And so it begins...

Welcome, September!!!!  I feel like this summer went by in a wink of an eye on some days and others dragged on like America's Got Talent.  This summer was unique in that Trey has taken some sort of secret Terrible Two oath.  We could barely go anywhere with all 5 of us without a Plan A, Plan B and a "Bail Completely" plan.  How does one keep 3 kids busy/happy/satisfied that are at all different stages and ages?  Don't ask me, clearly I don't know since all of my kids can sing the theme song to Phineas and Ferb.  Trying to do anything that might make Trey skip a nap is just asking for trouble...he'd probably shank you with a shiv whittled out of a crib slat.  That kid takes nap time seriously.  Though between crying jags, we were able to have fun.  Jay and I would take turns taking the kids to the pool...we visited the Children's Museum, Kennywood...went to few parties, had family in town.  It was a fairly low key summer...just my style.

But, today we sent Joe off to second grade and my baby girl Bella to Kindergarten!  Oh! My nerves!  What if she needed me?  What if she got lost?  What if someone was mean to her?  What if she cranked out?  What if they put her on a bus????  We're walkers this year, and there's just something great about that.  It feels so Americana...fresh air in the morning and afternoon...ahhhh.  Ask me how I feel about this when it's 0 degrees outside...Now I get to spend some serious time with Trey!  How will we fill our days????  Hopefully, the laundry will get done a little faster, some projects will get out of my head and actually materialize, and maybe a bit more time for blogging since everyone conked out at 8:00 over here...

I think we're off to good start...

Mouse Tales

Oh, how I very much wish I had pictures to accompany this story...but alas, safety, health and good sense won the day and there was nary a second to grab the camera.  Next time, though...What?  I just bit my own tongue. Hopefully there will not be a next time.

Last Wednesday Jay came upstairs from the basement with a look of "brace yourself" on his face.  "We have a little friend in the basement..." he said.  Uh oh.  "A mouse?"  Sure enough, Jay saw the itty, bitty rodent scurry into our not-used-as-a-pantry pantry.  I am totally at peace with the knowledge that in older homes, mice are very common in basements.  They do not freak me out at all...ask me about the time a rat was loose in the store I worked at in the mall...or the time I found a whole, minuscule family of mice under our dryer.  "Not a problem." I thought.  Jay set up the trap and I pretty much forgot about the little guy.

That evening, we hunkered down to watch "So You Think You Can Dance" (awesome!).  After awhile Jay hit the pause button and very calmly said "Uh, we're not the only ones watching SYTYCD, Dear."  Sure enough, little Jerry was standing there next to the couch, eyes riveted on Cat Deely (as well they should be).  Now we had a problem.  That mouse broke the code!  Never leave the basement!  Never!  Code breaker!  Rodents are not permitted to crawl on, near or around the childrens' toys potentially leaving droppings in their wake!  Sensing our awareness, Jerry darted behind the T.V. cabinet.  As Jay went to peek behind the massive piece of furniture, I stood by quietly....on the coffee table.  I had to explain that since Code Breaker Jerry could not be trusted to stay in the basement, I didn't want to be further violated by having my feet scurried over.  The rolling of Jay's eyes could be heard 'round the world.  As he sped off to get yet another trap, I bravely went to stand on the speaker next to the cabinet to peek behind.  Jay thought that after setting the trap behind the cabinet we could go back to just casually watching the rest of SYTYCD.  Uhhhhh....nope.  We can't just let Code Breaker Jerry stay here among us, he must be caught. 

Well, Jerry was none to pleased with this idea, but being that his brain is the size of a pea, he kept getting himself trapped in a corner.  Rejecting Jay's idea to "drop something heavy on him", I was ready to grab him by the tail a few times when he would impossibly squeeze himself under the cabinet.  However, again with the pea sized brain, he'd come back out a few moments later to the same spot.  Eventually, he tried to scurry across the open floor and Jay , with his ninja-like reflexes, slapped a cup over him.  (It really was super fast) What to do next, we wondered?  Leave it there for the kids to discover?  No, too much screaming.  Hope he suffocates quickly and dispose of him?  Nah, that would take too long.  So, we slid a piece of construction paper under the cup...and Jay held the door open for me as I carried the contraption outside to free the little bugger.  We're pretty sure we saw him peeking in the window to see the last few dance routines on SYTYCD.

