A Few Things That Made Me Chuckle....

What a weird last couple of days. It's been crazy busy, but somewhat entertaining also. Here are a few things that have made me chuckle:

1. My 4 year old princess announced that she "loved the Jonas Bruvvers (Brothers)" and asked me (oh so sweetly) to invite them to eat dinner at our house. She also said that she wished they were her "bruvvers" so that they could help "sister" do her chores. I guess this is an open invitation to the Jonas Brothers - If that Singing career doesn't work out for them - they are invited to dinner and to be adopted because "Sister" needs help with vacuuming.
2. My 13 year old Girl seriously contemplating wearing a new pink hoodie to school yesterday despite the fact that it has a big white security tag hanging off it and that her new white hoodie matches just as well as the pink one. (Would that be the beginning of a new fad? Hmmmm?)
3. Discovering that my husband's van is the exact same make and model of the van of a dance class friends' husband who is a rep for a beer company (minus the company logo). Even the interior is identical. (Our cup holders haven't been working properly - do you think he will notice if I swap them out? He's not supposed to drink and drive - right? )
4. Listening to my princess sing "My Humps" while fingering the formal dresses at May Company. Something is wrong with this - but I can't quite put my finger on it. Regardless, it was funny and the people around us were chuckling too.
5. The look on my husband's face when he found out that I have a blog. (Even he knows that I'm a reader, not a writer.)

Something different

Since I'm so new to blogging, I'm going to take a page out of my friends blog and just write a few things that I appreciate today.

1. Being the helper (again) at Princess Happy's preschool. Even though I felt like I wandered into another dimension, it was good to meet new people.
2. American Idol - the end of the auditions. Next week they are going to Hollywood week. Heh heh.....Now it REALLY begins.
3. Meeting friends at the mall for a desperately needed play date after waiting out 3 trains and traffic and not having to leave right away when Happy girl called to say she was staying after school for a Yearbook meeting. (Note: Yearbook was discussed the night before- before I made any plans - and was pronounced to be "too boring" to stick around for. Ahhh - the teenage mind.......how quickly it changes.)
4. Discovering that I actually like television and that there is SOMEthing interesting to watch out there (other than Clean House & American Idol) - Disclaimer: Anyone reading this that likes the new FOX shows "Fringe" and "Lie To Me".....Any show that I am even remotely interested in WILL be cancelled within the first 10 shows. If you like this show and would be interested in it's continuation.....Forget about it. I just seriously jinxed them. Does anyone remember "Boston Public", "Joan of Arcadia", and last years "New Amsterdam"? Yup - that was ALL me baby! Wahoo!
5. Recovering my google password. It's difficult to update a blog if one can't log onto it. (Stupid Java update!)
6. Discovering a sale for both my girls at the above mentioned mall. 15.00 hoodies (since I am sick of seeing the same two rotated and worn -to death- almost daily - I was able to purchase 3 more with a surprise hoodie/sweats set to be given for valentine's day.) 5.00 Long sleeve fleece nightgowns in a size (or two) larger for my princess who never hesitates to remind me when I wear a nightgown how much she loves them and misses wearing them since it became winter. A bonus....I got an additional 10% off because of my store card. I was also able to pick up a cute hoodie/sweat set for the princess for under 12.00 (with an additional 10% off that too.) She will be wearing the gowns for at least another year or two since they are a bigger size than she wears now. The princess was THRILLED to take her shower and put on her new warm cozy gown. Happy girl practically knocked me over to hug me when she saw the three hoodies, 1 new camisole and 1 new purple striped T shirt on her bed. I am "ALMOST" the best mother in the world. (I might have that tattoo'd somewhere so that I can moon her when she tells me how awful I am...)

Okay - my last positive thing.....I'm off to bed for a good night's sleep. Night!

Snow Days

The phone rang at 6:00 am this morning to announce that school was cancelled for the day. Of course, Happy girl was already up, showered, dressed, and putting make up on before she heard the news. (I'm secretly hoping that she will rethink the whole "getting up at 5" thing because of this. ) I, of course, didn't sleep after that either. I had to put the news on to see if Princess Happy's preschool was cancelled today. After watching for about 40 minutes, I gave up looking for Strongsville Schools and went looking for coffee instead.

Happy girl had already made croissants (for everyone) for breakfast and was curled up on the couch watching MTV with a cup of tea. She announced that she had already looked for the princess's school and that it wasn't closed. (Sheesh - had I known she was this on top of things, I would've stayed in bed much later. Especially after watching the princess run to her sister first for hugs, kisses, and cuddles this morning.) Happygirl then ran off her list of chores that she did already and asked if there were anymore. Since she did such a good job - I let her off the hook for the vacuuming and told her she could have her friend from school come with us to run errands today. (Yes - I'm psycho. I take my kids out in sub-zero temperatures to go shopping.)

After we confirmed that the princess did have school, we dropped her off, and went to the mall to "look". It was a quick trip (since preschool is ONLY two hours) but we managed to find boots and candle stuff. We also managed to try on all the makeup at Sephora. (Two Teenage Girls + Free Makeup = ~Bliss~)

After we picked up Princess - we decided to go to the movies and use a gift certificate to see a movie we all wanted to see. The movie was decent (even if it wasn't falling down funny like the critics said).

Not a bad way to spend a snow day. I've heard we've got another for tomorrow. If it goes as well as today - that is just fine with me.

What do I write about?

