned it all up. Filled it, put new gravel in, new filters....all ready to go. We get new fish and within days they are dead. Seriously. These are not hard-to-keep-alive fish. They are GOLDFISH and we killed them within days. I have spent the last 4 weeks having water tested, adding new things, trying to get the water to an acceptable level. Finally I found the manager at the fish store and he asked me where we lived. When I told him, he said, "I live there too. It's your water. You need to go and buy reverse osmosis water at the grocery and then try again." That's right people, the water MY FAMILY IS DRINKING IS UNACCEPTABLE FOR GOLDFISH TO LIVE IN. Anyone else see a problem here?? Needless to say we are also getting estimates from water treatment companies for ourselves. The tap water is not the tastiest variety, but now we know it also kills fish. Not OK in my book. So, last night after putting it off for about a week, we went to the store and purchased water for the tank, cleaned the tank all out (again) and bought a whole new filter because our nasty water had turned the whole inside of the old one white and slimy. Now the tank is up and running. Tonight we buy new fish and see if the cycle of hell begins again. I feel bad for our test fish, I really do. If this once again fails and they die quickly, I am throwing the damn tank in the yard and getting a guinea pig or something. I do so much better with furry creatures.
Wish us (and our fish) good luck. We definitely need it.

Just one of those things...

There are certain things in my life that make me insane one moment and crack me up the next. Ryan offers me moments like that daily. He is frustrating and funny all rolled into one smiling child. You really gotta love him.
Most recently it is the bed collection that is doing it to us. He has to have a specific collection in his bed every night and it makes the night time drama a smidge more dramatic. Currently the collection consists of 3 sheriff Woody dolls (2 regular size and 1 small), a Buzz Lightyear, 2 stuffed dogs, 2 stuffed Nemos, a plastic dragon, an alien, 4-6 cars and the Spiderman bag they go in, and of course his Nemo pillow and his blankie. I don't know how he he comfortably sleeps in this chaos, but he does it every night. I remember Justin going through this at one point, but I don't think it was this extreme. While we are getting all the stuff in the bed every night everyone is maxed out and ready to throttle him as he goes round and round the house collecting his stash. Then you walk in after he is sound asleep and find this...how do you not smile at that?

It's fall at our house...

I started getting out the fall decorations yesterday. Matt came home and accused me of falling victim to the retail world. See, a few of my fall-ish things are Halloween related. Apparently mid-Sept. is too early for my dear husband to ponder a trick-or-treat themed home. Tough. I like Halloween. It's one of my favorite holidays to decorate for and he's just going to have to deal until Oct 31st is dead and gone and I can start putting out my turkeys :)
I'm excited to have the space to decorate for the first time. We had a bigger house when we lived in Arizona but it was no fun to decorate when we didn't have kids. Since we've had children, we've lived in our shoebox house in Michigan and there just wasn't really the room to put holiday stuff out. It was a bummer for me. So now that I have some room, Matt's just going to have to look at jack-o-lanterns a little early. It is mid-Sept. why can't I have my fall stuff out??? I already have a little bit of mouth watering going on about pumpkin show food that I get to inhale with Kelley again this year for the first time in AGES. I figure if I am pondering pumpkin show then certainly I can have pumpkins in my house. Right? Just agree with me for the sake of arguement. What do men know anyways?

Coffee does that to me....

Does anyone else get reflective over a cup-o-joe? I do. Maybe it's because I try to carve out 10 minutes in the morning for a peaceful cup and it is the only sane time of the day. I don't always get my 10 minutes, but I really try hard for it. It gives my brain time to wake up and think about the day and everything else in my world. This morning I was a little reflective. Probably because I was blubbering mess most of the day yesterday. I spent most of the day praying for a blanket of tolerance throughout the world. Very much "Miss Merry Sunshine" with that, eh? I know that our world is a long way from tolerance but a small dose of prayer for it can't hurt, right? I see so much in my everyday world that needs to tolerate. Family members in ugly divorces, friends who can't stand each other, people in grocery lines behind someone with 13 items in the 12 or less lane. You know the ones who are huffing and eye-rolling because they have to let someone scan ONE MORE ITEM. Deep breath people....it isn't the end of the world! No wonder our society is so maxed out. We get bent out of shape when we count 13 items for crying out loud! I am guilty of it too. Mostly I am working on my own tolerance and trying to remind myself and those around me to take a deep breathe and look at the big picture. There is a big picture people, there always is. It's that light at the end of the tunnel, or pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that everyone talks about.
Maybe it's just the caffeine talking this morning. Who knows? But would it hurt? Think about it the next time you want to whip a 9 gauge shotgun out of your purse to move someone along :) Deeeeeep breeeeath......

We will never forget...

