Feelin' Weird man....

For all of you following my blog you'll realise I'm often looking for new ways to loose the baby fat! Today I found it..........just have your teeth pulled. Yes it's a fool proof method that can't fail. Just go to your local dentist, pay him thousands of dollars and let him inflict excruciating pain until food is the last thing on your mind. Drive home in a weird kind of floaty condition and go to bed after taking the extra strength, mind altering drugs he prescribes and you'll sleep for two or three glorious hours. You then wake up when the pain starts to come back and realize that even if you want to you can't eat because earlier in the day an Amtrak train drove through your right cheek. Yes folks in one day you can lose 46 lbs by using my new proved method...tooth extraction, look for it in the weight lose aisle, batteries not included.

The dreaded dentist!!!

It's a well known fact that American's make fun of the British dentistry and they imagine that we all look like Austin Powers!! That sucks!!! well today I am off to the dentist to have some major work done and I am dreading it. Steve made the comment last night that I am going to have years of crappy British dentistry fixed, not so, I used a guy over here who in a couple of visits managed to fuck up my whole mouth. That is what I am now having fixed, this time by someone who has a state of the art facility and I trust will do a jam up job!!!! I am also friendly with his super nice wife, not that that should make a difference.

I am not sure which is scaring me most, the lengthy, painful procedure and recovery time or the damn huge bill!!!!!!!!!! Such is life, grin and bear it!!!!!! I'll check in later when I am high on pain killers and let you know how it went.

Karaoke Queens......

They're actually singing Home on the Range in case you can't make it out. I am so proud, she's growing up just like mama!!!! hahahahaa.

Oh to be 8 again.....

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be 8 again???? I do. Probably 'cos I am watching Sydney grow up and every day one is reminded of how it was "when I were a lass". Things are so different now though... or are they? Kids still say the same things like "spell I-cup" yeah, yeah , yeah we all did that one. They still tell on their friends and then five minutes later they are best buds again.

One difference though is the technology that they are so "down with"; Sydney explained something to me this morning about how her brain works and it goes like this. There is a big personal profile in there about an inch thick she said, there's a front page that has all her important things on it, like her birthday, Science day and Olympic day which by the way is the 29th. (thanks for telling me Syd 'cos the calendar said the 30th and I had made plans around that). You go girlie, she sounds pretty organized for a little kid. Good to know she thinks of her brain as a computer and not a ball of ugly grey worms!!! This chicklet could really rule the world one day with all these smarts she has.

Another thing that struck me is the similarities between us. Some of my girlfriends and I love to read Jen Lancaster novels and Janet Evanovich, these are a couple of the ladies that have inspired me lately in my ramblings. I'm currently reading Chelsea Handler (good, but a little more sour humored). Anyway Sydney gets excited about Judy Moody and Junie B. Jones... not so different people, it's like big girl reading with out the references to vodka and sex. A little more on the 8 year old front but it's her first step on the ladder of progression to Janet and Jen; I find it kind of comforting to know. And how about Webkinz??? Have you ever looked at that?? It's like facebook for kids, Steve loves it!!!! now that worries me. Syd gets on that thing and is there for ever playing games against other kids (and yes I do worry about them being actual kids). She can send messages to her friends (I monitor this also to make sure they are only kids from around here that she has their user names). Even Ashley is pretty adept on the old Webkins and she's not yet five!!!!!

Next they'll be blogging... God only knows what they'd talk about but if I ever get the courage I'll let Sydney sit down and write something on my blog for you!!! Believe me it would be a treat.

A little of Everything....

