Frag'n Friday

*I love that Mrs. Obama went to Target and shopped yesterday.

*I love Target.

*I have been taking some pictures of seniors for their yearbooks this past month. I took my nephew's the other day. He wouldn't let me post any on FB when I offered, but he didn't say I couldn't put them here.

In this pic he is laughing at K showing him one of her cheers....

*K has been into planking lately. Not extreme planking or anything crazy, but planking none the less. Here are 2 of my favorites.

*3 more weddings left in wedding photography season. (Not too many weddings in the dead of winter on the Cape.) Someone said to me today that I must have plenty ideas for my own girls' weddings (which will not be for many, many years) and I said, "yes, they should elope". I think she was a little surprised at my answer, but I was kidding (a little).

*Baby R went to her second parade ever a few weekends ago. The theme of the parade was cranberries. Cranberries are big on Cape Cod in the fall. Here is a pic of our friends "float". There are real cranberries in the front and gigantic cranberries on the roof.

Not sure which R enjoyed more, the parade or the lollipop!

*Have a great weekend!

Seriously. Christmas?

Two days ago, B announced that there were 3 months until Christmas.

Yeah, let that sink in.

Last night I had a dream that I had waited to the last minute and was running around late Christmas Eve trying to buy things. Many of the stores were closing,  I really did not know what I wanted to get for everyone and I hadn't even gone to the grocery store.

Yikes, back to reality. I am actually a planner and always start my Christmas shopping way ahead of time. I love a good bargain, so if you receive something from me, you can bet that it was on sale. That's not to say that it isn't a meaningful gift, I just usually put the time into finding the perfect present and then finding the best price.

In my family, we always start talking about Christmas in the summer. OK, sometimes we start talking about it in January. We cannot seem to find a present giving solution for our family. We do not have a large family (2 parents, 3 kids, 2 spouses and 3 grandchildren). Seriously, this should not be a hard issue, but it is and has been for the last 12 or so years. Personally speaking, I would just like to get each person something meaningful. It doesn't have to be expensive and some years it will be something I make, but at least I am sharing my love with every member of my family. Some people in my family are against chatchka and do not want anything meaningful or not. Others are picky in what they like to wear. Others live in very small houses and cannot fit another thing into them. Some think that you cannot give anything "decent" for under $25 a person (aka chatchka).

So it is every year that we are pitted against one another to try to figure out how to spend the little money that we have. As I am writing this, I am seeing how pitiful this must sound to you. Soooo, let me wrap this up (get it?) by asking what your family does when it comes to Christmas or Hanukkah. Do you do presents? Do you just ignore the day? Do you take a trip instead? Would you like to invite me to your holiday celebration? I promise I will bring something and not wait until the last minute.

Driving From the Backseat

My Grandmother was once a back seat driver. And that was when she was sitting in the front seat. Turn here, turn there, you're going too fast... it never seemed to end and somehow that is not what killed my Grandfather.

I am having that experience now with a certain little 3 1/2 year old. From the backseat. Sitting high and mighty in his car seat.

"Why are you slowing down?"

"Where are we going?"

"There is no traffic. You can go."

"Now where are we going."

"Look at that cement mixer, digger, 18 wheeler, bobcat, dump truck!"

"Why are you stopping?"

"I want to go _______."

"Can I have some goldfish?"

"That looks like Poppy's truck, that looks like Matt's truck, that looks like Daddy's car....."

"Did they take the bandage off your window? Why? How?"

"Where are we going?"

"Why are you going that way?"

"Hey there's Dunkin Donuts, there's the duck pond, there's the beach...."

I have to give the kid credit because he pays more attention to things going on around him than my 14 year old.

Maybe he will be world's youngest driver's ed instructor someday. Or maybe I will just make K take him everywhere once she gets her license. He can be her personal navigation system.

To Fall or not to Fall....

My brother asked an intriguing question on his Monday question that he sends out to like 300 friends. He was rambling on about the pluses and minuses of fall/autumn and then posed the question "What is your favorite season and why?"

That got me to thinking (yes, a scary thought) and I realized that I didn't have a favorite "season". I have a favorite period of months. Let me explain...

I like mid August to the 30th of October. Not necessarily a season because it overlaps summer and fall. It also does not include Halloween because honestly that is one of my least favorite holidays. (Now that I am an adult I can have candy any time I want.)

I like this time because the Cape gets quieter, but not empty.

Cool crisp mornings and evenings with warmish days.

The leaves changing.

Wearing shorts with a fleece vest or pullover.

Picking apples.

Eating a fresh Macintosh apple.

Mums and pumpkins as decoration.

Beef stew.

Pencils, pens and paper on sale and on display everywhere. (It's a weird love, I know.)

Cleaning up the house from the hot sticky summer and organizing things.

Do you have a favorite season or do you need to split months like I do? Don't get me wrong, I love all the seasons for different reasons, but if I had to narrow it down, this made up season of "Sumall", "Mmertum", "Sufall" is my winner!