As the anniversary of 9/11 approaches every year, I am struck by how it is the one thing in my life I can remember every moment of. I remember exactly what I was doing when the first plane hit and the confusion of what had happened. Then the second plane hit and it was like having the wind knocked out of me. I couldn't believe what was happening, how it could be happening, and of course WHY. As the morning went on and the Pentagon was hit, and then the 4th plane went down in PA, the shock I felt was enormous. It still is. I think to me it was as if, for that day, the whole world stopped and then had to start back over again. Only now every little thing is different. I can't get over the way it still affects me. I watched the news accounts of it this morning on NBC and I immediately am covered in goosebumps and crying all over again. Even as I put our flag up last night, I was immediately pulled back into the memory of that day. So many people lost their lives that day. So many families lost loved ones. So many children lost parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and they'll never understand why. We as adults can't understand it, how can we expect our children to? My oldest son was just 1 1/2 at the time. He was too young to even wonder why mommy was glued to the TV and crying at the big smoking building on the screen. I will never forget. Never. In honor of the heroes that lost their lives that day, many people all over the world are using their blogs to honor the memories of each person individually. To view entire collection click here... http://www.dcroe.com/2996/?page_id=2

I post here in memorial of a man I never knew. Just reading what I could find about him online makes me sure if I could have known him, I would have loved him. All the pictures I can find are of a man who is brimming with life and has a huge, contagious smile. He was a husband and father which breaks my heart. His children lost him. His wife lost him. I can't do justice to his memory, but I hope that he is in heaven smiling down on his family and friends and knowing that I am thinking of him today and that he will forever now be a part of my memory of 9/11. I found this memorial piece on him online and I felt like it really said a lot about the kind of person he was. His friends and family were blessed to have him in their lives, even if it was only for 38 short years.



Donald Robertson Jr., 38, of Rumson, N.J., was the type of guy who would suddenly grab his dad and plant a kiss when it was least expected. He was quick with a joke, always reached first for the restaurant bill and loved spending time with his four children.
Robertson, a vice-president of sales for Cantor Fitzgerald, was on Floor 105 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Soon after word of the terrorist attack reached his family, a group of Robertson's son's friends got together and went to the city in search of the much-loved man.
"His family and friends were the most important thing to him in the world," his father, Donald Robertson Sr. told the Star-Ledger of Newark. A family friend told the paper that Robertson "was always there to provide moral, financial or whatever support you needed."
Robertson loved playing hockey and rooting for the New York Giants football team. He also served on his church's golf committee.
In addition to his father, Robertson is survived by his wife, Karen; three sons, Michael, Matthew and Kevin; a daughter, Madison; his mother, Marcee, of South Orange; a brother, John of Roseland; two sisters, Kathy Cunningham of Spring Lake and Beth Robertson Wisely of Atlantic Highlands; his grandmother, Margaret Robertson of North Arlington and in-laws Stanley and Patricia Paradowski of Brick.

TGIF...

I have never longed for a weekend the way I am today. OK. Probably not completely true. I'm sure when I was in school I longed for the weekend as passionately as I am today, but for different reasons. I am flat out exhausted. Mom & Dad took Manda back to Boston this week for her Junior year and we have been on dog duty. This is exhausting work. Trying to keep up with the dogs, the house, the boys, on top of my own dogs, house, & kids...well let's just say I'm really happy they are on their way home and I have a weekend of just my own family. Unfortunately they are gone a lot this month so Sept. is going to suck a big weenie around here. Oh well :)
On a bright note Hannah starts preschool today. I thought she might be nervous because it's a new school, teachers, friends, etc. But she has been asking for the last 2 hrs if it's time to go yet. I'm happy with the whole arrangement because she was initially signed up to go everyday but at the last minute they had a spot in the MWF program and we snatched it. She'll be going to school every day soon enough. No need to toss her to the wolves just yet. I like the teachers in this new class a lot & I am very happy with how it all worked out. Hopefully she will be as happy when she gets home as she is right now. It is a staggering thought to me that in a month she will be 5. Seems like she was just a peanut baby and now she is almost 5. I feel like in about 5 minutes I'll be whining about how I can't believe she is 16. Everyone says they grow up fast and to enjoy them while they're little. This is not always an easy task for the mother of 3 little ones. You get lost in the day to day chaos of it all and forget to take time to enjoy them. I'm trying to remind myself of this. They make me laugh at least once a day and I love all 3 of them immensely for that reason and countless others. I wouldn't trade my job for anything and I'm hoping someone will remind me of this the next time Ryan dumps a trashcan full of tissue into the toilet and flushes. Please, someone remind me.

Random...

Got these questions in an e-mail today... thought they'd make a good entry...

