Kids say the darndest things....

So.. last night us gals were sitting at the kitchen table, I was merrily pinning away on Pinterest while Syd was busy doing three hours of social studies homework (which wasn't even required)(urgh!!) and Ash proudly announced she was about to draw a .... banana hammock. I know!!!!!

After a burst of hysterical laughter (banana hammocks always crack me up) I couldn't get her to tell me where she'd even heard of such a thing and of course she didn't know what a banana hammock is! What do you do in this predicament... dial the grandmother of course and give her the pleasure of explaining such a thing to this 7 yr old clown!  Once she knew what it was she was in fits of giggles and that was the end of that.. she did scribble a little something on the paper but it didn't in any way resemble David Beckham in his BH. Bwaahaha.

Then this morning I was sporting a particularly old but fugly functional Ralph Lauren sweatshirt... it was cold alright... and Syd looked at it with a face akin to a bulldog chewing a wasp and said "Thaaat's Ralph Lauren??? I thought RL was supposed to be.. you know... like.... um..... yeah".
Me... "yeah, it's RL and I'll have you know I bought this in Texas before you were born". .... Syd...."Wow and it still fits???"  

Seriously... I just had that conversation with my kid... it happened.  I am no longer the mother of little kids... I'm in the "I have to justify my clothes selection to a tweener" stage. Oh Lord... I should probably rethink the Forever Lazy I have on my Christmas wish list.

Here she is helping this chick through an awkward feather decision. 

Happy Birthday....

A lot has happened since you left us... it's been almost four years.  Ashamed to say I can't even remember now if you would have been sixty or sixty one this birthday! It's been bothering me and I want to call and ask your widow but I won't, I just don't want to admit that it's not right there at the front of my mind.

The girls are growing up nicely, I think you would be proud of them.  We talk of you often and although Ashley has faint memories now there's lots for her to use as memory joggers, we keep the airplane that we gave you that final Christmas front and center. The books with the little messages you wrote in the front cover are a lovely reminder of your love of reading and how you wanted so badly to share that love with them.  Sydney still has the First Day cover of the Rudyard Kipling stamps in her room on her notice board, the copy of Just So Stories in her bookcase. Little reminders that are kept just so we can look at them when we need to and remember the kindhearted man who was Grandpa, beloved and missed. 

We all have our own versions of that horrible day when you were so quickly ripped from our lives, but one thing is for sure, we all know just what it was we lost and however it plays out to each of us, the result is the same, a loss, a terrible gaping hole never to be filled. Sometimes when we're having a bad day one of us might say "this is the worst day of my life" and then we are quickly reminded that no, it's not, not by a long shot. That's what we tell each other and guess what... it keeps it all in perspective. 

Your voice still sounds so clear in my head, your memory still so alive. I have no idea why this year is so hard for me to get through, I just assumed time would heal all pain but it really doesn't. It just dulls the ache for a little while until it breaks through again and takes me hostage one more time. While all around me people are being thankful and looking forward to Christmas I can only think of your birthday, another one you're missing, and another Christmas reminding me of your very last couple of weeks. Thank God you spent those last weeks with us, selfish of me I know but thank God!! We found the video that we took that last Christmas morning, and watched it with tear filled eyes and heavy hearts. I know deep down you don't want us to mourn; but to celebrate the times we had.  We try, we really do. 

The tree we planted for you is growing, how, I have no idea! and the potted plant I received from a friend is still alive and well.  We feel like we have you here watching over us and so in an odd kind of way it's fortunate for us, sad for those missing you in England though. Sad for Mum, missing you so much every day, God only knows how she goes on without you, I am sure she's praying for when she will be with you again. I pray for that too sometimes and imagine you guys back together and happy for eternity, maybe that would give me peace. Knowing the unit is whole again.

Well... dear sweet man... Happy Birthday! We will remember you and love you always. 

Third time's a charm...

I have prepared a couple of blog posts this past few days but can't seem to get them right.... I think I'm up against too much lately to organize my thoughts and share them.  The first was about our Thanksgiving... but honestly it was a good day 'n all but nothing spectacular to write home about. No offense to the family, its just that every other blog says things like good company, good food, lots to be thankful for... I'm sick to death of hearing it this year...but that is totally my problem not yours. My attitude sucks right now.

