Oh happy day!!

As I sit alone here in my little jail cell of an office, I praise Al Gore, inventor of the internet. Because without it, I wouldn't have been able to witness from this great distance, the overwhelmingly wonderful event of our President's inauguration. I was surprised that I was overcome with a little emotion and a big ol lump in my throat. Perhaps it is foolish to hang so much on one man, but I am telling you that I will be proud to refer to Barack Hussein Obama as our President, with a capital P, instead of the words I used to refer to our now defunct "leader" GW.

My children are growing up in some good times. I hope they live to see what a great world can be had when people put aside resentment, hatred, bigotry, and pre-conceived notions. Oh, what wonderful things these next four years can bring us and I for one couldn't be happier!!

Here in the privacy of my little office, I wept without reserve and gave our wonderful new leader a standing ovation.......History has been made and it ROCKS!

Movie Weekend

My friends and I watched a few movies over the weekend. Quite possibly the best exchange I will ever see in a movie, was this from the movie Juno: (take note that Rollo is played by the guy on the Office, Dwight).


Rollo: So what's the prognosis, Fertile Myrtle? Minus or plus?
Juno MacGuff: I don't know. It's not seasoned yet. [grabs products]
Juno MacGuff: I'll take some of these. Nope... There it is. The little pink plus sign is so unholy. [shakes pregnancy tester]
Rollo: That ain't no Etch-A-Sketch. This is one doodle that can't be un-did, Homeskillet

So Juno was clearly one movie we watched and enjoyed, Ghost Town rated a solid second, but Mamma Mia was just fluff.. not bad, not great. The kids enjoyed shaking their booties to a little ABBA, but that was it.

Oh you lucky people

You are fortunate that my fleeting thought of blogging about anal seepage and barf boogers has passed and that I will now just tell you about my children. You are welcome.

Aurelia, on having her nails trimmed: " I not 'joying this."

Aurelia begs her brother to have a wedding with her until he gives in. He mumbles "Alright, we're married." She replies, " No we're not. We didn't dance."

Aurelia blames her flatulence on one of her many dolls... Daniel pipes up with " Um, that would be pretty much impossible, unless one of them got a real butt."

Daniel and Aurelia, in harmony, every five seconds non-stop "Can I have (insert starchy treat here)?"

Baby Nubbins

I am a huge fan of the NPR show This American Life. Last night, I heard a snippet of this broadcast (the story I heard begins at approx. minute 40 on this recording, you can fast forward). It's all about the experience this young lady had in the FAO Schwartz Lee Middleton baby nursery. It is freakin' hilarious and I look forward to talking with any of you that actually give this doozy a listen.

Conversations with the crazy little people that live in my house

The orthodontist had to place spacers in Daniel's teeth to prepare for an expander in the next few weeks. Not so bad, but they also had to take impressions of his upper and lower teeth. Now Dan the Man has a pretty strong gag reflex and I was prepared for some upchucking to occur. The lower set went off pretty well, with just a little hint of gag. She let him up to rinse his mouth and he happily came back to play Tetris on the chairside Gameboy.... until she came with the big gun... the upper tray chock full of mushy pink gaggy goodness. The boy restrained himself, but there was much gagging with full fledged red enlarged eyeballs and Huuuuu Huuuuu Huuuuu sounds. When it was all said and done, he looked at me and said "Well, that was unexpected."

Aurelia announced in the car, on the way home from dropping Cory off at work, that sometimes when she eats popcorn she is allergic to peanuts.

I have an old fax machine sitting on my dining room table. It has big buttons, a handset, and it isn't plugged in. For the last several evenings, my young children have planted themselves at the table to have imaginary conversations with a variety of people. They have also used the handset as a microphone to make a multitude of noises and songs in an attempt to make the other laugh. It usually works.

Have you laughed today?

I'll bet you have now!!

Va jay jay

Yup... I said it.

I like to hear happy things from my doctor. Love to even. Except when that doctor asks me to drop my knees and when I explain that no really, that's it, they don't drop anymore, he asks me if they will replace my hips. I said, no, not for another fifteen years or so. Then (and I admit I was asking for it when I did this) I said, jokingly, that I was too young to be this broken down. Now here, my friends, is where I don't need to hear the silver lining. I don't need to hear the words "Well your vagina is in good shape" from the man who is elbow deep in aforementioned hoohah. For crying out loud.

My boys senior pictures

My boys senior pictures arrived today. I must say that he is quite a handsome devil. They can be viewed here.

I tried, I really tried, to convince him to take more than just two shirts. Or comb his hair (note the small bit of cowlick, conehead)... You can lead a horse to water, as they say...

