I've fallen in total love

With this:


My skin looks different after only a week of using it once a day. My pores are not only smaller but CLEANER! It's resurfacing my skin. All of my skin care products are going on smoother and able to work so much better as the dead layer of skin that prevents absorption is sloughed away.

I'm in total love. It was worth every.single.very.expensive. penny. I paid for it.

Buy this. You cannot afford to be without it. Then come here and thank me profuisly for telling you about it. You can even send me gifts or flowers if you'd like. I'll take it all.

You're welcome.

and THIS is why this kid makes me smile

I think back to when #1 was born. We were such typical new parents. Pictures every 20 minutes, gentle baths thinking we were gonna break him, up at EVERY sound throughout the night thinking he would stop breathing at any second, packing every.single.thing. under the sun in the diaper bag every.single.time. we went out....all these things done (and much more) to ensure we'd be the perfect parents.

Who knows what I did right with #1 but he has so far turned out to be the cutest kid. The way he loves his brother brings tears to my eyes. Always thinking of him no matter if he's around or not. The things he comes up with are just too funny. I wish I could record every moment so when I'm old and sitting in a wet diaper, I could play them over and over and over.....this one specific moment will have to do for now anyway. I came home from work to find this on the table. He worked hard to type it up on the computer and can't wait to send it off.

He makes me smile this #1 kid of mine.

How lucky am I?

Pretty damn lucky.

Modern Day Witch

Today I fell out of my house.

Lucky because a house didn't fall on me, but falling out of one is no picnic either, I assure you.

I have an attached garage. I keep my nasty work shoes in there because bringing home what I step in every day/night into my home is NOT an option. As I was entering the garage to put my shoes on and leave for work, I stepped on kids boots (of course they were) that were on the STEP instead of where they should be (anywhere but the friggen step) and I stumbled (tote bag, lunch bag and COACH bag for God's sake). I caught myself though and I would have made it had it not been for DH's boots. The friggen boots that were where they "should" be but that didn't matter. None of that mattered.

The fall was NOT graceful.

The fall was NOT pretty.

What came out of my mouth made sailor's everywhere cover their ears and cringe. Truck driver's pulled over and curled into fetal positions.

My children went running......RUNNING for cover. My DH struggled in the Garden of Good and Evil and I could see how he was frantically volleying between laughing or feigning concern and sympathy for my injuries while I was into my full blown tirade.

I limped off to work. Scraped knees and all.

The Secret to Life Revealed

That's right people. I have learned the secret to life...........life with stainless appliances that is.

There are those of you who know my pain.

The bain of my existence.

The very thing that drives me to the edge of insanity from the moment I wake and walk into my kitchen until I shut the lights out when I go to bed.

The war that is waged every day with expensive purchases, homemade concoctions, prayers, threats, swears.

Countless hours spent on the Internet searching, searching, searching for answers.......

I have found it.

FOUND IT!

It comes from a sweet old Lowe's man.

Appliance God.

Appliance Genius.

I will share it with you. You shall go out and spread the word. You shall save other's from the pain we've all experienced every day. You shall praise the name (which I've forgotten) of the Lowe's Appliance Genius. You shall cry tears of joy when you see that this works!

IT WORKS!

How do you remove fingerprints, hand prints, face prints (if you have boys like I do) ANY PRINTS from your stainless appliances? How? HOW?????

With Pledge. For the love of all that is holy.....with PLEDGE!!.

It works. In all it's beautiful glory...it works.

I cleaned the appliance as normal. I then took a soft cloth and sprayed some Pledge on it. I then buffed those mother lovin', DNA laden, nasty lookin' prints off my stainless!!!

It works like a DREAM.

Gone.

Gone.

Gone.

Go forth and clean my pretties. Clean like you've never cleaned before.

I looked around...and it was good. Shiny and good.

Budget FAIL?

Why am I such a budget retard?

I think I'm subconsciously (ok guess it's really not subconsciously since I've not only verbalized it here but thought enough about it that it's now in my consciousness) that I'm sabotaging my attempt at budgeting.

Here's the issue.

I don't know where to start. I've stalked the Dave Ramsey message boards over at the Babycenter web site but every time I start attempting to make this damn thing out, I just don't know implement it. For instance, I can fill in all the blanks on this form, but since we get paid biweekly, I don't know whether to just take our combined paycheck deposit amount and assign all the money for a zero balance then do the same in two weeks again OR try to do this for the entire month (which would be hard since I don't actually have the money in hand to pay all the monthly bills at once so to speak). Like do I take the $400 that I budget for food out on the 1st paycheck of the month or $200 the 1st check and $200 the next check, etc. This example could also be used for gas, spending money, entertainment money, babysitter money, etc.

