I'm A Mess.

And not because I can't seem to post anything--or because we're in the thick of the "crazy" time before Christmas, but honestly, I am an emotional mess, lately.

Today I fell apart. I told Hubby I was going to make some Christmas cookies. I figured I'd get it done while the kids were at school. Well, I made the dough, and when I was done, I realized Thing Four (who is six) was at school, and he wasn't there to "lick the dough off the mixing paddle" like he usually does. And Things 1-3 weren't hovering, waiting for a spoonful of dough before I dumped it into a bag to harden in the fridge.

It was just me, and the dog. And I started bawling. THIS must be what empty-nest syndrome feels like! And I don't even have one "out of the nest" yet!!! I suddenly wanted all my kids at home and wanted us to make cookies together, and it would be hours before they were home. I promptly burst into tears.

Thank heaven for my friend Kim, who, when I told her, was over at my house within 10 minutes, and we talked and cried together for a few hours. It was a much needed "time out."

Bottom Line? Life is Short. Enjoy your loved ones while they (and you!) are still around. Because all good things must come to an end, eventually.

Sobering, I know, but suddenly I am appreciating my time with my kiddos a LOT more. Because they are not getting any younger.

If you still have kids/parents/family at home, give 'em lots of hugs!!

Because Brenda Would Like An Update...

*wink wink* My friend Brenda Birch, awesome lady and writer extraordinaire, recently blogged about how some of us don't blog very often. I am certainly guilty of that offense. I don't know why it is. I used to be a very consistent blogger. Now I'm...not. I will try to be better.

October came and went, and now it's November, and boy are these holidays sneaking up on me! I can't believe Thanksgiving is in two weeks!! I am not doing NaNo this year, although one of my WIPs would benefit greatly from it. I just can't sit my butt down and write for 2 hours a day. Not without a very good reason! ;-)

Anyway, Football is over, now it's time for BASKETBALL! All three of my boys will be playing in rec and church leagues, and I am looking forward to cheering them on at games!

Given that it's only the second-ish week of November and I want to have all my Christmas decorations up soon, I have had some raised eyebrows. I have Christmas fever. I can't help it. I love sparkling trees crammed with ornaments and ribbon and wrapped presents and lights and the smell of pine (even if it's little pine-scented sticks I hang on my fake trees to make them smell like NOT-fake trees) and egg nog and oldies Christmas music (BING CROSBY and JOHNNY MATHIS for starters), and Christmas cookies and movies like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Scrooge" (the Albert Finney version, in my opinion the best one), and Holiday parties and all the yummy things we bake and make, and the list goes on. These last two months of the year are my absolute favorite. I want them to last as long as possible! (Because I am one of those weirdos who, after the holiday is over (literally the next day no joke), must obliterate all traces of said holiday and pack up everything and move on.)

So, BRING ON THE HOLIDAY CHEER!!! Boo yeah!!!

;-)

YEAH--It's October!!!

You know what that means!!!

Pumpkin everything...

Halloween decorations...

 And HOT CHOCOLATE and CIDER!!!

Now if only it wasn't 90 degrees out, I could actually dress like THIS (minus that handbag):

Maybe in December??? :-(

PINTEREST LIES. (Sometimes.)

I probably am on Pinterest once every few days. I am not hugely addicted anymore, like at first. But I still love surfing and finding new ideas. One of my boards is literally titled "DIY And Pray It Turns Out This Way" because I am realizing something--only about 25% of crafts I do from Pinterest turn out the way the beautiful-perfect-lighting-soft-focus pictures do. In fact, a lot of my crafts end up looking like something you'd scrape off the bottom of your shoe.

Why else would the blog "Pinstrosity" be created? (If you need a good chuckle, go take a look. My new favorite phrase is "Nailed It!")

As with anything you glean from the Internet, you need to be wary of Pinterest as well. Yes, it's a wonderful vehicle of Craft Sensory Overload and honestly most of the recipes on there are TDF (To. Die. For.), but some are outright lies. Take my jelly-roll pans for instance:

I've had these babies for seventeen years. (Got 'em for my wedding!). As you can see, they are...interesting. Hubby calls them "seasoned." I call them gross. Well, on Pinterest, there's this magic "formula" with baking soda and peroxide, etc. that promises that if you whip it up, and scrub it on your pans, they will look like this:

Yep, after a little scrubbing, they will be all shiny and clean. You see the major difference here?