What do I write about? Hmmmm - very good question. Should I write about how I got most of Mt. Washmore done and almost all put away? (YAY!!! Clean gotchies for everyone. No more Commando!!!) Should I write about a meeting with the loan officer at our bank because we are thinking about refinancing our home (that we've only lived in for 2 years) because interests rates are really low now? (I mean REALLY REALLY low now.) Should I write about the crappy weather and how I slid all over the road today just trying to meet a friend who made some awesome burp clothes for me to give as a gift?

Nah.... I think I will touch upon the impromptu party that happened in our home this evening. I left the house about 4:45 pm with Mr. Happy slumbering peacefully (if not quietly) in his chair, Princess Happy playing polly pockets in her bedroom, and Happygirl doing homework in the dining room. (Yes, she has a desk but I guess she can't do 7th grade algebra correctly without listening to her dad snore. - Go figure!) I came back from picking up the gift and Grandma Happy's meds (that we ran out of and NEEDED to take at dinner tonight) and we had a house full of girls. Happygirl invited a friend from school over to play (this was expected since she did ask permission first) and to eat dinner with us. While Happygirl and schoolfriend were out playing in a mound of snow - freshly created by the local snowplows - a few neighbors decided to join them. So now we have Happygirl, Princess Happy, and Schoolfriend out playing in the snow with our "up the street neighbors" which conveniently one of them has the same first name as Happygirl. (Yes it's interesting trying calling my child in for dinner. If I'm not careful - sometimes I get the wrong child.) So Upthestreetgirl and her sister Princess Upthestreet came over to play with our group. Then the princesses saw me pull in the driveway and decided that they were too cold. (They are only 4 and 5 and it is pretty cold - so to me it seems a reasonable request) So I have them come in while I'm preparing dinner. Mr. Happy decides this is the PERFECT time to go snow plow the driveway and I'm left trying to entertain two preschoolers and make dinner at the same time. I'm in a hurry to make dinner for a few reasons. Grandma Happy has diabetes so she has to eat around the same times each day because of her meds. Also - Schoolfriend's parents are picking her up around 8 - ish and I would hate for her to miss dinner or have to wolf it down before she leaves. Also - and this one is the MOST important one of all- I'm hungry. So I called the big girls in to watch the little girls - and ended up with 2 more guests for dinner. While Upthestreet girl is calling home to see if she and Princess upthestreet are allowed to stay - their older sister (Who is Happygirl's age) decides to come down for a visit. Now I have 3 extra guests. I ended up making a kid friendly meal and Happygirl and Princess Happy ended up having a party. The adults had dinner in the dining room, the kids ate in the kitchen - but things were still pretty loud. After dinner and dessert (I made homemade Hot chocolate pudding for 8 - the kids decided to divide and clutter. It was 8:00 pm at this point so I wasn't doing anything else except watch American Idol (One of the few TV shows I enjoy watching). So Mr. Happy got to wander through the house and take care of the chaos while I watched TV (Mark your calendars - this doesn't happen often) After 4 extra girls - it probably won't happen again anytime soon. It was crazy - and chaotic. (Princesses don't like to clean up after themselves and neither do the big girls.....) It was also fun. but I'm hoping that if we do get a snow day tomorrow - that it won't be repeated. Give me a few days ladies before you crash upon my doorstep. I'm old and I need to take breaks in between these wild parties. Besides - it will probably take me that long to put away all the polly pockets, dress-ups, and fake food that migrated all over the house while Mr. Happy was "Supervising".

(P.s. - does it make me an official blogger because I now have "2" posts? Let me know.)

Kicking and Screaming....

errrr - Uh maybe not. When my friend Lazymama asked me when I was going to start a blog - I just laughed. Loudly. I AM NOT a writer. I am a reader. I love to read. Books, Magazines, cereal boxes, blogs. All of it. I would rather spend my free time reading other people's blogs. This all started when I went to Borders last summer. I was browsing the books and I came across this book called

"Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomanical, Self-Centered, Smartass, or Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office".

The title just grabbed my attention and I had to get it. 24 hours later I was back at borders buying the two sequels - Bright Lights, Big Ass (AND I had to ask a male associate for help locating it. That was interesting and I'm sure I left quite an impression on him.) and "Such a Pretty Fat". A week later I was hooked. I went online to http://www.jennsylvania.com/, I searched the library (Dear Mr. Happy - when I die - please have me cremated and scatter my ashes somewhere between Historical Fiction and Science Fiction.) for other authors. I found Meredith Efken and a few others that I can't name and now I'm totally hooked. Jen is visited often so that I may get a quick dose of her snarkyness.

So - imagine how happy I am to discover that my friend has a blog. YEAH!!!!! Now I finally get to read about people I actually know. I get to experience an event and then read about someone else's perspectives on it. YEAHHHHH!!! And of course, I get to comment on these same items. When I tried to leave a comment with my name on her blog - I couldn't quite figure out how it works without using "ANONYMOUS". So I left my comment "Anonymously" {Wink Wink - think she'll find out?} and then decided to create a "BLOG" so that I could leave my name with my comments. Then I decided - well, since it's a blog - maybe I should write something for anyone who trips over this so they don't think I'm totally clueless (which I am - but don't tell. Let'skeep this between me and you.) and then I realized.....

Tricky Gretchen - VERY VERY tricky. You just knew I wouldn't be able to keep my mouth shut forever. Didn't you? You knew I would have to create this and that I would Blog it.

Very clever my friend. Kicking and screaming.....Nah, I don't think so. You are way too subtle for that.