Happy Halloween, Y'all!!!

Status: EXHAUSTED. Thing Four, who has learned to turn over onto his tummy (but not back onto his back) decided to turn onto his tummy in his crib...all night long. Starting at 2:30 am I had to run up and "rescue him" until he finally fell asleep at 5:30. UGH.

I think it was truly the first time I've gotten really irritated at him. I know, he's five months, doesn't know any better, etc. etc. But he's a smarty pants. He KNOWS if he cries I'll come to him. He figured that out long ago. I am so screwed. :-)

So, Happy Halloween everyone! We already did the "Trick or Treat" thing on Saturday (that's when our town is assigned to do it) and I have to say, Thing Two's LINK COSTUME turned out quite fabulous. Hubby said he looked like an Elf, and I had to slap him across the head. Link is a Warrior, thank you very much:

He's in the Mud Room (by the garage door) admiring his reflection in the mirror.

Here's a front view--I made those boots and gloves myself. Okay, you have to promise not to laugh: I couldn't find white thermal underwear anywhere, and I couldn't find white fleece pants either, so finally, in the girl's department at WalMart I found these white fleece pants he's wearing. But I told him to be careful and not bend over because on the butt of the pants, in big blue girly letters (with silver glitter) it says "SUPERSTAR."

Yeah, he told me he would NOT wear those pants, but when I told him there wasn't anything else, he conceded. Anything for the Authentic Link Look. Actually, it IS kind of funny! The Hylian Shield I made turned out pretty good too:Thing One was Princess Leia, Thing Three was Boba Fett, and Thing Four was my little Pumpkin. Of course now that Trick-or-Treating is over, they are all living in their costumes, but that is fine with me. However I draw the line at going to the store in them. At least I will once November hits!

Time to go get the oil changed. Yes, my life is EXCITING!!!

Running...

...to get a flu shot. I'll post later! I LOVE flu shots. They're right up there with...say...rectal exams...definitely in the top five.

BLECH.

Adieu, Soccer.

Status: Preparing to run around like a head with my chicken cut off.
Yeah, it’s that crazy…

So, Saturday was the last of the Soccer games for my kids. Until Spring, anyway. It was freezing cold, the field was a minefield of goose poop (okay I had no idea they pooped like dogs--ew) and yes, I will be scraping goose poop out of Thing Three’s soccer cleats until the Millenium. But he scored the opening goal for the game, and his team won, 5-1. That makes them UNDEFEATED for the whole series! Go Team! WOO HOO!

So no more six practices a week/three games every Saturday for a while! Excuse me while I shed a tear…

NOT!

Okay, that was immature. But hey, I am entitled. I can toss the Soccer Mom Hat into the closet for a while. Now if I could only get the damn Constant Chauffer Hat to wedge off my head, but I’m afraid it’s been super-glued there. For at least 18 more years. Niice.

We went trick-or-treating Saturday too. The kids looked great, (I'll post pics when I have more time) and we had wayyy too much candy for the piddly amount of kids who came by so by the end I was giving it away by the handfuls. Extremely LARGE handfuls. Lara does NOT need death by Snickers Minis. I can’t just eat one of those things. They will all go in the Garbage. I was thinking of sending all the leftover candy to my Mom, but she’d kill. Me. My sister? She’d kill me. So, into the garbage it will all go. Such a waste…Tsk tsk. *Update* I sent it all with Hubby to work. His people will LOVE him. Heh heh.

Okay, this post must end. Time for just another Manic Monday! Lots to do—and I need to find a service or something because our riding lawn mower got a flat tire. I had to ask myself: how in the heck does a lawnmower get a flat tire??? It runs on grass. So I need to call the Cub Cadet guys... I think. Dang I’m useless.
But hey, I finally learned how to overcome my morbid fear of riding on the riding lawn mower! Now I just think it’s kinda fun.

But that’s another story, for another day. Cheers Everyone!

WE SURVIVED!

