Holy Crap I've Been Tagged

I'm glad you taggers left directions because I had no clue what this tag business was about.


Three great bloggers, Skyewriter , True Blue Texan and Musings of a Wandering Elf tagged me which means they must either love my blog, or they were forced to by their tagger and if they didn't comply the world would end, or something like that.

This is how it works:

1. Link to the person(s) who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they were tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about me:

1. I work at a dairy farm 2 nights a week (yes, I milk cows and pitch shit. Very glamorous)
2. I was raised Unitarian but now don't practice anything on Sunday mornings, but instead test my dogs on how long they can hold their pee.
3. I have an uncontrollable mouth.
4. I hate it when people are unfaithful.
5. I love an Irish coffee any time of day.
6. I can paint (almost) anything.

My 6 tags are:

1. Engineer for Hire


2. My Life As A Trailer Park Mom


3. Naked Opinions


4. April's Little Family

Yeah, you can count that's only 4 but all of this copy, paste stuff was starting to get to me.

New Year's Resolutions Suck

OK, seriously who even sticks to resolutions, especially the weight loss kind that are made in a post Christmas sugar rush/ I can feel my ass growing state? Not this gal. Instead I have a few possibly unattainable aspirations for the coming year.

• Healthy children- I'm not trying to avoid the common cold or even the screaming shits (that we've been battling for the last few days... poor Mae), but for crap sake no hospitalization (I lowered the flex benefit plan)
• Employed hubby
• Another year of life for my gimpy dogs (poor Rocko AKA tripod)
• Sisters-in-law. OK that's stretch and maybe I don't want what any one of those boys would bring home, but hey it's lonely being the only girl.
• and lastly a boob job!

Really these are all just a sick fantasy of mine and I don't expect any of these to come to fruition, except the healthy kids thing, I need a break from the pediatrician's office. I think they're starting to suspect that I may have Munchausen by proxy syndrome.

That last part was totally a joke, no need to call CPS.

Happy New Year

Toy Purge

I couldn't take it anymore. Christmas vomited all over my living room. Barbie dolls, games, balls, balloons, arts and crafts, puzzles (7 to be exact) all covering the floor and making living in the room with that name impossible... so we went through all of the old toys in the toy box and every other place my children had stashed them and started pitching. Mega blocks- gone. Ripped dress-up clothes- gone. Thomas the train set- gone.

As hubby was going through the dress-up junk, he came across a plethora of purses and decided to slim down the pack to 3. Now you would think that this would be an easy task for a man, but no, not so.

Hubby: "Which should I keep"

Me: "pitch 'em all"

Hubby: "Well, they should have a few to play with"

Me: "OK, you decide"

Hubby: "This one's Nine West, That's good right"

Me: "Do you even know what that means"

Hubby: "No, but it's labeled 4 times, it must be
important"

Me: "Get rid of it!"

Finally, I have my living room back.

Best Christmas Gifts

Besides the love of my family and endless housecleaning, this is what I received for Christmas.

4 bottles of Wine

and a

Margaret and Helen tote bag

SCORE!

Christmas photos

Photos from our Christmas eve party

Me and hubby (me with the super-shiny make-up face)

santa and PRESENTS!

Still not assembled, directions totally suck, and after 2 whole days of presents and kids who have eaten little more than cookies and kid wine, I don't think I have the energy. For sure tomorrow!

hats for all

my brothers, binny, me, mae, my dad

And what party would be complete without a high-energy game of whack-a-mole.

Christmas Eve Aftermath

I woke up this morning (still drunk from last night) to a fantastically messy house. I spent all day cleaning yesterday and less that 24 hours later my house completely trashed. empty beer cans and bottles, lego sets that my children had to open right away and now parts and pieces are all over my kitchen counter and floor, and something smells. I'm not sure who's responsible for the odor. It could be the raw oyster juice and shrimp tails or pickled brussell sprouts in the garbage, but I'm not ready to investigate yet.


All in the name of family and fun. We had a great time last night. The kids got lots of toys, Santa was a lot of fun, hubby got flair hair. Good time.


Update: the offensive odor- Incredibly foul dog farts.

