Waiting....

The anticipation of the snow storm that is bearing down on New England is nerve racking! The schools were all cut to a half day last night. Everything has been canceled or postponed for this afternoon and tonight. I went to the grocery store and bought food like I might not get back there for a month! I have enough baking goods to open my own bakery and sustain it for 3 weeks! My kids are practicing their sledding moves on their new sled in my office.

But as of 1:20, we haven't seen a flake.

Now DH and I have a bet going as to how much snow is going to fall. I say 6 inches, he says a foot. Doesn't really matter, because I will be the one shoveling it. Maybe we should say winner gets to sit on the couch?!

My Email Box is Full!

The first thing I do in the morning is turn on my computer and check my inbox. I am not sure how many people would even send me something between 10pm and 6am, but you never know. Well, this week my email home page has been popping up with 12-15 new emails every morning! That makes me happy! Then I go into my email box and none of them are from a real person.

They are from every website that sells something I. Need. To. Have.

And the emails are getting more frantic. "One day left of free shipping!" "Don't miss out on the last day of 25% off site wide!" "Last pre-Christmas sale, MUST ship today!"

OK, I am a very good shopper and have avoided the mall for the last few weeks for the sole reason that all those last minute shoppers STRESS ME OUT!

Now my beloved email inbox is stressing me out! It is making me go over my lists in my head every day wondering if I have missed someone or something! What if I order something and it doesn't get here by Christmas? Oh the horror.

It's OK. I will survive these last minute holiday deals. I just have to hold on long enough for the even better AFTER Christmas deals.

Then I can start shopping for next Christmas!

More Christmas Fun

Had to include the live video from the Santa escapades.....

Dashing Thru the Kitchen?

I stated my expectations early yesterday, hoping that "Santa's watching, you need to help me clean up around here" would be enough. HaHa. All I had to do was mention Santa and the girls decided to reenact the big night complete with Santa, sleigh and 2 reindeer. 

This is what they said to me, "Get your camera ready. This will be great for your blog." 

This whole thing went on for over an hour, it was quite involved. In this first picture, you see the back of Santa's sleigh with lots of gifts. Please notice Melisa, they put in a tiara just for you!

Next, we have Santa B trying to help the lead reindeer K convince reindeer G that this was going to be great. Santa can't move much due to his overstuffed belly. He kept demanding cookies and milk every 5 minutes!
Reindeer G took a break from the action as Santa and his reindeer trot off through the kitchen. Notice DH in the background with coffee. It was a very long day for him. Hear the pity dripping sarcastically from my words? You have to read previous post to completely understand.
After an epic turn around in the hallway, it was back into the family room. (There you will see DH on the couch, where he spent a good portion of his day saying, "Never again...")
And here we have the team complete with all the kinks out of the system and ready to ride on the 24th. 
HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!

Oh, What a Day!

It's no wonder I have no time to blog these days. I think of posts in my head throughout the day, but they go as fast as they come. Yesterday is the perfect example of how a typical day has been of late.

I went with the 4th grade to the Museum of Science in Boston. You may have heard on the news about all the rain, ice and snow New England was getting yesterday? That meant nothing to us hardy New Englanders (or 'living in a bubble' Cape Codders), we perservered and went anyway. It was pouring buckets when we left (and had been for the past 3 weeks, I mean 2 days). It took us almost 3 hours to get to Boston on a typical 1 1/2-2hr trip. Let me simplify that for you

yellow school bus + 30 kids + 7 chaperones + lots of rain = 4 advil

If it had been any longer, I think the kids would have had to relieve themselves in their water bottles.

I hadn't been to the Museum in ages! They had some really cool things in there! Amazing, right? We saw an Omni theater presentation on Coral Reefs (very cool) and an electricity show and as many of the exhibits as we could fit in. B got a little friendly with a not so friendly dino.

The skyline from the museum of the city was beautiful albeit wet.

The kids were great and we all had a lot of fun. Then we hopped back on the school bus for the 1 hour and 45 minute ride home. We thought HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA that the kids would be whipped from the day. 

NOPE.