Hilarious Bumper Sticker of the Day:

I saw this one on a truck yesterday and for some reason it struck me VERY funny:

NATIONAL GUARD
(One weekend a month my Ass!)


Status: Equal parts elated and crabby. Girls just went home, I'm elated it was a success, yet crabby because I'll be vacuuming up chips and cookie crumbs out of the theater room for the next decade...

The party went surprisingly well! The girls all arrived at 6pm, and Hubby and I chauffered them all to the pizza party place, where for the next 2 1/2 hours they rode rides, played games, and fairly stuffed themselves with pizza, iceream, etc. etc. etc.

They all stayed pretty much together, which I thought wouldn't happen because all of them are very strong personalities and I was afraid of the "Too Many Chiefs Syndrome. But they had fun, and then we drove home, blasting Hannah Montana in the car (my eardrums, my eardrums :-(
and it was funny because they wanted all the windows rolled down and the music blasting but it was so dang cold after about five seconds they were screaming "ROLL THE WINDOWS BACK UP PLEASE!! ROLL THEM UP!!!"

And of course, just like my dad used to do, I was swerving the car when we got into our subdivision and they LOVED it. They even told me I was the "most fun mom" of all the moms. I'd by lying if I said that didn't give me some warm fuzzies inside...

Then they were all too full to have cake, so we forewent the dessert and did presents, and Thing One SCORED a ton of Webkins. Okay, I'm behind the times, because I had no idea what they were until last night. But she seemed really excited to get them. Then they prank-called their parents (I drew the line at boys) until 10pm, and then they all wanted to watch "The Mummy" in the Theater room, so I put it on for them.

Honestly, I thought they'd all pass out around 1am, but at 2am there was a "tense moment" when two of the girls wanted to go to sleep, and the rest of them wanted to stay up, so I intervened and we compromised--the girls who wanted to sleep stayed in the theater room, and the other girls went out on the sofas in the Family Room and watched movies on the big screen.

Cut to 4am. I am awakened by a "boom boom" noise and I go downstairs, and they are all asleep in front of the TV, and "Legally Blonde" is playing. So I turned it off and saw Thing One (and ironically one of the girls who had wanted to go to bed earlier) on the computer, on the Webkins website.

I told them to go to bed, and that was that. They all woke up around 8am, and we had pancakes and waffles and bacon and fruit (dang, I thought my BOYS could eat!) and then the moms started arriving to pick up the girls at 10.

I'll be cleaning into tomorrow, but Thing One said it went very well, and all the girls (except for the one tense moment) got along fine, and although we're all very sleep deprived (I am forcing Thing One to take a nap today or she's going to be a cranky toerag for her "family party" tonight) I'm glad it's over and it went well.

Hooray!

But yeah, I'm not jumping up and down to do it again anytime soon...

Party Day!

Status: Nervous--everyone is telling me I'm crazy to have a sleepover birthday party for my daughter--is it really THAT bad???? Now I am wanting to just get it over with.

Lots to do today, birthday cake to bake, basement to vacuum out, and of course the kids are home from school. I went and got them breakfast at MacDonald's (something that happens only a few times a YEAR) and they will be my slaves the rest of the day, cleaning whatever I want them to clean, heh heh heh heh!!!

But first I have to run to Boston Store this morning and exchange all the clothes Hubby got Thing One for her party tonight--he went a size up from what I told him she was, and guess what? It was all too big! Dang, I love being right. But I'm not one to gloat, oh, no, never. ;-)

So, wish me luck!

Oh, and here's that recipe, Karen. Every time I make these cookies, people beg me for the recipe. So I figure they can't be that bad!
-----------------------------------------
Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies: (I usually double this recipe--and I make it in my Bosch Mixer--turns out perfect every time!)

INGREDIENTS: ¾ Cup Butter-flavor Crisco, 1 ¼ Cups light brown sugar (packed), 2 T. milk, 1 T. real vanilla, 1 egg, 1 ¾ Cups flour, 1 t. salt, ¾ t. baking soda, 1 ½ Cups semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Optional ingredients: 2/3 Cup chopped nuts. (We prefer almonds, but walnuts will work too) When I make these for other people I omit the nuts, because not everyone likes nuts in their cookies.

