As Promised:

Halloween

I haven't much in a blogging mood lately. 8( Well... that... and that my computer has been acting up (along with my mood and sassiness! HA!) I have a some really cute pictures of the kiddos to post from Halloween, but fully expect the computer to crash when I try to upload them from the memory card. Highlight of the night though was Lu and Nat's hip hop class doing "Thriller." It was pretty special, and the pics are awesome. Can't wait to get them up.

Also- a little aside about Halloween: if you are of child bearing age AND in fact have children... please don't dress like a hoochie with all your junk hanging out. Good for you if you think you're ALL THAT. Really it just makes you look silly and you look like a walking billboard for lack-of-class. What do they say? Money begets money. Kindness begets kindness. And I'm adding: Hoochies beget baby hoochies. Please don't go there.

Dear Mama Mo came to church today which meant the world to me. There are many things I'd like to say here about friends and life. But I can't get into it. Maybe in another post.

Nightie night and onward to self washing dishes, self cleaning kids, matching socks and a plethora of chocolate candy that will mysteriously disappear from the kids' Halloween buckets and into my tummy. Thank God for chocolate. EVERY. SINGLE. KIND. OF.IT.

Innocence Lost

Occasionally in my place of work you need something done by another department, but their honey-do list is already too long, and you are put to the end of the line to wait... for hours, or days, weeks or months. It comes with the territory and it's ok. You may once and a while make a friend in another department who might be able to speed things a long a little faster. That sure is nice.

Well this week has certainly had its challenges. Much is happening in the twilight zone that is my work. Lots of meetings, last minute. Preparing, planning, ordering, training. Editing, adjusting, emailing, approving. I can handle stress fairly well, however this particular time I got a little spazzy as i was spazzing from one task to the next. Spazzing here. Spazzing there.

I was asked to do one more major type thing. By an important Administrator. Almost put me over the edge. Thus the spazz effect. It required a great deal of effort, not something that could just be thrown together. When I was done I attached the document and here is the actual cut and paste of my reply email:

Here you go.
We usually accept bribes of chocolate for fast turn around times. But we made an exception this time. =)
Meg

Looking back even just a minute or two after I sent it, I realized that may have been an entirely TOO BOLD thing to say.... especially to someone like that. Oh shoot. In a time of need and here I go mouthing off to a big wig trying to be funny.... but maybe actually not so much. Sometimes I really do think I'm funny. But no.

Here's the response I received back

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Hallelujah Hallelujah Haaaaaa lleeeee luuuuuuu jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...

There's Got To Be a Little Humor Today, and Today it's Good

Lu's tooth came out this afternoon, and she put it safely into a plastic bag. This evening while the girls were getting ready for bed, she remembered at the last minute HER TOOTH! She grabbed it from her backpack and told me she needed to scrub it 'really good.' Hmmm interesting. I asked why and she explained that she thought that f it was really clean the tooth fairy may give her extra money.

30 minutes later she emerges from the bathroom with a very sparkly tooth, and a very nice note to the tooth fairy explaining the value of this tooth. I asked her where she was going to put it, and under the pillow was her answer, just like she'd done every other time. But that dang tooth fairy isn't too dependable up in these here mountains... I suggested (without looking her in the eye) that maybe she should put it somewhere a bit more accessible. Ok she say and heads to her room.

Just now I go in there to kiss her goodnight and I'm looking slyly for that dang tooth. I asked her where it is. She said she decided to tape the bag to the wall so there wouldn't be any reason to miss it this time. I'm hoping it's by the door. So I look. Nope. Not there. She smiles SO PROUDLY and points right ABOVE her BUNK BEAD on the wall (10+ feet!!!)

Oh sh*t I'm so screwed.

