Wow, What a Weekend!!

Holiday weekends mess up my rhythm, so that is why today I’m doing the laundry I would normally have done this weekend. Just for you, here is a quick recap:

• I forgot to put up my picture for Saturday’s Photo Scavenger Hunt. I feel like since it is Tuesday, I should just wait until next weekend and participate then. That’s two weeks now I haven’t put up a photo. I hope I’m not in any trouble….

• Spent most of the weekend being lazy, working on some projects and playing Champions of Norrath: Call to Arms. Don’t laugh, this is how me and the hubby hang; we play geeky video games.
• Went to my friend La’s house (her brand spankin’ new one!) for a party, and met her fabulous hubby. Loved the food, loved the laughs, and loved the martinis! Thank you!
• I didn’t love the hangover, but that’s okay. Advil took care of that!

Will report more later! Kids are wanting the computer! Save me!!!

Things I Love Thursday: The Friday Edition

What do you get when you have school end mid-week, a party that evening, and errands that take up the entire next day; plus cramps? TILT & Thursday 13 on a Friday, that’s what!

So without further ado, I give you my Thursday Thirteen: 13 Thoughts about Summer since ours has officially begun. Enjoy!

1. Gamecube all day, every day. (That’s what Spiff thinks!)

2. “We get to stay up until 10pm now, and you can’t say anything about it!” (Oh, really?)
3. Spongebob rules!
4. “Mom, play pirates with me?”
5. “Just once, I’d love it if you’d sleep in instead of getting up at the butt-crack of dawn.”
6. “While I wait to play GameCube, I’ll play my GameBoy, okay, Mom?”
7. “Let’s go swimming. Now.”
8. Running around the house in our underwear all day, or until the doorbell rings, whichever comes first.
9. “Does McDonald’s deliver?”
10. “Is it raining? It must be 4pm.”
11. “We’ll go buy that toy to play with later, okay, Mom?” (using a commercial as reference)
12. “Are you sure Summer School is only for remedial classes?”
13. Classes Resume August 10, Open House August 8. (Thank you, sweet jeebus)

Disclaimer: I do love my kids, and I like spending time with them. Really.

This Post is Brought to You By the Letter T

Write ten words beginning with the letter you’ve been given. Include an explanation of what each word means to you and why. If you want to play, ask for a letter in comments. I’ll issue you a letter. TNChick gave me the letter T.

1. Tiny – For reasons I can’t explain, this word makes me smile. Maybe it’s because it makes me think of my son’s feet when they were little, and I think I’ve mentioned how much I adore little kid’s feet. It also makes me remember in one word one of my mother’s favorite sayings to me when I was younger “Good things come in tiny packages”. I think she was trying to make me feel better because I was small. To her credit, many years after the fact, it does.

2. Toes – See above. I love little feet and toes. My boys, for some reason, have the cutest feet (I think) on the planet. Yeah, I’m biased. So what?
3. Tacos – Since I have family who know how to make these from scratch (from El Paso, no less!), and I have tried to duplicate my mother’s version for my own family, I give you this homage to the letter T. Plus, I’m probably hungry as I type this, and a taco would probably be great right about now.
4. Tenacious – Besides being nice and all that, this is probably a good word to describe me. If it is important to me, I don’t back down easily. Some could also include hardheaded in that, but I was given T, not H.
5. Ticklish – From my head to my feet, thank you very much. My husband takes great pride in reminding me just how ticklish I am. If you see a woman hysterically laughing during a pedicure while you are on vacation here in Central Florida, chances are it is me.
6. Tea – I love all kinds, from iced to hot, Earl grey to green. I could definitely be classified as a tea-a-holic.
7. Time – There’s never enough of it when you need it, and when you want it to slow down or stop it ignores you. Bastard!
8. Toys – My children have too many, but yet, I’m out there buying them more. As a grownup, you can get some pretty cool toys, but they can be expensive. As a woman, toys can be interesting (and not a little bit scary).
9. Two – This is the number of children I have. This is plenty for me and my hubby. I get asked all the time if I am going to have another one, (because I apparently need a girl to even the odds in my home, according to all and sundry) but the short answer is no. The long one is hell to the no, but mostly no suffices.
10. Tony – The shortened middle name of one of my sons, and the name of the person whom we named him after. This one’s for you, Uncle Tony.

Graduations and Haute Couture

So the post about People Magazine will have to wait one more day because today was filled with graduation and celebrating Spiff finishing elementary school. I also haven’t had time to follow completely through on the task that People put before me, so I’m not sure if I should start with what has happened to this point and then have a part two; or just wait until I finish the task.

While I ponder this, allow me to share two people who attended the graduation ceremony today.