There is so much to get through!!!!! Firstly, I went to CVS on Sat and discovered that you don't have to spend the whole "whatever" on one day to get your extra care bucks back . If you're not a CVS'er you're not following this... bear with me. I spent $22 on John Frieda hair products last week, it was a buy $15 get 5 extra care bucks back so on the receipt it said that my balance for the week was $8. So Saturday I really wanted to try this new shampoo they have and I also needed batteries, I purchased the shampoo for $8.99 and got my(second) 5 extra care bucks back. They have AA batteries buy one get one free, a ten pack was $5.49 with one free so with my extra care bucks in tow I got twenty AA batteries for $1.59 with tax. Hope you can keep up with it, it was definitely a coup for me because we always need stupid batteries in this house!!!!!!! For one thing or another... hahahahahaaaa. Also I have used John Freida products since the old days back home so it's great to be rewarded for buying them, my little treat.

Next up. Steve's birthday went very well, he mowed the front lawn but didn't actually get the hedge trimmers out until Sunday when I helped him and my God we make a good team. Saturday night we went over to our friends place with a lot of other good friends and had a really great evening. It was like something from Animal Planet when the deer paid us a visit because they could smell the delicious food on the back porch. The kids were loving every minute of it, and so were the big kids. We tried to feed them a little but they are tired of crackers, they were moving in for the good stuff, the corn and the shrimp etc from the low county boil. They would have come into the house I am sure, apparently it has been known in the past. Then there were the huge green rain frogs on the side of the house, yep you guessed it, Sydney was all over that one and wanted to catch them. They were feasting on the damn mosquitoes... thousands of them about three inches long!!!! WTF... we did have bug repellent and I don't think anyone was seriously eaten alive or contracted swine flu or anything but holy crap I have never seen so many skeeters in my life. They were all in the house and so Charity broke out the Dyson and spent thirty to forty minutes sucking them up!!! Still, we all agreed a good time was had by all and although tame compared to last years celebrations (a whole other blog) it was awesome to spend time with great friends and superb food.

Sunday was the day of annual yard clean up!! Urrgghhh. not my fave day of the year by any stretch of the imagination. We trimmed the hedges with said new hedge trimmer, and yes, Steve cut the extension cord... knew it!!! We mowed the back and ditched all the ratty, mildewy dog toys, and ultimately...... raked the freakin' beds!!!! YUKKKK. The most hated job of all. This time though folks we are not re-mulching, no, no more of the madnesss. This time we're going for the ultimate mulch... ROCK... yeah... lots and lots of lovely rock that we can just pluck weeds from and never have to rake the shit out again!!! Wooo Hooooo I am so excited. We did about 75% of the front and are saving the rest for next weekend... it's like real work and Steve did make the comment that he'd hate to do this for a living. No shit!!!!

So with yard looking wonderful (almost), batteries in every appliance, the whole family fed and happy after the low county boil, Steve happy because I was extra nice all weekend!! We're looking good for the coming week.... Bring it!!!!! No CRCT, no parades, no costume dramas. This will be a nice relaxing week building up to the biggest day of the McGillicutty year.... Sydney's Birthday!!! Oh yeah, turning EIGHT!!! Go Sydney it's your birthday, go Sydney it's your birthday!!!!!Did I mention she's growing like a weed too....

Happy Birthday Steve!!!

It's Steve's big day today, I have decided to dedicate today's blog to him and let you know a little more about my adorable hubby. I can't believe how the time is passing by, we've know each other thirteen years now, we met in Spain and had the best first date I had ever had. I knew that day we would be together. Ahhh, are you throwing up yet??? He lied to me about his age cos he is younger than me and didn't want me to be turned off by the fact that I was robbing the middle school playground!!! hahaha.

Steve works really hard, too hard, because he's kind of a perfectionist when it comes to his job. I wish he'd be a little bit more of a perfectionist when it comes to the yard and laundry but that's OK. The kids bought him a fantastic present this year..... hedge trimmers!!!!! Yeah I know he's excited and can't wait to get out there and sculpt some peacocks in our front yard, look out Tabbs we're about to put you to shame. I bought him something that I hoped I would never ever in the happy years of our marriage have to by my husband; a ticket to see Steely Dan in June!!!!!! YUKKKK. I hate to even put the name Steely Dan in my blog!!!!!!! But, it's what he wants and it makes him very happy, he's pumped, so I am glad to have done it. Just don't tell anyone, please.

