FaceTime

So, I was chatting on the phone with Stacy about my conversation with Gorgeous last night.

Gorgeous' new iPhone 5 arrived and I showed her how to FaceTime so that she could call all the grandkids and video chat. A problem presented itself right away... for some reason Gorgeous was holding the phone in a very unflattering angle, I was looking right up her nose. Apparently in order to see the phone she has to look out the bottom of her bifocals... I got a big giggle out of this situation and am so glad she didn't discover this with some hottie.

While I was sharing the story my cell rang, Stacy and I were on the office line, and I checked the caller ID.

Little miss Stacy was giving me a FaceTime call. So there we sat talking on two lines and finding the most flattering angle for the app. It was extra fun because Stacy on the cell had a delay from Stacy on the work line... So I was in echo world.

No, we did not even consider hanging up the work phone.

Drip Dry

So... How much do my friends like me?

This is a question that used to run through my paranoid head. Or more accurately, do they like me for real? Or are they just being nice? Well, today I discovered that perhaps they DON'T like me and they AREN'T nice...

Let me explain the situation...

Karen, Stacy, Amy and I were meeting for lunch. We arrived before Amy did and I asked the "ladies" to order me a diet soda while I visited the restroom.

I'd just relieved my bladder and reached for the toilet paper... when I felt the cardboard core of the empty roll. Sigh. But aha, I have my phone with me!

Text to: Amy, Stacy, Karen

Can someone come give some toilet paper?

Text from: Karen

No thanks

Text from: Amy

At front door.

Text to: Amy, Stacy, Karen

Stuck on toilet. Seriously! I need TP. Not kidding.

Text from: Karen

Sure

What the ha-shizzle! Just as I was starting to consider hollering for help Amy came through the door. Thank goodness she was joining us today!

The ladies showed no shame and were having quite the laugh when I returned to the table... Makes a girl go hmmm!

But then we got to open a Christmas present from Karen! So exciting!

Karen created this beautiful spiral bound Christmas Planner! It is so fabulous! It includes:

- master to-do list

- gift planner

- shopping list

- black Friday shopping list

- gift idea planner

- gifts to make

- budget worksheet

- menu planner

- baking planner

AND a GRAND PLAN CALENDAR! This is the most awesome part, for me anyway! There is a "room" scheduled to tackle every week from now until Christmas. This week is "master bathroom" and  there is a "declutter" and "clean" checklist for each room. Brills!

The very last page of the planner is Post-Holiday Debriefing. I love it! 

So... I guess my friends like me a lot... even when I'm the toilet-sitting-butt of the joke ;)

Therapy x 2

Had a great session with Vera today... And then came home for some creative therapy!

I'm quilling a birthday present! I love quilling! Does the birthday girl like quilled crafts? I. Don't. Know.

But that's what she's getting and it's the thought that counts... right?

I'm a little nervous to give an art project as a gift. Could get awkward very quickly. But Kelli is total funky and fun so she'll probably love it. (I'll do an "awkward" blog if the gift goes south.)

While quilling my little heart away I also caught an episode of West Wing. I love that show :) I also updated my iPhone to 6.0. It did not go smoothly, thank goodness I had backed it up.

Very productive evening with lots of screaming and laughter in the house.

We needed that.

.com

Stacy and I headed out to pick up lunch today. After a few rounds of "no, you choose" we decided to try out the Asian taco trailer that is usually parked outside of Walgreens... of coarse today it wasn't there.

Just when we were about to start the "no, you choose" game again Stacy spotted a new sign in the shopping mall. Is that a restaurant?

Yes, yes it is! They opened last week.  Very exciting to try a new place.  It took us a while to order because we had to have them translate/explain each menu item.

"Do you have guacamole?" we asked.

"No... but we could make you some" the young lady said with a shrug.

"You could just make it? How much?" I asked.

"Eh, a dollar" she replied.

Two guacamoles please!... And then we watch the cook/chef cut into two avocados and whip up the best guacamole ever! Talk about fresh!

The meal was yummy. I recommend the taquitos plate and the guacamole (they aren't called taquitos on the menu, so you'll have to ask which item they are...)

Soooooo... now let's talk about the ".com" in the restaurant's name.  I went to taco.com... NOT a taco website. It belongs to Technical Advisors COmpany and their Why Taco? page is very amusing, check it out. "We do not sell tacos. We do not make tacos. In fact, some of us don't even like them very much."

Hmmmm.... maybe it's tacolascolinas.com or lascolinastaco.com or ... not.

So then what's up with the ".com" in their name? Does ".com" reference something other than a website?

Then I thought maybe it was a Mexico website, so I tried taco.mx and mx.taco.com... nope.

Those 3 letters cost them extra money on that sign... it MUST mean something.

