Frag'n Friday

Friday already? No! That means that school vacation week is almost over and I am not ready for that. I am sure the girls would second (and third) that, too.

*I am not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions because they never seem to last beyond the 3rd week of January. I can handle goals though, so my goal for the new year is to get "it" together and concentrate on my blog and the blogs around me more. Now I just have to figure out what "it" is and how exactly to get "it" together....

*We recently went and checked out the Boston Aquarium and Quincy Market (aka Fanueil Hall). It was a very fun day doing something completely different. However, we were all a little disappointed in the Aquarium. It should have cost about $24 a person, but we used the passes from our library so it only cost $8 a person. Thank goodness, because we would have been really disappointed to spend so much money otherwise!

*I call my girls "bunnies" (don't let that get out, OK?) and for Christmas they got me the cutest necklace with a Mom bunny and 2 baby bunnies from Red Envelope. Check it out here. I love that catalog!

*Speaking of catalogs, because I have moved a few times in the past year, my catalogs have not caught up with me. HOWEVER, my email inbox has been inundated with "catalogs" for the past month. I will admit it.... I had over 700 unopened emails sitting in my box this morning! I erased about 250 so far... I think I can, I think I can.... It would be nice to start the new year with nothing in my inbox.....

*My friend (and boss), Lisa Genova, has her second book release on January 4th! It is called Left Neglected and will be the feature book at all Borders Bookstores in January!!! Her first book was Still Alice. Both are amazing!!!!

*If you are in Chatham at 3 today, you can come see the Lightfoots perform their jump rope skills as part of the First Night celebrations at the Community Center!

*HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

Sundays in My City

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day scenes...

Happy Sunday!

Frag'n Friday

Wanted to sneak in a quick Friday Fragments before all hell breaks loose, I mean the celebrating begins!




*I can't even describe the last few months, but it is evident that they were crazy busy by my lack of posting.
Sorry about that faithful fans.

*I would like to publicly thank my Secret Santa (done thru Georgie's blog, Decisionally Challenged). MegRyansMom sent me the most wonderful package of Christmas goodies featuring pink snowmen and Christmas M&Ms. You know the way to my heart <3 .

*My email inbox is littered with last minute sales, however I did get the first "after Christmas sale" today from Olympia Sports. Yup, you heard it here first. There will be a big sale there Dec 26th. This means if you are not done with your shopping today, you may as well give the person a rain check and tell them you will bring it to them on the 26th after you hit the major sales.

*We had our first big snow of the season earlier this week which allowed us to make our first snowman!

*Oh, and Unknown Mami won the Hallmark card promotion. That is the second thing she has won on my blog. I think she has some magical powers!

*Please enjoy your Christmas time with your family and friends! I am truly grateful to have you all in my life (whether real or blogworld)! xoxo

Sundays in My City

I do not often get to see my brother and soon to be sister-in-law's house around Christmas time, but I did this week. It was so cute and cozy!

This is the collection of Eskimo ornaments from Hallmark that my Mom collected for years and gave to Tommy. I love that they hung them on their own little tree.

Evidently the storm troopers have something to do with their Christmas card. Jenn told me Tommy almost burned the tree down by trying to light sparklers with them or something like that.

Tommy loves legos.... nuff said.

Maybe there are some of you out there that haven't gotten around to ordering your holiday cards yet, so I am here to help. Hallmark has offered you all 30% off holiday cards at Hallmark.com with the code BLOGHER30. Also, I am giving away $40 worth of holiday cards to one lucky commenter. Just leave me a comment and I will pick a name on Tuesday. I do not think that they have to be Christmas cards, so don't worry if you have already sent yours out!

Happy Sunday!

HoHoHo

Thanks to Georgie and her joy for Christmas, I am part of a Secret Santa Blog swap for the 2nd year. Georgie has an inumerable amount of patience for crazy bloggers trying to get just the right gift out to their recipients (on time!).