 

So, naturally, I was excited to get my old yucky pans brand-spanking new and beautimous. I mixed up the concoction, got a really scratchy sponge, and scrubbed. And scrubbed. And scrubbed. Here are the results:

BEFORE:

AND AFTER:

  

Yep, Pinterest LIED. I could have scrubbed until the next Hunger Games movie came out and my jelly roll pans would still look like this. I had to dub it a Pinterest Fail. My conclusion? Pinterest lies. But only sometimes. 
You just need to be wary of the pins with all the exclamation points. Some of them are a little outrageous. But of course the best way to find out is to try them yourself. 

Happy Pinning! (Oh, and the shiny jelly roll pans shown are the ones I finally went out and bought because I was sick of my gross ones. In case you wondered.)

Rememberance.

With my parent's generation, it's more like "Where were you on the day JFK was shot?"
My generation? 9/11, without a doubt.

I can't remember a lot of things. I probably couldn't tell you what I did last week, let alone twelve years ago. But I can tell you exactly what I was doing that day, and how events unfolded. On this day I always remind my kids (who were too young to remember) what happened. I tell them the story.

I will never forget. Ever.

Huh? Fall? What?

It's jaw-droppingly amazing to me, how fast this year has flown. I seem to be saying that a lot lately, every year. What does this mean? Are our lives on fast-forward? It seems that way, lately.

It's September. Halloween is in full swing in the stores, people are blogging about Football and sweater weather and pumpkins and fall leaves, etc. etc.

Where I live, it's still 90 degrees, and a little hard to get into the "Fall Spirit" yet. But we are getting there. I think I'll have all my Halloween stuff up in a couple of weeks. It's just...weird. Weird that we're already here.

Crazy week for me, so I'd better get going!

I LOVE being a Football Mom!

I will be honest, never thought I'd say these words! My kids have always been Soccer and Basketball. Football was just never a thing. My kids aren't "big." They aren't meaty. But Thing Three, who is currently on his 7th grade football team, is fast. He's a Wide Receiver. He loves it. It's like candy to him, seriously.

Every practice I pick him up from he has this huge grin on his face, even though he's soaked in sweat from sprints and pushups and suicides for the last 20 minutes of practice. He's always got a funny story, or just a report of how it went, etc.

(I will insert a small caveat here...football gear is NOT fun to clean, and I've pretty much given up on is cleats some days, but it's all part of the sport, right?)

But what I didn't count on--the GAMES. Football games are much more fun (although intense) than soccer. Everyone is pumped up, music blasts over the loudspeakers (you could probably bottle and sell the tangible adrenaline and testosterone in the air, haha) and it's just so much FUN. Granted, every single play he's in I grit my teeth and clench, because I don't want him to get killed, but it's still fun to watch the team work together. Right now we're 2-0 and our big rival game is today. STRESS.

I almost wish football season lasted longer. But that's ok, because Basketball season is pretty dang fun too!

:-)

Anyone Who Can Neatly Fold a Fitted Sheet Has Obviously MADE A DEAL WITH SATAN.

I think I'm missing a certain gene that other women have. I can't fold fitted sheets. Or round tablecloths. Why is this? I can fold shirts, pants, socks, towels, washcloths, I AM EVEN A LITTLE HANDY AT ORIGAMI. Yet stick a round tablecloth or fitted sheet in front of me, and I must walk away. I. Can't. Do. It. I know women who can. I consider them Freaks Of Nature.

Yeah, feeling a little inadequate today.

And while I'm at it--I seem to have missed out on some other genes that females have. Like, the "cute bubble handwriting" gene. My handwriting could be called spidery at best. And I'm also missing the "I can style girl hair" gene. Because even though sometimes there's a whole lot of Try there, it just doesn't happen. You should see my hair sometimes. You should've seen my poor daughter's hair growing up. It was either A) in a ponytail or B) in TWO ponytails. I can't French braid. I can barely braid. I'm sure my daughter resents me for her lack of cute hairstyles growing up.

And yes, today is Laundry Day. That would be the reason for my little rant. And since Brevity is the soul of Wit, I'm done for now.

Cheers!

Juice Extractor FAIL.

So, this summer, Hubby and I decided we were going to be healthier. And of course, the first thought that popped into our heads: JUICES. As in fresh fruit juices and smoothies.

It was, at the time, we thought, a brilliant idea. We scoured the internet looking for juicers and juice extractors and we settled on this baby:

It's the Cuisinart Juice Extractor. Wasn't cheap, either. We were going to do it right. 
So, we bought the Extractor, and I looked at the recipe book and found a few we really liked. Went to the local Harris Teeter and bought fresh mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, lemons, oranges, etc. etc..
I was a bit alarmed when my fruit purchase totaled $50, but we were going to have AWESOME FRESH juice packed full of antioxidants, so it didn't matter.
Got home, chopped up the fruit, and started the juice extractor. Fed most of the fruit into it and although the noise scared me (and the kids) a lot, we were all ooohhing and ahhhing over the teeny bits of juice that were pouring into the collection container.

