Bye Bye January

I swore that this year I would not succumb to the January blues and, for the most part, I was successful. I haven't had much to say but at least I didn't feel like whining all month long. For the first time in years I didn't hate January, but I'm not going to miss it much either.

Sooooooo.... on to February and a CHALLENGE. I am going to post every day in February, because it's a short month and I really need a motivational hook right now, and I'm challenging all of my friends and bloggy buddies to join me. In fact, I'm just desperate enough to be willing to bribe you all with random weekly rewards. Did I say weekly? Yep, I did! While my objective is to encourage daily posting, I know how hard it is to do this; I don't want anyone tossed out of the party because they had a bad Wednesday.

Rules? We don't need no stinking rules! Just let me know you are up for the challenge. I'll announce the prize on Monday and everyone who posts daily will be entered in the drawing on Sunday.

Cold Sunday Morning...

Snow was forcast
but instead of fluffy white frosting
there is steel gray ice
the dog seemed to think twice
before rushing into the slippery yard
then returned to bed
to lick her toes
There is so much I should be doing
but the freeze has it's grip on me too
alas I have become
not a graceful ice sculpture
but a lump of sooty ice
fallen from the wheel well of
the workweek

Fifteen Fun Facts

No it's not a meme... it 's just me trying desperately to find something to blog about that won't make me want to cry or slam things around. Not that I really have a lot to cry or slam about but I'm just having a sort of emotionally unstable day... so I'm going to list fifteen fun facts about anything that comes to mind.

1. FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology - You've got to love an organization that uses robots battles and lego building competitions to "To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes."

2. Fiesta!: A party. Preferably with Fajitas and Margaritas. I could really use a fiesta right now.

3. Friendly's : A legendary ice cream shop in Massachusetts.. and other Eastern states... well, legendary if you live in my house. My husband is convinced that there is no Milkshake that can substitute for a genuine Friendly's Fribble and he has spent many years trying to create a Fribble in our not so friendly kitchen.

4. Forest: I live in a temperate rain forest. Uh, to be more honest, I live in what used to be a temperate rain forest but is now a barren subdivision with three requisite trees per house. The forest waits just beyond the fences and regularly tries to reclaim any unprotected land. You know what else lives in a temperate rain forest? Banana Slugs!

5. Feathers tickle my fancy...

6. Fleas bite

7. Fruit bats are totally cool but I don't want them in my backyard. They need to stay in the forest with the foxes, raccoons and BANANA SLUGS.

8. Flitter: This is what butterflies do. I like butterflies and will plant flowers to attract them if I ever actually plant anything in my backyard... (don't tell the forest I haven't landscaped yet)

9. Fusion: Jazz, Food, Cold... not necessarily in that order

10. Frustration caused me to yell at my husband a few minutes ago because I'm TRYING TO WRITE AND HE'S BEING TOO NOISY.

11. Feist: I'm Sorry, Mushaboom, My Moon My Man.... Lovely

12. Free : Federal Resources for Educational Excellence. This is a great place to look for neat things to teach your kids... or yourself.

13. Fred Astaire: Just because...


14. Forts, especially tree forts have always excited me. Someday I'm going to vacation here.


15. For Sure! Fifteen words that start with F and not a single curse among them. Aren't you proud of me?

Fourteen

Since it's the fourteenth day of the month I'm going to celebrate my favorite fourteen year old and his brand new look...

Before...




And After...

Off to the races...

Zane's History class will be celebrating the end of the semester tomorrow evening with a Toga Party. The party is actually extra credit for the kids and they will be awarded points for participation and originality. They have divided into groups and are each hosting a dinner and providing entertainment. The goal is to be as authentic as possible. For some reason this idea sparked a creative frenzy in Zane like I have never seen before. He has been working all week planning and assembling things for the party, prodding the other guys in his group to pitch in, and conning his younger sister and her friend into acting as servants and musicians for the dinner. His real achievement, however, will be the entertainment. He has spent the last two nights converting remote control cars into chariots for races in the circus maximus. It was hard to get a picture that really shows how cool these are... I have a feeling the whole class will be lining up to compete in the chariot races. He already has an A in the class so I know he has done all of this for the joy of it. I love that!

