everyone and their brother has tagged me to do this 25 random things about me thing on facebook.

So here goes! But on my blog! Ha-HA!

1. I don’t do memes. I don’t forward the cooking recipes with my own favorite tacked on to the end to 7 friends. I don’t pass on the super awesome way to really TRULY (except for NOT) force gas prices down, I don’t forward the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe, I junk the email from the kid whose dying wish is to have his email forwarded to a bajillion people. So I’m very surprised that I am even doing this!

2. I wear my engagement ring as my wedding ring. And I wear it on my middle finger instead of my ring finger, because it comes too easily off my ring finger. My actual wedding ring isn’t very comfortable. But since I picked it out myself, I’ve only myself to blame.

3. I like to wear dishwashing gloves when I do kitchen cleanup. It’s just so nice to pull them off when I’m done and have my hands normal. Non-pruney. I highly recommend it.

4. I wore a toe ring for many many years. It broke, and I never found another one that I liked, and then the callouses went away and none were ever comfortable again. I still miss my toe ring.

5. Green is my favorite color. It’s also one of the best colors for me to wear. Once I “had my colors done” (lady told me what colors looked best on me) and she told me that often, one’s favorite color usually turns out to be the one they would look best in. Go figure.

6. When my son was a newborn, I often likened him to a frowny little old man.

7. There was a time when I thought I would like to become a lactation consultant. I still think it was be awesome to help new mothers work out the issues that can come with nursing. Nursing was one of the best mother experiences of my life, and I wanted to help others achieve that.

8. In college, I considered being a math major. I had never taken calculus. I loved math. (Still do!) But I’m not sure what I was thinking. Crazy.

9. I am a web designer, but I studied Music in college. Voice, with an emphasis in jazz. I never graduated.

10. I go through cycles, where I will wallow in the uselessness of housework – why bother doing laundry, it will just need doing again! This floor will just get dirty again after I mop it! It doesn’t matter if I pick up the main level, the kids will just come through and trash it again! I sometimes let myself get totally mired down and it makes a downward spiral of depression that envelopes everything.

11. Other times, I spring out of bed with determination and MOTIVATION! I clean and tidy and declutter! Everything must go! Everything must be cleaned! I always pray that it will LAST until a lot of shit gets done because the next circle of the cycle might be the wallowing side!

12. My very very super favorite thing in the entire universe is climbing into bed with fresh clean sheets. There is just nothing like that “clean sheets” feeling. I would change my sheets every day if it weren’t the most least economical thing EVER.

13. I consider myself from Virginia now. For a long time the Seattle area was my home, because it’s where I grew up, but not anymore. Many people live in 1 place for many years and yet never “claim” it as their hometown, but VA is my home, and I like it here. We may move out west some day, but if we never do, that would be fine by me too.

14. OMG HOW DO PEOPLE EVER GET TO 25? I may start telling you about my toe cheese now. It’s green, and it’s stinky.

15. I lied. I don’t have toe cheese. My toes are clean and fresh as a daisy!

16. Also – back to the clean sheets thing. I don’t like any type of fabric softener in laundry. OK, I take it back – we do use some in winter, when everything is so crackling with static electricity, but NEVER for sheets, and NEVER EVER for towels. I like the crisp slight stiff feeling of sheets. And towels treated with fabric softener never absorb right. They feel weird. Blech.

17. My go-to drink when I am sick is OJ and gingerale mixed together. It’s like a slightly fizzy OJ, which is perfect. Try it!

18. I am currently on a chicken noodle soup kick. It is sooooo good. I made batch #1 2 weeks ago. It was good. Batch #2 last weekend with slight alterations was even better. Going to make Batch #3 this weekend, and I can’t wait.

19. I can’t believe I’m on 19. What to write what to write what to write. I love Strawberry Shortcake. Like, the toys. I am a sucker for all SS merchandise. Jocelyn has a bajillion SS toys, and it’s all because of me. I secretly want them all for myself. MINE!

20. Only 5 to go! I like to watch movies that I’ve seen before, sometimes many many times before. Although “watch” is an overstatement, I like to have them on in the background while I clean the kitchen or some such thing. Same with old TV shows that I like, like Friends, Mad About You, NewsRadio, or SportsNight.

21. I also like to reread favorite books. My favorites are generally young adult literature. I usually reread several standards every year or so, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Where the Red Fern Grows, and just about anything by Lucy Maud Montgomery (of Anne of Green Gables fame). I just reread My Side of the Mountain, which was a kick. I recently ordered the Little House on the Prairie books through my kid’s scholastic book order and am giddy with anticipation. Haven’t read those in a VERY long time.

