Thinks By Me

I wrote and attempted to post this earlier, but since Blogger wasn't working correctly, it gave me more time to take more action on the subject. Ever since El Kiddos entered school age, I have experienced a weird phenomenon around the August/September timeframe. I get this irresistible New-Years-Resolution-type urge that I just can't ignore. I get all fitnessey again, determining to get back on my regular schoolyear schedule of working out since I don't have two little scooterheads to bring along (you know, the ones that Razor right in front of me and cause me to stumble over my own feet, as if I need any extra help). I get all nesty, the same way you get when you are 38 weeks pregnant, feeling like I'm gonna scream because I can't stand the clutter and mess that is created by four people who are staying home lots of extra hours during the summertime. And I get all ambitious, the same way you feel when you are planning the work, but before the lull you get when ...

I have had some seriously weird stomach bug since Saturday, which is why blogdom has been so dull without me. I've waffled between a severe headache with nausea and okayness, only to have the misery return sporadically. During a somewhat feeling alright period yesterday, Little Chic convinced me that she had been tortured long enough not being able to pack her new backpack with all the supplies she'll need for school because we didn't have them. I met two buds for a lunch (which turned out to be a mistake in the stomach arena) and then took Little Chic and Brainy Boy to get their school supplies. Little Chic is the type that packs for a trip the moment it's announced, even if the scheduled date is weeks away. She then constantly dips into the suitcase to get all the needed items, like toothbrush and shoes, that she prematurely has packed up. Luckily we won't be needing to access any of the school supplies until a week from tomorrow, so they should be able to re...

"I don't eat fungus" was the answer I got when I offered Hero Guy some sauteed mushrooms this afternoon. From an earlier post, you all know that Brainy Boy is enamored with mushrooms at this point in his life. He has a mushroom field guide that he pores over, and a recent trip to Old Country Buffet reminded him that he absolutely loves mushrooms in any form. He has been bugging me to cook him mushrooms, so I grabbed a pack at the grocery store the other day. Now I like a good mushroom myself, but I don't generally have them on hand, and I don't cook them since Hero Guy and Little Chic gag at the thought. This afternoon when I was fixing lunch after church, Brainy Boy was really irritated that I hadn't included his mushrooms on the menu. I admitted I had totally forgotten we had them. I promised that after we ate lunch and waited a while, I'd cook them with his help. He woke me from a nap about 4:00 stating that he absoultely could not wait any longe...

One of my favorite parts of being a parent is the opportunity to observe personality in the making. Little Chic is at that age where she is becoming just a bit self-conscious, but when she isn't aware of her surroundings she still envelopes that essence of little-girlhood where her true insides are displayed right out in the open. It's such an interesting phenomenon with an eight year old, because rather than being in the true fantasy-land of a preschooler, an older child is gaining an understanding of the real world and you see them try on different aspects of it for size. Tonight is a case in point. Little Chic has been anxiously awaiting a Cheetah Girls movie (sort of a modern-day musical) to come on the Disney Channel. It has been advertised quite a bit and today there was a countdown clock on Disney that showed how many hours/minutes/seconds until the premiere of this new movie. I had forgotten this detail, but earlier in the week, Little Chic had been feverishly look...

Today the kids and I became famous. Well, not us as people, but we participated in a famous event at least. We went to the local baseball stadium to help set a world record . We are attempting to set a record for the most children reading the same book on the same day. The selection was The Little Engine That Could and we turned out with lots of others to hear our Senator, State Assemblywoman and several other local celebrities take turns reading the book aloud to those in the stadium. There is a higher purpose for the event than just setting a record, as the event is sponsored by Jumpstart on behalf of literacy. But honestly, we really went for something fun to do. We got free books, free lunch, free popsicle and to top it off, a caricature drawn by a childhood buddy of Hero Guy's. He goes by Bon Fed and he's quite the accomplished artist so it was a privilege to have a blast from the past captured for my kids. To book us out, Little Chic and I have our monthly book ...

I've always said I'm a night person, but I guess I should requalify myself as an early bird since my best work always seems to be done after midnight. This is why I was up till 1:45am this morning. This digital scrapbook stuff is driving me crazy trying to figure out little odds & ends so I figured Hero Guy wouldn't be too mad at me if I were at least experimenting on something for him. If you call early, my kids will not be ashamed to tell you that I'm still in bed.