Because I know you like to laugh...

This is what a 2 hour snow delay day looks like in Western Washington.

Better living through technology...

As you know... because I complain about it all the time... I am peri-menopausal, which is really just a nice way of saying old, fat, bitchy, and extremely temperature sensitive. Now most days this isn't a huge issue. I dress in layers to deal with the temperature problem. Layers do nothing good for the fat, old or bitchy problems but there's only so much you can do and comfort has to come first. So, knowing this about me, you will understand why it's so important to have a programmable thermostat in my house.

The programmable thermostat performs two vital functions, keeping the electricity bill down, and keeping my family passably warm despite my hormonal imbalances. At night the temperature drops to 58 degrees making it possible for me to sleep comfortably with a light blanket. Everyone else is wearing socks, hats, mittens and hiding under down comforters but we all sleep reasonably well. However, when morning comes, and the eskimos have to emerge from their pile of furs, a minor rebellion occurs. Shaking in their long underwear they run to the the thermostat and stab the buttons with their brittle blue fingers. Before you know it the temp rises to a balmy 72 degrees and I'm resisting the urge to strip down to my bra and panties.

In an effort to stop the madness I returned to my trusty programmable thermostat and reprogrammed it. Yes, I gave in. I told it to turn the heater on and warm the house to 68 degrees half an hour before everyone wakes up. Here's where the better living through technology part comes in.. you see, my heretofore dependable and much loved thermostat has a hidden feature called Adaptive Intelligent Recovery. It's a nice feature that insures your house will be 68 degrees at 6am by turning the heater on at 4:30! The reasoning behind this delightful feature is that people prefer to warm up gradually. There is no override, no way to ensure it doesn't come on before a certain time because the program is adaptive. It decides what it wants to do and then does it without consulting me. Apparently it is incapable of adapting to the fact that I wake up the instant the heater comes on. The owners manual assures me that the thermostat will learn to turn itself on later as soon as it gathers enough data to know how long it really takes to warm the house. This shouldn't take much more than two weeks... Obviously this technology was designed by a man.

Coffee Girl....

You Are a Double Espresso



Hey Energizer Bunny Girl! Do you ever slow down?
You're a mix of high energy and ambition, perfectly matched with strong espresso
When you want something you get it - by any means possible
You're driven, determined, and no nonsense. Which is just how you like your java.

What Kind of Coffee Girl Are You?

Energizer Bunny Girl! Ha!

I'm more like a banana slug in a pink costume being dragged through an obstacle course of daily chores.

'Nuf said... I'm off to do about five hours of "work" (as opposed to household chores), then I'll de-christmas the house, plan a menu for next week, fold the laundry, and make sure the kids have done their homework.

Or maybe I'll sit here and finish reading The Pillars of the Earth and pretend like the pink drum isn't beating.

Home again, home again....

Jiggity Jog?

How many of you thought I was never coming back?

I had three days in the vicodin fog (more about the ablation at a later date.. thank you so much for all the kind thoughts and healing vibes), 12 hours on the road, a delightful evening and morning with good friends that we don't see often enough, three days at Bob's family reunion/Stepmother's birthday bash, three days at my Mother's, and another 12 hours on the road home. We arrived at 9pm last night and I think I've been doing laundry ever since. Now I'm on my way to work. Thankfully I have a lot more energy now than I did at any time in December. I'm looking forward to getting my house back in order, my blog updated, and catching up on reading everyones blogs this weekend!

How do you add more joy to Christmas?

How about an endometrial ablation on Christmas Eve?

After bleeding 48 of the last 60 days and taking ten days worth of medication that did nothing to help it has become apparent that something more must be done. And.. since our insurance is changing to an incredibly crappy plan January 1st I really need to do it now. I'll be working extra hard in the next few days to complete all of my Christmas tasks plus pack for our trip to California. There will be no last minute wrapping in the wee hours of Christmas morning. Getting old really sucks.

