A brand new piece of artwork!!!

I WON, I WON!!!

Okay, so it was only an auction and yeah, in all fairness, I was the only bidder, but I still feel like a winner. This is what I bought and I can't wait to have it hanging in my house!!! >>>>>> >>>>>

It is an original piece of artwork by Michelle Brownlow over at My Semblance of Sanity and half of what I paid for it will be donated to a Pediatric Cancer center. She will be putting up more original artwork (she writes children's books) for sale in the future and I am all for helping the kids, so head on over and check out her blog so that you, too, can get yourself a beautiful piece of artwork! Remember, 50% of the money goes to Pediatric Cancer and the shipping is FREE!

Dear Hubby and I took Teensy and Bubba out to a nice dinner the other night because we found ourselves with an evening of no plans...I know, that NEVER happens! We decided on Olive Garden (or "the flower place" as Teensy insisted on calling it!) so we got dressed up nice (which meant a t-shirt and jeans for the hubby, a nice sweater for me, a t-shirt with a collar for Teensy and jeans with no holes for Bubba) and headed on out.

We arrived at the restaurant only to wait for 25 minutes before we were seated. Luckily we were given one of those "your table is ready, light up, indicator thingy" (yes, that's a technical term) for the kids to play with. We were seated on a loveseat (all four of us, Teensy on my laP) and the hubby and were in the middle of a conversation when my daughter asked, "Mommy, why is there peanut butter on the wall?". I looked at where she was pointing and sure enough there were globs of brown peanut butter oozing out from behind the plates that were decorating the wall! Okay, so it was actually professional strength glue that had been slopped onto the wall, but we of course told Teensy that the peanut butter was to hold the plates in place. Wonder how long it will take before she tries that one!?! The kids didn't whine, fight or cry during our wait for a table (maybe that was because we saw a boy dragged out of the restaurant by what was presumably his mom and dad whimpering and crying and throwing a fit and they were scared into behaving...maybe not).

Let me just say that Olive Garden is the best place ever to take my kids to eat. All-you-can-eat salad and breadsticks is like heaven to those two!!! They would prefer salad to meat any day of the week (yeah, someone we raised a couple of rabbits!) and the peach flavored tea that I made them get was a hit with both! They only asked once where the Ranch Dressing was for the salad and we devoured the whole bowl in a matter of minutes. In the middle of biting into a breadstick, I saw Teensy made a face. I know that she loves breadsticks (and any other type of bread, go figure) so I asked her what was wrong. She opened her mouth and wiggled her tooth. She has her very first loose tooth!!! And it freaks her out. :) Up until the moment that she actually realized that her tooth was loose she was excited to finally be in the "Tooth Fairy Club" with the rest of the kids her age but as soon as it actually became loose, she got upset and would prefer it to stay in it's place. Good thing she got Macaroni and Cheese for dinner so she didn't have to work at chewing anything! The rest of dinner went off without a hitch. Both kids ate just about everything and there was only one trip to the bathroom. Good times were had by all. *sigh*

After dinner we tortured ourselves by allowing the kids to spend their "spending money" at what people refer to as "the scourge or the planet" (yeah, I mean Wal-Mart). Walking up and down every toy aisle trying to decide exactly how to spend the $8.00 of hard earned and saved money was hell for us adults. My kids can not make up their minds! Ever. We ended up with Pokemon cards and some type of action figure thing for Bubba and Little Pet Shop things for Teensy...and that only took us an hour to find!!! Mental Note...do not follow up great dinner with shopping at Wal-Mart. You WILL get cranky and start yelling obscenities at someone and that makes the hubby mad!!!

So, that was my weekend of little things. Add to that list>>

...I got a great picture of me holding my new great-neice and she was adorable.

...dearest hubby took the kids home, bathed them and put them to bed so that I could stay longer to play cards with my sisters.

...my Girl Scout troop (I am a co-leader for my daughter's Brownie troop) sold all of our boxes of cookies at a cookie booth.

...dear hubby kept up on the laundry while I was out running all weekend.

>>and you get a pretty decent weekend of little things!