Hero Guy and I have been attempting to teach our kids some principals of proper money management. To do this, we have allotted an allowance of sorts to our kids each week. In typical kid-fashion, we have one saver and one spender. Little Chic faithfully saves her money, forgoing lots of cute toys, candy and other trinkets to save until she finds something she totally loves. As a result, her bank is usually well-stocked. Brainy Boy on the other hand, has a hard time not running to the Dollar Store, CVS or the gas station to buy some type of candy, soda, gum or other soon-to-be forgotten treasure of the moment. As luck would have it, the only time he has any significant dollar amount is when I've forgotten to fork over his allowance for a week, and he gets double. Our only requirement is that they have to give 10% of what they earn, and the rest is theirs to spend or save as they see fit. On our recent trip to the Adirondacks, Brainy Boy found a musket he absolutely was dying ...

For those of you with run-of-the-mill, boring lives, you really need to come spend a day or two at our house - the activities never do slow down around these parts. Tonight I heard a frantic wailing from Little Chic that there was a bird flying around the living room while she was watching TV. This did not surprise me immensely because this morning I woke to a dead one in my bathroom, it's feathers spread from stem to stern. Apparently when I let the dog in (without wearing my contacts) she snuck past me with a treasure. As I darted out to see just what kind of bird we had tonight, I quickly recognized the gliding and fluttering that only a bat makes. Since we've already had the family bonding experience of all getting a full set of rabies shots, that's not really on our list of summer excitement again. So I quickly herded Little Chic, HyperDog and Monsterpaw into my bedroom and closed the door. Brainy Boy, usually the alarmist, thought it was pretty funny to have a b...

I can't say for sure, but I may have found an alternative to the Sunday afternoon nap that I love to take. Generally after church and lunch, I grab a book and read until I fall alseep. The problem is that come Sunday night, my night-owl status is in full throttle. Thanks to Laurie, I believe I have found an alternative activity. We'll have to wait and see if it becomes the full-blown passion I've been looking for, but between the hours spent last night and this afternoon clicking and dragging, the it's looking pretty good so far. Above is a sample of the digital scrapbooking craze I'm tinkering with. If you want to know more about it, you'll find more than enough info at Scrapbook Bytes . Laurie, aka "Coffeequeen" is one of the designers of the site, and conveniently for me (though I'm sure she won't always think so), attends my church! I will make a disclaimer on behalf of myself...I often get bitten by the bug of some new hobby or inter...

Personalities are a weird thing. Just when you think you have yourself all figured out, you do something even you can't explain. Hero Guy and I planned to go to an all-day outdoor concert today, listening to a couple of singers we like (Sherri Keaggy and Scott Kripayne). To make the deal sweeter, the tickets were free. However, due to gloomy weather and an urge to get some stuff done around the house that has been neglected this summer, we decided to forgo the pleasure of the concert. Due to the glum weather turning downright dreary, much of the work we wanted to do outside had to be put off. Now it would seem that my normally scheduled, list-making self would jump to the conclusion that some inside tasks should be tackled, but alas, I have succumbed to the flaw of the perfectionist--a real dislike for a change in plans. Especially when the change in plans gives me an opportunity get something done that I'd rather not do. Thus today I fell into the mode of "frustrate...

To start, this is a sideways picture of a canoe bookcase. I'm sorry you have to turn your head to view it, but I have no idea how to turn a picture in Blogger, and I wanted to you see it. SO, to continue, some would call this piece of furniture an insurance policy, a bargaining tool, leverage. But not me. I choose not to be that kind of wife. To let you in on the story, Hero Guy and I built our own house (which I did not want to do). We then moved into said house before it was totally completed (which I also did not want to do). Now we have a 10-year-old house that is ready for some updating (new carpeting, painting walls, etc., along with some projects that never ended up getting finished. Like our basement. The original house plans included 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a great room, a kitchen/dining room AND a finished basement/family room. To make a long story short, the basement has never gotten finished. It's not even inhabitable. It's the typical "cellar" ...