22. And yet, I can’t seem to find the motivation/want to read NEW books. I love to read, but I just can’t be bothered. Even if I know they’re good. Same thing with movies and/or TV. I have to make myself sit down and watch/read something new, and it just seems too energy consuming to me for some reason. I am a weirdo in this regard.

23. Unless it’s the Daily Show. I watch that religiously 🙂

24. Twenty-four! I’m almost done! I could kiss you twenty four! I am a total obsessive compulsive type person. In a non clinical sense – I just mean, I will obsess over something and be very impulsive about it (obsessive impulsive?) until something else shiny catches my eye and I move on to it. Obsession de jour: JEWELRY MAKING!

25. This has been extremely hard to do. Now that I’ve done it, I will not do another one like it for many many MANY a moon!

There are so many sweet things going on with Jocelyn that I want to document it, mostly for myself for later, so I can read it and remember how my almost 5-year-old was.

Jocelyn loves to sing. She loves to dance. This year, Santa brought her a Barbie CD player with two microphones. It has been a hit. She will put a cd on and dance to it, or sing along to it. The only downside is that the mics are really not that great, and in order to make her voice amplified, she sticks it practically in her mouth and the resulting sound is pretty unintelligible.

Lately she is into letters, sounds, words, and especially RHYMING. She is right on the brink of really reading, and she will look at a word and sound out the letters to herself quietly. On cereal boxes, fast food cups, pieces of mail, everywhere, she will be looking and seeing this world of written language around her. She is asking how things are spelled (even nonsense words) and then repeating it back with glee.

The rhyming is especially cute. And CONSTANT. She cannot say a sentence without rhyming the last word a few times.

“Hi Mom!”
“Hi honey.”
“Honey, money TUNNY!”
*giggle*
“TUMMY! Tummy plummy wummy! Mom POM!”

It is very cute, but she will get so caught up in making all these links and connections in her head that she can be completely and totally oblivious to what is going on around her. Getting her to complete a task can take a monumental effort (mostly in patience) by the parent. Sometimes when I ask her to do something, she will be looking right at me, but I can tell that she hasn’t actually heard a word I’ve said.

I’ve found that it is often best to get her to “surprise” me with a completed task. For example, I will said, “Eat 3 bites of your dinner,” and she will insist that I close my eyes. Then after she’s eaten the bites, she let me open my eyes and will squirm with delight as I demand to know What HAPPENED to her dinner! Someone came and TOOK her dinner! Quick, look under your plates, everyone, Jocelyn’s dinner is MISSING!!! Until she laughs and reports, “It’s in my TUMMY WUMMY PUMMY!”

The same tactics can work when getting dressed – it goes much better if I leave the room and tell her I want her dressed when I come back, rather than sitting there and guiding her through each step – Put on your pants, now shirt. Where are your socks? What about shoes? (plus, leaving the room makes mommy not so frazzled!) This is a great tactic for Ethan as well, because he loves to surprise us, not so much because he is too wrapped up in his own world to hear us.

She has also been getting hurt a lot. She has always been more prone to putting on the special effect tears whenever she gets the slightest bump or scratch (whereas I’m convinced Ethan could go head over heels through briars and broken glass and emerge hollering, “I’m fine I’m FINE!”) just for the attention it would garnish her, and let’s not forget, the ETERNAL quest for BAND-AIDS! But lately she actually HAS been stubbing her toes, tripping over her own feet, and knocking into things. Part of this I think is because of all these new things she’s thinking over and putting together in her head, all these language connections – she is sometimes not even aware of what’s around her.

Another part is she is a dancer. She cannot walk somewhere, she bounces there. She skips there. She sashays there! She TWIRLS there! She flitters there! She tries walking backwards there! Or of course, she RUNS there! It’s hard to find a balance between squashing her desire to experiment with the movement of her own body and trying to get her to a) actually go where you wanted her to go already! and b) protect her from the inevitable tripping, falling, or bumping into something that will come.

If she is unhurt, she is super quick to say “Sorry!” in a cutesy voice, as over time she has worked out that this is a good method for circumventing any trouble (like if she’s knocked something over), and as always, if it is called for, put on her whiney voice and walk over to extend her injured body part and state, “I hurt my aaaarrrrrrrrrm I need a baaaaaand-aid!” Again – it’s hard to find the right balance between telling her to brush it off already, it was just a bonk, and giving her the attention that a good bonk might required. And there have been a few instances of Actual Injuries that have gone Unnoticed because they were marked down in the parent’s mind as a Superficial Injury instead of Actual Injury. Oops. What can I say – when you get 10 Superficial Injuries in a day, it’s not hard to brush off the one Actual Injury!

