OK, not really a plague, but damn if this virus isn’t makin’ the rounds!

Ethan stayed home sick Friday, and was still running a low fever off and on until Saturday. James took him to the doctor, who pronounced it a virus.

By Saturday night, James professed to feeling a bit under the whether, and by Sunday night, Jocelyn also turned up with a fever.

We thought that James would be home today with both Ethan and Jocelyn, but when I snuck into the kids’ room this morning at 7am, he was awake, wrapped up with his blankies and hugging his pookie bear:

me: How’re you feeling Ethan?
ethan grinned and flashed me a thumbs up sign.
me: What do you think about school? Do you want to go?
Ethan grinned and nodded his head vigoriously.

So I took Ethan in to school and aside from some coughing and a running nose, he seemed pretty good. The previous day, James and I could tell he was getting pretty bored, having not left the house aside from the doctor, since Thursday.

I guess there is such a thing as too much tv and video games!

Hopefully James and Jocelyn will be feeling better by tomorrow.

This was taken in May 2006.

This is Jocelyn’s “Party Dress” that I got her before her birthday last year. She is wearing it for Ethan’s birthday in this picture.

She has shot up so much in the last year that this dress no longer is decent on her. I kept thinking what a shame it was, because, my baby! so cute in this dress! What a waste! Or was it?

So I cut it straight off right under the armpits, folded over the excess, sewed down the buttoned opening and snipped off the buttons, left the front of the waist flat and put a length of elastic in the back to make it into this skirt (oh, and I did this in 45 minutes, how proud am i!):

It’s definitely decent now and should last at least another year. Behold the Party Skirt! I have 2 other dresses I am considering treating the same way. We’ll see.

Pictures of the party where the party skirt made it’s debut coming soon!

As you know, Martin Luther King Jr. day was on Monday, but as you may not know, the kids’ school was still open for daycare. Being the cold, uncaring, callous parents that we are, we dropped them off and had our own “free” day to ourselves.

(Do you realize how much a sitter costs?? This was a golden opportunity! It’s like FREE CHILD CARE!! No, I’m not a bit only a teeny bit guilty.)

The last time we had a free day like this (Columbus day in Nov) we drove into DC, noodled around the modern building of the National Gallery of Art, had a lovely lunch, and then perused the Spy Museum before heading back to get the kids and go home.

We have been wondering all month what we would do this time around, and it became clear that there were some movies we both wanted to catch.

It also became clear that we both watched to catch different movies. So, the day dawned, kids were dropped off, and James and I smooched and parted ways. Him to see There Will Be Blood, and I to see Charlie Wilson’s War, Juno, and Sweeney Todd. Except I decided 3 movies was a bit too much, and skipped the first one. It’s a good thing, because by the time I left the theatre my ass hurt, and my back was really aching (chiropractor appointment today I CANNOT WAIT), and I was tired of sitting.

I saw Juno first, and it was a nice little flick. Edgy teen gets pregnant, ponders what to do, decides to go the adoption route, finds rich yuppies in nearby town to give child to, learns about love along the way.

I thought the story was well written and sweet, but at the end, I did have a certain sense of, “Really? This is what everyone was so hopped up about?” I liked the movie, thought it was well done, but I think what was even more well done was the publicity machine. I guess, how can you blame them, “STRIPPER TURNED WRITER!” has such reader appeal. I can totally understand any backlash going on (“way overrated”) but regardless, Ellen Page did a great job, as did the yuppies, played by Jason Bateman & Jennifer Garner, and Alison Janney who played the step-mom (who James and I STILL call CJ).

I ALSO have a big bone to pick with that same publicity machine – I have a long standing belief that previews and trailers are evil, and once again, the Juno trailers/previews/ads have rung that bell.

Dear sirs,

If you want me to go shell out $8.50 to see a movie, PLEASE DO NOT USE CLIPS FROM THE LAST 20 MINUTES IN YOUR ADS. IT’S JUST RUDE.

Fuck off,
Amy

Juno was not the biggest violator I’ve seen by any means, so this was a mild irritation this time around. Heaven knows other movies have certainly sinned much more in this arena, but still, it irks me.

IRK.

Sweeney Todd

I love Tim Burton. I love Danny Elfman. I love Johnny Depp. I love Tim Burton movies where all three of these things come together, or even just the two (Burton and Elfman) (Nightmare Before Christmas? Yeah, still saved on my Tivo from when it was on around Christmas).

I’ve never seen Sweeney Todd performed anywhere, although I have heard some of the songs at some point. Having gone to three summers of Theatre Workshop in my teen years, by God yes, I’ve heard some of the songs! So really, I only have myself to blame for being a *teeny* (really, it’s miniscule) bit let down. A-DUH, Amy, of course it’s not going to sound like the usual Burton movie with Danny Elfman doing the music… This is Stephen Sondheim’s musical baby.

So once I got through that, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Having never seen or heard the storyline, I was delighted with it’s quirks and surprises (although the biggie I totally picked up on halfway through the movie). Excellent movie, and very well done. I did wonder (again, having never seen the musical in a theatre) if there were scenes with Antony and Johanna that were cut for the movie. A little more insight into that whole story would have been nice.

So even though we didn’t spend the day together, it was a pretty nice day regardless.

-amy still has 10 more movies that will probably have to wait until netflix.

Isn’t that a lovely phrase?

There’s a brick of snotty gooey green snotty gook in my sinuses. Since sinuses aren’t brick-shaped, I can confess that this is quite painful.