I've always been a psychology buff and and I thought the answers to these questions can reveal a lot about a person. I found it on another blog , so I thought I'd share a few more of my quirks with you. This blogging is a strange thing. I've revealed more about myself since December '05 when I started blogging than I ever have in my life. 1. Do you sleep with your closet doors opened or closed? Closed. Otherwise I feel like somebody can sneak up on me. 2. Do you ever take the soaps and shampoos from hotel rooms? Yup, they are there for me and they throw them out if the seal is broken anyhoo. I don't raid the maid's cart or anything, just take what's in my room. 3. Have you ever had sex in a hotel room? I started to leave this one out, but hey, I have two kids, so you guess the answer to this one. 4. Have you ever stolen a street sign? Uh, no. It wouldn't go with my landscaping. 5. Do you use post-it notes? Constantly. I love them. My girlfrien...

Brainy Boy, 10 years old and going into 5th grade, unexpectedly lost a molar last night. It had just started getting loose a couple of days ago and as he was wiggling it, it popped out. Being the cynic that he is, he's never been a big fan of the Tooth Fairy. However he does readily accept any and all prizes that may happen to appear under his pillow the morning following a tooth loss. The only rule at our house is that he has to play along, put the tooth under the pillow and the "Tooth Fairy" will understand that he likes to keep his own teeth and she'll leave a prize and leave the tooth where it is under his pillow. He puts all his teeth in a little 35mm black film canister and keeps it in his treasure box. We've told him that if he's too big to play along, then he's too big to get a prize for the tooth. He always gets a big kick out of using his two fingers to make the "quotation-mark" sign when he talks about the Tooth Fairy in front ...

Being a mom is great, but it comes with responsibilities that are sometimes not to my liking. One of them is taking care of barf and boo-boos. I am married to a medic, and believe me, that comes in handy usually . But when in medic mode, Hero Guy treats the wee ones like every other patient and sometimes mother instinct just takes over and I have to step in. Now this is difficult for me since I have always been a bit squeamish. From the earliest time when people would ask "So, are you going to be a nurse like your mom?" I would emphatically decline. I am a medical transcriptionist and you can regularly see me typing along with a knot in my stomach, a look of disgust on my face as I listen to the details of some unfortunate patient having their ingrown toenail removed. It is hard enough for me to listen to it described, and I certainly won't sign up to actually view it in progress. Thus, when Little Chic crashed on her scooter in the last hour of our camping trip, I...

It's kind of scary. I spent my third ever camping trip (2nd this summer) feeling totally at home and at-ease in the heart of the Adirondack mountains. I have never been a rough-it kind of gal, always preferring the hot tub and room service at the Marriott to anything remotely Tom Sawyer-ish. But I found last year, while trying it out for the first time, that it was actually kind of fun. After the success of Summer '05, we decided to take the leap and actually plan two separate camping trips this year. Trip #1 was fun, but a bit hectic with planning a 10-hour jaunt to a wedding on the heels of the forest trek. Trip #2 proved to be everything you hope for in a vacation, and I found myself returning home in a state as I've never been at the completion of a 'holiday'. Instead of collapsing the minute I returned home, catching up on all the missed sleep, recuperating from jetting about town to pack as much experience into the week as possible, I found myself relaxe...

We're back, and I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. BUT, in the meantime, I have a tidbit for you. My next-door neighbor has a little guy who contracted juvenile leukemia while in kindergarten. He has been battling this disease for the last two years, and is just about finished with his entire course of chemotherapy. He will be all done in November, and is doing brilliantly. Each October, my kids and I do the Light The Night Walk for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to help raise money to fight this killer. We'll be walking this year on October 12, so if you'd like to support Brainy Boy and Little Chic honor their sick friend, you can click this link and make a donation. And then tomorrow you'll get the campfire stories!

Well, okay, it's not exactly a yellow brick road we're following, but hey, family camping is a little bit like a trip to Oz. You have an idea of where you want to go, you somewhat know how to get there, but you don't have a real clue of what you'll find when you make it to your destination. We are off to adventure in the semi-wilderness until Saturday, 8/12. Wish us no rain, lots of fun, and perhaps a glimpse of a black bear (for the Tarzans of the family).

I've said it before, I'll say it again. I love beautiful things, but I don't enjoy the process of getting things beautiful. I love flowers, I don't like the planting, pruning, weeding, etc. I like a clean house, but I don't like washing dishes, scrubbing floors or any of the stuff it takes to get it there. When my flower beds thrive, they often begin looking like overgrown eyebrows and I end up with one huge unibrow plant, one running into the other until you can't tell what is a weed and what was put there on purpose. My method of taking care of this little problem is to let it all grow, enjoy the flowering perennials and then wait until it gets really out of hand. Then when I can't stand it any more I weed it ALL. And I do mean it all. I much prefer looking at brown mulch than having chest-high green things creating a miniature forrest outside my front door. So I go through the list: Lamb's Ear weeded (chopped down)? Check! Hosta weeded (demoli...