Ahhhh... I'll have to find a way to sleep without a solution to this mystery.

Productivity!

I feel so good about how much work I got done today! I love projects that make the clock arms fly... Looked up and it was 7:30! Ha-shizzle, time to go home!

I also had fun today :) Wilma and Betty were on fire at lunch, very funny ladies. AND I found out that I get streaming movies with my Amazon account AND they have West Wing.

Ha-shizzle! I'm gonna be watching the whole series again!

I tried to convince the girls to watch Grey Gardens, Wilma refuses to watch documentaries. I tried to explain to her that its more like the very first (1974) reality show ever. Betty might watch it.

I highly recommend it.

This is the sky I drove home under. A beautiful day.

Free Pass

Well, today marks the first of the "free pass" days.

It's like in Monopoly and you land in jail... but in our world "jail" is too much mommy time. So you get to escape. Call Uncle. Admit defeat.

Oh so many people have wanted a free pass away from me. Sometimes I become overwhelming and obnoxious. And I become more obnoxious as I realize what is happening... it's a sick cycle that I am trying to stop.

Today I went too far with Honey. It was all laughing and rolling of the eyes, until it wasn't.

I hope she remembers the laughing too... And not just the sour end.

Seasonal Sales

Why do stores sell "holiday" items earlier and earlier each year?

Because of my hubby and girlies...

Like a girl...

Grump Haiku

on being a grump
my expertise for today
blah, barf, ache, grrr, meh

And now a letter:

Dear mean girls,

We aren't in school anymore. Get a life. If talking about me IS (shouty capitals) your life, then that's just sad.

Yes, also sad that I am writing an open letter to mean girls, showing that I still care.

Sigh,
The Grump

Awake

So tired. Finally awake. All the aches are gone. Missed two days of work, so I'll get to stress about that for a while.

Caitlin left Junie B. Giraffe in bed to take care of me.

Boy kisses!

I stopped by to visit Kate before she went to bed. She is so adorable! She was playing with Sio's phone and wouldn't put it down when Sio told her to. Sio asked me to take it away from her.

No way! Kate's gonna love me the most. So unless she's in danger she gets what she wants around me. I'm not going to be the bad guy. (I love it!)

After Kate went to bed I stole a whole bunch if kisses from my main man. He is such a happy baby!

DNA

"Look, I can't go back in time and change it so there is no point in worrying about it!"

The moment I realized there might have been a baby swap at the hospital... This girlie is way too reasonable to be my offspring.

H is for...

Handsome Henry has some humorous hoppers hiding under his H.

I'm a little slap happy...

Fairy

I made Mia into a princess fairy. I hope she likes it!

I modified the pattern to look more like her with short blonde hair. I also ditched the crown because mine turned out like a prom queen's after a hard night of partying...

I think her favorite color is purple, but didn't think I should call and confirm that info since it was 1:00 am when I started on her.

Quilling is so relaxing!

(I included a photo of what my fairy is supposed to look like.)

10 hrs later...

For shizzle! It doesn't look like much but this took me 10 hours to do.

To be fair... I also had a couple of drinks, made dinner with Amy, ate dinner, had some more drinks, called my girlies, went to the bathroom a couple of times, and laughed a lot.

I mean, we have laughed a LOT! Karen has been hi- larious tonight. My neck hurts from the strain of the laughter.

Filigree

I have officially started my scrapbook getaway weekend! I'm in my pajamas and am about to start a quilling project!

It's going to be a great weekend with girlfriends... But only 25 minutes from my girlies if they need me.

First cocktail scheduled for 6:00!

We have a winner!

Hubby is a huge Bruce Lee fan. H to the U to the G to the E!

Anyway, hubby submitted a caption to win this Facebook contest...

And today he found out he won! A t-shirt and a book, he's very excited!

This image is from the movie Enter the Dragon, one of Bruce's lines is "You might call it the art of fighting without fighting."

Hubby's caption is "You might call it the art of smiling without smiling." I think you have to be a big Bruce Lee fan to get it... But once he explained it to me I thought it was brills!

Hooray hubby!

I asked him if he would pose for a picture... but he's a dummy and this is all I could get out of him, "take it or leave it" he said. Fine.

I really hope I'm home when his prize arrives. I'm gonna roll video while he squeals like a girl.

5K to Dork-ay

My sister had me in stitches, via text, telling me about why she has stitches in her knee.

For those of you who know how clumsy I am I should mention that my sister is NOT clumsy.  She's very graceful and just finished the Color Me Rad 5K run this past weekend.

Such a cool photo! ... 5 days later... Sarah takes a tumble.  