You want to know what makes me truly thankful? That we even have a roof over our heads.  There's a TV news program on Sunday nights here in the States called 60 minutes and last night they did a story on homeless kids in Florida; I was trying to blog but it caught my attention and gave me a lump in my throat the size of a 20lb turkey. These families were living in trucks and cars because they had lost their homes due to the never freakin' ending recession. Their unemployment had run out, they had been made homeless and rather than lose the kids they packed up and slept in their cars and remained for all intents and purposes "normal" during the day. It's heartbreaking that this is happening.... absolutely heartbreaking.  So ... I am thankful that we do have a roof over our heads, and we  may not be able to keep up with the Jones' but we're not in a truck worrying about the safety of our kids at night.  I cannot fathom the despair that the parents feel when there is just no apparent way out of a situation like that..... and Kim Kardashian fakes a marriage for millions... PULEASE!!!!

You can check out the piece HERE.

Anyway.... don't mean to be a dolly downer... just can't seem to help but feel so helpless and sad at the way this country is headed right now. Yet on and on we see sparkly glittery things we just can't live without!!!! Put down those iPhones people... Apple doesn't need  your money... the homeless in Florida do. Imagine how it would help them if you kept your old phone which is actually perfectly functional, and spent that $200-$400 on some carpentry work on your house, or a little landscaping maybe, and the guy doing the work could feed his kids for a few days.  Just a pie in the sky notion and I know it's not going to happen but in the meantime I can dream. That is all.

Wait .... Thanksgiving is WHEN????

OK... so the other day I looked out from under my rock and the trees were turning from all green and lush to all red and orange and not quite so lush. Hmmm must be fall or something... or wait.. it's mid November already... STOP THE BUS ITS almost THANKSGIVING!!!!

Seriously the whole perception of time thingy when you get older and have more going on so the days wiz by at stupid miles per hour is driving me nuts. I can't get a handle on being prepared and organized when things are happening so quickly.. I'm shocked by every passing season and totally worn out by running around getting crap done at the last minute. Yet there also seems to be those days which are never ending!

Thanksgiving is ONE day... that's it... not a week not even a long weekend it's a DAY and yet it seems to be such a big day. That sounds like a really weird thing to say because it is the biggest holiday of the year in this country but it is still merely one day. Lets just have a nice dinner, all sit around and be thankful and move on. Why oh why do we have to stress about it.... I know why I stress about it... not because I have to cook or anything like that because we're extremely lucky and go visit family every year. I stress because it's my wake up call to silly season... my alarm to the unending demands on time and energy in every imaginable form....parades (yes the Christmas Parade is usually the Monday after Thanksgiving.. seriously!!) parties, pj days at school, Victorian Christmas, Fun Runs, kids out of school, mailing gifts overseas (which is invariably done late) decking the halls and devouring Egg Nog. I still  can't get my head around the American way of celebrating the holidays... totally backwards to me.  It starts at Thanksgiving and ends at Christmas. Whereas in England we didn't really start until right before Christmas and ended at New Years. No wonder I'm all discombobulated. Sigh!!!  I miss that cold brisk walk to the pub, the lengthy dinners with co-workers, the dressing up in fancy evening wear with fabulous fancy shoes... Sigh again!!!!

So ... here it begins... and not to be a total party pooper but for me personally.. I say roll on the New Year!

She called it.....

Today I am taking care of my sweet, little, sickie Ash, for the third straight day. I was completely convinced yesterday that she was fine and would be on her merry way to school this morning and I would be left to concentrate on work again. Not so. The past couple of days she had been waking us up by throwing up first thing, she'd rinse and repeat a few times and then she was fine for the rest of the day. I put her back on her Prevacid thinking that we're back on the reflux roundabout and assured myself this was the end of it.

Well last night she started to get a little upset around eight o'clock and told me she was scared because she knew she was going to be sick again and that she would be missing more school (she absolutely cannot stand to miss school).  I told her it would be OK and that now she's back on the medicine she would be just fine and not to worry. We cuddled for a while and I settled her into bed, she asked for her puke bowl just in case so I fetched it and left it with her and went off to bed myself... I was exhausted from two days of her early morning puke alarms. I was having some kind of fabulous dream, which annoyingly I can't remember now, when I heard a child calling Mama, Mama... what???? It confused me because obviously if it was a fabulous dream there were no kids and therefore no room in the dream for Mama Mama. I stumbled out of bed and sure enough she had a full bowl for me to clean up (she's a very neat puker) and it was game on for the rest of the night. URGH!!!!

So she's sleeping soundly now but please for the love of God this has to be the worst of it and we can move on. I'm lucky enough to be working from home so I am able to continue with what I need to do to stay on track but hells bells I had foolishly envisioned a whole new life... one where I could focus on me and my career. I guess this is my signal that I'm still first and foremost a Mom and no matter what happens my kids will always come first. I'm not going to be some kind of martyr mom though, me myself and I come a damn close second to the motherly stuff. Today will be split between work, puke, lysol and the laundry room with more work on top... and that my friend is how we keep the plates spinning.