Well, I used up all the fruit, and the collection container was only a quarter full. Hubby and I looked at each other, like huh? That's it? That's all we got from that buttload of fruit we put in?

I removed the little pitcher/dispenser and poured the juice into a cup. ONE small cup. We all tasted it. It was MAGNIFICENT. It was the best fifty-dollar cup of juice I've ever had.

Then, I lifted the lid on the Extractor, and UGH. PULP EVERYWHERE. And it was slimy and gooey and stuck to everything and it took me 45 minutes to pull apart the durn thing piece-by-piece and hand rinse each piece and dry them and put them all back.

So, my conclusion? $50 worth of fruit, 10 minutes worth of chopping, 5 minutes feeding said chopped fruit into a funnel that was so loud I think I've lost some of the hearing in my upper ear registers, and 45 minutes of cleanup. The result?

Eight. Ounces. Of. Juice.

Granted, it was SUPER YUMMY HEALTHY OH MY GOSH I MUST SIT DOWN THIS IS SO DELICIOUS Juice, but it was just juice all the same.

I am looking at the picture above, and how full the orange juice container is. I am concluding that either A) the advertising people simply bought a carton of orange juice and poured it in there for the picture or B) they spent an hour feeding 96847487 oranges into that thing. And C) They're all deaf now.

So, my super awesome juice extractor looks great on my counter, and I dust it dutifully once a week. And I go to the store and spend $2.99 on a HUGE bottle of fruit juice, and for some reason I feel like that's just fine.

Oh well.

I'm Ready for School to Start...

I think we've officially hit the point, where, the kids are freaking out because it's the end of summer, and I am ready for them to be back in school. Not because I don't love them, but because I am ready for some more...structure. And a cleaner house. Love my kids, but they are kind of super messy...

Here's Thing Three in his practice jersey today. He's so excited. I am nervous and looking for some really great protein shakes...but he's happy as a clam.

I am also realizing that I am currently not a soccer mom. None of my kids are playing soccer. So, does this mean I have un-earned the right to call myself a soccer mom per se? Or does the term "soccer mom" really encompass any mother whose kids play sports? Right now I'm a Football/TaeKwondo mom, and in the fall I'll be a Basketball mom. I think I'll keep the blog title for a while, yet...

This week has flown by! July was a blink, and August is starting to get that way. SLOW DOWN!!! Seriously! Before we know it we're going to be carving a Thanksgiving Turkey!

Oh, and Thing Two knows what he wants to be for Halloween:

Yep. "R" from Warm Bodies. He's tall like Nicholas Hoult, he has the eyebrows, and I've already bought the EXACT red hoodie and a wig and I'm looking at makeup tips. It will be AWESOME.

Thing Four, who is six, wants to be a pirate. Could it be any easier? ;-)

Back from Vacation!!

July was a busy month for us. We went to Disneyworld over the 4th (yes, call us insane idiots but with early-entrance "magic hours" and Fastpass we seriously rode all the rides we wanted to ride by noon, every day. :-) Hubby was the Intrepid Marching Schedulekeeper: we were scrambling to keep up with him so we could get everything in as quickly as possible. Then, if we wanted to, we repeated a few rides, and if we got tired after about 5 or 6 hours in the boiling sun, we went back to our rooms and hung out for a while, before heading back out. It was awesome. We bought way too much Disney stuff, but that's what we were there for, right? ;-)

We just got back from Utah, where we spent a week with family, before dropping our two oldest off at EFY Provo. (EFY stands for "Especially for Youth and it's a summer camp put on by our church.) Things One and Two won't be home until Sunday. Apparently they are having a blast.

We had a ton of fun in Utah, we went to Park City and hung out for a few days, did the Alpine Slides and roller coaster and took the ski lift up the mountain. It was gorgeous.

Now we are getting back into normalcy, somewhat. Thing Three has football tryouts today (cringe, gasp, STRESS) and the next two days. Hundreds of dollars for camps and gear and now he's missing his annual summer Boy Scout camp, all for Football. We will see how it goes!

I have started writing again. I haven't written a word in a month and a half. It was awful. So I have a lot of words in me. I am writing the sequel to a story I have been submitting. The book naturally didn't end with the first one, and the word count was already at 89K (which in my opinion, is "pushing it" for YA), so I started where I left off, and so far, I have 22K. (I wrote 5K yesterday). I hope to have Book Two finished up and edited by the end of September, and ready to go to beta readers. Exciting!!