Seven Random Things About Me...

MS Teacher has tagged me with this Meme. I've done it before but I'm random enough that it shouldn't be a problem to do it again. I think I will do a theme this time.

Here are the rules:
- Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
- Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
- Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
- Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Seven Random Things About Gina: The Pet Edition

1 - When I was born my Grandparents had a dog named Davette who adopted me as her own. When I was two I bit her nose.. then she bit mine. I've never bitten a dog again.
2- When I was seven I loved to catch lizards and keep them in my doll house. I never figured out if they escaped during the night or if my Mom snuck in and released them.
3- When I was ten I had a pet rock but I never really bonded with it. I think it ran away (or maybe my Mom released it.)
4 - When I was twelve I had a pet rat named Gabriel. I named him after Gabe Kaplan, the handsome star of Welcome Back Kotter. What a dork I was.. I didn't even notice John Travola who also starred in that show.

5 - Gabriel helped me win first prize at the Santa Clara County Science Fair. My project was Sleep Deprivation. I'm not sure who was actually more sleep deprived, the rat, me, or my poor mother who was stuck with the rat in her bathroom with the lights on all night for a month. She didn't release him though..
6 - I have an almost hairless cat named Jack. He's a Cornish Rex, he's an idiot and he's always cold. But man does he have personality!
7 - My children wanted hermit crabs. I let them buy hermit crabs. Then I started researching hermit crabs and discovered that if they are well taken care of they can live up to 25 years in captivity. The kids lost interest the first time they got pinched but I suffer from a very complex guilt complex that requires me to do everything I can to make sure these little guys are happy. I will probably have hermit crabs for the rest of my life.
*Bonus* I can't leave out Gracie.. She's eleven months old and spoiled rotten.


Now.. who do I tag??? Eeeny Meeny, Miney, Mo....

Author Mom with Dogs
Cupcake at A Truth Universally Acknowledged
Jenny at Chased By Children
Nicole at You Have Got to be Kidding
Professor J
Nikki at Rural Writings
Anne! at Nantucket Dreamer

Tagged again and again

I'm having so much trouble finding time to post lately! You would think that after Nablopomo I would just be in the habit of posting regularly, but as soon as it ended I just started slacking off!

Fortunately I have friends to encourage and pester me to post... and when I don't respond to that they tag me! I've been tagged by two friends this weekend and I feel like I would be letting them down if I don't at least try to rise to the challenge. Tonight I will do the Christmas Hoopla and tomorrow I will return for 7 random things about me.

My wonderful friend Leeann at Is It Morning Already? tagged me to do this Christmas Hoopla.

She writes:

Ok, this is specifically not a meme. It's a HOOPLA. Got it?

Here are the rules:

1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas
2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word
3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.
4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

So... Here are twelve random things about me that have to do with Christmas:

1 - I'm a Christmas baby.. not born on Christmas but pretty darn close. Having a birthday between Christmas and New Years stinks when you are a little kid but is pretty nice when you are over 40 and would prefer people just forget you have a birthday coming.

2 - I know all the words to just about every Christmas carol but I don't sing them.

3 - I like fruitcake.

4 - When I was twelve I made a Christmas present for our mailman but when I gave it to him he looked at me like I was a stalker.

5 - I love dorky Christmas sweaters and can't wait to wear them each year... from November 1st through January 15th.

6 - One of my favorite Christmas ornaments is a fish with giant sparkly lips.

7 - I have three trees this year. A traditional tree with lots of glass and white lights in the living room, a palm tree with colored lights in the front hall, and a small tree with great big colored bulbs on the upstairs landing.

8 - The tallest tree we ever had was 16 feet tall. This is a picture from upstairs. It was ridiculously tall.. we couldn't even decorate it properly!

9 - Our traditional Christmas Eve dinner is Chinese take-out.