As we say in our house,
Hairy Creefus (toddler speak for Merry Christmas)

photos aren't loading, I'll add them later

Here It Is

Today there was a google search that turned up my blog

Ready?

snow thrower keeps dying out when plowing deeper

This was what I couldn't live without

More snow today!

Jump In Bed And Cover Your Head...

'cause Santa Clause comes tonight!

Christmas Eve, the big day for us. Tonight is the annual holiday party here at our house. My family has had a long standing Christmas Eve tradition, changed for the better when my children entered the picture. Now we generally have the shindig at my house and Santa himself shows up during the evening to drop off presents to the good boys and girls that happen to be waiting for him, ever so patiently of course, in my living room.

Every year one of the kids (usually Binny) cries when placed on Santa's lap and won't calm down until Santa is just a pile of red clothes back in the bag, ready for next year. Even the lure of presents and not just clothes, but real toys from Santa's workshop isn't enough to pull Binny out of her sniff, sniff, sniff "I don't want any toys, I want my MOM-MEEE" chant that lasts until Mae tears open a gift and dad starts loading batteries. Then Binny, with assistance will start opening her gifts and get on with the fun that is Christmas, and then this mommy can finally relax and maybe have a glass of champagne.

last year

My house is still a mess, none of the food prepared except 9 kinds of cookies and truffles (not plated yet), and more snow on the way today. Hubby went to work today and hopefully will be home with enough time to clean the driveway and maybe help me out before my house is bombarded with bachelor men who don't know the first thing about arranging a cheese plate.

My baking

(Left to right from the top)

Irish creme truffles, mint truffles, peanut butter blossoms, mint spritz christmas trees, gingerbread men, raspberry truffles, chocolate crackles (hubby's favorite) chocolate pinwheels, cherry coconut bon bons.

I usually give the cookies out as gifts to the girls' teachers, bus drivers, the crazy farmer I work for, uncles, and of course to Santa, with plenty left for a couple of big cookie trays for tonight and tomorrow.

I wish all in blogland a very happy holiday filled with family, love, lots of food, and hopefully you're all on Santa's good list.

Curly Cute

Mae's Elementary school was supposed to have their Christmas program last Friday, but we ended up with 10 inches of snow instead. The school sent a note home last week saying that if school is cancelled on Friday the Christmas program would be on Monday.

This morning I answered a robo-call from the school district saying that school would be 2 hours late today because of the still nasty weather outside. Then, right before the bus came to get Mae, we received another robo-call saying that the Christmas program would be rescheduled for Jan. 9. After Christmas?!!!!

Mae was so looking forward to it and had been practicing her songs all weekend in anticipation. Even asked me to make her hair curly cute.

Like A Heat Wave

Except bitterly cold.

I know I must seem like a broken record with all this talk of cold and snow and cold and more snow, but really this is quite remarkable. The wind is straight out of the west today at about 30 mph making the wind chill a very cold

-35. The temperature alone makes me shiver, but add 4 inches of fresh snow to that and we've got a full blown blizzard. Endless entertainment for us inside the house, watching 4 wheel drive trucks get stuck on our raod which happens to be a state highway, so the road is usaully in pretty good shape. Well, not today. From our kitchen window we witnessed this.

The barely visible bump behind the truck is the driver trying to shovel out the tires.

Then the plow truck came

and proceded to get stuck

Then the big- only in emergencies Oshkosh truck with huge concrete weights on the back came to plow out the first plow truck.

Again unsuccessful

So the grader came and pulled them both out


Then hubby decided to go clean up our yard


This was the drift in front of our shed. I would guess 7 feet tall and about 20 feet long.

And, Oliver FINALLY got a much needed haircut the other day.

Not happy about it


Hiding under the shower curtain

Today, after a quick pee

This Winter Is Making Us Skinny

Yeah, that's right, skinny. After all of the shoveling and trudging through the deep snow all of us will undoubtedly burn more calories than we can consume. Even if you are fortunate enough to have a snow blower, it's still a ton of work to move all of that snow. We use an ATV with a plow blade, and have also used the snow blower to move some of the big drifts. OK, not we, I really don't do a whole lot in the way of snow removal. I plowed once last week so hubby could make it in the driveway with the work van, and this afternoon I ran the plow down the driveway once before I ripped the cable on the blade and walked back to the house thoroughly irritated and wishing for spring.