Last night we went to the Rose Parade, a huge event in South GA. Steve was excited about seeing the Chrome Diva's as you can see from the picture. He was a tiny bit disappointed because they were all wearing the same shirts and didn't look as skanky as they usually do. He lives to see the Chrome Diva's on their Hogs twice a year. We went with some friends and their kids and it was a good time had by all. He held baby Bailey for a while and he just looked so relaxed with her, she laid her head on his chest and patted his shoulder. For a minute there I thought "Oh my God he wants another baby". I had a dream last night that I was pregnant again and that we're having another girl.... AARRGGHHHHH. Please make this biological clock quit ticking!!!!

Back to Steve; tonight we're celebrating his birthday with friends, we're having a low country boil, which I have never had before so I'm really looking forward to this new experience. We're all taking our kids so they can run and play in the big back yard and it will be fantastic. Steve's a little on the shy side sometimes but when we're with close friends he'll come out of his shell and have a great time. I promised I would drive tonight too.... wtf. Well he's definitely worth it!!!

Happy Birthday Big Boy, we love you and today is your day, have fun!!!! now get out there and trim some hedges. LOL.

Photo Site Whore....

OK I admit it I am a little addicted to all these different sites at the moment, I used to be faithful to one photo site or another and swap around very little. Until my attention was dragged back to Shutterfly one day and there were my old pictures from when Ashley was born!! Ahhhh. I took a look around and they really have come along way on old Shutterfly, so here I am a self proclaimed photo site whore, I will use whichever site is giving me the best deal. Right now you can get calenders for half price on Shutterfly, there's 20% off other items on Snapfish until May 10th, if you go to Coupons.com you can get something like $12 off items on Vistaprint and they will send you a 25% off your next order coupon. Kodak is now asking that you make a purchase every year of at least $4.99 to keep your pictures loaded on their site, well, you can get one hour prints through Kodak at CVS so if you use your Extra Care Bucks these too can be free!!!! Yeah!!! I love it.

A friend told me last night that she can't sit in front of the computer, that may be but this is my "thing". Same friend runs five miles every morning and teaches a Power Muscle class.... I can't do that!!!! This is my outlet, I used to scrapbook but don't have the time anymore so this is my creative outlet and it's much quicker. It keeps me from cutting my left ear off.

I just added all 57 pictures from last night's Parade in less than 10 seconds... Yay!!!! Now I can share with the masses (well all five of you) and you don't have to sit on my couch with my huge scrapbooks with me explaining every last boring detail to you. OK my seven minutes of me time is up!!! Peace out!!!!

Pictures from Alison

Click here to view these pictures larger

Finally.... saved more than I spent!!!!!

OK you all know how competitive it's getting with the whole coupon thing, or if you don't know, take it from me it is. Today is the day I have been waiting for... my receipt showed I saved MORE than I actually SPENT!!! Woo Hoo. Excellent!!!!!!!!

Humping Puppies....

We have two Shih Tzu's that are brother and sister, Mac and Daisy. They are very much adored and spoiled by everyone in the family (even Steve, although he'd deny it).
Lately though they have been a little amorous toward each other, nothing that a swift kick, prod or a loud "No" won't put a stop to. Well they were "at it" the other day and Sydney was shouting at them to quit humping. I just kind of ignored it until she came to me, got all up close to my face and told me she was very concerned about the dogs. "Why" I inquired, so she explained that first Mac was humping Daisy and she told him to stop and then Daisy was getting up on Mac and doing the humping. She learned the word humping from her beloved dog training show. She explained that they just won't stop. I remained kind of nonchalant and told her just to separate them. Then she asked the question to stop all mother's in their tracks, "Why don't grown ups like for dogs to hump?" You know in the movies when the room spins around and the character stays still... that's what happened. My mind was racing looking for the least controversial answer and struggling to keep the word, incest from spilling out of my mouth. There was a long pause and her little mouth opened and she said "because it's inappropriate???" "Yes" I hollered with excitement, "it's inappropriate and that's why we don't like them to do it". Fantastic, now I have the perfect reply to EVERYTHING!!!! If it's difficult to talk about and she'll learn about it later in life, it's going to be inappropriate. If it contains body parts and adult connotations it's going to be inappropriate. If I don't like something it's going to be inappropriate!!!! hahahahaaaa... Sweet... parents take this and role with it believe me it's a winner. Now if only I can find something to deal with Ashley's little questions.. she's not as accepting as Sydney and when I tell her something is inappropriate she's going to ask Why?????

