Manic Monday - Season

Happy Manic Monday! This week’s word is Season. That reminds me, it is the season for Christmas shopping, so if you still have a job and have money to spend, head over to The Wren’s Nest for some kick-ass holiday gifts!!!!

I really do love the holiday season. I always have Thanksgiving at my house and both sets of parents come up for the holiday. I think I’m beginning to perfect it. I no longer serve turkey because there are way too many leftovers. This season, we are doing pork loins, cream cheese & chive mashed potatoes, dressing, noodles, rolls, and green bean casserole. For dessert, I’m doing pumpkin pie and pecan pie, and I’m trying to decide on that all important third pie. I found a great recipe at Pillsbury.com that I was thinking of trying for a pumpkin-ginger pie with marshmallow topping. It sounds orgasmic. Let me know what you think.

Oh! And lots of wine! I can’t forget that. Because who could resist an entire day of my mom calling me a wino.

The thing that screws me up this year is that Thanksgiving is so late. I’m one of these people that doesn’t start shopping for the Christmas season until after Thanksgiving, even though the Christmas season apparently starts now in October. I swear, it just gets earlier and earlier every year. At least this year, the kids are getting a Wii for Christmas, which we already have, so there shouldn’t be too much more shopping to do. That’s good because I’m heading to New York for work the second week in December. I’ll have the “ohmygodihavetogetonaplane” anxiety leading up to that, and by the time I get back, well hell – it’s almost Christmas! This season is flying by!!

What are all your plans for the holiday season. Online shopping – plan #1! The further away I can stay from the mall, the better!

I'm Still Here!

I know it may have seemed like I have dropped off the face of the earth lately, but I haven’t. I am still here, and I wanted to share with you why I have been so busy lately.

Many of you may know that I have done freelance work for WikiAnswers for the last four years. Last week, I started work with the company as a full-time employee. Woo hoo! That’s right, I am fully employed, in addition to my full-time job as a mom. I am really enjoying my job, but it hasn’t left me a lot of full time to blog.

Hopefully, once I get into my normal routine, I will have more time to keep up on my blog. I have so much going on that I want to share, including all of the cute things that my kids are up to. Eli is doing awesome in kindergarten, and already received his first report card. Dude! They grade things so much differently than they used to. Instead of A,B,C,D,F, now there are a bunch of S’s and N’s. Well, Eli only got one N (Needs Improvement) in Art. That sent me straight to the school to meet with the Art teacher. Yeah, I’m still crazy. Some things never change!

Georgia is going full steam ahead at preschool, and she is doing great. We had her first parent-teacher conference last week. I was extremely pleased to discover that she never screams or throws fits at school. Okay, I was pleased and a little surprised when they told me how well she was doing. I said, “Really, she doesn’t scream ‘I need my drink’ and then yell at the top of her lungs? Or she doesn't wiggle the zipper on her coat and scream because she wants you to zip it?” They just looked at me like I was crazy and said no, she doesn’t.

Her teachers informed me that meant I was doing things right. She knows to act like a decent, well-behaved child when she’s in front of other people. Now if I could just get her to act like that all the time, I would be in business!

Barbie and the Diamond Castle

Oh, how I wish they had all these great DVDs when I was a kid. Oh, who am I kidding? They didn’t even have VCRs yet when I was a kid!

These days, children’s programming is very educational. It’s not just the violent cartoons we had as children. I don’t mind when my children watch TV because the shows and DVDs available today teach them important lessons.

My 3-year-old daughter, Georgia has really been getting into her Barbies lately. She has two that are her favorites – one with purple hair, and one with pink hair. When she started seeing the commercials for Barbie and The Diamond Castle, she stared, hypnotically transfixed at the television. When the commercial was over, she would say, “Mommy! I really like that one!!” That is her usual mantra when she sees something she really wants.

When Mom Central sent us the new DVD for Barbie and The Diamond Castle, I was absolutely thrilled because I knew how much Georgia really wanted to see it.

Barbie and The Diamond Castle is a great musical story that teaches children about the importance of friendship. If Barbie and her friends want to preserve music for the entire world, they have to save their friend Melody who is trapped inside of a magic mirror. Melody holds the key to the Diamond Castle. The girls must journey to the Diamond Castle and overcome obstacles in order to save music for everyone. This is a great story to teach children about friendship and how important it is to believe in yourself.

My daughter Georgia not only loved the DVD, which she has now watched several times, but she also is going crazy to get the new Barbie Dolls from Barbie and The Diamond Castle, with the very pretty dresses. Every time she sees them on TV, she says, “Mommy! I really like that one!!”

To learn more about this fun and educational DVD that your children will love, visit the Barbie and The Diamond Castle Web site! And if you loved Barbie as a kid as much as I did, you will love it just as much as your child.

Manic Monday - Colorful

Happy Halloween a little late! I know I haven't been blogging a lot lately, and I do have a good excuse, which I will (hopefully) blog about this week. In the meantime, I wanted to share some Halloween pictures of my little goblins, and this week's Manic Monday theme gave me the perfect word - colorful.

Eli was the new Speed Racer, Georgia was Stephanie from LazyTown, Daddy was classic Speed Racer, and me? Well, I went as Speed Racer's girlfriend. The comment we received the most from people was about Georgia's colorful hair! Her costume did come with a wig, but she refused to leave it on. Rather than fight with her, I just bought pink hairspray, which she loved. The only problem is that the hairspray rubs off on EVERYTHING!