She is a lagger in getting out of car/walking somewhere public-type situations. She lags getting out of the car and she is perpetually 5-10 feet behind me as I walk. I recently discovered a good tactic for this though. I used to say a lot of, ‘Come on’, ‘hurry up’, or ‘stay with me.’ Now, I point down at the ground next to me, and I say, “See this spot? I want you to walk right in this spot next to me.” It works probably 85% of the time (which is much better than the 40% success rate of previous nagging techniques!) She will find some way to make a game of it and get wrapped up in it in her head again (for example, she’ll try to stay right ON my shadow), but it keeps her next to me which is fine by me!

Another aspect to Jocelyn (which maybe contributes to the touch of klutziness?) is her height. I don’t know her height in inches, but she is tall. She will be 5 in March, and is about a head taller than all the other kids in her class in daycare and also ballet. She already pretty much can’t wear any shirts from the toddler’s department (Target goes up to 5T) and by summer I think she’ll be out of the 5T pants as well. I never thought I would be buying clothes in the girls’ department before she’s even in kindergarten!

Ahh, my girl. She is full of excitement and still has that little kid excitement about many things that Ethan is now jaded about. She loves to make things and draw and her artwork is taped up on walls all over the house (sometimes in curious places!) She adores envelopes and there’s been many a letter or drawing stuffed into an envelope, addressed and stamped and sent via the postal service straight back to our own house. (This has also been a great tactic to have Ethan do some writing at home.) This year of 4 has been great, and is finishing up with a bang.

-amy (pay-mee, way-mee)

In my efforts to not let my blog just COMPLETELY wither away and die, here is a forced update!

Do you totally hate me? The christmas shopping is done.

I totally got up and did Black Friday this year. It was actually pretty awesome to get most everything out of the way. I researched, made a list of things to get and went to 3 stores: target, toys r us, and kmart. I made a spreadsheet for the family of who’s getting what and after a few more stops that weekend, I’m happy to say, the christmas shopping is DONE. Yesterday, I got a tree with the kids. James and I put it up when he got home after his class/test, and today the kids and I will get going on decorating. I’m going multicolored this year with the 5 boxes of “icy twinkle lights” I got on sale after christmas last year.

For some reason I thought that they were ceramic. Kind of glad now to find they are not.

An early christmas present to me was a new mixer. My old mixer is a knock off of the Bosch Universal, a mixer my mother has had since before I was born (I may be exagerating, but as long as I can remember!).

Bosch Universal

6-8 years ago when I wanted a mixer, I wanted one like hers, but got convinced that this lookalike, Dimension 2000, was a better choice. And it works fine, just loverly, still does, except I broke both the sets of wire whips (regular and cookie dough) and the company is now out of business. Not so loverly.

Dimension 2000

So I’ve been out of a mixer since the summer, and with Christmas here, cookie making season is upon us. I like to make cookies and send them out to all our family (because I’m cheap that way) And you know what? Mixing double batches of cookie dough with a hand mixer? IS NOT FUN.

Linen N Things is going out of business, and so I’ve been eyeing the Cuisinart 5.5 quart model, regularly $300. It’s very similar to the KitchenAid mixer, same similar attachments available (even a food processor!) but in my mind, a little slicker looking and with a TIMER feature! How cool is that! I was a little nervous I was making the same mistake I made with the Universal — buying a different version of the more known brand, but I don’t think Cuisinart is going to be going anyway!

Cuisinart 5.5 qt Stand Mixer

When I first saw it, it was down 20% to $240, and James agreed that a mixer is something I kind of use a lot and actually “need” (thanks again honey) (he could have been a real pain because I have this “anything bought for yourself or others after Thanksgiving MUST BE WRAPPED AND PUT UNDER THE TREE” rule that he REALLY doesn’t like, so he could have turned that one against me and not let me HAVE the mixer until Christmas). When I went to get it, it was down again to 30%, so at $210, the was mixer purchased, and has already been put to use.

It’s a little kooky to get used to this style — the Bosch/Dimension probably seems like the kooky one to other people, what with the actual bowl being more of a doughnut shape instead of a normal bowl, but it’s what I’ve been used to my whole life, even growing up! Getting in and scraping down the edges has been tricky, and the dough does like to ride up a bit, up above the beat/whip, but so far, I like it 🙂 The timer feature is especially nice. So far I have only done cookie doughs, but I can’t wait to try some bread doughs and whip cream and egg whites (not all for the same thing, obviously!)

So even though the shopping is done, there’s still a lot of baking to do, and I want to make some easy mass-assembly line type craft to include with the cookies, but am at a loss of exactly what. Last year I did marble magnets for everyone, using my masses of extra altoids tins as a container. Stretchy cheap-beaded bracelets for nieces would be nice, and are super easy. Maybe stretchy bracelet with their name on it for the boys, but some of my nephews are older and I could see totally sticking up their nose at them. Adults, really not sure. Necklaces for adult female relatives would be nice, but might be too expensive (good beads ain’t cheap people!). And let’s face it, I’m running out of time for intricate work here. We might just be looking at stretchy bracelets for the little girls, and cookies for everyone else.