Pretty Skills....

Sydney will be eight next week and I can hardly believe it, the time passes so quickly and they grow up right before your eyes. I try and think back sometimes to what I was like at eight and have no idea. I am sure I wasn't as smart and sassy as she is though.

We were at Tracy's wedding last weekend, which by the way was absolutely beautiful, there was quite a line for the buffet. It looked like something from a cruise!!! The fruit and vegetables were made into little birds and flowers and things, really awesome. So my darling Sydney kept going up there and coming back with plate after plate, she doesn't quite get the concept that you can put more than one thing at a time on your plate. Then she came up and whispered in my ear and asked me how did I think she kept getting to the food without standing in line? I replied I had no idea to which she answered that she was using her "pretty skills"!!!! Her Pretty Skills people... she's seven years, eleven months and twenty days old and she already has pretty skills!!!! Good for her but I hope she realizes she has smarts too. The combination of both will get her a long way I am sure!!!! Tracy's wedding was a lot of fun and the girls both mentioned how much they love her, Ashley even went so far as to tell me that she wants to live with Miss Tracy and she hopes that she doesn't die. Yep we all hope that Ashley but it's just not said out loud!! Especially on her wedding day!!!! Gotta love my little darlings.

p.s. No misspellings found again.. this blogging thing is really helping my old brain recoup the lost cells from Sat night!!!

Good Lord!!!! This stinks....

Just when you think you've got it bad because you're cutting coupons and getting cheaper childcare there's always someone worse off than you. What in the hell is going on, bailouts, bailouts, bailouts!!! Who's bailing out my friends who are losing their jobs and having huge pay cuts? Who's helping those who are trying to better themselves in college only to find there's no where to put their much needed talents to use. I hate it right now and I'm not about to offer a solution, I'm not that smart, if I were I'd be in Washington right? Except that I am a damn foreigner and we're all evil, right? So all I can do is hope and pray that this hideous phase in our lives will do two things, firstly teach the American public that we don't all need granite!!! It's pretty, yes, but if you're borrowing to have it, it's not worth it. You're not going to eat it when you have no food in your beautiful over decorated kitchens. Secondly I hope it will teach us to be more mindful of each other, treasure our friends and family instead of the stuff they have. Who really cares about what car you drive and the clothes you are wearing of you're a boring old fart? I am going to sell the house (uh yeah) and live in a field with my kids eating food we've grown and teaching them lessons of the land. OK maybe not, you all know I at least need a hairdryer and some Max Factor. But still the sentiment is genuine, let's get off this roller coaster and back to basics and let's do it soon people.
Rant over!!!!
p.s. I am so proud there wasn't one spelling mistake when I checked this blog! Woo.

Way to go Paula, way to go.....

That is the last line in An Officer And a Gentleman as Richard Geer is carrying Deborah Winger out of the factory.