Calling all artists

I would love to warm up my house. I have taken down most of our family photos because the frames were mismatched and the pictures were mostly outdated. My interest in house decorating ebbs and flows, but if anyone knows where I can get some funky art, preferrably by local artists at a price that lends itself to the starving artist theory, then I am in the market. Abstracts and still lifes are not my scene, but I love most everything else. Thanks ahead of time!

Silver Fox

My husband is not much older than I am. Only a year and a half, but he has begun to grey in the last few years pretty rapidly. He usually keeps a really short haircut and because it looks like his skull is silver, I call him the silver fox. Now, his dad had red hair (sorry Ben, but you know what's left isn't red anymore) and Ted's beard always grows out red (with grey, he he). Anyone who has met our sweet Petunia knows her hair is red (light red). The last few weeks I thought my eyes were failing me, but it is now confirmed. My sweet PRESCHOOLER who is not even five years of age is getting grey hair. She had a total of six I could EASILY see as of yesterday. I think her hair will be beautiful with red and silver mixed, but I hope it takes its sweet time... say maybe high school before REALLY starting to show.

Someone please explain

How does Amazon know everything? When I look for books, cds, etc to spread into from my current interest and past experience, I am able to type in something I know I like and 8 times out of 10 find my way to something new and equally likeable. Many times it mixes up books and the like and keeps me swirling about in my own little tornado of memories and thoughts of how much I thought I would like to hear that/read that/see that someday. I am thankful this feature exists, but in my paranoid moments it feels very Big Brotherish and scary. Does anyone experience this or is it just me?

Christmas was good

Another year gone by to be thankful that we were able to gather with family and friends and enjoy the holiday. The kids were grateful, the food was good, and chaos was minimal. I have confiscated the middle child's Nintendo DS and the oldest childs Iron Chef America game and I will now run off to eat my Christmas chocolates while I rot my wee little brain....

snippets

Aurelia says to her preschool teacher... baby Jesus is gonna run outta the manger... why....to find his family....where....in the forest.... what are they doing there?....looking for bears....

Daniel says I give the warmest hugs. He wants to take his teacher a AA battery so her Smartboard pen will stop "going out of calibration."

Aurelia wants to ask this question every night before sleep: What if a ghost comes in my room? Well, you give it a hug to see if it is just lost and looking for its mommy. But if it is mean then your big, bad ferocious brothers will come in and beat it up and make it leave. ..... She hears that answer and smiles, drifting off to sleep.

Cory has a lead in Lil Abner. I really hope he keeps his schoolwork and behavior together so he can do this. I know he loves the theater and I only want him to be happy.

I burned myself with Nair.

Online shopping rocks.

Ebay snipers do not.

The news makes me battle depression.

Went to see Kathy Mattea at Mountain Stage Sunday and wound up seeing a Duff Goldman cake (from Ace of Cakes).

Cory decided he wanted to contact his biological person. I hope he receives all he is looking for with that relationship and it doesn't create any conflict. I think he loves Ted too much to start saying "your not my real dad", but the worry is there. I think it will be ok. I wish I could remember when it became awkward to hug and kiss him and harder to talk to him. I wish I could go back and make it not so. I miss my baby.

Worth a thousand words

Our fall photos....

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas - Music Video

Oh yeah, I've been a little late in the year with this!! LOL

Pretty neat

For those of you interested in charitable gifting for the holidays, this is a pretty neat idea.

Vain much?

Here is my new have to have Christmas gift!

Survey of the teenage mind

Demons

I'm wrestling them. I'm not a very skilled wrestler. There are some that don't even belong to me and yet they must be taken on. Winter is a long, dreary season that I am certain, year after year, will never end. I feel altered, like I am not behind the steering wheel of my own bus. Truly, I want only the simplest of things, and yet the road to them seems to be filled with avalanches and potholes and herds of shepherdless farm animals. From point A to point B without all the twist and turns.... Measuring time in five minute chunks I can maneuver through. Blah.

Tomorrow is the dentist day the kids look forward to every six months. They can barely be put to bed with the ecstasy of it all. I hope they don't lose that for a long, long time. Maybe ever. Can I can it up for them? They seem to have so much of it. Save it for a rainy day?

Worry not. Everything here is fine. No badness. Just differentness.

Voted!!

I waited on line for an hour, had a nice chat with a woman who was clearly voting differently than myself, and then listened to NPR on the way to work. From that drive I can pass along these peer lending sites to you who do not wish to borrow from conventional lenders.

Lending Club

Prosper

I've never used them to borrow, but I like to feel smart and ahead of the curve and NPR helps me feel that way!