1. Do you say “Hi,” to people you don’t know? Occasioanlly. If I am in a good mood I will.
2. What is the name of the first person you kissed? Joe Coogan
3. Do you still talk to this person? Ummm...no.
4. Recite a line from a movie? His middle name is Ralph. As in puke.
5. What movie was that from? The Breakfast Club
6. Do you play by the rules? If I know what they are.
7. Name another word for penis. Tom Cruise :)
8. Do you complain a lot? No. Not all. Just ask my husband.
9. Have you ever been to Canada? Twice to visit Allie on her parent's lake
10. Do you have an addictive personality? Not really
11. What size would you say your nose is? Medium/large
12. What is someones name that begins with the letter, A? Why, Amy of course
13. Name someone whose plastic surgery turned out poorly? Kenny Rogers
14. Have you ever performed CPR on anyone? No
15. Name something that falls from the sky? Raindrops
16. Are you polite? Most of the time.
17. Name a TV show or movie, that impacted society? American Idol??? I just don't know.
18. Name a song that has the word “baby” in it? Baby I love your way
19. Name your favorite Disney movie? Toy Story
20. Have you ever been scuba diving? No. I'd hate it if a fish touched me.
21. Name a profession you would NOT like to have? Babysitter
22. Name someone you know who has red hair. My Justin :)
23. Name a popular DJ. Jazzy Jeff
24. Name something white. Mine arse.
25. Are you better at explaining things, or at performing them? Performing them.
26. Have you ever been to a boxing match? Nope. Boxing doesn’t interest me.
27. Did you ever stutter, or have a hard time pronouncing words? No
28. Do you eat out, or buy groceries, more often? Buy groceries unfortunately
29. What month are many of your friends born in? Half my family is born in December.
30. If you could have been born a different ethnicity, which one? Italian
31. Name something you think is disgusting? People who pick their nose & eat it.
32. What is your favorite type of soup? Tomato soup
33. Name a fattening food. Cheryl's Cookies
34. Name something that you are just NOT good at. Sticking to a diet
35. How many glasses of water, a day, do you drink on average? 8- 8oz glasses a day
36. Does your license plate say anything? Nothing interesting
37. Name a type of dance. Macarena
38. Name a type of Martini. Chocolate Martini
39. Would you rather do the dishes or fold laundry? Dishes- I hate laundry
40. Did you have braces? If so, how long did you have to wear them? Why yes, I'm wearing them right now.
41. Name someone you were really good friends with, who you no longer speak to. Billie. She’s too good for the likes of me.
42. Name something blue. The sky.
43. What is something good, about getting older? You become less willing to put up with bullshit.
44. And something negative? gravity.
45. Name a song you really enjoy. Anything Rascal Flatts sing.
46. Name someone with the same middle name as you. My mama
47. Name a bar or a restaurant that really impressed you. The blue martini in Greenville SC. On Fri nights it's 1/2 price drinks 'til 9. What more can I say?

Friends...

Every once in awhile when I am having an especially crappy day, a ray of sun shines down on me and makes me feel like I can keep on going. More and more these days that ray of sun has been my good friend Carol. She is someone I met just by chance and I believe God sent her to me as a blessing. That's what she is to me- a blessing. When I am insane, she brings me back to reality every time. She is one of those people who can make you laugh no matter how upset you are and make you see that nothing is THAT BAD.
How lucky am I to have someone like that?? Pretty damn lucky!
Today wasn't really a bad day, just a day that has been non-stop running for other people and feeling generally under-appreciated. I came home to find a big box full of goodies from her. I knew it was coming but not what was in it. It was sort of like Christmas in Sept around here :) THEN I got into my mailbox and what was waiting on me there??? Cheryl's cookies!!! HELLO! What more can I ask for? Presents AND cookies??? What a good day indeed. Better than anything it makes me realize that someone out there loves me and appreciates my friendship even when I feel like no one else knows I am alive.
I have days like that- when I think no one knows I am alive. Nor would they notice my absence until they needed something from me. Sounds very "woe is me", right?? I know, I know. I am loved, needed, appreciated, all that. I'd just like to HEAR it sometimes.
Anyways...if nothing else, Carol made my day today. Perhaps my whole week. I hope a ray of sun is shining on her in her part of the world today :)

Rainy days...

I love fall, but hate rainy fall days. The kids are stuck inside, the dogs leave their paw prints all over the floor, and then there are those rainy soccer games/practices. Looking so forward to that tomorrow. Not only do we have a game but we also have pictures tomorrow morning and it is supposed to be horrible weather. Should make for excellent pictures- NOT.
I was pretty good on my diet wagon yesterday- until the evening. We were late running around and ended up getting fast food. Then I was craving ice cream and Matt is easily persuaded to go on an ice cream run. Still- a better day than it could have been.
This weekend we somehow have to find time to get new pants for the kids because it is suddenly very chilly and they all grew a ton this summer. No way are last Spring's pants going to fit. *sigh* oh my how they grow.
That's about it for now. We're gearing up for the first big Buckeye weekend. It'll be sort of weird to not be in Michigan for football season this year.