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Oh, My Neighborhood is SO Fun

September 17, 2008 by 1 Comment

My next door neighbor is an asshat. I love that he lets them out in the backyard to howl for extended periods of time at four in the morning. I think that it’s super-duper cool of him. I love that he locks them in his crazy-hot garage all day so that all of us who are at home can hear his poor dogs howling in the heat (Niki – seriously, ask your mother!). On top of that, he’s just not a nice person.

So, I’ve decided to start playing the lottery so that I can win big and buy his house and his land and kick him out on the street. I’ll find a nice home for his dogs and maybe I’ll even hire a cab to drive this guy to the nut farm.

(Okay, I’m done whining. For now).

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Sarah’s Weekend High/Lows

September 15, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Lows:

I think there is a permanently saggy spot on the couch from where my husband’s butt was glued all weekend watching football.

Michigan lost. To Notre Dame. Boooo!

Rain, rain, rain.

The panic-y feeling of watching Pumpkin’s swim class.

Getting the death glare for pointing out that SOMEONE in the room smelled like armpit (My guess? The 12-year-old approaching puberty that sometimes forgets deodorant). I guess the two males in the room took offense.

Highs:
Ohio State lost their game too.

Got to take the kids to the merry-go-round, which they L-O-V-E

Despite my panic, both girls loved swim class

I re-colored my hair and I didn’t screw up.

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It’s a Little Damp Around Here

September 13, 2008 by 3 Comments

Though The Princess took swimming lessons this summer, I wasn’t sure if Pumpkin was ready to join in the fun. Sure, she’s three, but she’s kind of a young three – and she doesn’t have her big sister’s fearless nature when it comes to… well, everything. But she’s tough and she’s starting to really love being in the water so we figured it was time to start swim lessons for Pumpkin, as well as advance The Princess to the next level.

Watching swimming lessons was a bit of a brutal experience for me, and I’m a bit embarassed that I was so nervous. While The Princess can swim and I could be completely confident that she’d be a-okay, Pumpkin can’t swim yet and her instructor had her and the six other little peeps hanging on the wall of the shallow end for most of the 45 minute lesson. Sure, she’d pull them away for a second – to help them float or kick, but beyond that, for the bulk of the time, these kiddos were just hanging on to the wall.

At one point, I could see Pumpkin’s arms getting tired and she let go, and her head just went under. Of course (silly mom!) she popped right back up, spitting out water and rubbing her eyes, but frankly (and I say this because YES, I have brutal mama bear tendencies) I was a little pissed off at the instructor for the countless times she turned her back on these kids who DO NOT KNOW HOW TO SWIM.

I was relieved when a gentleman came to stand by the side of the pool, keeping a more watchful eye on the little people while the instructor took her time with each kid – kicking, floating, whatever. He was REALLY watching (I think he worked for the pool – but I have no idea. I don’t care, actually – I’m just glad that someone was paying attention).

When the instructor tucked two pool noodles under each kiddo’s arms and sent them floating towards the deep end, I sat at the edge of my seat, watching… watching… When Pumpkin turned around to come back, she didn’t have the know-how to get herself back to the edge. The Princess, hanging on the wall for her class started calling to her little sister, “Come this way! Here you go! Come on! You can do it!” and when Pumpkin got closer, The Princess pulled her back to the wall.

And my eyes filled up with tears. The Princess’s instructor said, “Pay attention! You need to be paying attention!” and my Princess told her, “But that is my sister.” And I was so happy.
Leaving the pool, we sludged through puddles and hovered under a french blue umbrella as the rain pelted us. It hasn’t stopped all morning, and after hours of rain, it still shows no sign of stopping. We needed a little rain. Our lawn was starting to look like crap. But now, hours later, the sandbox now resembles a wading pool and everything is soggy.

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RULES OF MY HOUSE, #172

September 11, 2008 by 2 Comments

You’ll notice these numbers are not sequential, but rest assured those rules DO exist and I share with you ONLY the highlights.

