Okay, so I totally entered the contest at HandbagPlanet to win one of their giveway handbags.
I would suggest that you enter too, but wouldn’t that lower my chances of winning? Oh, shoot. Go ahead and enter. Just don’t pick my lovely green bag!
So you know my oldest goes to parochial school. We’ve discussed the plaid. It’s coming up on Halloween and it’s time to figure out the costumes. Which is getting kinda tough because although she’s just made double digits, she’s tall for her age and doesn’t fit into kid sizes. Heck — she’s about 1 size away from fitting in my shoes.
And you know what comes after girl costumes don’t you?
Teen slut costumes.
Sure, the name of the costume is Little Red Riding Hood, but it’s the Little Red Riding Hood equivalent of a French Maid costume. Since when did Strawberry Shortcake become sexy?
And Alice in Wonderland is downright disturbing.
Luckily, the Tween picked being a punk rocker. Ordinarily, you wouldn’t think that was such a relief, but it’s better than any midriff-baring, stocking/garter skimpy thing that you can pick up at one of the Halloween stores that pop up in empty spaces in shopping centers this time of year.
So, we found the cutest punk rock shirt at T.J.Maxx. She already had jeans that feature a huge hole in the knee. A rummage through some costumes a friend gave us yielded fishnet and stripey hand warmer/glove things. I have a belt from the 80’s. She has a headset/microphone from a friend’s birthday party makeover session. We’ve got a punk in progress.
Things we need to complete the look:
1. Pink hair dye spray
2. Dog collar choker
3. Black nail polish
4. Willpower for her not to bite her nails for the next 3 weeks
5. Black jewelry
We did find some cute punky high tops tonight at Payless. High top converse-style, with some graffitti near the heel and black and gray laces. The Tween thinks she’s so stylin! I’m calling her look “Polite Punk” since she’ll get to wear her costume at school.
So I have been watching a lot of Jon and Kate + 8 on TLC recently. Have you seen this show? It’s my guilty pleasure. Jon and Kate had twin daughters and thought they’d try for one more. They had fertility issues so they got pregnant with assistance both times. Turned out the last time, Kate was pregnant with sextuplets! Eight kids. When I started watching it, the sextuplets were under 3 years old. Now they are either 4 or about to turn four.
Anyway, Kate keeps them on a schedule, which is no mean feat. I mean we’re talking eight children under the age of 7 plus at least one photographer, sound operator and a producer! On some shows, I know they’ve got to have more crews. Sometimes she comes off a little harried, but I utterly sympathize. On my worst day with two kids, I’ve got a walk in the park comparatively speaking.
I bought Lexie shoes on sale at Stride Rite a month or so ago. $29 bucks. On sale. Now multiply that by six. Buy some more shoes for the older girls. Double it. Not to mention the toys, the clothes, the laundry, the dinners, the potty training, the books, the diapers, the pull ups, you name it.
How does this show make me feel? Grateful. So very, very grateful.
I had been sightseeing Sunday afternoon, taking the MARTA up to Lenox Square Mall. I was trying to get to Phipps but just ran out of time after my flight was slightly delayed. Walking along Andrew J. Young International Boulevard, I squinted up into the setting sun and saw it.
Only, it wasn’t.
As a diet soda drinker, I enjoy branching out from my beloved Diet Coke to switch things up. I love Diet Coke with Lime, for example. The lemon … too strong. Found Vanilla Diet Coke to be refreshing, but can’t find it in stores now.
Diet Dr. Pepper is also on my playlist, with Cherry Vanilla Diet Doctor ranking high. So when I saw ads for Cherry Chocolate Diet Doctor Pepper, I gave it a try. Bleah.
Just my opinion of course, but it’s gritty somehow. Maybe chocolate really needs a texture to be enjoyable, although hot chocolate is pretty smooth, and I’ve had a YooHoo once or twice in my youth. I bought a 2-liter bottle of it and I’ve had one glass. It’s not for me.
So imagine my delight when my little cutie one received these as a present when she was born. These little socks from Trumpette just made my day. Thanks again, cousin Janet! There was nothing cuter than my little baby in her teeny weeny newborn outfits with matching or complimentary Mary Jane socks on her feet. In fact, I loved them so much, I bought her Mary Jane tights at Christmas from The Children’s Place. In black AND red. Sigh. Adorable. Her little feet have already grown so much that these socks don’t fit her any more, but I love the way they look still and decided to save them for her with some of her baby outfits. She may end up putting them on her baby doll’s feet some day, who knows. Let’s see if she loves Mary Janes as much as I do!
So why am I still making the same 5-6 meals all the time? It’s spaghetti, meatloaf, homemade little pizzas, chili, chicken stir fry and cheese enchiladas with an occasional marinara sauce and augmented with Costco’s amazing chicken pot pie.
Okay, now I have to digress a moment. Have you tried the chicken pot pie from Costco? I am not generally a chicken pot pie fan. My daughter tried some one day when we were picking up a big box of diapers for her sister and really liked it. Since she’s not really a chicken fan, I bought one since she loved it so much. I thank her for that every time I cook one for dinner. This pot pie is huge — about the size of a medium/large pizza and competely delish. We could eat it for days. In fact we do, because there’s no way we can finish one at one sitting.
I have read these cookbooks many times. I have marked recipes, but just never seem to try a new one. Maybe it’s because my time is so limited that I tend to cook stuff I can do almost on autopilot. If this were the kind of blog with lots of readers, I’d say hey everyone … give me your recipe recommendations. So if anyone out there stumbles on this blog, send your recipes my way.
Just remember that while I follow directions exceptionally well, I’m not into cooking things that take all day or a tremendous (more than 30-40 minutes) amount of preparation. In fact, cooking that chicken pot pie stretches my attention span to the breaking point. I have to cook it for 90 minutes. That means planning way ahead for dinner in my book!
If only babies could blow their own noses. I know I’m not the first parent to wish this and I certainly won’t be the last.
My poor little cutie one has a blocked honker. Her nose is stuffed up, so she can’t breathe, so she blows out her binky at night so she can breathe. Then she’s sad because she doesn’t have her binky. So then you give it back to her, which calms her down. But then, her nose is stuffed up …
So after doing this little dance at 5:00am for a while, I bit the bullet and took her downstairs for the dreaded nose sucking. That bulb-syringe they send home with you from the hospital? It’s the Best. Thing. Ever. Only try telling that to your baby. She doesn’t even like to have her nose wiped after this weekend.
Let me just say: many tissues were used before the green bulb syringe came out of storage.
Are we really this deep into 2008 and I haven’t posted anything? Yeah, I guess it’s true. Of course, I’m the mom who wrote all her holiday cards after Christmas and then left them in my scrapbook room. They’re addressed. They’ll be mailed … but just when, exactly? I went to all the trouble of making them, even dressing my darling daughters in matching outfits for the photo, and have addressed them by hand. By hand!! Not even labels!! I’m telling you, I was doing it all right.
And then … sigh. The not-mailing of them.
Of course, I have a built-in excuse … several of them, in fact.
1. I have a baby daughter (she’s 7 months old now, so I guess I have 5 months left of this one)
2. I work full-time
3. My house looks like an interior tornado rages weekly (EF-3 on the Fujita Scale, I SWEAR!) and someone’s got to make sure we don’t get gangrene from the debris!
4. Fill in the blank
I have the stamps. There’s really no excuse. I think I’ll do it this weekend before the 100 stamps I bought at Costco are obsolete thanks to the U.S. Postal Service raising rates. Again!
I’m the luckiest girl! I have a new coworker who custom blends teas. That’s pretty cool, you’re thinking. Neat to have a hobby, right?