Sydney was recently given a Paula Deen's My First Cookbook and she LOVES it. She has carried it everywhere with her and in the mornings in the car she will read parts of it to me and she does it in a very Southern Paula Deen way. She's hilarious when it comes to accents. So of course she wanted to try out a recipe and asked if she could prepare supper one night. Yes I said, then immediately became enemy #1 because every freakin' night there was something we had to do and there was no time to organize her making dinner. It's extremely hard to explain to an almost 8 year old that there are only so many hours in a day and we can't fit it all in. They think that we have all the time in the world and don't realize how quickly the three hours between getting home and getting them ready for bed passes, especially when you have meetings, Choir, Baton blah blah blah. So we agreed that Friday would be her night and she could make fruit kebabs for when we had our cousins come over for dinner.

Excellent!!! Great idea. Taylor is her big cousin and was excited to help the younger girls because she also had been given the Paula Deen cookbook.
The kebabs turned out to be as pretty as they were delicious and soooo easy to make. The kids loved them and ate them all so we had to make more, a hit, wonderful!! Of course after dinner the kids all ran around the yard with the skewers poking each others eyes out... that's when it popped into my head.. Way to go Paula, way to go.

Today we did the frozen bananas and no one was hurt!!! I love this cook book too.

Today's Quote....

OMG I just saw this on the quote of the day thing.... it's a sign!!! hahaha

I think I shall write books, and get rich and famous; that would suit me, so that is my favorite dream.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)

Stress, blurkers and champions.....

OK this is a chronological review of my week... first off we arrive home safely on Monday with no happenings of note on the journey home. I was pretty exhausted and just got through the rest of the day doing the absolute bare minimum, I mean breathing, eating, going to the bathroom and that's it. Someone once complimented me years ago by telling me that I am the kind of person who doesn't wear a watch on vacation... you betcha!!! Why would you?? Anyway, because I can easily slip into complete relaxation when I go somewhere for a break it leads to a major panic attack when I get home. Laundry, bills, balancing the books, work, school, groceries, pets and DUST!!! they all surround me and absolutely do my head in. That's how I felt Tuesday morning when I got up. After spending the day at work with the jokers I love I felt a lot better, that evening I had a JSL meeting... uh oh.. another time sucker!!! Luckily the meeting went well and was quick people quick... this day's getting better and better. So I go home and feeling pretty good I can get some chores done and get the kids to bed. Wednesday.. another glorious day when I manage to actually make sense of Quicken and pay some bills, always a plus. Holli (my absolute saviour) offers to have the kids after school and take them to choir and even drop them home!! She's a saint and such an inspiration to me... she has her own busy life but still manages to fit in taking every one's kids to everything!!!! God bless her. So I have more time to do more things and I actually cook dinner with Steve and have an hour or so uninterrupted conversation... AWESOME!! He's so funny and when I can actually spend time with him we have a great time together. So here comes Thursday and I'm starting to feel like I have actually accomplished something... I set to juggling kids, Baton, sitters and Dairy Queen night. All so that I can again spend a couple of hours with hubby and relax at the Bookshelf where they are open late and have a guy with a guitar and some wine. Not your most exciting way to have a date you might think but we both like books - very different tastes - but we both like them. He was afraid of being thought gay (not that there's anything wrong with that) because he was interested in the Decorating books... that's his business so it made sense to me. I just wish he'd actually execute all these grand plans he has for our home!!!
This is where I discovered what a "blurker" is.... you know who you are... show yourselves!!!!! So here it is Friday... I got up at 4.35am and cleaned the rest of the house, did two loads of laundry, got the kids off to school. I put some chicken in a marinade ready for tonight when we'll be entertaining family and did a wee blog. I am now a CHAMP, people, a CHAMP. My overwhelmedness (is that a word?) has subsided and I am SUPER MAMA!!!!!! The only glitch in the week was that when we got home last night the baby sitter told us that the School Dairy Queen night was a fathers, uncles, granddad night and she was the only sitter there!!! Oooops that makes us look like parents of the year now doesn't it!!! LOL.

Families, marriage and all that....