172. The whole concept of “Move Your Feet, Lose Your Seat” (with the fun acronym of MYFLYS) doesn’t apply to me. I’m the mother. I paid for the sofa. I get to sit on it wherever I choose. You don’t get to eagle eye my nice cozy spot on the couch and lunge for it the second I get up, most likely to fetch juice for one of you, or make dinner. If I “move my feet”, my seat better still be waiting for me when I get back.

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Thursday Ten, Not a 9/11 Post Edition

September 11, 2008 by 1 Comment

1. First of all, I think I’ve written about 9/11 on the anniversary as long as I’ve been blogging (fact checkers, go take a nap, I am too lazy to look and I’m not gonna and you can’t make me. So there.), so today’s not about 9/11 – but it’s not to say I don’t recognize the significance of the day – just that there’s not much I can say that hasn’t been said better by hundreds of other people already today.

2. Guitar lesson… I learned two chords! E minor and G. I suck pretty equally at both. Actually E minor isn’t that difficult – G is a pain in the butt because my fingers aren’t used to moving that way yet.

3. Music of the week. Caught up and downloaded some stuff from the new Michael Franti & Spearhead album – including “All I Want is You”, “I Got Love For You” and “A Little Bit of Riddem”. All good.

4. My dad is now on a plane heading back towards California. It was a weird visit but with several good talks and that was a good thing. A lot of stuff that had been accumulating for a long time – good to somewhat clear the air and get that out of the way.

5. I went to the optometrist today for my yearly eye exam. First of all – I really hate getting my eyes dilated. Second of all, my eyesight is improving. Huh. Not that it’s all that horribly rotten, but, yeah. Getting better. With age. Just Like Me.

6. In college when I was trying to get out of the engineering program, UM put me in a holding pattern they call IOE – which really stands for Industrial Operations Engineering – but was more commonly known as In and Out of Engineering. My one IOE class had a lot to do with logisitics – planning deliveries and shipments for a trucking company. Today I proved why even IOE was too much for me – I suck at logistics sometimes. I have overscheduled the past two days to a hideous degree and while I’m vegging now, I still have to make dinner for our neighbors (they just had a baby a few weeks ago).

7. Last night’s Project Runway? How is it when Blayne gets auf’d, it’s the first time I can tolerate him? And Terri, eh. She made me glad for the double auf’ing. Buh bye. (I wonder if she’s really that bitchy. She was pretty bitchy).

8. Is it wrong that my neighbors are going to get chicken parmesan and pasta and garlic bread and all that, and I just want to order pizza for my family?

9. The Princess takes the bus to school. It’s consistently late on Tuesday and Thursdays. The days that I take Pumpkin to daycare and I have “off”. Only Tuesday and Thursdays. Conspiracy? Yeah. I’m thinking so.

10. I am still undecided what I think of the iTunes Genius playlist thus far. I only tried to make one, and I don’t entirely see the correlation between songs. My list was based on “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz… but included “Faith” by George Michael and “The Joker” by the Steve Miller Band. Huuuuuuuh?

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RULES OF MY HOUSE, #134

September 9, 2008 by 4 Comments

If I find any money when I do laundry, it’s mine. Doesn’t matter if it’s a penny or a twenty. If you don’t like it, check your pockets first. Or better yet, do your own laundry.

(By the way, I’m on my fifth of seven loads of laundry today, and today has only netted about fifty-four cents in change, most of which I’m sure was mine anyway).

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Backseat Driving

September 8, 2008 by 2 Comments

This weekend, Pumpkin started coming down with a bug. It started with a runny nose. Then, she got sneezy. Those of you who have spent any amount of time around young children know that sneezes of this nature always produce mass quantities of snot. Oh yeah. Wishing you were me right now.

Despite the fact that we stocked up on kleenex this week, Pumpkin would rather say, “Mom, don’t look at me,” and when she thinks I’m not looking, wipe her nose on her shirt. My life. It’s so hott.

