An explanation for my "crazy"

So, today I met a friend of mine for lunch.  I hadn't seen her in about 14 years, and we happened to be on the same side of the same state at the same time, so it seemed reasonable to drive 2 hours to meet her husband/children and see her.  Why not, right?  So, her mother and brother were also available, so they joined in too.  Great.  Cool.  Ironic.  

Why ironic?  Well, let me enlighten you.  When I was 17 I had a mad crush on the brother.  He was a little younger than me, but I did have a crush none-the-less.  So, What you don't know is that I was "the homely kid".  I can prove it if I need to, but I'd rather not.  Let's just say that my face didn't quite look right surrounded by an additional 10 pounds of baby fat and my acne was so bad I was at one point affectionately called Pizza Face.  So... homely=me, cute=the brother, and he wasn't going to give me the time of day any way, so why worry, right?  It was OK.  I knew it.  I compensated with an outrageous personality.  Some parts of that still remain.  

I started to be a lot cuter around 18 or so, and by 21 I looked about how I look now, which is still not going to win me a Victoria Secret cover, but at least I'm not the person who people look at and think, "Wow.  I hope she has a great personality because she's NEVER getting married."  So...  I'm not off topic.  I swear, just hang in...  We get to lunch...  I see my friend and her mother standing in the middle of the Chick Fil A and I walk right up and hug Nicole.  Only her mother is still looking for me, And suddenly sees me with recognition and she says, "OH!  WOW.  You grew up to be beautiful!"  Followed quickly by the (did I just say that out loud expression and pause and then, finally...) "Of course because you always were."  IF I were writing/directing a sitcom reunion scene, I couldn't have written it any better.

I'm telling you, the pause was audible.  It was... um... sweet.  ?  I think she was trying to compliment me, it was just a little awkward because it was clearly not what she was expecting.  Anyway, the brother... yea, well, he's still hot.  Married, with a baby, and still too young for me... but hot, with beautiful liquid brown eyes rimmed in thick black lashes, and a beard.  And I'm a sucker for a beard, don't know why.  It's a little gross on one hand, and on the other...  yea, Now I am off track.  

So...  If you ever wonder why I'm as crazy and screwed up as I am, here's the explanation:  I am still compensating for my homeliness.  

another bit of christmas cheer

Regarding Christmas Lights.  What I would like to know is this:  How is it that I carefully wrap up and put away strands upon strands of working Christmas lights in neat little rolls (wrapped around boxes and or wrapping paper tubes) each year... and when I bring them down from the attic and plug them in, only half of the bulbs work?

It's a conspiracy by the Christmas Light manufacturing company so that they never go out of business.  I'm sure of it.  And the worst thing about it is that every year I spend hours screwing around with all this crap, and honestly, I hate putting up Christmas lights... There I've said it.  I'm sorry.  It's true.  But the kids love them.  This year they joyfully announced in cheerful little giggles that they "want 'colors' out side and 'white' for the tree!!!"  Great.  I'm so full of joy I could puke.

OK.  I can't blog now.  I need to go out to Lowes or Home Depot to buy more lights.  

NO Exceptions! Except...

There are NO children allowed in our bed at night.  We just don't allow it.  It's too disrupt-full, no one gets a good night sleep, and then you have grumpy mommy, grumpy daddy and grumpy kid all day long.  So we have an "absolutely no exceptions to the rule" policy that we are more than willing to enforce.

Except, when I arrived in B's room last night to discover that she was wheezing and whistling with a croupy sounding cough (seal bark) I realized that the rules were, once again, going to have to bend.  I would NEVER have slept a wink knowing she was down the hall breathing like that...   as it turns out, I didn't sleep a wink once she was in bed either because her breathing was so ragged.

It was as though I was instantly awake.  In one minute I was asleep, in the next I was completely awake.  I got a lot of thinking done while I was laying there next to B.  "What if...she's really sick?"  "What if... I need to call and cancel E & A for today?" "What if..."

I have trouble Getting in the Mood...

FOR the holidays.  

Geez, you people.  I admit, some years have trouble getting in the mood for the holidays.  This year is one of those years.  I don't know why.  It doesn't even feel like it should be Thanksgiving this week.  I guess i better get on board with that because I'm incharge of the pie/dessert for 29 people.

So, why do I have such a hard time some years?  It's probably because those are the years that I do all my shopping super early *sometimes in January!, and don't have that immediate connection to the decorated malls.  My "Christmas Newsletter" is untraditional, so I don't get that immediate peppermint and holly scented tree feeling as I type it out.  Unfortunately due to allergies, I never get that holly scented home to aid my progression to "the mood".  Some years it takes me until Christmas Eve, and then I'm so over the top that H wants to kill me because I'm suddenly baking and prepping for something I've known about all year.  

Anyway, I've compiled a list of movies that I like to watch over the holiday season.  Some are movies from my childhood, and some are movies that probably have nothing to do with Christmas but I do tend to watch them at that time of year.  From the obvious to the insane... here are my favorite movies for getting in the mood:

10) Scrooged: with Bill Murray.  Yes, there are better adaptations of A Christmas Carol, but are any of them as funny or silly?