I've had this blog for two and a half years and there are a gazillion posts about Peanut being sick... it's just a given I guess and if you plan for it and accept it's gonna happen then you can handle it way better than letting it get you down. I just hate to see her little face all pale and sicky... I hope this is the last of it and she's back to her old self soon.

Gonna be a long month....

So.... looks like we're having a long November this year!!!! Please God let it be so because I can't even begin to think about Christmas there's so much we're trying to accomplish at the end of 2011 I just don't know if I can really do the Holidays justice. Do you think the kids will notice if we just kinda slide by the Yule Tide??

Funnies from my bunnies this week.... yesterday Syd was so indignant about physical activity it cracked me up. She was telling me that she had been moving ALL day and she was exhausted... really??? She's ten years old and can't stay in motion for a morning (it was only about noon). She looked at me with a serious expression "But Mom... Daddy made me RUN and it's the WEEKEND!!!". Bwwaahahahaha I can see an enrollment into a weekend bootcamp in this girls future... where did she get the idea that the weekend is a non activity sit on your ass time, wait.. I'm on the couch with Pinterest and Daddy's in the chair snoozing... sigh... got to change this and soon!!

Ash.. well she's always on the move, no worries there!! She even gets a towel out and lays it on the floor and does her "pilates" in the morning. Ash has been thinking hard about getting a new Uncle lately, I'm not going to go into it because it's not my story but it's enough to say we're on a manhunt and it's intense people. She's also been writing songs... yes ... I know!! I was amazed. She sang one to me last night at bedtime when I went to tuck her in and it was pretty good!! It really made me smile, more than smile I was just so blown away by it, it was just a little song and was funny but anyone who can write even a little song has my complete respect, she was a little embarrassed I could tell but all the same she was happy to sing to me and I was tickled by it.

Anyway peeps... I must get off this damn computer. I have been on Pinterest this morning and you know what?? I want to see some of that crap come to fruition... get off the screen and into my hands. So today is going to be a creative kind of a day...See Ya!!!

I'm crawling out of my hole...

So, hello how are you?  I have been in a black hole of sheer concentration these past few days and decided to take a little blog break tonight as I have a spare couple of mins to knock one out. 

This has been a weird week, trying to get into the swing of a whole new way of life for the family, but, despite the weirdness it's going very well. I'm trying to be more structured with the kids and their school work, taking every evening to purposely study and read, taking a more active roll in checking their scores on the study portal that kind of thing. Poor Ash... she has a reading goal to hit of 15 points.. each book is assigned a point value and she has to take a test on every book she reads and will be assigned a proportion of that point value depending on her success on the test. If she has a book worth 1 point and scores 100% on the test she gets 1 point.. get it? Well she's been reading a LOT of books with point values of 0.5 and she had no idea what that actually means in terms of how many books she has to read and test on to reach her goal. When I explained it to her, and pointed out that we're already half way through the 9 weeks she has to reach her goal she was devastated!!! I felt awful... I didn't want to make her upset, merely point out that if she read books with a higher point value she'd achieve her goal quicker. I know she'll reach her goal, she always does, she's a very good reader; I am just ridiculously competitive at times and always figuring out how to reach goals quickly. Urgh... I could kick myself in the ass sometimes!!!! Anyhooo she calmed down and tonight when she came home from school she was happy to announce that she has a chapter book worth 2 points! Smiles.

I'm really trying to stop with the pushy stuff.... really I am. I have to remember that in the grand scheme of things as long as they're not failing their classes and they are happy then it's all good. I want them to be kids first and foremost... so I was positively giddy when they were playing out front with their friends and Ash ran into the house screaming that someone threw a ball and it hit her nuts and knocked them down!!! Hmmm yeah that goes on the list of things you'd never thought you'd be hearing from your daughter. 

So.. that's it for now... plenty for me to be doing with this little bit of free time.. like sit my ass on the couch and watch How It's Made with the spousey.  Toodle Pip!!!! 

Seriously... you wake up and they're gone...

Last night I received a heartfelt plea via text from my sister in law begging that I blog, blog ever day and don't let it slide. She keeps up with our family doings this way and although I am completely overwhelmed with all my responsibilities and commitments at this time I feel that blogging is also a commitment... one to myself which keeps me sane and one to the peeps who are far away and can check in and see what we're up to. That's what you do when you don't live next door to family.. you splash your goings on over the world wide web and it saves a bagillion phone calls explaining our ups and downs to everyone individually. 