Combine Crisco, sugar, milk & vanilla. Beat until well blended. Beat egg into creamed mixture. Combine flour, salt & soda in separate bowl, stir. Add to mixture and mix until well blended. Stir in chips (and nuts if you choose).

Bake in a 375 oven for 11 minutes. Yummy!

*For Higher Altitude, use 2 Cups flour

My Kids are Wimps.

Status: In full PARTY mode---tomorrow night is it!

Okay, yesterday was a little hairy. As in too much going on. (No more hairs in the food--don't worry!)
Had to get up early and shoot the kids to the Dr's office for their flu shots. Well, since Thing Three is allergic and Things One and Two are DEATHLY afraid of getting shots, they get the "two-squirts-in-the-nose" kind of flu shots. We did have a panic moment when the nurse walked into the room with a tray of hypodermic needles. Apparently she hadn't gotten the memo that we took our vaccinations in the nose. Thing Two went into immediate Hyperventilation Mode, and Thing One looked at me as if she was about to stand in front of the Firing Squad.

Thing Three, my brave little daredevil, actually WANTED the shot, which I would normally oblige if his shoulder didn't swell up like the Incredible Hulk for three days afterwards...

So we got it all straightened out and they had their Flu Nose Squirts. Then it was off to school.
THEN it was off to Target to return the White Nintedo DS Lite I got for Thing Three for Christmas, because I discovered they have RED ones and they are way cooler. So I exchanged, and then ran to the grocery store to get cookies and milk for the Cub Scout outing at the Pumpkin Farm. Nope. No time to bake cookies from scratch. After the Philadelphia Ready-Cream cheesecake filling Debacle, you think I would have learned. But I am on a tight schedule, people!

So when the kids came home at 4pm we had to jump into warm clothes. Well, I TOLD them to, but I was greeted with whining all around: "It's too hot, Mommy! The sun is out! We'll sweat to death!"
I told them very calmly that the sun would go down while we were there, and they would be very cold. More Whining. So I lost it. I DON'T CARE IF YOU THINK YOU'LL BE HOT I AM YOUR MOTHER AND YOU WILL MIND ME THIS INSTANT AND GO GET YOUR SWEATSHIRTS ON!!!!!

So we bundled into the Expedition at 4:30 and drove 1/2 an hour to the Pumpkin Farm. This is the kind of farm that is actually a dairy farm, but they sell pumpkins too, and give hay rides, tours of the dairy, etc. Very cool.

When we drove in, my kids were having attacks over the VERY pungent barn smell, and I said "HELLO...COWS!!" I mean, give me a break! Cows are stinky. My kids were sort of in awe though because there were cows everywhere, and they've never been up close before.

We waited for the rest of the Cub Scout group (Ha ha I was the only one on time) and Thing One (who had complained about not wanting to go) immediately perked up when one of the boys at church arrived, who she is crushing on. (He's a year younger than her but the cutest little kid ever, and he likes her too, so it's entertaining to watch.)

So, first order of business was a tour of the dairy. They have this 100+ year old barn that is built in the old style: two levels, dairy on the bottom and feed/hay stored in the top level. I about passed out from the smell (I had little Thing Four bundled up in his stroller like a burrito so I don't think he could smell it) and there were about 50 cats and dogs in the barn. It was neat to see. We all got to stand at the gate while the cows walked in, were milked, and walked out. They explained the process in minute detail, and we were about five feet from the cows the whole time.

I learned a lot about cows. A) They stink to high heaven B) They need to be milked twice a day (all the moms with me who have nursed cringed when they saw those bulging udders) and C) they are Filthy. I mean deee-sgustingly dirty. And halfway through the milking viewing one cow (who's butt was literally right next to the pen gate) lifted up the tail and WHOOOOSH--pee everywhere. The kids all screamed and ran for cover. The urine stench was so strong I had to breathe through my mouth. I mean, I could have reached out and TOUCHED THE COW'S BUTT, I was that close. EWUGH.