And what’s even better, is that she’s hardly sleeping! As I type, I have finally won the War on Nap (Whoooooooo!) and she’s out like a light – but yesterday’s nap boycott turned into the 5 p.m. meltdown which turned into her crashing on the couch at 7 p.m. after watching mass quanities of crap on Noggin. (Note: I really relax my tv watching rules when someone is sick. I mean, I don’t feel like doing anything when I’m sick – and at least if she’s holding the couch down, I can limit the crumpled up tissue to a certain area of my house).

This morning, she woke up at six – bright and early, but quickly lost her sense of humor. She had numerous tantrums and crying jags and was really mad that we went to the store before the library. That is, until we got to the store and she made a beeline for one of those stupid carts with the truck in front. I hate these carts. They are so hard to steer! And aside from that, all I was needing was a 12-pack of Coke Zero and some mozzarella cheese. Hardly cart-worthy. But it kept my little monkey happy til we got to the check out and she got a sucker.

Oh to be 3 again.

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365 Project – Name & Link Change

September 5, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Hey y’all, the website for the picture project has been changed to Envisage 365. Remember, I’m Sarah Two, and you can find my Flickr stream here.

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Awwwwwwwwwwwkward.

September 5, 2008 by 1 Comment

So, remember how I said that the daughter of an ex-boyfriend is in The Princess’s first grade class? Um, yeah. My kid just thinks she’s so sweet, and so fun, and “Hey mom, do you know so-and-so!?”

Oh, goody. I’m so glad they’re friends. That won’t be awkward. Not one bit.

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Thursday Ten, Twinkle Twinkle Edition

September 4, 2008 by 4 Comments

1. Today was my first guitar lesson. My instructor is very sweet, and fortunately, turns out it’s a private lesson. I would be really frustrated to share my time with some punk 11-year old prodigy… That would make me feel old… and talentless (both of which I AM… for now). Learning parts of the guitar, what strings are which notes (EADGBE – now I just have to get more used to thinking like that – I think better as far as which number a string is versus which note). Also dealing with learning what fret is what. I spend a lot of time stopping to think about what I’m doing – certainly not instinctive so far. BUT, at the end I played part of “Twinkle Twinkle” so I’m pretty proud of myself.

2. My brother is in the hospital again and has been since Monday. I haven’t been to visit him yet – basically because I’m a schmuck. He will be getting out tomorrow is what we’re told.

3. The Princess is still loving school – so… whew. Big sigh of relief.

4. We’ve finally got some rain today and the temps are hovering right around 60 degrees. I’ve got jeans and a hoodie on today and am loving it. I love when the weather is like this – eventually the rain will annoy me, but my grass has been brown for a few weeks now, so it’s fine.

5. Project Runway last night… Well, that was an awesome challenge. Better than the “innovation” testing challenge of tearing up a Saturn and making something out of it – creating a design for DvF’s line? That was cool. Buh-bye Stella.

6. My project that wouldn’t die? Still won’t die.

7. College football started last weekend. Michigan lost to Utah. Crap, crap, crap. They play Miami (of Ohio) on Saturday so here’s hoping that works out a little bit better for my Wolverines. Game is at noon on ESPN2. Goooooooooooooooo Blue.

8. I let Pumpkin have Cheetos for breakfast and so I’m kind of feeling like a slacker mom. The thing is – I think I was doing a community service. Kiddo in her room at daycare has a peanut allergy – would it really have been better to let her have her usual peanut butter on a waffle before going there? Allergies scare the hell out of me – I wouldn’t want to miss a drop of PB and send some poor kid into an allergic tailspin. So, yeah. Cheetos. Go me.

9. New music. Ehhh. I am pretty slackery lately. What is everyone else listening to?

10. Luna Chocolate Peppermint Stick bars taste a little like Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. Told you I was random.

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