10 - I have moved immediately before or after Christmas three times in my adult life. The first time we had an 18 inch tree in our hotel room, the second time we completely skipped Christmas at our house (but spent the week of Christmas with family), the third time was last year, we moved on Dec. 7th and decorated for Christmas the following weekend.

11 - Every year, at least once, I fantasize about just running away and not coming back until after Christmas.

12 - I always wanted to have a perfect Christmas.. you know, the kind where you bake all the right cookies, decorate beautifully, volunteer for important things, help the needy, give your kids the most excellent presents, cook the perfect meals, have every detail planned out so that there are no last minute surprises, and have everything done in advance so that on Christmas Eve all you have to do is drink eggnog and listen to Christmas music. I always wanted that until the year I finally almost got it right. Then, on Christmas Eve we got terrible news and needed to get in the car and drive twelve hours to be with family. We literally picked up the tree, ornaments and all, and set it in the garage. It sat there until February... I just couldn't face undecorating it because it had become the symbol of my failure. Not failure to create the perfect Christmas but failure to understand that none of it mattered. I learned that year that there is no such thing as a perfect Christmas and trying to create it distracted me from what was truly important. The important thing is loving our family because we just don't know how long we will have them.

I'm tagging the following people. I hope you all find time to join the hoopla.

MS Teacher, Heidi at Viking Conquest, Mrs. G, and I was going to tag Karen MEG but she just did another Christmas themed list so I'll just tell you all to go read her great post!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Watch your punctuation...

It was the Monday after Thanksgiving and I was tired. In one week we had entertained three different sets of overnight guests, celebrated our twentieth anniversary and celebrated Thanksgiving. I had been working odd hours, going in very early and working from home at night, in order to maximize the amount of time I could spend with our guests. It had been a great week but I was tired. Monday was our final night with guests and we were having a fiesta. Fajitas, nachos, pitchers of margaritas.. and absolutely no turkey!
In the midst of preparation the phone rang... It was the dentist's office calling to find out why my oldest children were not there for an appointment. Oops! In the craziness of the week I had completely forgotten about the appointment. The receptionist tartly remarked that she had called to remind me of the appointment the day before... the last business day before.. which happened to have been the Monday before Thanksgiving.


Oh well. Obviously this was my fault and I apologized profusely and asked to reschedule. Ms. Receptionist was not pleased. She did not like my excuses. She frowned upon my silly desire to have children that could actually chew their dinner that evening. She reminded me that I had signed an agreement to PAY A CANCELLATION FEE if I didn't give 24 hours notice to cancel an appointment. I agreed that I had indeed signed and understood that there would be a fee but I was just going to have to pay it because I was not bringing the children in. She tersely informed me that they would be unable to work my children into the schedule again until December. So I rescheduled the appointment and went back to enjoying the fiesta. Arriba!

Yesterday I received a statement for the cancellation fee. I expected it. I wasn't shocked. I wasn't upset. I understand that in these challenging times a dentist can't afford to just give away appointment slots... blah, blah, blah. However, the statement annoyed the snot out of me. The charges are entered and duly noted as missed appointment fees but at the bottom of the page, in the comment box, Ms. Dentist's Receptionist typed: Mother "forgot" appointment.

Now I know I am being petty... but I was perfectly pleasant to this woman. I admitted my wrong-doing, I apologized, I did not make a fuss about being charged extra. Plus I'm a darn good patient! I'm always on time (with the exception of this one missed appointment.) I never complain when I have to wait. I pay my copay at the time of service. I even bought a fancy electric toothbrush from their office for ten dollars more than I could have gotten it at Costco! But none of that matters. I "forgot". With one little set of quotation marks my integrity was called into question. The comment was superfluous and petty and it pissed me off.

My question to you, dear reader, is this. Am I silly for being offended enough that I don't want to go back to that office again? Obviously I need to bring my children in for the appointment next week but after that I believe I will start looking for a new dentist.

How to gain ten pounds in two days...

