Cupid draw back your bow...

Happy Valentine's Day!

I thought I'd use this post to list a few things I love.

1. Going to movies and eating buttered popcorn. Big SPLURGE. I don't even want to know the fat grams/calories. I wash it all down with a Diet Coke of course.

2. Going shopping by myself or with friends...as long as no kids are present.

3. Pulling for the PACK. NC State Wolfpack that is.

4. Going to church and singing good songs. Those that give you chill bumps and bring a tear to your eye.

5. Reality TV. I'm addicted. Favorites include: The Bachelor, Jon and Kate Plus Eight, What not to Wear, Intervention, etc. I'll stop there so as not to embarrass myself, if I haven't already.

6. New York City.

7. Paris and all things French.

8. Buying kids' clothes. Preppy kids' clothes.

9. Eating crab legs. A chance to get really messy and not care.

10. Buying wrapping paper, stationary, monogrammed napkins...paper products in general. I'm a sucker for a pretty pattern.

11. Reading. Love to read when I find the time or even if I don't have time.

12. Going to the beach and people watching. Airports are good for this, too.

13. Decorating for holidays. If you come to my house around a holiday you will see decorations in a lot of the rooms.

14. Baking and cooking. Love new recipes. If only you didn't have to clean up. Luckily hubby helps with that most of the time.

15. Having a rare day when we don't have to be somewhere and nothing has to be done.

16. Spring days when I can plant new flowers. That is when your state isn't in "drought" status and you can actually water them. What am I going to do this spring?

I'll stop there. These were mainly "me" things. That's why no mention of minis or the hubby. They know I love them most of all! Have a "love"ly day!

You'll get through it...

Insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Einstein

My parents live 3 hours away but had a quick stopover tonight (dad in town on business)and had dinner with us. Afterwards my mom got to witness, firsthand, the mayhem of my life as a mother. She hears anecdotes on the phone frequently, but that doesn't compare to a front row seat. She saw mini#2 attempting to play naked tennis. Hey, the kid actually looked like he knew how to serve...but I digress. She saw mini#1 trying to pull out his Spongebob Operation game after being told half a dozen times it's bedtime. Could have been a direct result of all the post dinner Valentine candy he ate from Mimi (my mom). It not only was clogging his arteries, but his ears. She saw mini#2 wearing his NC State jersey (I thought I hid the d@#* thing) instead of the jammies I asked him to bring to me. Once the teeth were brushed and prayers were FINALLY finished, mini#2 started asking for his "cold beebe". A beebe at the White house is a "blankie". When he was a baby I was wise and made sure he had several instead of just one to rely on when necessary. This was in case of loss. Well for some reason this came back to bite me because he now wants a COLD beebe. Still trying to figure this one out. I told him "this is your cold beebe" pointing to one. He said "no, this is the warm beebe". So I pointed to the next one and said "that's the cold beebe". Too many choices you see. He wailed and said "nooooo" which my mom witnessed as she walked into his room for kisses. I told her our crisis and we started laughing. She so poignantly said "You'll get through it. I know your pain. You might not be pretty once it's all said and done, but you'll get through it." I think I'll put on some extra beauty creme tonight. It's going to be a long, bumpy ride.

10 Things I loved about this weekend...

Since this is the week we celebrate love I thought I'd start it off by listing 10 things I loved about this weekend:

1. Friday Family Movie Night- getting to be a tradition (do 3 weeks in a row constitute a tradition?). This week the White House watched The Sandlot... boys...baseball...mean dog. Cute.

Only 3 curse words. I was proud that only hubby and I seemed to cringe.

2. Eating lunch with family at a college burger drive in type place where hubby and I used to go years ago. We told the kids we never dreamed we'd be sitting here with our sons. It was pretty cool. One of those freeze in your mind moments with the kids.

3. Seeing the kids running around the NC Museum of Life Sciences having fun...or trying to flee from the caged snakes. Wait. That was me.

4. Buying sea scallops on steroids (HUGE! and on sale, too!) Saturday and making a yummy pan-seared recipe that night.

5. Mini #1 making me laugh by asking "Mommy who delivers the mailman's mail?"

6. Watching mini#1 (1st grade) do his Valentines for school all by himself for the first time. He

even did some for his brother to give to his neighbor friends. Sweetie.

7. Hubby and I watched Waitress Saturday night. It was surprisingly funny except I want to eat and make pie now.

8. Watching the kids play/laugh/smile at the playground. Hubby and I had a good laugh after I said "Look at all the parents. Their kids are smiling and they all look like they'd rather be anywhere else." We were in the same category as all the other parents ...

9. Crawling into mini#2's bed after his nap yesterday. I try to catch him when he's sweet which, for him, is after nap. He let me kiss him for a little while! Lately he's started objecting to all my kisses. He's almost 3. Too early!

10. Going to the grocery store late yesterday and buying pretty Gerber daisies for teacher appreciation day which was today. Made me think that spring is getting closer each day.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend, too!

Please. No more change!