Fingers crossed on a new development, as well. I hope to have some good news soon. :-)

I am not sure whether or not I'm ready for school to start. With the kiddos in school, I will have 8 hours to myself during the day, to get housework done, and WRITING. I have another novel I'm itching to write (it's about 1/2 finished) so I can work on that. Hopefully I'll have it ready for submission by the new year. 2013 seems to be flying along just as fast as 2012! What is the deal???

Keratin Woes, Disney, and EXHAUSTION

So, I survived the Keratin Treatment.

This was me on day two. Stick straight hair. And yes, it looks green in this photo. Don't ask me why. My iPhone is acting up or something. ANYWAY, I couldn't bear to take a picture on day three, because I was U-G-L-Y. (Well, my hair looked like the Crisco Fairy had been generous, if you get my drift...)

Anyway, I love it. I love my hair now, it's so...silky!

So, we just got back from going to Disneyworld over the week of the 4th of July. Yes, we were crazy. Yes, we covered four parks in three days. (We did Epcot and Animal Kingdom together one day.)

We are EXHAUSTED. We walked so much. According to my Fitbit, I averaged almost 18,000 steps per day. That's nearly twice my daily step goal. CRAZY!!


But we had fun! Here's Hubby and Things 1-4:

Yeah, I never used to post pictures, but if I put them on Facebook, I can put them here. :-)

I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July!

The Keratin Treatment

My hair stylist/colorist extraordinaire, has been after me for THREE years, to get a Keratin treatment for my hair. You see, as I may have lamented on this blog before, my hair does NOT bode well in Humidity. And where do I live? Charlotte, North Carolina. Probably in the top five most humid places during the summer. Which means, I go curly in the summer (straight hair is not even on my radar when there's 90% humidity) and even when I go curly I'm STILL a bit frizzy.
She says the Keratin treatment is "life-changing." She's been wanting to give me one forever. I resisted, because of the formaldehyde stories I'd heard, but she told me Aveda does NOT use it. So, yesterday afternoon, I let her give me one.

First, I was pleasantly surprised at how painless it was. She brushed a bunch of crap on my hair that smelled like tanning lotion, let it sit, and then blew my hair dry and flat-ironed it. (The flatiron was at 450 degrees, which made me nervous--you know that "cooked tanning lotion skin" smell you get when you leave a tanning salon? Yep that's what my hair smelled exactly like.)

So, apparently, once you've had a Keratin treatment, you have to wait 72 hours to do ANYTHING to your hair. And I mean ANYTHING. I was surprised at the list of "don'ts" Here they are, in random order:

1) Do not wash or wet your hair for 72 hours. (3 days)-no surprise here. Although I am worried, because the 3rd day happens to be on Sunday, and I have church, and I have to stand up and conduct a meeting with my nasty three-days-unwashed hair. Ugh.
2) Do not tie hair into a ponytail. !!!!!! WHAT?? In all this heat and humidity? It's going to average 92 this week! IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO HAVE KNOWN THIS BEFOREHAND.
3) Do not wear hair clips. As If.
4) Do not wear hair bands. Um, how will I wash my face?
5) Do Not Sweat. Are you KIDDING? So, basically, don't do housework, don't go outside, don't work out...basically EXIST IN A VACUUM for three days? Asking me not to sweat is like asking the Pope to not be Catholic. It just. Isn't. Happening. And apparently, if I DO sweat *gasp!* I am supposed to runlikehell to the nearest blowdryer and flatiron and immediately blow the offending sweaty hair dry and flatiron it. OR ALL WILL BE LOST. Nice.
6) Do not place hair behind ears. OH MY HECK how am I supposed to remember that? So, what happens if I do? Do warning bells sound and some sort of Hair S.W.A.T. team descend on my house with rappelling ropes? (I asked, and she said my hair would naturally form in that direction and I'd hate it.)
7) Do not wear bobbypins. I haven't, since like age 25
8) Do not rest glasses on hair or use them at all if they are wide-framed. Apparently I will be driving all squinty because all my sunglasses are taboo. Thank heaven I wear contacts...
9) Do not have hair color/highlights done for at least 2 weeks. DUH.

Apparently, the Keratin takes 72 hours to "cure" like cement. So, I'm on Day One of the 72 hours. I will return and report at the end.

Movies and BUGS!!!!!!