My hubby is out right now fighting the snow once again to try to get a jump on the 3-5 inches we're expecting tonight, right after he fixes whatever I broke.

Bundle up!

Another Snow Day

This is getting ridiculous. Winter hasn't officially begun yet and we've had an entire winter's worth of snow already. Today was supposed to be Mae's Christmas performance at school. Cancelled just like everything else and resceduled for Monday, if we don't have another snowstorm. I always remember snow days being fun. Play outside in the snow, watch "The Price is Right," eat junk food. But with my own children these days seem much different. The weather is much too nasty for playing outside, the TV doesn't seem to be entertaining enough, and I have trouble keeping up with their messy activities, mostly the glitter and glue crafts.

Instead of glitter and glue to keep them busy, I had the girls stuff and stamp the Christmas card envelopes.

Kept them busy for a whole hour.

It's Not Head Lice

Hooray!
So maybe I overreacted a little. Maybe it wasn't necessary to put all of the hair clips and brushes in the dishwasher to disinfect, but man are they clean. Maybe I should have just listened to my Mommy instinct that tells me "kids are tough, she'll be fine."

Mae still has the rash and by this morning it was considerably worse, but no signs of creepy crawlies. So then, what? After debating on whether or not to send her to school, I called the pediatrician's office and decided to have her looked at. Doc says definitely not lice, just a virus. I probably could have waited til tomorrow, but we're supposed to get walloped with snow again tonight, up to 12 inches, so I am trying to get things done so I don't have to leave the house tomorrow.

Thanks Amy G and Wild Child for your rational advice. Now excuse me while I finish sterilizing hairbrushes.

Heeby Jeebies

For the fourth time this year (since September) Mae has come home from school with a note saying that someone in her class has (umm. how do I say this without grossing everyone out?) Freaking HEAD LICE! Ewww! My thought the first time this note came home was, who's dirty parents brought home fucking crabs? I know that's not completely fair but after 4 times I'm starting to think this is a problem. Really, this in not OK and I am angry, to the point that I would consider home schooling , OK, not really but I'm pissed!

Seriously head lice, who even gets that and why are they bringing it to school? I was at work last night, and when I got home I checked the pile of school papers right away, saw the note, grabbed Mae and picked through her head, no lice but she did have these mysterious bumps all over her neck, back and tummy. At this point I start to freak out. Mae was quickly whisked into the shower, her clothes and winter gear thrown in the washer with Fels Naptha soap (in case it's some other irritant) in hot water. It doesn't seem like head lice, but how the hell would I know, we've never had it. The bumps she has look like a poison ivy-type hives thing but who knows. I made sure she washed really well in the shower, gave her some Benadryl and slathered her in lotion because my hubby thinks it's just dry skin. Dry skin, my ass. That kid has something, and it's creeping me out.

My hubby and I were discussing how this happens and what the hell to do about it. He said that when he was young (for the boys at least) you could tell who had the head lice because they would come to school with shaved heads. Well, that's not going to work for us, Mae has the most beautiful golden blond hair that is finally at a manageable length, and hell if I'm letting anyone shave her head. I can't even think of it without itching and examining my own scalp for creepy crawly bugs. This was not on our Christmas list and I hope we figure this out before Christmas otherwise we're all getting lice shampoo in our stockings.

Leave me a comment if you started itching while reading this post...sorry about that.

What's with all of the receipts?

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting fed up with all of the garbage that comes shooting out of the cash register every time I make a purchase. You know, the 3+ coupons, and advertising crap the gets shoved in your hand along with the change, coins right on top of the bills of course, so the whole shit can fall on the floor and make a mess. Like I don't have enough going on in the line at the store with 2 girls who almost always need to use the bathroom, and the whole it's cold out thing that doesn't seem to be going away just yet, so while wearing mittens I'm trying wrangle a big wad of paper into my purse without losing the one piece of paper I do want- the actual receipt.



