The fun never ends...

We have had a week of non stop fun with family and friends. My house is definitely feeling the neglect. I spent so much time getting it together prior to the holidays and my husband was amazed at how organized and wonderful it looked! Since this is his busy time of year, he only could enjoy Christmas day festivities while the kids and I have been having sleepovers, playing the Wii and enjoying lots of playtime. Now, the house is in shambles but there are a lot of smiles on every one's faces, even my husband....but I am awaiting the soon to be FROWN:( Maybe I will do an "hour of power" before the next party! 

Whoops, no time I have got to get in the shower! Have a great day.

God Bless Him!!!(or me)

Macbook

I got a new Macbook from Santa.....so I am back in business! Posts to come....

Sew....

 I am visiting my wonderful sister. Some of you may know her,(she spends a lot of time drinking diet coke and hitting small yellow balls). Thank goodness she did not pick teaching as a career!LOL

She had me bring my new sewing machine so I could learn the basics of threading. After a small tutorial, she left me to thread on my own. When she returned, I had only thread the bobbin. To which her reply was, "You could have not done it more wrong!"

P, I am so glad I still have you:)

Stitch Bitch

  Recently I decided to teach myself to sew. My daughter wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween and all you can find in the stores are infant and dog pumpkin costumes. I certainly am creative enough to come up with what I would do for a pumpkin costume, but lack the art of sewing. 

  I researched a little online then bid on a basic sewing machine on ebay and won. Well, today I ventured into Joanne Fabrics and walked into the "lion's den" of sewing. 

 My machine has not arrived yet, so out of curiosity I was browsing their machines. A F** Bi***was sitting eating in the middle of all the machines and not so politely said, "Can we help you?" (we must have been the small child that she ate for lunch) I then proceeded to explain my situation to her. She responded with, "We don't sell those here and it is probably a toy for the price that you paid." I then asked her what she would recommend for a beginning sewer. She then gave me a lecture on buying on ebay. She actually said,"BUYER BEWARE!!! Most of the time things on ebay are HOT and that is wrong, you should not support crooks by buying their HOT items." She repeated HOT about four times, at which point I actually found myself chuckling and defending ebay. Then she said that I should just buy some remnants to practice stitches and probably will not want to even sew again after starting on my piece of crap Janome 3125. 

After such a warm welcome into the world of sewing, I strolled over to Borders and bought Sewing for Dummies and am now at home waiting for my crappy purchase. God help me if I have to go back and buy fabric!!

Ugly Duckling

   I am always trying to save some time in the morning....you know a few extra minutes of sleep. 

Well, a few weeks ago somebody complimented me on my hair, on a day when all I did was wash it and put it behind my ears. Well, this gave me the green light to do this way too often:) Anyway, last week I actually "did" my hair and boy did I hear it! "Did you get your hair highlighted?", "I love your haircut!", "Your hair looks great." Now I realize the original compliment was probably because that person did not know what to say! There goes my extra 20 minutes of sleep.

http://mardissidram.blogspot.com/2008/10/sitting-pretty-studio-watercolor.html

Boo!!

Have you ever been Booed?


This is our second year in our new neighborhood and we were pleasantly surprised by Booing last year. If you have not done it, you should try it.

What you do is come up with a catchy Booing poem(or google Booing and you will find one)copy it several times, fill a bowl with fun treats for kids and ring your neighbors doorbell and leave it before they see you. What my 4 year old says is "ding,dong,ditch" which he probably learned from his 11 year old brother. We take some treats that we like, add something new then Boo! someone else.


Have Fun!!!

Tennis Anyone?

As some of you know, my sister is an avid tennis player. I however, being the youngest, did not get the luxury of tennis lessons as a child. So, I watched her play and fooled around(not literally)with the ball and racket and occasionally play with some friends. I really enjoy it.

I have been giving some thought to joining a league. I even have called to play with a pro at my club to try to get a rating. Now, with all my sister's interesting stories and DRAMA, I am hesitant. So, I began asking around. Today, a woman that I do Basic Training with said that she is taking a year off because of all the craziness.She was a captain for nine years and said it was so crazy that she needed a break from it all.

I need some opinions. Do I just continue to play casually or throw myself to the wolves? I do like a little competition, but is it worth the headache?

Squeeze that OJ

OJ deserves the big squeeze. Karma, dude. Why are they separating him from other prisoners? So he does not get what he deserves?

Busting the Brownies

I was very happy when my daughter told me that she wanted to join the Girl Scouts. The thought of sweet little girls sitting around a camp fire singing songs, doing crafts and giggling softly ran through my head. I was excited for both of us because as a child I also wanted to be a Brownie. As a matter of fact , I still have the wooden Christmas Tree napkin holder that I made at my one and only meeting. All of my hopes and dreams of being a Girl Scout were quickly fizzled by my 2 older sisters who taunted me with how "uncool" it was. Yes, they are 4 and 5 years my senior and EVERYTHING that they said, I believed.