One mother wore an outfit to a 9:30 am graduation ceremony that can only be described as “streetwalker chic”. I wasn’t sure if she had just come from work, or was heading out to work after the ceremony. Apparently neither could a few other people seated near me, for she was the talk of the “town”.

A father who’s older daughter was graduating kept having his younger daughter (she was about 3, I think) toddle up to her and sit on her lap, all while crying incessantly at the top of her lungs, which made it hard to hear. The father in question seems to have K-Fed as his wardrobe muse, for he was an older, portly man who was rockin’ a wife beater and a Rolex watch that didn’t fit his wrist (it was too big) I’ve seen the future Kevin Federline, and people, it wasn’t pretty.

Other than those exceptions, the ceremony was wonderful.

I’m so proud of my boy.

P.S. Apparently everyone can resist a Mad Lib. Oh well.

Monday Mad Libs – Guess Where I was Today? Edition 5/22/06

I figured that for Monday I’d try something fun. Each week, I’ll do a small Mad Lib, and you can pick the words you’d use and put them in the comments section.

(If you want, you are by no means obligated. However, WHO can resist a Mad Lib, I ask you?)

The person who gets closest to what I’m really trying to say in my Mad Lib will win a shout out in my sidebar and my awe that even through a computer, you could know me so well. (Or you’re stalking me, which is so unnecessary. Just say hello, I don’t bite!) Also, I might throw in a mix CD or something cool like that.

Anyway, here is this week’s Mad Lib. Enjoy!

Today, I went to the (place of Business) to have my (noun) fixed. As I (verb) to the (noun) going on around me, I realized I’m not as (adjective) as I used to be, and that (noun) is (verb) without me. When you (verb) the music of (name of band) in a (place of business) like this, you know you are getting (adjective).

So there it is. This one’s pretty easy, I think. So go on, give it your best shot!

________________________________

Saw The DaVinci Code on Saturday. It was really good!! It stayed pretty true to the book, except for some minor tweaks here and there. The movie focuses more on the action sequences of the story, and goes lighter on the symbols and symbolism that was more in depth in the book. I read The DaVinci Code and the other book that Dan Brown was sued for “plagiarizing”, Holy Blood, Holy Grail. To be honest, I had read Holy Blood, Holy Grail first many years ago,and when I finished The DaVinci Code the first thing I said was that Hubby needed to read Holy Blood, Holy Grail if he liked DaVinci. Both were very interesting reads.

We saw it during a matinee, because we’re cheap like that, so it was money well spent. Not to mention it was the first grown up movie Hubby and I have seen in a long while. Without the kids. I know, I too thought hell might freeze over before this happened. Crisis avoided!

So, have fun with the Mad Lib, and come back for tomorrow’s installment which will enthrall you with the story of how People Magazine helped reunite me with an old childhood friend that I haven’t seen in 24 years! True story, I swear!

Bring tissues.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: Flowers

Sorry to disappoint, but I got nothin’.

I can tell you that a few years back, I had all sorts of lovely photos of flowers that I personally photographed with my trusty camera, and lo, they were blindingly beautiful. They were so beautiful, that the hard drive they were sitting on got insanely jealous of all their loveliness and ate them.

And of course, like the idiot that I am, I didn’t have them backed up on a disk of any sort.

I’m a study in brilliance.

So anyhoo, because I’m too lazy to go to a nursery and take a photo, and I’m too honest to steal one off the internet and claim it as my own, I shan’t be participating in the scavenger hunt this week.

However, if you want to take a break from all the lovely flower photos and peek at my son’s way cool game he made, scroll down one post and you may bask in the glory that is his masterpiece.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go mourn the loss (again!) of all those lovely photos. If you need me I’ll be making sure The DaVinci Code is truly the crap the reviewers say it is.

Bring popcorn. Thanks.

Spiff’s Masterpiece

Here is the game, lovingly handmade by Spiff for his Book Talk final project:

We “road tested” the game before he brought it into school. If you don’t count the fact that several spaces were “Doomsday Cards” that had you go back more than 20 spaces, and that I landed on (I think) every one of them; it was a fun game, and a great effort on Spiff’s part. Hubby really enjoyed playing, if only for the fact that he ultimately won the game even after going back at least 40 spaces or more during the course of the game and yet still pulled off the win. I’m guessing he felt like BJ and Tyler from The Amazing Race right about then.

At that point, I was still back at START. Damn you Doomsday Cards!!!

Gimme an F! Gimme an R! Gimme a …Ah screw it…

And that should explain why I didn’t last long as a cheerleader. Oh well.

Moving on….

