Archives for January 2007

Random Thingies Because It’s Wednesday

1. When your toddler pulls all the toilet paper off the roll and tosses it on to the bathroom floor (which you, thank goodness, just scrubbed yesterday), what do you do with it? Because I just picked it up and put it in a basket next to the toilet. I can’t see wasting it!

2. The plus side to burning the crud out of my leg is that even as it’s healing, leg hair doesn’t grow there. Yay.

3. The Princess is currently saving money by doing chores to by a Rescue Pet Wake Up Spaniel alarm clock or some such. Man, is that alarm clock ugly – AND – since when have either of MY kids needed any help waking up in the morning (By the by, I have been up since 5:30 this morning… which was nice – it was just after I got back to sleep after Pumpkin woke up at 3:40. Mind you – Pumpkin was back to sleep within 15 minutes – it just took ME that long to get back to sleep).

4. I hate snow. I hate snow. I hate snow.

5. The high temp forecasted for Monday is about 8 degrees. Yuck.

"We Don’t Hit! Hitting Hurts!"

The Princess: “Mommy, Pumpkin’s not hitting you… She’s just giving you a high-five on your face!”

Um, yeah.

Snooze, Don’t Snooze

Pumpkin has completely adapted to the one nap a day schedule (whew – I though the transition process might be a bit more gruesome than that). She goes down for her nap right after lunch, and snoozes for approximately two hours. This is good because The Princess has her “resting time” right about then also (Resting = vegging on the couch to watch some quality programming kids’ show for 30 minutes), so I get a bit of down time myself. Delightful. After The Princess rests, I get some one-on-one time with her, which she seems to not hate so much.

Wednesday night, determined to stay up late and see how I felt the next day, I stayed up until 11:15 watching part one of the “Top Chef” season finale (Does anyone else watch this? Marcel SO gives me the heebie jeebies). I woke up Thursday morning to Hubby shaking my arm to rouse me. I looked at the clock: it was 6:41! Holy smoke!

I could NOT believe I got to sleep past six. I was beside myself. I was giddy. I had a rockin’ day yesterday – I wasn’t going to let ANYTHING ruin my day. I was well rested, I was refreshed – by golly, don’t rock the boat.

Last night, I attempted to repeat the process, staying up too late reading a book that wasn’t that great. Hubby shook me awake at 2 to go check on Pumpkin. She was having a massive coughing fit. It was pretty nasty, and she was obviously not happy. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a drop of cough syrup in the house! I changed her pants, got her some water to drink, and she settled back down. I could hear her hacking in the baby monitor sporadically through the night. Hubby was up with her at 4 a.m., and after he settled her in for the rest of the night, he went to work (!).

She “slept in” until 6:30 – but I was up long before that, listening to her coughs. After dropping The Princess off at preschool, we made a beeline for the drugstore to get some cough medicine which seems to have done the trick. Now that we can medicate her, I’m hoping for another night of blissful slumber.

Wish me luck.

I’m Tired, so I Think I’ll Eat

Pumpkin has been consistently waking up at 5:30 for quite some time. I have consistently been going to bed around 11 p.m. each night. Last night, given that the President was giving the State of the Union address, I decided, “What a fantastic opportunity to go to bed early.”

So, that’s what I did.

And today, I feel WORSE.

And when I’m tired, I eat. They have done studies that say that people eat more when they are tired. I honestly didn’t expect to be so tuckered out, given that I should have technically gotten an extra chunk of sleep last night. But I feel like crud.

Tonight, I’m going back to my reading in bed until 11 mode. My waistline will probably thank me for it.

And The Irony Is… I Hate Raisins.

You Are an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
On the surface, you’re a little plain – but you have many subtle dimensions to your personality.Sometimes you’re down to earth and crunchy. Other times, you’re sweet and a little gooey.

She Knows the Lingo

Today, in the car, The Princess said to me, “Mommy, when I get older and go to work, I’m going to teach sign language to all my work people. They are called clients.” Guess she’s heard Hubby mention his clients at work, once or twice (or a hundred times!).

You’re The One That I Want…

…Because I just don’t watch enough trash tv…

Last night, I tuned in to “You’re the One that I Want” – the reality show where they are casting the next Danny and Sandy for a new production of Grease. I have to admit, I got pretty sucked in.

However, they had a sing-off, where they sang one song, OVER and OVER and OVER again.

And it was stuck in my head for about three hours.

I didn’t want that.

Because Emily Tagged Me…

(I’m going to preface this by saying that these days, I read fluff. I like fluff. Fluff is good. Don’t judge me!)

1. A Book that Changed Your Life
“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” by Judy Blume. I mean, shucks… what preadolescent girl didn’t read that one?!

