Tuesday was my birthday.  Happy birthday to me!  My kidlets made 3 of the sweetest birthday cards for me telling me how much they love me and that I’m the best mom in the whole world.  I love them…J  Tuesday we did an early dinner out before Belle had her lacrosse practice.  Then on Wednesday, we went bowling to celebrate my special day.  That was the kids’ idea, although I must admit since becoming addicted to Wii bowling (as in the video game), I’ve been dying to go real bowling.  I’ve come to the realization that I should stick with Wii because I suck at real bowling!  But it was a fun time ~ the kids had a blast.

 

I am a week away from my beach trip!  I cannot wait!!  I’ve got 5 million things to do before we leave, however, and I’m just trying to figure out how I’m gonna get it all done.  Of course cleaning, organizing, and rearranging my entire house is on my list of things-to-do.  Why do I always do that to myself before a big trip?  I think I have issues…

 

Speaking of issues, in addition to my latest Food Network addiction, I’ve recently become addicted to ebay as well.  I know, I know…ebay has been in existence forever.  How did I just now jump on this most wonderful bandwagon?!  Oh ebay, how I do love thee…let me count the ways…  Isabelle’s birthday is coming up at the end of April.  She’s asking for a Vera Bradley bag.  This is the funny thing about Belle ~ while she’s the most tom-boyish kind of a girl I know, she’s got this other side to her that is slowly starting to emerge.  That would be the side of ~ the finer things in life.  At Christmas time, she insisted on the most expensive pair of shoes.  Actually, she started asking for those suckers months before that.  I just made her wait until Christmas and yes, I got them on ebay for a fourth of the cost I would have paid at the mall.  So now it’s “Vera Bradley”.  Well, for what she’s wanting, a Vera Bradley would cost close to a hundred bucks if I went out and bought it brand new.  So I decided to check on ebay.  I so totally scored the cutest bag AND matching clutch for 40 bucks (including shipping) whereas I would have paid at least 3 times that if I went out and bought the bags locally.  But it’s not just getting good deals on ebay that totally rocks, no, no, no!  It’s the game of the bidding wars.....  It is a very powerful thing, my friends, and once engaged, I cannot lose a bidding war!  And after winning something (“winning” ~ as if I’m not paying for the stuff…), I feel the need to jump up and down and sing and point fingers at those poor souls whose bidding skillz are inferior to mine!  I know, I scare myself.  Perhaps I need to take a few days away from ebay.  Right after I win that queen-size down comforter…J

 

Not much else to report so I’ll tell a quick kid-story.  Yesterday I took the kids to the grocery store with me to pick up a few odds and ends.  One of the things we needed to get was a tomato.  Noah’s class is doing the play, “Stone Soup” and he needed to bring in a veggie to contribute to the pot of stone soup they were making the next day.  So we make our way to the tomatoes and I tell him to pick one out…and after several minutes of him picking through tomatoes (what in the hell was he looking for?!), I told him to pick the one he wanted and put it in the bag and to meet me in the next isle over.  I left all 3 kiddos there at the tomatoes and went about my shopping.  A few minutes later, Belle came running up to me and said:

 

Belle:  “Mom!  Noah went behind the counter where only the workers are allowed to go and he asked some man, “Can I help you sir?”  And Ross…Ross just laid on the ground and rolled around on a tomato that was on the floor.  Now he has tomato seeds all over the back of his shirt!!”

 

Me: (I am left speechless, trying to figure out exactly what just happened…forget that Noah accosted a random shopper behind the worker’s counter…did she just say that Ross ROLLED AROUND ON THE FLOOR IN TOMATO?!)         