Had a great weekend with the kids. Saturdays and Sundays are the only days Hubby has off, so we usually jam-pack all we can family-time wise, into those two days.
Saturday day was pretty busy, and then, Saturday night, Hubby and I went to an outdoor wedding. The setting was in a private back yard, the light was beautiful, everything went smoothly, and except for the bugs (little bugs, little bugs) it was a wonderful experience.
We went home afterwards, and the kids were all home (which NEVER happens, usually two or three of them are off somewhere at any time) so we all decided to see Monsters University. It was at 10 pm, and yes, we know that's WAY too late for a six-year old to be up, blah blah blah but it's summer and sometimes we do crazy stuff like that.

We got to the movie theater, and we were waiting in the foyer for Hubby to get our tickets out of the kiosk, and I had an itch on the front of my scalp. Now, I had worn my hair curly that day (humidity and straight hair don't exist in the same world together for me, unfortunately) and half up, half down. So I had a bunch of curls at the top. So I scratched my itch.

And felt something. Something BIG.

You know how you have that crazy fear feeling engulf you--your heart drops to somewhere in your shoes and your blood runs cold and your heart starts pounding? Yeah, me too. BIG TIME. Since I was in a roomful of strangers and my traditional reaction to having a bug on me wasn't appropriate (which involves what my kids have dubbed my "bug dance" and a lot of shrieking) I C-A-L-M-L-Y walked over to my daughter and asked her to take a look at my hair, and see what the big something up there was. She took a look, and didn't see anything. I told her look closer, so she did, and then she put her hands on her mouth in horror (I immediately realized she was probably the wrong person to ask) and we both started squealing and I kind of started hopping around. Hubby, clearly alarmed by our embarrassing display, came over and asked what was going on, and I asked him to look at my hair. He looked. "There's nothing there." Then he took a closer look, and said: "OH."

His reaction was enough to drive me into full panic mode. "GETITOUTGETITOUTGETITOUT!" I squealed, clawing at my hair. He told me to hold still (I swear I detected a smirk on his face) and he fished out a Huge. Black. Beetle. He threw it on the floor and it started scuttling away and I saw how big it was and I FREAKED. The people around me freaked. I heard one lady say "that was in her hair? EW!"

It was that big. It had landed on my head from somewhere, and burrowed in my curls. We checked for eggs (and poop! ugh!) and went into the movie, thoroughly grossed out. Yuck.
By the way, GO SEE Monsters University. It was awesome. And my daughter, apparently, liked World War Z, despite it basically being dubbed a "huge turd" by movie critics.
I guess we're easy to please...

ARE YOU INSANE??? NO WAY IN *Gulp* Sure Honey, Whatever You'd Like...

Thing Three wants to go out for Football. He's 83 pounds.

You see my predicament, don't you? Yep, you spotted it right away. I am the kind of mom, who, when one of my kids expresses an interest in a sport, I ENCOURAGE them. I want my kids to be active. I want my kids to be on team sports, because it teaches them how to get along with others.

I also like to see my kids ALIVE, too. Without broken bones and concussions and separated shoulders and torn ACLs. (Did I miss any other potential football injuries?)

Thing Three, to his credit, is fast. Years of soccer have made him so. He would be a cornerback or wide receiver. Catch the ball, and run like hell, and don't let any of those huge boys pulverize you into a pile of human jelly. That's literally the advice I am giving to him.

Despite my extreme anxiety for his physical safety, I bought him cleats. I bought him gloves. I signed him up for football skills camps and conditioning. He really really wants this. Is it bad that a teeny tiny part of me hopes he doesn't make the team? 99.9% of me will be glad if he makes it. Not going to lie. It is HARD to get onto the teams in our school. You have to be a super athlete, or know someone in the system, simple as that.

So, I am outwardly supporting him, and buying him protein shakes (ten pounds, JUST TEN pounds would help put my mind at ease) and encouraging him.

But inside (especially when I drop him off at conditioning and see those hulking boys), I am frankly, terrified for his safety.

UGH.

Such is Life.

Got some bad news today. Can't really say much other than "Oh, well, I tried."
That really is the way of things, isn't it? We try things, and sometimes they work out, and sometimes, they don't.

I am not going to sweat it. I am going to chalk it up to experience, try to move on, and push forward. Yes, it is embarrassing and upsetting, but I only have myself to blame. I'm in the "Couldawouldashoulda" phase.

I was looking back at some of my posts ten years ago, when my kids were very little and I didn't have time to tie my shoes, let alone do much else. I was funny. I was actually DANG funny. Now, I have two teenagers, a tween and a 6-year old. My sense of humor is still there, but I think it's sharpened into jaded sarcasm at times, and thinly-veiled snark the rest of the time. ;-)

I've decided I just can't sweat things so much. I need to get over myself, get over some of the crap around me and find my happy, witty place again.

I'll get there. I promise.

