Another Birthday Celebration to Remember

We've had a really busy weekend and it's finally time to be settling down. We had so much fun yesterday. My sisters came in and we celebrated my mom's birthday and took her out to lunch. It was fun and all but at the very end when we were leaving the restaurant, my older sister walks out of the bathroom and goes out the front doors. Well, it's double doors so this guy is standing there holding the door for all of us and he looks down and I look at his face and see his eyes get big and I look down and I just died laughing. I fell back on the doors and was laughing so hard I just doubled-over and was in between laughing, crying and almost peeing in my pants. My sister had toilet paper stuck to the bottom of her shoe and it was a huge, really long piece. This guy is just mortified and I was laughing hysterically. I think he thought I was the most cold-hearted person because I was laughing at a stranger. But no! I was laughing at my poor sister who was oblivious to the whole thing. My other sister (I have 5) saw me laughing inside the doors, looked down and saw the toilet paper and she started laughing and screaming "Get my camera! Get my camera!" This is the sister who was walking out ahead of us bitching the whole time, "Why didn't anybody tell me I had chocolate gelato all over my shirt?? HUH, why didn't anybody tell me?" Well, that shut her up about the chocolate all over her shirt (ever hear of a napkin?) because then she was laughing hysterically and all of a sudden she started taking snapshots of my other sister's foot with the toilet paper. Oh no folks, it gets better! My sister with the toilet paper on her foot is yelling for us to get it off but all three of us and my mom were laughing so hard so she leans on my mom (who weighs like 85 pounds and is pretty old) for support while she gets the paper off her shoe and squishes my mom's take out container and as we're laughing and looking over at them, something starts spraying down in between them onto my mom's legs and the ground. One sister is screaming and the other is saying "momma's juice, momma's juice" and I'm saying "Who's juice? What juice?" Turns out my mom decided to bring her linguine with clams and clam sauce home and it was now all over them. Too much happening too fast. I swear, we all needed Depends. My poor mom was wet and we were wondering why the other sister would use her for support. Note to self: Do not lean on elderly mother when in need of support when you outweigh her by many, many pounds!

I know I need to be updating more, but it's been hectic and busy -- all the things I hate, detest, despise. I would love every morning to be a Sunday morning, just because on Saturdays it's up and out the door for two soccer games, usually in different cities. It was beautiful here over the weekend so we just sat outside and watched our kids and the kids in the neighborhood play.

Guess what I want? I want Jessica Seinfeld's new cookbook "Deceptively Delicious." I watched some of her stuff on Oprah the other day and she hides veggies in all kinds of foods, and your kids never notice. Like pureed spinach in brownies. I've had brownies with things in them (a very long time ago), but never spinach. And pureed cauliflower or squash hidden in mac and cheese. I have got to try that on the boys. I have to admit though, they do like a lot of vegetables. My child was the only one in his sixth grade class at the beginning of the school year who wrote that his favorite food was salad and turnips. His teacher talked about that at Open House. To think they were eating brownies or mac & cheese or chicken nuggets with all their daily vitamins and veggies in them to boot, why, that would be just too much for me. Anyway, I think I'll be making a trip out tomorrow to Barnes & Noble to get one and try some of the tricks this week. I have tried really hard since the beginning of summer to buy organic as much as possible. They actually LOVE the organic milk and think other milk at other homes tastes funny. The only thing I complain about is it does make for a difference at the check-out. A half-gallon of organic milk (and I usually buy 3) is 3.87 around here. So that doesn't sound like a lot until I add up the three half-gallons I just bought. I cannot seem to find Horizons or Promise Land in gallon jugs and my DH said it's because no one would buy it when they saw the price! I'll have to agree with him there. I made homemade spaghetti sauce (sauga, as my family calls it) the other night with all organic ingredients and they loved it, but I kind of tasted a difference. I really couldn't put my finger on it but I think the organic pureed tomatoes taste rather bland and bitter, but all the men/boys in my family really loved it, I just didn't feel the same. I'm used to my moms and it definitely did not taste like that! But I really try to do the organic thing if they are going to eat it without being cooked or steamed, like lettuce, carrots, celery, etc. I just wish I could be that disciplined to reach for carrots instead of Pringles! Maybe soon, I can only pray, Pringles will be all organic, non-fat, non-caloric, and let's not forget the biggest aspect of that: NON-EDIBLE! That's not a word is it? Oh well, it's funny. They probably already have it but it just hasn't made it down here to southeast Texas yet. If you know of any organic chips that are good, let me know. I'll keep you updated on any of the recipes I experiment with and rate them or I'll let the boys rate them on taste; then again, I guess not because I'm not going to tell them what's in it! Ciao!