OK, this wraps up our holiday christmas presents edition post!

-amy twinkles but she does not glow. NO GLOWING.

Well, it’s definitely time for an update on the children.

Saturday I finally broke down and took Ethan to the doctor because of his eyes. I’d noticed that they’ve been bloodshot off and on for 3-4 days, looking fine whenever I tried to point it out to James, and they looking vaguely watery and bloodshot whenever james was nowhere in sight. The two items (bad looking eyes, and James) finally coincided and I took Ethan to urgent care. We waited around FOREVER, and then the doctor had the nerve to tell me that yes, it was pink eye, but too mild to be treated. It would clear up in 3-4 days.

“But it’s already been 3-4 days..?!?”
“Yup, that’s normal.”

I was annoyed. We came home and I started giving him some of the drops we still had in the house. (that’s right. I defied the doctor’s orders. Shoot me.)

Saturday night was very nice – James and I got a sitter and went to see a movie, “Rachel Gets Married” – a nice, light hearted jaunt starring Anne Hathaway as a drug addict getting out of rehab for a weekend to attend and participate in her sister’s wedding. There were such light happy go lucky moments as when we learn that Anne’s character was responsible for the death of their younger brother years ago, when she was in charge of him and was high as a kite – there was a car accident, the car went into a lake, and she couldn’t get the brother out. The movie revolved around the family and their disfunction, and how this event changed them further. Yeah, it was pretty much the feel good movie of the year!

I wouldn’t have chosen it if I’d known how heavy it was (as james said, “would you CHOOSE a kick in the balls??) but I can’t say I didn’t like it. Can’t really say I liked it either, but I didn’t DISlike it. It was interesting.

Then we got pizza at a place in Georgetown that has a huge beer selection, talked over the movie, the kids, our life, beer, the kids, work, the kids and then some more about the kids.

That night Jocelyn woke up just as we were about to head to bed, crying about her ear. So Sunday came around and once again, I was at the urgent care center, this time with Jocelyn. We saw a different doctor who confirmed, yup, she has an ear infection, and got a prescription for the super strong good stuff, augmentin es (for extra strength). Unfortunately for us…. the strong stuff is also the awful tasting stuff.

I gave her the first dose as soon as I got it, in Target, anxious for it’s to start working it’s antibiotic mojo, and she compained about it’s awful taste. That night’s dose went down too, with some complaints afterwards, but not too much trouble. Well, this morning… it took me a half hour to cajole her into taking it.

This is really dangerous territory. There are a LOT of things in a child’s life that a parent can just outright control. Child doesn’t agree? Parent can just pick Child up, and deposit her where Parent wants, despite Child’s wishes. However, there are 3 things that Parent Just Simply Cannot Control Or Order Away. Eating, Pooping, and Sleeping. You can’t make them do any of those things, so you should just give up trying.

Now, if I had to characterize our two children, I would say Ethan is the stubborn one (like a MULE) and Jocelyn is the more flexible one. If Ethan doesn’t want to do something, then by god he is going to try everything in his power to not do it. And I mean tooth and claw. Jocelyn however, will protest while she goes along with whatever it is she doesn’t want to do.

So when Parent (that would be me) lines up the treats and the glasses of water for afterward and talks about how the “medicine is going in there to beat up those germs! take that, germ! and THAT! HIIIII-YAH!” for a good 60 minutes and still is getting nowhere with Child (that’d be Jocelyn) and Parent starts to lose their patience/temper and starts to try to just start order Child to “take this medicine already!” with cold hard voiced counting to 3 (after which the child is just supposed to magically open their mouth and take the medicine) — Now this is the child who is “flexible” mind you, and she was having none of it… that should say something about how vile this stuff is.

Tonight, after almost nearly just about forcing her to open her mouth and squirting the medicine inside, she kept her mouth open, letting it drip out all over the place while crying plaintively.

This was only Day 2 of 10 days of medicine people. I waved the white flag and had our pediatrician paged. We’re taking Jocelyn in tomorrow for another looksee at the ears and a new prescription. She said not to worry about the morning dose.

Have I mentioned how much I love our pediatrician?

So that is the medicine drama. The actual The Girl Is In Great Pain! drama is much worse 🙁

Last night she woke up crying just as we were about to go to bed. She did not stop. she clung to me and wouldn’t let go. James helped me get everything situated and we quickly brought her into our bed with me while James went to the guest room. She would quiet down just to start crying again in 30 seconds. After singing and stroking her back and holding her and putting her down and laying next to her and holding her again and nothing helping, finally I decided she really just needed to get her mind off of the pain. So we grabbed our blankies, went downstairs, whispered about how CRAzy it was, sneaking around in the middle of the night, and put on Finding Nemo. I kept telling her that if she wanted to fall asleep, she could, but she stayed awake the entire time, with only a few plaintive, “My ear hurts!” throughout. Afterwards, we went back up to bed and she slept until morning.

