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Saturday 9: Fa la la la la….

December 13, 2008 by Leave a Comment

1. Do you enjoy receiving or giving presents more?

Is it bad that I like both? I really like giving presents though. That makes me smile.

2. What is you favorite holiday film?

Meh. “Polar Express” I guess. I don’t really like holiday movies.

3. Have you started or finished your gift shopping?

Almost done!

4. What does this time of year mean to you?

Means it’s very cold and that my kids ask 34 times a day if it’s Christmas yet.

5. What is your favorite holiday song?

“Song for a Winter’s Night” – Sarah McLachlan.

6. What do you love about the holiday season?

I love getting stocking stuffers and doing that stockings.

7. What do you hate about the holiday season?

Trying to shop and deal with mall crowds in snowy slushy mall parking lots

8. Do religious ceremonies play a part in your holiday traditions? If yes, how?

Nope.

9. Who will you spend the holidays with?

My whole fam damily. We go to my mom’s at the butt crack of dawn Christmas morning and pretty much stay there all day with the remainder of my extended family filtering in all day for our family festivities later. It’s a LONG day and I’m always so exhausted when it’s over.

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Friday Fill In

December 12, 2008 by Leave a Comment

My answers in BOLD.

1. Friends are awesome – especially MY friends. I have the best friends ever. I’m really lucky.

2. Physical health; it’s very important to me to be active.

3. I’m ready for either pretty much everything or nothing at all – take your pick.

4. Fresh baked bread is one of my favorite perfumes or aftershaves or smells.
(To be fair – I also love the smell of: baking cookies, coffee beans, anything citrus, cilantro, several colognes, very few perfumes, movie popcorn… I could go on and on – I pay far too much attention to how things smell).

5. The oldest ornament I have is a letter S that used to be on my mom’s tree.

6. Take some vodka, cranberry juice, lime juice and triple sec, mix it all together and you have my version of a Cosmopolitan.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to wearing my new shirt (and not the actual holiday party), tomorrow my plans include a baby shower for my cousin’s wife, and Sunday I want to catch up with my BFF – it’s been too long since I’ve seen her (so feel better soon!!!).

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Thursday Ten, Two Weeks Til Christmas Edition

December 11, 2008 by 2 Comments

1. As I type this, Chris at Rude Cactus is up to 208 comments. So, over $100 to charity so far. If you haven’t yet dropped him a comment, remember, he’s donating $.50 per comment to charity (read his post for details). And, yes, you should still read him tomorrow and beyond that, because he’s funny.

2. My guitar lesson went so well today. I walked out and was unbelievably giddy – because I just felt like some things I had been struggling with (mainly bar chords) were finally coming together. I played one well – thought it was a fluke, and then went through the rest and almost consistently, they were coming together. I have been having THE WORST time with them- basically because it takes finger strength to do them, and the only way you can get that kind of strength is by (hey!) doing them. So, yeah – you have to play it like crap a whole lot of times until you’re strong enough to play it less like crap. And I hit that today and I’m happy.

3. Oh my god I have eaten so many cookies. Does anyone want to send me Chex Mix or Cheetos?

4. And since I’m asking, does anyone want to come over and make dinner for my family tonight because I looked in the fridge and there’s not much there. Looks like we’re having yogurt, gingerbread cookies and Cheerios. Yum.

5. I have been sleeping horribly this week, and so that’s been difficult. I’m fine once I fall asleep – it’s the actually FALLING ASLEEP part that I’m having trouble with. Any ideas?

6. I have to go to a baby shower this weekend for my cousin’s wife. I am in charge of getting the gift. I haven’t looked at her registry yet. I haven’t been to Babies R Us yet. I am doing a pretty crappy job with this gifting thing for her. This is their first, so I’m kind of curious as to what they registered for. I’m sure I did moronic registering when I was pregnant for The Princess. Typical clueless first time parent who thinks you really need a wipe warmer or a bottle warmer that plugs into your cigarette lighter (used once, I think). I am told their registry is 19 pages long, so I’m hoping that means there is still some stuff left to choose from when I finally get to the store.

7. New music this week – still pretty slow, musically. A friend of mine is a country music fan and had me listen to “Stay” by Sugarland and then the freakin’ song got stuck in my head so I bought it (thanks). I have a huge list of new music – but I also get to feeling a little guilty buying things for myself at this time of year.

8. My mom sent out her family Christmas letter and a card with a collage of pictures of everyone in our family. There are six grandchildren, five kids (us and our stepbrothers), three significant others, my mom and her husband… AND WE ALL LOOK LIKE CRAP IN THE INDIVIDUAL PICTURES. What are the odds that NOT ONE PERSON looks good? Well, we hit the photographic jackpot. Everyone looks like hell. Merry Christmas. (Though I do have to say the part of her family Christmas letter that talks about my family is the best part of the letter because I wrote it).

9. Do you love or hate getting people’s family Christmas letters? My mom is known for sending them – but I hated getting other people’s letters when we were kids. Hearing all these fantastic things their kids were doing, all these amazing places they were travelling. It always felt like “hey, read the 101 ways our family is better than yours”. Or, maybe I just have a complex.

