Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Petty Theft...

I have a confession to make.  Whenever we go to my Mother's house for vacations, when we are leaving I tend to accidentally pack something awesome in my suitcase that technically does not belong to me but once it gets unpacked totally does.  I'm a bit of a clepto, only with my Mother, and usually only with things she makes, not things she buys.  This visit, she was kind enough to give me the gorgeous teal throw blanket that she knit because I suggested that it was just the perfect color for me.  She bought me the same shirt that I borrowed and when I tried on the pants she had just bought herself, she gave me those too.  She refused me the lovely velvet gloves that I coveted.  The only one of those I would have stolen if denied, was the blanket (I'm so not kidding.  That thing would have been in my suitcase under my underwear so fast...I've done it before, I've got a quilt on every bed and couch to prove it). This year I made out like a bandit and this morning I had to call to confess to a crime I didn't even intend to make.  It was warm Thanksgiving week so I only wore my coat one time and apparently also wore the coveted velvet gloves and then left them in the pockets.  I hadn't worn that coat since and this morning I put it on, looked around for gloves, put my hands in my pockets and said "Yay gloves!  Oh SHIT!  Oh no no no no no.  She's never going to believe me."  Matt didn't believe me either.  He looked at me and said "Right.  You accidentally put them in your pockets."  Mom said the same thing when I called.  They're lovely gloves and she's coming to visit soon.  Perhaps she'll get them back.  Perhaps I'll find things missing from my house.  This might turn into a fun little game.  Too bad I can't steal furniture.  I'd totes steal her bed.


Monday, November 14, 2011

Read This...

I've been reading like crazy over the past week and a half. I've finished four books. For the first time in a long time, I've loved a whole series of books right in a row. I miss the characters when I'm done reading and I wish there were more of them to read.
First up there was "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close". This is the story of a nine year old boy and the search for something that belongs to his father after his father dies in one of The World Trade Center buildings.  The story deals strongly with the relationship the boy has with his grandmother and her long ago history.  I really and enjoyed it and I had no idea, until this morning, that this book was to be released as a movie this winter. I'm really excited to see the characters in movie form. I'm also glad I already read the book first.  There's so much unsaid, but written, between the characters that I'm afraid the movie will screw it up. 



Then I read "The Story of a Beautiful Girl". I adored this book. I miss the characters. I ached for their story. I wanted to know them.  To be vague and brief, it's the story of a young woman in an institution in the 1960s. 


Next I read, "The Unwanteds".  This is a YA book and was described as a cross between The Hunger Games and Harry Potter.  I felt like it was more of a cross between The Giver and Harry Potter.  I liked it much more than I liked either The Giver or The Hunger Games so I'm hoping that Lisa McMann continues on with this as a series.  It didn't consume with me with love the way that Harry Potter did, but I think most kids would enjoy this book.



Yesterday, I finished "Mudbound".  This was another book that touched me.  I loved all of the characters, even the ones with flaws.  I didn't want this book to be over.  Clearly, every book needs an end but I wanted more of all of these characters especially Jaime and Ronsel.  "Mudbound" is what one of the characters dubs the farm that her husband moves them all to after WWII. 



Since I was on a roll, I decided to restart a book that I've started twice but ran out of time because the library doesn't think that it should be at my beck and call.  Thinking of what it was going to cost me in late fees, I just decided to buy the book on Kindle.  SO, I started the first few words of "The Invisible Bridge", and then the cough syrup took over and I fell asleep.  This book gets such good reviews that I'm determined to get into it enough to not let other things distract me.  I've got a good hour and half at gymnastics tonight to get a tight hold on it.  Wish me luck!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

This Morning...

5:00-5:59am - listened to husband cough himself silly, wait for him to make the connection between coughing uncontrollably and the need for cough syrup.

6:00am - alarm clock goes off.  Get up.  Ask husband if he has taken his cough syrup recently.  Yes.  Ask for clarification.  1am.  Stumble around house trying to figure out where husband might have consumed cough syrup at 1am, find it in medicine cabinet (interesting).  Thrust bottle of cough syrup at husband.

6:10am - Tell children to start getting up.  Get in shower.

6:15am - Smallest child comes into bathroom I'm in (there are two other choices) and minutes later starts yelling "MOM, I need toilet paper".  I explain that I'm somewhat occupied and wet, could she perhaps look under the sink herself.  "Found it!".

6:20am - Finish shower to discover that smallest child left bathroom door open letting in cold air and left the new roll of toilet paper on the floor next to the shower.  Yell to child and explain that she is not being a responsible member of the family and look pointedly at the toilet paper "Oh".

6:25am - Shiver and note that husband has stopped coughing uncontrollably.  Hmph.

6:25-6:35am - make-up, hair, yelling at children to move it along

6:35-6:40am - get dressed by choosing clothing from various laundry baskets, note that I will be late.  Collect all the things.  Kiss the children.

6:45am - Leave house.

6:59am - arrive at work.  SIGH - the next 8 hours should be relaxing in comparison.




Monday, November 07, 2011

Random Things I Think...

I'm just going to jump into this one as there isn't really a good lead-up to these particular random thoughts.

Do you have a particular personal policy on choosing your bathroom stalls? I start thinking for example, that at work the large group bathroom has four stalls and we have roughly 100 women who work in the office.  If we all each used a random stall each time we went to the restroom, we'd each be exposed to 100% of the other female worker's germs.  BUT if the stalls were divided evenly among us, we'd each only be exposed to 25% of the female work population's germs. Think about it.

Also, ever since seeing Vh1s pop-up video of Jewel's Who Will Save Your Soul in which one of the pop-ups claimed that the first stall in a bathroom is the least used and the cleanest, I have whenever it is not obviously messy, chosen the first stall.

Here's the video for your obsessive compulsive enjoyment:


Aren't you glad that you don't live in my brain?

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Where Did My Babies Go...

I'm starting a new phase of parenting and I'm positive that I'm not ready.  I'm no longer parenting toddlers and preschoolers which I think I'd gotten pretty rock-starish at, I'm now parenting pre-teens and it's a whole new world.

I thought pre-teenness began somewhere around the age of 11 1/2.  No, this is not true.  Skyler is almost 9 and while she may still act the baby, she's definitely got a bunch of pre-teen going on.  Zack is 10 1/2 and we're now well into issues like hair *wink* and deodorant and face cleaning and locking down the internet.  I'm learning, slowly.

One issue I'm not a huge fan of is that kids this age are mean.  We try to raise nice polite kids but they're constantly exposed to kids who have been parented in a totally different style if you get my drift.  Last night when we were getting ready to Trick-or-Treat a child in the neighborhood called Zack fat.  Zack can usually fend for himself but he's really really sensitive to being called fat.  A third child came and told me and I marched right over to find this kid's mother.  I asked the child what he called Zack and he had no problem telling me that he said that he was fat.  I asked if it didn't hurt his feelings when someone else called him a name.  I found the mother smoking her ciggies and having a beer (klassy), we had words and she ended with yelling at her son "just stay the fuck away from those kids".  Lovely.  Can you blame the child when he learns from someone like this?  She's his primary adult figure.  What can you do with that? 

I had a long talk with my kids that that child wasn't being taught manners and how to behave and in all likelihood his parents called him names and so that's what he's learned to do.  They understood and were, I think, appropriately appalled at the behavior of both mother and son.  I think we'll chalk this one up as a learning experience.  Heaven forbid we just get some candy and call it a night.
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