Don't you think it's funny how when we're little our families mean everything to us? We don't know otherwise, at least that's how it was for me, the youngest of four, we were a big rabble of a family with a noisy house but we stuck together through thick and thin and believe me there was a lot of thick and thin.
Then after school and starting out on my own I was so independent that it was only the family get togethers that were the glue keeping me attached to the rest of the clan. I wouldn't dare miss one, not a Christmas or Easter and oftentimes in the summer we'd all get together and had some really great times. My 21st birthday, Mum's 50th, Mum and Graham's wedding and even the occational funeral. Still good times to get with the family and show them we love them.
Now it's my turn to give that family security to my kids and believe me they talk about it every day. They talk about who they get their curls from and who gave them their beautiful blue eyes, who the crazies are and who gave them their smarts. We have family hugs at every available opportunitiy and even enroll some special friends into the family. Of course the dogs and the fish also count.
It's become an Easter tradition to go to Tampa and visit with the family, we get together at Great Grannies place and have an egg hunt and a cook out. Everyone is there and it's a really good time. The weather is always pleasant and there's always something going on. It makes you feel safe and comfortable and the girls look forward to coloring eggs with Great Grannie every year. This year was no exception, we all arrived there (we're usually first!)we get the food set out and the girls start their creations. Aunt Janet had the best thing I had ever seen, it's like a huge jug thing that sits on a bed of ice and you fill it with sangria (or whatever) and it has a little tap that you pour the beverage from. This way it stays cool and it's not messy. Guess who had way too much Sangria????? No, not Great Grannie but I wish she had. You could say I had a large time but you know what, it was one of the best Easter get togethers I could hardly remember in a long time!! Steve's sister Kim was in great spirits and she kept me laughing all weekend not just on Sunday. I let loose people and have no regrets. I am still chuckling at my parting comments as Steve hustled me out to the car!!! I won't put it on the blog but I know the family at large were probably shocked. Who cares??? Steve and I laughed about it the next day and that's all that matters. Life is fun people, get out there and live it... go to your next family get together and go for it. If you can't be yourself with your nearest and dearest who can you be????? I am so looking forward to the next one.

What the????????

OK so I promised that I would find the time to blog regularly...uhhh yeah!!!! We have been out of town celebrating Easter with the family in Tampa so that's a good excuse right? We had an fantastic time and I will report more when I have a little more time. Where has the time gone? There is so much to do at this time of year? We have all the major birthdays of the family in April and May, there's Easter, CRCT, Spring Break, the last weeks of school, blah blah blah!!!!!! And all that on top of trying to get the yard in order. That's on the back burner I assure you. Well that's it, there goes my two mins to myself. Gotta go to a Junior Service League meeting and do some good in the community!!! YEah Me!!!!

Stop Press!!!

Hey I just saw that my sister Nicky is a follower of my blog!! Wooahh Nelly. I am humbled!!!! Way to go Nick, please feel free to comment at any time, thanks for joining my little outlet. Love you tons.

What, is it Easter already?????