This was the pile of paper garbage from one shopping trip. 3 coupons for Sears and I'm not sure why, I didn't even make a purchase. I paid my Discover card bill, and out comes 3 super-long pieces of paper telling me I can save 10% on Holiday decor, $10 off work boots, and $40 off Treadmills. Is Sears calling me fat?

Besides being extremely wasteful, it's annoying and gives my husband one more chance to call me disorganized because every time I reach in my purse, it's like a ticker tape parade, without the parade, of course.

Painting In The Dark

So the crappy economy has finally trickled down to us. That's right, the hubby is down to 32 hours a week, which means he's home all day on Fridays. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my husband, but he's totally messed up my flow. I get nothing done when he's home because I'm either cooking for him or helping him with whatever project he's working on.

So to keep him busy last Friday, I suggested that he move the furniture around in our living room to accommodate our Christmas tree. He's an all or nothing kind of guy so he suggests that as long we're rearranging we might as well paint the living room to make our house a bit more presentable, before we fill it with people on Christmas Eve. Fantastic idea, so he comes up from the basement with 3 partial gallons of paint and says "what do you think will happen if I mix them all together?" Well the color wasn't that bad, kind of a orange, yellow concoction. The real bitch was that just after we pulled all of the furniture out of the living room into the kitchen, the power went out. Several minutes later squad cars and ambulances come screaming past our house to the intersection just down the road. Someone had crashed their car into a power pole and broke the pole clean off, live wires hanging on the ground. About 30 minutes later flight for life landed in the field behind our neighbor's barn and flew the car's occupant to a hospital in Milwaukee. From what I have heard, the man survived, but no less hit a f*cking pole at 55 miles an hour. Hopefully he'll be OK.

The road was closed so the bus couldn't get through to bring Mae home, so I drove my car up to the corner to wait for her with the officer who was manning the roadblock. I made sure that he knew we were without power and he said that the power company was already at the scene and we should have power back within an hour. Fine with me. So we went back to the house and painted until dark, when I decided to call the power company myself to get an estimate of when power would be restored. The nice woman on the phone said 8:00, so we ordered a pizza and continued painting by flashlight. The girls had fun making the living room look like a disco party while I was trying to paint the edges with a brush while hubby rolled the ceiling. 8:00 comes and goes still no power and at a very cold 6 degrees outside, the house was starting to get cold. We decided to go for a ride in the car to warm up look at Christmas lights. The kids were cold, and unimpressed, and just wanted to go home and watch TV. We went home, bundled up and all went to sleep in our bed, until about 10:00 when my house starts grooving like it's 3:30 in the afternoon. Washer hopping across the laundry room, Radio on in the kitchen, computer humming away.

It's amazing how quiet the house is when the power is cut, that's probably what bothered me the most, the lack of noise.

Granny Lu's Cranberry bread recipe

For Cousin Kathy,

I don't know if I ever thanked you properly for the recipe cards you sent to me (a while back). So officially, I would like to say thank you for sending a piece of our family's history to me, to continue these cooking/baking traditions with my children. I was quite young, but I do remember Granny Lu's big holiday meals. My brothers and I marveled over her relish trays. Black olives on our fingers and baby pickled corn.

She once made us chocolate chip pancakes at the cottage too, a looooong time ago. Now that I'm being all nostalgic, I found this photo from a summer vacation at the lake cottage with Granny Lu and Granny B. I was 4.

Cranberry bread

2 c. sifted flour

1 c. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. orange zest

1/2 c. orange juice

1/2 c. water

1 egg

2 Tbsp. veg. oil

1 c. raw cranberries

(I also added 1/2 tsp. of ground nutmeg- not in the original recipe)

Combine all ingredients and pour into a greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 for 50 min to an hour. Done when toothpick comes out clean.

Walnuts would be great in this, but my family gives me the stink eye when nuts show up in food.

Tree Shopping

Yesterday we cut down our Christmas tree. Yes that's right we cut down a perfectly healthy, carbon dioxide absorbing tree, to display in our house then discard to the burn pile behind our barn after New Years.