My blog person lives in one of those middle of the country states that I don't know a lot about. Her life is pretty opposite of mine in the fact that she
has boys, I have girls,
she hunts, guns scare me to death
she scrapbooks, I wish I scrapbooked

but....
we both blog,
we both are proud moms,
we both love chocolate and
we both love Target

so it actually wasn't too hard to shop for her.

I sent her some scrapbooking pens, a $10 gc to Target, some camo duct tape, a Cape Cod ornament, a starfish shaped soap (made by a friend of mine), and I copied her the Glee Christmas CD off of my itunes account. Of course, I added some chocolate and candy canes, just to make things festive.

So my secret blog friend, expect your package by the end of the week. I tried to mail it yesterday, but everytime I went to the PO, everyone else in the town was trying to mail 15 packages.

Merry HoHoHo!

Sundays in My City

It has not snowed more than a few flakes on Cape Cod so far this winter. My mom, B and I stopped by Skaket Beach to say hi yesterday and this is what we saw. It was like a scene out of Rudolph where Yukon Cornelious cuts the iceberg and floats away with Herbie and Rudolph.

I would love to give you the scientific reasoning behind big ice flow blocks on the beach, but I do not have one. So you will just have to enjoy an interesting part of nature!

Happy Sunday!

Bye-Bye Knot In My Back!

I didn't realize how much stress I had been under the last month or so until this morning when I lept out of bed with a skip to my step. (OK, maybe I rolled out of bed, but I did have a smile on my face).

Two Cape Cod towns have been struggling with the question of regionalizing their school systems for the past year and a half. Things really started to get heated in the past month when the regionalization study committee recommended regionalizing the two districts. Last night was a special town meeting vote.

Both sides of the question were passionate in their pleas. It is hard to envision your small town joining forces with a town that was at one time your arch rival. However, the reality of Cape Cod is that it is becoming smaller. It is expensive to live in other people's summer paradise. There are no big corporations on Cape Cod, so most year rounders are teachers, landscapers, fishermen/women, Realtors or retail/restaurant workers. Winters can be bleak financially and environmentally. That being said, Cape Cod is a great place to raise a family. It is nice to live in a community where you bump into someone you know in the grocery store every other aisle, not every other visit. How many people can say that they live in the same town as their parents, sister/brother in law, in laws, brother/sister in law and your sister's in laws?

So the vote on regionalization became personal. I dreaded going to the dump or the grocery store because inevitably I was going to run into someone who was going to bring up regionalization. I accept the fact that I am an elected official myself and it is my job to listen to the people of the town, but when people start sending you hate mail, you begin to wonder what you got yourself into.

The vote was closer in one town than the other which was expected. The Patriots helped us out by creaming the Jets, so when the score was broadcast at the meeting every touch down, I think, more people felt OK to be exercising their right to vote instead of wondering how the vote would turn out while they were sitting on their couch watching the game.

The goal now is to move together as one system and do whatever we can to give our children the best education possible. There are endless opportunities for these children and I am excited to watch my girls be a part of this change. There will be bumps along the way, but as long as we keep the goal of giving the students the best education and extra curricular choices, this new district will succeed!

And maybe now I can concentrate on my Christmas shopping....


Please do not take my italicized sarcastic comments as not caring, for I did and do care exponentially. For you new comers, I like to add humor (sarcastic or otherwise) to everything. 

Frag'n Friday

Fridays are days for fragments. With all the road construction beeping going on outside my house (still!), I am not sure it is possible for me to have a complete thought.

*Thank you for all the birthday wishes for B yesterday! She had a great, albeit busy, day! And the partying continues through the weekend.

*My niece is adorable.

Just sayin'.

*This is the first week I babysat little dude (3) AND his 3 month old sister. Yes, I was tired by the time I left yesterday. Thank goodness I have Fridays off!

*Thanksgiving was delicious and it was fun to be around the family! Even my Uncle Dick came and spent the night! (Hi Uncle Dick! B was excited to get a card from you!)

*Two of the funniest lines that we have been repeating happened in Thanksgiving shows. One was from Mike and Molly when the Senegalese cook said, "You won't eat monkey brains, but you will eat stale bread from a turkey's ass?"
And the other came from Better With You when they turned the last name "Putney" into a swear. "Son of a Putney" is our new swear line now.