Today she cried about her ears (and yes, it was BOTH now, instead of just the one) a few times, but seemed to be much better in the afternoon, not mentioning her ears at all, so hopefully she can sleep through the night tonight.

Ethan has been doing pretty good in school. He has a very good week with a few isolated incidents. But when those incidents happen, ARGH. He seems to just LIKE punching his fist out in front of him. Even when there’s no one there, he just likes doing that. Unfortunately, sometimes he does it AT OTHER PEOPLE. Sometimes you just want to shake him and say, “THIS IS NOT HARD, JUST QUIT HITTING PEOPLE.” Erg.

With Jocelyn home today, I let him ride the bus home from school, something he’s wanted to do for a while. He had a good day at school, but doh – he hit a girl on the bus on the way home. His reason: She was singing a song and he wanted her to stop.

We walked over to her house and he apologized, but jeez, it just totally deflated me.

He is currently in a group class for social achievement once a week and he HATES it. the counselor said that of course he hates it, they’re calling him out on the things he’s doing. I feel OK about it, but I am still melancholy about a specific doctor that was highly recommended but is not in our insurance. One of the comments one of the recommenders said was that it was eye-opening for her. For her. It would be nice to know if James and I are handling things well, and get advice and help for anything we may be inadvertently doing to reinforce bad behavior.

There are 3 things he seems to be constantly doing around the house – throwing things, swinging things around and around and around, and punching his fist out in front of hime (whether someone is there or not, it’s not acceptable). Today after the bus incident, he seemed to be doing all three more and more and more. We finally decided (we probably should have done this a while ago) that any TV shows with fighting in it is hereby not acceptable. The kids favorite show is Avatar, which james and I both reall like as well, it’s won awards and shit — but the fact is, there’s fighting in it, in EVery episode, and that can’t be helping, so, no more Avatar. Ethan didn’t take it well. I told him that maybe after there’s no more reports of hitting or punching, we would consider putting it back on the tivo.

I don’t know if this is just me, but Ethan seems to have gone a bit backwards in his communication skills. He used to be able to relate things to me that were understandable and mostly, in full. But it seems like he hasn’t been doing that for a while now. For example, say there’s something he’s thinking, or remembering that spans 1 through 10. Well, he will start talking, and only say the parts 3-5, and I’ll have to try to figure out or ask enough questions to get the 1, 2, and 6-10 (did that make sense??) If it’s something that is home related or that we talked about before, I can do that fairly easily, but if it’s something I’m not familiar with, like something at school, then I’m totally in the dark. I’m pretty sure this is normal behavior, but it makes me wonder sometimes too.

Ethan is having his testing done next week, which is another source of some anxiety. Well, it is when I think about it, but truly, I don’t think about it very often, so I’m OK. when I do though, I worry about what the results will be and what those results will mean. James talked me down from the cliff on our date though with the simple truth – we’ll deal with it when we know what it is we’re dealing with and whether it even is something that needs dealing with.

I realize that was long — if you’ve stuck in here this long, I hereby award you a gold star for fortitude. If not, that’s ok too – I think mostly this post was for me, getting all this off my chest out out of my head is always good.

-amy skims the goo… OF HER BRAIN!

Last week, Ethan did well in his 1st grade class at school, but had problems (mostly on the daycare bus) nearly every day at daycare. We’ve been dealing with behavior problems from Ethan, off and on, since the end of summer now.

On Tuesday, I got a call from the daycare that Ethan had some pretty serious incidents on the bus. Namely, he was licking the seatbelt, then he hit people with it, then he pulled a girl’s hair and pushed/pulled her down to the seat. Then as he was leaving the bus he kicked the glass on the front door, told everyone to shut up, and tried to punch the girl in the face. She brought her backpack up, so he didn’t hit her, but rather the backpack. While sitting in the office, he continued to tell people to shut up.

They called me and requested I pick him up immediately.

On Tuesday after the incident, James and I agreed that these issues had been going on too long and it was time we sought professional help in the form of a child therapist or psychologist.

Yesterday I got recommendations from our pediatrician, ruled them out because they weren’t in our network, researched some others IN our network, and submitted some initial paperwork to get us started.

This morning, the director of the daycare called and informed me that because of the dangerous nature of the incident on Tuesday, Ethan was no longer welcome to attend.

It’s a pretty emotional day… nay, week.

I will have more to say on this later, but for now, just wanted to get that down and see if it helped me carry on with my day any more.