I began blogging in December 2005 after my sister sent me a link to her Yahoo 360 page. Thinking this would be a great way to stay in touch with my family, who all live out of town, I took a few minutes to upload some pictures, set up a profile and write an entry. After a few days of having some readers actually respond to things I wrote, I figured I'd expand a little and invite some close friends to read my daily journal as well. All it took was for me to get a comment from friend of a friend or to hear that a colleague at my mom's work was checking my page every day - and I got bitten by the bug. I began to dash out of bed in the morning to update my page, I began to fret over adding little icons and links, I started to spend way too much time trying to figure out HTML. Eventually my Yahoo page became too limited and I decided to set up a Blogger page. That's when things really started to take off. I began to meet cyber-friends, I started looking forward to seeing w...

They did report strong thunderstorms yesterday afternoon. All of the Southern Tier was looking forward to the break in weather since the temperature has been pushing the high-90s. In these parts of the north, air conditioning is rare and central air is unheard of (except for mwah whose is not working correctly at the moment). What they didn't forecast was the marble-sized hail, the temperature dropping 20 degrees and the fact that my 10-year-young roof would be leaking all within 15 minutes. Generous person that I am, I forced both my children outside to gather a handful of the evidence so I could share with you and plop it into the freezer to show Hero Guy so that he would actually believe me. Only one of my children whimpered something about getting struck by lightening or bonked on the head by an ice ball. I assured him that I would quickly drag him back in the house by his feet if that happened. Five minutes down the road, Hero Guy lost power at work and got the rain, but...

I saw this on another BLOG and I thought it was a hoot. TEN THINGS YOU WILL NOT HEAR ME SAY (and to which I regularly say the opposite): 10) Oh, good, I'm up half a pound. I've been looking a tad bit scrawny lately. 9) Babe, could you let that back hair grow in a little? It makes you look really macho. 8) Brainy Boy, skip brushing your teeth today. Your front teeth look great with that white gunk all over them. 7) Little Chic, don't bother clipping back your grown-out bangs. I love it when it hangs down the front of your face and hides your baby blues. 6) Feel free to leave your books and papers on the kitchen table--it's so handy right here by the front door. 5) I met Kickboxer Buddy for breakfast yesterday so I really shouldn't spend the time or money to go with you for lunch today. 4) I'm really too tired to read in bed before I go to sleep. 3) I'll just get up a little earlier in the morning to throw that extra load of laundry in. 2) Hero Guy, don...

To satisfy the curiosity of all who know me as a suave, polished sort, I'm here to state for the record that I did famously on our recent trek to the Adirondack mountains as we roughed it for five days. We began our trip with Yours Truly in fine form, singlehandedly shopping and packing all but the few final items that needed Hero Guy's help. Hero Guy was putting in some extra hours at work, but I did 90% of the prep work so that he could throw his clothes in the bag and we'd be on our way. He assured me that it would only take him 15-20 minutes to toss his clothes in the bag, throw our gear on the handy-dandy camping trailer he built to haul our stuff, and we'd be on the road. It was to be our first trip in The Beast and we were all excited about the prospect of loading up absolutely anything and everything we wanted to take with us to test out Hero Guy's claim that it was so HUGE, we'd never run out of room. Let me just say that 4 hours of packing later,...

Whew, we're home. I gotta tell you, I've always been one that loves "ramming" as my girlfriends call it--jetting from place to place (usually involving shopping, but it can apply to trips as well) running through the door just in time for hubby to get home, sighing from exhaustion which he could possibly take as a sign that I've been cleaning all day, except for the fact that the house looks like a cyclone hit it. BUT, my old age is catching up with me, and I'm craving a bit of space between jaunts so I can catch my breath and get things in order before I head out again. In any event, I thought you might like to share a few of my observations that I gleaned from my recent double-whammy of a "vacation" as I like to pretend it was. Some of the lessons were from our camping trip, a couple of them were from our road trip to my mom's wedding. I'll start with: 1) When camping, it is best to choose a camping site and then stay there. It sounds...