Curly Straight

Is it just me or are products getting smaller? Or am I just growing?

Even a large pizza seems smaller to me.

It is not fun getting my blues together and I really think I should have more ribbons.

I'm going to go google this now, but I don't think it exists.

Peanut butter coffee.

They have chocolate coffee, raspberry coffee, hazelnut, eggnog, Kahlua but I have never heard of such a thing as peanut butter coffee. I kind of want it to exist so I can try it.

Update: googled it and found this guy http://phronko.blogspot.com/2006/09/food-logic-volume-2-peanut-butter.html who had the same thought.

Everything taste better with peanut butter, someone commented on his blog...which leads me to what else but bacon.

Bacon flavored coffee?

Just did a search.

Yup, it exists.

It seems to me that people are jumping the gun a little more than usual with the Happy New Year wishes?

It's still 2008.

I don't remember hearing Happy New Year so early and so often in past years. Is it going the way of Christmas, which now somehow starts around Halloween?

It was all going too smoothly. I decided not to go to the gym and actually managed to get 30 minutes in on the treadmill, interrupted only once to go get Julia when she woke up from her nap.

We were to leave at 3 pm to meet the Ws at 4 at Edaville. I was plugging away, getting stuff done, had coupons printed out, directions printed out; coats, hats and mittens ready to go.

2:50 rolls around and TJ makes a noise. I usually give him a few minutes to "hatch" when he wakes so he is a little more coherent. Maybe that was my mistake, not giving him that time. He was extremely crabby - he was crying and when I asked what's wrong, he said his throat hurt and he still wanted to sleep. I told him he could if he wanted to. He changed his tune to wanting to sleep in the car so we could go to the railroad.

I had him drink juice, that usually snaps him out of his crazy crankiness and it made a difference, he was getting back to normal.

Finally get everything together, get them into the car, go to grab the stroller. Flat tires. Oh well, it still rolls, so I take it anyway.

Forgot my mittens, run back into the house and grab them.

Get onto the ramp for 95. Traffic stopped on the highway. Realize I left Julia's bottle in the microwave. Have no gas. Stop for gas in Pawtucket and the credit card machine at the pump is broken. There's no way I'm taking them out just to pay for gas, luckily the guy tells me over the intercom that I can use my debit. Informs me that "no, we don't have any baby bottles here for sale at the Shell station."

OK. Here we go, back onto 95 North. What's this? A detour to get back onto the highway. Traffic.

Get back on. Start to worry about Julia's bottle. Input CVS into the GPS and it says CVS 1 mile away, take ramp. So I do, with glee. On the ramp it says turn in 1.8 miles. Liar GPS.

Drive by a Shaws, decide to go there, turn around and miss the exit to get into the store. Finally make it in, didn't grab a cart, carrying Julia and TJ walking with us. Get to baby section, the whole way in TJ is asking for bubble gum from the machine at the front,l a balloon, Russell Stover candies, Sponge Bob something, , no no no to all. Grab bottle, formula, water at the cash register. TJ wants Reese Pieces. OK, that's fine. Two cash registers open, both with lines of people with full carts. No way. Will do the Self Checkout. Stand in line, people are taking their time, going s...l...o...w...l...y. Don't know how I'm going to scan it with Julia in my arms anyway. See Express line open, try to get there, blocked by a closed register line. Figure out it's at the end of the Self Checkout. Get there, buy the stuff. TJ holding one of the waters and the Reeses Pieces.

Walking in the parking lot, holding TJ's hand and the bag and Julia, notice her angora hat that my mother-in-law "paid a fortune for" (and TJ thinks makes her look like a cactus) is missing. Oh well, I'll just call the store later and get it some other time. We are in Mansfield and that's where we want to move so we'll be back.

TJ drops a water and starts crying. We get to the car, Julia is holding the cactus hat in her hand. Yay!

Get them in, give him the Reeses Pieces we are on our way. Again.

Cruise along 495 for a few miles. TJ makes up a really good and catchy song about going on a merry-go-round with his friends. Traffic jam. Take advantage of the stopped time to make a bottle. Try to hide what I'm doing from other drivers.

The directions tell me to take exit 2, but Liar GPS tells me to take exit 3. I listen to Liar GPS and take exit 3. Not a good decision, crazy way. Miss a turn, TJ calls me a bad girl.

On dark road with no lights for a few miles. TJ wants to know if we are lost. No, just on an adventure, I tell him.

Turn left, GPS says, I do and see the lights of Edaville Railroad. Park in front, get Julia out, it's freezing, need to throw on her snowsuit, get the stroller out, call Karen, oh no, where's my phone. In the front. No, it's not. Where is it? Ask some random people to call it, it's underneath my seat. Phone rings, it's my sister, I practically hang up on her - tell her I can't talk. I'm trying to change Julia, put one leg in, the other pops out, TJ has lost his mittens. Cars around, dark, can't see.

Finally hear "Anne?" - Karen had come to find me.

After that, all fine at Edaville. Rode the train, TJ and Matt rode Dumbo (called Jumbo, I think!) solo, ate food reminiscent of that at a ski lodge, we all rode the merry go round and that was it.

December 29, a day to celebrate. John actually folded some of the laundry on Dec. 29. First time ever.
Well, in a long time.
For those who think you don't turn into your parents, the way he folds laundry is EXACTLY the same way his mom folds laundry.

As Jason Mraz sings "It's Laundry Day!" - totally have that song in my head now.

On my to do list, I have "make a new to do list."

It is hard getting out of the house with two little ones.

I don't know how people do it with more than two. God bless 'em.

Wake up, today it happened to be by TJ coming into our room and talking really loudly to me about something, crawling on me and telling me "it's time to get up, Mama," eat breakfast, ok, now go potty TJ and then put on your underwear.

He decides this is a good time to start a puzzle.

"TJ, go put on your underwear!" - he goes into his room - oh good, I think, he's doing it. I'll take care of Julia now, change her diaper, clean up a little from breakfast. Julia seems tired, so I read her a story and put her into her crib.

Go into TJ's room, he's sitting on his floor reading a book.

"TJ! Put on your underwear! Time to get dressed so we can go."

I need a cup of coffee, walk into the kitchen and get it. About five minutes later, TJ walks out wearing his Elmo underwear.

I can hear Julia making noise.

"Good job TJ! Now let's get you dressed."

Grab pants, shirt, socks, plop him onto the green couch. "No! The red couch!" Luckily he lets me dress him today. He should be doing it himself.

Julia is not sleeping.

I get an email on my phone I need to reply to, grab Julia and go upstairs to check the info. He comes up, "what are you doing?" he asks. I tell him.

"TJ, time to brush your teeth." He runs and hides behind the shade. If it's downstairs, he hides behind the couch cushion.

Phone rings. It's my friend, wanting us to go to the Children's Museum. Not today, thanks.

Finally get his teeth bushed after putting him into time out.

Tennessee!

Here I am in Nashville where I have done the following when I wasn't at the conference: decided that I really to learn to play the fiddle, went to Tootsies on Broadway, where I made friends with a cute 29-year-old who helped me observe and comment on the actions on the dance floor, and danced (actually more like got swung around) with a very drunk, very bald guy from Fort Something in Kentucky.

Never have listened to country music, now I am a fan. Some of it a little on the sad side, but a lot of it happy and rockin'.

People here are so nice. Slow, but nice. One lady in the store called me Sweet Girl, everyone calls me Ma'am, pretty sure it's a respect thing.

The Grand Ole Opry not what I expected at all, lots of acts, having fun, playing on a live radio show, with a live radio announcer reading commercials. The CherrySomethings (I cannot remember the name) were so good! A family with a dad with a big long beard and one of the girls playing the fiddle, the wife wearing clogs and dancing.

Ate yummy ribs and yucky peppery coleslaw at a little dive rib joint, because Jack's BBQ is closed on Sundays.

Line of the night: One of the guys we were with ordered the Hogs Plate, which consists of ribs, chicken wings, kielbesa, pickles and cheese. He also asked for a salad. The waiter commented , "you must be hungry!"

"OK, forget the salad," he said.

A fun trip with good people and a good conference in Nashville, where it's a whole different way of life than I'm used to... that's for sure.

The whole entire time, the Arrested Development song "Tennessee" was running through my head, every now and then interspersed with "Graceland" by Paul Simon.

I am officially declaring myself the worst shoveler EVER.

I don't even know really how to do it, are you supposed to shovel the entire driveway? There's nowhere to put the snow.

That snow is heavy and wet, I can't carry shovelfuls of it up the driveway to dump it onto the lawn, it would take 200 trips.

Is that what people do?

I have a sleeping (actually, not sleeping) baby inside, I can't spend that kind of time trying to clear off the driveway with a shovel. I need to create a bigger, better invention. Better, even, than the snowplow.