For the last 1/2 hour the front of the bus (read girls) started singing Christmas carols which would have been lovely except the back of the bus (boys) wanted nothing to do with them. Or actually the boys wanted to recreate their own songs like Jingle Bells, Batman smells etc and they tried to get a rousing rendition of We Will Rock You going. Yup, the girls kept singing the nice Christmas Carols throughout all of this. Guess who was sitting in the middle of the bus, knitting her second scarf of the day? Yeah, me. So

yellow school bus + singing kids = 4 advil and a bottle of wine

Wouldn't it have been lovely to come home at almost 5 to a husband and daughter who had done some household chores instead of riding their horses in the mud for 2 hours? Yeah, it would have. Instead, I put in dinner, folded 2 loads of laundry, did more laundry, did the dishes from the day before, caught up my MIL and mom on the day and averted a fight between 2 tired girls. 

Then I went to a Christmas party. This feat included 6 different outfits, standing on the toilet to look in the mirror, thinking to myself that I probably shouldn't have put back 6 pork chops for dinner (no I didn't!, but felt like I had) and applying makeup to hide the circles under my eyes. We drop the girls off at my parents because I knew I only had an hour or so in me and arrive at the party.

Walk in, hello to the hosts, hug my friend Faith and realize that my dress is on backwards (yeah, that's right), run into the bathroom and switch it, go straight to the bar, talk to a bunch of people that turned to yelling because there were a lot of people and I couldn't hear myself or anyone else for that matter, watch my husband do shots of Jagermeister with his brother, said "Goodnight, find your own ride home" and left. 

Yes, I am a movie star and I made a cameo appearance at that party.

Picked up 2 extremely tired girls, came home, put them to bed, looked at the mail and found the best little package from Melisa that included some very creative and beautiful cards complete with initial and a tiara!!!!

Totally made my day and I went to bed with a smile on my face thinking of my friend that I have not even met in person(yet), but know so much about!

My smile lasted until about 2am when I heard DH stumble in...

today could be another long day! 

To the Ortho's

Yesterday was the first day the girls were going for a braces tightening together. B hadn't had hers tightened yet and K was an old pro. The conversation in the car went something like this....

k, "Are you farting yet?" (she has lots'o gas when she gets nervous!)

b, "Yes, I have been for awhile. I will really need to go when we get about 10 minutes away."

k, "It's not that bad. As long as you get Kim or the new lady."

b, "What if I don't get them?"

k, "They're the nicest. Hopefully Dr. N won't yell at you like he yells at me."

b, "I am good at brushing my teeth. My gums aren't swollen like yours. Just to make sure, I'll have some water to cool them down."

k, "I brush right, but my gums are genetically puffy." (That's questionable!)

b, "I think I am going to hurl. Remember the time I threw up on Kara?"

k, "Whenever Dr. N yells at me I zone him out and think about the cute boy at school I like. Today, my friend threw my hat right in front of him so he would have to give it back to me."

b, "Did he pick it up?"

k, "No, he didn't see it. I was so embarrassed!"

Lots of giggling.

OK, it sounded funnier in the car and I couldn't write down all the good stuff while driving. Plus they would have said, "Are you writing that for your blog?!" Both wound up having puffy gums and the Dr must have been in a bad mood because usually he calls me sweetheart. I got my 100th explanation of how to brush their teeth which I smiled and nodded to, all the while thinking of how WW3 would ensue if I even tried to brush K's teeth. Even mentioning brushing sends her over the edge.

The good news is that we had cupcakes from the absolute best cupcake store ever (yes, after the dentist)! I had a cupcake called "hostess with the mostest" and it was 4000 times better than a Hostess cupcake (which I happen to love). B had a chocolate chip one and K had vanilla/vanilla. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. Good thing I live a good 45 minutes away from there!

Sunny, Warm Spots

This post brought to you by "she who rules the roost" (otherwise known as Gretel).

We set the tree up the other day, put on decorations yesterday and today I got around to sweeping up the needles. After sweeping, I put down the tree skirt that one of DH's relatives made us for our wedding. Gretel has been pretty much ignoring the tree, even though it is in the middle of the kitchen. Until, that is,  I put the comfy tree skirt down. Not 2 minutes later, this is where I found her....

Actually a nice sunny spot with a clean blankie sounds pretty good to me about now, too!

An Oldie, but Goodie

Since no one knew who I was in blog world back in February and I wrote the most fantastic post about communion Sunday and we had communion Sunday again today and similar things were said by B; I thought I would write this run on sentence and offer this post up to you again.