*The Glee Christmas CD is excellent and Lee DeWyze's (American Idol winner) first album is good, too. Lee's album took listening to a few times, but now we really like it.

*Anyone get any great Black Friday deals? I went with my friend Lisa at 5:45 am! We were back with a full car and empty stomachs by 1! It is hard to stop and eat when you are busy getting deals!

Have a great weekend!

Someone is 12 Today!

B,
You came into the world 12 years ago at 6:12 am to a beautiful sunrise.

Everyday you are like a beautiful sunrise. 

Your smile, your energy, your determination,

Your enthusiasm, your laughter,

Your eagerness to try something new,

Your compassion toward others,

Your leadership,

All like a beautiful sunrise.
Happy Birthday Sweetie! Love you millions :)

Once Upon a Time Wednesday

Once upon a time Wednesday is about things from the past. There are many stories in my head that I want to share with my girls. The trip to Ellis Island, thank you very much Liberty Mutual, this summer made me realize that I had to get these stories documented. History is extremely important and fun!  Play along if you want!

Once upon a time,  I went to the greatest elementary school. It was a K-6 school in the suburbs of Boston. This was a time when holiday parties were Christmas parties. I am pretty sure that there may have been a few Jewish kids in my school, but I couldn't tell you who they were. There was one parent every year who would come in and teach us about Hanukkah. We would sing the Dreidel song, play the Dreidel game and learn what the markings on each side of the dreidel meant. There was more than one jealous kid thinking that getting presents for 8 days sounded better than getting presents on one day.

The best thing of all though...... the potato latkes.

I can still smell them if I think back to the halls of my elementary school. We would cook them in the classroom in one of those plug in pans. Then we would eat them with apple sauce. They were absolutely delicious!

Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends! And if you want to swing by with some potato latkes, I will supply the applesauce and sing you the dreidel song!

Black Friday

Black Friday is like a fun game for me. I love, love, love getting a bargain! Last year I wrote down these tips for Black Friday shopping

Here are some suggestions for Black Friday shopping:
1. Do your research. I scoured the ads yesterday and wrote down what I wanted to get in each store, what time they opened and clipped any coupons needed.
2. Set out your outfit the night before, so you can hop out of bed and right into it. Don't forget your socks (I did). And don't dress too warm, malls are hotttttttt!
3. If you have a few stores to get to, do not browse in the beginning stores. Get what you need and get out. If you have time and money left over, then you can relax and browse.
4. I stay away from Best Buy. The people mental for the 4 $300 computers in the store scare me.
5. Smile. It really freaks some people out how you can be so happy at 6am.


Do you see number 4 where I state that I stay away from Best Buy because the people scare me? Case in point, some family in Florida started camping out in front of the store yesterday (that would be Monday people)!! They don't even know what is on sale yet, but they know it is going to be good and they want to be FIRST!

Will they fire up the grill and have grilled turkey on Thursday? Will they eat and drink too much and lose their gaming skills and give up their first in line spot? Will they be too sore from camping out on the sidewalk to get up Friday morning to stumble into Best Buy? Will someone steal their camping stuff while they are in Best Buy? I seriously hope the news people grab these people on their way out of the store to see what they bought.

If anyone knows these people in Florida, could you tell them I need a new fridge? Thanks.

Once Upon a Time Wednesday

Once upon a time Wednesday is about things from the past. There are many stories in my head that I want to share with my girls. The trip to Ellis Island, thank you very much Liberty Mutual, this summer made me realize that I had to get these stories documented. History is extremely important and fun!  Play along if you want!

Once upon a time my family, friends and I went to a royal wedding. That's right. We did. Well OK, we watched the wedding of Princess Charles and Princess Diana on TV, but we made a party out of it. We had to get up really early and get all dolled up to "attend" the wedding. We had tea and crumpets and watched the wedding as if we were there.