I WANT MY COFFEE.....

I NEED MY COFFEE.....

I AM CRAVING MY COFFEE....

WOULD SOMEBODY PLEASE GET ME SOME FRIGGIN' COFFEE....

SSSHHHH ..... I can hear Starbucks calling my name! Gotta run.....

Going to get the boys at school and take them to Rao's. They love it as much as I do. Yeah, it's so Friday. Big game between Nederland and PN-G tonight. About 10,000 people expected to be there. We may skip it and head out to the Fair. It could be the lesser of two evils as far as keeping them occupied but would cost a lot more than the football game! Soccer games all day tomorrow so we'll see how things turn out. We need to win one more game to be heading to the playoffs. Ciao!

I Think My ADD is Kickin' In Blog: Total Rambling...

OK, let's begin with the fact that I missed my Bobby on Letterman last night. I was so busy watching him on the Outlaws concert on CMT that I completely forgot about him being on Letterman and went to bed. My gosh was I pissed when I got up this morning and screamed because I friggin' forgot. I don't know why I just didn't set it to record the program, but I guess that's karma rearing her mean ass, as Earl would say! Well, on with that....

Hey, hey, you know what I hate: I hate people that just brag on their blogs. My life is so perfect, I'm so happy, I'm so skinny I need to eat more ... blah, blah, blah! Get a life. Nobody's perfect and I'm guessing you're just masking all those hidden emotions and the reason you blog is because you are such a BI-OTCH you have no freakin' friends! It's one thing to say something but to go on and on and on gets really old. If you had a real life, you'd have a really interesting blog. Anyway, on with that.....

Ian's Aunt Jacalyn and Aunt Christene will love this one: "When can we go to Mass? I've never been to Mass?" Huh, shake the head, what??? I told him "yes, you have been to Mass." To which he replied "nu-uh, that's church. I want to go to Mass!" Whatever.... would someone please explain it to him because he evidently does not believe me.

Brent was off yesterday for Columbus Day and the kids had school. Needless to say, we had a great day and it was fun just doing whatever we wanted. We were relaxed, energetic, content, happy and were actually looking forward to picking up the boys. You know, all those things you aren't when your kids are home and screaming! Reminds me of the old days "before kids." Ian got out at 1:30 for teacher conferences this week since the six weeks ended Friday. His teacher really said a lot of positive things, such as he is really sweet, thoughtful and very sociable. Well, yeah, he takes after his daddy in the "sociable" department. Liam did not have a lot of homework last night so the neighbor came down and played Halo 3 on xbox all evening until I finally said enough at 8:00pm. That's my little one's bedtime and we had not eaten yet! Gotta get back on our schedule so we can have our alone time after they're in bed. I relish spending time with Brent after the boys are in bed. We usually talk or watch TV or watch funny stuff on youtube or porn. No, not really. Yeah, really. Nah, anyway on with that...

We've been listening to Dave Ramsey a lot on xm and downloading his podcasts to try and teach us about what/how/when to start saving and investing. We were talking yesterday about how somebody is always working on some kind of self-improvement whether it be emotionally, financially, losing weight, marriage/family issues. etc. So we decided to start learning how to save money (other than his auto-deducts for retirement and college). We spend a lot on "mindless spending." Like $200 the other day at Circuit City on dvd's, a cd, Spiderman 3 game, a Halo 3 wireless game controller and a cheat book for Halo 3. I mean this is ridiculous. We DO NOT have any credit card bills, which is a blessing. When you see how much you basically just throw away on mindless spending, we want to start doing something more productive with our money. If we're ever going to build our house on this land, I guess we have to "live like no one else now, so we can live like no one else later." Yeah, I'm so proud of myself. That's a direct quote from Dave! As long as I can stay away from Target, I could save a bunch.