Frag'n Friday

Fragments on Tuesday, more on Friday. I guess it's been a short attention span week.

*First off, Tom Brady (New England Patriot's hot QB, as long as his hair is not in a pony tail) was quoted as telling the New England fans to lube up for Sunday's game. The spin the people at Gillette Stadium put on it was that he meant for the fans to drink lots of water. I haven't tailgated at too many football games, but I am pretty sure there is not much water consumed.

*I am very excited for season premiere week next week! Modern Family and the Middle are my 2 absolute favorites. The girls and I are bummed that "Better With You" was not picked up for another season. We still quote that show!

*So, I really should take a picture of the trees in town, but I will try to explain them to you. It's your science lesson for the day. On the Cape, Hurricane Irene was mostly wind. Therefore, the wind picked up the saltwater from the ocean and sprayed it on the south facing side of the trees (and leaves).  There was minimal rain to wash off the sea water. So, now if you drive around town, the south facing side of the trees' leaves are brown and falling off, while the north side of the trees' leaves are green. It's pretty weird.

*If your child invites 2 friends over for a sleepover around 6, don't you think said friends should be here by 8:45? I'm not sure where one is, but one is with her boyfriend of 2 months. I told K let this be a lesson to her. Do not choose your boyfriend over your girlfriends when you are 14.

*On Nate Berkus last season, I remember someone redoing a closet into their "command center". The place where the schedules, school notes, etc would be out of the way to the average visitor. So, I made one for myself today. We have a little closet that is wide enough for a tuna can, that I changed into command central today.

To the naked eye, just a closed closet door and a phone from the 70's (yes, it would work, if we had a home phone number)

Open it and ..... ta dah! Command Central! We each have our own color and our own file folder. Cool right? Just say yes, because I thrive on compliments.

Have a great weekend! I have all of tomorrow off and am very excited!

Random Thoughts for a Tuesday

I have too many random thoughts in my head to wait until Friday for fragment day, so you are getting them today! Lucky.

Yesterday, K went to school in sunglasses because she has a large sty on her eye. She is tormented by these sties two or three times a year. What causes a sty?  "poor eyelid hygiene" according to one website. Seriously? I need to rethink our family's eyelid hygiene. Basically she looks like someone has punched her in the eye. In elementary school and middle school, it was ok to look like Rocky. It is NOT ok to look like a prize fighter in high school. Well, not even thinking that sunglasses would cause a stir because there is no dress code in HS, her teachers questioned her on whether it was Hollywood day or whether she was stoned. Score 1 for naive HS mom.

After I took K to the Dr.'s to get some medicine for said sty, we stopped at a fast food burger joint (these are few and far between on Cape Cod). I had little dude and his sister with me and ordered an extra kid's meal for the toy and french fries, specifically. K opened up the burger to take out the pickle and it looked like a bite had been taken out of just the burger. Ewwww. I took it back in and asked for a new one and nobody seemed too fazed by it. Yuck.

The Patriots won last night. (Just had to put that in for Patty)

With all the 9/11 remembrances going on over the weekend, I hope you took or now take the time to watch this video. It is incredible.

Life is a Special Occasion

At BlogHer, Hallmark was there in full force. I have always loved Hallmark and have enough Hallmark ornaments to fill 3 Christmas trees (for once I am not exaggerating).

Hallmark also has the perfect cards for every occasion. At BlogHer, Hallmark was promoting it's  life is a special occasion campaign. Their point was you don't need to have a birthday or an anniversary to celebrate. Anything can be a celebration. Why not?

Bloggers were able to write their reason for celebrating on a tshirt. My reason for celebrating was "going to BlogHer with my friends".

Our house is a daily celebration. Maybe it's a girl thing, but we look for excuses to celebrate (ie: get ice-cream).
"Hey, I vacuumed my room!" = "let's get ice-cream"
"Hey, I found 20 cents under the couch!" = "let's get ice-cream"
"Hey, I finished my summer reading with 1 hour to spare before school starts!" = "let's get ice-cream"
You get the idea, right?

Of course it's hard to put a little ice-cream into their school lunch boxes, so I sneak little cards in sometimes. (Hallmark calls these mini notes).

Sometimes other people need to feel special, so I run over to my local Hallmark store and pick up a card or a little gift.

Celebrating is contagious and fun!  My friends at Hallmark and I would like to send you a special occasions tshirt and some cards. All you have to do is leave a comment finishing this sentence...

"_________________" is a special occasion!

Please leave your comments by Monday, September 12th at noon.

I am not getting paid or given anything for this post. I honestly love Hallmark products and am happy to offer you a tshirt and some cards courtesy of Hallmark!

Sundays in My City

Spent the last 5 days in Maine. There's a reason why their motto is "Maine: The Way Life Should Be".

Happy Labor Day Weekend!