I'm worn out. This week I've stayed up reading too late. It's another Jodi Picoult book, Nineteen Minutes, and I can't put it down. However, it's scary to think about, too. It's about a loner high school boy who ends up killing 10 classmates (popular) at school who had kidded him since kindergarten. It's heart wrenching because it explores the boy's family and their feelings, a one-time friend of the boy dealing with the fact she was spared and her mother having to mend their broken relationship...it's just so real life. She writes so beautifully. You really get into all of her characters' lives and emotions. I highly suggest her books.

Speaking of school...it was finally determined that our neighborhood is being rezoned to the year-round school down the street. This is bittersweet because we (read: me) love mini#1's current old, small-town elementary school. I hate CHANGE. Everyone knows that about me. I'm just now adjusting to life away from Atlanta and we moved here in Aug '06! And YEAR-ROUND? That is so foreign to me. I gave myself a headache last night reading the color-coded calendar for tracks 1-4. I have to give a preference. In this case I'm going to be a follower. My friends and fellow bus stop mates are all going to request the tracks in the same order. Yes, there could be a chance that mini #1's friends and neighbors end up on different tracks. How yucky! So if mini#1 is off in January, our next door neighbor could be in school! It is so overcrowded here. 6000 kids are being rezoned. Some because new schools have been built. And did I mention that school will be starting at 7:45? This is mini #1's current wake-up time. Yikes. Since departing the "working" world for the "WORKING" world, I must say I do enjoy sleeping until 7:30. Guess that will change, too. Ok, enough of my pity party. I'm 30++. I need to get used to change and not create mini change haters. I know this. I need to own this, but can someone at least feel a teensy weensy bit sorry for me?

Cake Art

So here is the actual mask and our version for the cub scout banquet. Not too bad. We bought the last tube of black writing gel at the grocery store because they were out of black icing. We squeezed every ounce out of that tiny tube!

Huffing and puffing...

Well, it's Feb. 5 and I've exercised a total of 5 times this new year. Not so good, but way better than December where I didn't even let exercise enter my thoughts. I'm gradually trying to add minutes on our elliptical machine. Last night after a rigorous 3 minutes I got off the machine (gasping for air) and moved to the giant exercise ball for crunches. This is the ball that is usually hurled down the stairs by mini#1 for entertainment. Well last night mini #2 saw me and found a considerably smaller ball and sat on it like me to work off some baby fat. How ironic. I was working off baby fat, too. His!


We had a fun time playing and watching football this weekend. Yes, you heard me correctly...I played football Sunday with the family at our neighborhood soccer fields. Some of you are probably laughing hysterically right now because that is so un-girly. But hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Mini#2 throws footballs at me all day long during the week and lately my hands instinctively go up to catch them. It's far better than being hit in the head. I've finally learned. He thinks he's Phillip Rivers (ex-NCSU QB playing for San Diego Chargers) and wants to wear his brother's Rivers jersey all the time! Just 2 minutes ago he came up to me with that d@#*
jersey wanting to wear it again. His freshly ironed going out on errands shirt was nowhere on his body. He said it had syrup all over it. Mom was blogging you see. He kept begging to wear it and said "but I said pleassse". I redirected his attention to a snack (unfinished breakfast). Note to self: HIDE RIVERS JERSEY.


Ok off to look for ideas for mini#2's upcoming 3rd birthday party. I'm leaning towards a western or farm animal theme. Any suggestions for crafts/games?

Scrapping, Screaming, Baking, on my!

I'm so ordering this cookie cutter I found online. Being the patriotic French major and all.... Now the minis can enjoy cute somewhat French snacks. They'll care less as long as sugar is a part of the snack.

Speaking of sugar, I took advantage of the rare rainy day yesterday to drag out my scrap-booking materials. I hadn't updated since the beach trip so I snipped, arranged, decorated, chronicled all events Aug- Nov. I just didn't have the strength to tackle Christmas. While I was finishing up Thanksgiving, mini#2 walked in coated in chocolate. The "hot mess" had eaten every last chocolate heart candy I had naively placed in a cute heart-shaped box on my foyer table. He wanted some milk to wash it all down. Scrapping was officially over. I had to go survey for further damage.

Before mini#2 interrupted my fun, I was enjoying TLC's riveting series...Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby. Before kids I treated this as childbirth prep. Post kids I find it smugly entertaining. Yesterday I was dumbfounded watching a woman scream as she did. She even commented that climbing Mt. Everest would be easier than birth. The thing is this was #3 and she had an epidural! She pushed TWICE and it was out. Come on drama mama. While I'm on this subject, what makes these people decide that they want to go through all of this on TV? Was the primal screaming for viewing audiences?And is it too much to ask that you hide your dirty laundry, put away cereal boxes and wash your dishes piled in the sink if you decide to invite America into your house? Especially in Bringing Home Baby. You had a couple days where a neighbor, friend, tv crew member could have done a quick cleanup.... Is it just me or does this bother others?

Well I need to go check out hubby and mini#1's progress in the kitchen where cake decorating 101 is taking place. Blue and Gold cub scout banquet is tonight and there's a cake auction/contest. I baked last night and they're attempting to duplicate, in icing, a Chinese New Year's mask. Hubby received it as a gift at work from a visiting Chinese exec. We're doing Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade version by adding food coloring to canned icing. Why is it that red food coloring NEVER makes RED icing? We've got a really dark pink going on, but that's as good as it gets. I'll have to post a picture later.