You KNOW that's the only thing the kids are going to remember about the outing. In fact, when Hubby came home later that night and asked how the Farm visit went, the kids immediately told him about the Pee Incident. Niice.

ANYWAY, after that, we went and saw the calves, and the feed, and the goats, and by that time my kids were all whining about how COLD it was. I reminded them that they had fought me on wearing coats and all they had were sweatshirts. They didn't say another peep after that. Dang I love being right!

Then it was a hayride to the pumpkin field to get a pumpkin, and back to the car where we wolfed down the cookies and milk because it was so dang cold. On the way home, I fielded about 69345 questions about cows, and Thing One wouldn't shut up about how two of the boys were fighting over who got to sit next to her on the hay ride. Yeah, she obviously was paying attention to the tour. SMIRK.

I concluded that my kids are wimps. They can't even handle a dairy farm smell. They wouldn't last a week caring for all those cows. Maybe there's a farm somewhere I can ship them to where they'd learn to work hard and deal with unpleasantness? But anyway it was good to get a different perspective for them. They need to see stuff like this, so they can realize that their protected little bubble isn't "all there is" in this world. It's an odd balancing act--you want your kids to be "in the protective bubble" but also to experience some of the world. At least we try.

So we got home and I started boiling spaghetti (the fastest thing I couldn think of) and checked email and lamented with a friend over the status of Dumbledore's Gayness, (we both agree it was an unnecessary outing!) and then it was feed the kids, and get them into bed, and Hubby and I collapsed on the sofa to watch some of our shows.

I'm worn out this morning. Luckily it's a quiet day of cleaning, before the Dreaded Birthday Sleepover tomorrow night.

*Sigh*

World's Longest Tag, EVER, I Think...

Karen over at The Wet Donkey tagged me so here I go:

1. Three biggest fears? Someone kidnapping my children, Dark water, Crunchy bugs

2. When was the last time you danced? This morning. Thing Four (my five month old) and I did “The Tango.”

3. Do you creep on stranger's blogs? I used to. Haven’t in a while.

4. If you could go back to be any age for a day, what age would you be and why? Well that’s just lame—only for a DAY?? Well, I guess 17 then because I didn’t have crows feet and my hair was a LOT thicker…

5. Are you a good liar? Nope. My husband can tell in a nanosecond.

6. Do you judge someone when you can tell they've had elective cosmetic surgery? Only if they do something ridiculous, like get Pamela Anderson boobs or Hemorrhoid lips or something… but I’m not against some tastefully done “streamlining.”

7. If you have children, what's one thing that you always told yourself you'd never do when you had kids? If you don't have children, what's one thing you tell yourself you'll never do. (Psst! You. Yah, you. The one without kids. Guess what? You'll probably do it.) Spank them with something other than my hand.

8. What's something that totally grosses you out? Body fluids. Snot, spit, etc. EW.

9. Do you ever delete forwards without reading them? Only the ones from my mother and mother-in-law. The cheese factor alone should make them illegal…

10. Do you ever lie to get out of obligations? I’m pleading the Fifth on that one…

11. Consider your body weight and your yearly income at their present states. Would you rather be 200 pounds heavier and $200,000 richer or stay at your present states? Are you kidding? Seriously, are you kidding??? I’d stay the same.

12. When was the last time you bought a pair of shoes and what were they? I just bought some today. At Target. Kiddie Size 4. They were knock-offs.

13. The Olympics. Take them or leave them? Take them. Embrace them. Watch NBC for 16 straight days, emerging only for food. (Sorry, had to steal Karen’s answer for this one!)