I couldn't get down to the cement on the stairs, because it's all icy underneath. The mailman is going to be mad at me, it's all bumpy. I tried my hardest. It has to be awful to be a mailman in New England. It's awful to be a girl that doesn't have shoveling skills.

I think I need more practice. I'll have to ask TJ to do another snow dance.

Home now from Nashville, not much sleeping going there on due to the clock radio alarm in the hotel room shining like a beacon from above.

I forgot to bring a comb, of all things, ye who cannot comb through my hair without a big scoop of conditioner and the proper tools, like a wide-tooth comb. Tried to buy one there, even though it was really too late at that point, after the third day, I scoured the whole mall. Found a cute pair of cream colored corduroys and also a cute top, but not a comb to be bought.

So today, I had a busy day with TJ and Julia, when John came home I was all excited to take a bath and condition and comb my hair and relax in the tub.

The good news is that I did comb through my hair. The bad news is that in the tub, the water was FREEZING cold. Which means that now I am freezing cold. Which is not a happy feeling. Boo.

At least I didn't end up with dreadlocks, which was entirely possible.

Just finally completed my monthly newsletter for Guard.

This one kicked my butt for some reason - I'm blaming it on the pdf files.

Glad it's done and it looks good and I don't have to worry about it anymore.

Until next month...

You really know someone when you can tell their mood by the way they are typing on the keyboard.

I have just discovered this site - tripit.com - it seems really good for vacations - gathers all the info for you and adds weather info, etc.

Although I cannot find my orbitz confirmation at the moment...that's not good.

But once I do, I can just email it to them and they put a whole itinerary together for me. I emailed my flight confirmation, just the number and all the info popped up.

I'm thinking they are definitely going to rob my house while I'm gone.

I just realized that I end up buying clothes when I need to do laundry.

Thanks to the internet, I get to watch the Superbowl commercials days later. The commercials are the best part. I do feel a little bit like I didn't pay my dues, I hung out in my room while John and his friend watched it.

Thanks, hulu.com!

How I love everything polka dot.

Flew across the country today with a 12-month-old (well, almost) and a 3-year-old. They handled the flight surprisingly well. TJ was immersed in his dvds (Dora, Nemo and Toy Story) and only had a meltdown once.

For some reason, the flight was actually longer than I expected - 6 full hours - and it coincided right with their mealtime. I only brought snacks, not sandwiches or anything and when he really needed something to avert the impending meltdown, like apple juice or peanuts, there was a medical emergency on board and the flight attendants wouldn't bring anything. Ay.

Luckily the woman in front of me heard what was going on and slipped me some jello jigglers that did the trick. Thank goodness!

Julia decided not to sleep the entire day. She did fall asleep in my arms for about 10 minutes with her little thumb planted firmly in her mouth and my heart melted and I fell in love with her even deeper. Seeing her sweet little self in my lap, sleeping, so innocent and trusting and beautiful and knowing that she is such a part of me is just really amazing.

TJ kept on asking me if he could push the button that reclines the seat. Of course, I gave him permission, he wasn't even moving the seat, just pushing the button. By the end of the flight, he was convinced that he was flying the plane and pushing that was making the plane go down.

Hotel is beautiful. Hoping for nice weather, because neither John or I like casinos, so we were hoping for some pool and some hiking action, we'll see.

Both kids crashed out in cribs (!) and I think we will be shortly on their trail. Is that the saying?

Drove to Las Vegas Blvd this morning at about 7:30 after stopping at the grocery store to stock up on stuff for the room, like snacks and microbrews. Yes I bought two six-packs before 7 a.m.

Then we hit Dunkin' Donuts where I turboed my coffee (added a shot of espresso - can I do that in RI?) and we drove about 20 minutes or so to get to the strip.

Drove around for a while, looking at the hotels and trying to figure out where to go and where to park. Everything is in bright lights - even the sign for CVS (open 24 hours! film processing!). Seems like overkill to me, but hey, it is Vegas. Or Begas as TJ calls it.

Wanted to see the fountains at the Bellagio, so we park there and look for them, can't find them. Get directions, see the fountain area, but it doesn't go off until 3. TJ is still psyched because there is an area with a bull made of leaves and a giant Asian statue.

Walk from there to the M&M store, 4 floors of M&M merchandise, after saying no to the time-share guy, Sheldon, who was practically ready to give us his first born child if we took a tour of a place.

Didn't buy anything M&M, didn't want to. TJ ignores the giant fuzzy red costumed M&M out front but once we leave is obsessed with knowing where he is now. "Where's the M&M? Where? Where?"

Short distance away is the MGM Grand, which we know has the lions at 11. We get there and it's only 10:15. Oh boy, what should we do? There's a sign for a monorail, let's follow that. Ooops, meltdown along the way..."I want apple juice!" so we do a u-turn and end up at a buffet. I am never eating again. Still full now. Yummy desserts in funny little containers.

Walk over to see the two lions behind the thick glass, who allegedly cannot hear any of the casino binging and banging, just the four waterfalls in their habitat. You can actually get into a tunnel under them, so I am now the proud owner of some photos of a lion from a very strange angle.

Take the monorail back to Bally's, which is supposed to be across from Bellagio. A lie. We walk and walk and end up at a sign that says "monorail - Bally's" which is where we started.

Las Vegas is the City of Escalators. They are everywhere. TJ loves that! It would not be easy to maneuver a stroller.

So many sights to see! Interactive ads projected onto the floor. Stomp on the "bubbles" and they pop, then turn into fish, then sparkles. TJ and I love it! Stomp on it for at least ten minutes. People walking by, giving us the isn't that cute smile.

Walking at one point, TJ says "Mommy!" - I look and he's standing there bare-legged with his Sponge Bob boxers on - his pants have totally fallen down around his ankles.

He and Julia have crossed new territory lately - he is into making her laugh and she loves it more than anything.

Suddenly she is pulling herself up all the time. She slept so soundly last night and was so chill in the backpack all day long. Dream baby.

Back in hotel now. We like not being on the strip. Our view is mountains and Las Vegas Boulevard and at night, thousands of lights, like Christmas. There is a complimentary shoe shine and I already packed up my short black boots for them to shine up.

High of 50 for our time here. Isn't the desert supposed to be hot?

This is a big casino hotel. They play techno music in the elevators that you just can't help dancing to, especially if you are me.

The bathroom in our room is marble with a big huge deep tub with very cool fixtures. The water shoots out in a beautiful stream. You never thought water filling a tub could look sleek? You should come here.

Vegas Baby

Some crazy amount of crystals are in the lobby. I have to go look it up because it's really crazy, like 300,000 or 3 million.

Flashy.

There are eight pools, too bad the weather is not cooperating.

This morning when we were up at the crack of dawn, (thanks Pacific time), I popped in the Suite Vinyl cd into the Bose system in the room. It's a cd on the night stand, open, and it's for sale for $20. This is what it says on the back of the packaging - "our hip, upbeat, sensual collection of tantalizing tracks features some of the finest electronica beats in music today. Bring this enchanting music home and relive your most decadent moments from Las Vegas over and over again."

So, the sun is rising and this crazy music is playing and I grab TJ and start moving. Due to the position of the sun, we can see our shadows dancing on the wall and we add more movements to make it fun.

He gets sick of it by the end of the first song because he wants to watch the numbers change on the cd, rather than dance with me. I know, I can't believe it either! So I'm grooving all by myself, because I seem to be the only one in the family who appreciates my dance skills and I am watching my shadow and I realize I possibly may have missed my calling as a gogo dancer.

Totally spending the 20 bucks.

Kids woke up again at the crack of dawn, before, actually.

Julia woke up crying and coughing in the middle of the night, a bit of a barking cough. Scares me, she is only coughing sporadically now.

Anyway, it took us forever to get out of the hotel and into downtown. Is that what the strip is called? That's what I call it.

After planning our route for the day, Mirage, Flamingo and Bellagio, we drive around looking for the Mirage (oh the irony) we finally got into self parking and walked a long way to the Secret Garden.

The first thing we saw were the dolphins. We were there for about five minutes when TJ decided he wants to see the flamingos RIGHT NOW. He tries to take off up the stairs and out the exit. Luckily, we manage to corral him in and convince him to walk to the tigers.

To our delight, the first thing we see is a giant King of the Jungle, with a big beautiful mane.TJ looks up at me and says "we are in the jungle!"

I just asked TJ what else we saw. He said "the tigers in the jungle, because tigers live in the jungle and lions live in the jungle. All the animals live in the jungle."

Flamingos after that, Margaritaville after that.

Stopped into a store to get a t-shirt for TJ and a sparkly sweatshirt for Julia. Walked out with a Vegas snow globe instead. Seems fitting. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day.