Read it here.

The Doghouse

I tried to get this to come up as direct video feed, but maybe you will have to click on it or copy and paste into your browser. Rebecca over at Seaside Designs (who make the most beautiful seaside products you will ever see!) sent me this. It is a good reminder before the holidays! Enjoy!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid3130509001

Disney Vacation: Magic Kingdom!

The MK is our favorite park. So favorite that I almost cried when I stepped into the park. It's just THE happiest place on earth. The best was that it was decked out for Christmas which made it extra fun. I could have put in 100 or so pictures, but I picked some out and put them in a video. We went to Mickey's Magical Christmas too, which required another pass, but kept us in the park for free hot chocolate and cookies, Christmas shows, the lighting of Cinderella's castle, a parade down Main Street with SNOW and awesome fireworks! Phew, I am exhausted reliving it! Check it out!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Birthday, B!

How did my youngest get to be 10? I am the mother of two tweens! Oy!


Dear Buggy,
I am so proud of so many things about you. Number one, you understand my sarcastic sense of humor. I really appreciate you laughing at stuff that comes out of my mouth. You have a love of learning and will work and work to figure out a problem, a new skill or just to get information. You are a good friend to others and you have a lot of nice friends.

I love listening to you and K play. Whether you are playing at the beach, making up a new dance or playing dollhouse etc.. I love listening to your laughter and your imaginations.

Mostly, I love your joyful spirit. I think you came out of me singing and, lucky for me, you haven't stopped. I love that you sing when you wake up, I love that you sing in the shower and I love that you sing everywhere in between.

You are the snuggliest snuggler I know! Have a super, excellent, fantabulous year being 10! I love you so much,
Mommy

PS, I knew you would like this colorful!

Magic Kingdom update tomorrow, for those of you living vicariously through my vacation!

Disney Vacation: Hollywood Studios/Downtown Disney

One morning we went to downtown Disney because that is practically a park in itself! There are of course the shops, but there is plenty to see and do as well. The lego store is absolutely amazing and there are many lifesize lego structures outside of the store as well! You can also fill up a bucket of any color/size legos that you want. This is where we get a majority of our pink and orange legos!
A toy filled Christmas tree.

Watch out honey! A lego sea monster is about to get you!

K and Thumper with their new family.

Call me, ok?

Hollywood Studios is a park where I could happily hang out all day. There is always something going on in the street whether it be a pretend movie scene, comedian, show, etc... The rides are more like shows, so sometimes the younger kids get annoyed with that. We did go on a fun back lot tour that had a fake dam break. For those of you confused, Hollywood Studios used to be called MGM. That took me awhile to get the name change. Oh and if you like crazy rollercoasters, you would probably like the Rock and Roll-er coaster, but none of us were brave enough!
How does Disney do stuff like this?

DH and K went on this and wished that they hadn't!!!!

3d glasses are so hip.

And cute!

Loved this live show out on the plaza! The only thing missing was my heart throb, Zac Efron.

Were we at Disney or in NYC?

I almost squealed with delight when I saw this huge wall of M&Ms!

Hey Zac, if you are out there, and you feel like doing HSM4, we're your girls!

Disney Vacation: Animal Kingdom

OK, back to vacation. We will have been home one week tomorrow and I feel as if we went away 4 months ago. Thanksgiving was great, shopping at 5:15 Friday morning was great, my nap yesterday afternoon was great.....

Some people diss the Animal Kingdom because they don't think there is enough to do there or enough rides or something. We happen to love it! B is really into animals, especially giraffes, and DH and K love scary rides and Everest is one of the scariest of them all! My tip for AK is to get there right when it opens and ride the jungle safari ride. That is when you will see most of the animals because they have just been fed. Everest is the new ride at the park and it is roller coaster scary. I don't do rollercoasters. One night we ate at the AK Lodge which was beautiful and I guess during the day when it is not pitch black out you can see animals from all the windows!

A baby giraffe..
A baby elephant..
A large gorilla. Their fur turns gray at about 12 years of age. Tough to get old.
A magestic tiger.
B and a giraffe head. (So it was a little cold the morning we went!)
The tree of life that has hundreds of animals carved into it.
Why did Tinkerbelle land on Tiggers foot?
Because she didn't want to step on Pooh!
This was freaky tree lady. She was dressed like a tree/vine thing and was wrapping herself around this pole. Do you think they picked her out of a strip bar for her excellent pole work?
Rain ponchos a must for the white water rafting ride!!!
Everest in the background.
K with a friend from the petting zoo.