 

At this point I just wanted to get out of the store as quickly as possible.  I caught a glance of Ross and yes indeed, the back of his shirt was covered in tomato juice and a few seeds.  Wth?!  I also noticed that he had his shirt on backwards.  I guess he wore it like that all day?  Weird kid…  So I continued my shopping and saw a man coming up the isle who was riding on one of those motorized shopping cart thingys.  Then I noticed Noah staring at him so we went through the conversation of why it’s not nice to stare at people…and that no, not all “old guys” have to ride on motorized carts…and that no, he was not allowed to ride on a motorized shopping cart…etc, etc…  Onward with shopping and I‘m about halfway down the next isle when Noah’s tomato and it’s plastic bag go flying through the air past me and end up on the ground about 30 feet in front of me!  Wha?!  Why are my boys rolling around in and throwing tomatoes?!  Where did they come from??  Apparently he was swinging the bag around in circles and he lost his grip and the thing went flying.  So of course he got reprimanded and I made him put the tomato in the buggy.  Onward once again with my shopping and I was near the finish line of this most unusual and a bit disturbing grocery store trip.  Noah was walking behind me (which is why I didn’t notice that he had taken back possession of his tomato) and motorized cart man was coming down the isle headed towards me.  It all happened so fast…something whizzed by me and all of a sudden motorized cart man GETS NAILED IN THE CHEST BY A FLYING TOMATO!  Am I dreaming right now, because I really don’t want this to be my life…?  I couldn’t speak.  I just stood there looking at motorized cart man who looked as stunned as me.  Then I turned around to look at Noah whose eyes were bulging out of his head in shock, hands over his mouth.  Still, I couldn’t speak.  Or move.  Noah went rushing over to retrieve his tomato and told motorized cart man that he was sorry, then hanging his head, he made his way over to me and put the tomato back in the buggy.  I then told motorized cart man that I was very sorry.  He just looked at me for the heathen mother that I am, still a little confused I think as to what just happened, then scooted his way past us.  I could have hung Noah upside-down by his toes, I was SO mad!!!  

 

I recommend boys to everyone out there contemplating having children.  I *really* recommend having them in pairs of two….

 

...because two is better than one!  

 

Thank goodness y’all are so dang cute...otherwise I’d have to give you away to the gypsies.... J

 

Until next time, these are the days of my life…..stay tuned for more!

 

 

Be great! 

 

 

 

 

If this was a red flag...

 

 

 

Then this should have been red flag #2...

 

 

 

 

Poor Pippy Squeak can’t catch a break…first Tiffany Suzanne and now Tink…  It’ll be a miracle if that poor mouse lives to see next week!  The cat had Pippy’s cage turned upside down the other day with the water bottle spilled out so that a huge hole remained wide open and available for an escape or attack.  Luckily H discovered mousey’s predicament before an atrocity occurred.  Dear God, if someone eats that mouse…..

 

 

From the mouth of Noah ~

 

 

The other morning Noah and Ross climb into bed with me for some cuddle time, my two little sweetums… J  Then Noah asked me this:

 

Noah:  “Mom, when you were born, were you black or white?”

 

Me:  “Well honey, I was white.  If you’re born white then you stay white.  If you’re born black then you stay black.”

 

Noah:  “Well…what happens if you’re born red?!” 

 

As I’ve written before, my boys are slightly obsessed with color ~ as in the color of people.  They’re also obsessed with people’s ages.  And sizes.  They love them some old people…and big people…but I digress…  I just think it’s their curious nature and the fact that they’re excited and maybe a bit perplexed to know that people come in so many different shades and colors!  They often refer to a person using a color to describe them ~ as in “that white lady” or “that brown guy”.  Since they just got done celebrating black history month in school, they’ve been particularly curious about white people and black people specifically.  They’re most confused by the fact that segregation existed not so long ago and it’s a hard concept for them to grasp.  I believe this explains why Noah’s first question above was followed up by this…

 

Noah: “Well, when were you born?”

 

Mom: “I was born in 1971”

 

Noah: “Well, when were you a kid…like when were you 12 or something?”

 

Mom: “Ummm, sometime in the 1980’s”

 

Noah: “Could you play with black kids?”

 

Mom: “Oh, of course, honey!”

 

Noah: “Well, in the 1980’s, would you have Tiffany Suzanne?” [note: Tiffany Suzanne was also in the bed with us…joy!…]

 

Mom: “Well no, baby.  Tiffany Suzanne wasn’t born then so I couldn’t have had her…”

 

Noah: “Noooo, I mean could you have black pets like Tiffany Suzanne?”