What really sucks is that the brick will NOT loosen up at all. It stays brick-like, in it’s essence, and only leaks a tiny bit of snotty goo all the time. So that you sit on the couch with a tissue box and managed to blow and blow and blow until your nose is totally red and the pile on the table next to you becomes alarming, and you would THINK that with all that blowing, you could have blown 15 million snot bricks out of your nasal cavity, but NO, YOU HAVEN’T, and no matter how much you blow, YOU WILL STILL NOT BE ABLE TO BREATHE THROUGH YOUR NOSE.

You know what I hate? Mouth breathing.

I also hate mouth breathers. If you’re mouth breathing right now, close your mouth, for crying out loud, you look like an idiot.

So Jocelyn woke up at 6am crying and saying her ear hurt, and so since I stayed home sick on Wednesday (day one of this illness), took the snow yesterday as an excellent reason to work at home thursday, I wasn’t too disappointed to stay home with her today. And it’s a good thing, because I decided since I wasn’t at work anyway, I might as well get myself to the doctor as well, which I wouldn’t have done if it weren’t for Jocelyn and her hurting ear.

We are both infected.

Me = sinuses

Jocelyn = ear.

Owies and antibiotics all around.

Send soup. (without leeks, because james has turned his nose up at my leek potato soup, the snobby man – IT’S FROM ALTON BROWN, SHEESH)(screw him, this soup is for ME)

Send vick’s vapo rub. The vat I have is almost gone.*

Send your sure-fire overnight cure for red, raw noses, because mine aren’t working (lanolin, vick’s, aquaphor).

I’ll take cure’s for cold sores too, because the corner in my mouth is starting to get that tingly cold sore feeling. I know. SEXY. Between the red nose and the mouth breathing and the developing coldsore, I am just beating them off with a stick.

And send the plus doux KLEENEX, because I beleive we’re out of the PLUS DOUX and only have the IT FEELS LIKE SANDPAPER ON YOUR RED, RAW FACE variety.

– amy just wants her nose back.

* I’m just kidding. I have never bought a jar of vick’s vapo rub. I believe my grandmother left hers to my mother, and my mother gave it to me when I left home to make my fortune in the world, and someday I will have to choose the between my offspring who to leave it to because VICK’S VAPORUB NEVER RUNS OUT. IT JUST GETS LOST.

** this post is in the category “amy’s head” and when I clicked it, I laughed a sardonic laugh and said “AMY’S HEAD. LITERALLY. I’M WRITING ABOUT MY HEAD.”

*** There’s no double star in this post, or triple star. it’s just my way of doing a post script and post post script. just thought i’d let you know.

**** *waaaaaaahhhhh i hurt*

You know how puppies get when you get down on the floor and pet them and talk all excited in that baby voice and play with them and they just wiggle and wiggle until they’re so wound up they pee on the floor?

Yeah, that’s me! I GOT TAGGED! By Mandi! Thanks Mandi! You totally made me pee on the floor!

Here’s the meme:

Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.

or

Share the 5 top places on your want to see or want to see again list.

or

Share 5 things you never pictured being in your future when your were 25 years old.

Tag a minimum of 5, maximum of 10 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.The tagees have a choice of which they want to do.

Here goes:

1. My feet get very cold at night. After the kids are in bed and before James and I go to bed, we’re mostly sitting around the couch, by the time I make it to bed, my feet are like ice.

And I always try to get James to let me warm them up on him.

He always refuses. And makes a Blankey Wall. (what, like you don’t know what a blankey wall is!)

Then I do it anyway, and he squeals like a little girl and accuses me of being a reptile.

(even if I wear slippers, it only lessens the ice cube effect by about 50%. By the time I get to bed, feet = cold.)

2. I like bare feet. When I was 7 years old, our house was in the middle of about an acre of alfalfa. In amidst the alfalfa were a lot of this little prickly sticker plants that grow in your lawn when you don’t use weed killer (that’d be me!) There were a ton, and we always called them sticker bushes. We would have barefoot races through the alfalfa/sticker bushes and I often won, because my feet were so tough from always running around barefooted. I have hard, tough, elephant feet.

3. I just asked James to name something weird and/or random about me, and here’s what he had.

I once posted a picture of myself (I think it was on my homepage, back in like, 1996, when everyone had homepages) sitting in the Y of a tree. It was from a decent distance away, and under it I put, “FAAAARRRRRRR…” (just imagine the Grover voice…) and then cropped the photo in to just my face, and under that one, put, “NEEEAAARRRR!” ala Sesame Street.

Boy, that was pretty random.

4. I believe this was the summer of 1996 – or it might have been 95? I drove from Utah, to Ohio, to West Virginia to Virginia, to West Virginia (did that one a few times) to Utah, to California (LA area), to Utah, then flew to DC and drove to Georgia. and then probably drove from GA to VA to GA to VA a couple bajillion times more before the end of that summer. that was a whole lotta drivin’.

5. I prefer applesauce on pancakes and/or waffles instead of syrup. Or jam. I found syrup a bit too sweet. In fact, I always by the reduced sugar jam too, because I don’t like it too sweet.* Sure, sometimes I get syrup, but usually, I like butter and then applesauce, especially on waffles, when I can pick it up and eat it like a piece of toast. Yum.

Thanks for the tag Mandi!

And I tag… Dave, Anna, Arjewtino, Sarah and the Goon Squad, and my husband, at Fartsauce. If one of you ACTUALLY DOES it, I’ll pee on the floor again!

*Reduced sugar. Not No Sugar Added, which has fake sweetener chemicals, and is also way too sweet.

This is Jocelyn’s Bunny. Her name is Michelle.

This is Ethan’s bunny, named “Snuggle-Bunny.”