10. I have to break my dry spell on music buying. Tell me what you’re listening to these days?

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Tis The Season

December 11, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Every morning while I am supposed to be doing something productive like…get my kids ready for their day… I fire up my laptop and the first blog I go to in the morning is Rude Cactus written by Chris. Chris’s wife, Beth, is also a blogger and writes So The Fish Said.

I like to read his blog – he talks lots about books, music, and midgets. Today’s post was a nice reminder at this time of year, that there are those less fortunate than us – and for each comment from a unique visitor that he gets, he’ll be donating $.50 to charity. So, head on over to his place this morning and leave him a comment.

I’ll be back a little later with my Thursday Ten post.

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ALPHA-ME

December 10, 2008 by Leave a Comment

I’m sure I’ve done this before, but I was over reading Kat’s blog and I stole it from her. Basically, I’ve been binging on cookies and having trouble stringing words together today.

A is for age: I’m 32.

B is for burger of choice: I’m not a vegetarian but haven’t had a burger in probably ten plus years (true story). My favorite is a Cuban black bean burger that I make. I serve it with gobs of salsa. Spicy yummy.

C is for the car I drive: A MamaVan

D is for your dog’s name: No doggie.

E is for essential item you use every day: Definitely my toothbrush!

F is for favorite TV show at the moment: Prison Break.

G is for favorite game: Taboo

H is for home state: I guess Michigan, but I will happily make my home state somewhere it doesn’t snow because I am fickle.

I is for instruments you play: Flute and guitar (I’m learning, so it counts).

J is for favorite juice: Cranberry.

K is for whose bum you’d like to kick: Who has that kind of time?

L is for last restaurant at which you ate: I have no idea. That’s sad, right?

M is for your favorite Muppet: The Swedish Chef.

N is for number of piercings: One hole in each ear. If I didn’t think that ship had totally sailed, agewise, I might pierce my belly button. But, I’m getting old and it’s probably a little too “desperately clinging to my youth”

O is for overnight hospital stays: Two nights when The Princess was born, one night when Pumpkin was born (I was bored and wanted to go home and couldn’t stand the thought of being there one more day)

P is for people you were with today: Pumpkin

Q is for what you do with your quiet time: Quiet time? What is that?

R is for biggest regret: I don’t believe in ’em.

S is for status: Married

T is for time you woke up today: 7 a.m., which is awesome because I slept horribly and needed to not be up before 6.

U is for what you consider unique about yourself: Everything. I’m not exactly like anyone else.

V is for vegetable you love: Peppers – red, green, whatever. Raw or cooked, I love ’em.

W is for worst habit: I’m addicted to sugar.

X is for x-rays you’ve had: Dental, and of my feet.

Y is for yummy food you ate today: Duuuuh. Gingerbread

Z is for zodiac: Libra

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Gingerbread SmackDown!

December 9, 2008 by 4 Comments

I love gingerbread. I know people who don’t, and to that I say: More for me. One of my favorite aspects of winter, though, is that gingerbread flavors are everywhere. Panera has an awesome gingerbread bagel. Starbucks has the gingersnap latte (which is not as good as last year – and I finally figured out today what it was missing: NUTMEG). I even saw an ad for Coldstone Creamery that showed a gingerbread cake with gingerbread ice cream inside and even though it’s far too cold for ice cream, I’m more than a little tempted.

I always make gingerbread cookies at this time of year, but admittedly – I’ve typically made them from a mix. This year, I figured I would do it right. I would actually make them from scratch. I dug through my binders of recipes (seriously: HUGE binders filled with recipes) and found two gingerbread cookie recipes. One was from Cooking Light magazine. The other was a Paula Deen recipe.

I made the CL version on Friday night, the Paula version on Sunday. The CL version had less butter, more molasses and used white sugar instead of brown. The Paula version had twice as many calories and more than twice as much fat (but I still have to say, nutritionally, gingerbread cookies? Not that bad for you. Thank god – because I have eaten A LOT of them in the past few days). The CL version was easier to roll and work with and though both versions tasted good, the CL cookies were actually better.

Once I finish eating all the gingerbread cookies that are sitting on my counter and finish the Paula gingerbread dough in my fridge, I will be using only the Cooking Light recipe for the rest of the season.

Oh the trouble I go through for my cookies.

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Why I Love eZimba

December 9, 2008 by 1 Comment

Today is day 100 of the Envisage 365 project. I had all these ideas in my head – I mean, sheesh, day 100 – kind of a big deal, right? The thing is, I was kind of in a smidge of a funk today and didn’t really do much. I got some coffee, I did Tae Bo, I sat on the floor in my office jamming to music while working. Same stuff I do regularly, I guess. Nothing really DAY 100 worthy.

