A Halloween Wrap-up

Yeah, yeah I know Halloween was like a week ago and everyone else in the entire blogging universe posted about Halloween the very next day, but it seems like I'm behind on everything these days. Thankfully the only thing that hasn't dropped into the "behind" catagory is our mortage and bill payments!

Anyway, this was the first Halloween where the boys actually got to trick or treat together and they had a really good time. The weather was just perfect and our street was PACKED with trick-or-treaters dressed to the nines in all kinds of cute/scary/funny costumes. I even saw more mommies and daddies dressed up this year than ever before.

The Destroyer petered out around 8:00 and went home with Daddy to "help" hand out candy to the mobs of trick-or-treaters and I took Captain Crazy to a few more houses before we called it quits for the evening.

Overall it was a really fun time, probably one of the best Halloweens so far and I was sort of sad at the end of the evening when everything was over and I started thinking about the long wait till next time. At least that gives me a lot of time to create my next costume.

Goodbye, Sammy

You died on a Saturday. You were 16 - very old for a doggie. Your health had slowly declined over the past year so I thought I was prepared, but letting you go was the hardest thing I have had to do in a very long time. I sat with you most of the day and stroked your head and your silken soft ears. I cried and told you how sad I was going to be without you in my life. You just laid there quietly, no doubt trying to hang on just a little longer.

The vet came to the house and sat and cried with us for a while too. The boys said "goodbye" and gave you one last kiss.

At the end of that very sad and difficult day, I was comforted by several things. First, I was happy that at least you passed surrounded by your family and in the comfort of your own backyard. Second, I know you had a long and happy life - you were well cared for and very loved. What else could a dog want? And lastly, I knew that you were going to a better place - a great big beautiful dog park in the sky where you won't hurt anymore and where you could play fetch without ever having to stop.

It will be a long time before this family will be able to open our hearts and home up to another pet, but when we do it will have some mighty big paws to fill.

Thanks for being such a great friend and pet - you will be in our hearts forever.

Ten Little Things

Ten little things I'm grateful for today:

1) That dinner is waiting in the crockpot when we get home.

2) That I snapped some really, really cute pictures of the boys carving pumpkins yesterday.

3) That I still have a job in this crazy economy.

4) That I already have enough people to start my book club.

5) That The Destroyer doesn't have an ear infection afterall.

6) That my back doesn't hurt anymore.

7) That I have some time to go to the gym tonight.

8) That we are debt free as of today!

9) That I found an amazing recipe for pumpkin pie.

10) That I reconnected with another old friend on Facebook.

AWOL

It's amazing how easliy time can get away from you. For some reason I really can't remember, I started to fall behind on my blogging. One week went by, then another, then another, then yet another. Before I knew it, more than a month had passed since my last post. I wanted to write stuff- I really did. A lot has happened in the time since my last post. Captain Crazy turned 4 and I made an absolutely killer Spiderman cake for his birthday, I turned 37 (yikes), Captain Crazy started Pre-K, my 16-year-old dog passed away, we had a week long visit from my in-laws, etc. etc.

I guess part of the reason I let my blogging activity slide is because I struggle with every single post and it ends up feeling like WORK and I don't want it to feel like that but that's what happens. I agonize over every single post wondering if what I just wrote even matters or not. Anyway, I finally decided that I'm just going to write something - anything, to get better at writing and just to get something "out there". My whole point of starting this blog was to share something with the world - to share stuff about parenting and life with kids and if other people related to it - great. If they didn't then they didn't have to read my blog - simple as that I guess. So, here's to the new day #1 of my blog. I'll be back when I can decide on which of the zillions of things I want to write about first.

My head is going to explode

I have had so much on my mind lately and there's been so many times I have wanted to post about this or that only to run out of time at the end of the day, never getting to say that I wanted to say. You see, I can only blog when I'm at work, which is not ideal I know. But I have dial-up at home and that, well...it totally sucks. So, in an effort to get everything out of my head, I am squishing a whole bunch of stuff into one post and it will probably sound skitzo as hell - but what the hay.

To begin with, I'm really tired of being tired. The Destroyer woke up at 1:45 a.m. this morning, like he does every other morning, wanting to eat. Fortunately, once The Destroyer eats his snack, which takes about 15 minutes, he's more than happy to go back to bed and go to sleep, but sometimes that just doesn't happen and last night was one of those nights. Around 3 a.m. I got back up because he had been tootling around in his crib for over an hour, and every once in awhile would let loose with a sweet but pathetic "Mommy?" Fearing he was sitting in a diaper full of crap, I decided to check on him. Of course, he was fine. All he wanted to do was polish off the rest of the banana he had left un-eaten earlier in the evening. And yes, I could just say "no" to the little guy and leave him in his crib, but that would be bad because then not only would he still be awake, he would be very, very, very, unhappy and he would be screaming very, very, very loudly for a very, very, very long time. So, 15 minutes of watching him stuff his happy little face with food is much more enjoyable than hours of torture for the whole family. I just have to figure out a way to shut my mind off and relax enough to fall back to sleep. Maybe I could slam a couple of shots of vodka while The Destroyer is eating his snack. Or not.