Today hiking at Red Rock Canyon.

highlights of our trip:

hiking at Red Rock, wish we had done it at least two more times. We should scooted there when the kids were awake at 4 a.m.!

Vegas in general - there is really so much to do there for kids. Something for everyone. TJ loves the animals. Julia likes seeing people.

The pretty mountains all around.

The kids behaving so well on the plane, both ways!

Our nice hotel.

Brewery across the street.

Lowlights (is that a word?)

Julia getting sick.

3 hour time difference, messing up the kids' schedule.

People smoking inside. Euw.

Cold weather, didn't get to use the big pool(s), the main reason we went.

Three day weekend made for a pretty busy Vegas. The first day we were there (Thursday) vs. the Saturday was a huge difference in the number of people visiting and driving on the strip.

We woke up nice and late today, yay!

TJ is playing with his train, Julia fell back asleep.

I had high aspirations of getting out of the house and going to the gym, which I so need.

We'll get there.

She'll wake up and he'll get dressed. Sounds so easy, right? But it takes SO long sometimes.

TJ gets easily distracted by his toys, books, life in general. So if I tell him to go get dressed, it really doesn't happen. He may make it into his room, but will start playing or reading or looking at something before he makes it to his bureau.

In the meantime, I'll be doing something - cleaning up, checking email, getting coffee, etc., and I do exactly the same thing, get distracted on the way. Like momma like son.

Hopefully he'll grow out of it and learn how to focus.

TJ and I are creating our own kapusta.

He's peeling the cabbage apart leaf by leaf. He keeps on saying "I'm a good helper."

We don't have any onions so we are using carrots, no broth so using chicken seasoning and beer.

John will love it, I guarantee it.

AnneTJbeerpusta, I'm thinking of calling it.

I really did think this would be the weekend that the entire house would be clean at the end of Sunday. The next two weekends won't give me a chance to be productive at home, so I was hoping for some good quality work to get done this weekend.

Nope.

I did make a good dent in the newsletter, have a good handle on what the flyer needs to say, and I did get the basement somewhat cleaned out of some clutter. Oh and I had some good parenting time in there too. And I attended the Farmer's Market.

All in all a good weekend.

All I want to know today is why there is broccoli in the washing machine.

I'm pretty sure I need to invent something that begins with X, that is not a xylophone or an x-ray.

It would change children's books forever.

I think a volunteer vacation, where you go somewhere and help someone either build a house or fix trails at a park or even help someone learn English sounds really cool.

I think beer is keeping me chunky.

Could coffee have an effect on trying to lose weight?

I will try switching to tea in the morning and see what happens then.

Plus more cardio.

Less beer, more cardio.

I like going to church. I like being quiet with my thoughts for an hour on a Sunday morning. I like to hear the music and look around at the other people and try to figure out their stories. I like the drab understatedness of what people wear in New England to chuch as opposed to the bright guadiness that people wear to church in Florida. It's a good place to make observations. The windows in churches are always something special.

My husband and I were both raised Catholic but kind of grew out of it as we both got older. I still attended Catholic church periodically when we first met, but it seemed like it wasn't quite for me. Seemed like the crowds were getting older and I felt in the minority, being a single young woman.

One Catholic church, in Worcester, was great. I can't remember the name of the church - St. John's, maybe? It has a Sunday night mass with the bushy-bearded, gray haired, Father Joe. "God Bless all the sinners," he would say, "and me the worst of them all." I love that! It was definitely not the stereotypical message that one expects from the Catholic church. He talks about having a pint at the local pub. After the homily (is that what it's called?), he puts on some music, usually something old school, like the Grateful Dead or Pink Floyd and sits back and puts his hands on his big belly covered by his black priest robe and closes his eyes. Everyone meditates until the song ends. Cool Catholic. Would be the smooth jazz station if it were a radio station.

Another Catholic church, this one in Rhode Island, was not so great. I had the chance to attend a church in a different neighborhood for work - the church was holding a blood drive that I was in charge of. I figured I would get my prayers in, and do work at the same time. The priest - and I remember this specifically because I was so flabbergasted - said "if you are friends with a homosexual, then you too, are a sinner and will go to hell." I looked around to see people's reactions - no one seemed to be phased. It was an older congregation, and this was a few years ago but seriously! What!!?? This one would be conservative talk radio, which, I have actually listened to, hey, differences make the world go round, right? But this just did not sit well with me.

Shortly after that experience, I started exploring different denominations, not on a whole-hearted mission, but if I felt like it, I would pop into a church to check it out. I remember being so bored in one church, I had to sneak out.

Living on the East Side of Providence at the time, the Unitarian Universalist Church was walking distance to my house. Tried it, loved it. The minister spoke of nature, and walking, and Walden Pond and a friend she has who live out of plastic bags and how she loves them and we accept them. Not a grandoise church, no stained glass, but yes, windows, big tall windows in the front of the church, which is really beautiful in an understated way. They help, they have a food pantry for the community and coffee hour after the service and name tags for people and a system with purple - if you are new, talk to the person with the purple scarf. If you want someone to talk to you, grab a purple coffee cup. The bulletin speaks of social dinners and even some Wiccan (!) meetings, knitting circles, meditation. People go from all walks of life, all different types of people, color, gender, sexual orientation. I bet maybe even some Republicans.

A notebook is kept at the back of the church and before the chalice lighting, the words are read. Some joyful events - please pray for my sister who just had her baby boy - some sad - for my cousin who just found out he has cancer. I tear up almost every time. After that, they read the names of the military members who have been killed in the war during the past week.

Sometimes we are not completely sure of what we are doing - "do we believe in that?" I have been known to ask John. Every now and then I'll re-read the Unitarian Universalist Principles. It's very accepting of all and the way I interpret it is "accept everyone, be good to everyone, love everyone." Works for me.

This past Sunday, we attended the UU service. My choice to join the UU community was re-affirmed, because of the song - "There is more love somewhere." It's an African American hymn, very simple, very hopeful and very timely for this period of American life. After that, the choir sang a jazzy, fun version of "Walk a Mile" by Pepper Choplin and really, who doesn't need to be reminded of that every now and then?

At the end of the service, we sing Shalom Havayreem, which is a very nice way to end it.

"Peace, Friends."

We have had too many incidents lately with rodents. A rat in the garage. A dead rat on the side lawn. *shiver* Mice that decided my car was their gourmet lunch.

They all skeeb me out to no end. I don't like unexpected things with sharp teeth in my life, I really don't.

So, imagine my joy this morning when John, just before he leaves the house, drops this one on me: "Oh, I think there is a squirrel stuck in the exhaust fan. I could hear it scratching when I was in the shower."

Oh. My. Freaking. God. Are you kidding me?

So, now my heart is all clenched up in fear and I cannot get out of the house fast enough.

I also just had to teach TJ the meaning of the word "irrational" because I KNOW that's what I am, but I just can't help it.

He told me that squirrels are really, really, really, really, really, really, nice and not bad. He also wants to know if they have claws.

Suddenly I have more purple in my wardrobe than I ever have before. It wasn't really a conscious effort, but I am ok with it.

At Friendly's, an old woman walks by our booth and tells me Julia is a cute little boy.

She stays at our table for just a little too long and I realize that maybe she has dementia, I can kind of see it in her eyes a little.

I am kind to her, but I don't like the fact that she is holding TJ's hand and telling him to "be nice to your little brother, don't hold his hand so hard." I'm getting worried that she is squeezing my son's hand a little too hard and I don't really like this, don't like people messing with my boy.

I communicate this with eye contact to the woman she is with, and the woman says "you are hurting his hand, let go."

She does, they walk off, the old woman looks back at me, and flips me the bird.

The dead bird on our garage roof can't be good feng shui.

These last few weeks have not been fun.
I had a visit to the emergency room.
TJ sick, Julia sick.
Now John has it worse than any of us.
Work issues.

Just got back from a walk to the playground. Good clean fun. I rode on the roller slide with TJ and slid about 200 miles an hour down it, surprised I didn't go airborne! I highly recommend it to all.

The entire walk and back, TJ demanded I hand him dandelions so he could do "Mama had a baby and her head popped off!" I complied, because, really, I understand the appeal of that. He judges the length of the stems, "this one is so short" or "this one is really long." Then pop the head off. Then demand another one or two or three. Once he asked for three, but I gave him two. "I said three!" he tells me. Bossy little thing.

We found an abandoned Garden Gnome which now resides in our yard, per his request.

I am watching him eat ziti. He just put about eight in his mouth at once. Which reminds me, true love is letting someone spit their half chewed food into your hand. And also kissing someone and not minding if you accidentally kiss a booga. Is that how you spell booga? Euw. But like I said, true love.

