Happy Turkey Day (or what the hell is wrong with me??)

Okay. I am supposed to be to mom & dad's in 45 minutes with mashed potatoes, buns, and pumpkin pie. The potatoes are boiling, the pie is made (whew), and the buns are baking. I haven't showered, don't know what I'm going to wear (does anyone really care though?), and now my mom will know the real reason why I was late - oops! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am so thankful for family, friends, and everyone's good health. Gotta run - the buns are burning....

The WI Tiling Project

It's not as exciting or funny as I thought it might be, but here it is. We all trekked to N. Hudson last weekend to help our pal complete her tiling project. It started out as a small project, like they do, but it snowballed. She ended up pulling out her bottom cabinets, appliances - everything. Yikes! We rolled up our sleeves and dug right in. Here is a before photo. Some shots of the hard-working crew and what the kids were doing while we worked. At the end of the day, we had a beautiful finished product (that's the worker's loverly wife holding some ibuprofen for his sore knees) and a really happy friend. Then we got down to what we really drove all the way over there for. And what became of the hardwood flooring that she ripped out? Well, it's currently stacked in my garage waiting to be installed in the basement to replace the gross carpet. Win-win.

Sorry, I'm empty!

This comic pretty much sums it all up. I got nothin' today. I'm brain dead from going to Costco and Cub (I HATE the Cub in St. Louis Park!), and stuffing folders at school with 2 dim-wit parents (I'm actually being kinda nice here), and unloading a gajillion pounds of cookie dough for the school fundraiser. I think I'll take a tiny nappy and get back to you tomorrow.

Oh! And I'm sure I'll have a great post after this weekend. We're going to caravan to Hudson to help a friend tile her kitchen, dining room, and entry way. And by "we" I mean me, my husband, our 2 kids, another pal & her husband and their 2 kids. By my count, that's 6 adults and 6 kids "helping" with the tiling. This should be good......

I hope everyone has family and friends as funny as this!

So I turned 40 at the beginning of October and I threw myself a really fun party. The t-shirts some of the guests wore (snarky, smarmy and plain old funny) were my absolute favorite! Who knew I had such creative friends/family? My brother & his wife made shirts with some very flattering photos of me on them (sorry, no photos - I wasn't in charge that night & the people who were supposed to be were um .... hammered). Two of my friends made t-shirts with this gorgeous photo of me on the front and 10 reasons why they love me - my favorite was "she's always the happiest at happy hour."


I will have to say that my favorite shirt was the one my 80 something year old grandma was wearing. Now to make it funny, you have to know that my grandma is a bit of a diva. She once owned over 80 pairs of very awesome high heels (even orange). She HATES the f-word. She recently had to start using a walker because of a bit of a balance problem and she HATES it. Her shirt said "It's always funny until someone gets hurt. Then it's freakin' hilarious." That's funny.


My mom made me an amazing (tasting & looking) cake. It had edible photos of me on it, which made for a lot of off-color jokes (use your imagination here).


I did jello shots (made by my lovely sister in law) with my other 80ish grandma. And that pretty yellow vest I'm wearing in the previous photo? It's a Knights of Columbus fundraising vest that says "help mentally handicapped citizens." Don't ask me where my friend got it because I'm a little afraid she assaulted an old man and stole it right off his back!


I got loads of really funny gifts too. I'll have to say that my parents got very creative with this one. Don't recognize it? It's the money tree that my dad always referred to when we were growing up if we asked for anything that cost money. As in, "Hey dad, can I have some gas money?" "Sure honey, I'll just run right out into the backyard and pick it off the money tree." My parents are kinda sarcastic that way! What an awesomely funny gift! I was also the lucky recipient of a black velvet painting of Michael Jackson (pre-plastic surgery).


And - did you know that you can order M&Ms with a photo on them?? One of my aunts ordered me pink & purple M&Ms with a really flattering photo of me on them from many, many years ago (yikes!). Cool!


My undies were hung on the ceiling fan in my bedroom (even the granny ones - thanks!), there was a black velvet clown painting in the bathroom AND a clown head in my bed when I finally hit the pillow. What a great night...

People actually read what I write??

Well. Who'd have thought? I've been writing this Blog to get all my thoughts out of my head (kinda like my old journals) and also because I get the impression that the loved ones in my life don't particularly appreciate my commentary about all this monotony (who needs to be reminded about it?). So the Blog began as something for me. Turns out other people read it too. How cool is that? I logged on this morning to discover that I won a blogging award! One of my favorite bloggers - the one and only 34b cup nominated yours truly for the Superior Scribbler Award! Very cool - thank you B cup! It's kind of a "pay it forward" kind of award. Once you receive it, you have to nominate 5 other Blogs that you love to read. So here are my picks for the Superior Scribbler Award (now I have to 'fess up to reading them, I usually just like to lurk out there in cyberspace - oh well!)hopefully this chain of awesomeness won't be broken by any of my picks!

