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October 31, 2007

As will I

I think we are officially Halloweened out.

Yesterday, the girls got in their costumes for TKD and Jamie worked it with the big kids. She had a blast, and then there was candy corn.

This morning, her preschool had a costume parade and Fall party. Katie got to participate in the whole thing, and Grandpa and I got to finish off fanfuckingtastic pumpkin muffins coated with minimal drool. There was a rousing game of pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern, a story, trick-or-treating and pictures, too.

After school was over, we had a brief rest, and then the girls got all dressed up again and raided Rex's co-workers for candy. We hung out there until Rex got off work, handing out candy for him while he manned his phone. There was a little bitching as they came down off their second sugar high for the day, but we made it home without a major meltdown.

Dad cooked dinner while Rex and I did some last minute decorating, and then we sat down to a candy-free meal. Real food is GOOD. The girls put away a surprising amount of healthy stuff, and then it was back into the costumes for honest to goodness neighborhood trick-or-treating. Both girls made me proud by being polite and friendly. Even Katie wasn't shy this year, unless she heard a dog barking inside the house. Jamie was running from house to house, with Katie trying to keep up and keep us apprised of her candy situation. After nearly every house, she had to pause to say CAN YOU BELIEVE I GOT ANOTHER GREEN LOLLIPOP?? It was the most adorable, man-I-wish-I-could-feel-like-a-kid again moments.

By the time we got home and met up with Rex, official candy giver and kid scarer, I was pooped. The girls helped Rex distribute fear and sugar for a while, and then we pinned them down in bed. I imagine they'll sleep hard tonight.

Posted by me at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)

Happy Halloween!

Posted by me at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2007

Fiesta in my mouth

I have a love hate relationship with our favorite Mexican restaurant here. I love love love the Chimichangas, and I love the staff that are kind enough to gringatize my meal to Yankee standards. They have yet to not satisfy me.

Unfortunately, from about halfway through the meal on, I'm so full I'm uncomfortable. By the time we get home, I'm doing my lamaze breathing to relax my stomach in an attempt to relieve the pressure. Lamaze has worked ever so much better for me in overeating situations than it ever did in labor.

The girls, at least, seem to love love the place. Of course, what's not to love? They eat a pile of chips and queso, have a couple bites of a vegetable-free meal, a chugger of milk, and then they return to the chips with gusto.

Mexican food: Everything that's wrong but oh, so right with America's eating habits!

Posted by me at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)

She carved the whole thing ALL BY HERSELF

Posted by me at 2:54 PM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2007

From our first computer, an Apple IIe

Posted by me at 9:51 PM | Comments (0)

He even COOKS

Hmm, it seems I have also lost the ability to post in one click, and to create scheduled posts. I guess this means I'll be blogging real time for NaBloPoMo, unless I can figure this out! Not that I wasn't going to, of course.

My dad is here for a week, and the angels are singing. My dad is the one person who can visit and it doesn't feel like we have company. In fact, when he leaves, I have to do things like cook and play with the kids and care for them and shit. And I'm not pawning the kids off on him, either. He and they *ask* to leave me alone. While he's here, it's like *I'm* the one on vacation. When he leaves, he takes the shiny with him. And also? He doesn't care if I clean.

I'm hoping by the end of the week, my brain returns to partial functionality. Of course, I've lowered the bar a little on the definition of functionality, but hey, every brain cell counts!

Posted by me at 2:44 PM | Comments (0)

October 27, 2007

Well, mostly

Where the heck did my category listing go??

Posted by me at 9:49 PM | Comments (0)

Success!

I bumbled my way through yet another upgrade!

The new interface is WAY different from what I've gotten used to, so I imagine it will take a while before I'm not cursing every little change. Change is good, but I don't much like it. There also may be a few glitches to work out, but for now, I'm just happy I didn't lose any posts or comments, at least as far as I can tell.

There is one major glitch that may not let me post until I install some template. The install guide is nice enough to tell me that I can write and save but not publish posts, but doesn't tell me how to install the template I need to make it work. Which means I may be blogging just for myself.

Not much different than usual :)

Posted by me at 8:49 PM | Comments (0)

October 26, 2007

Good thing NaBloPoMo hasn't started yet!

Posted by me at 8:41 PM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2007

Another upgrade

I finally took the time to poke around and try to figure out how to get comment replies to email back to the original poster. I didn't have a damn bit of luck with that, but I did find another upgrade I'm going to go ahead and install. I'm hoping I can remember how to back up the site. Here's hoping I don't need the backup!

I'm hoping to do the upgrade by this weekend, at the latest. With any luck, I'll still be around on Monday!

Posted by me at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)

Fashion flub or fashionista?

Posted by me at 9:57 AM | Comments (2)

October 24, 2007

The end is near!

I'm actually feeling a little bad for George Bush. On The View this morning, they were discussing Bush's impending visit to California to see the damage caused by the fire. They were raking him over the coals for going now, and taking focus away from the real heros, the firefighters. In the next breath, they were denigrating him for not having visited New Orleans fast enough after Katrina. Wouldn't a visit to Louisiana have taken focus away from the rescue efforts that were going on there in much the same way it might shift focus in California?

I'm not sure which presidential response is more appropriate, but it sure seems like he was damned either way. I don't necessarily agree with a lot of what Bush has done in the last few years, but it has to suck to be in a position where absolutely nothing you do is ever right.

Posted by me at 8:22 PM | Comments (0)

A little light reading

Posted by me at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

October 23, 2007

Oh, so sexy

Posted by me at 10:38 AM | Comments (1)

God help me the day I have to parallel park with them in the van

Jamie has become quite the little copper. I feel more and more like a 16 year old failing my driving test every day.

"You shouldn't have gone through that light, Mama."