It's like our very own town crier with me doing the crying... hear ye, hear ye, the maiden Ashley finally had her damn front tooth pulled by the orthodentist, he declared it was time to get that sucker out of there. The man's damsels in attendance all squealed in shock at the x-rays showing that Maiden Ashley is most definitely in for years of expensive ortho work thus sending her distressed parents to the poor house. Maiden Sydney is finally almost done with her first session of corrective braces and her parents are to be reprieved for a short while until stage two.  Note to self... maybe I should be an orthodentist in my next life; or marry a man without a genetic predisposition to huge horse teeth. 

In other news. I have finally started training for my new career... yes career... not just a job. That's all I'm going to say about it because I will not blog about work. No I won't. 

I can say however that I am not travelling 33 miles each way to work anymore and even after the first day I can feel the benefits of working from/close to home. I love it!!!! love love love it. I do have a lot to accomplish every day and must stay on task but other than that I am not wasting almost two precious hours in my truck stressing over what a waste of time it is to commute. TOTAL waste of time. Nothing productive can be done while driving... nothing... other than listening to Martha Stewart radio but even then I can't jot down the tips and recipes... and because I'm driving for two hours I can't find time to visit her website to find said tips and recipes.. frustrating. So now I have all those lovely hours back... oooohhhh they're all mine!!!!! 

Ten freakin' hours a week... back to me.. boom just like that!!! I am doing that Irish heel kick thingy right now... really I am... bbwwaaahahahahahaaaa.

And finally... we cleaned out the little ladies rooms this weekend... I say little ladies but honestly if you'd have seen what was under their beds they'd be better described as little animals... filthy little hoarders! 

Here's how we did it... Ash was out playing at a friends house, so I made Syd crawl under Ashley's bed and bring out the dead stuff. Then on the next day it was Ashley's turn to crawl under Syd's bed and bring out her crap. Worked well. Very thorough and nothing was left behind, see, because the person under the bed was not on a mission to cover up the disgustingness... only to expose the other sister's evil ways. Not a speck was left behind. We recovered literally a bazillion socks (oddly none of them matched) and a lunch box from way back when; all disgusting and mold infested... which explained the smell of late. My mother in law is reading this and her toes are curling up right now!!! LOL!!!!! Sorry Nanny,  your granddaughters are dirty little creeps and that's the awful truth... you want to have them stay with you for a while so you can train them??? fine with me, they're on their way!!! 

Anyhoodles.. gotta go ..... commute to the other side of the dining room table and open up my work laptop and put a on my professional head. Kim my darling.. we love you and I promise to be a better blogger just because you asked and it made me feel wanted!!xxxxx 

The love of my life... contemplating how sad his life would be if he didn't have me by his side... taking pictures of him... 

Conundrum.... here's the deal...

First off I love love love the word conundrum... have been using it for years.. it perfectly fits any kind of situation that makes you go Hmmmm.

Second off... my friend Misty has a new blog... yes.. and she used the word in the title of the blog and it makes me smile....

Third and final off... ITS AWESOME!!!!  I constantly battle with the "what to do for dinner" thing and it gets on my last nerve. I have checked out a million different crock sites and I'm always left confused and overwhelmed. Too many recipes at once get me all crazy and googly eyed.  Misty is going to do one a day (five days a week) and post about it so it's way easier to follow than a gazzilion recipes all thrown at you all together like a pot of boiling spaghetti on your head. Already she's come up with an amazingly simple way to keep your recipes organized and make a weekly menu.... love it!!!

So ... if you're looking for some simple inspiration and you want to get out of the drive thru, head over and check out the Crock Pot Conundrum and tell her I sent you!!! You're welcome!!!

no idea why I'm adding this pic... it just sums up happy stuff... even if it is all blurry and grainy.... :)

Wordless Wednesday.....

Happy Trick or Treat.....

This is a huge file so I apologize if it takes a million years to open up... wouldn't blame you if you don't stick around to see it although I think it's worth a look.  This is the past four years of Trick or Treating at our place, I think it's neat to see the kids growing up a little more each year. It seems there's a good mix of ghoulish and non-scary costumes going on, there's a zombie, vampires, fairy princesses and jellyfish in there!

We usually have a party and I cook a big pot of chili and we invite friends to come and join us in our neighborhood, it's always been a great place for the kids to walk around gathering their goodies. This year though I wanted to keep it a low key because quite honestly I'm exhausted... and the house is a mess... and it fell on a Monday which is not exactly famous for being the best party night of all the nights of the week. So the girls had just a couple of the usual friends come over and they set out with Daddy while I sat there and gave out candy until thankfully it was all gone and I could turn off the porch light and wait for their return. It seemed to be pretty busy this year though, more little Spidermans than you could shake a stick at.
Urghhh... am I just getting old? I can't wait until the girls don't want to do it anymore but I have a feeling that's a long way off. They love Halloween, they have both said it's their favorite day of the year... can they really love candy that much??? I guess so!!!