 

Mom: “Ohhhh, yes...  People could always have whatever color of pet they wanted.”

 

(How could you not love this…)

 

 

Also from the mouth of Noah….while sitting at the dinner table at a restaurant last Friday night, Noah tells his grandmother very matter-of-factly…

 

Noah: “My friend, bad-kid [obviously his name is not bad-kid, but he is one so we’ll refer to him as such], had to sit out of the game on Saturday because he got in trouble at school for kicking some white guy in the nuts…he kicked him in the nuts and got in trouble.…”

 

I guess he didn’t think we heard him the first time…  Please note that he referred to the kickee as “white guy”.  In Noah and Ross’ world, all boys are called “guys” and all girls are called “ladies”.  I’m constantly reminding them that little girls are not ladies…ugh…!       

 

Last night at the dinner table while having our round-table-discussion, Noah says this…

 

Noah: “My friend, broken-ankle-boy, spent the night at so-and-so’s house…and stepped in crap when he was there…”

 

Nice.  All I can say is that at least I’m in good company.  My brother has a little boy who just turned 3.  Allow me to relay some of their recent conversations with said baby….

 

            Baby: “Is butt a bad word??”

 

            S-i-l: “Well, it’s not a very nice word…”

 

            Baby: “Yeah but, is it better than ass?”

 

So the baby’s been sick the past few days and as a result ended up on breathing treatments a couple of times a day.  My brother was giving him his breathing treatment yesterday when the baby had this to say…..

 

            Baby: “Am I done yet?”

 

            Bro: “Not yet, buddy.  You’ve got a few more minutes”

 

            Baby: “Dammit!  I’m just want to be done already!!”

 

            S-i-l: “Where did you learn that word???”

 

            Baby: “Well…my daddy says dammit all the time…”

 

Ah Well, I guess he comes by it honestly, eh?

 

If this doesn't look like trouble, I don't know what does... J

 

 

In other news, I’m in a bit of my own personal hell these days for reasons I won’t go into here.  Suffice it to say it’ll take a little time to climb out of this funk.  That’s why you’re getting this random stuff in this blog entry today, lucky, lucky blog-people… J  So for my own randomness…..

 

Since becoming obsessed with the Food-Network and all things Rachel Ray and Paula Deen, my fingers and hands smell like garlic all. the. time.  And I kinda like it.

 

WTF?!  I am *so* over getting these bullshit email messages and invites from random creepies out there in blogland and beyond.  Just yuck!  Here’s one of the latest…

 

“hello Georgia, I am 44 Male from Istanbul. I am looking for msn girl friend like you to make some fun on the net like to get lover on the net. I see your picture and you are really so sexy woman. Write to me.”

 

Oh yes, BRING IT Istanbul man!  I’ve always wanted to make some fun on the net…like to get lover…  I was going to post his email addy for anyone who might be interested, but I was afraid he might hunt me down and kill me, so I declined.

 

A little bit of happy ~ I had lunch with my triangle girls last week.  Have I told you how much I love them?  Because I do.  We are indeed a triangle, connected by some invisible force that gives us *superpowers* so that we are able to see into the deepest parts of each other’s souls…  There are no secrets between us.  Impossible!  I don’t think I could keep one from either one of them ~ they literally have the ability to suck everything right out of me and lay it out in the wide open to be examined, dissected and put back together again.  Needless to say, it was wonderful getting together with them.  We laughed, we cried, and we laughed some more.  J  It was good, just what I needed at that time.  Hopefully we’ll get back onto a regular schedule for our lunches together!

 

A little more happy ~ It’s been sunny and 70 the past two days after 3 days of constant rain and cold temps.  I’ve been able to wear t-shirts and flip-flops.  Does life get any better than that?

 

Apparently it does…just look at this happy!

 

 

It’s the best kind of happy ever… J 

 

 

Until next time, these are the days of my life….

 

Be great!   