Are We Getting Lazier?

My daughter is finishing up a Shakespeare unit at school. She was on the computer yesterday asking me what England was like during Shakespeare's time. 
Well, I walked right over to my office and picked my copy of "Shakespeare's England" off my bookshelves. I handed it to her. "This has everything you need," I said. 
She took one look at it and shook her head. "Who has time to read that? I just need to Google on the computer and paste it." 

She didn't even open the book.
 
I've just discovered a major difference between my generation and hers. Not sure how I feel about that.

I remember going to libraries and getting frustrated because the big reference books I needed couldn't be checked out. They had to stay IN the library. So I had to get pencils and paper and write down NOTES. I had to WORK for my homework. I had to search through dusty card catalogs and go on hunts for the books I needed, and I checked them out. Then I had to READ them at home, and pluck what info I could from them and use it.

Fast forward to now and any info you need is a Google search away--and you can just use it any way you please. You can copy and paste right into your document. Its as simple as that.

I guess I understand why my kids have more homework than I did when I was their age. Because their resources and technology are faster and more accessible, therefore they can get more done in a shorter time. 

I'm wondering if we should even call it "homeWORK" anymore. ;-)

Heart Broken

I'm taking a break from wit today, since I don't have any. I'm upset by the devastation in Oklahoma, but worse, about the elementary school deaths.

Remember as kids, growing up, we'd have the "tornado drills?" The teacher would tell us to crouch underneath our desks? I always wondered what it would be like to be in an actual tornado.

I found out, years later, in my late twenties. I was working at Dillards in Sugarland, Texas, and a tornado tore the side off my store. It was terrifying. It was devastatingly loud. No one was killed, thankfully, but we were all shaken up and freaked out.

My own kids are scared of tornadoes. Whenever we get a "Tornado Watch" or "Warning," I reassure them that they will be safe, that they need to go to sleep and not worry. And they believe me, because something that horrible doesn't happen all the time.

I think of those poor children in Moore. They were in their schools. They knew it was coming. They were terrified. And then it hit them dead on. I can't wrap my head around what they must have experienced.  Makes me want to hug my kids a little closer, today.

My prayers go out to the vicitms and their families. I have some links for donations if anyone feels inclined.

If you want to donate to help the disaster victims, you can donate at the Red Cross: Red Cross Disaster Relief fund

Or, more local to the victims,  the Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief's Website. This organization says donations will "go straight to help those in need providing tree removal services, laundry services and meals to victims of disasters."
It is requesting monetary donations (It says clothing is NOT needed). For more information, and to donate, visit Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief's website.

The Slenderman Costume.

I'm a little "late" posting this, but some years, Thing Two has some REALLY great costumes. You should have seen the "Link" (Legend of Zelda) costume I did for him one year. You can click here to see it.

Anyway, last Halloween he wanted to be Slenderman. Apparently there's this freaky, faceless, black-suit-and-tie-wearing freakazoid out there in Gameland, running around and his faceless face is the last thing you see if you aren't careful and get away from him. Which means GAME OVER. Oh, and he has freakishly long arms.

So, Thing Two wanted to be him. I had fun building this costume. All I needed was a black suit, shirt, black tie, (he already had these for church) 2 yards of black fabric to extend the arms, and a white Morph Suit.

Behold, the end result:

His friends he went Trick-or-Treating with took a few pictures of him in the woods. Because you usually encounter Slenderman in the woods.

Creepy. But awesome.

Antsy Pantsy

School is almost out, Summer weather is officially here, they're opening up the neighborhood pool next weekend (yay!) and I have a SERIOUS case of Ants-in-the-pants. Why, you ask? A lot of things, I guess.

I'm antsy about my submissions. The time an agent takes to get back to you now is about 7000% longer than it was ten years ago.

I'm antsy for school to be out. Summer is the best. I will have more time to write. ;-)

I'm antsy because my mom is having knee surgery Monday. On the other knee. I just want her to be all healthy and bionic already.

I'm antsy because I have about 958363868 things on my To Do list, and none of them are things I want to do.

I'm antsy because I'm turning older soon and I feel about 20 years younger than I am. I don't know if it's the gift of emotional immaturity, or what, but I do NOT feel my age.

I could go on, but I don't want to bore everyone. Just know I'm "antsy" and I have a lot going on.

Scratch scratch.

Shame on Me!

I have seriously neglected the blog! I used to be such a poster--no joke, I posted EVERY day. I was on fire. I was funny. I had lots of stuff to talk about. 

Then my kids got older. I know it's not much of an excuse, but since as you all know I am not the best at budgeting my time, all I do lately is run around/drive people around/run errands etc. etc..

