Friday, December 28, 2007

The Man hath Cometh.

Well, blog readers (and you know who you are!) The Man has arrived. And with gifts no less. Not gifts from the dreaded InLaws, no, these gifts are ones that he used his own personal Christmas gift cash flow to purchase (The IL apparently forked over a couple of bucks so that he could have a Christmas gift, and he opted to spend it on us ~ his familia.)
For that, he is FABULOUS (I know this term contradicts my normal word usage for him, however, I can change my mind for at least 5 damn minutes every once in a while.)
We apparently do not rank among those who are worthy of a direct gift purchase by the IL. No, not even the children. Once again, they are a**holes. Need I say more.
NEWay, I will probably not be posting for the next few days due to the fact that we will be having our holiday now that The Man has graced us with his face. SO, if I don't "see" you before the Grand Ringing in of the New Year, stay safe. Have a great one.
And I will see you on the flip side!!!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

As the World Turns.... (aka. Christmas Vaca-y for us!)

Hmmmm....When I picked Cait up from school last Thursday for the start of her Christmas Vacation, I honestly never thought that it would go by this fast. It has been a week now, and it feels like just days have gone by. (It probably helps that she spent about 5 days or so at her dad's house when she was first out of school.) The girls and I have spent our days playing board games, and our evenings reading from the Complete Chronicles of Narnia collection (well, Cait and I have been reading it. Ini is really only good for a chapter or two and then she is out for the night. LOL)
The odd thing is that I am discovering my children all over again. Their personalities, their temperments, their ability to torture one another with their mere thoughts. I have never in my life known siblings to get along so poorly (possibly, my brother and I, but possibly not. LOL) I thought that MAYBE 4 yrs, and the fact that they are both girls, would make some kind of a difference. But I guess that sibling discontent runs rampant for all.
It is nice that I have been able to sew some though. I have managed to accomplish 2 tankie/shorts outfits, a coat shell, a tunic top, a peasant top, 2 pr of flannel pants, and an additional tank for my Cait in just the past 4 and a half days. So, maybe, this whole Christmas Vacation thing isn't so bad after all.
I still can't wait for January 3rd though.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Well, the Holiday has come and gone...for most of us.

But not for us.
We (meaning, I) made the executive decision to wait until The Man gets home to officially begin our Christmas celebration. And the girls feel the same way (which is a good thing, 'cuz I gotta tell you, they don't really have much of a choice. LOL)
We are going to decorate the tree tomorrow (during the time when most of you are taking yours down) and then we will wait.
I, for one, would just like to have a holiday that occurs on the day it is supposed to. This makes Christmas #3 that The Man has missed, and last year we had to wait until the end of January to have dinner and gift exchanging. If we have to wait that long this year, I am just going to do it all without him and say "Oh, too bad, so sad, sucka!" (Not really, but that is what I will be thinking while he is whining about how he wasn't here for Christmas.)
Oh, yes, by-the-by, his mother -- she is just fine. No stroke, no heart problem, and (surprise, surprise) still a beeyyaatch. So basically, he has spent the past week in misery for a grand total of NOTHING. Yippee!!

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Ahhhh....My NEW Absolute Holiday LOVE!!

I am officially addicted.

Dark Chocolate and DELICIOUSLY scented candles. Honestly, it doesn't get much better than that.
The candles arrived last week in a Christmas box sent by a WONDERFUL friend that lives halfway across the country in BEAUTIFUL Washington state. They are manufactured by the GANZ corporation under the label of Time and Again And they smell just fantastic.
The chocolates are manufactured by the company that makes the Ferrero Rocher brand of candies. Appropriately named "Rondnoir", they are oh so YUMMY! They are apparently NEW for the holiday season, and hopefully they will be sticking around for a while.
Just thought I would share the LOVE.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Never heard of them before a couple of weeks ago...Sugarland.

I am not normally a big fan of country music. However, I am completely IN LOVE with this song. It is sooooooo damn sad, and makes me bawl everytime I listen to it. But I also think that it is empowering in it's own way. It is interesting how a song can make one FEEL.
Anyway, this is the video Sugarland - Stay....




Sugarland Tour Dates Sugarland Merchandise Official Sugarland Website

Some seriously sucky video quality, but you get the idea. Enjoy!

Friday, December 21, 2007

Lovely, just Freakin' Lovely!!