 

 

Where did I leave off….I think I ended my last post talking about Isabelle’s release from the hospital and the fact that she’s been doing well ever since.  So Sunday rolls around and I’m just hoping and praying that she doesn’t remember my promise to her that we’d go to the pet store and get her a hamster that day.  That “sleepy medicine” they gave her was crazy!  Poor girl, she was so confused.  There were all kinds of things she couldn’t remember and I was desperately hoping the “hamster promise” was one of those.  Not so much.  As soon as I got up that morning one of the boys bombarded me…

 

Boy:  “Belle is getting a hamster today?  How come?!” 

 

Me:  (looking over at Belle who is wearing a big eat-shit grin) “Dangit!  You remember that?!”

 

Belle: (still grinning) “Ummm, yeah.  That was before the sleepy medicine…”

 

Me:  “Dangit!  I thought for sure you’d forget that…”

 

Belle: “Nope!  When are we going?”

 

Boy: “That is NOT fair!!!  Why does Belle get a hamster?!?!”

 

There was no getting out of it.  I was stuck.  H was ready to kill me.  I don’t think he actually thought I’d go through with it.  But I did.  Mama totally buckled under the pressure, I couldn’t help it!  Oh, and in the middle of a snowstorm I might add.  Well, a “snowstorm” for Georgia anyway.  A hint of snow is considered a blizzard around these parts, it’s comical… J  Growing up in Pennsylvania the first 11 years of my life, I know what real snow is like.  I have to admit though, I’m just as crazy as everybody else around here whenever we get a snow report.  Which is why I immediately made a grocery list for H and sent him to the store (zoo) so that he could pick up (battle it out for) the last gallon of milk and loaf of bread on the shelf with the other shoppers (crazies).  Meanwhile, Belle and I made our way to the pet store.  Thirty minutes later we were leaving with a new pet.  A “robo dwarf” hamster named Pippy Squeak, because all the pets in our house must have a minimum of 2 names…;)  It really is quite cute, but still, it shouldn’t be living in my house…

 

 

Monday was a snow-day for the kiddos.  How fun is that?!  We just don’t get those very often so it’s a *really* big deal when it happens!  My kids played outside in the snow Sunday and Monday up until the time it all melted away.  They had a blast!  Complete with snowball fights, sledding, and snowman building.  I don’t know how many loads of laundry I did between Sunday and Monday.  Obviously we don’t have “snow clothes” so every time they came in and out of the house from playing in the snow they had to strip down and put on a new set of clothes to go back outside in.  It was never ending.  Being that it was a snow day for the kids on Monday, I decided to take the day off from work so I could hang out with them.  So I was eating lunch in the living room watching Belle and her friend play with Pippy.  One minute they’re playing, the next minute Pippy falls onto the floor where Tiffany Suzanne promptly picks her up in her mouth and attempts to run away with her!  My lunch plate went flying across the room as I attempt to capture Tiffy.  The girls are screaming, and all I see are a set of little rodent legs hanging out of Tiffy’s mouth while Belle appears to be beating/choking Pippy out of her mouth.  Thankfully, Pippy escaped seemingly unscathed with body parts all in tact.  Thank God.  I can only imagine the devastation that incident could have caused.  Belle now knows that Tiffany Suzanne must be put up in her cage whenever she handles Pippy.    

 

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful as was this past weekend.  We did lots of running around with lacrosse and baseball games, which I positively love on the weekends!  Weather-wise we went from snow last week to temperatures in the 80’s this week.  I’m loving it!!  The flip-flops came out this weekend and I couldn’t be happier.  Hoping this awesome weather is here to stay!!

 

On the agenda in the upcoming months ~ a family beach trip planned for the kids’ spring break the week of April 4^th to Perdido Key.  Also going on a girls’ trip the last weekend of May with my sister, lifelong friend since 3^rd grade, and her sister.  I grew up with this particular friend while living in Pennsylvania and we’ve stayed in contact over the years.  She’s temporarily back in PA until July (she normally resides in Colorado) so we decided to take advantage of her time on the east coast and take a trip together.  We’re going to West Palm Beach.  Pretty cool, eh?  I’ve never been so I’m really looking forward to it!!  After that trip I have my first triathlon the following weekend and my second tri two weekends later.  Oh yeah, my birthday is at the end of the month and Noah has requested that I have my “birthday party” at the bowling alley.  How funny is that?  I think I’m gonna do it, just for fun. J  I’m crossing all my fingers and toes that I get a new camera for my birthday.  I need a new one desperately!  Speaking of birthdays, Isabelle Rose will be 11 on April 28^th, and the boys will turn 9 on May 11^th.  Holy cow…time passes way too fast with them.  At least I can honestly say that I cherish each and every minute with them along the way.  They are and always will be my everythings…