Where in the heck has this year gone? Didn't we just do New Years and my birthday? What happened to all that stuff in between, already it's Easter and my Mum's birthday, that means it's Steve's birthday soon and a week after that it's Sydney's birthday. This year, she informs me, is a special year. She's turning eight and she told me that you only do that once and so it's a big deal. Why such a biggie, I don't know but apparently in her mind this is a milestone, a turning point a pinnacle in her journey to teenage life. I had a stroke of genius and planned her party around a local event so that the girls can all go and pretty much entertain themselves while I just watch and there's no clean up... well very little. More about that later. Unfortunately this being such a big year for her turning 8 and all, she has decided to exclude Ashley from the merriment. What do you do??? Do you force her to include her 4 year old sister in her oh so grown up party or do you let Ashley do her own thing??? Ashley's feellngs are hurt and I hate it but if you were 8 and doing something way cool for your birthday would you want your smarty pants little sissy tagging along??? This is a tricky one, for the moment I am letting them figure it out for themselves and I'll just step in if it comes to blows. We will have a family birthday do so they will have to endure each other then. And I am sure, Ashley being Ashley, that she will have her revenge and not invite Sydney to her birthday party which will be way cool for five year olds. I am so on the fence with this one. My sister and I have our birthdays four years and one week apart, her's being a week before mine. Because she was the oldest her's was always the biggest deal and I was sometimes remembered in the wake of her celebrations. So I can comiserate with Ash but have to admit that she will never be forgotten, oh no, not my Ashley. She's the kind of kid who makes her presence known and if it's her day she WILL BE the center of attention. So maybe it's best they start to have their own deals, enjoy their friends and celebrate with their peers. That way we can have a family day for each of them, when we have to be nice to everyone. Good Lord it all gets so complicated doesn't it? Can't we all just get along?
This year as always we will spend Easter in Tampa with the family, I always look forward to it. The girls and Great Grannie will color eggs together, this is one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. A gaggle of little southern girls with their southern grannie just toiling over the eggs and discussing the details of each one. Then the guys will take them out and hide them in Grannies yard with the big Heron looking on. Each kid then grabs an Easter basket and hunts the eggs, apparently this has been a tradition for years in the family. One we all look forward to. It means so much to me to see the girls just love on every one of the family members as they arrive. They beam from ear to ear the whole time. Ahh yes if only we lived closer and could do this more often. This time we're going to get in some beach time and hopefully some fishing.. Syd is quite the pro. I love it!!!!! I am excited and can't wait to report on the goings on as well as post some pics in my next blog. Did I mention there will be plenty of wine??? another plus to Easter weekend with the family!!!!!

X-Ray Ears and Bugs Bunny!!!!!

Just when I thought the chaos in this house couldn't get any worse I agreed to let Sydney keep the class bunny over Spring Break!!! What??? Yes you heard me, what harm could it do, lets keep the bunny and indulge Sydney's love of Gods creatures.
What the hell was I thinking??? Have I lost every last drop of sanity I may have once had???? So on Friday afternoon here we go, load the bunny into the car and take it to the office for an hour until I finish work. We then take this pretty little thing with huge brown eyes home and proceed to let it out of the cage in Syd's bedroom. Of course the bunny is bug eyed with fear and wonders where in the heck it is...nothing else for it, Bugs is hiding under the beds... yes beds. Sydney has two beds in case of the odd friend stopping by and needing accomodation. She's a hospitable kind of a girlie. So here we are watching Bugs go from under one bed to the other, hopping in between with lightning speed so that even the cunningest of bunny catchers would have a hard time laying hands on the beast. Of course the girls slide under the beds in an effort to catch her, their little feet flaying behind them as they squeal and laugh!!! Eventaully after alot of hoo haa I manage to catch Bugs and return her to the cage, yes, she will stay there from now on I think!!!
Saturday morning comes and goes and Sydney invites a friend to come and sleep over so they can stare at the bunny. All goes well, they play very nicely together and manage to include Ashley so there's not a hurt feeling among them. However, little friend is convinced we have killer Shih Tzu's and spends a lot of time yelling that they are trying to eat her. Not so. She calms down eventually when I finally convince her that Daisy is only interested in licking her to death not chewing on her. So I leave them in the capable hands of Daddy and I head off to Walmart for some groceries. I picked up some little cup cakes as a treat for the girls. None of which ever got eaten on Saturday night because no one ate their veggies.
Sunday morning rolls around and everyone gets up bright and early in cheery moods, we're sitting at breakfast when Ashley starts to ask Steve about the cupcakes and how many did he eat last night. She quizzed him for a little while and then announced that she knew he had eaten them because she can hear him from her bedroom, she told him "Daddy, I heard you from my room because I have X-ray Ears you know!!".
Yes, Ashley has Xray ears!!! She is too funny, this is sooo a story to follow her through high school and beyond. Too funny little Miss Sunshine!!!

My Mother....