I love baklava and I rarely buy it because I am physically and emotionally unable to walk away from it. If I can get past it in the store I am fine. It's not the kind of pastry that calls to me in my dreams. However, once I've let it into my house I'm done for. This weekend a huge tray somehow followed me home.

Shopping with the girls...

It was Friday night and the mood was somber. Zane was on his way out to spend a final evening with his best/girl friend. Dad was gone for the weekend. Taylor had just "dumped" her "boyfriend" (a very good choice, indeed). Delaney was reeling from her recent orthodontic adjustment. Then there was Mom... There's just no delicate way to say this.... on day sixteen of her second period since Halloween, and starting to feel more than a little, umm, drained.

Any sane woman would have curled up with a heating pad and Jack Daniels called the doctor, but I come from a long line of women who refuse to admit anything is wrong until someone forcibly delivers them to the doctor, or body parts start to fall off, whichever comes first. I was not going to let my dear, sore at heart, and tooth, girls spend the night watching Hannah Montana reruns and bickering over who's feet were on whom.

Plus, it's eighteen days until Christmas and the presents are not buying themselves. What we needed was a little retail therapy and some good food too. So off we went to the mall. We didn't actually go into the mall (that would have been crazy) but to the mall outside of the mall... the mall annex...
Don't you love the way malls have morphed into something like a university of commercial indulgence? We have mall central, the institute of higher shopping, all of your basics in one megolithic structure. Then on the outskirts of the campus we have the annexes of specialized shopping (Talbots, Ann Taylor, boutique jewelry) for those more advanced in shopping skills, or conversly, the remedial annex (Target and Big Lots) for the continuation shoppers.
Anyway... back to my story..
Our first stop was for food since Taylor had skipped lunch because the "breakup" had upset her stomach, and Delaney had been unable to eat because her teeth hurt. We needed something special, and easy to chew. The extremely thin crust pizzas at I.talia were a perfect fit, and a table in front of the enormous open fire pizza oven was heavenly. While we waited we played with the "make your own pizza" toy on the table. Pretend pizza baking quickly became an impromptu fractions lesson. It does a mathphobic mother's heart good to see girls enjoying division. After pizza came the gelato... the perfect combination of teeth comforting cold and heart soothing chocolate.. before we knew it all three of us were giggling, and one of us had a chocolate mustache. (no, not me)

After dinner we went to Borders Books and the girls picked out books for their cousins. Two hours of discussion and debate eventually produced perfect books for eleven unique individuals. They were focused and thoughtful and, despite hundreds of tempting books, neither of them asked for anything. Our only disappointment was that the wrapping station had shut down for the evening and we will be forced to wrap our own gifts. Perhaps Saturday will be wrapping day...

Wordless Wednesday

I love school projects.




Taylor's Giant Cookie Animal Cell Model

Advent Event - Day one

What a silly title! But I'm going to leave it because it tickles me and I've been a complete bitch all day so something that makes me smile is a big deal.

Today I have finally pulled the Advent cabinet out of storage and I'm starting our countdown to Christmas. The kids don't know this because I've scared them all up to their rooms with my growling and banging around the kitchen that they all trashed in the hour it took me to stop at the grocery store on the way home from work. So, when they all come down later to a clean kitchen, dinner, and a smiling mom (riggghhhhtt), they will get to open the 4th drawer.

**************

11:30pm

This post was interupted by life exploding around me... but I didn't scream at anyone so I guess everything is ok. The first night activity was Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End. The girls were thrilled, the boy said he had too much homework, and the husband fell asleep 45 minutes into the movie, but it doesn't matter because I had an evening with Mrs. G's secret boyfriend. Ha! Plus the kids have a late start tomorrow morning so I don't have to feel like the world's worst most negligent mother for letting them stay up until 11pm.

Now I'm off to bed. Hopefully tomorrow I won't be so grumpy. (Fat Chance of that!)