9) How the Grinch Stole Christmas (THE ORIGINAL animated one).  This is one of those timeless stories, just the SOUND of the narrator's voice makes me smile.

8) A Christmas Story ("You'll shoot your eye out!")...  the pink bunny costume... oh, I love that scene because it's JUST like the purple penguin dress I got when I was 11!  I had to wear it on picture day because my mother made me.  OH...  I needed therapy just for that.

7) Die Hard with Bruce Willis...  "Now I have a machine gun... HO HO HO".

6) National Lampoons Christmas Vacation... it's almost painful to watch, but at the same time, it's funny.  Anyone hear my story about the drunk kid breaking into the house and the 5 Henrico cops who came with  guns drawn to the rescue?  Well, that's the soundtrack I needed that Christmas.

5) While You Were Sleeping...  Just a cute movie...  "These mashed potatoes are so creamy... "

4) The Wizard of OZ...  has nothing to do with Christmas, but they play it on TV every year at this time, so I associate it...  And what's not to like about a film about little girl who gets a killer new custom pair of red pumps for FREE?  And there's even little elves... er, munchkins too.

3) It's a Wonderful Life...  no list would be complete without this movie.  I guess.  I mean, it's not my favorite, but I will sit through it and it's definitely a Christmas mood bringing movie.

2) Pretty Woman.  What, you don't think this is a Christmas movie?  Yes it is.  A hooker goes on a date and gets everything she's ever wanted.  Definitely a Christmas film.

and the best Holiday movie ever made in my opinion?  

1)  The Ref...  "That's it, I'm calling an emergency meeting of the Old Bay Brook Emergency Committee"  or "You're Dr. Wong?" "Yea well, my mother was Irish."  "and your father?"  "Wasn't."

Happy Thanksgiving!

What he DID...

SO everyone wanted to know what exactly "G did".  Well, he didn't really "DO" anything.  that was part of the problem.  He didn't do his work.  He didn't follow directions.  In all, he was simply checking the system, testing his boundaries & his teacher all in one day.  I wouldn't expect he'll do that again, since the weekend was really NOT GREAT when you're in that much trouble.  And I did talk to Mrs Flower and she was great, actually.  Very encouraging, and appreciated my support.  We also decided that G just needed to have a fresh start, a new 'folder' with a nice shiny new calendar in it, etc.  

Awkward Pause #2...

It's never good if the grading scale is rated like a traffic light and your kid comes home with an "orange" day.  Green is good. Yellow is "slow down".  "Orange is not really on the scale but I don't want to have to send you to the office because it's going to really disrupt my class".  "Red is a visit to the principal"... and believe it or not, "Blue" is actually on the chart, I think because if you have a blue day you've probably been suspended.  Sort of like, if you have a blue traffic light, you were going more than 20 mph over the limit and been arrested on the spot.  

So, on Friday, in the FIVE minutes it took me to drop C off at Art C;ass, we got a call from G's teacher.  The message was a bit like this...

"Hi Mr and Mrs. F.  This is Mrs Flower, G's teacher.  I just wanted to tough base with you about today.  We had a very long day here in 1st grade.  Very long.  I....   (awkward pause on the machine) have a lot of things I'd like to discuss with you and hope you'll call me back this weekend at home#.  I... (awkward pause #2) wanted to make sure there isn't anything going on at home that I should know about.  So, please call me anytime this weekend so we can talk.  Again, I'm free all weekend and I look forward to hearing from you."

Is anything going on at home?  Um... gee.... I don't know.  I mean, Rory the Roomba seems fine, the floors are definitely staying cleaner....   But other than that new addition to our home, I haven't noticed any changes.  Could be that I'm too caught up in the BLACK PLAGUE or BRITISH LIT or the GEN JI KATA to know what's going on in my own home... and I doubt I spelled that right.  In the mean time, we're just going to keep an eye on G.  Maybe he was just having a bad day.

If there's one thing that being a mother has taught me it's this...  "If it's not one thing, it's something else."

What's for Dinner?

I admit, I'm a food hoarder.  I bake, cook, and prep... and freeze food all the time.  At any given moment we could have 3 weeks worth of frozen meat or meals ready to fall out off my over stuffed freezer.  And that's just the one in the kitchen, don't get me started on the garage!

So, why is it that I'm constantly at the grocery store buying new stuff?  Especially fresh meat?  I think it's that whole idea of, "wanting something new and easy".  It's much easier to buy a new pork tenderloin than it is to thaw one out and prep it, just like it's easy to buy it & toss it in the freezer for a rainy day.  At this point I have enough food planned for Noah's flood.  

So this month I'm trying to cut my grocery bill for 2nd Half November by using 1 thing out of my freezer at each dinner.  Yesterday for lunch we had homemade Turkey Soup - out of the kitchen freezer.  For dinner we had pork chops (freezer), butternut squash - 2 different recipes because my kids like one thing and my H likes another (both already prepared and out of the freezer), leftover MacNCheese, and because all this was prepared, I was able to make a pot of homemade applesauce.

Of which, I split in half and put some in the freezer for a rainy day.