I'm sure there are moms with a bazillion more kids than me, who have all the time in the world. And they document it all on Pinterest. But I'm not one of those moms. I'm a writer. My writing time is precious to me, and my kids are precious to me and sometimes it's like a big old Sophie's Choice movie (okay bad example) because I have to choose and neglect one or the other. And I don't want to neglect EITHER.

By the way, can I just say, NEVER volunteer to be a room mom for a Kindergarten class? 'Nuff said on that subject.

So, anyway, here's me, tentatively peeking in and giving you a wave, not promising I'll blog every day, but I will certainly be BETTER at it.

I think I've come to the point where I've realized that my life really is more mundane than exciting (I save all that for my adventures on paper) and who wants to read about MUNDANE? Me either. Not unless I'm emotionally invested in that person, do I want to hear about their trip to the vet and what they ate for lunch. Seriously.

Okay. The house is quiet, kids and hubby are at school and work, and the possibilities are endless! Which one will I choose??

Soccer Tryouts are Brutal. Oh, and Pinterest Makes you Fat.

Thing Three has been at soccer tryouts for his middle school. For the life of me, I don't understand why they allow the 8th graders to run around with the 6th graders. It's suspect. Why, you ask? Well, A) 8th-graders are hulking MEN compared to little 6th-graders, and B) they are OUT TO GET THEM.

Case in point: Thing Three (who is in 6th grade) was looking a little green around the gills when I picked him up today. Apparently a big hairy 8th grader had bulldozed into him not once but twice during tryouts, twisting his ankle the first time and literally smashing him in the head...with HIS head, the second time.

Thing Three was dizzy and in pain, and I hurried him home and got ice on his head and checked his pupils and had him repeat all sorts of trivial information. Head injuries are SCARY. Especially when administered by LARGE 8TH GRADERS.

Can you tell I'm a little miffed?

Anyway, in other news, I have decided Pinterest makes you fat. Because if you get on it, all you see are pins of double-chocolate-fudge-custard-caramel-peanut butter brownies and the like. You know the kind. "Made with only FOUR ingredients!" (said ingredients being Fat, Lard, Crisco and Cocoa Powder.)

Even if I'm not hungry when I get on Pinterest, I leave with about 907847 new recipes printed up, and I'm ravenous. As in, Eat-My-Own-Computer-Mouse ravenous. It's not fair. Yet I can't stay away...

Hubby had surgery Monday to correct a hernia. Nothing really major, but I have to babysit because he's totally loopy on painkillers and not responsible for his actions. It's been kind of entertaining, actually. Is that bad?

And now, to sleep.

Crockpot Love.

It's one of Man's (or was it Woman's?) most awesome inventions. A pot you can dump almost anything food-ish in, plug it in and not worry about it, and when you come home after a busy day, voila! You have dinner!

It's the Crockpot. I have four of them. A really large oval one for when I do my 10-pound pork roasts for pulled pork, a large one for our family Sunday dinners, a medium one for a smaller meat/whatever fare, and a small one for queso, lil' smokies, etc. etc.

LOVE THEM. Crockpots make my life so much easier!!

What's crazy is the STUFF you can do with them. You can bake bread. You can bake brownies. You can do things you didn't think you could do! The possibilities are endless!!

Now I just need to get a crockpot with a TIMER on it--that would be ideal!

Crockpots Rock!

Hold On, Let Me Put Away Henry VIII's Milk...

HAHAHAHAHA!!! (Found this on Pinterest)

SNOW? What???

Got a nice little inch of snow last night. Which is WAY rare for where we live. I don't even have snow boots or gear for my kids, that's how long it's been. My maltipoo, Maggie, didn't know what to make of the snow this morning when my son took her out to go to the bathroom. Of course it's going to be 50 degrees today so it will all be melted, but it's kind of cool to see white lawns and rooftops for a change. :-)

School wasn't cancelled today, thank heaven, because my daughter has midterm exams this week, and her Algebra exam is today. Otherwise she would have had to wait until Wednesday next week, because the kids have a four-day weekend. Yes, we're being total bums and not going anywhere--just hanging out at home.

I am looking forward to the weekend. Granted we have sports games for half the day on Saturday, but that's normal for us. Sunday I want to be a slug. That's my favorite day!

I have a personal trainer I've started going to twice a week, and MAN is he kicking my butt! Literally! I can't even lift my arms to the steering wheel to drive my car home after our sessions. And the next day, I sit down like an oooooolllllldddd lady. We'll see if I get any results.

It's Friday! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. Stay warm!

I Think I Just Threw Up In My Mouth...