I remember thinking how young and slightly overwhelmed Diana appeared and how "old" Charles looked. Of course, this began my obsession with Diana. I am sure she would be very proud of William and Harry.

And now I get to share the joy of  a royal wedding with my girls! They are about the same age that I was when I watched Charles and Di. I have to start getting some crumpet recipes and finding my fine china. It has to be a smashing party!

Just a little favor, William and Kate.... could you please not have your wedding on June 11th? I am already attending the somewhat less royal, but equally important wedding of my brother and his fiance.
Great, thanks.

Sundays in My City

Thanks to unknownmami, we can share our shots of the week on Sundays! This week, the girls and I left the Cape for few days and headed to Ogunquit, ME. The surf was rough, to say the least. Click on the last picture, B had me put a little Thanksgiving treat in it for you.

Sunday Suppah: Not for the Weak Minded

I love the game Scrabble. I used to play it with my Grandmother as a kid and she would whoop my ass. The girls and I actually have a pink board and have fun playing together.

I have decided that Sunday Suppers are very similar to Scrabble. My mom, dad, sister, brother in law, baby R and the girls and I get together for dinner most every Sunday night. Sometimes other people are added in, but we are the core group.

The conversation is not for the weak and by the end of dinner, my dad (I think happily) escapes to do the dishes, Dave wanders over to the couch and even K will leave the table due to homework (or facebook). In Scrabble, you add words to other words that only have a letter in common. At dinner, the conversation flies in many different directions with only a thought or word in common.

I will give you an example, although this is not totally accurate, because no one can remember the entire conversation unless they transcribe it off of a tape recorder.

"The baby has been fussy and not sleeping like she should. I am sure it is because I went to Boston last night."
"Yeah, how was the movie? And Tommy and Jenn?"
"Movie was good, we didn't win any of the giveaways. Jenn is not coming for Thanksgiving."
"Oh that's too bad. What do you want to bring to Thanksgiving dinner anyway?"
"Whenever I think of Thanksgiving, I think of Christmas and we haven't decided how we are doing presents this year."
"I got a funny bridezilla voodoo doll as a present from Amy at her party last night."
"Did you see Jeff at the party?"
"Yes I did, the meeting went for 3 1/2 hours."

One thought leads to another. Who needs crossword puzzles or Sudoku to keep the mind sharp? Just come on over for a Sunday dinner and if you can follow the conversation, your mind is OK.

Frag'n Friday

Welcome to another edition of Friday Fragments where the thoughts tumble out as quick as the raindrops falling from the sky....

*Construction is right outside my house. See?

Last night they hit a gas line. Gas has always made me uneasy especially with peoples' houses blowing up in the news. We went to sleep at my parent's house.

Of course, blowing up made me think of one of my favorite movies. Can you name the movie? Here's the quote:
"Gee, I'm real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky."

*Um and hello, I never told anyone who won the 1800FLOWERS give away. It is Janice S! Congratulations Janice and thank you to everyone that entered. When I win Megabucks some day, I will send you all flowers!

*I am pretty sure I will have a new car by the end of the day! Well a new "used" car that will seat 7. This will be huge when trucking around the jump rope team or little dude and his sisters or my girls and their friends.... Plus, I will be incognito until people realize that I have a new car!

*If anyone needs a friends and family (20%) coupon for the Christmas Tree Shop (Nov 9-16th), let me know and I will email you one.

*We had our first frost here the other night. That means that my gigantic geranium is now in the house. I really should charge it rent.

*I am loving snacking on Pretzel Crisps. They do not sponsor me, I just thought I would share my second favorite snack. (I think we all know M&Ms are my first).

*It is Melisa with One S' birthday tomorrow. Go on over and give her some bloggy birthday love.

*There has been a lot of heat lately on the Patriots' QB, Tom Brady, about his hair. His wife (Gisele) won't let him cut it. Justin Bieber has made fun of him and now he is making fun of himself. Here is a little preview of something that will air Sunday night.

*While last weekend was super busy with a swim meet and Halloween, this weekend SHOULD be a little more relaxing.... Hope you have a good one !  :)

Once Upon a Time Wednesday....