I think I'll just write the texts as they came, a little confusing because how texts overlap each other... But that's how I'm gonna do it. I'll put her texts in black and mine in green... I'll sprinkle in screen shots of the bits that are funny to me.

So that you can follow the conversation better, let me give you the cast of characters:

Sarah - my youngest sister

Sio - my middle sister

Henry - Sio's 2-month-old son

Jason - Sio's husband

Mia - Sarah's daughter

Non-related texting leads to:

Sarah: Did you know I fell and hurt my knee?

Me: No what happened? How bad is it hurt? When?

Wanna see it?

Um, yeah!

It happened yesterday. I was carrying Henry and his car seat saved his life.

Why do people keep entrusting their children to me?

OMG Sio didn't say anything.

LOL

I think she has been inbetwn feeling bad for me 

and wanting to take out my other knee

I just laughed really loud

OMG. You need stitches!

What did you land on?

With stitches

OMG!

What are the three red spots?

Are there blisters too? Where did this happen?

Hello?

They gave me burn cream for those.

My knee... haha

I don't know. They said sometimes if it's hard enough the fall the flesh just splits.

We could ask Jason for the play by play 

bc I was walking toward him. or one of the 

10 moms who watched from the window of Mia's dance class.

You just made me laugh out loud again. 

Can I use this text as a post?

Just scabby road rash type soars. Actually they are what hurt the most.

But for me it's a blur.

It happened at the theater parking lot. I slipped or something in the parking lot.

Sure.

Scary!

Yep. So glad I kept him in his seat. I was torn but I figured if he was happy I'd keep him in bc Jason was close. So glad he stayed happy.

Wow. Did he cry?

Yes. To the point of silence. I blew on his face to get him to breathe in.

So can I use the photo?

Of my knee? Yeah.

And the color me rad photo?

I like the 5k to no k angle.

Ha Ha!

More like 5K to dork-ay

Hot Coach

We decided to catch a couple of soccer games today. Beautiful weather and some natural vitamin D would be good for the family.

Sarah's family had 7 soccer games scheduled this weekend and we watched one of Eleanor's and one of Mia's.

Eleanor's game was very competitive and fun to watch because of the soccer skill. I might be biased but Eleanor is the best on her team.

Mia's game was fun to watch for total comedy entertainment. It has been so long since I've watched age 4 soccer.

Okay, I technically didn't watch much of the game until the second quarter... I was too busy trying to get a photo of the other team's coach. Wowza! He should be on billboards! Once I had a photo of him and had texted it to my girlfriends I was able to watch the game.

So adorable! Total cat herding to get the kiddos to all play at once. At one point a game of tag broke out on the middle of the field. I love it!

Sarah is a great mom and covered Mia with sunscreen. One of the little girls on the team kept trying to rub it in when they didn't have the ball...

You're a firework!

I'm sharing. I don't know if I should. I've missed a lot of blogs lately because I didn't want to cross a parental line. But maybe some of you have gone through this too.

My baby girlie is sad. The sobbing in my arms kind of sad... and she doesn't know why.  I was praying it was just school anxiety and that today would be a good one because it's Saturday. A day without school and the eve of a day without school. But she's crying again and she asked if we could "tap" together.

Tapping is a technique my counselor taught me and that I have shared with the girls. We've only used it when they were having a bad day and having a hard time sharing why. Usually an easy fix for sharing and releasing feelings.

Not today. Not today.

"Why am I so sad?" she asked me between sobs. It took all my mommy skills not to burst into tears with her. Why is she so sad!?

I suggested we do something fun today, she can pick.  "I just want to stay home and sleep..." No, no, no I screamed in my head! She said a movie might be fun when I pushed her for a different answer. No, I don't want her in a dark room for 3 hours either.

"I really want to see Eleanor but what if I cry and make her sad too?"

Eleanor! Thank God for my 3rd girlie Eleanor! They always have fun together. We'll go to the park and they'll have fun! But first I have to get Caitlin to stop crying and convince her to leave the house.

I used another technique my counselor has used on me. We put all her "sad" in a box and locked it tight. I made her describe the box, brown with a flap and a tie string. I asked her to gather all the "sad" from her tummy and her heart and her head and put it in the box; now wind the string really tight so it can't come out.

Before we left the house we had to have a green box... and then a blue box too.  A lot of sad inside her.

"Can I let the sad out when we get home and cry if I need to?"

Okay. But let's put the "sad" away for a little while...

If this next week is no better then we are going to have to go for help. I'll love and I'll pray and I'll seek help.

I thought it would make the fun last if I made a video of today. I needed a song and chose Firework by Katy Perry...

You're original, cannot be replace

If you only knew what the future holds

After a hurricane comes a rainbow

No Tears

Ahhhh... It's Saturday morning, we slept until 9:00, and no one cried when we woke up.