'Nuff said.

Monday Monday..

Mondays are always crazy days for me--as far as running around. I usually volunteer on Mondays too at Thing 4's school--today will be the last Monday. I have a Personal Trainer I will be going to on Mondays and Thursdays, so I guess Wednesdays will be my "volunteer" day.

It's funny how my 5-year old LOVES IT when I come to his class and chaperone field trips and help out (I'm the room mom, it's actually kinda fun) and my middle schoolers and high-schooler don't say a PEEP about me volunteering at THEIR schools.

Are they embarrassed? Is it "uncool" now to have a mom who helps out in the office or media center or sign-in desk? I guess. Better enjoy my 5-year old's appreciation while I can!

I am glad it's January. Things are calmer. All the holiday stuff is down at the house, and without it even the house seems calmer (except now I get to deal with Valentines Day stuff SCREAMING SCREAMING SCREAMING at me in the grocery store aisles...mmmm....candy hearts...wait...what?"

...ANYWAY, I am on a very focused mission to de-clutter and dejunk the house. As I do every New year/Spring. House first, garages last. I look at the state of my third car garage and I just...can't. Not until I've tackled the house. (Although I DID put all the Christmas stuff back in one section, stacked on shelves in neatly-labeled plastic tubs. NEXT Christmas I will know exactly where everything is! Hooray!)

It's still cold, though. This morning was low 40's. But this week will be nearly 70 degrees every day! I am SO fine with that, but no more comfort food for us! I have fallen completely in love with my new Keurig (Hubby insisted we get one but since we aren't coffee drinkers I didn't see the point, until I realized you can make HOT COCOA and HERBAL TEA with it) and those little K-cups are awesome. Although there's something tactile about having my mug of herbal tea, bag tag out. I still do things old school that way. But I won't give up my hot drinks until about March. That's when things really start to warm up around here!

I just realized I blogged about a whole lot of nothing. I better get showered and get to the school! My 5-year old awaits!! ;-)

ORGANIZATION

It's a daunting word, sometimes. Every January I get what I call the Organizing Itch. I want to dejunk the house, and make the most of the space I have. Home Depot is my friend. I get storage tubs and shelves and what-not-thingies to help save space. There is a lot of wasted space in houses, you know? Like most closets. There's like FIVE FEET of clearance above the top shelf. How many people actually use it?

These past two days have been stay-home days. Cleaning, unpacking, washing and yes, organizing. And I've been getting some writing in, too. I went to a book club meeting in Idaho where my book was the featured book, and it was nice to answer questions and talk about the story. Some of the ladies had really good questions. And of course they all asked when the sequel would be ready. I've gotten about 5K out on...not sure exactly what it is, but I guess if it's good enough to be considered a sequel, then that's what I'll go with. :-)

We are having a Sports dilemma. Thing Three, who is my most active athlete, has been doing Taekwondo since summer. He's advanced quite quickly, and has also been invited to do Elite Sparring. Here's the problem, he is also doing basketball this season, and for the next two months every single one of his games are Saturday at 8 or 9am. Guess when Elite Sparring meets? Yep. Saturdays at 9am. He wanted to quit basketball, and he still sort of does, but he also loves playing it. What to do...what to do...

HAPPY NEW 2013!!

It's kind of freaking me out, how quickly 2012 flew out the door. Does anyone else feel this way??


I was a total Scrooge this holiday season. I was so busy, I didn't send out any cards or gifts, or make cookies and deliver them like I usually do. I was basically just trying to keep my head above water, and it was very difficult.

Christmas break was well-needed. We spent it with Hubby's family in Idaho, and a few days we spent in the mountains snowmobiling and hanging out in an awesome cabin. It was amazing. A little too cold for this North Carolina girl, but amazing all the same.

And now we're back home. I have been working my tail off since this morning and officially erased all traces of Christmas. Everything is moved back and packed up and put away. Now I need to dust and vacuum and tackle the HUGE/ENORMOUS/COLOSSAL pile of dirty clothes we pulled out of all seven of our suitcases. :-P

2013 will be interesting. I just hope it's a "good" interesting. I have written down some goals for myself, and looking at what I'd like to accomplish seems reasonable, only I have to make some life changes to accommodate these goals. Not so easy.

One goal is to definitely blog more. and WRITE. I have a story mulling around in my head and a few other ideas I need to jot down. And I need to start submitting again, now that agents are digging their way out from underneath their slush piles and open to submissions once more.

We all have head colds. It really sucks. Other than that, I'm glad to be home and I am determined to get this house organized. We've been in it a year and a half and it's TIME.

Gotta get 'er done!!