For the past several years we have cut down trees from my in-laws fields of thousands of spruce trees. The first few years, the trees were really small and spindly, but this year and last year we have had a hard time finding trees that are small enough to fit in our teeny living room. The trees look a lot different in the house than they do out in the middle of 80 acres.

We haven't decorated the tree yet , but it's standing tall and beautiful in my living room just waiting for lights and ornaments, and smells fantastic!

Thank goodness for cordless sawzalls and 4 wheel drive.

Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies recipe

These cookies are so adorable but I haven't made them in a few years because they do take some skill, but if you have a good rolling pin and cold dough, they'll be fine. They are a simple butter cookie that doesn't expand a whole lot, (no leveners) so as soon as the edges turn golden, pull 'em out and take them off the tray. Easy.

Recipe from a Gold Medal (flour) Holiday Cookies mini magazine I picked up in line at the grocery store way back in 2000 which was 4 houses ago, I can't believe I still have it.

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/4 cups butter (if using unsalted add 1/4 teaspoon salt)

1 egg

3 cups flour (gold Medal of course)

1/4 cup baking cocoa

1. Beat powdered sugar, butter and egg. Add flour and mix until it looks like a thick dough. Divide dough in half. mix cocoa powder in half. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.

2. Roll half of each dough into same size rectanlgles and trim to fit together (white on bootom). Roll up into a log, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 8 hours up to 24 hours.

before the cookies go in the oven

3. Heat oven to 400 deg. Unwrap and cut rolls into 1/4 inch slices. Place slices 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. Immediately move the cookies to a rack to cool.

Crunchy, buttery and chocolatey. What could be better with a cup of Irish coffee?

Can you name Santa's Reindeer?

According to Binny, Santa's reindeer are: Rudoff, Bambi, Richard, Dixon and Splittons. I burst out laughing when the Richard and Dixon came out of her mouth .

Reminds me of when my brothers and I were very young, (The 80s) my brother got a magic set for his birthday and needed some magic words. My father, who always has something funny and snarky to say, gave him, "Abra Cadabra Richard Nixon" and of course it stuck. So when Mae got a magic set for Christmas a few years back her magic words became, "Abra Cadabra Dick Cheney".

Thanks Dad.

No wonder GM is failing

I have a lot of mixed feelings about the huge, expensive, may not help a damn bit Automaker bailout. I feel horrible for the families who depend on these jobs and trusted the union to make the right decisions on their behalf. But if Washington decides to hand them a fat stack of our money there had better be some changes, because their cars kind of suck.

When I was pregnant with Mae I was driving a 2 door Cadillac Eldorado, which I loved so much but certainly was not practical for me to be hoisting a baby carseat into the backseat of the thing on a daily basis, not happening. So, we decided that we should look for a new car. We decided against used because I really wanted the factory warranty especially with a new baby and unpredictable winters. Plus after a year of driving a fancy, schmancy Cadillac there were a few features I wasn't willing to give up; like traction control, heated seats, keyless entry, radio that stays on until you open the door (don't ask me why, but that is one of the best non-necessary features a car can have). We looked at so many cars and finally decided to buy American and get a piece of crap Chevy Impala. I really didn't like the Impala, I kind of thought of it as an old lady car, but it was the most practical for us with the options I clearly can't live without.

You would think that a new car would be great, work properly, easy right? Of course not. I had that thing into the dealership on an almost monthly basis for small stuff and major problems, every time the dealership just waved me off, and fixed the car only for it to happen again. The engine uses about 2 quarts of oil between changes. "Oh, that's normal Ma'am." The heater blower went out, they replaced it but it still rattles like my kids stuffed a McDonald's toy in it. The damn thing won't restart if it's been running, turned off then try to start again (like when I pump gas). The dealership wouldn't even give me a reason why that happens, just told me to hold the key longer. THAT'S NOT A SOLUTION, DUMB-ASS. So of course after the warranty ran out the damn thing broke down and we were forced to spend $1200 on sensors and whatever else failed. My way too expensive, piece of junk car is currently working but for how long?