Oh, and p.s.  Jerry had at least one friend with him, as the trap in the basement was occupied the next time we checked it.  Yuck!

A Facebook Birthday

Here are two facts: #1-This past Saturday was my birthday.  Hold all your bells and whistles, please, because we're long past celebration time.  Let's face it, there's already been a major holiday since then; I'm small potatoes.  And, really, Hallmark's selection of "Happy 5th Anniversary of Your 29th Birthday, Weirdo!" are slim to none.  And #2-I like to receive emails.  It's kind of a bummer to see "Hello, Rachel!  There are no unread messages in your inbox" for days at a time.  I just don't think Yahoo! has to be so uppity about it.  It's not like I lose sleep or anything over a big fat goose egg, but it's on the same level as checking the mailbox and hoping for a letter or something other than junk.

So, what do these two facts have to so with each other?  The Facebook birthday, of course!  For the past couple of birthdays, I have looked forward to checking my email to see how many Facebook friends have posted a birthday wish on my wall.  There's always that short moment of fear of  opening an empty inbox! Oh!  The anticipation!  This past weekend was no disappointment, either....over 100 comments, thankyouverymuch!   Anybody remember before Facebook when you'd get about 7 "Happy birthday" wishes?...in a phone call?...or a card in the snail mail?...or (gasp!) face to face?   Remember how having a summer birthday meant having the elementary principal read your name over the PA system on the last day before vacation with every other summer baby instead of having your own classroom party?  What the...?  Did I just let that bitterness seep out?  Sorry...

How do you feel about the Facebook Birthday?  Do you look forward to it?  Maybe a little too much?  Maybe not at all?  I mean, let's put this all in balance...some of these well wishes came from people I either hardly know or haven't known in 15 years!  Most of them, you know, are the obligatory post simply because the (sometimes dirty) Facebook sidebar reminded them that it's your special day.  In such an age of social networking, is it a nice touch to have that virtual connection to hundreds of people or kind of an insincere way to get people to stay connected?  Does it cross your mind how many of your FB friends didn't post anything? 

At the end of the day (literally), I enjoyed reading all the kind words and didn't waste time questioning the sincerity or the originality of the post-er.  This is just one of those funny things that goes through my mind in any given day and wonder if the same is true for any of you.  I'm done rambling about nonsense now, carry on.

Still The Reigning Queen of Crafts!

Oh wait!  Did you think I was talking about myself?  Hardly!  Of course I was tipping my hat to Her Crafting Majesty, the Crafty Pumpkin.  Her crafting knows no bounds and she seems to have anything crafty that you may or may not need.  Ribbon?  Pfffft...do you want it with or without wire?  Adhesive?  Tape (single or double sided), glue (hot or cold), acid filled or free.  Paper?  How much time do you have?  Seriously!  The girl can create scrapbooks, gifts, games all during nap time.

Recently, she posted 2 craft ideas and I thought I'd throw my glue gun into the ring (or hand woven basket) and try.  Both were appropriate for teacher gifts and since the end of the school year was upon us, it seemed like the right thing to do.  I, myself, am not typically a craft self starter.  Buying something made to look like I spent hours toiling over it is much more my style.  It's not that I can't create crafty things...I'm actually very good at following directions.  I've conquered many the Ikea furniture pieces!  The more cam screws the better!  But that's almost the problem here.  Crafty P can take a pile of stuff and make something terrific out of it and explain it in 4 steps...I require 472 directions to complete any project.  I think by the 6th phone call and 24th text from Michael's and Jo-Ann's, Crafty was ready to finish the projects for me.

Without further ado...here's a photo tour of the craftiness.  If you would like more in depth directions, I'll be happy to email you a 7 page, bullet point Word document.