So I’ve made it to the end of the week. Yay me!!! I have another post in the works, so it looks like I’ll actually be posting on Saturday and Sunday at some point. Do you ever have one of your posts start in your head, and you have to start putting fingers to keyboard, but you just can’t finish it right then? I’m having one of those moments right now, so until I can get all of my thoughts together in a coherent process, I leave you with this. Thank you TNChick, for the idea. You rock. Glad you are feeling better.

Frosted Flakes were what Spiff wanted for breakfast this morning. The only reason he wanted them is because they were in our kitchen, but they aren’t ours to have. I’m bringing two friends of Scamp’s to school each morning until school ends next Wednesday. Their mom kindly provided the breakfast eats for her kids, and of course, we always want what we can’t have.

Really proud of Spiff’s final project for school. It’s a game he designed for a Book Talk in his class. The book he used was called How to Train Your Dragon. I took pictures of it this morning, and I’ll post them later today once I upload them. I’ll also share more about the game then and our test game last night. It was a lot of fun.

I‘m so tired today. I can’t seem to get motivated, and I have already left the house once and interacted with kids and grownups. Now I’m back home, and I need a nap.

Dungeons and Dragons is on tap tonight for us. We’re going over to our friends’ house who just had a beautiful baby girl who is now home! The boys were really excited when I told them of our plans this evening. I go for the time spent with family, friends, and food.

Andrew, a neighbor of ours who we have had the pleasure of watching grow into a fantastic young man, is graduating from High School tonight. Congratulations! We’ll see you on Saturday!

Y‘all have a great weekend, okay? Enjoy yourselves and stay safe!

-By the by, you can tell it’s going to be a good day when at exactly the same time you and your husband, sitting directly across from each other at the desk, both start dancing crazy in your seats to a song (I Got Love?) that is in the movie “The Transporter” and you don’t laugh at each other, you laugh together. That’s love folks, straight up.

Things I Love Thursday: 13 TiVo-able Shows

Okay, so right now, I have more than 13 shows per week I TiVo for someone or other in my family. I’ll only give you the ultimate favorites of each family member, and then, just for fun, I’m gonna throw in a few I WOULD have TiVo-ed had TiVo been around “back in the day”. Holler if you recognize an old favorite or a recent addiction. It’s nice to know if others share in this sickness called TiVo Overload.

Here goes:

1. Grey’s Anatomy. This one is a no-brainer. I’m so mad at ABC for changing Grey’s to Thursdays, because that means my TiVo will have to decide between CSI, Grey’s and The Office (unless NBC moves that earlier or to, say, Tuesday). I want to say Grey’s would win, but right now I’m so mad at McDreamy, I might have to suspend TiVo privileges.

2. Lost. I HAVE to TiVo these, if only for all the stuff I have to go back and look for after I read various message boards and conspiracy-theorists. This show is tailor-made for TiVo. It so rocks.

3. The Most Extreme. Spiff loves this show with all of his heart. He and his teacher discuss, at length, stuff from this show. I have to turn my head every time a snake comes on, because snakes make me squeamish.

4. The Wonder Pets!. Nick Jr. took a 2 minute silent-but-for-music filler between shows and turned it into a half-hour show where Linny, Tuck, and Ming-Ming save other pets from peril. Scamp loves this show, and I have been known to hear the theme song in my sleep. Hopefully, we’ve seen most of the shows they have put out there, so this TiVo addiction can stop for awhile. Please.

5. Hustle. Brilliant premise, brilliant show. AMC Channel, Saturday nights at 10pm. Give it a chance, will ya? It’s not like there’s anything else on worth watching or anything.

6. America’s Funniest Home Videos. Nothing brings a family closer together than watching other people bonk into all kinds of things or go flying through the air. Perfect before bed viewing, any day of the week.

7. American Idol. By TiVo-ing this show, you can skip all the goofy commercials, ESPECIALLY the constant ones about the OC or Bones. Cuts the show down to about 15 minutes, if you cut out the inane chatter of Ryan Seacrest too. Makes it worth watching.

8. Extreme Makeover:Home Edition. Okay, don’t get me wrong, I love Ty. Really, I do. When this show first aired, I watched it from beginning to end, religiously. I’d only fast forward through the commercials. Now, however, things are different. I know they’ll build a house in a week. I know it will be cool. So now, I just watch the first 10 minutes or so to see stuff about the family, and then go to the reveal and watch until it’s over. It’s actually very satisfying to view it that way, and I can still like Ty. Everybody wins!

9. The Showbiz Show with David Spade. Forget Entertainment Tonight, you should be watching this show. I like a little snark with my celebrity from time to time, and Mr. Spade delivers.