On the way back from our walk, we were crossing at the busy intersection and I hear someone yelling "HEY, HEY!" and a lady runs across the road to hand me the yellow and blue star blanket and the green elephant that fell out of the stroller. Oh, so very nice of her! Good thing the gnome didn't fall out, I may have had a hard time explaining that one.

My cell phone fills in words automatically as I type emails or send texts, which can be a nice feature, but also gets annoying when it's not the word I would like to use and have to move the cursor back to the word to change it...

when I try to write the word eat it changes it to rat

A glass pan EXPLODED all over the kitchen.

Making veggies and decided to add chicken broth so they didn't dry out, when I put it in, the entire glass pan SHATTERED like it was a bomb. Scared us all, babies crying, Mama shaken up, TJ wondering what was that noise.

Cleaned up most of the glass, only shards remained, and the food, John took care of the rest when he got home. Scary. Thank goodness everyone is ok.

Our lawn guy quit. Well, he is moving and isn't going to be cutting our lawn anymore for personal reasons. I ran into him a few days ago and he told me.

So I decided to try to start up that mower myself. Tried and tried to pull it, but it was stuck. Tell John about it. He gets home from work and I hear "vrooom" starts right up. Apparently somehow a dog toy was lodged in the blades and stopped it from operating.

The next day, I try again. Vrrrrrooom, starts right up and I start mowing the side yard. Not bad, going right along. Not beautiful, and maybe not exactly straight, but it's my first time in 39 years doing this, so it's not too bad.

Then I decided to tackle the back yard, back and forth, back and forth. The edges are hard to get, but in general, it's looking ok.

Front yard next. First I have to call my neighbor to help me figure out how to empty the bag. Get that done. Now onto the front yard, otherwise known as Two Giant Hills.

I do the flat part, back and forth, back and forth, feeling like kind of a badass out there, mowing the lawn all by myself.

Try to push it up the hill. Not going. Ooooof. Push some more, using all my muscles. Totally not going. I feel like a weakling. Get mad! Grrrr, push! Push. Nothing. Mow what I can, put it away.

Today I realize, I forgot to do in front of the garage. I power the lawnmower back up and see a little gear shifter thing. Hm. Yesterday, I had the big bar engaged the whole time, but not that little gear shifter. Let me see what it does. Oh my!!! This makes it go. It's a gear shifter that puts it into drive, apparently. Didn't realize this yesterday WHILE I MOWED THE ENTIRE LAWN WITHOUT HAVING THE LAWNMOWER IN GEAR.

I may as well have used scissors.

The drunk fisherman in the park told me my dog was pretty and I was pretty too. And Happy Mother's Day. And this made me feel happy. I'm thinking maybe more attention needs to be thrown my way.

Just had a very Zen few moments in the backyard with the dogs, some potato chips, some chocolate and the sun.

Sometimes it is so hard to get things done. I feel as though it sometimes takes forever to just feed these kids in the morning. TJ likes to play and do other things in the morning. He gets distracted by his toys and his books and his Madagascar stuffed animals and life in general.

He needs to eat, because when he doesn't have food in his system, forget it. Crabbiness prevails.

Julia usually doesn't have a problem eating breakfast. As my mom puts it, she takes her eating seriously. After eating a big hearty breakfast, Julia may or may not need a nap. I put her down and she cries or talks or sleeps, depending. But if she's tired and she doesn't sleep, it's not a good idea to leave the house, because it could be a disaster. Yet I need to give TJ a heads up so he knows what's going on, and what we are doing. I can't predict the future though, so hopefully he's learning to be flexible.

He needs to get dressed, every day, unless I declare it Pajama Day, which is a rare occasion. He may or may not get dressed by himself. Today, I told him seventeen times to put on his underwear so we could get ready to get out of the house. Figured I would start with that, the most basic of the clothing. He wouldn't do it. After he finally pees in the potty upstairs, I tell him "go downstairs and put on your underwear." I go downstairs two minutes later and he is playing naked in the living room.

Julia decides she is still hungry, so at this point, I plop her in her highchair for Breakfast #2, which consists of going back and forth to the kitchen, opening cans of fruit or peeling fruit, making pancakes or waffles (ok, just in the microwave, but still), getting her cup of milk, giving her a bowl, because she likes to have an empty bowl on her highchair to fill up, and on and on. At least she's not at the point yet where it has to be the blue bowl or the Mickey Mouse bowl. Any old bowl will do.

Lead TJ to his room. Tell him to put on his underwear. He sticks his tongue out at me. I tell him NOT TO DO THAT. At this point, I'm frustrated. He cries. I have to hug him and comfort him at this point. I feel bad because I made him cry, poor baby.

He finally works his way over to the underwear drawer. Can't open it for some reason. I take a break from picking up game pieces that are scattered all around his floor, open the underwear drawer for him and start to give the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown. He grabs a pair of underwear. Puts it on his head.

I am not even kidding.

We have gone without curtains in our bedroom, since we moved in here in 2005. We have shades, just not curtains on the windows.

Finally decided to order curtains for the bedroom. Did research, measured, picked colors, etc, and ordered rods and the curtains. Received curtains, had to get them hemmed by a tailor. Rods backordered until May 1, supposedly. They arrived yesterday and we realized that we didn't take into account the width of the windows.

So, we have mini curtains that are the correct length, but don't meet in the middle on both windows. We decide to put all four curtains on one window and it made such a big difference in sleeping last night. We didn't wake up today until 8!

About to order two more sets for the existing window, which now has none.

We'll be sleeping until 9!

Can someone just make sure that John's work, and TJ and Julia know our new schedule?

Wires?

I hate them.

I want a wireless world.

It should not be a mess on my desk, just because I have two laptops, the home phone, a lamp, a baby monitor and my phone charger.

I even have them in a docking station and it still gets crazy. Mixed up, messy wires stress me out.

Nothing like waking up to the sounds of police sirens and garbage trucks.

Finished returning emails, dealing with property issues, talking to bank, etc. Just about to open a word document to start a project.

Hear wee little cries and noises from the Little One.

Won't be starting that project now.

In South Beach baby.Waiting for my Shelby.

Leaving the house, Mimi tells me "watch out for sharks." Yipes, I never even thought of that. I never saw Jaws when I was younger and have avoided it all this time. Although I have read the book about twenty times because it used to be in the bookcase outside of my bedroom. That and the World Book Encyclopedias.

So, get on the plane. Crazy lady two seats over from me, talks to herself the ENTIRE three hour plane ride. I thought she was praying but she was seriously just chatting away. The whole time. At the end of the flight, she suddenly becomes coherent enough to tell the girl in between her and I about a shark that bit off a guy's nose while he was at the beach.

Get to the hip trendy hotel. Giant fish aquarium in the lobby, featuring - you guessed it - sharks.

Sun. Shopping. Sand. Shelby.

I need to clean off my desk. Which leads to me needing a space to put things. Which leads to me needing to clean out other spaces where stuff already is. Which leads me to looking at and reading the other stuff. Which leads me back to my computer where I think I am going to create a file which will end up helping me organize said stuff. My computer leads me directly to Facebook, which leads me directly to Procrastination. How can I ignore "you have been tagged in a photo" - there's no way.

So, to set the scene...

anyone that knows me knows that rodents are one of my least favorite things in all of the world. You also know that it gets me mad when people don't say hi to me, which is one of the reasons I don't like my neighborhood so much. You also know that if I don't like something, it's usually conveyed in some way. Facial expression, appropriate noise, or a comment, perhaps.

Last night, I decide to take my crazy, rotten dogs for a walk, after we arrive home and before it gets dark. After about two minutes of Amadeus doing 360s in the air, and Georgia doing laps around the yard, I get them to sit and get their leashes on.

Walking "around the block," which is not really around the block, but is what I call our walk, typically takes about 15 minutes and I usually take both dogs separately because 100 pounds of fur pulling me, no matter how cute they are, is just too much to handle for me. But for some reason, seems like a good idea to take them both.

On the last leg of the walk, a skinny little man with no shirt on asks me if the dogs are hungry. "Sure, I guess," I say, walking onto his lawn toward his grill, with much apprehension because Amadeus has a tendency to howl at strangers and Georgia loves to lick their nose. Plus, what if he kidnaps me. But hey, he seems friendly and no one ever talks to me in this neighborhood so I have to take advantage of it.

So, he's about to give them some of his grilled food but he tells me it's too hot, leaves me outside and comes back with a plate of cat food, a knife, and his wife.

Feeds the dogs sausages, mixed in with the cat food, straight from the grill. Offers me nothing, too bad, I totally would have eaten one, they looked good.