Which brings me to today. My husband got a new company service van (he's an electrician) about a month ago and has had a lot of problems with it. This Chevy van was slightly used with only 8,000 miles on it and now has developed a starting problem, and the transmission intermittently refuses to shift. It still smells new, but won't start. What gives? He took my car to work this morning, hopefully he doesn't need any of his big tools and hopefully I don't need to go anywhere. The only other vehicle we have is our older Chevy pick-up with no exhaust and a bad engine.

Not making friends with American Automakers today. I shouldn't say that they are all bad, but Chevy/ GM definitely needs to take a look at the quality and construction of their vehicles.

2008 Year in Review

The other day my hubby decided that he would do some "cleaning" and replace the kitchen calendar. He transferred the rest of December onto the new 2009 Fleet Farm calendar (pretty Sweet huh?) and tossed the old 2008 calendar into the garbage, next stop burn barrel. Holy crap, he did what? A whole year gone and no way to retrieve it. I usually transfer Birthdays, anniversaries to the next year and take one last look before we end the year. A years worth of everything; all the hours I worked at the farm, Dr. Appointments, play dates, vacations, were all gone.

There's probably no good reason why 2008 seems like a such a blur, but that's partly why I decided to write a blog. Photos, words, conversations, mine to keep and revisit here. The days seem too short and my kids seem to be growing up so fast.

15 things I can remember about 2008

Mae was hospitalized for a week in April, but well enough to sing in the 4K Spring Fling Sing (say that 3 times fast) in May.

Binny's preschool performance and graduation from 3 year-old preschool.

June vacation to Minnesota, lots of family fun with my new camera.

Binny's tonsils removed, and a fixed belly button.

Bears at the cottage in August.

Summer of house painting.

Gardening.

I started my blog in September.

Binny in 4K and Mae in 5K

Trick or treat with a cupcake and a sunflower.

An abundance of Brussels Sprouts.

Huge election day victory. I still have the Obama sticker on the back of my car. What, I'm still celebrating.

Mae learned how to change oil in the truck.

Lots of snow.

And I inadvertently downloaded a half naked woman to my husband's ipod. Oops.

Good times!

Snow Day, No School

So I guess my lunch menu post was a bit premature. I got the robo-call from the school district this morning, informing me that school has been cancelled for today. Hooray!

If the weather calms down, we might go out and play this afternoon, but right now it's pretty nasty. I went out to shovel the back porch. By the time I gave up I was covered in snow and cold.

I asked the kids if they wanted to watch a movie, and Mae suggested we watch "Hoots and Ears"

Me: "excuse me?"

Mae: "Yeah mom, you know, the one that's on the grinch dvd?"

Me: "Do you mean Horton Hears a Who"

Mae: "Yeah, that's what I said"

Off to watch Hoots and Ears. I swear, it's G rated.

What's for lunch?

Looked at the school lunch menu for today.

Mock lasagna (what does that even mean?)
lettuce & dressing (hardly call that a salad)
Pineapple (I would assume canned)
Apple wedges (probably brown)
french bread (most likely hard as a rock)

Mae's taking a cold lunch today. We have a hard enough time getting her to eat real food. Not much has changed.

Why My Hubby Loves Me

Several months ago my husband started talking about getting an ipod. That would be my cue to purchase, load and whatever else you do to an ipod and hand it to him- ready to go. Easy right? So, I order one direct from Apple, complete with his name and phone # engraved on the back in case it gets lost, but shit, it's an ipod and once it's gone, it's gone. I imported many of his cds and many more (shhhh) of mine, and downloaded a few choice podcasts. I'm a sucker for "This American Life" and a friend turned me on to "The Savage Love Podcast" which by the way is not appropriate listening while driving the kids to school, uncomfortable questions sure to follow. "Mom, what's a 3-way?"

While searching on itunes for other podcasts, I came across one called "Hot For Words" with the word clean behind it, honest right? From the description I assumed it was a program about words and definitions, and actually downloaded it for my husband who is, one day at a time trying to make himself sound like he learned the English language from books and not conversations from the barn. I had not seen the podcast (yes it's a video podcast) and kind forgot about it, until last week.