Looking forward to my daughter's first year, I contacted the woman in charge of our local troops. I quickly learned that this Brownie group was led by a co op of mothers, so I would have my Brownie experience with my daughter! Brownies is held immediately after school in a classroom. I went to the first meeting to observe. Wow! These nine little girls were screaming, jumping on desks, climbing under desks, climbing the walls(okay the a/c units attached to the walls) but really out of control. There were 2 women leading and several older girls assisting. Yes, they did calm down, a little for the "project of the day" but overall it was OUT OF CONTROL!!!!



Now, don't get me wrong, my daughter can be pretty wild at home but in every organized setting ,since day 1 she has been praised for her excellent, quiet behavior(which she does not get from her mother). Now I see why, if these are her peers. I try not to judge , but there was one girl that everyone was feeding off of who was extra "energetic". I thought to myself, boy she needs some discipline. We all know that we should never judge and I soon relearned this lesson.


After a long discussion with my daughter about how the other girls behavior was unacceptable and that it should not be allowed to happen, she agreed. Well, who do you think was scaling the top of the desks when I came to pick up at the last meeting! Yes, my sweet baby! Of course, I immediately called her down and explained to her that she would no longer be a Brownie if she wanted to act like that.


Let me ask you, fellow bloggers, am I being too harsh or does someone need to get control of these 6 and 7 year old girls. I know this is supposed to be fun, but someone is going to get hurt and certainly badges may not get earned. LOL. Besides the fact, how am I going to lead these crazy kids:) HELP!

Motivation,Determination and a Pulled Muscle

Well, it happened, when you jump off the couch and suddenly shock your body, it will retaliate.

Yes, ten years ago I did do an Olympic triathlon but that was 10 years ago and even then it was difficult. Anyway, apparently my piriformis is not happy and I am having upper leg/hip pain to the point of limping, so I did not go to Basic Training in fear of being injured further. I am icing,soaking,taking Advil and resting. I will go back on Wednesday, especially since the thought of an amazing woman that I met there is haunting me.


This 41 year old woman looks amazing! But of course the first thing you notice about her is that her head is shaved. She is fighting Breast Cancer. Six months after giving birth to her last child she was diagnosed. Luckily, it looks like it was all contained, she had the lump removed and now she is going through 33 days straight of chemotherapy.


Does she miss basic training for this? NO! She says that the exercise and the friendships have really helped her through it and the group supports her with helping with meals,babysitting and cheering her on during her really bad days. The camaraderie is really touching. Now that is a MOTIVATED and DETERMINED person with a lot of strength and I can not let a little pulled muscle bring me down.

PTA Punch

To PTA or not to PTA that is the question?

   Now, the purpose of this post is not to scare anyone away from the PTA. Actually, it is the opposite and I certainly do not think this video is an accurate example of most PTA interactions, at least in my experience. Recently,  I was at back to school night and one of the mothers in my daughter's classroom was inquiring about a phone directory and said, "I really want a directory but don't you have to join the PTA to get one and no one joins the PTA"(giggle). Well, I am on the board of the PTA, yes in a small position that enables me to help but not be over scheduled. Our school just opened 2 years ago and we are still building our PTA membership. She then turned to the teacher and said, "Let me know if you need anything, I just sit at home all day doing nothing."(which also makes me cringe because as a SAHM I would hardly say we DO NOTHING!) 

 

Needless to say, the phone directory is sponsored by the PTA and everyone can get one regardless if you are a member of the PTA. My point is, you can join the PTA for 10.00 to contribute and don't have to DO ANYTHING or you can take some of your downtime and give a little to your children's school, you choose. But don't brag about DOING NOTHING in the same breath as I WANT a directory and NO ONE joins the PTA! 

  

 My experience so far with the PTA has been very positive. I have met some nice people, I get to know the staff at the school at a different level(which can be very helpful) and I am a part of enhancing my children's experience. Believe me, at first I was hesitant to get involved since many people discouraged me. One woman I quote said, "Join the PTA, I mean if that is who you want to hang out with!" What! Are we in the movie Mean Girls? Give me a break, just joining the PTA does not mean that is who you have to socialize with. But really, what is wrong with meeting all kinds of people and "hanging out" with many different types of people. Is that not what we want to teach our children?

Nothing Basic about this Training

 Well, I did it , I had a great year of relaxing, enjoying margaritas, parties, trips, family adventures, and even my fair share of life's little stresses. Unfortunately, along with all that came 20 not-so-lovely pounds, yes 20 in a year!!!! So with no breast feeding ahead of me to shred the ugly bulge I had to do something drastic. That is what brings me to Basic Training and a man named Andre, who likes to torture us Moms (and a few brave Dads) with his smiling face and exercises that literally bring you to your knees. I have to ask, what did we do to you Andre? Really, we were just taking care of our families, volunteering at school, making dinners, doing laundry, keeping up on current affairs, carpooling, blogging, working, enjoying friends and trying to be green. So, we did not make time for exercise and now we are paying. I am discovering muscles that I only heard  about in Anatomy and Physiology. I never actually wanted to feel them!! But I do, and I will return on Monday, 3 days a week for the drudgery, because in the end, after the hour is over I feel better, energized and ready to take on whatever comes my way. Goodbye 20!!!

BUCK UP ALL YOU READERS AND GIVE ME A COMMENT, I NEED ENCOURAGEMENT HERE!!! Or get down and give me 20:)