Once upon a time Wednesday is about things from the past. There are many stories in my head that I want to share with my girls. The trip to Ellis Island, thank you very much Liberty Mutual, this summer made me realize that I had to get these stories documented. History is extremely important and fun!  Play along if you want!

Once upon a time (30+ years ago), my sister was born on December 30th. 35 years ago, my Grandfather gave my sister his birthday, November 3rd, because he thought she was screwed having a birthday 5 days after Christmas. He figured 60 was old enough and didn't need to celebrate any more birthdays.

I will admit, I did not think this was fair as a kid because essentially she got to celebrate 2 birthdays. 2 cakes, presents each "birth" day, extra attention each "birth" day....

But now that I am older and way more mature, I like the reminder of my Grandfather on this, their special day. Only the immediate family celebrates this (birth)day, but it is one of the things that makes my beautiful sister unique and special.

Happy 30 something birthday, Karen and happy would have been 95th birthday, Dada!
I love you!

Election Day vs Road Construction

I have been trying to figure out a post that could combine Election day with the road construction my entire town is under this fall.

I was trying to come up with something clever.

For example, I am sick and tired of political commercials as much as I am sick and tired of a 10 ton bulldozer rumbling down the street in front of my house every morning at 7am.

Or, the pot holes we are left with in the road are as big as the lies all the candidates seem to be telling.

Or, maybe if we had a good rain, the mud slinging in the roads would be as significant as the mud slinging on tv.

Or, driving through the detours is like shuffling through the political post cards to find the significant mail.

Or, the combined hot air that the machines blow every day is equal to the hot air I hear from political rallies and press releases.

Or, the red, white and blue from the candidates is as prominent in my mind as all the yellow from the tractors, bulldozers and diggers.

But no idea on it's own seemed to be worthy of a full post.

At least I know that the election commercials, mailings and signs will be done with today(until next year). The road construction? Well I also know when that will be done: the week before Memorial Day when the tourists come back to town.

Sundays in My City

Because everyone is so busy with Halloween today,  I thought I would just put up one picture of my 2 month old neice in her Halloween outfit (Daddy's a fisherman).

Here's to lots of candy!!!!
(Oh and her Grandpa took the picture, I can't take any credit!)

Frag'n Friday

Thank you Mrs. 4444s for giving us Fridays to unwind, decompress and unload!

*As I am writing this, 2 men are inspecting my house, attic and basement. They are doing an energy survey to try and save me some money. This is a FREE thing and you could get up to $2000 back on work you have done on your house to help you be more energy efficient. Wow! A company giving money away, what a concept!

*It has been quite a week. I put 600 miles on my car, just running the girls around. I was happy to bring my car to the shop today to put on 2 new tires so I had an excuse to stay home!

*What Scrooge is to Christmas, I am to Halloween. Bah Humbug.

*Last day to get your name in for the 1800FLOWERS GC is Sunday!

*Anyone know of any good books that I can read to get my Masters in Teenager? I have my masters in Early Childhood Ed which has allowed me to fair quite nicely in the younger years. Now, however, I am at a loss.

*K went to a great bday party last weekend for her friend turning 14. The girls had to get dressed up for a nice dinner at the  birthday girl's house and bring up to 5 items to swap with the other girls. They had a blast! She came home with 4 new shirts and a pair of shoes! This is how she looked going to the party. Those shoes were hand me downs, too. I don't think I could stand on them, never mind walk!

*Not to be outdone by her sister, B got spiffed up for church the next morning.

*Spent a few hours at the ER the other night because K was bucked off her horse. I just love hearing about when she gets bucked off a horse. NOT. She just has a very bruised finger, but no broken bones.

*Busy weekend with Halloween parties and a swim meet! Hope you have a good one :)

Once Upon a Time Wednesday....

Once upon a time Wednesday is about things from the past. There are many stories in my head that I want to share with my girls. The trip to Ellis Island, thank you very much Liberty Mutual, this summer made me realize that I had to get these stories documented. History is extremely important and fun!  Play along if you want!