– amy struggles along.

conversation between james and i last night, during one of the many tivo pauses of the presidential debate:

james: seriously, if I was elected president, that’s the first thing I would do.
amy: what?
james: torture. In my mind, that’s the most heinous thing that needs to be corrected.
amy: You know, that’s one thing John McCain supposed to defy Bush on, but he’s slipped a time or two.
james: The torture, it’s just despicable. First day in office, that’s what I’d do.
*amy just stares at him.*
amy: Really?
james: yeah.
amy: the VERY FIRST THING?
james: absolutely.
amy: Oh, I don’t think so. I think there’s something you’d do first.
james: what?
amy: come on! you’re finally president! you’re PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! you KNOW you’d crack open all the super classified shit and find out the real deal about aliens!

I know that’s what I’d do. What would you do?

Otherwise known as:
OMG SHE ACTUALLY MANAGED TO POST SOMETHING! WITH PHOTOS NO LESS! BRACE YOURSELF!

SATURDAY:
Pumpkin patch with corn maze (tricksier this year!)(we made it out alive)
pumpkin cupcakes with detailed instructions and help given by Jocelyn
visit to firehouse’ open house, complete with HELICOPTER parked out front
t-ball game
t-ball snacks
home to make frosting with detailed instructions and help given by jocelyn (must be orange! we need black for jackolantern features! LET ME HOLD THE MIXER!)
Toy Story 2
bed, oh thank god, bed, Zzzzzzzzz..

SUNDAY
train ride up to Clifton for a Clifton festival
colored hair spraying (jocelyn)
face painting (jocelyn)
getting of balloons (whoops, they were from republicans, oh well)
park playing
denial of buying children tickets for big bouncy thingees
tears shed
accidental letting go of balloon (Jocelyn)
denial of buying ANYTHING that has to be carried home
tears shed
seeing of McCain | Palin stickers EVERYWHERE
seeing NO ONE at McCain|Palin booth, Obama|Biden booth very busy, with all stickers gone
democratic balloon obtained (Jocelyn)
Obama|Biden car bumper sticker obtained
Sighting of Wonder Sarah Palin Woman
(Bipartisan balloons in the family! W00T!)
Funnel cake BOUGHT AND CONSUMED OH YUM!
losing of democratic balloon
tears shed
AND SHED
bipartisanship lasted an entire 5 minutes
Bye bye clifton, drove into fairfax
good vanilla purchased at whole foods (at least i hope, it looks suspicious to me)
book store with kids while
apple store (james) to exchange white recalled outlet thingees
soft serve Kline’s ice cream in Manassas on the way home
GROUP COLLAPSE FROM EXHAUSTION AT HOME
and then to cap the day off… 20 minutes of washing and rewashing Jocelyn’s hair to get all the pink out….
and putting my Obama|Biden sticker in my car in the dark. I didn’t do that great a job. I have never put a bumper sticker on my car.

MONDAY:
James and I stealthily took the kids to their respective schools w/out dropping a hint that it was a day off for us.
Watched a few Futurama’s
Went and saw Burn After Reading (not sure I recommend it)
Lazy long lunch at Rio Grande
Sat and watched kids playing in the water fountain (aren’t they COLD??)
best buy (Sleeping Beauty & Speed Racer purchased)
book store (james)
old navy & kohl’s (me)(new clothes for kids purchased)
kid pickup
surprise dinner at mcdonalds (for the kids, we were still stuffed from lunch)
home

THE END!

EXCEPT FOR!

PICTURES!

Children Posed for Picture In Corn Maze

Children NOT Posed for Picture In Corn Maze

Ethan Shuffling Into Third Base

Jocelyn Girl-Running Into Third Base

Jocelyn’s Pink Festival Hair That Later Took 2 Shampoos To Get Out

Jocelyn’s Butterfly Face Painting

Very Busy Democrat Booth

Totally Dead Republican Booth Directly Opposite Democrat Booth
(to be fair, they could have just been grouped around Wonder Sarah Palin Woman)

Sarah Palin Wonder Woman

Handsome Man Relaxing at Rio Grande

Busy weekend for the Panders.

Hi honey,

I know we haven’t seen each other a whole lot in the last week. Sure I guess we did see each other on the weekend, but what with the tball games and the settling arguments of who gets the pink bowl and She Touched My Toy! No YOU Touched MY Toy! and prying the DS out of our son’s sticky vise-like grip, it doesn’t feel like I’ve seen you that much. I know I’ve been sleeping in the guest room, because of the sinus infection that causes me to spend a non-merry half hour coughing and hacking at 4am (I love you, I see no need to put you through that), so you haven’t gotten to listen to me blather endlessly about all the random shit in my head, the way I always do when I am tired but can’t just lay down and go to sleep already. I haven’t really heard about the random stuff you’ve been thinking over either (aside from the fact that Governor Palin is in way over her head and what was McCain thinking?) I really HAVEN’T seen you much, you’re away Tuesday and Thursday nights at class, and then there’s often homework for said math class on other nights, and damn, life is busy isn’t it?