"Daddy doesn't use his turn signals like he should, Mama."

"Mama, You didn't use your turn signal!"

"Mama, the light is red. You can't turn now." (This led to a discussion about right turn on red, and why you can't left turn on red. The two year old joined in.)

Posted by me at 9:18 AM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2007

Nightmares

Last night sucked. It translated into a morning that sucked, too. And since it's taken me all day to get this written, I can tell you that that which caused the suck has only gotten worse.

Jamie is afraid of the smoke detector in her room.

A couple weeks ago, we went to an open house at our town's fire department. Most of it was pretty benign fun, but there was trailer set up to simulate a smokey house. We went in, a fireman talked to the kids about what to do it the smoke detectors go off, and then they fill the trailer with smoke. The detectors start going off, and then we practice getting down and out. Katie was fine, but Jamie flipped out as soon as the talking part was over. We talked about it afterwards, and I haven't heard a peep about it since.

Until last night.

Last night she was up three times. The first two were because she was scared of the noise her smoke detector made. She swore she heard it, but I never heard a beep out of it. The third time, she came in to tell me that she wasn't scared anymore.

Right before naptime, she started freaking out again about spending time in her room. It took a couple tries, but she calmed down and fell asleep, only to wake up crying an hour later. I was running out of calming ideas, so I had Rex put her to bed. He's been into her room at least three times since then, calming her. I anticipate a wakeful night.

The only reason I can figure this is cropping up now is that firemen are visiting her school to talk about safety this week. She's been nothing but giddy about them coming, but maybe she thinks they're going to make her go through the trailer again.

Logic, talk and love seem to be getting us nowhere, at least for more than two minutes at a time. I'm running out of ideas. I'm hoping her date with the firemen either resolves the problem, or brings it to a point where we can deal with it.

Posted by me at 10:01 PM | Comments (1)

Auditioning for "The Shawshank Redemption"

Posted by me at 4:22 PM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2007

Warm chocolate chip cookie

Posted by me at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2007

Marlboro Girl

Posted by me at 9:10 PM | Comments (0)

Sleep is underrated.

Sometimes I think I'm crazy and more than a little mean for not letting Katie quietly get out of bed and get books during her rest time. After all, she does so quietly, and stays in her bed for a goodly amount of time without bugging me, which is half the point of rest time.

And then there are days like yesterday, where I put her books away and never realized that she retrieved another stack. She rested for the requisite time, and then fell asleep half an hour later in the car on the way to TKD. She was so deeply asleep that she stayed that way while I carried her into the school and had a good thirty minutes of conversation with various other people.

Posted by me at 2:41 PM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2007

Wallwalker

Posted by me at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2007

Peas

Posted by me at 4:35 PM | Comments (6)

It comes from Sonic, too

Last night, we had chicken for dinner. Jamie proudly told me, "Chicken comes from chickens!"

So I asked her where beef comes from.

"Cows!"

And pork?

"Pigs!"

What about hamburger?

And Katie yelled, "McDonalds!"

Posted by me at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)

October 9, 2007

The whole world in her hands

Posted by me at 7:54 PM | Comments (0)

Normal and healthy goes without saying

Five years ago, I would have been thrilled.

Five years ago, I wanted boys. Only boys, no girls. It was a good thing we found out the sex (several times, actually) early, so I had plenty of time to get used to the idea. In the end, though, when they put her on my stomach, she could have been purple with eight eyes and one leg, and I wouldn't have cared a bit.

Today, I was desperately hoping to find out we're having another girl. I like them. I know them. I have all the clothes.

It's a damn boy. Now, when I want girls all girls, I get a boy.

Good thing I found out early. It's going to take months to get used to this!

Posted by me at 7:20 PM | Comments (2)

October 8, 2007

Four seasons

"If I get all the balls up against the wall, I'll be the winter!"

Posted by me at 9:09 PM | Comments (0)

Wet

Posted by me at 9:08 PM | Comments (1)

October 4, 2007

I hope whichever cat gnawed the cord got a hell of a shock

Posted by me at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

October 3, 2007

Grand old tree

Posted by me at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

ODDwalla

While certainly delicious, Odwalla's Strawberry Lemonade wasn't as nutritious as I would have expected. And for someone who will drink corn syrup right out of the bottle, I was surprised that even It hought it was too sweet. Maybe it's that organic sugar. Ironic that the sugar is the only organic ingredient in the bottle. And does that organic 16% somehow balance out the evil 84%'s toxicity?

As a drink? Yummy. For the price? No freakin' way.

Posted by me at 12:22 PM | Comments (1)

Rainy Day

"The trees lean over to make a beyoootiful umbrella for the van."

Posted by me at 9:16 AM | Comments (0)

October 2, 2007

The litter box smells fresh in comparison

I made a delicious curry for dinner tonight. I just wish it had the decency to stay at dinner.

The house stinks of curry. It was way worse after the girls and I took a walk around the block and came back inside. My clothes stink. My hands stink. And the house? It STINKS.

On the upside, though, both kids actually LIKED it.

Posted by me at 8:05 PM | Comments (0)

Spider in the sky

Posted by me at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

October 1, 2007

Rotten

Rex is working nights this week, which means he's home and parenting for a large part of the time the kids are awake. So far that has gotten me out of feeding the kids breakfast, I finished my book, Jamie magically got home from preschool, and I didn't have to wake Katie up to take Jamie to TKD. I'll be spoiled like curdled milk by the end of the week.

Is Britney Spears losing custody really that big a news story? It's seems a little high on the food chain for what it is.

Wow, those two paragraphs are related. I'm going back to my E! News before I start talking politics :)

Posted by me at 9:50 PM | Comments (0)

Retro swing

Posted by me at 10:03 AM | Comments (14)