Captain Crazy is turned 4 yesterday. 4! WTF? Where has the time gone. I was working on his cake last night and it felt like yesterday when I was making his 1st birthday cake. I just can't believe how quickly the time has passed and how quickly he went from my little baby to my big boy. He's totally and completely into Spiderman right now so his birthday theme is Spiderman and I am making a Spiderman cake for his party this Saturday. I'm attempting what's called a "buttercream transfer" and if it turns out I'll post pics and instructions next week. He's having 8 friends over for his party and I am hoping all goes well. I'm a little nervous though because he woke up this morning with a boogery nose and some sneezing. I have never had to re-schedule a birthday party and I hope I don't have to now.

The in laws are here for a week long visit. The kids are happy to see them and it's nice having them around. I picked them up at the airport yesterday. Their flight was scheduled to land at PDX at 5:20 p.m. so I left at 3:00 -without the kids- and was practically giddy with excitement because I was planning on stopping at Ikea for some quick shopping. My excitement completely disappeared as I turned onto I-205 and screeched to a halt behind miles and miles of bumper to bumper traffic. I crept along for the next 40 minutes at 5 mph and to say I was majorly unhappy was putting it lightly. I didn't even get to the airport until 5:45. All I could think about the entire time was 'my husband gets four - FOUR DAYS - of uninterrupted fishing in Montana and I can't even get my hour at Ikea??? WTF??'

I am going to cancel my Weight Watchers membership...again. I'm just getting really frustrated with going every week to weigh in only to find that my weight hasn't budged an ounce and if it has it budged in the WRONG direction. So, instead of shelling out $40 every month on the monthly pass, I think I'm going to invest some of that money in a good high quality scale and some kick-ass exercise videos. Linda from All and Sundry says that '30 Minute Shred' gave her muscles in her armpits. I want muscles in my armpits too. I also found a great calorie counting website called caloriecount.about.com and I have been using it religiously for a couple of weeks. It has all sorts of neat weight management tools and it's very easy to understand and to use. The best part is or course that it's free!

Oh yeah, one more thing and then I'll stop throwing up all over my blog I promise.
I have never been very interested in politics before. But that good 'ol ass monkey Bush and his fuck-ups over the years have really taught me that I have to take an interest in what is happening in our world and in the people who are running for President. I can't just sit idly by like I used to and think "who ever is elected will do a good enough job" What they do and what they believe in, WILL affect us people! And with that I just have to say I really, really hope Obama gets elected. When I hear that McCain has a slight lead over him in the polls, I just want to scream "WAKE UP PEOPLE" I know there's all this talk right now about Obama's lack of experience, and some are of course bringing up the diversity card because let's face it- it wouldn't be America without doing that now would it? In my opinion I wouldn't care if he was purple, I would still vote for him because I think he does have the experience to lead this country in the RIGHT direction and by the RIGHT direction I mean OUT of war, not into another one with Russia or Iran and into economic stability and even, *gasp* -prosperity once again. Everyone is gooshing over Sarah Palin. Why? I think she has already proven herself to be inconsistent and snarky and I think if McCain/Palin are elected and McCain kicks the bucket we would be seriously SCREWED if she took the reigns. What I hope it comes down to is Obama/Biden taking office. If it's anything different I think we may look into moving to Canada.

Chow Hounds

My chillen's have always been very good eaters. When my oldest was just a wee one he would happily devour Chicken Tika Masala at our favorite Indian food restaurant, munch on tofu sticks and raw veggies at snack time and even thought cat food was quite tasty. I was, and continue to be, the envy of many of my friends whose own children will touch nothing but string cheese and Cheerios.

But I have to confess that having two "very good eaters" has it's trials and tribulations as well. It's not all sunshine and happiness at my place either you know. If fact, my kids eat so much that I usually feel like a short order cook, chained to my kitchen all hours of the day and night. Sometimes I wonder if they have eating disorders because they never seem to stop eating. Just so you don't think I'm blowing this all out of proportion, check out the following example of a days worth of meals and snacks that I have to prepare just for my 17 mo old. I won't even talk about what my oldest eats in one day - I don't have time to write a post that long and detailed! So anyway - below is what The Destoyer eats on a typical day.

Breakfast - 8:30 a.m. Scrambled eggs (usually 2 whole eggs), milk, half a banana, yogurt, quarter piece of toast with peanut butter.

Snack - 10:00 a.m. - Usually some crackers, more fruit and some more milk.

Lunch - 11:30 or 12 - Diced chicken, green beans, cucumbers, more fruit like grapes or diced apples, juice, yogurt

Snack - 3:00 Two cups of a smoothie -made with whole milk, bananas, yogurt,and strawberries and some crackers or Baby Mum Mums or a toddler fruit bar.

Snack -5:00 - Juice and one or two of the above things he didn't eat at 3:00

Dinner - 6:30 - What the family is eating plus additional veggies, fruit and milk

Bedtime snack - his favorite - another banana and some milk

Now if you're thinking "whoa! that's a shit load of food" just wait -he doesn't stop there. Two to three nights a week he wakes up at 2 or 3 am and yells "EAT!" "EEEEAAATT" until I go get him and take him into the kitchen for yet another feeding. His favorite snack to eat is some more milk, a cereal bar and either a plum or a banana.

Now if you're thinking "HOLY SHIT" her kids must be PORKERS - I swear they're not. The Destroyer is 17 mos and 18-24 mos clothing is still a little too big for him and Captain Crazy is a stringy, sliver of muscle with a skin covering.

They're obviously going through some kind of super crazy growth spurts which I really hope slows down here soon. I just can't stop wondering how it's going to be when they're (gulp) teenagers. I think we might need to start saving for an extra fridge now.