It has been an emotional roller coaster this week. All my mommy skills have been tested and all my mommy emotions exhausted.

Side note: I know how blessed we are that THIS is a problem and that there are parents who would happily trade their situations for mine.

My youngest girlie, age 9, has some major anxiety about the 4th grade. Stomach cramps, not eating, tears, and signs of hypochondria are some of the things we are dealing with.

Normally I kiss my girlie and drop her off... This week I've had to take my shaking daughter by the hand and walk her into the school office, spend a few minutes to dry the tears, and then one of the lovely office ladies will walk her to class.

One morning we passed a Kindergartner having a complete meltdown... The only difference between us and them is that Caitlin was able to hold it together a little better. It was surreal.

By 8:30 every morning Caitlin is in tears and back in the office with the counselor. The school counselor has been wonderful. We've spoken everyday and are working together to help my girlie. Friday they worked for 45 minutes until Cait felt comfortable to return to class.

My reaction to this news was a feeling of doom. How can I fix this? God help us!

Caitlin came home from school so excited! "Mommy, I only was with Ms. C in the morning and the whole rest of the day I stayed in class!" Her "glass" wasn't just "half full," it was overflowing! Praise God! She is getting her confidence back.

I'm hopeful next week will be better.

In the meantime we are going to the doctor for a well child checkup. I need Caitlin to know she is perfectly normal and healthy. I feel so selfish, but if I have to answer one more question with "no, that is nothing to worry about..." I might go a little bonkers. I think we have covered every health symptom possible, thank God she doesn't know about WebMD or she would have started on diseases too.

My tear free cuddle buddy...

Learning Curve

How old will I be before I learn not to make any hair changes when I'm stressed? I'm 38 now, so maybe I'll never learn. I have 5 cuts a year... I hope to live 30 more years... How many more times will I do this to myself before I die?

Candace did a great job on the cut... That's not the problem. The problem is that it's been a rough week, I walked in, and said "take it all off!"

What the hell was I thinking?

"I kinda like it.." said Caitlin, the source of all my anxiety this week.

It's a good thing I had a color appointment this week because she has turned all my hair gray.

Hubby thought this bow headband made the 7 inches of missing hair less noticeable.

Barf Bag

The ladies invited me to join them on their lunch time adventure today, I'm always excited for Wilma/Betty adventures!

Today's started off with a bang... Or rather with a barf!

Wilma was going to drive the Flinstone bus-mobile for today's field trip to an auto parts store, she needed some kind of lightbulb. I climbed into the back seat, I always take the back seat, and just as I was noticing something "off" Wilma said "I think there is an odor in my car."

Understatement of the year.

On the seat next to me I recognized Wilma's lunch bag... And the contents that we decided she shouldn't eat last Thursday because it was going bad.

Imagine food, already on the bad side, sitting in a car, in the Texas heat, for four (FOUR) days.

My gagging started immediately and I don't believe I was lady-like when I screamed "we are not taking this car!"

Once my gag reflex gets going its very hard to squelch. So for obvious reasons Betty was a little worried to have me in her car. But I settled into Betty's backseat and we changed the subject... Eventually I got myself under control.

Throughout lunch my mind would bring the smell back to me and I would have to simmer down again.

Even as I write this... The smell, oh the smell!

Tech Support

Every couple of days I have an electronic/technology encounter with my girlies. Tonight it was about the television remote control.

I always end up feeling old and stupid. Not because they treat me that way, but because it comes so naturally to them and they just calmly explain it to me and move on... Whether I understand or not. "Just press this button," and I know the next time I need to "press that button" I am going to have to ask them for help again.

When did electronics pass me by? Will my girlies feel this way when they are my age and interacting with their children? Or does the fact that they were introduced to electronics at such an impressionable age mean that they will have a lifetime capability to grasp new technology?

My tech support:

No, I love you!

Wow, one blog in 8 days. I did better than that when I had pneumonia! It has just been a wacky, wacky week. Awkwardness in abundance, but of a nature I can not share... which is a shame because I love me some awkwardness.

I wanted to get a blog in today but wasn't inspired by my day until super hubby came to the rescue! He can always be counted on for a good time.

So, one of my dirty little secrets is that I've been counting down the days to the premier of the new Pyramid show.  It premiered today at 6:00 pm.  Hubby hated this show back in the 80's... I loved the the various versions of the show that have aired in the '90's and '00's.

Because I had a day with tears shed Hubby watched the show with me despite his dislike.  Half way through the show I said "you like this show now don't you!" and he replied irritated "no, I love you!" So sweet.

During the intro of the contestants the eventual winner revealed her hobby of dancing and gave a little tap routine.

"Pah, such a cliche routine. Anyone can do that."

Throw down!