So, I thank him, we go on our way, about a block closer to home, I'm looking down at my phone, and of course the dogs are stopping and walking and sniffing. They are stopped for a moment too long, I look up and see them sniffing a DEAD RAT. I scream and pull them away and cross the road.

Can't run because I have on new shoes that aren't totally broken in yet and are giving me big angry, red blisters.

Limp home, totally skeebed out about the rat. John is in the driveway, and I tell him what happened. He looks down at my feet and says "Oh my gosh," of course, I somehow irrationally decide that the rat or part of the rat is on my sneaker. Screaming commences, shoes fly off, I'm yelling "what is it, what is it?!"

Turns out he's just commenting on the blister.

Had a rough day today, as TJ puts it.

I just sucked down a cup of joe and then looked at the clock and it's past my time. 12:59 is the latest I can drink caffeine and still go to sleep easily at night. It's been scientifically proven.

I never thought I would be a stay at home mom. I sometimes still don't think I am, really, between drill weekends and property management and Executive Director, it doesn't seem like I have enough time at home to be considered a stay at home mom. But I am, basically, that. Which is fine, more than fine. It's really great. I'm psyched to be able to spend this time with TJ and Julia. Everyone says they miss this age, and yes, I can understand that. It definitely has its moments when the two of them are crying or fighting over something, it's not always so fun. But it ends. And then TJ runs around the highchair with Julia in it, and she laughs with delight, and looks behind her on one side, then the other, and she screams when she sees TJ. And I laugh. And she laughs. And TJ laughs and I think of how lucky I am to have this time with them, to be able to read them and know what they need, because I am with them so much. I know when they are hungry, tired, excited, crabby, loving, playful, happy or bored. And I act accordingly.

I feed them breakfast every day, and get to eat with them, and drink coffee and do the sign language sign for hot and see Julia do it back to me. TJ asks me "what are we doing today, gym, school, church?" and I answer what's on the agenda for the day.Sometimes I surprise them with a trip to the zoo or a road trip to see Ali and Bebe. I'm going to miss that when he goes to school full-time and we have to be there each day, every day, on time.

It's the little things that I think I will remember when I look back at this time. I don't know what I will think of - my memory is not always so great - but I hope I remember playing and loving and laughing with them. Doing a puzzle (or six) with TJ, dancing with Julia.

On certain days I walk to pick TJ up at his "school" - it's not the best walk, or so I thought. A busy road, with trash thrown on it. But now it's even worse, they are doing construction. Once the construction is done, it will make me appreciate it, it will seem quiet, the busy road. The trash could be much worse, although I still want to wear gloves and bring a bag and pick it up as I walk along, why don't people know they are so nasty to throw trash on the road?

I know I will look back and think about the walk and picking him up in the double stroller and being psyched that he will still sit in it - and really love that I was able to do that, to show them the joy of walking and seeing different sights than are normally seen. I hope that they are somehow learning from this time and it is helping them to develop into good communicators and have a good sense of humor and love nature and music. Even though they probably won't remember - I hope that they know that their Mama really tried to encourage the makings to guide them into really cool, appreciative, fun little people.

I need some changes in my life.

Eat this, Not that tells me I should eat these foods every day.

spinach
yogurt
tomatoes
carrots
blueberries
black beans
walnuts
oats

They must have accidentally left off beer, chocolate and potato chips.

Had a great weekend with Karen, Sue, Darren, Papelbon and Matt Damon on the Cape.

Breezy, sunny days at the beach. Left the beach and went to a pond. Entertaining people visiting, a dog swimming, clear, cool water, with a floating wooden raft, just begging us to swim to it.

Beautiful weather, yummy food, lots of drinks, beautiful scenery and much laughter.

So I have been watching what I eat this week - getting ready for a sunny vacation soon!

I have been doing ok, except for yesterday, I was hungry throughout the day. I think I didn't eat enough breakfast, which led to eating my lunch for breakfast and then having another lunch, which involved potato chips, and dinner was seconds and then some pie.

Anyway, I woke up this morning and weighed 4 lbs more than yesterday on my scale!!! Ooof.

Oh well. We'll see what it is tomorrow.

Miami to celebrate 40 years. Almost 30 of those as best friends.

The Cape to celebrate another 40 years.

NGARI stuff, as I so lovingly call it, and a conference to go along with it.

Gym, both mine and Little and school.

Finding a full-time gig for TJ.

Air Force and long days and promotions and inspections.

Babysitters and not doing laundry and no walks for the Rottens.

Swimming lessons as a participant in the pool and as a spectator out of the pool.

Leases and 4-year-old birthdays and willing babies to walk and Dominican Republic.

And that is what my summer has been made up of.

Oh, and my dog just got sprayed by a skunk.

After my ceremony, TJ tells me, "I am going to call you Major Powers from now on, Mommy."

Googling "how to remove Sharpie marker from carpet" - as John is working on it with the orange multi-purpose cleaner.

Purell, rubbing alcohol, spot shot, were all suggested, but he did it with the orange stuff and the manpower of one. This is the same guy that moves entire rooms of furniture all by himself up and down two flights of stairs. Yay!

At an all inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic, Ocean Blue H10, I think it is called.

Life here is basically a Corona commercial.

Blue ocean, white sand, free flowing drinks, mucho food, good friends, smiling faces. It certainly is not a bad place.

Everything is acting up on me today.

My car door locker, not working. I asked the refrigerator for ice cubes, it gives me crushed ice. The water is coming out very s...l...o...w...l...y out when I try to get a glass of water from the dispenser. Liar GPS has a low battery. My earphones, one of the little cushy things fell off. My laptop is taking forever to start and going through some registry check every time I start it.

Getting my car washed this morning, see a little black chihuahua across the street. It decides to cross the busy road to come over to see me.

I tried to give it pretzels and the car wash guys had water out for it, but it just wouldn't come close enough for me to snatch him up. They said he got closer to me than any other person. It's probably a good thing, because I was ready to take it home. I don't normally like little dogs too much, but I felt so worried about him crossing that road.

I called the Providence police, so hopefully they were able to at least get it to the Rescue League.

I did it! I did it!

I sent an electronic query with my book synopsis - well, novel, ok novella, really - to a publisher.

SCARY.

But fun.

I wrote it a LONG time ago and have never really been brave enough to send it out. Rejection and all. But really, so what.

Smells like autumn. Someone is burning a fire or maybe it is the sauna a few camps down. Sitting on the dock, with TJ and the dogs by my side, enjoying a glorious day. Across the pond, I see one small patch of red leaves nestled among the leaves of summer trees and the evergreens. The sky is a peaceful shade of blue and big white fluffy clouds are floating by. Every now and then the occasional airplane from the small airport down the road flies by. It must be a spectacular day to be flying.
The pond water sparkles. It is not all bucolic...lily pads and weeds dot the water. TJ is taking off his clothes - he is ready to swim!

So, we are part of a farm share which means we end up with more vegetables than we know what to do with. Especially since I don't like salad.

So I decide to make soup.

Chop up carrots, onions, squash, in this little tiny chopper device with TJ. It actually purees them more than I thought, but it's still kind of chunky. Throw some tomatoes and some garlic in, and simmer.

So, we are part of a farm share which means we end up with more vegetables than we know what to do with. Especially since I don't like salad.

So I decide to make soup.

Chop up carrots, onions, squash, in this little tiny chopper device with TJ. It actually purees them more than I thought, but it's still kind of chunky. Throw some tomatoes and some garlic in, and simmer.

It's a full pot of mushed up veggies, good for us!

The only thing is, it doesn't taste too good. Kind of bitter. We add salt and pepper. Eh.

Decide it's too chunky so throw the whole pot into the blender and make it a little smoother.

OK, what's in the fridge...garlic hummus, we'll try it. Sour cream, why not?

Getting better, but a little bitter, so we throw in some sugar and a little butter. Really getting much better now, but needs something. Cook up some sausage and potatoes and throw those in. Bingo! YUM!

Having a beer in Nashville airport, working on the newsletter...

Where else but Nashville would they have have a live country singer? Yeehaw!

Spring - Sam Adams Cherry Wheat

Summer - Wachusett Blueberry

Fall - Pumpkin Ale

Winter - Harpoon Winter

The inspection is over. Phew. Big sigh of relief here.

We passed.

My program did well.

I bet we get an outstanding next time.

Bought a pair of sweats at an outlet mall in Nashville, Tennessee last week.

I am so glad that the sweatpant people have opened up the legs and the waist. Who needs tight elastics around your ankles or your belly?

Not me, brother.

Best $8 I have ever spent.

It's amazing how much better it makes me feel when I weigh one pound less than my normal weight.

And how chunky one pound on the scale can make me feel. Has a palpable effect on my day.

