not me monday

Look at that. I have not written two not me monday posts in a row.

I did not take the kids to the zoo for four hours on a fabulous, sunny day today with only 20 minutes worth of life in my camera. No, that would be both careless & incredibly frustrating. And this was not after stressing to make sure that my phone was adequately charged before leaving because god forbid I miss an email while at the zoo.

I did not make the cutest pink ribbon barrette last night even though the fate of my *business* is getting obviously clear. Perfect time to branch out.

I am not having a hard time writing this because I am not mesmerized by some incredibly stupid television contest that judges *beautiful* people by their inner beauty without them knowing. That would be ridiculous.

So, tell me. What did you not do today?

Oh, and these are not a few zoo pix I managed before the battery quit...

not me monday

I didn't forget *not me monday* on Monday because I was on a cupcake making high in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. (are you supposed to put a "." after the "."?)

I did not then start to write the post on Tuesday but got carried away ranting about the inauguration instead. I did not let *not me monday* go until Friday night. Late Friday night. Nope. And there's no way you can prove it.

I did not sell seven dream catchers in eight days and gift one to a three year old in need of sweet dreams...fast. I'm definitely not wondering what's up with the sudden interest...and I'm definitely not happy about it at all.

I have not started considering our mommy and me ballet and gymnastics classes as *exercise*. Nope, that would be pathetic. Just because I am forced to run, jump and sashay around a room for 45 minutes would not count as the appropriate amount of exercise for a 29 year old woman.

And finally...just for kicks...these are not some pictures of above mentioned cupcakes made on Monday. And they were not completely gone 48 hours later.

yes she can!

wordless wednesday

Custom images courtesy of Obamicon Me

making history...and then some.

What a day. Amazing. There are far too many words to describe what I was feeling today while I sat, bawling my eyes out, for nearly six hours straight in front of the TV. I didn't even make it out for coffee until 11:30 and those of you that know me will understand that this NEVER happens!

And those of you that know me also know how meaningful this day was to me. It's been a long road and I've been advocating hope and change for what seems like far too long. Of course I am still terribly concerned about the challenges that lie ahead for all of us, I'd be a fool not to, but I am at peace with the belief that we finally have an ambassador interested in showing us the way.

With that said, I do have to vent about just one teeny, tiny, little thing.

Yup, I'm gonna do it. Politics & Religion in one post. Run mom, run!

But seriously, I was deeply offended today by one particular part of the inaugural ceremony. I don't care what religion you are. Truly. Could care less. We've got enough different views in our small family to do one in. But, what I do care about is our country's constant need to keep religion at the forefront of politics.

Our founding father's would be horrified. Regardless of the religious views they had in their own time (many of them Aetheist) the one thing they collectively were is secularists. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment not only prohibits the establishment of a national religion by the Congress but also the preference of one religion over another, or religion over non-religion. George Washington himself wrote in 1796, "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." So now, please tell me why it's alright to lead into the invocation of the President of the United States with this:

"Let's Pray. Almighty God, our father, everything we see and everything we can't see exists because of you alone. It all comes from you, it all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory. History is your story."

I am by no means saying that these are not beautiful, powerful and appropriate words for many. What I am saying is that they are not appropriate for everyone. The Lord's Prayer is not appropriate for everyone.

I'm not saying that the message is not a positive one. Because it was, and you can read it all here. But, it is my humble opinion that the separation of church and state should be just that. Separate. And this is my blog so I can say that. And you can comment. Or not.

reason number one

This is reason number one why we might not be ready for a new dog just yet. Thirty minutes before the kids bedtime it hits me that we have an early morning and haven't had a shower in two days. Thus, I throw on some television....slip on their pj's...pour them some water...and take off running. I've got it all covered, right? Nope. It went down something like this:

zuzu: mommy...blah, blah, blah

mommy: (from running shower while applying conditioner to hair) zuzu, I'm in the shower and I can't hear you, what do you need?

zuzu: (getting closer) mommy, I have poo-poo on my foot

mommy: what?!

zuzu: I have poo-poo on my foot

mommy: (calmly opening shower door) why yes, you sure do. and where is the rest of the poop?

zuzu: (excitedly) ALL OVER YOUR FLOOR!

tiny dancer

This is no ordinary pair of ballet slippers. This is Zuzu's very first pair of ballet slippers.

No, they were not custom made one of a kind slippers & they don't have any magical powers but this seemingly silly twenty-some dollar purchase marks a special time in my life. Unfortunately, I don't think the teenage sales clerk had any concept of why I was so teary eyed while Zuzu was trying them on. Hell with her. She might get it some day.