Does this make sense?

I need to make this work. I HAVE to raise some serious cash for this kitchen remodel in May. Any advice is welcome!

New Year Project #1 USE WHAT I HAVE

Ok, new year, new projects. I'll post a new project when I'm done with the old one. Unless it's specifically something that will be on going but at least the initial kick in the ass to get the project done will start here.





How pitiful is this?




That, my friends, is my pantry in all it's dysfunctional glory. Pitiful because, OMG look how much food I have and I still have shopping lists weekly.

Sooooo.......New Year Project #1 is to USE WHAT I HAVE in regards to meals. I will go through the pantry, organize it and make my meal plan taking into account the ingredients I already possess. I have already done the shopping for the next two weeks BUT I'll start making the meal plan on paper for the weeks following after inventorying the pantry.

Ready.......GO!

Christmas Poem for 2009

‘Twas the day of Christmas
And all through my house
Mass chaos ensued
Just ask my spouse

A special Breakfast was made
And devoured by most
#2 wouldn’t eat
and just wanted toast

gifts were ripped open
and screams of joy could be heard,
I wondered last night if I’d bought them enough
I now realize OMG how absurd!

In hindsight I admit
Santa made some dumb choices
like getting them a voice recorder,
that recorded their voices (and played them back ad nauseum)

I made out pretty well,
No complaints this year
Although I was hoping two carats
Would adorn my ears.

My favorite holiday is Christmas
With it’s warmth and good cheer
Here’s hoping your holiday
Was amazing this year.

Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda....

It's that time of year again.

Almost another year gone by since I lost my Mom. I allow myself the pity party table of one, just once a year, near the anniversary of her death. This is the time that I wonder how my life would be different had she never died. The time of year that I beat myself up and down for not recognizing that she did in fact have congestive heart failure and that mistake ultimately lead to her death. Once a year I cry for what I've lost, what I should have done, what could be. I miss her so much, sometimes it still hurts like it was just yesterday. There is so much I want to share with her. The Flying Monkey's, my joy's in life, my sadness, my achievements, my failures.

I wonder where I'd be right now if she were still alive. We bought her house after her death so would we still be in our old house? Would we be in my dream home which this one is surely not. What would the holidays be like with her here? What kind of person would I be?

I know that I wouldn't be who I am now.

I'm a different person after her death. I don't think it's bad, but different. I did discover strength that I never knew I possessed after she died but honestly, that and $1.60 will get ya a coffee at Tim Horton's. Would my brothers and I be closer had she not died or are we closer because we're all each other has now?

My heart is heavy. I want to hear her voice once more. I want to tell her just how much I admired her and how I pray that I can be 1/2 the woman she was. I want to hold her, smell her perfume ON her vs. in the bottle on my dresser. I want to cry with her, laugh with her, BE with her.

I miss you Mom. More than ever. I still think about you every day. I pray that you look out for me and the Monkey's.

I love you. Always.

One of my favorites

Updates

So, Part duex was up at 330am NOT 4am like I thought. I, in turn, was up at 5am because between him and DH in my bed, I get NO SLEEP.

I stalked the bathroom vanity out at Lowe's today. I'll be damned if it doesn't have two drawers just waiting to be filled with my crap. So this is a go as far as I'm concerned. I think I'll just buy it because if I wait until DH is ready, the thing will be long gone.

Our toilet was leaking for the umteenth time this year so for whatever reason, DH gets a bug up his ass and decided to tear it out and replace it with a new one. This would have been good had he not had to work today AND while lifting the new toilet outta the car (this will turn into MY fault even though I was no where near him when he decided to do this) he hurt his back. He's pissed because I had the truck so putting it in the car and lifting it out could have been avoided. He then lifed Part duex into the shopping cart sealing his back fate. So he ended up calling into work and I in turn, called BFF and we're going out and leaving DH at home with the kids. This makes ME happy and that's all that really matters in the big picture. To add to the stress, DH is having a hard time caulking the toilet so he's now a freakin' BEAR to be around. He just reduced Part duex to tears when all the litte guy wanted to do is ask DH if he could watch him caulk.

And THAT my friends is what I have to look forward to all night/weekend.

Don't be hatin'.