My hubby comes home from work and says "Honey, you just made me the hit of the job site." Now usually that means I sent along some great cookies but no, evidently I sent him to work with soft porn. Oh yeah, that's me the big porn watcher. I think I was 20 before I had seen a real pornographic movie, and I think I laughed more than I was aroused. So I said " I gotta see this" and charged straight for the computer, hubby following close behind because god forbid he miss an opportunity to watch a barely dressed woman define words.

This is what I saw:



Do you think the guy asking the question was trying to impress the hot for words goddess with the bottles of booze lined up behind him and the ever attractive basketball jersey? Now that's hot.

Binny's getting married

This was the conversation Binny and I shared the other day while baking Christmas cookies.

Binny: I'm gonna marry Daddy when I get older.

Me: Oh really?

Binny: Uh-huh

Me: Well, Daddy's already married to mommy

Binny: Oh, can I marry uncle Tommy or Uncle Ben?

Me: I suppose, they'll probably still be available by then. What about uncle Keith?"

Binny: No, he only lives in a compartment, that's not enough room for me.

Oooh, that smell.

Warning: This post is not for those with a weak stomach.

This morning just after 7:00 I opened the door to the stairs to go and wake my children, when all of a sudden I was overcome by the most familiar foul smell- at least to this mom. Vomit. My first question was, "Who threw up, and how long is this going to take me to clean?" I first suspected Mae, because last night while playing with daddy she cracked her head on the arm of the sofa. OUCH! So my first thought was concussion, vomiting is associated with head injury, right? Well thankfully, it wasn't her. It was Binny, I walk in her room and

I say "Mornin' Bin, how are you today?"

Binny: "fine"

Me: "but Binny you threw up, and stop rolling over in it!"

Binny: "huh?" while looking at the puke on the sleeve of her jammies.

It must have happened while she was sleeping (is that even possible?) because she didn't even know what had happened. I'm just hoping she's not sick, and that this was just a fluke puke. Last year we all came down with a nasty stomach bug that left all of us hunched over the toilet, and we only have one bathroom.



Just what I wanted; more laundry.

This whole bundling up for winter thing is going to kill me

I think that title is a bit dramatic, but seriously this cold weather kind of blows. It's only the beginning of December and already we've had 3 plow-worthy snowstorms, and right now the current temperature outside my house is 1.6. Not even 2 degrees! Now I may sound a bit wimpy especially since I am originally from North Dakota, which I contend is the coldest state in the whole U.S. (Alaska doesn't count- sorry, Alaska pissed me off this past election season, so they aren't getting any cold weather sympathy from me). I remember many winter days in ND that were indescribably cold, windy and snowy. We were in Grand Forks one Christmas when I was about 8 or 9, and I recall being completely awed that the snow on the street was piled up so high that the tops of the street signs were just barely poking out the top. The mound of snow in my Aunt and Uncle's yard was drifted all the way up the side of the neighbor's house (and surprisingly that was not the year of the big flood).



Check it out. That's me on left left and my little brother on the right

Back in Bismarck, we had a great sledding hill about a block away from our house. We would have hours of fun with the neighbor kids, but it was damn cold. Cold fingers, cold toes, and the funniest has to be my dad walking in the house after shoveling snow with icicles hanging from his moustache.

I can honestly say that today here in Wisconsin is a North Dakota day, cold windy and crunchy snow underfoot. Mae loves to play in the snow. Recently, when the bus drops her off, she hands me her backpack and runs for the big drift behind the house. She refuses to come in until she's lost most of the feeling in her fingers and toes. Binny on the other hand doesn't care for the wind snow in her face feeling. Can't say that I blame her, this morning I opened the door to let the dogs out and the cold air took my breath away. What's worse? All of the bundling, especially now that both of them ride the bus and the teachers ask that they come to school in full winter dress, which makes for interesting maneuvers in and out of the bus.