As a child I loved to dance more than anything in the world. Looking back, I can't even imagine how hard it was on my working mom to shuffle me back and forth to the studio three or more times a week for tap, ballet, pointe & jazz classes. Then she had to buy shoes for each class every time my feet grew or I wore them out...not to mention all the darling leotards & costumes to go with them. But that was my passion and she supported it. (thanks mom!)

I was a dancer. And now my little girl has her very own ballet slippers. I'm filled with so many emotions today that make me grateful for everything I had and all that I am able to provide for my children. (I'm also feeling a little depressed that I'm old enough to feel this way but that's another post).

So, dance she may. Or she may not. But either way she has her very first pair of ballet slippers. And no one can take that away from me.

or maybe not.

By which I mean not without fear of birds.

Just as I was about to hit "publish post" on the previous entry (which you may actually want to go read first) we started to hear faint noises from Zuzu's room on the baby monitor. We hit mute on the TV, I continued to type and we listened without worry. It wasn't long before we heard Zuzu screaming in terror and it was very clear she was saying, "go away!" repeatedly. I only had to hear it a few times before I was up and on my way in, not knowing if I was supposed to wake her from this state or not, but compelled to do something.

She was HYSTERICAL. I picked her up and she screamed her head off for what felt like ten minutes. But was probably two. She was crying. I was crying. It was a full on tear fest. Finally, after bribes of television, books & bottles she settled for the milk, sucked it down, farted, and fell quickly back to sleep while holding my hand.

We're still not sure if it was a nightmare or a night terror because after doing a bit of googling we've learned that they are different. Whatever it was, I just hope it doesn't become a regular experience.

She's whining again now.

Shit.

If you have any personal experience with this please...do share.

Goodnight?

fly south? but it's 72 and sunny!

I am happy to announce that Zuzu has finally gotten over her fear of birds. Yes, birds. If you've had an occasional meal with our family you will surely remember a time that Zuzu screamed in fear at an outside cafe...of the pigeons. Well take a look at one of today's activities captured below. And these ain't no pigeons! The geese were out in full force at the boy's soccer practice today and the kids had far more fun chasing them around through the extraordinary amount of goose poop than actually playing soccer.
(please note that no geese were harmed during the filming of this event)

who's the mister?

Do you remember this post last June about the new lego obsession in our home? Or this one that followed? Well we're still at it. (I don't dare show you a photograph of his room which, over the last six months has accrued a more complete supply of Legos than our local Toys R Us)

This is the Lego King's Castle. *Santa* brought it to Grandma's house in Florida, the UPS man delivered it to California last week and Gage completed it tonight. Almost entirely by himself. He was so proud...




The next hour or so included comments such as these...

"I'm hitting my head I can't believe I made that whole castle!"- while sitting on the potty (after presumably *holding it* for several hours while he built).

"I wish I was an Octopus so I could have made the castle faster." - while watching Oswald on TV.

"Who's THE mis-ter that built THE cas-tle?" - this one was sung in tune. repeatedly.

wordless wednesday

oh baby it's cold outside...

the true meaning of friendship

No, I'm not going to get all sappy on you here. I am, however, going to share with you how I spent far too much time on google tonight trying to answer a simple question asked innocently by our five year old last night. (And subsequently spent far too much time trying to explain it to you here.)

Gage wanted to know why a "friendship" has to have a "ship" in it..."I mean it's just a friend and a friend...where did the ship come from?" Things that make you go hmmmm. (And make you thankful for the vast expanse of the internet). Maybe.

After stumbling through a few websites (including wikipedia) that simply defined the meaning of friendship as "a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more people" blah, blah, blah... I found this on Bartleby.com:

"The suffix -ship has a long history in English. It goes back to the Old English suffix -scipe, which was attached to adjectives and nouns to indicate a particular state or condition: hardship, friendship. In Modern English the suffix has been added only to nouns and usually indicates a state or condition (authorship, kinship, partnership, relationship), the qualities belonging to a class of human beings (craftsmanship, horsemanship, sportsmanship), or rank or office ."

Upon further research, I confirmed this definition of scipe in an Old English Dictionary:

"scipe [] m (-es/-as) 1. pay, stipend; 2. state, condition, dignity, office; 3. position, rank; 4. ge~ n (-es/-u) fate"

Not sure how you actually translate this to a five year old but at least we no longer suspect that it the word had something to do with the camaraderie found after spending time on a ship. Yes, that was a theory. Not mine. But a theory.

not me monday

I have not had this screen open, and the page blank for almost nine hours now because I had absolutely nothing to say. Nope, not me.