So yeah. It’s been too long since we actually spent time together, talking about something other than the kids, Jocelyn’s burgeoning boredom in tball and Ethan’s misadventures in school, and I know you’re on board when I say we need to get out together, just us (now if only Jocelyn would go to sleep at night instead of calling for one of us 14 times before passing out way past her bedtime, so I would be comfortable even engaging the sitter for the night). We could go see a movie, or maybe a play, have dinner, but mostly it would be nice to remember you’re my husband and not just a housemate whom I tag team with to care for the children, and rotate the laundry. We could just go and have dinner somewhere and annoy the servers by staying and talking for three hours and I’d be happy.

I know I told you yesterday that I REALLY appreciated how you cleaned the kitchen, but I want to put it down right here – You absolutely, totally and completely made my day. That kitchen has kicking my ass for a week and a half and every time I could almost quite get it to nearly clean but not all the way, but you did it, it was beautiful, and I can’t tell you how much I love you for that. You do so much for me and the kids and the house, and I appreciate it.

Now that the azithromiaxoxicillin is kicking this sinus infection to the curb (I actually slept all night last night!) it won’t be long before I’ll be climbing into our own bed for the night, oohing about how much I love clean sheets, and blathering to you endlessly in the moments before sleep, (shoosh, you know you miss it) and wake up to see your face for a brief instant before the kids climb into bed virtually demanding to be tickled and kissed and then up and showers and teeth-brush-overseeing must begin.

I miss you, I love you, and I can’t wait to spend some time with you,

Love,
Amy

This saturday was our community yard sale. Basically, everyone puts out their stuff if they feel like it and there’s a communal sharing of junk. It’s a GREAT time for the kids to take their money jars and go out scouting for a new toy or two. They both totally scored.

I saw this one, and if Jocelyn hadn’t wanted it, well, let’s just say it was coming home one way or another. SO CUTE!!

strawberry shortcake house

I love this, I love this, I LOVE THIS! I remember being super jealous of my best friend neighbor Heidi, who had just about every strawberry shortcake doll that was out at the time. I LOVE that they’ve started putting these dolls out again. Jocelyn has a Strawberry (with a scooter, and the kitty, Custard) and a Blueberry, both of whom have lost their clothes and whose hair is all tangley. Strawberry was MIA, but Blueberry has been having a fine, naked time in her new house. I must say, best $2 every spent!

Our $2 new acquisition did however, cost us more money than that, because by Sunday, I had decided we needed, nay MUST HAVE AT THIS MOMENT, more strawberry shortcake dolls in the house. I got a Crepes Suzette doll for Jocelyn, and a Lemon Meringue doll for me. I have just 2 things to say: These little gals certainly are pricey, at $8.99 each. Secondly, I love that they are actually GIRLS. Not women with inhuman measurements, not girls trying to look like women, not… (dare I say it? I probably shouldn’t say it, oh hell I’ll just say it) dolls who look more like WHORES dressed like they are trying to make a buck or two on a Saturday night. I am happy to spend some money on Strawberry Shortcake and try to direct any obsessions in the making in that direction rather than Princess Disney, Bratz, Barbie, or whatever other skanky ho doll comes around. (And yes, she has already barbies, disney princesses, and bratz, and I also had barbies galore.. they’re not banned in this household, I am just more than happy to point my innocent 4 year old in a more girl-like direction.)

Ethan also lucked out, I just am not as effervescent about his purchases, because they don’t hold childhood nostalgia for me. He picked up a pretty nifty helicopter, which has a hook on the bottom, and a cool propeller that spins, as well as a firetruck that does a variety of things that I can’t quite follow, despite his showing me time after time.

James came home with a borrowed Canon 70-200 f4 IS L lens (which for the non-photography knowledgeable, DROOOOOOOOL! We’re talking over a grand on this baby.) So, the kids and I set up a little photo shoot. I need to build a light box!

The lens was very nice, but I’m still quite happy with our lens, the Sigma 50-150 f2.8. No image stabilizer, but it’s a bit faster which should even out. I think the Canon is a hair nicer with the IS and the longer zoom then ours, but I feel no need to lament our choice. The Sigma was a little more than half the cost of the Canon, it’s a great lens, especially to our very amateur eyes!

James and I met with Ethan’s teacher, and also one of a school counselor, and I feel a lot better. I think we are seeing a lot of improvement, and the day in question was just a tough day. He has gotten greens all week (since then) and yesterday he even went through the entire day w/out getting his panther taken away (yay!)