14. What's your favorite accent? Australian, Mate.

15. What's your favorite scent? Dreft.

16. Gum or breath mints? Gum, and only cinnamon flavor. Mints eventually give you Carpet Tongue

17. If you could look like any celebrity, who would it be? Julianne Moore. She is gorgeous.

18. If you had the chance of looking like said celebrity in exchange for your thumbs would you do it? Um, NO. I need opposable thumbs to write, change diapers, text on my Treo, hold a can of Diet Coke. MUST HAVE THUMBS!!

19. Do you religiously wear sun screen? Religiously. Otherwise I get Freckles for days…

20. Do you generally trust people/their motives or doubt people/their motives? Trust. I am extremely gullible. Almost to the point of retardation…

21. Would you describe yourself as a complicated person or is what you see what you get? Complicated. It’s more fun watching my husband try to figure me out.

22. Do you watch what you eat? Yep. And then I eat it.

23. Do you watch what other people eat? Only if it looks reeeaalllly good.

24. Do you judge how other people raise their kids? No. Unless I see them beat them in public. That’s just wrong.

25. Do you judge people who dress poorly? No. But I judge them when they dress SKANKY.

26. Do you judge people who are homely? No.

27. Do you judge people who are overweight? Sometimes--the ones who can’t move because they’re so big. Gluttony isn't cool.

28. Your interest in politics: High, Medium-High, Medium, Medium-Low, Low, Obsolete? High. An election year is like, continuous adrenaline for 365 days!

29. Favorite song of all time? You are going to laugh for days at this, but I’ve always loved Alphaville’s “Forever Young.” It was actually sort of neat until it was in Napoleon Dynamite (Bleah). Now it’s just a joke song. But dang, I love it.

30. Acoustic or electric? Acoustic. I’ve mellowed considerably.

31. If you were a hermit, would you shave? Nope. My leg hairs are blonde. Lucky me.

32. If you could shave your head without your significant other throwing a complete hissy, would you? Why the hell would I want to??

33. What was your least favorite age? 13 wasn’t that great a year for me.

34. How many times a day do you check your email? Um, about twenty?

35. Are you in a tiff with anyone right now? No. I'm friends with everybody! :-)

People I'm tagging: CASSIE and CHRIS!

Hairy Cheesecake...

Status: Slightly annoyed and cursing Guglielmo Marconi as I type--isn't he the one who invented the technology of the Baby Monitor? WELL, Mr. Marconi--radio is a TERRIFIC thing, but when it's 3am and your baby decides he's awake and wants to "happy scream" for an hour solid, it can get a bit irritating...

Hubby was hot last night so he opened all the windows--I told him it was going to get cold overnight and of course he said "no it wasn't" and at about 4am he jumped up and (shiveringly) grabbed the duvet and put it over us. We probably would have been asleep and not realized how chilly we were but for Thing Four's happy screaming for an hour. Then I had to pop out of bed and feed him at 5am, and Thing One's alarm went off at 6:30 (she has this MAJOR annoying alarm that is the sound of a dog barking--I have banned it until Thing Four is older) and Thing Four woke right up again and started happy screaming. He is currently happy screaming in his high chair with about 87 toys.

Hey, at least he's happy.

So, I decided to cut some time out of making cheesecake for Sunday Dessert (busy mom and all) and I saw this new Philly Ready-to-eat Cheesecake filling at the store. So I dumped it into a graham crust, and topped it with blueberries. The whole process took about three minutes. Considerably shorter time than making it from scratch!
Feeling smug, I served a Sunday dinner of pot roast, homemade mashed potatoes, Rhode's rolls and vegetables. Go me.

Then it was time for dessert. I cut the cheesecake, and we all started eating, until Hubby made a disgusted noise. We all looked at him and he was pulling a hair...a very LONG CURLY BLONDE hair out of his cheesecake!

I have straight brunette hair. So you can imagine how disgusted we all were. It looked synthetic, like it came from a cheesy wig or something. I guess it was a Cheese-CAKEY wig. (*snort*--what is UP with my lame puns lately??)
Anyway, we all got so grossed out we couldn't eat anymore. The lady who packed our instant cheesecake obviously couldn't keep her synthetic blonde wig hairs to herself.