One of my projects for the day though was to find a top to wear to Hubby’s company holiday party on Friday. Admittedly, I am not so enthused with this holiday party idea and here is why: It’s being held at a comedy club which is a 45 minute drive from our house (in perfect weather). We’ll arrive at 6:30 for appetizers (and I do not love bar food – and the day you see me gnawing on a chicken wing is the day you realize I’m stranded on a deserted island with no other food to eat) and the show is at 8. Sooooo, no dinner. Then, figure in the fact that I have a pretty whacked out sense of humor and I DON’T KNOW HUBBY’S CO-WORKERS. How much attention are they going to pay to the fact that I laugh loudest at the crudest jokes? I don’t know. ANYWAY, since it’s being held in a bar, I’m wearing jeans – but wanted a little something different to wear with them.

Hence the shopping trip.

Which led to my desperate picture snap in the fitting room.

I didn’t buy this shirt. I liked it though. This was the second runner up. My BFF can tell you I almost ALWAYS pick busy shirts with funky patterns. I’m not sure why.

So, here you have the iPhone photo opp. Then, I got home and funked it up with eZimba (and if you have an iPhone, this is so much fun because it’s free and you can do wild goofy stuff to your pics).

And here you’ve got abstract Sarah, which, I kinda like for the fact that holy cow, my lips are really red. Fun times.

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Oh DADS!

December 7, 2008 by Leave a Comment

I saw this on WMAG, and thought it was adorable…

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It’s Definitely December

December 6, 2008 by 1 Comment

The weather in my neck of the woods is not so lovely. Well, I suppose, actually, that it’s FINE if you are one of those people who loves winter (My BFF totally falls into that category, but I never hold it against her – I love her anyway). This morning after being on a mission around the house (more on that later), I took the girls to Target to pick up a few things we needed and to get out of the house before full-on cabin fever set in. On the way HOME from Target, this was the scene: Yuck.

Grey skies, lots of snow. To top it all off, our driveway snow plow guy hasn’t showed up today (I’m sure he’d have been here long ago if we were paying him PER plow versus for the whole season). I’m guessing at this point there’s about four inches of snow on my driveway. Or, that’s what I would have estimated around 3 p.m. which was the last time I set foot outside today.

Alright, so, back to my household mission. Technically, I started yesterday. I was on a wicked crazy cleaning binge. I have decided that it’s time to RETRAIN my family into being more proactive about picking up their mess and having our house look clean and less like the site of a natural disaster. While I may not be the biggest neat freak on the planet, in general I think so much more clearly when my surroundings aren’t a mess and frankly I’m a much nicer person when my environment is tidy. Hence my mission.

Last night, I cleaned all the surfaces in the kitchen – counter tops, stove, appliances, sink, you name it. Today, I swept and scrubbed the floors. I also demolished our laundry room, downstairs bathroom, mudroom (that still needs some work) and did some major tidying up to the office. And the new rule is: IF YOU MAKE A MESS, CLEAN IT UP. If you spill, wipe it up. If you get it out, you put it away. If you used a dish, put it in the dishwasher. If the dishwasher is full, run it.

Granted, some of this is not stuff my girls can do quite yet, but I have been picking up the slack for the family for quite some time – mainly because it’s a bit of my crazy – I like it clean and it’s a priority for me. Well, you know – that’s just not fair – to me or to them really.

And let me tell you, The Princess has taken to the new system SO WELL that even she corrected Hubby when he arrived home and dumped everything all over the counter, telling him, “Um, dad – when I got my cookie earlier? I got crumbs on the counter, and you know what? I wiped them up RIGHT AWAY.” And she did too. She’s checking the dishwasher before just tossing her dirty dishes on the counter, and my kitchen is still clean right now. No dirty dishes in the sink. No pans on the stove. I could go down there right now and not go crazy.

I hope this catches on.

This may mean that I am the meanest mom and wife ever. That’s fine with me. As long as everything stays cleaner than it’s been.

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Saturday 9 – Snoooooooze

December 6, 2008 by Leave a Comment

1. How long do you sleep each night?
About seven hours, on average.

2. Do you fall asleep easily?
Usually, I’m so wiped out after a day with my kids and with work, that yeah – I’m out after I spend some time reading or if I’m out of books, figuring a Sudoku puzzle. If I try to sleep without the reading, though – forget it. I need that to wind down my brain.

3. Do you fall asleep at times not in your bed?
Rarely. I do tend to fall asleep if I’m the passenger on a long car trip. I slept down a good chunk of the PCH on a business trip to Oregon once to avoid talking to a coworker.

4. Do you listen to music or use “white noise” to sleep?
I used to always have music on to go to sleep but Hubby can’t sleep that way, so I had to give it up.

5. Do you sleep through the night or get up a couple of times?
I almost never get up in the middle of the night if the kids don’t. Once I’m up in the middle of the night, it’s a HUGE pain for me to fall asleep again.

6. Do you have trouble sleeping away from your own bed?
Sometimes. It depends where I am.

7. Do you need an alarm clock to get you up?
I haven’t used an alarm clock in about three years.

8. Do you ever take medication to help you sleep?
If I need to get some sleep and I’m not at all tired, I will happily take a Tylenol PM. It’s not often, but it works – I’d rather get sleep than lie in bed upset about not sleeping.

9. Do you/have you slept with pets?
Nope.

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