Yikes! The screen did not just completely freak out on me with a big red line across the top that reads "ERROR" probably because it's in shock that I'm finally typing. Nope. And it's not still there. Hello...I'm typing...go away...

I am not going to stop typing now in fear that none of this will save anyway and I will have to think up something else to write anyway. Nope, not me.

american airlines customer survey

After all the terrible travel experiences and related complaining last week, today I find this in my e-mail box. Are they for real? Do they really want to hear? And...if I win two free tickets will they promise that they don't cancel the flight for no apparent reason? Hmmmm....this is going to be fun...

Customer Service Survey - Tell Us What You Think

Dear Kristi Duchon,

Thank you for your recent travel. American Airlines is interested in your opinions. Please take a few minutes to complete our online survey. It should only take 4-5 minutes of your time. Just click on or copy the URL below into your web browser to take the survey.

To express our appreciation, we are providing an opportunity to win two free airline tickets to any destination served by American Airlines or American Eagle(R). At the conclusion of this survey you will be re-directed to a contest entry page. Winners will be chosen on a random basis each calendar quarter.

The deadline for filling out the survey is 11:59 p.m.(CT) on Thursday, January 15, 2009. All answers will be kept strictly confidential.

Thank you in advance for your comments. We value your opinions.

Sincerely,

Manuel de Oyarzábal
Managing Director
American Airlines Customer Research

wordless wednesday

not me monday

I did not spend every extra minute of my day today online, trying to gather new information about the CPSIA only to find out that we are all still screwed.

I did not allow Zuzu to hang out in the house naked all day while it was 55 degrees outside and not all that warm inside. I also did not look away after explicitly telling her to "only color on the paper" with the big black marker only to find her body ornately tattooed several minutes later.

I did not pack orange slices & potato chips in Gage's snack bag today and he did NOT eat ONLY the oranges...and all of them. Didn't freak me out at all.

I did not promise Gage (who snores) that he can sleep in my bed on Friday night to make up for the four days we lost together last week. Oye, I couldn't have possibly done that.

I did not start a lovely section promoting Etsy shops endangered by the CPSIA on the other blog and I absolutely will not tolerate any additional submissions. Don't even ask! (that's a "not me" joke, get it?)

What did you NOT do today?

this bag belongs to...

If you've been keeping up with us on facebook or twitter you're already aware that the boys had a nightmare travel day yesterday returning from their ski trip. Apparently the Vail airport was forced to shut down due to heavy snowfall so they found their way onto a 10 person shuttle which took over four hours to get them to the Denver airport. Thanks to a clear pass, and probably a little luck, they somehow managed to depart on the last flight out of Denver last night and appeared on our doorstep tired, dishevelled and only about four hours late. Everyone went to bed happy that the travel saga had finally come to a close.

Or not. When we awoke and motivated this morning we quickly discovered that Scott had become one of "those people". Yup. He is guilty as charged. In his defense, the bag was IDENTICAL to our bag. A little less worn and without the bright pink luggage tag but yes, it was exactly the same little black bag that I, and apparently many others, purchased at Target last year.

How many of you stand at the baggage carousel watching to make sure that some other careless idiot (sorry, Scott, that is not to imply that you are an idiot) doesn't pick up and walk away with your bag. I sure do. Paranoid? Maybe. But for just cause apparently!

Of course we checked the bag immediately for contact information so that we could alert the rightful owners and possibly deliver it to their home. Now people. Put your damn name and phone number on your bags. Isn't that travel 101? No such luck. Can't say they were asking for it...cause I'm sure they are totally pissed off that "the airline lost their luggage" but we can't help if we can't find you now can we?

So then Scott called United to see what they could do to help. Nothing. Come back to the airport. Bring the bag....and oh, by the way...just try to do it in the next day or two cause the people that own that stuff probably aren't in any hurry or anything.

Scott just called me from the airport. He waltzed into baggage, found our bag in a sea of others, picked it up and walked away with it. No one said word one. Now he's standing there struggling to find someone to actually take the other bag back from him...and feeling terribly that that person may very well never get a phone call from United. We sure didn't.

We screwed up. We tried to fix it and we couldn't. So, if you lost a little black bag around 10:30pm at SFO last night please feel free to comment now.

we could all use a little change....

time out, dammit!

My girlfriend posted this on her facebook page with the heading, "Time out is effective if used properly." I thought it was just about the funniest thing I've seen in a long time so I went ahead and ripped it off without her permission and posted it here for all the world to see. Yeah, that's what you get for crating your kids I guess.

Now Jane, I know you are a good mother...but what I am wondering is...um, where are your other two children???

happy new year!

Here's to a more peaceful & prosperous year in 2009...and to "and the beat goes on..." post #300.