Once upon a time, when the girls were little, we would call farts, "toots". It seemed a lady like thing to call gas from your nether regions. "Toot" also put a cute spin on a smell that was nowhere similar to roses. Over time, they enjoyed the word "fart" more, probably because that is what their cooler and older boy cousins proudly called gas.

When I was little, my parents called farts "heinie-sneezes". Now, to me, my dad was very worldly because he traveled a lot for work. I assumed this was the german word for fart.* I used it freely and frequently thinking that I was so smart.

It did not occur to me until FRESHMAN YEAR IN COLLEGE what the word really meant: a sneeze from your butt. I don't know if we said it so fast that it became just one word in our house or what. I just never really thought it out. Now, I can't say it without laughing which is probably why I stuck with the word "toot" for the girls.

*Melisa, feel free to share that one with Kat :)

Shutterfly Holiday Cards

In my family, the talk of the Christmas card picture for my parents' card starts in the summer. My parents like to have all of us in the picture. We all want it done in the summer when we are tan, but either we are not all together or are too busy or this year it was because my sister had a baby in September. So it will be another picture of us at Thanksgiving looking not so tan and bundled up. Maybe it's better that we don't show too much skin.

My Christmas card is usually made of a bunch of pictures because I take so many throughout the year. It's the letter, poem, song that takes me awhile.

If you watch Better With You, (and you should, it's FUNNY) they had an episode on Christmas cards that was hysterical. They had 3 classifications of cards, "the bowl", "the fridge" and "the mantel". The best went on the mantel and the blahs went into the bowl on the table.

I know how your Christmas cards can be mantel cards! Shutterfly has some beautiful cards this year! (Well they do every year, just ask my family because we've used them.) They also have cards where a percentage goes to a  charity like LIVESTRONG, the American Lung Association and Heifer International. My favorites for this year are: Many Memories Tree, Live Love Laugh and Charming Little Trees. Now it will come down to what pictures to pick.

Shutterfly also has Hanukkah cards, New Year's Day or invitation cards and if you are really on the ball, Thanksgiving cards. The best is that you can pick a card for just one picture or if you are snap happy like me, many pictures.

What? You haven't even thought of your Christmas card yet? Well get going, Shutterfly is here to help! Check out this offer....

Do you want 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly? Click here to go to Shutterfly for information on how you can get 50 free cards this holiday season, and make sure to select Clever 1000 as the referral source.

This post is part of a series sponsored by Shutterfly. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses blog with integrity, as I do.

1-800 FLOWERS Giveaway!

As I had mentioned here, September and October are the most popular months for birthdays. 1-800 FLOWERS is a fantastic place to order flowers  for that special person in your life. I was lucky enough to be sent a birthday flower cake to review. It is just beautiful and looks almost identical to what was promised. It still looks beautiful today and I received this on the 14th! I cannot tell you how many people have walked into my house thinking that it was a real cake!
From the website:
                                   

Mine: (it did come with candles, too)

Thanks to the kind people at 1-800 FLOWERS, I am giving away a  $40 gift card so you can make yourself or someone you love deliriously happy.

You have 2 ways to enter (please make sure your email address is in the comments, so I can easily reach you).

1. Leave a comment telling me what your favorite flower arrangement from the 1-800 FLOWERS Birthday collection is.
2. Tweet about the giveaway, including a link to this post. Then leave me a comment with your tweet.


Other info: The winner must live in the US (sorry, foreign friends!). You have until the end of the day, Sunday (Oct 31st) to enter. I will be using random.org to pick the winner from all the comments. If you win, you have 3 days to respond to my email with your mailing address: if I don't hear from you, I will draw another winner.

OK, go look at all those beautiful arrangements and don't forget to follow 1-800 FLOWERS on facebook and twitter.

Sundays in My City

Yesterday, my town held it's first October-fest! Many of the stores around town entered a pumpkin person or persons into the pumpkin people contest. I have no idea which one won, but here is a sample of some of the best!

Very clever!!!