 

Hope everyone out in blogland is fantastic!  Until next time, these are the days of my life. 

 

Be great

 

 

 

Belle and I left for the petstore with reports of snow on the way, to get this.....

 

 

We returned home to this.....  (watermill at the front of our neighborhood)  It really does snow in Georgia!!

 

 

Isabelle Rose + Pippy Squeak =  Happy

 

 

Enjoying their snow day!

 

 

Happy boy (Noah)

 

 

Rossy, haulin' ass down the neighbor's hill on his sled

 

 

The house covered in snow.  Such a rare sight!

 

 

Can you say red flag???  Less than 24 hours after Pippy's arrival, Tiffany Suzanne attempted to eat her!

 

 

 

And this doesn’t even cover our “snowstorm,” new addition, or the fact that Tiffany Suzanne attempted to eat our new addition!  All in a weekend…but I’ll cover all that in a later post!

 

Let me preface this post by telling you about Orphan Annie’s birthday party which Belle attended a few weekends ago…..  I walked Belle next door to the party to drop her off and speak to Orphan Annie’s mother, reminding her that we were right next door should she need anything during the course of the evening/night with a houseful of girls.  When I left Belle there, I almost had a meltdown!  See, Orphan Annie is a year older than Belle.  She’s in 6^th grade and in middle school where as Belle is in 5^th and still attends elementary school.  Orphan Annie just turned 12 where as Isabelle Rose will be turning 11 in April.  Belle was the only 5^th grade, non-middle-school-age girl at the party.  This sounds fine and all, I know, except for the fact that the “girls” at this party looked more like…. freakin’ adults!  Not only were they ginormous in size, they also had the hair, makeup, clothes, and bodies…with curves!  Gasp!!  Who looks like that at 12, 13 years old?  I looked through the sea of adult-party-girl-look-alikes as I was talking to Orphan Annie’s mom, searching for another pip-squeakish, rug-rat’ish kind of a girl who looked to be more on Belle’s level.  I found none.  I wanted to cry.  Aside from Orphan Annie herself, the other BIG party girls towered over my sweet little munchkin and accentuated her tom-boyish ways even more so than usual.  When I got home I was beside myself.  I told H that I felt like I had just thrown her to the wolves!  He thought I was overreacting, of course, and convinced me not to worry so dang much.  Apparently, none of the big girls attacked her and she ended up having a fabulous time at the party.  Whew!  I still couldn’t help but be bothered by the fact that little girls today look way too grown up these days, but moving on with the rest of my story…..

 

This past Friday night, we went out for Mexican and margaritas as we do most Friday evenings.  Now, I am a people-watcher extraordinaire.  I pay attention to everyone and everything around me when I’m out and about.  I can’t help it, that’s just what I do.  So I observed a large table full of adults and kiddos.  Couples it appeared, out to dinner with friends and kids.  Fun!  Looks like something we’d do.  So I commented to H about how cute I thought one of the “moms” was with her blonde hair and her cute jeans and boots and red shirt.  He took a quick look-see and although he didn’t respond to me (he doesn’t like to encourage me to be “down with opb” ~ other people’s business), I could tell he agreed with me about her cuteness factor.  He even got caught looking!  Don’t you hate it when that happens?!  Anyway, five to ten minutes later, the kids reappeared at our table from the play-area in the restaurant.  We continued to chit and chat at the table when Belle pipes up and says, “Hey, that girl over there is a friend of Orphan Annie’s!  She was at her party!!”  “Oh really,” I responded, looking over at the table in question.  Realizing she was pointing to cute-mom’s table, I perked up a little.  Asking her which girl it was, she started pointing to and detailing the “party girl”….blonde hair, cute jeans, boots…and yes, red shirt….  You have got to be kidding me.  Yes, blog people, “cute mom” wasn’t a mom after all.  Rather, she was an Orphan Annie party-goer.  Shocked?  Me too.  Ewww, and H got caught looking at her!!!  I think I need another margarita…..