My mother is a dear, sweet lady; at lease she is somewhere deep down beneath her spoilt, haughty very British exterior. She'll turn 67 on Easter Sunday, she's stricken with Parkinson's disease which in the past year (since the loss of my sweet step father Graham) has really taken it's toll on her and made her little body so frail and weak. She's hardly recognizable these days as the feisty blond broad she used to be. Her mind however is still very sharp and she's not one to be messed with. I have always turned to her for the answer to anything and everything, she's very, very intelligent and very intuitive at the same time. You can ask her about anything from literature to history to modern politics and she knows all about it. How in the world does a woman who raised four kids retain all that stuff. She knows stuff that I am sure no one in the world other than her knows, outlandish facts that are so off the wall they sound like total B.S. However on the occasions, and there have been many, that I have dared to try and prove her wrong, yep you guessed it she's completely and utterly right!!!!! It's awesome, even my lovely hubby has second guessed her at times and been shocked that once again the crazy mother in law knew what the hell she was talking about. She predicted the demise of Princess Diana, before even her and Charles we married, something about him marrying a commoner and her being from the House of Spencer??? Who knows, but I remember her spouting doom and despair on the day they were married while we were in awe of the fairy tale wedding.
Anyway, my point is that she is, in fact, a very interesting and loving woman, I rely on her a lot for guidance in everything from parenting to style to cooking. Cooking is the big one, you see she had her own catering business and can make a ham sandwich look like a seven course feast. She never did anything by measurements either, a pinch of this and a good bit of that. I would always call her for tips and ask "Mum, the recipe calls for this ingredient, I am half way through and I don't have it, can I use this instead?" and she'd instantly know what to substitute. Always weird things too but they'd work out somehow. These days it's harder to do this because the cruel disease has affected her voice and so it's hard to understand her on the phone a lot of the time. Its very frustrating for me because I can't have an intimate conversation with her when her speech is so limited and I can't understand what she's saying. So BEHOLD THE POWER OF TEXTING!!!! She mastered this a couple of weeks ago and it was like a bright shiny light had lit up my world... yeah... at last communication of a sort with the old bag. It takes her a long time to send a message and they're not perfect but I get the point. I love it!!!! So she merrily texts me stuff about the people who take care of her and I send little things back. Who would have thought that something like a cell phone could bridge such a gap? It's amazing how technology marches on; sometimes I wish it wouldn't and we could all go back to the old days, but when I need to know what to do with my left over thingymajig I can just push a few buttons, wait and wait for her to reply and bingo there's the answer from my Mum. I just hope I can be this wonderful fountain of knowledge to my kids when I grow up. Maybe I'll retain some of it and the girls will be in awe of me one day!!!!

Ashley and the Caterpillar.....

I don't know that I really need to say much today, Ashley's teacher has said it all. The following is an email that I received today about my darling little Peanut sneaking a caterpillar into school. I had emailed her apologizing for the fact that she had done it and to let her know that I was totally unaware of the situation until after the fact when Ashley had told me she had taken it to school. Read on and anyone with some sound advice for this little rascal please feel free to leave me a comment!!! Read on.....

Oh…she was a sneaky little trickster about it, too! She took it out of her bookbag right before lunch and snuck it into the lunchroom with her. I noticed that she had Joseph and a few others attention in the lunchroom, but she made sure she sat far away from me at the other end of the table, and I never got up and went down to that end of the table. After lunch in the bathroom, she was washing her hands and I saw something black in her hand and heard someone saying something about a caterpillar. Poor thing was about to drown!! Come to find out, she told the others not to tell me about the caterpillar in the lunchroom (and they actually LISTENED to her!) I could not believe NO ONE told on her, because that’s what pre-k kids are famous for!!

I asked her why she didn’t want me to know about the caterpillar and she just shrugged her shoulders…I told her I thought he would make an excellent class pet for us and I had a nice little bug house he could stay in. We also talked about why being sneaky was not a good idea…and that she did not need to let that happen again…☺

Boy are you guys gonna have your hands full when she’s a teenager if she’s this good at it now!