Ahhhhhhhh yes, it is Friday night in America. And I am stuck in my tiny corner at my tiny desk lamenting the fact that it is THIS close to Christmas, and I will have a grand total of half my family present for the holiday.
My husband's mother was admitted to the hospital 2 days ago, after presenting (what was thought at the time to be) the symptoms of a stroke.
-- I refer to her as my husband's mother because there is literally no love lost between this woman and I. I would NEVER wish any ill will upon her, and really feel horribly that this is occuring (especially at this time.) But I really think that if she weren't such a manipulative beeeeyaaatch all the time, we might have a better relationship. --
NEWay -- her CAT Scan/MRI/Whatever-test-they-ran have come back clear - so no major stroke as of yet. But the dr does feel that she is having mini-strokes, and that these will lead to a large one eventually. (Mind you, eventually could mean 10 yrs from now.) It is most certainly either that, or her blood sugar (she is diabetic), or her heart (at this point I would have been questioning exactly what it was that the doctor DID, in fact, know.)
So The Man is currently perched at her side, patting her hand, and consoling her. While we sit here about 1000 mi away.
As a general rule, I am not a bitter/hateful/generally rotten person, but they have the mother/son relationship of many varieties of animals that eat their young (not that she would actively eat her young, but that she has the same cunning, manipulative nature that animals that do predatorily consume their own species exhibit.) And, one would figure that he would rather be here (with the family that hasn't enabled his "neediness" and fed into his co-dependency and essentially held him down his whole life) for the holiday, than listening to her drone on and on with the "oh, please don't feel sorry for me. I will be just fine. Could you be troubled to hand me that paper over there though, as I feel the necessity to scrawl down my last will and testiment while I still have the strength to hold the pen in my hand" speech.
I understand that she is his mother, but (I feel) that there comes a point in everyone's life where the toxicity of a relationship outweighs the blood that flows between 2 people.
Then again, maybe I am just a great big BEEEEEYYYYAAAATCH!!!

Monday, December 17, 2007

It's time for Monday's Looks We Love!!!

Oh my goodness, with the holidays creeping up on me I have barely had the time to breathe - let alone search out wonderful little items to bring my JOY! LOL

I did, however, happen upon these LOVELY little creatures...
Hedgehog Christmas Ornaments by Corkyscookies on Etsy. These are FABULOUS!! And extremely SOFT and cuddly.

And, how ADORABLE is this?!?!?! Perfect for Valentine's Day or any other day for that matter. I have long been a fan of Jaybird*designs, and if you check out her About ME page, you will definently see why. Her designs are just AMAZING.

Well, there is some food for thought (or should I say Fashion for Thought LOL)
Hope that all is well, and HAPPY SHOPPING!

*NOTE* I would like to say that, we all love to look at items for sale everywhere, I am in no way endorsing these sellers or the items that they are selling. I know nothing of their business practices or the quality of their items. I am simply stating my opinion on the cuteness of the items they have listed. If you happen to fall in love with something on your own, and it doesn't work out (for whatever reason), I cannot (and will not) be held responsible.
This is my little disclaimer so that my a.i.c. Happy Monday!!!

P.S. - If you have a designer/listing/store that you would like to see on the Monday Looks we LOVE!!!, please send it to me. If we like what we see, and it is "drool worthy", we may choose it to be featured (and by we, I mean, me and the girls.)

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Brava!!!

I am *ALMOST* finished with my "Handmade Holiday" items for my girls.
I decided a couple of months ago that I wanted to give them an entirely handmade Christmas (completely crafted by moi!) So, I made a list. I checked it twice. And I decided exactly what I was going to create for each child (although there are a lot of duplicate items - they fight over the stuff if I don't.) I also determined what I was going to make for my friends' children (because it kind of defeats the purpose of a "Handmade Holiday" if you purchase items for other children, and just not for your own.)
I have been sewing until 2 AM nearly every night, and running on just a few hours of sleep to get them done. But they are almost finished.
And I am happy!!! :)

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Will wonders never cease!!!! ---- GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Okay, I am probably the only person on the planet that did not know that a certain local discount store would be having Webkinz interactive toys on special tomorrow for $12.00. But I do now!!

I went to my local discount store tonight, and they had them out on the shelf. I had been reading on some of the boards/groups that discount stores like WM, KMart, etc. had been trying to stock them for sale, so I just figured that mine had got it done. Well, I let the girls pick out one each as a treat for being good in the store. And when we got up to the counter to pay for them, they would not ring up at the register. Customer service called the main office in Bentonville AR, and was informed that it must have been a mistake on the part of an over-zealous stocking person and that they were not intended to be out today/tonight so they could not be sold today/tonight.

So the Customer Service person comes over to the register and FORCES MY CHILDREN TO GIVE BACK THE DAMN WEBKINZ while my youngest girl child (she is 3) is bawling because she had been so good in the store and the counter person is taking her Kinz-kinz away, with the explaination that it was all just a MISTAKE and she (the counter person) has to do it. They (the counter person and the checker) just kept telling her over and over again that she had to give it back (as she is crying and clutching the toy to her chest.) It was HORRIBLE!!!!