Here's Bella and Joe painting little ceramic pots with watered down white paint which were then wiped with a paper towel to give them a weathered look.

Then we have Bella counting out Kisses for each bag and Joe signing his name for his teachers' tags.

Here's one of Bella's finished tags...

Viola!

For this next project, children were not permitted to help...in any way.

This crayon letter project was for Joe's classroom teacher and it surely tested every one of my needs for perfection, symmetry and neatness.  

But, all the teachers loved their gifts and I would happily do these crafts again in the future.  In some small recess of my mind, though, I kinda hope Crafty P doesn't come up with any more fabulous ideas.  She can rest assured knowing that she can hang onto her (handmade, of course) crown of craftiness.

....and DONE!!!

The Clothing Chronicles, Is It Just Me?

I'm hoping that by the end of this post I won't be left standing alone (to be more accurate; sitting while typing) by my ill fitting, mismatched clothed self.  I need to know that other people do the same thing....compromise fit for time or savings.  Who's with me?

I wear one pair of jeans.  Read that again.  One pair.  And I love them.  Now, don't get me wrong...I OWN probably 20 pair in a variety of sizes ranging from "Are you serious?" to "Remember when?"  But that one pair is the only denim in the rotation right now.  If I'm in a pinch and the beloved are in the wash, I'll wear a pair of ill fitting jeans.  Always the next size up, never down.  I learned a long time ago that squeezing, shoving and stuffing into a smaller size doesn't make you look slimmer....in fact, an image of bulldogs wrestling in a pillow case comes to mind.  Why don't I just get another pair of jeans that actually fit?  That makes perfect sense!  Eh...that would take time and money...plus, I have other jeans.  Yeah, but they don't fit!!!  But look at the stack of jeans you have...there are people with NO jeans in this world!  But they don't fit!!!  See why it's hard to be in my head?

This same principle applies to shorts, too.  One pair...plus the cast offs.  Which reminds me that I need to wash those, unless the peach chunks and accompanying juice magically disappeared from the entire crotch area....

Here's what else I'm stuck on...I was trying on fun summer dresses at Target that were out of my usual comfort zone.  I was really proud of myself.  I picked out a floor length (?) ankle length (?) long, sleeveless dress with a v-neck.  Surprisingly, the length did not make look like a gnome, and the waist did not make me look like a Popsicle.  So far so good, right?  But, the top was a little too big and the V was a little too deep.  I was thinking of wearing the dress to church, but not with that much cleavage!  So, I thought "Well, if I put a cammi under it...and a cardigan over it, it could work."  What?  Now I just went from an easy to throw on dress to an elaborate get up to keep people from stumbling in Sin at church?  I didn't get the dress.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I have a lot of clothes that require a plan.  Pants that have no button, but if I pin them then cover it with a top...A shirt with a stain, but if I wear a scarf....Pants that can only be worn with heels....Pants that can only be worn with flats....Pants that are too big, but if I use a belt then cover the gappy part....A shirt that's too short, but if I wear a tank under it....No one will see the maternity tag, right?...So what if I've had this shirt since before having kids?  It's still cool, right?  Uhhhhh. no.

When did I become this person?  It's not like I was ever a fashion icon, unless Hyper Color T-shirts or Skidz counts towards being a fashionista.  I try to follow trends or at the very least avoid fashion faux pas like shoulder pads, pleats and bolo ties.  But where did the compromise begin?  Am I lazy?  Frugal to the point of spending more on safety pins than the clothes themselves?   Since in the recent past, my size has gone up and down depending on which side of pregnancy we're talking about, I simply found it pointless to put time and money into a wardrobe that will potentially not fit in the near future.  But that doesn't make it okay to wear broken down, stained, ill fitting junk either.

I guess I never realized how much clothing compromising I was doing.  Guess I need to go shopping...SOON!  Anybody need to go with me?

For the next Clothing Chronicles..."Can we talk about ugly underwear?".

Sweet Progress