Their coats and snowpants have been filthy almost everyday, from what I can imagine is a combination of many children dressing in one area and muddy, snowy boots. It takes a whole 10 minutes to dress one of them here at home. I can't even imagine the chaos that must go on at school. I'm just amazed that we haven't lost more than 1 hat so far this winter. Oh, and did I mention that we're almost out of heating oil for our furnace (gotta call today). Last year we filled our tank twice, the second fill being very expensive ($3.13/ gal.). Hopefully we'll not need more than that this year even if oil prices have come down.

Bundle up!

***UPDATED*** Heating oil was $2.19/ gal. Fill 'er up!

A work in progress

I'm new to this whole blogging thing, although I have been reading blogs for a long time. The hardest part for me so far is not really the writing, it's the whole knowledge of computers and this crazy Internet thing. I know that google and many others have made blogging, email and whatever else they offer so easy that my lazy St. Bernard (who by the way is snoring so incredibly loud right now- do dogs get sleep apnea?) could figure out how to use it, but I'm a bit overwhelmed. What really is HTML code, and how can I crack it? I only discovered how to copy and paste recently and I'm even not sure if I'm doing that right. Surprise, surprise, I have had no formal training.

So, my latest brain benders:

1. I read many blogs that reference stats like- search words people use to find their blogs. Mostly cited for comedic reasons- but hey, I hate to miss out on a good laugh. How do I find that?

2. How do I obtain buttons, badges? I see many sites that have free buttons to stick on the sides of the blog but I can't figure out how get it in a gadget. Like this one. I want to tell the world that 1.20.09 is get rid of your Bush day, but I can't figure out how.

I'm not really looking for a hand to hold, because I probably will figure it out on my own...eventually. I'm just wondering if there is something I'm missing. A google search isn't always helpful, and hitting the keyboard with my fist doesn't help either

This blog has been a lot of fun for me so far. I have been able to connect with many people and besides, it's just plain therapeutic.

If anyone has any simple suggestions let me know in the comments.

Grapefruit Drink Recipes

The other night I was out having dinner with a friend, when I tried for the first time ever, a grapefruitini. All I can say to that is "Where have you been all these years?" Seriously that was the best drink EVER! I only slurped down one but could have drank every drop of grapefruit juice and vodka in the bar.


This is a grapefruitini recipe I found online

1 oz. vodka
2 oz. red grapefruit juice
1/2 oz. lemon juice
DIRECTIONS:
Pour ingredients into shaker. Add ice. Shake and serve.

This will definatley be my Christmas drink this year.
I have made other drinks using Absolute Ruby Red Grapefruit vodka. Fantastic- holy crap! This stuff actually tastes like grapefruit. Best part- my hubby hates grapefruit- more for me right?

This was the grapefruit drink I made last year (I saw it on Martha Stewart's show)
Ingredients
Serves 1
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup fresh cranberries
1 ounce Charbay (I think they actually used Absolut on the show) ruby red grapefruit vodka
2 ounces Champagne
1 ounce cranberry juice
1 ounce black currant juice
Directions
In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, dissolve sugar into 1 1/2 cups water. Add cranberries and simmer for 5 minutes, or until softened. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain, discard liquid, and place cranberries on a tray in the freezer for at least 2 hours. Chill vodka, Champagne, and juices, then mix in a champagne glass. Garnish with skewer of 4 or 5 frozen candied cranberries. Reserve the rest for another drink.

Really, it was a lot of work for just a drink, and a little strong with both vodka and champagne. Oh, and you can't drink the thing with the wooden skewer in it. Seriously, you'll poke your eye out, or worse-the skewer up the nose.- Yowza!

The Ruby Red Vodka goes really well with just cranberry juice too.

Cheers!

Fresh blanket of snow

Yesterday

Snow

Binny...

That's all I got.

Look out Jiffy Lube, you've got Competition

Every girl should know how to change her own oil!

After my children+shopping= parenting nightmare, my husband must have felt bad for me, so he and Mae spent almost the entire Saturday together. They weren't doing little girl things. No no, they were changing oil and replacing the brakes on the truck. Good times! Both of my girls love spending time "helping daddy" and good for them! I think it's great that they can learn how things work and how to fix them, and who knows if auto repair will still be in the school budget when my kids are older.