Trying out a new chicken enchilada recipe I found in a Southern Living magazine. Or maybe the Paula Deen's Mexican Chicken Casserole. I guess that's my ADD kickin' in! LOL They hate chicken but maybe I can mask it enough that they don't gripe about it too much. Have a lot going on this evening after school so I need to have all this ready before school gets out today. It's usually about 8pm before we're finished with soccer and Ian has CCD tonight. If you have any good recipes, email them to me so we can give them a try. What kind of self-improvement are you working on? I know, I know, everybody is "losing weight." Ciao!!!

I HAVE A PRETEEN!!!

WTF???? I guess I'm back to asking myself that same question. Since when did I get old enough to have a 12 year old. YUP, Liam turned 12 on Thursday and every time I thought about it during the day, YUP, I cried. I know, it's a pussy thing to do but we cannot believe it's been 12 years since this beautiful soul entered our lives. He's kind, gentle, loves animals (which is the total opposite of me) and he is truly an old soul. He seems to just click with certain people and all animals. Now, certain people he does not click with and that's ok too. He's like me. He can tell you within the first five minutes of meeting someone if he is ever going to like them. If it's a no, then it will stay a no. I guess this blog today is for him. For that kindred spirit that brought our little family together, for that little boy that took us a long time and a little help to create, for that little boy that was given to us by God nine months after my daddy died and was a lifesaver for me, for that little soul that helped me heal my wounds for the loss of my daddy, for that little boy that I used to hold and pray to God to keep him safe and sound through the night (still do) and for that little baby who stole my heart the minute I met him at 5:26pm on Wednesday, October 4th, 1995. For him.

Do You Think???

Just a little sidenote to begin with: two things not related to my friends or family that I truly enjoy ... a little Bobby with my coffee!

On with it.....

OK, so if you break down and cry for almost absolutely no reason whatsoever, it is always blamed on PMS??? I'm not sure, but I think after the emotional breakdown I had Friday morning it would make one wonder. I'm sitting happily at my friends house, talking to her about some stuff and I leave and all of a sudden I realize THIS IS IT! This is my life. I have officially become my mother and I am on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The only difference is she smoked and I don't!! Guess what triggered it? Your guess is as good as mine. And get this, it probably only lasted for about five minutes! But I know who the culprit is -- every time this happens it's either an idiot I've come across that day that I may or may not know or PMS. No matter what, my DH says it's the PMS but I tend to disagree. I may not be able to officially blame all the wrong in my life on my OLs, but I can always rationalize it!! I know, I know, thank you, it's an art form. And the bad thing is that I was just bragging to my sister that I talk to every day that I could not remember the last time I cried. And I was being serious. I can honestly say I think it's been months. I couldn't cry when Brent went out of town for two weeks because the boys would have freaked out, and when he came home I was happy so I didn't cry then either. I shed a few tears on the first day of school but they were so happy about going back, I wasn't even scared or apprehensive because they both just seemed so content as we said our goodbyes and the older one walks off like any other day and the little one wanted me and his dad to just leave before a bunch of his friends got to the classroom. A big difference from last year. In kindergarten he cried, I cried, hell, even his dad was crying. He cried every day before I dropped him off and every afternoon when I would go through carpool line and he'd jump in the car all happy only to totally burst into tears and hug my neck all the way out of the line. This went on for three weeks and just when I was getting really worried, it stopped. YUP, just like that. One day he didn't cry before school and then I said it would be worse that afternoon, but it never came. Like I say all the time and I tell my friends and family, it takes 21 days to form a habit and that is just about how long it took him to form his habit of actually going to school. Mother's Day Out just cannot prepare them the way a 5 day pre-K program can. My oldest son, Liam, went to Cathedral School for three years before he started kindergarten and it was wonderful. He was well prepared, whereas Ian was not so hip on MDO or pre-K so he went to the same MDO program for 5 years, from about 8 months until he started kindergarten. He does not like change. He loved little school but it definitely lacks the structure and curriculum that is offered at an accredited school. On with that.... it got kind of boring. Liam's team won their 3rd straight soccer game and my youngest lost his game. They are only 7 years old so they don't go to the playoffs but Liam's team is doing GREAT this year and I hope they keep it up. We went to the playoffs in Houston last year right before Christmas and it was a lot of fun. The boys loved it, and of course they were devastated when they lost the second game. But we made the whole weekend fun and did some Christmas shopping. Well, I guess I better finish my yearbook publication for PTA which is due by Friday and I still have tons of stuff to do to get it prepared.

Do you think it was PMS or just stupid-asses that caused my tears?? I'll ponder that too.