We empty the trash because it's trash day and the trash can is nasty and I need to wash it because there is brown liquid stuff at the bottom, I don't even want to know what it is and I spray it with cleaning spray and there are no paper towels and now I need to replace the trash bag, but there are none, but I just bought some yesterday but they are still in the car. Typical.

So I read somewhere that deleting dairy from your diet helps make you feel better, more energetic, less stuffed up. I forget where I read it. Oprah may have told me in her book that is on my nightstand that I read when I can't sleep.

So I decided to try eliminating it from my diet starting two days ago. Today starts day three.

Nothing too dramatic yet, except I realized that I eat chocolate a lot. And that it's really hard to say no to white clam chowder in the fall in New England. Oh! And that coffee and tea without milk are not for me.

So, I bought almond milk. Milk made from almonds. Unsweetened vanilla flavor. I have one thing to say about it. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

The dental hygienist's advice...

Ask your kid who is acting up "do you want Mean Mommy to come and visit?"

Make your children speak loudly and clearly.

Don't tolerate whining. Tell them you can't understand whining.

Food always tastes better to your children at someone else's house.

Be consistent.

If they ask for it, make them stick with it, whatever it may be.

Oh, and floss every day.

Too much to do and too little time!

In text talk, that would be 2 much 2 do n 2 ltl time.

So chicken nuggets.

Dry nonfat milk? Whhaaat?

So to make it not count, I eat one of the brownies sitting on the counter. Does that make sense at all?

Sabotaged by the White Castle cheeseburgers and the brownies sitting on the counter, calling my name last night.

Blaming it on the cosmos.

Why don't they have daycare at salons?

I really need to invent a place with daycare and beauty mixed together.

I would totally support that and I'm sure lots of other mamas would too.

Got my hair cut today.

I miss my old hair.

Change is good though.

So, John had a smart phone years ago. Before anyone else. He called it a pocket pc. He would drive me crazy looking at it all the time. It had an internet connection so he would constantly be looking down at it, checking the news and surfing the net. No one else had one then so I wasn't used to that. Now it's me addicted to my blackberry, constantly texting, checking facebook, updating my blog, emailing, etc.

A year or two ago, he bought a tiny little laptop. All the rage now.

When he had his pocket pc, he used to make electronic music on it. Years ago. Today, an article on CNN about people using their smartphones to make music.

So three years ago in this househould.

He should get a job spotting technological trends. He's good at it.

*compliment

I am cold right down to the inside of my bones.

So, laid off husband equals pinching pennies so we don't have to dip into savings.

This means pedicures and other extra luxuries are done for now. Luxuries that aren't even luxuries but just nice to have. Oh, wait, is that what a luxury is?

Today I had to clean my own bathroom, sweep the kitchen by myself and take off my own toenail polish. Oh the horror.

My new favorite perfume is called Alien by Thierry Mugler. It's not a pretty name. Not like my other favorite, Princess by Vera Wang, which is so feminine it's embarrassing. Or my standby, Chanel No 5, which conjures up visions of elegance. Alien? Not so much elegance. But it smells divine.

Open your heart. Squeeze your butt.

I overheard this conversation tonight in a restaurant, and my ears perked up, because I have my Master's of Public Administration too.

Girl to guy: How's your girl?

Guy: She's good, she went to Roger Williams University and Rhode Island College to check out their MPA programs.

Girl: I have my MPA too.

My thoughts: Me too, I have mine too. I wonder what they do with theirs.

Girl: I am still not sure what I'm going to do with my degree.

Guy: Yeah, I know.

Girl: But that's not really the point, is it.

My thoughts: Really, it's not?

Girl: What does she want to do with hers, work for the state government or local government?

Guy: She would like to be an Executive Director of a non-profit.

My thoughts: That's exactly what I thought I would do with mine!

Hmmmmmm....

I wish I could do it part time for now. Maybe I should create my own non-profit.

Cozy sweats just out of the dryer.

After watching the show Weeds, I am always inspired to dress cuter.

Dunkin Donuts pumpkin spice coffee totally reminds me of Indian food.

I think one of the differences in getting older and wiser is this:

Before when I used to get upset about certain situations, work, relationships, etc., I would leave.

Now, I know enough to wait it out and see what happens.

Ultimately it works itself out.

I just need to learn to breathe through it.

The way we tell who needs more sleep in this household is by judging the amount of "puff" under our eyes.

TJ will say "I'm not tired, I don't have any puff under my eyes."

Or I will ask if I look tired. "Yes, Mama. You have puff under your eyes. You need to go back to bed."

Today, the eye puff factor is high.

Sometimes when I am shopping for fun (clothes, make up, shoes, etc.) I end up buying more than one, to make the average price of my purchases go down.

Massage at 10.
Lunch to go.
Homemade Shelby chocolate cupcakes.
A walk in the park.
Dinner at Tini's.
Dessert and drinks at Local 121.
Home by 10.

Turned 40.

Got a book reader.

Cool gift.

Someone told me today that I had a big phone.

Duh.

One of the super exciting things about it is that I can log on to the library and check out books and download them immediately. For free.

Trying to figure out the best way to keep a list of the books I have read. I may just have an entry here and go back and edit it each time I read another one.

I read a lot.

I'm not that good at keeping lists.

But maybe it would help prevent me from getting the same book as before, which I often do. I end up checking out the same book from the library multiple times, because I do judge a book by its cover.

May have accidentally had beer only for dinner tonight.

Finally bought the Alien perfume I have been coveting as a 40th birthday present to myself. Ended up going to this crazy event to get it - the guys at the perfume section at Macy's wouldn't let me just buy the perfume on Monday. They told me I had to pre-buy it and then come to the event - "free gifts and a supermodel!" they told me.

I dressed up a little, just in case I got discovered. It was a nice event, the supermodel was a guy, which I wasn't expecting, but didn't mind. He told me that he was in one of the Terminator movies. I didn't want to get my photo taken with him, but I did let him give me an autographed photo, on which he wrote "Keep Smelling Good" or something to that effect.

Looking at the ad copy on my perfume box - and I quote..."...Alien Liquer de Parfum is aged in oak casks to reveal a rich and sensual fragrance with woody amber notes that are subtly almondy. Do not drink."

Ooooo and there is a secret code to register on the inside of the package! I did it and and I got sucked into a marketing website.

But I do have to say, after looking at that site, Thierry Mugler has some cool stuff. And I smell good.

I noticed some new wrinkles on my face today, in a spot I didn't even know existed.

I am a currently am a little too obsessed with getting the crevices of my jacuzzi tub clean.

So much so that I came home today from Walgreens with purchases to include: denture cleaner; oxy clean; bleach.

Last night I had bubbles at least four feet high in the tub, trying to get it clean with dishwashing detergent. I think I was supposed to use the powdered dishwasher kind. Thanks for being clear, google.

The mix today worked better than anything has so far. There were actually some chunks of gunky gunk that came out.

Now I am trying to figure out how to undo the filter to see what lurks in there.

Maybe this isn't the best idea for me, who skeebs out when I find one of my own hairs on the bathtub.

I better think this one through.

If you are planning a 50th wedding anniversary and are not sure how to make it fun and memorable, hire a polka band.

THEY ARE SO NICE

That’s what everyone says about our parents.

They are nice. It’s the truth.

They are generous, happy, loving people.

They taught us what is most important in life – family and working hard.

When we were growing up, they were always active, playing tennis, skiing or going for walks and Volksmarches. They both worked their way through college later in life. As we got even older, their hobbies turned into golf and going on vacations. They had the time of their life on a trip to Italy, but they also love to have a good old fashioned party, closer to home at the Italian Camp or Stanley’s.

That sense of easy adventure and fun is an admirable trait in both my mom and my dad and something that I believed helped get them here, to their 50th year anniversary.

They both strived hard and worked together their whole lives to get where they are today.

They were in their early 20s when they first met. They have grown from their dating years, to husband and wife, to a nurse and a grave digger slash drummer in a band, to Realtors, to the involved commercial realtors that they still are today. Very active in the community and with their friends and family. They are parents, friends, a brother and a sister, an outlaw, an uncle and an aunt, and they are Ali and Bebe to their grandchildren, Julia and TJ.

A 50 year anniversary is a great feat. It’s romantic and remarkable.

When they were married, 50 years ago in 1959 that was the year that Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states of America.

It was also the year that our parents officially started their life together.

1959 It was a very good year for unions.

THE TOAST

THEY ARE SO NICE

That’s what everyone says about Ali and Tom.

They are nice. It’s the truth.

Standing here is our mom and dad - a couple that you could never imagine apart.

Our Mom and Dad always tell us they are proud of us but today we would like to say that we are proud of them and lucky to have them in our lives.

Let’s raise our glasses on their 50th wedding anniversary.