Jocelyn wasn’t feeling well yesterday morning. I took her temperature which was normal, and was coughing it up to a case of the grumpies, when she threw up. I was not in the room and I have a feeling it was more like a “spit up” situation than throw up, but I couldn’t in good conscious send her in after that, so she stayed home and I tried to work anyway.

Ethan was very grumpy at having to go to school when his sister got to stay home, so I promised I’d pick him up at school (instead of going to daycare afterward). Jocelyn and I brought their money jars, which had several weeks allowances socked away in them, and after we picked him up from school, we went to target – me, to forward my obsession with finding the perfect new dishes to buy, and them, to while away the time pointing to something that costs $80, and asking me, “Do I have enough money for that?” before settling on something they actually can afford.

I have NO IDEA why (ok maybe a little idea why), or even HOW Jocelyn spotted this, but she choose a fake hair extension. A bright PINK hair extension.

I had no idea how this fake hair is supposed to be applied, but I treated it like a very awkward pony tail elastic and muddled through anyway.

Ethan chose a light saber.

It does not have any batteries, and so doesn’t make any sounds, but that just means he gets to make the sounds himself.

He choose red, despite my pointing out that that’s the bad guys color, but he insisted (red being his favorite color).

Yes, these are taken still at Target, because Ethan had his toy open the SECOND the cashier rang it up and handed it to him, and Jocelyn insisted on getting her pink hair on.

And yes. I let her wear a tutu to target. I don’t usually allow dress up clothes outside the house, but for some reason I let her. Maybe because she’s getting to big to get away with this much longer.. might as well let her do it now while she can! (I’d like to go to Target in a tutu! Am I too big?)

After they picked out their toys, I made the mistake of walking them through the halloween section, where they decided to be NEW characters for halloween instead of the same characters as last year. DOH! Jocelyn decided she wants to be a witch (though this actually would be easy to do at home, and actually, I think I may have turned her towards COWGIRL, which I would love to make for her again) and Ethan wants to be Darth Vader. (“I already have the light sabre for it!”)

Of course, there was much moaning and groaning when I dragged them through housewares. The dishes were a bust. Although I really like this pattern, but I don’t like the shape of the dishes at all. Too traditional.

These are made by Corelle. I like a -lot- of the Corelle patterns, but finally ruled the brand out completely. No matter the pattern, the bowls only have a colored stripe around the rim. I want my bowls to look pretty too! So no Corelle.

These ones I liked too, but were on clearance and didn’t have everything available.

I especially like how I could buy them all separately, because we don’t use mugs, and invariably when we purches the 16 piece place settings for 4.. we have shelves of mugs we never use. And if we’re REALLY unlucky… saucers too. Blech.

All this culminated in a huge internet dish-hunt last night (interrupted by Jocelyn REPEATEDLY getting out of bed, long past her bedtime grrr) which if you’re curious, you can see on flickr. However, I just have to say that I LOVE THESE DISHES SO MUCH:

And look! No mugs! Sadly, they break all my rules of what my new dishes must entail (no melamine being the first rule, I’m sorry melamine, but we NEED to be able to microwave our dishes, and you don’t let us! At least, not w/out experiencing 3rd degree burns.[1. Melamine material heats up much faster than normal, so if you put something on a melamine plate and nuke it, your food may still be cold, but the plate will burn you when you go to pull it out! It’s too bad, because I love melamine.]), but if they ever show up in target stores, they may find their way home ANYWAY.)

Here is my #1 favorite right now, and they’re on sale, so I could get 12 place settings for cheap! However, since they’re on sale …. there are no serving dishes available in this pattern. Doh. So now I’m wondering if I should go with some other pattern that I can also get platters and serving bowls in? Our kitchen is always kind of woefully unequipped when it comes to serving dishes (even serving utensils) so I’m thinking yes, I should – especially when the “runners up” so to speak are also super awesome.

My #1 favorite: Mikasa Autumn Frost

Runner up: Mikasa Red Berries

I love the red berries, but I would prefer a squarish plate. This might be a deal breaker for me. This pattern however, has a CRAZY amount of serving dish choices, so I have to consider it:

Another runner up: Mikasa Wispy Floral

Isn’t it pretty?? I really do like this one a lot. Some serving dishes, but not many. This is probably my #2 choice after Autumn Frost.

I have found it amusing how my aesthetic runs from super simple, minimal design and clean lines (all these mikasa patterns for example) and the crazy psychodelic patterns with super saturated colors (the choices above from Target). I’m not going to think about what that says about me as a person. Something we don’t need to pick at, right?

I’m definitely not going to rush this, as even if these choices go away… well, there’s sure to be some more awesome patterns out soon.

– amy spent the night dreaming of dishes, and getting clawed by a kitty