2. A Book You’ve Read More Than Once
I am actually a re-reader. Many many many I have read more than once. Including: “She’s Come Undone” by Wally Lamb, “The Pilot’s Wife” by Anita Shreve, “Summer Sisters” by Judy Blume (Judy for grownups – how excited was I? But don’t kid yourselves, because it reads very much like a young adult sorta novel… I’m sorta embarassed to admit that I liked it!)

3. A Book You’d Take onto a Desert Island
Just one? Can’t think of one…

4. A Book That Made You Laugh
“Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like A Skank” by Celia Rivenbark – if you think the first grade girls are starting to dress like hoochies, you will probably find this amusing.

5. A Book That Made You Cry
“All The Numbers” – wish I could remember who wrote it. Also “Suzanne’s Letters to Nicholas” or something like that. Sad. “The Pact” by Jodi Piccoult, also. Btw, Jodi Picoult rocks. I read all her stuff.

6. A Book You Wish Had Been Written
? I don’t know – but I’ll answer for Stepson who wishes there will be a never ending stream of Harry Potter.

7. A Book You Wish Had Never Been Written
“Gone With the Wind” – I read almost the whole thing, an ddidn’t finish (back in jr high) and now I don’t want to start again, and it’s always gonna be that darn book I didn’t finish.

8. A Book You’re Currently Reading
Just wrapping up two right now: “The Explosive Child” (by Dr Ross Green, about children who are explosive/inflexible/easily frustrated), and for fluff: “I am Not Julia Roberts” by Laura Ruby, which is a funny (but fictional) look at life in blended families.

9. A Book You’ve Been Meaning To Read
The Saul Bellow book my dad bought me for Christmas

10. Now Tag Five People You Want to Hear From
You, you, you, you and you… Tell me if you do this (I think Emily got most every one – so if you feel compelled to do this – let me know! I always love a great book recommendation!)

Because Hey, Why Not?!

You Are an Old Soul
You are an experienced soul who appreciates tradition.Mellow and wise, you like to be with others but also to be alone.Down to earth, you are sensible and impatient.A creature of habit, it takes you a while to warm up to new people.
You hate injustice, and you’re very protective of family and friendsA bit demanding, you expect proper behavior from others.Extremely independent you don’t mind living or being alone.But when you find love, you tend to want marriage right away.
Souls you are most compatible with: Warrior Soul and Visionary Soul

So, My Vacuum Cleaner Sucks… Or Not.

Yesterday, Hubby was apparently recovered enough from his (thankfully short) bout with stomach flu to invite a door-to-door vacuum salesman in. Ick. I am reasonably sure that Hubby only invited him in because he was offering a free jug of laundry detergent for allowing him into our home (Note – Cheap, stinky laundry detergent that I probably won’t use).

So, the dude was selling the Kirby vacuum. Apparently, I live under a rock, because I had never heard of this thing. A point he made over and over again: “Sarah, you’re KILLING me! You’ve never heard of a Kirby?” Um. No. It’s a vacuum, for pete’s sake. I don’t read the housekeeping trade publications. I’m not all up on my vacuum stats.

His demonstration involved vacuuming with our vacuum, and then vacuuming with his, to show how much crud, dirt, sand and dust was left behind. Yeah, okay. Gross. Then, he dumped about a cup of baking soda into the carpet and vacuumed with our vac. Then his. Okay, yeah, I get it. His vacuum is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy better.

It also cost about ten times as much as mine.

I admit – I really DO NOT like door-to-door salesmen. Hubby was straight up with the guy the second he walked in the door: “We do not buy from door-to-door salesmen, but if you still want to do your pitch, fine.” (Me, I still get skeeved out because I am paranoid and imagine that this person is going to come into my house and maim me with my free weights… but that’s my issue).

The salesmen went on for AN HOUR about his vacuum. It’s a great product, it is. We never said it wasn’t. But – we also told him, “We’re not really in the market to spend nearly two grand on a vacuum right now.” It got to the point where the salesmen was asking us questions, and they were typical sales questions, trying to get us to admit his product was superior. Look – don’t sell us. We KNOW your product is better. Just like we KNOW that a Cadillac is better than our Oldsmobile. However, we are on an Oldsmobile budget. Pack up your vacuum and move on.

He asked me at one point, while running some test on how much suction power his vac had over mine – what would you be happy with (on a scale of one to ten)? I said, “Four.” Of course, he did his fake look of shock, “Sarah! Why would you accept less than 10?!” My response: “I didn’t spend two thousand bucks on my vacuum. I spent $150. If I get roughly half the suction that YOUR vacuum gets for spending that much less, I’m content.” Apparently that was the wrong answer.

We were finally able to scoot him out the door. And no, he didn’t make the sale. But he vacuumed and shampooed my living room carpet, and that was a happy plus for me. (Though the carpet is already coated with cheerios and pancake crumbs. Such is life).