Keep on the lookout everyone! Little things are everywhere!

Frogs, Snails.....and some spunk.

I am sitting here today not quite knowing what I want to blog about (which has been the case for like three days and that's why the same post has been up for that long). So I am having a bad day for a lot of reasons but one of the most prominent being that it is fucking cold outside! Where the hell is Spring already? I know that we live in BFE up here but seriously what is with the snow? Someone run down the hall and tell Mother Nature that Spring time means sunshine and flowers and not snow and freezing cold temperatures!!!

Okay, rant over.

I need something to make me smile today and I've already introduced you to one of my kids so how about the wackiness that is the other one? Bubba is my 7 year old not-so-little-anymore boy. He had a class musical program the other night where we learned beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is the Class Clown...not one of several but THE child that acts silly during everything. THE child that will one day knock down the backdrop in the middle of some school production...he almost did the other night.

Bubba was a "Manly Bug" (which was the music teachers way of making the boys be okay with being ladybugs). To start with, he had to have on black pants and a black shirt under his costume. They performed for the older kids during school that day and he kept on his black clothes when he went to daycare, thus proceeding to play in whatever dirt, grass and dry leaf pile he could find so that when I rushed over to pick him up to get him to the theater on time, his outfit now looked as if he were a dung beetle covered in "crap" instead of a pristine ladybug. I wiped him down as best I could and contemplated turning everything inside out but realized that we didn't even have moment one to spare.

We arrived at the theater where I spotted some seats that thankfully weren't way back in the boonies so that I could get good pictures (like the one on the left. My kid is the one on his knee pretending to shoot a bow and arrow in the front! and that's his teacher wondering what the hell she was doing giving my kid a stick!), however when I turned around I had, of course, lost the kids. After throwing my coat and purse and every other object down that I had brought in to save the seats that I needed for my family members, I tracked them down and promptly scolded them for running like wild banshees throught the whole place (apparently the other parents didn't care if their children were acting rude, but I did!). Anyway, fast forward to musical underway. Bubba had to act as if he were the only one on stage putting on the show. He climbed up on the rails on the top step of the bleachers they were positioned on and I gasped as he almost knocked down the backdrop. He twirled his stick (I guess it was supposed to be a cane) almost hitting the girl next to him. He played with his top hat the whole time and barely sang a word. He was, however, very polite in thanking the audience in as loud of a voice as possible as he traipsed off the stage at the end of the show...finally yelling "Good Night" to the whole of the place. He was a walking, talking embarrassment ...but I sat in the audience smiling from ear to ear because that was my kid up on that stage. That was my little baby boy "all growed up" and doing his very best to keep the audience entertained and that was what the musical was about in the first place. I love his spunk. Can't wait for the next time he is on stage. :)

He is one of my little things. My little man. My sensitive class clown that knows how to push every button I have until I explode with screaming. The little guy is so like me and he makes me proud to be his mama.

Keep an eye out for those little things...
...I saw a butterfly the other day on my lawn and it made me smile.

Cat Calls...

I am totally on the fence about whether to be flattered or frustrated by men and their cave man ways. Help me out here. Am I dealing with a true Neandrathal or just a man who loves himself a good specimen of woman?

Walking back into the office from lunch, I am absent mindedly crossing the street when I hear the vaguely familiar sound that my husband makes when trying to get my attention from a distance in a store; the "whooot, woooo" whistle. I glance around thinking that my husband must have stopped by my work for a little lunchtime hey-a and I realize that he is nowhere to be found. There is, however, a younger looking not-so-gentleman-like guy in a dirtyish flannel jacket walking through the alley with a satisfied smirk plastered on his face. He is, mind you, half a block away and not nearly close enough to admire the absolute female sexiness that is me. And in comes my quandry. Do I feel flattered that he has taken a few moments out of his "walk" to send me an apreciative cat call whistle or do I feel frustrated that a man even dare do something that Neandrathal-ic in my presence?