Say it with me: EAUHUGG!!!!!!

So, other than being put off of Philadelphia Ready-Made Cheesecake Filling for Life, I am OK, but resolved to just make my own stuff from now on.

Lots to do today. Thing Four is over 20 pounds now so I need to get him a new carseat. Lots of Monday errands as well. Time to run around--after ME time. :-)

The Usual Epiphany...

Status: Annoyed. I sprained my hand, I think. How did I do it, you ask? Well, I wish I could say it was doing something cool, like bungee jumping or Saving The World from Imminent Doom. Alas, no, it was sprained while mopping. Yes, Mopping. Nothing more exciting than that. So, now (other than thinking I'm an intense Mopper) you are probably realizing how completely lame my daily life is...

So I had yet ANOTHER "realization" last night. I realized that I need to take some risks. Especially with my writing. I had reconciled myself (Devon, stop reading for a minute and plug your ears) to the fact that Trying To Be A Writer just had to be put on hold for now, because I am NOT good at juggling "Being a Writer" AND "Being a Mom to Four young Kids." I've never been good at it.

My agent and I parted ways because I wasn't "dedicated" enough. I was dragging my feet, to put it kindly. And it was all my darn fault.

I'm tired of being content doing very little. (Okay, Devon, you can continue reading now)
I want to do MORE. I want to MAKE the time. I want to TRY. So, I have the Status Bars back on my blog. One for editing, and one for writing. I am going to try. That is the best I can do right now, but I will try my best to do SOMETHING. And once I get into the swing of things, I'll start querying agents again.

One day at a time, one hour at a time. You get the drift. Now I know what I'll be doing during "ME" time!

Hubby comes home tonight. Well, actually, his flight gets in at 12:37 pm, so I guess you could say he gets in tomorrow morning. Talk about the Walking Dead. Saturday should be interesting.

I stayed up until 1:30 last night, editing, which was dumb because now I'm exhausted, but I feel like I accomplished something. And it felt great. Good for me!

Now I need a nap. Have a good weekend, everyone!

I Wish I Was Bionic...

...because THEN it would take me only a short while to clean my whole dang house, as opposed to ALL DAY LONG. Actually, if I do it right, it takes about two and a half days.
I was very bad yesterday, I just did writing research and played with the baby. No cleaning, no laundry, no maintenance, just played on the computer and played with Thing Four. I have a bouncy chair in my office and I just plunk him in it (he's only 5 months so he's not mobile yet, thank heaven!) with toys and Ta Da--writing time!

But yesterday I mostly did research. I need to know what the most up-and-coming archaeological tools are out there. Because my characters are on a dig in South America, and they have a reluctant guest, who needs everything explained to him, because he's NOT an archaeologist. (You know that writing trick: interject a character who doesn't know jack so it gets explained to him, when the REAL purpose is to explain to the reader, so the reader knows what's going on...)
But I need to know what the heck I'm talking about, before I can make THEM sound like they know.

I am beginning to like the search engine "Dogpile" a lot better than Google these days. Thanks, Dad, for the tip! Dogpile does Google, Ask.com, Yahoo, etc. etc. It pulls from all of them. Pretty handy for research!

So, my goal today (after ME time, yes, I'm keeping it!) is to clean the house from top to bottom. Surface cleaning only. When I start organizing drawers, etc. it goes MUCH slower. So I'm just going to clean it all, mop, dust, vacuum, spray down, etc. and make it look good. And I have about 6 loads of laundry.

Okay, what a THRILLING life I lead! Seriously, a stay-home mom has so much fun, I know. We live in our cars, and clean 80% of the time and live in chaos. That's more exciting than, say...being a superspy, or hangliding. Being a full-time mom is REALLY stimulating and invigorating! Whew! Excuse me for a minute while I pause...ADRENALINE HEADRUSH!!!

Okay, yes, so I'm a smartass. Gotta go. I have a date with a vacuum cleaner.