2 more parks to go. Nothing like dragging my vacation out for you!

Happy Turkey Day!

Before I roll into bed (literally- I ate way too much!), I just wanted to wish my friends and family Happy Thanksgiving! We had a great day and remembered that there was much to be thankful for in our lives.

Tomorrow it's off to help support "black Friday"! I LOVE bargains!!!!!!!!

Disney Vacation: Epcot

OK, so I have been back since Sunday night, but re-entry into the real world has thrown me. Our vacation was great! The weather in Florida was lovely for a hearty New Englander....mid 60's during the day, mid 40's at night. Not quite tank top weather, but my cheeks got color nonetheless. I wasn't sure how to post about the trip and include some of the 500 pictures I took, but I think I will go park by park....

We start with Epcot. Epcot is like 2 parks in one. There is a cool futuristic, learning side and the countries side. We did one half the afternoon we got there and the other half one afternoon after doing the Downtown Disney requisite shopping.

The parks were decked for Christmas....

Everyone has to have a photo (or 50) of the "ball". This ball actually has a really cool ride inside of it.B and I visited with Chip and Dale while DH and K were on Test Trak and almost throwing up on Mission to Mars.
Didn't take DH long to get into the vacation spirit. This is so out of character for DH that I thought the girls were going to wet their pants laughing! (Johnie Depp's Pirates of the Caribean hat, complete with hair).

I could return to France without traveling over the ocean. It is amazing how Disney pays attention to detail!
The Eiffel Tower, next to the Seine.
There are always street shows in Epcot. I have no idea how this guy kept catching bowls on his head.Can you guess? Yup, England with it's token red phone booths. (Of course having never seen a phone booth, the girls thought this was pretty cool.)
And yes, we did rent a wheelchair for the broken footed one. It did score us some line cutting, but only about 1/2 the time. Some times the wheel chair people had to wait in the wheel chair line. K did enjoy us moaning about our feet at the end of the day, though. Nice kid!

I missed you guys and will work hard at catching up, between laundry and baking, cooking and the family thing for Thanksgiving. Stay tuned!

Disney or Bust

Twas the day before departure,

And all through the house,

Bags, clothing, cameras

Excitement to see THE MOUSE.

The washer was going, the vacuum too,

A pile of homework to bring with, EWWW!

The children were jumping and bouncing off the wall,

"Where are my mouse ears, where is my shawl?"

While I stress about shoes and weather to come,

My husband relaxes and sits on his bum.

The dog is all clean and ready for doggie daycare,

Will she behave, will she eat, how will she fare?

Just one more day of school and activities after,

Then it's off on a plane to the land of much laughter.

As the temps drop here, I will get the 'to do list' done,

I will run here and there, to get to the land of the sun.

If I were Trump I would have hired a jet for you all,

With all of us there, we would have had a ball!

This trip, however, is just for us four,

Stay tuned, sit tight, I'll have stories galore!

The Mall, It's November, right?

Crazy Cape Cod Mall. When I popped in to go to Barnes and Noble last week, I noticed the Christmas decorations. 

Yesterday, after having my "girls" (and I mean the ones connected to me) aggressively manhandled by the mammography technician, I went to the mall. I went to look for birthday presents for B, my nephew and ideas for Christmas. And of course a little something for me to celebrate my squeezed boobies.

What I wasn't expecting to find was Santa and Christmas music playing in every store. Santa gave me a big wave, which was nice. He hasn't forgotten me or all the letters I have written to him over the years, but what was he doing so far away from home base before Thanksgiving? Call me old fashion, but I seriously don't think Santa should be at the mall until black Friday. The guy has a very busy month of December promoting Christmas. Can the elves be trusted to make all the toys in time? And who is checking "the list" twice? How is Mrs. Claus getting the turkey and it's fixins ready without the big guy? (Oh, wait a minute, women across the world manage quite well getting Thanksgiving dinner together without help from a big guy even when they are in the same room.)