On the flattered side...he could have just seen my amazingly sexy (not!) curves and not being able to help himself from expressing this appreciation to me, his lips pursed into the correct "O" shape (as in, "oh, she's smokin!") and trying to make the "mmmhmmm" sound he accidentally pushed air through instead, thus allowing the "whoooot, woooo" whistle to come chorusing out. However, I am not in this life, quite smokin' enough to be whistled at by anyone other than that which I love (my hubby) because he is completely jaded and biased. So...

On the frustrated side...what made this caveman feel as if it were necessary to assault my ears with his crude whistles, thus interruppting the peacefulness of this wonderous Spring day? What is with men like that? We women are not pieces of meat to be drooled over (no matter how smokin' we are) and you men would do good to remember that. If a woman does not belong on your arm (as in already with your moronic ass), you should not EVER resort to cat calls and whistles. We will just ignore your stupid little butt...at least, I will. However, if that hubby of mine wants to mosey on up behind me and enjoy the big piece of ass that he claims with a little appreciative "mmmmm", I am all for it. The rest of you keep your appreciation of my body to yourselves...and that definitely goes for you Nasty Flannel Jacket Wearing Moron.

Just another little thing in my life that makes me appreciate the finer things (like my husband).
...keep on watching!

Trash Can is finally here!!!

Trash Can has finally come into the land of the living and gotten herself a real name. :)

My neice was in town visiting when she was about 4 months pregnant or so. She is a small girl so she wasn't showing just yet. Among my barrage of questions about her pregnancy, I asked her what the baby's name was going to be. Her, being the smart ass that she can sometimes be and not wanting to reveal the names that she had so laboriously picked out, replied, "Trash Can". The nickname stuck and the baby has been lovingly referred to as Trash Can ever since. I know, I know. What a name to be saddled with!?!

Funny before-birth nicknames seem to be a trend in my family. My neice (the same as mentioned above) was called "Who's It?" before blessing us with her presence leading to the family joke of saying "Who's It's? having "Trash Can"!!! We called my son "B" because we couldn't settle on a name and the ultrasounds were inconclusive as to his sex (damn kid crossed his legs!!!). I on the other hand was "Carl Fred". I know what you're thinking...holy cow! Who would name a baby that? Well, my mom, for one. She was so serious about bestowing upon me that horrific name that when I heard her murmurs from deep within her womb it scared the tally-whacker right off of me!!! From that day on I was a girl. :)

Anyway, Trash Can is now Cloe Marie and she joined us this afternoon. I just can't wait to get to see her and hold her and love on her. Another new baby in the family to make me realize that time is slipping by way to fast for me. *sniffle*

There's another little thing to marvel at!
...don't forget to watch for your little things!!!

Things That Make Me Say "WTF"!!!

In case you live under a rock, or are so ancient that you don’t know what the lingo is nowadays---get a clue!---, that title would be “Things That Make Me Say What The Fuck!!!”

Where this world is headed? I mean, jeeze, people, wake up!!!

1) Everyone knows that when you order checks they come in those cute little boxes that you just have to save after they are emptied because you just know that someday you will find a use for the hundreds of identical boxes that you have saved and neatly stacked (yeah right!) inside a bigger box in the corner of that back room that never sees the light of day let alone gets cleaned out, err, I mean, storage room. Well, guess what. Apparently one company did not get the memo!!! The checks came in a plastic bag for crissake and here’s the kicker…there was an “assemble it yourself” box inside of said environment killing plastic bag!!! Now seriously folks, WTF! Setting aside the fact that they are using plastic when it obviously doesn’t need to be used, the little boxes have been the way of receiving checks for so long that who are they to change the “pre-destined order of things”! Come on, now. Just do it the same as everyone else and stop wasting things that shouldn’t be wasted…like our environment!! Like the company can't pay their personnel for the two minutes that it would take to put together the box for me? I don't have two minutes in my day to assemble the box myself and on top of all that, the box that they sent me to assemble myself is an inch too long for the checks! That means, in case you haven't figured it out yourself, that it won't fit in perfect alignment with the hundreds of others that I have saved!!! Come on, now!!! Time to boycott said company…after sending them an e-mail telling them how utterly asinine they are!!!