Menu Plan Monday

If you believe the weather forcast, we have a cold, wet week ahead of us. With this in mind I'm trying to plan some nice warm meals that can be cooked in the crockpot for Monday and Tuesday. Of course, this is assuming that we won't lose power and end up eating sandwiches. Last year we had a terrible storm in December and some people in our area were without electricty for weeks. Let's hope that doesn't happen again.

This week we will start our Advent Countdown Calendar. We have a cabinet with 24 drawers that I fill with candy somedays and notes others. I have always tried to have a good mix of fun, education, and candy, however, In 2006 I only did candy. Yesterday Zane and Taylor started talking about how much fun our Advent Calender "used to be" and when I said it will be fun again Zane replied "No it won't because you are working now." Ah.. guilt.. such a Christmas-y emotion! I haven't taken out the cabinet yet but tomorrow we will officially start the season.

Hanukkah also begins this week, December 4th through the 12th, and we will having a celebration Saturday night. When I was a teen I spent one night of Hanukkah with my best friend's family each year and it's a tradition I have tried to continue with my own children. I feel it is very important that they grow up appreciating and understanding other religious traditions, as well as learning about the foundations of their own religion.

Well this is a bit long-winded... so on with the menu!

• Monday - Beef Stew, French Bread


• Tuesday - Chunky Bean Soup with Ham and Kale


• Wednesday - Quesadillas and Salad


• Thursday - Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Roasted Sweet and White Potatoes


• Friday - Broccoli Quiche and Fruit Salad


• Saturday - Chicken Soup, Latkes, Applesauce, Honey Cake


• Sunday - To Be Decided Later

Thanks to Debi at orgjunkie.com for hosting. If you don't know her go visit.. she's got lots of great ideas.

Have a good week!

Snow!

We had our first snow of the year yesterday. It didn't stick and has now turned into torrential rain that is flooding my backyard but, for a few beautiful hours, there were big, fat, swirling, snowflakes to fascinate puppies and girls. What a perfect start to December.

NaBloPo No Mo

This is my final post for nablopomo and I am happy to say I am finally working on my own computer again! Best Buy came through for me and finished fixing it before the end of November. (hahaha) I'm so happy to have it back.. but I'm also happy to say that despite the inconvenience (mostly to Bob since I commandeered his computer) I managed to post every day. Yay me!

Ok.. enough self-congratulatory drivel. I want to take a moment to recognize my friends, old and new, who made this month fun and kept me motivated to keep posting.

Some of you only dropped by a few times but your visits were wonderful. Professor J, Your comment about my old dog warmed my heart. Don Mills Diva, I'm glad you stopped by and I'm enjoy reading your blog. MS Teacher, you are in my thoughts often. If you want to talk you know where I am.

Some of you checked in regularly and, after a month of wondering what you might like to read, I feel like you are friends.
Heidi, I am looking forward to seeing more of Norway.. and the rest of your journey. I'm a bit jealous but happy I can live vicariously through your blog. Karen Try not to stress too much about December. I have a feeling you are going to do just fine. I hope you will keep blogging when you get a chance.. at least keep posting your wardrobe! Mrs. G, what can I say? You are a nut and I love your blog. You need a few more secret boyfriends though...

Then there are two of you who have been there for me forever. You were reading my long-winded foolishness long before blogs were invented and the fact that you have stuck around for TEN years is amazing, and a bit humbling. Nic, I'm so glad you decided to start your own blog! I'm awed that you have time to write with everything else you are doing. And your post today... I'm still processing what that could possibly mean!
Leeann, You never gave up on me... even though I didn't post for months at a time. Thank you so much for your compassion and encouragement. You are such a true friend to everyone and you leave your sparkle on every person you touch.

Finally, there are a few people who I know read this blog but don't respond here. My lovely sister in law, Anne, my great friend and kindred spirit, Ellen, and my sister at heart, Bev. I love you all and I'm so excited that I might be seeing all of you at the end of December!

Writing is a solitary business, mostly done within the confines of the empty space between my ears, but there would be very little reason to waste my time if no one ever read what I wrote. Thank you so much for giving me the gift of your time... I hope that this is just the beginning.

gina