Busy, Busy, Busy!

OK--I really don't like that title. I don't wish to imply that I'm so busy that the important stuff is falling through the cracks. It's not. I'm busy with the important stuff: my sweet children. This weekend is our family Christmas with my extended family and Matthew has been talking about it for weeks. He loves his cousins, and they love him right back. Molly isn't sure what's going on, but I think she's anticipating fun.
As I mentioned, I volunteered to organize the Teacher Appreciation lunch at their school. My first inclination was NOT to do it. But then I started thinking: why not? it's just time. this is why I'm staying home. i want Matthew and Molly to know that I'm involoved--to see me at school, to know that they are important--not all the other "stuff."
But of course, I've fit in some other "stuff" this week too. Lots of Christmas shopping while they were at school, my first mammogram (because of my "age," excuse me?), laundry, ordering Christmas cards, did I mention laundry?, and last, but certainly not least, I have taken a shower and applied actual makeup every single day. Whoa Nelly! Now that, my friends, is something to celebrate!

Friday Night Life

Now try to contain yourself and not be too jealous of my glamourous Friday Night! What I really wanted to do was to meet Dear Husband on his way home from work, have dinner, and go Christmas shopping for a bit (keeping the kids up past their bedtime). However, DH had to work late and I got over-ruled on going out to eat. I think he mumbled something about saving money, Christmas is almost here, blah blah blah (NOT what I wanted to hear). SO--here is me being OH so excited about the prospect of cooking dinner on Friday night. I tried to muster a little happiness. It was hard. (Please forgive the point and shoot--the quality is not like my good camera). This is what Matthew was doing while I was cooking. I think he was watching infomercials and I'm not kidding. It was about some kind of hamburger cooking pan and he kept running in to tell me how easy it would make cooking hamburgers (and all you have to do is wipe the pan clean when you're finished). He's a marketers dream! (Note: there is a Christmas tree--only no lights and no decorations. We'll get there!)

Molly was getting into the bag of things in the kitchen (notice her look of intensity).

Ahhh . . . the things I can come up with for dinner when there is nothing to cook. MMMMM. Can you feel my excitement? Hamburger patties, green beans. Mmmmmm.

And let's not forget Kraft macaroni and cheese--Miss Molly's favorite!

And this is what makes the meal for Mommy (I was really hoping for a margarita, but oh well).

My sweet little children--they think it's delicious! Probably only because they didn't know what I really wanted to do!

Matthew at the table. We try to stifle his playing as much as possible while eating, but I'm telling you, it is Q U I T E a challenge.

So if there are any anonymous, wealthy readers out there who feel pity for me and would like to send me a few restaurant gift cards, I would gladly accept. (Only kidding--I know, I know . . . it's not that bad--we're lucky to have a nice home, good food to eat, blah blah blah). Love you!

I'm Craig's Friend

OK--I've officially begun my first Craigslist adventure. I've listed 3 items and already had offers on all 3 (which I declined because they were too low, but still). I have lots to update from our weekend--Mike and Matthew went on their first Adventure Guides campout and he took the camera--so I have pictures!!!! The point is: Mike was gone this weekend and I never sleep good when he's gone, so I was up late on Saturday with the laptop and looking at Craigslist to do research on my upcoming listings when I found a hilarious new form of entertainment!!!! Craigslist has a section titled "Missed Connections." I had no idea this existed. Apparently, this is where some people go to say things like this:

"You were the cute guy picking apples at Whole Foods in Plano around 1:30 on Saturday. I was the blond who needed help reaching the salad dressing. I really would like to see you again."

And it goes on and on. I sat there and read Missed Connections for at least an hour, and it was so amusing!!!! I'd recommend it, especially if you can't sleep. Quite entertaining.

Oh My!

I still use a baby monitor in Miss Molly's room and usually, I unplug the end of the monitor that is in our bedroom during the day. Well, today I must have forgotten and left it plugged in and forgot about it. We had been out running around, came back in, do the usual just-got-home rituals, etc. I was in our room changing Molly's diaper on our bed when I heard a baby crying on our monitor. Hmmmm. Molly's with me. Matthew's in the play room. I know I didn't have another baby and it's crying in Molly's room, so what's the deal? Naturally, I listen and realize it's a toddler about 18 months old. I am hearing another family on our baby monitor. For a few minutes, I listen because this kid is having a serious fit (no judgement on my part because we have had our share of fits in this house, especially the past 3 days). Matthew hears and comes in to listen, too. Child continues screaming, crying fit. Another minute goes by, and I hear the mom go into his room and say "Oh, did you wake up?" Child screams, cries. Now, I'm not just sitting there eavesdropping. I am piddling around, cleaning a few things here and there so it doesn't look like I'm eavesdropping to Matthew and Molly. Child continues screaming, crying fit. At this point, I'm just curious to see how a fellow Mother handles this situation. I'm impressed that she's remained calm up to this point. Want to know what she does? She starts vaccuuming. Yep. She tunes him out and now has a clean house. A few minutes go by and Dad gets home, goes in and all is right with the world. I turned the monitor off . . . and then a thought occured to me . . . if I could hear that family, that must mean that family could hear us??? Oh no. Oh no no no. Not that I'm a bad mom or anything, but there are definitely moments that I lose it--I might have been known to yell about a seemingly insignificant issue (like when Matthew squeezed the baby powder bottle all over the kitchen on Tuesday as we were getting ready to leave the house, causing the majority of our kitchen to be whitish gray.) It's not too often that I lose it, but a stranger listening to our family life is an odd thought. There are also moments that I have as a mom that I would be proud for another family to overhear. But let's face it, those moments are usually quiet and sweet. Not too much a monitor might pick up. It's the other moments, the icky ones, that my monitor could be shouting out to the world. I'll know it's happened if other families avoid us at the park when they hear my voice. Hee hee.

September 11, 2007

OK--I had written this very cute and clever post yesterday. I was really impressed with my cleverness. I was so clever that I deleted the entry before I posted it. Anyway . . .

Several things . . . first, I really want to post more often. Daily would be good because I'm addicted to reading everyone elses blogs and I am loving this! So--that is my goal. My problem is that Matthew is not napping anymore (unless I am lucky enough that he falls asleep in the car at the exact right moment) so I don't have his nap time to run up to the computer and do my emails, etc. Also, by the time he's in bed, that's time for Mike and I. So--I have to work on a time.

Also, I think most people who would read my blog already know this about me, but: I'm a dork. And I use the term "dork" in the most endearing way, because I love the dorkiness about me! Things that I do, or that happen to me, or things I think that are funny (that some people don't think are funny) all make me laugh--that is why I'm a dork! Anyhoo, this is an example: there is a mom that I've been talking to for about 5 months. Her little girl is in the same gymnastics class as Matthew. We've been talking for a while now about our chiddren (not a type-o, sometimes I say it that way), lives, etc. It's probably been at least 4 or 5 months of talking. Well, I really like her. Anyway--I didn't even know her name. I've been talking to her for 5 months and didn't know her name! So it was to that awkward point that I didn't want to ask her because it's been so long and that's kind of embarrassing. But, I'd had enough, so I asked her yesterday. (It's Hollie, by the way.) Well, come to find out, she's a dork like me! She didn't know my name either, and she had just asked Coach Mike (the best gym coach ever in the world--love him!) what my name is! So then we were all excited that we knew each others' names. OK--then the subject of blogging comes up. We get even more excited because we both just started blogging and we totally "get" how fun it is! So, now we added each other to our friends list and we're dorky and excited blogging friends, too!