2) The other night, we (the hubby and I) were headed out for dinner with friends and we missed our exit on the interstate (hubby driving and normal "man not asking for directions" occasion here). We took a random detour through a cement plant to get to the road that we needed to be on and as we are driving down said detour we come across a stop sign that clearly states that it was a "4-way Stop". I glance around knowing that there are no other cars coming from either direction because we are stopped at a TRAIN TRACK! The were only two ways of traffic...unless of course the train is going to just slow down and stop right there so that us people driving cars illegally throught the cement plant can go through. What kind of moron puts a "4-way Stop" on a railroad track!

I'll have to get back at ya with more things that make me say "WTF" because these two have me so riled up that I can't think of anything else right now!!!

Laters...
...and don't forget to notice the little things!

This can't be my kid!!!

Wow, my first day with a blog and I already have something to blog about!!! This is sooooo exciting!!!

Teensy is my 5 year old daughter. Okay, she is almost six. She has her daddy's laid back demeanor---when she's not sporting my attitude problem---but she has a wacky side all her own.

Teensy has this incessant need to touch the ceiling. Yeah, I thought it was weird, too. She will come up to me and look up through her long lashes with her big, brown eyes, put her arms in the air and say "I wanna touch that". “That” being whatever is high enough to be way beyond her reach and usually beyond mine as well—the ceiling with it’s popcorn texture in the entry way at daycare, the black wrought iron corner thingy’s (nice technical term, huh?) in the kitchen doorway, the wainscoting surround the cupboards in Grandma’s kitchen, etc. She is so far past the adorable state that I can't refuse those eyes when they are trained in such a piercing way and shooting straight at my heart, so I muscle her up over my head high enough for her to touch the thing for a millisecond before my arms give out and I almost drop her to the floor. Then she's happy and goes about her business. Are you kidding me? My back is being abused by picking up 50 pounds of small child every time she gets the urge to feel a new high up surface and she can’t even stay to talk about it with me for a minute! What is with that?

This morning, Teensy saw chocolate in the cupboard and went completely beserk. I mean like eyes popping out of her head, scary smile plastered to her face, standing in a position leaning so far forward that I never figured a person could stand that way without falling over onto their face, tazmanian devil look-alike kind of beserk. Chanting “chocolate, chocolate, chocolate” until I thought I had lost her to the dark side. The apperant craving passed just as quickly as it had come though and I looked over and she was rubbing her butt on the wall! Seriously, I couldn't make this shit up. She was backed up against a wall, leaning forward and rubbing her butt on it like she had an itch (kinda like a bear does with a tree trying to scratch their backs). It was irresistably funny. Holy cow!!! I bust out laughing which must caused her to do it more and laugh hysterically at the same time.

This can definitely not be my kid. She must get this crap from her father because I do not have an incessant need to touch the ceiling, go beserk over chocolate and rub my butt on the wall! WTF! Okay, so yeah, I guess I do kinda reach beyond my grasp sometimes and I do love chocolate and the craving sometime hits pretty hard and I do like the bears on the Charmin commercials and it wouldn’t be that far-fetched to catch me acting like them on occasion. Okay, okay...she is sooooooo my kid. :)

J...
...remember to watch for those little things!

Start it up!!!

This is me starting a blog.

I have been reading a bunch of online blogs lately. Things that people have written about their lives and not the boring “this is what I did today” kind of blog but the kind of blog that shows the humor in everyday life. The little things that make this life worth living. You know…the fun stuff that people would actually want to read.

I have started several of my own over the years (but always let them fall to the wayside after a very short amount of time) but as blogging becomes more popular and I get more to say and start finding my voice to say it, the idea of blogging starts to stand out more to me. Who knows? Maybe it will even help me with my writing skills and one day I can actually get a book out there and published to be read by others…that is of course, if I ever stop procrastinating long enough to get past the first chapter!!!

So stay tuned for what I hope to be interesting (usually) insights into my “little world” (that is, of course, a reference as to what goes on in my head---scary, I know, but you may just enjoy yourself.)

And remember...it's the little things that count, so watch for them!
J...