I then say with a straight face and not even a hint of a smile, "Don't you think that's a little high? What if the tooth fairy can't reach it?" You can see the wheels turning.... (my heart is stopping...) and she says YA YOU'RE RIGHT MOM. She takes the baggie with the sparkly tooth and note and starts to un-scotch-tape it from the wall. I DON'T WANT TO MAKE IT TOO HARD TO GET THE MONEY, RIGHT? Right. Then she looks at me as she starts to climb down the ladder from her bed. MOM? and she looks confused but curious and like she just figured out the biggest secret ever...ARE YOU THE TOOTH FAIRY?

I can't lie. I am a horrible liar. I can't do it. Some day I pray that that will serve me well, but for now I can't even manage to sneak a few coins under a dang pillow. I look at her and give here 'the eye.' OH MY GOSH YOU ARE!!! I say shhhhh!!!!! Don't you dare tell your sister!!! I expect her to be sad or feel betrayed. But no. She erupts into laughter, almost falls giggling right down her ladder, trying to hang onto the bag. I have to shush her several times in between my own laughter.

We agree that for as long as she continues to lose teeth, and puts her tooth somewhere 'accessible' for the tooth fairy, that the tooth fairy will continue to leave coins. Should that at ANY TIME change or the true identity revealed, THERE WILL BE NO MORE COINS.

Deal 8)

Little Here Little There

Oh what a busy day. That was the name of my favorite book growing up. Well really it's been a busy week. Some of which I'll share and some of which I won't. Today marked (probably the first of many) where I just couldn't take any more so I got up and left. Hmmm. Not sure where I'm going with that.

In other news: Emi had another birthday party and Grandma's house. She took off her shirt and everything. She liked the singing so much that we just kept singing happy birthday over and over again.
In a rare evening out (in public and everything) we went and watched the first night game for the high school football team. Not only was it a STELLAR game, but I was not cornered by crazy babbling overly aggressive nosey you-know-whos whose life task it is to get the gossip, jumble it round so it insults more than necessary and spread it like wild fire. All in all, I'm going to chalk this night up to a success!

Last week we faced a pretty intense storm that came quickly, dumped 10+ inches of rain, closed the roads and the schools, took down trees and power lines, flooded my garage, left us without electricity for 3 days and reminded me: I LOVE this weather. Call me crazy (cause I totally am) but I wouldn't have it any other way. So there.

Nat was kind enough to document one of those days on the calendar for us:
The girls and I played cards, board games, Yahtzee, and a game of charades that took an almost surprising inappropriate twist. I then needed to end the game. We also baked yummy banana bread, pan fried some eggos, dug some ditches down the side of the house and garage, and stood in the rain and applauded the PG+E men when the power was restored. This is how the girls look on the day school was cancelled. Perfectly happy. 8)

And really WHO KNEW Friday was bosses day? My staff! Let me take you through the quick inventory of the below picture: 1 fruit tart from The Farm, 1 home made lemon cake, 3 bags of chocolate candy, 1 card signed by all, and one beautiful bouquet of flowers that include protea, which just melts my heart. I feel loved.

Somewhere in all this I also managed to scoot away for the better part of the day and most of the night to see Vince Gill in concert. FABULOUS. I hope his feelings aren't hurt, but sometimes the road trip is just as much fun as the concert itself. As a result of this trip the two ladies and I have made the following pact: 1/ we will never have perfect hair, 2/ we will never be-dazzle, 3/ we will never partake in old lady perfume use, 4/something about make up, 5/ I'm sure there was another one, but can't remember it. Anyone??

Oh my goodness and my kids are so cute and so perfect I can barely stand it. OK I know they are not perfect-perfect by OUR standards, but they are perfectly them in their little personalities and perfectly silly and they light up my life.

AND, let me not forget that Emi will be a singer one day. Not sure how that is all going to play out, but it will. I'm sure.

Signing off from the land of confusion, exhaustion, missed opportunities, unsaid feelings, almost enough laughter, unmatched socks, and chronic need for cookie dough...

And one last thing: 40 years today for mom and dad

Party for Two!

Who let this kid turn two? TWO! TWO? Wow.

No more pictures mommy! No more. I need more presents please. 8)

And more banana bread too please. A LOT more. Please. I need it.