 

Moving right along…when we left the restaurant that night, H pulled the car up to the front door for me and the kiddos because it was raining outside.  When we drove away we had to pass back by the parking space where H’s truck had been parked.  H quietly instructed me to look over to my right at the car that was parked in front of his just moments ago.  As we drove by, I thought I was seeing things…one too many margaritas maybe?  Were my eyes deceiving me or was there seriously a woman with her ass up in the air in the front passenger seat of a car?  In the middle of a busy parking lot?!  Really?  Who does that?!  Dear God, I’ll take a pitcher….to go!!

 

Saturday…  Our day started off busy as usual.  Noah had baseball pictures at 9am.  Belle had a birthday party to attend (please, please, PLEASE let this party be filled with little girls instead of those big, scary party girls!) so she and I did some running around before hand to get a gift and get some girl-time in.  Have I mentioned how much I adore this sweet girl of mine and how I treasure our time together?  Just making sure.  J  After Belle was off to her party, I hung out at home with the boys and a few of their friends.  Ross had baseball pictures later in the day and the kids pretty much came and went, mostly playing outside all day.  Evening came and everyone started winding down.  At about that time, Belle started complaining about an unidentified “bump” that inflicted her earlier in the week.  On about Wednesday or Thursday, she came to me complaining about some sort of a painful insect bite (spider, I thought?) on her inner left thigh.  It looked like a really nasty mosquito bite.  It concerned me as I thought it might be a spider bite and told her that we would keep an eye on it and take her to the doctor if it didn’t get better in a few days.  She didn’t complain a whole lot after that and we looked at it daily to make sure it wasn’t growing out of control.  When she complained again Saturday evening, I told her to let me see it.  Oh. My. God.  The thing had quadrupled in size.  A spider bite for sure, I thought.  It looked awful!  I called my sister who is an RN to ask her what I could put on it until we could get to the doctor on Monday.  After describing the “bite” to her, she told me that it sounded more like a staff infection and that I needed to take her to the ER immediately.  Long story short, I took her and we spent about 6 hours there Saturday night into Sunday morning.  It was indeed a staff infection, likely the MRSA strain.  They had to give her an IV port in her hand so they could administer “sleepy medicine” in order to do a procedure to drain the abscess.  It was quite an experience.  Belle did much better than me.  I suck at medical emergencies.  Totally.  Any time they did something to her that hurt her, I cried.  And I couldn’t be by her side during all these little procedures because I have a history of fainting in emergency rooms.  Yes, I’m one of those.  I had to sit in a chair in the corner and silently cry along with her.  There is not a more helpless feeling than not being able to do something to help relieve your child of pain or illness.  At one point she was still crying 10-15 minutes after getting the IV port in her hand, so I told her we would go to the pet store the next day to get her a hamster.  That seemed to help.  J  She’d been asking for a rat/hamster for years and we’ve emphatically told her NO over and over again.  That all changed Saturday night…  Anyway, since being released from the hospital, Belle is doing well.  We’re taking extra good care of her with lots of meds and warm baths to treat the wound.  It was a scary experience, but she’s doing fine now.  We followed up with her pediatrician on Monday and things are progressing and healing well.  Lacrosse and horse back riding are out for at least a week, but she’ll be back to all physical activity soon, I’m sure!

 

Never a dull moment at the H household, that’s for sure…J  I must end this post here, but stay tuned for more days of my life…..

 

Be great!

 

 

(Please forgive the poor quality of the pics.  I was using the camera on my phone)

 

Belle, after her procedure....

 

 

 

Her poor little hand.....

 

 

 

Still coming out of anesthesia.  She thought I had 2 noses and 2 mouths...;)