Now, having been a blonde my whole life, there have been times when I have made my hair very colorful. I learned that the colorful hairspray comes out easily (unless you use black). Other people, apparently have never used colorful hairspray because everyone who looked at Georgia's hair would say things like, "I can't believe you dyed her hair pink. I hope it comes out," or they would just flat out say, "You've ruined her hair. That's not going to come out."

Dude! First of all, I get really sick of everyone and their opinions. But instead of offering them a great big cup of shut the fuck up, I just smiled and said, "It will come out. I've done this before." And guess what? It came out just fine. If anything, Georgia is upset because we no longer have a reason to color her hair pink. Maybe I should just do it every Friday for fun. What do you think? (see slide show in next post)

Trick or Treat!!

Manic Monday - Ghost

This week’s Manic Monday word is Ghost! Oh, how I absolutely LOVE Halloween – when all the ghosts and goblins come out! Halloween is great fun now that we have kids, but even before kids, we always had a great time this time of year! Eric and I actually had our first date on Halloween weekend 1992.

The year we got married, 1994, we went to Boston in October to visit some friends. They took us to Salem, where they were having the Witches’ Festival. Now, THAT is a freaking AWESOME place to be at Halloween! Salem is full of ghosts and witches – one of which read my palm. Thank God her reading didn’t come true. She told me I was going to have twins.

A few years ago – 7 to be exact – Eric and I visited San Antonio in October. This was our last vacation before we had kids. I remember thinking how much fun it would be to stay in a haunted hotel. We stayed at the Emily Morgan, which is right across the street from the Alamo. This hotel is really haunted because it is an old hospital that was converted into a hotel. In fact, when you make a reservation and tell them you’re a ghost hunter, they’ll give you a discount.

It was all fun until I got the bright idea for us to take a ghost tour of downtown San Antonio. We learned all about the ghosts that frequent the Alamo, which was very cool. The freaky part was when the guy focused on our hotel and we heard about how haunted it really was. There was one room that they didn’t even rent out to people unless it was specifically requested because there were too many people who left the hotel screaming in the middle of the night due to the ghostly happenings in that room.

Now let me tell you, as cool as it is to stay in a haunted hotel, it certainly does not seem cool in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep and have to get up to go to the bathroom at 2 am. I actually woke my husband up to walk me to the bathroom in the middle of the night because I was that terrified. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be staying in anymore haunted hotels. They are awfully fun to visit, but not spend the night in.

Friday Craziness

I’m sorry my blog has been lacking lately. I have been so busy with kids and work that I haven’t had time to keep up. I certainly don’t have a shortage of things to write about! I wanted to do a TT yesterday of weird things my kids have done lately, but I ran out of time.

I swear, the kids are definitely getting more interesting each day. Yesterday, Georgia was dancing around with her green Brobee doll. You’ve all seen Brobee, right?


After awhile, I noticed she was holding her doll around the neck (in the same affectionate way she does the cats) and saying “you want a piece of me?” Seriously. I don’t know what the Brobee doll did, but for a second I thought she was going to kick his ass.

Then there’s Eli. After we read stories and put him to bed last night, I went in to check on him after he had fallen asleep. He was lying on top of the covers with no pants on and a jean jacket. I took a picture, but Eric refused to let me put it on the blog.

The kids continue to crack me up each and every day. This weekend, we are really going to hit the Halloween activities hard. Tonight is Freaky Fall Fest, tomorrow is Boo at the Zoo, and Sunday is Trunk or Treat at Georgia’s preschool. Dude! I get tired just thinking about it!

I can’t wait to get pictures of the kids in their costumes. Georgia decided that she was going to be Stephanie from LazyTown. I only hope she’ll keep her wig on this year.


Eli decided he was going to be Speed Racer.


They wanted me to be Hannah Montana for Halloween.


Sorry, I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Fighting Allergies with Clorox

I can’t believe it is the end of October already. With that, comes the cold weather, and you may begin to notice that your kids are spending a lot more time indoors. My allergies tend to be worse in the fall and winter because I’m not able to spend as much time outside. Indoor allergies flourish when you’re cooped up in the house.

Apparently, I am not the only one. Fifteen percent of people suffer from indoor allergies whether it’s dog and cat allergies or dust mites.

I was very pleased when I found out that Mom Central teamed up with Clorox to promote their new Anti-Allergen Fabric Spray, to help us fight those miserable indoor allergies!

Clorox is helping you battle those indoor allergies with the new Clorox Anywhere Anti-Allergen Fabric Spray. It’s easy to keep those countertops and hard surfaces clean, but what about that easy chair you can’t keep your cat out of, or the comforter on the bed where your dog hangs out all day? That’s why I was thrilled when I learned of Clorox’s new Anti-Allergen Fabric Spray. I have used it to spray bedspreads, chairs, ottomans and carpet, just to name a few things.

It is safe to use on any soft surface in your home, and when used correctly, it deactivates cat dander, dog dander and dust mite matter by up to 90 percent! On top of that, it smells great, giving your home a nice fresh scent!

To learn more about the new Clorox Anywhere Anti-Allergen Fabric Spray, visit Clorox’s Web site today, and look for Clorox Anti-Allergen Spray in a store near you!!