I am thinking about going back to work. I would like to go back when Julia is 2.

I am thinking part time would be great, now it's just a matter of finding something that makes it worth my time.

Let the resume sending commence!

End up with too many piles of paper on my desk.

I try to keep it somewhat organized but it really doesn't work.

Between part-time job and kids and life and bills and bday cards and things of that nature, it just gets to be too much. What am I supposed to do with the Sony Reader box? John told me I should hold on to it just in case. So it's sitting there. In a pile. And I get thirsty so I drink water and tea. The glasses stay there, they don't go away. What's up with that?

And of course when I sit down to pay bills online, I get sucked into Facebook and other blogs and news sites and my cat has to come and plop down on my keyboard too.

I really need to get a better handle on it. It drives me nuts and is totally inefficient.

Things finally slowing down for us, just in time for the holidays.

Forgot to lock the pantry, dogs go into it while I was at the gym. Rottens. They knocked down the double stuffed oreos but left them intact and they were the first thing I saw when I walked into the house.

I only meant to just have one, but it turned into a bad scene.

Why do they even make sweatpants with the elastic bottoms anymore?

Isn't that so 1980?

I decided I am going to find a part-time job in Community Relations.

A half day for TJ makes for a long day for Mama.

When I grow up and get a kitchen where people can sit and eat and someone else can cook and talk to the eating people at the same time, I am going to have #1. a big honking food processor and #2. a Kitchen-Aid mixer and #3. a dishwasher that doesn't take 4 hours to run. \

And clean counters, free of clutter.

Amen.

My good friend Lana sent me a warm, drinkable present from NYC. Tea and hot cocoa because when she was my neighbor, she would stand outside my window and yell "Do you want me to come in for some tea?"

I never said no.

Today I made myself a cup of the present - a spiced hot cocoa from The Chocolate Bar.

I couldn't figure out all day why this song was running through my head over and over..."on the good ship, Lollipop, it's a sweet trip to the candy shop..."

When finally it hit me...Happy landing on a chocolate bar.

Which is where the hot cocoa is from.

I had a dream last night that a mouse was in my sock. While the sock was on my foot. It was not fun for me.

I need the Mac designers to come into my house and do a re-org.

They know their stuff.

I could do without the little workers at a restaurant or a coffee shop calling me Ma'am.

On the way to meet our friends for breakfast, we had some traffic issues.

First, we were getting on the highway and it was full of traffic. I voice my dismay and TJ says "Traffic?! I thought they canceled traffic!"

On the way to Woonsocket, we follow Liar GPS's directions, right to the back of a factory were about twenty 18-wheelers are parked. She's obviously messing with me.

Finally we get there, have a great breakfast, and for some reason, depend on Liar GPS to get us home. We are twisting and turning through the streets of Woonsocket and TJ is getting all animated when she tells us to turn.

"What!" he says, "go right?! Again? She just told us to turn right!"

The one that really got him going was when we are told to turn on Ternon Street. "Again? What are there two Ternon Streets?"

It's exactly the same way I feel.

TJ hands me a tootsie pop that he licked down to the chocolate part. I bet some people could resist eating this. Me, not so much.

I just put on a new pair of socks to warm up my (always shockingly) chilly feet and there is a sticker on the bottom that says Folding by Teresa Jimenez.

Seriously. In love with Apple.

They made the MacBook Pro charger cord with little pull-out extensions on the plug so you can wrap the wire around it, getting us one step closer to the ideal wire-free world.

Here is what I just heard when I called a customer service phone number.

"Thank you for calling. Goodbye."

I wonder what will be next, which household appliance will be shrunken down to a teeny tiny size so we can take it out in our pockets.

Oh man. Woke up this morning with a pain in my back in a place that I never even knew existed. I'm blaming it on stress although it's also because my body knows that she's 40, I'm pretty sure. I take good care of myself, especially lately so it's maddening to me that I wake up with aches and pains.

My knee, my back, my neck all have their scheduled shifts and rotate feeling pain.

"Hey Neck, it's me knee. Can we switch days? I can't work this weekend."

"Sure, Knee. No problem. I've been meaning to add some extra hours in to her neck pain."

"OK, great."

Maybe more stretching is in order. Yoga? Something needs to be done.

Either that, or I need to change it up and start living hard and fast. I can be one of those 100-year-old people on the news who say they owe it all to whiskey, wine and cigars.

I find it a beautiful thing that Sephora tells me "thank you, gorgeous" after I place an order. Also, brilliant marketing.

It would be fun to retire in NYC. Or at least have a place there to stay when I needed to go there to get an NYC fix.

The prices are crazy for what you pay for square footage you get. But, it is like that in all of NYC so it's somewhat normal.

For the same price you pay for a 900 sf condo in Brooklyn, you could get a big 4-bedroom house in certain areas of Rhode Island.

At the gym on the elliptical. Working out, watching tv.

The entire time, the newscast has a border at the bottom with a picture of a Burger King sandwich - two for $3.33.

Saw a television ad for the Catholic Church the other day, asking people to please come back.

Need tea desperately.

I'm going to go see who myheritage.com says I look like now. I just took a photo of myself from photobooth on the Mac.

It's a website that tells you what movie stars you look like when you upload a photo onto the site, but really I just think it picks anyone with similar features, such as dimples. Because I really hope I don't look like Ronald Reagan, like it told me the other day. Seriously. He was one of the ones that came up.

Now that I'm in my pjs with crazy straw looking hair, I'm sure it will be someone equally as hot.

OK, here's who it told me. Some of them I have no idea who they are.

Jena Malone. Oooo, Kristin Davis (Charlotte from Sex and the City - I'll take that one!), Grace Kelly, Brooke Shields, Lisa Kudrow. This is working out MUCH better today. Anne Hathaway, Shiri Appleby (no idea who she is), Woooo! Sandra Bullock. I better quit while I'm ahead. Julia Roberts! I think the site is drinking and quite possibly beer goggling. Ashley Tisdale (don't know her either). This is way better!

I will go back with the other photo and post the names here in a second. I remember Bob Geldolf being on the list....

Waiting for my battery to die so I can walk away from the laptop. It sucks me in...

If brown eggs are local eggs, then where do white eggs come from and why are they cheaper?

While watching TJ's soccer lessons, yesterday and chatting with the other parents, TJ comes up to me and gives me a big hug and kiss. It was very sweet. Then he decided to settle in, quite uncharacteristic of him. As he's sitting on my lap, I'm loving it, but he needs to go back with the other kids to play soccer so I send him out there.

He doesn't listen.

"TJ, I'm taking out my phone, I tell him. Do you want an X or a star?"

"A star! A star! No X!" he says.

"OK, then go back out there."

He hesitates.

I say "Five."

He runs out there before I can say "four, three, two, one" which would cause an X on a memo on my blackberry.

One of the other moms looks at me and says "You are like one of the moms they write about in Parents Magazine. I would have just yelled at my kids."

Hey, I'll take that.

Hanging out with Julia in Orlando. She is eating strawberries and I am sitting on the floor. We just decorated the poncho that we bought for Disney for the rest of the week. She scribbled on it in her very cute style and I drew flowers, clouds and wrote “no rain” on it. Attempted to draw a duck but pretty sure it looks just like a platypus.

It rained at Disney today and the forecast does not look good for the rest of the week. Grrrr. Missing a big blizzard at home, school already canceled for tomorrow. At least it is not snowing here, but I wanted to feel some sun on my face. Nothing compares to that delicious feeling of a warm face from the sun’s glow and I was excited to come here for that.

Staying at a cool place. It’s kind of old on the outside, but it’s not run down and the grounds are very lush. Two bedrooms, two baths, the master having a giant Jacuzzi tub. Outside of the glass door overlooking a pond are three or four crazy looking ducks right now, which are keeping Julia entertained. Also at least four stray cats, one very mangy and kind of beat up. At one point, I looked out and saw him on the patio and thought he was dead. He wasn’t though. Phew.

Flight was relatively uneventful yesterday. Got lucky and the one empty seat ended up in front of us so the guy who was next to me moved into it so Julia could have her own seat. Used every single trick that I had in my bag to keep her entertained, including dvds, crayons, markers, poker chips, books, and a Tupperware container of pasta. She loved it all. Had no interest whatsoever in sleeping with me, though.

Auntie KK just left to head home. Julia is speaking with her on the phone right now,. She’s holding up the phone to Oscar the Grouch that is on my shirt, now she is holding the phone up to the laptop. Now she is pretending to chomp on the apple that’s on the front of the MacBook.

It’s fun having her all to myself and not having the distractions of home.

Just put her to bed, Mickey tires you out.

Parked at Pluto, row 12.

