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!