10. (TiVo Flashback!) Knots Landing. I was a Rainbow Girl, and our meetings were on Thursday nights. This meant that I either missed the entire show altogether or I would get home just in time to see the very end. This went on for years. Thank God for SoapNet in it’s infancy, otherwise I wouldn’t have ever seen the episodes I missed, or even the ones I had long forgotten. This was back when it was worth it to watch Nicolette Sheridan on your TV. Her Paige Matheson could run rings around Edie Britt anyday. Yes, I had a girl crush. Shut up.

11. (TiVo Flashback!) Dallas. Friday Nights were nights I got to go out on dates, but I used to watch (and love) this show when I was younger. This was the perfect TiVo show back in the day. Actually, Friday would have had the perfect TiVo trifecta of Dukes of Hazzard, Dallas, and Falcon Crest.

12. (TiVo Flashback!) Hee Haw. This show was opposite The Lawrence Welk Show. This show was very boring, and only appealed to the older generation. Trust me on this. Well, I happened to live with not only my parents, but for a time my grandmother also lived with us. Guess what we ended up watching each week on Sunday nights? Guess what Shash would have preferred watching on Sunday nights? I did get to watch it on occasion, but usually Mr. Welk won the battle. Well, until my father bought my grandmother her own television, then I got to watch Hee Haw sometimes. No, really, I’m not still bitter about this. Honest.

13. (TiVo Flashback!) Fantasy Island. The original is still the best with Ricardo Montelban as Roarke, but I still love me some Malcolm McDowell. For a kid, this show was what High School Musical and the OC are to today’s youth. It just rocked. I can’t tell you why though, just like they can’t tell us why those shows today are great. It’s a mystery. A fabulous, wonderful mystery.

So that’s it! Thoughts? Comments? Corrections? What would you have TiVo-ed back then?

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It’s all about the MEME, baby…

Rockstar Mommy told us to do this, and since I voted for Taylor, I guess one could view this as my penance.

I AM: Stuffed to the gills with food compliments of Olive Garden and my friend La.

I SAID: I would get gas for the van on the way home today. Whoops.

I WANT: Laminate Flooring so I stop being allergic of my own home.

I WISH: Money grew on trees to afford all the little things (and big ones too!).

I HATE: When people make wide U-Turns into my lane and then flip me the bird for being there since I had the right of way turning right. Schmuck. Oh, and the new “Crumbelievable” commercial from Kraft. I hated that song in it’s original version.

I MISS: My mom.

I FEAR: That the next three years are going to be excrutiatingly painful for Spiff.

I HEAR: The Princess Bride on the TV behind me.

I WONDER: I Wanda…..

I REGRET: Not finishing college when I should have.

I AM NOT: a fan of McDreamy right now. He is dead to me. Patrick Dempsey, however, can stop by for tea anytime. I’ll be here. Waiting…

I DANCE: While I do house work. It’s a sickness. I’m seeking medical attention.

I SING: In the shower, in the car, quietly in public. My husband says I sound pretty good. Simon would probably disagree.

I AM NOT ALWAYS: Patient.

I MADE: My mother’s famous tacos. I was so proud.

I WRITE: Whatever is going on with me or what I am thinking about. Mostly I write about my kids. They monopolize all of my time.

I CONFUSE: The names of my kids constantly. Scamp has been Spiff and vice versa. Both of their nicknames are “You There”.

I NEED: Time alone with my husband, and not with a computer between us in the office. Something with romance in it.

I SHOULD: Keep in touch with old friends more. I do think about them often.

I START: The day with a soda and a bendy straw.

I FINISH: My husband’s sentences sometimes. He finishes mine too, so it all evens out.

I BELIEVE: my kids can and should do whatever they want to do in life.

I KNOW: That Brian Austin Green has no recollection of that day I saved his behind at Universal Studios. Luckily for him, I do.

I CAN: Make a mean pina colada.

I CAN’?T: Iron a shirt to save my life. Marrying a ex-military man has it’s rewards.

I SEE: A yellow power ranger on his knees next to me on my desk. It’s a rather interesting visual.

I BLOG: Because I have something important to say, dammit!

I READ: All kinds of subjects. Right now it’s Jewish History, next week, probably Joan Collins at her trashiest. It all evens out.

I AM AROUSED BY: A good backrub or my husbands hands anywhere on me. Candelight helps too.

IT PISSES ME OFF: That I have to fight so hard for Spiff’s education. We should all be on the same team.

I FIND: Toys all over the house. Mostly action figures.

I LIKE: Having a family snuggle.

I LOVE: My Family. My Friends. Bendy Straws. Sting. Sleeping In. My house. (It’s truly my santuary.)

Ok, La, I’m tagging you to do this on your brand spankin’ new blog. Can’t wait to see yours!!!