Are arranged marriages illegal? Or just not PC? I think we should start planning this wedding now.

Oh yes and Nat will be the entertainment.

Yes, dear friends, be scared. BE VERY SCARED. She was rapping.
Did you think I was joking?

Be afraid!!!!!

Who Am I Joking?

What indication did I need that this was a bad day, right in the middle of a bad week, and a wretched month? I really already knew that this time has been doomed, but then like I needed a flashing neon light attached to my head with an arrow that pointed to me and says SHE IS HAVING A SHITTY DAY! Is that necessary? Does everyone around me need to know the extent of the aforementioned shittiness? <-- Here the blog would like to edit my 'shittiness' for non-grammatical compliance and replace it with shiftiness or chattiness. I am shifty yes. Chatty no.

Talked myself into a virtual circle trying to explain to the IT folks some techie problems I've been having. Heh. Winner. Then advanced to driving in a literal circle trying to leave work, but exiting the parking lot the wrong way, thus needing to go completely around the block, turn back into work, and then re-exit the correct direction. Now I am late. For an uber important meeting. And NO frickin way I'm going to tell them WHY I'm late now. And now there are witnesses... who watched me drive out the first time, then re-emerge and drive out a second time.

Can I just ask here, and I say this with ALL RESPECT to God who knit me together in my mother's womb... what purpose does it serve to have a female ovulate twice a month? You get where I'm going with this. So I'm stressed. It's not like I need PROOF like an X marks the spot. HEY YOU!!! YOU STRESSED? LET ME MARK YOUR TERRITORY SO YOU REMEMBER YOU'RE STRESSED.... days later.... STILL STRESSED? LET ME MARK I AGAIN SEE IF WE CAN'T GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME.

Jokingly told a coworker TODAY that the only way this day was going to end well was with a bullet and could he provide it? Good naturedly he said no, and that if he did, it would need to be two 'cause he isn't sticking this out without me. Ha. We laughed. I tried to keep the funnies going and told him he'll know when it's time when he comes to my desk and I lay a bullet down, and then he'll pull out one to match. (I realize this is NOT terribly funny to most folks- and for that I am sorry. But I am officially crazy and you should get a sense of humor.) THEN coworker #2 walks in to talk about something work related, which we all discussed, and then as if in slow motion she pulls out a bee bee from her pocket and sets it down on my desk RIGHT WHERE I'd pretended to put the bullet. Coworker #1 says: OH MY GOD. And I say: IT'S TOTALLY A SIGN! and coworker #1 again: YOU'RE TOTALLY SCREWED!!!

Thises and Thats

My little environmentalists!!! Look at all that trash they gathered in last week's river/road clean up!

Bitty on a pony!!! She didn't want to get off. She kept telling the cowboy man, "No. I need the pony." Also little side note here that I drove on Nat's 2nd grade class field trip to the fair, which is something I will NEVER.AGAIN.DO. Death by insanity.

Came home last week to a very large box on my front stoop after a particularly CRAPPY CRAPPY day and found this! A cookie-bouquet! I cried. Tears and sobbing and all that. Then I inhaled the cookies and found I really am in love with sugar after all. (Bouquet courtesy of my dear friend and realtor who knew it was one year since we closed escrow on our first house.) Love my friends.

Two of my favorite people had back to back birthdays! One got a picture from us (and a snazzy little song if I do say so myself...). And one sent me a picture of her and the babe in the mommy and me aprons:

In other news... Nat is sick with some nasty cough but the sweetest most cuddly, loving little sickie.

Lu is becoming quite the young lady:

And Bitty just found out she LOVES the slide! Especially the one that is just her size and doesn't intimidate her!

That's all I can muster up right now. Onward!

This Is What Happens...

... when Bitty is as cute as can be and so I decide to snap a picture:

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Then I tell her to open her eyes and this i what we get:

Then I tell her to open her mouth

(thinking that this is the easiest way to get her to smile...)

But instead this is what we get:

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Gosh she's cute.

Note to self: my influential picture taking techniques need a little pick-me-up, no?