I don't know if Santa or the Angels had anything to do with this, but I was wondering aimlessly around Macy's, actually looking for a dress for B that wouldn't make her look like a 9 year old Britney Spears, when I saw it. A very long, double sided rack of clothes, all sized correctly, separated by style and color with heavenly lights above it. The sign said, $9.99. with another 20% off. Seriously, I looked around to see if someone was videotaping me. There were beautiful things on this rack, that had never been marked down. I took 3 items over to the scanner because this was too good to be true, right? Nope, they all came up $9.99. 

It was a Christmas miracle.

Maybe it was a good thing Santa was in the mall yesterday.

Please know I joke about mammograms, but have had them since I was 29. They are very important for women's health and if you are 35 and haven't had one yet, go see what you are missing! The new digital ones are not as bad as the old fashioned cave man ones.

My Dream Date

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Disney

In a week we are headed to the Magical World of Disney!!!!

Are we excited? Yeah, just a little!!!!!

We have been to the 'world' a few times (OK, the girls have gone like 4 times already). We haven't been in 3 years though, so we are psyched!

Of course, for kicks, we have a kid with a broken foot this time, but we will not let her pain slow us down! Actually, her foot is doing pretty well and she only needs the boot for another month or so. We will be hooking up with a wheelchair or stroller for when she(or hubs-yeah right) gets tired.

So my question to my bloggy friends is "What is your greatest Disney tip?" Bring them on, I have a few myself, but would like to hear yours. We are staying at the Carribean Beach Resort on Disney property.

M-I-C K-E-Y Why? Because we love you! M-O-U-S-E!!!!!

Fall

This is the reason people don't come to Cape Cod to view the foliage.

Could my yard BE any more BROWN!!!???

Looked who popped into my picture taking frenzy this morning without being asked.....

Um, does someone need a little attention?

Good news

Amazing. 

Last night was simply amazing. No matter who you were voting for, yesterday was a day to remember. My sister in law and I worked a bake sale to support the school's jumprope team at the polling booth. It was absolutely amazing to see the amount of people that turned out to vote. Young and old, healthy and not so, men and women, every color and every size. The lines were out the door of the polling spot. Never before had I seen anything like it. It was inspiring! And then to have an African American win the presidency was just unbelievable. I kept wondering if Martin Luther King Jr. was jumping for joy in heaven.

Then came this morning when K woke up and her foot still hurt from stepping out of the car yesterday afternoon and hearing something "pop". Nothing swelled last night, nothing bruised, but she couldn't put weight on it. This morning, I didn't want to fool around and took her to the ER for xrays. Of course, this meant B came with us because she is pre-med in 4th grade. Her goal in life is to break something so she can get xrays and a cast. This was second best. 

We were there for 2 1/2 hours. K did have a small crack in her metatarsal bone. She did wind up getting crutches and a boot and an appt. with an orthopedic. The amazing thing was watching the ER staff and what they go through in a typical day.

These are ordinary people doing an extraordinary job. Ambulances came in every 15 minutes or so, one person had to be med flighted to Boston, many people had xrays. One older woman was dressed all up and had a broken wrist from a fall, but was joking with the EMTs. My girls learned that there is a special charcoal mixture that people have to drink when they take a lot of drugs and won't tell the staff what they were. We saw one man who had come in because he had been found on the sidewalk. One very older woman had an oxygen mask on. Then there was the code blue that came in with staff doing cpr on him to try to save his life. Unfortunately, despite their valiant efforts, this man lost his battle. I heard them time his death and saw the body bag. The girls did not know he didn't make it. They were busy praying for him and looking in the opposite direction so they couldn't see what I could see. 

We were in the hallway, because we were not an emergency and were just waiting to have K's xrays read. That is how we were in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the ER. 

It certainly made me give thanks for our simple problem and the energy and efforts of these ER people just "doing their job". 

Simply amazing.

Get Out And

Halloween

I know, you have all had enough with the Halloween thing. I know I have. I am happy to have enough candy now though to get me to Thanksgiving. Just wanted to share a few pictures from the night.
Please pardon the horrid lighting on this picture. B was a witch, not a mean witch, but a fashionable witch. K was dressed as her cousin C and earlier in the day, C was dressed as K. She had his tilt of the head and look down so well that her friends thought she was him! Until he showed up in pink pants!
Had to stop by Auntie KK's and Uncle Squishy's house, too!

I have to get my intravenous of candy hooked back up. Tootles!