1. Losing My Mind - written by a smart-alec mom of 4 adopted kids (I feel like I need to tell you they're adopted because one has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and I wouldn't want you to think that the author would drink while incubating!!) This blog makes me thank God every day for my 2 healthy (but sometimes challenging nonetheless) kids.

2. matt, liz and madeline I learned about this one in my local newspaper several months ago. Start at the beginning in his archives, settle in with a box of tissues and read from start to finish. It's an amazing story about a new dad who, through heartbreaking circumstances, finds himself a single parent to his premature daughter. Did I mention it's amazing? It is.

3. The Big Picture written by the daughter of one of my mom's cousins (does that make me her 2nd or 3rd cousin? - that's beside the point). Another heartbreaking blog about loss. This time the loss of a child in an awful household accident. My warning to everyone here is that the author is not shy about sharing her Faith (if that kind of thing turns you off).

Wow! I'm really sorry for being Debbie Downer here, but they really are great blogs to read and I guess reading each one makes me appreciate my family, however nutty a day I happen to be having or how pissed off I am at my husband. They're here and healthy - quit bitching (directed at myself, of course)!

All right - let's lighten the mood a bit here, shall we??

4. Cake Wrecks a guilty pleasure - it's hilarious. I really know nothing else about it other than it's about good cakes gone bad - decorating that is. Funny stuff. My favorite is the Happy Birthday Death & Libby cake (was supposed to be 'Beth & Libby' - oops!

5. The Hussy Housewife an oh-so funny mom in Idaho blogging about the mundane with a TON of humor. Her blog says "my Suburban can run over your mini-van... and it will. " While I do drive a mini-van (get off my back!) I didn't take offense because I tend to drive like a bat out of hell (plus - she lives in Idaho - nowhere near my 'burb).

and to every good - there are rules to follow...

1. Post the award on your blog

2. Link me for giving it to you

3. Link the originating post here

4. Pass the award on to 5 more deserving people

5. Post these rules for your recipients

So again, THANK YOU B Cup! You made my day. Everyone else - check out the above blogs - you're not really working anyway, are you??

Ewwww!!!!!!

It was bound to happen and frankly, I'm surprised it took until my oldest was in third grade before it did. I was emptying his backpack on Wednesday and there was a note from the school nurse explaining that someone in his class has HEAD LICE!!! Gross. I know it has nothing to do with cleanliness or hygiene blah, blah, blah. It's still so gross. My head immediately started to itch. I looked both kids over thoroughly (trust me!!). Nothing, thank goodness! I explained (again) the importance of NEVER putting anything on or near your head that does not belong to you. Don't share brushes, scarves, hats, pillows... put your sweatshirt in your backpack - don't hang it on the hook next to everyone else's jackets that are teaming with lice. You get the picture. Mom's a little OCD about some things. This is definitely one of them!

What a Fine Day to be Proud of Myself

2 breakfasts made & eaten- check
2 lunches made & packed - check
2 kids dressed, brushed and ready for school - check
2 backpacks stuffed with all the necesseties - check
3 snacks packed (2 for the hypoglycemic kid) - check
vitamins and antibiotics (strep)taken - check
1 kid to the bus on time - check
1 kid driven to school on time - check
Sweatshirt to school for kid who tried to dodge it - check
Vote - check

Return home, take one look at the gross carpet in my basement and decide that I cannot take it for one more millisecond. So I called Floors of Distinction and they are sending someone out to measure for new flooring today at 11:30 so.....

1.5 hours to:
pick up all the clutter (kids' stuff mostly!) and put it where it belongs - check
vacuum (not supposed to do this yet) - check
dust - check
clean the kitchen - check
do the dishes - check
throw in a load of laundry - check
clean the basement bathroom - check

All before 11:30 am. Just call me super-mom (or nuts). I'm going to take a nap now!

Leaves EVERYWHERE!

I love Fall, just not in my house. The kids & the husband have spent the last many days raking up huge piles of leaves in the yard (to jump in, not bag up). I have to say this is always one of my favorite things to do too (jump in leaves, not rake them). So what's the problem? There are leaves ALL over the house that have been tracked in on socks, in hair... you get the picture. Normally I would not obsess about this because, while I like to think my house is basically clean, it's not Martha Stewart clean and I can take a little mess. When the mess gets to the point that I can't take it anymore, I would normally just clean it up but it's bugging me right now because I can't vacuum and I have to rely on my husband to take care of it. Stop laughing, really. He's a really good guy, just not very intuitive. So I asked him to vacuum last WEDNESDAY. Finally, yesterday I got really bitchy and TOLD him to vacuum. He did - one hour before we had 3 adults and 7 kids over for an outdoor dinner/bonfire. I'm guessing you can figure out what the house looks like today for yourself. Except it's actually worse now. I found leaves in all 3 bathroom sinks, in the kid's rooms, in my room, EVERYWHERE. The best part about it is that HE's gone hunting today and I get to sit in the house and look at the leaves everywhere. Or maybe not - maybe I'll go out all day just so I can stop obsessing!