Walked in, purchased tickets. Good deal for military, $99 for 4 days! KK is a Florida resident, she could have received the same deal and bought it, rather than the $79 for one day. Turns out she is not going to use it again, so didn't really matter.

They take your fingerprint on the way in. So Big Brother. Big Mickey?

After the initial crowds of the monorail, and after stopping for a much needed latte for me and grapes for Julia, we headed away from the crowds and straight for Fantasy Land, where we took Julia, almost 2 years old, on the Pooh Bear ride, watched her play in Pooh's house, went on It's a Small World, and saw Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore walking around.

The look of sheer excitement and concentration as Julia saw them from afar was just precious. We'll see them again in the morning at breakfast, with TJ and John.

Had lunch at Plaza (?), turns out the waiter is from West Warwick, Rhode Island. It IS a small world, after all.

After we ate lunch , we wanted to go to one more ride or attraction, but weather was so wet. Luckily it was time for a street party and Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and some others were performing songs and dancing right on Main Street.

We enjoyed that and headed out.

I don't like possums, or rats or mice or really anything with a long skinny tail that exceeds the length of its body.

As I was writing the last blog entry, a big ass possum was loping by my patio outside.

I'm inside now and planning to stay here.

Freezing cold today, especially this morning.

None of us were really dressed for it. We would have had to have on turtlenecks, sweaters, pants, winter jackets and snow boots, plus mittens and hats to stay warm. I am not even kidding.

Everyone is all up in arms about this nonsense, the weather here in not-so-sunny Florida.

Julia had a really fun day. She likes Epcot. She did really well on the rides, she thought the Nemo one was super cool.

Some of her high points at Epcot were running away from us and also going under the metal barriers and ropes and coming back again. Oh and the stroller parking! She thinks that is the best thing ever. RIDE!! She yells, and thinks she can just have her pick of other people's strollers to play with. When we exited the Dinosaur ride, she said "Riiiiide, Riiiiide" and found our red double stroller really quickly in the line of at least thirty strollers.

We spent a good chunk of time waiting in line for autographs from the "big" characters, they were all in one room, so we met them all. It was super cool to see Julia dancing with Goofy and giving Donald Duck a smooch and hugging Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

TJ was loving getting autographs from them, although he did become a little obsessed with finding Daisy Duck, after I told him we were not stopping to get her autograph in a big line in the shade. Too cold for this Mama. "DAISYYYYYYYYYYYYY, WHERE ARE YOU???" he would just start yelling out at random times. "I bet she died." he decides at one point. I tell him I would bet him one million dollars that she is not dead.

After the character breakfast (Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, Mad Hatter, Pooh Bear and Tigger), we head over to Epcot on the monorail and saw Spaceship Earth (the ride inside of the iconic big giant silver ball); Universe of Energy (Ellen Degeneres and dinosaurs - 45 minutes long); Seas with Nemo and Friends; Turtle Talk with Crush.Didn't really do the countries, but we did eat sushi in Japan.

TJ was obsessed with this really cool outdoor train display. He wouldn't leave it for about an hour.

Why does my desk never ever get completely cleared off?

There's always some paper floating around.

Our trashcan and our recycling bags are in a little closet in the kitchen. Usually.

Right now for some strange reason, the trash can is in front of the oven.

So much trash today because Julia and TJ are opening bandaids as a form of entertainment and I have to throw away the wrappers and they are drinking juice bags and I have to throw away the empties and I finished the rest of the mozzarella cheese and had to throw away the bag and I put the coffee into another container so I had to throw away the original container.

Every single time I go to throw something away this morning, I open the closet to put it where the trash usually is. Every. Single. Time.

We're all sick, every one of us.

Right now there is entirely too much frosting in this house.

Made the Elmo cake last night then went to bed and left it in the pan without putting it on the cooling rack. Now I realize that wasn't the best idea. because this morning I am trying to dump him out and half his face is still in the pan right now. The entire right side of his face.

I also need corn syrup to thin out the black frosting. What the heck!

I wonder if it's too late to just buy a damn Elmo cake.

But I feel as though I am on a mission and need to do it.

I just sorted my laundry loads by fuzzy and not fuzzy.

When we were in the Dominican Republic in August, I had packed a cute little blue silk bag with a flower on it with my earrings.

The cute little blue silk bag with a flower on it never made it home to Rhode Island.

I am so bummed about it still, I am still convinced whenever I pull out a suitcase or a travel bag that the cute little blue silk bag with a flower on it is going to pop up again.

I need to pray to St Anthony for it to materialize once again. Even now, I am convinced that it will.

I have avoided buying new earrings because a.) it had all my cutest ones in there and b.) it is going to show up and c.) it took me a long time to accumulate such a good collection of sterling silver earrings. I don't buy anything super expensive yet, but I do like them to at least be sterling silver.

Tonight I have decided I can't take it any longer and need to replace them.

Well, hellooooo Etsy.com!

I need to take it slow, but my first search of "sterling silver earrings" had me purchasing immediately. "rainy skies fall earrings - sky blue and silver polka dot glass hangs off handmade Argentium sterling silver earwires."

Sky blue and silver polka dots!

Of course I must have those.

And I place the order and I receive this email minutes lter.

Thank you for your purchase. I will create your earrings tomorrow and
ship them out on Thurs. You should receive them early to mid next
week. I hope you enjoy your new earrings and have a wonderfully warm
and cozy winter.

She's creating them!!! For me! Wheeeeee! How special and exciting is that!

C'mon post officer, bring me my mail!!! I cannot wait.

I create my own recipes.

And then I never make the recipe again, because I forget what was in it, or even that the dish existed.

Tonight I made this butternut squash soup and I'm writing it down so I can make it again.

Butternut Squash Soup

ingredients (you can make up your own depending on what's around, that's what I do):
green onions, olive oil, beef broth, a yellow pepper and a red pepper (the vegetable, not the spice), potatoes, kosher salt, whole milk, bacon

Chop up the green onions thrown into a big pot with some olive oil

throw in the chopped up butternut squash and some beef broth, bring that to a boil and let it simmer until the squash gets soft.

Mush that all up together, in the blender or use a mixer. Have your 4-year-old son help you, it's good for kids to learn how to be creative in the kitchen. Put it back to simmer. Add some whole milk to make it creamy.

In the meantime, you have chopped up some vegetables. Your 4-year-old son helped chop the yellow peppers and surprised you at what a great job he did!

Take the chopped up yellow pepper and a red chopped up pepper and some chopped up onions and some peeled chopped up potato and put those into a baking dish with olive oil and kosher salt and roast those veggies for about 45 minutes.

Take the leftover chicken from that you created for the salad with chicken the other day and chop that up and ask your 4-year-old son if you should put it in with the simmering broth or with the roasting veggies. Listen to his advice and put it in with the soup.

Take the veggies and add them to the simmering broth.

That's it.

Oh! I almost forgot a very yummy part!

Put some bacon onto a plate and cook it in the microwave for a long time, until it's crispy. Throw the bacon grease out, crumble or cut up the bacon and add it to the top of the soup once it's in the bowls. Mmmmm mmm!

So easy, good for you, and simply delicious!

Does anyone really use the dry french onion soup mix to make soup with? The kind that you mix with sour cream for dip?

Just saying.

Silver earrings with purple hand felted beads.

Fuzzy, purple balls on earrings.

Oh my.

I can't believe I didn't think of this until right now.

Rainy days. Jazz.

Grooveshark + Miles Davis = just what is needed right now.

Nothing like a yoga class taught with that Rhode Island accent.

Dear Potato Chips,

Why do you have to be so delicious and tasty and so bad for me? Why oh why?

I'm not so sure my new skinny jeans make me feel skinny.

I still need to unpack the rest of my suitcase from Florida. I am in denial that it was so cold, I'm think I am pretending that it didn't happen yet.

Does it even it out if I eat potato chips right after I eat a piece of celery?

Darn. Probably not.

Hello Etsy! So nice to see you again...

Am I addicted?

Maybe.

Here's the description of my latest purchase.

It makes me want to be a sterling silver earring artist.

I twisted and I curled and I coiled 18ga sterling silver wire to create these very organic hoops. They are THE perfect everyday earrings. I wear my small curled hoops all the time and get so many compliments for them.

Haven't received any of my orders yet...waiting patiently. As usual.

Got my first Etsy earrings today. Super cute and they make me happy.

I'm thinking of a cuter name for them than rainy skies, that sounds too drab for these little delights. Drab with cool colors, but still.

Silver dots in the sky? Happy Gray Day? Circles of rain? Dropping dots? Hmmm.

I really want to see a silversmith in action.

I find it amazing what a difference in the day it can make waking up to a clean kitchen.
And entire house, for that matter. Although I would have no idea about the latter.