I have never been more livid in all my life. I still am. I understand that they aren't supposed to be on sale until tomorrow, and that it was a mistake to put them on the shelves today, but the least they could have done was offer to hold them for the girls until morning. Or something.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Looks we LOVE!!!

So, in my original post, I alluded to having "plans for this blog" LOL One of those plans includes what I like to refer to as "Looks we LOVE!!!" Each and every Monday I plan to seek out and post a few specific listings/pieces that we feel are drool worthy here in at our house. Hopefully, you will feel the same :)

The first comes from eBay seller flowers*for*lili (who creates ABSOLUTELY AMAZING clothing for children -- you should check out her About ME page for examples of her previous works of art.)

The second featured item comes from Etsy, and boy is it ADORABLE! Or should I say - Boy are THEY adorable. You decide! LOL onesweetbaby is bringing to you the most wonderful pair of baby booties that feature a SWEET, little Japanese Import - a Wizard of OZ print. And, if you LOVE those as much as we do, you should check out the other super CUTE stuff available in her listings (Can you say "HELLO SWEET HEDGIE HAT!!!"

Well, those are just 2 of the ADORABLE items that we have fallen in LOVE with at our house. Hopefully, you will find something in your searching that you fall in love with as well.

*NOTE* -- I would just like to say that, while we all love to look at items for sale everywhere, I am in no way endorsing these sellers or the items that they are selling. I know nothing of their business practices or the quality of their items. I am simply stating my opinion on the cuteness of the items they have listed. If you happen to fall in love with something on your own, and it doesn't work out (for whatever reason), I cannot (and will not) be held responsible.
This is my little disclaimer so that my a.i.c. Happy Monday!!!

PS - If you have a designer/listing/store that you would like to see on the Monday Looks we LOVE!!!, please send it to me. If we like what we see, and it is drool worthy, we may choose it to be featured (and by we, I mean, me and the girls)

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Sad day in the ol' Dirt Box.

Our worms are dying. And we are sad.
That sounds odd, doesn't it? Maybe a little backstory will shed some light on all of it.

About a month or so ago, we attended an event (Recycling Night) at Cait's school that offered a "Take Home Recycling Center" (aka. a Worm Farm.) We were to bring a plastic tub/box the size of a shoebox to fashion into the worm holder, and the school would provide the rest (worms included.) Now, before you start to exclaim "Ewwwww ~ Worms, how disgusting!!!!" I should probably note that the ones that my mother has in her worm farm are really clean, do not smell, and quite cute little things. (Ours, sadly, are not the same worms.) So we went to "Worm Night", as the girls refer to it, with the intention of getting our own personal "Take Home Recycling Center".

Fast forward to about a week later, the worms are still fine but they are not eating any of the food that has been put in for them (as a side note, worms consume - something like - 4 times their body weight in a week or something like that.) In fact, the food that we had put into the container for them when we set up the farm had molded. So we began the process of cleaning out the worm box, throwing away all the newspaper, leaves, moldy stuff, etc. (but not the worms :) ) And basically starting all over again. And thus began our quest to keep the worms alive - which I affectionately refer as "Save the Worms - 2007."

My mother came over several days later with some scraps for the worms - coffee grounds, cucumbers, and the like - that her worms had really loved and eaten right up (her worms had liked them so well, in fact, that they had been reproducing by the thousands inside of the coffee grounds.) So we added the scraps and some peat moss to the box, and put them back in the closet (worms HATE light.)

Moving ahead to last weekend (not this past weekend, but last weekend), the worms had eaten through the cucumber, and not much else. Of course, I couldn't exactly tell the difference between the coffee grounds and the dirt, but they had not eaten the carrots or the cabbage that was put into there so I would imagine that the coffee grounds were still in there as well. And there is absolutely no sign whatsoever of any kind of reproduction either (Worms are asexual creatures, does that strike anyone else as odd? Probably just me.) And it was moldy once again. So I cleaned out the box again, and started all over again.

This morning/afternoon I opened up their box and found 1 dead worm and a whole lot of messy, moldy orange and it's peels. They have not eaten any of the food that we had put into there, there is still a problem with molding, and now they are starting to die off. So, again, I cleaned out the moldy stuff, replaced the other stuff, and put in some pieces of apple.

Hopefully, they will live. I know how sad the girls would be if their worms met their untimely end inside of a box in our closet. My mother has already given up hope for them, I think. LOL She offered us some of hers.

Friday, November 30, 2007

"Welcome to your local discount store...

Please do not purchase anything you intend to return. EVER! Thank you, and have a Merry Christmas. :)"
How in the world to begin this....maybe just by saying GOOD GRIEF!!!!
It started last night, when the girls and I decided to go to our local, loveable, discount store to by Ini some medicine (she is sick.) Well, every single time I go in there I wander into the fabric section. Usually this is due to the fact that the bathrooms are located at the back of the store, as is the fabric section, and the girls ALWAYS have to Go the second we hit the doors. (Pretty common with children, I have found.) Anywho....last night I found a cut of the prettiest purple flannel in the remnant bin, and since Cait's fav colour is currently purple, I purchased it against my better judgement. I don't normally purchase fabric from said discount store, but I figured 2 yrd of flannel for a decent price in a colour she would LOVE would made FAB and comfy PJ pants, so what could it hurt. Right?
WRONG!!!!!!!!
I brought said flannel home, washed it, dried it, removed it from the dryer and sat down to trim the ends only to find that running straight down the middle of my lovely purple flannel was a rather noticeable line in the prettiest shade of LIGHT BLUE!
I just sat there staring at this line, thinking to myself "Now what am I supposed to do with this?" Then it hit me "Take it back, and never buy fabric there again. Simple."
This discount store has been well known in the past for taking back returns on items that are defective, too small, stop working shortly after purchase, etc. (Well, there was the one time my mother returned an alarm clock that she had which stopped working after 5 yrs or so. That was just RIDICULOUS and they never should have taken it back. But whatever!) So I pack up Ini this morning, and haul her back to the store. Immediately, I was met by a woman at the door. (Apparently, due to the current holiday season they are manning the door with people to tag items for return and then you proceed directly to the service desk with your tagged item.) I explained to her that I needed to return the fabric, and she said to me "Well, where is the tag?" I thought, "Tag. Tag? Oh yeah, that thing I threw away last night." So I told her I didn't have it, so she said "Well, we will need to go measure it." Then I informed her that I had washed it so it had shrunk from it's original length, 'cuz -obviously- it is flannel and that is what it does. She informed me that it would still have to be measured, because they would only refund me the money for the fabric that was actually there and not the amount for the yardage that I had actually paid for. WHATEVER!
We trek all the way back to the fabric dept, only to be met by another "associate" that states that they no longer take returns on cut yardage of fabric. Basically, their policy is that if you have it cut, take it home, and find something wrong with it, you are stuck with it. I then explained to her that is was already cut and in the remnant bin when I bought it. And she proceeded to tell me that it would have been marked on the wrapping as to the defect if it was in the remnant bin, and that is probably why it was in there in the first place. I simply asked her why the packaging had no such marking when I purchased it if all the flaws are supposed to be noted before it is put in there for sale? She just shrugged and said she didn't know.
At this point I am thinking to myself "Oh, this is not going well. I am going to be stuck with 2 yrds of fabric that I can't use. This sucks!!" Then she looks at me and says that since it is defective, they will take it back but that she doesn't have any other flannel that is the same colour. I will either have to pick something else (that I would not get enough fabric to make the PJ pants with) or take the money in return.
So, I took the money. I figure I can drive to an actual FABRIC store, and get better flannel with potentially less hassle.
I am guessing that the moral of this story is...Do not buy fabric from a store where the return policy is actually "If you would like to return something, please bring it to the store. If we deem that you do not deserve the refund/exchange, even if the item is clearly defective and can not be used for the reason with which you bought said item, then we will look at you with a smile on our face and simply say Thank you and Have a nice day. But hey, at least you will get screwed with a smile!"

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Bahhhhhhhh! ~ AKA ~ Children, sigh!

Okay, so this morning I decided that it was time to tackle the mess that I call my children's room. Ini does not let me sew during the day anyway, so what better time to clean there room than when she is up and awake. Little did I know at the time, that it would literally take me all day to complete said room cleaning. Once I got in there and got started, I could not stop. And it was a HUGE mess, so that made it take that much longer. Anyway, I ended up with 2 3ft tall piles of clothes to auction off in the Spring, a box of shoes to donate to Charity, and 2 13 gal. kitchen trashbags full of "stuff" to throw out (broken toys, McD's toys, etc.) I was exhausted, sweaty, tired, and their room is now CLEAN!
So simply imagine my surprise when I come down the hallway into the Living room only to find out that Ini decided to "redecorate" it with every single toy she owns. Whaaaaa!!!! Here we go again :(

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Am I the only one without a Blog?

I am seriously beginning to think that I just might be.
I have never really considered myself to be interesting enough to warrant having a blog. I mean, who in the world would want to read the ramblings of stay at home mom? (I wouldn't answer that if I were you! LOL)
Anyway, this will be a short and sweet entry, but there will be more to come shortly. I have plans for this blog! LOL

See you on the flip side!