When You're 97 Years Old...

...Anything goes! We had the pleasure of spending Thanksgiving with my grandmother this year. She came to visit all the way from North Carolina. My Nannie is a wonderful, loving, outgoing, perplexing woman. We enjoyed our visit with her, but we always get a few laughs when we talk with her. I guess when you are 97, you just let all of your opinions about everything out to air. Here are some highlights from our Thanksgiving with Nannie:


1. Thanks to Nannie, we are now aware that the "red Chinese" have amassed troops on our borders and are waiting to attack the U.S., take over, and turn us all Communist.


2. Her thoughts on the election, spoken with sadness and great conviction: "Poor, old John McCain." (This in and of itself is so wonderfully hilarious because she is as old as poor, old John McCain's mother!)


3. It should be noted that she and my grandfather were always ardent Democrats, probably since before FDR and his New Deal. JFK might have been their Second Coming. I think my grandfather would have voted for Mickey Mouse if he had run under the Democratic ticket. So it came as a great shock to us when she passionately announced that my grandfather would have hated the way that the party is being run these days (she thinks the Clintons want to take over the U.N., which is funny because I know for a fact she voted for Clinton in both of the 1990's elections). She proclaimed that "we are Republicans now." I'm not sure why she added the "we" in there, as my grandfather passed away in 1994, but perhaps she feels so strongly about her recent political defection that she felt he also needed to be included to save his good name.


4. On facial hair: Riding next to my brother in the car, she stared hard at his new beard and finally said, "I don't like beards." Jamie felt so bad he went home and shaved it off.


5. She has special water. Thanks to Nannie's hair dresser, who sold her a marvelous contraption, Nannie now has "special water" that she must take everywhere with her. She claims that it can heal cuts and bruises, and it makes her loose weight. She strong-armed my mom into bringing a small cooler of it up from North Carolina. Mom took a sip of it when Nannie wasn't looking and it tasted just like her regular water...filtered. Jamie's sister-in-law did not help the situation when, over Thanksgiving dinner, she told my grandmother that it sounded like magic water. I am pretty certain that Nannie said that's ridiculous. It's just special, that's all.


6. The wonder of the Playstation: Jamie got bored at my mom's and found his old stash of Play Station 1 games. He decided that even though the graphics are terrible, he'd play Madden 2000 on the Play Station 2 to pass the time. My grandmother toddled in with her cane, peered at the TV, and exclaimed "Oh, who's playing?" My brother didn't have the heart to tell her that she was watching a (very poor) version of a video football game so he told her she was watching the Colts and the Skins. She sat down to watch and said, "Well, I've never seen football players on ice skates before. Why are they ice skating?" It was all Jamie could do to keep his cool. He decided not to say anything because he knew she'd be asleep soon anyways. Sure enough, he looked back two minutes later and she was fast asleep in my mom's big arm chair.


7. On our new addition: Most people who've come over to see our new room have shown polite admiration for all the work that went into it. Nannie made one positive comment on Tim's bookshelves and then all she said was, "I put the closet over there [on my plans]." Oookaaayyyy.





If I make it to 97, I hope I have the energy that she has each day. I am looking forward to being able to speak my mind too.

I'm Bringin' Sexy Back...

Went shopping with Michaela Byrd today. (It is SO much easier to shop with only one child!) We headed out to DSW to check out the kicks. I wanted a really sexy pair of shoes to wear to the brother-in-law's wedding this weekend. I wanted to find something that would make me feel better about myself, as the dress I found at Macy's obviously did not do wonders for my self-esteem. I was hoping that the perfect pair of strappy stilettos would jump off the shelf into my eager arms, but no such luck. I didn't see anything strappy enough, if that makes any sense. So I settled on this pair from Steve Madden. Not bad. I like the sparkly sequins that are actually pretty subtle. They only shimmer when the light hits them in just the right way. Michaela Byrd approved them, but I think she was only in a hurry to get back in the car and stare at her baby mirror mobile. We shopped hard! All in a good day's work, right?

Have you been BOO!ed ??

No, I'm not talking about the kind of booing one would receive after a particularly bad karaoke performace, or an Obama t-shirt at a McCain-Palin rally....BOO!ing is a fun Halloween activity that got started recently in my local Mothers of Preschoolers group.

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, but I do let my girls dress up, and next year we will go Trick or Treating for the first time (see my wedding post for the reason why we won't be this year). We don't decorate for Halloween, save for two really cute Jack 'O Lantern signs in my front flower pots. I prefer pumpkins, gourds, leaves, etc. But I always enjoy fun seasonal activities, so when another mom from my group secretly left a little Halloween goodie bag on my front steps, I knew I had to give BOO!ing a try!

Along with a few treats, there was a note that said this:

You've Been BOO!ED
The air is cool, it’s time for Fall! Soon sweet treats will come for all. Table leaders are planning things to do...in fact, a MOPS mom brought this to YOU!
The treats that came with this short note are yours to keep. Enjoy them both! But what makes this fun is when friends like you copy and make it Two.
We’ll all have smiles upon our faces trying to figure out who BOO!Ed our places. Just be sure that you don’t tell-Keep it a secret and hide it well.
Please join the fun, the season’s here to spread the goodies, BOO!s, and cheer.
Lots of Love, A MOPS Mom

This could be edited to fit any neighborhood or group. The most fun was picking out the goodies for the people that I would be BOO!ing. I had a crazy crazy week, so I knew I wouldn't be able to make anything homemade. Soooo...off to Wally World I went (closer to home and I had only so much time before the girls woke up and my husband would be required to get off the couch and watch them). This was the note that I sent along. I retyped the one that was dropped off at my house because it was a little wet and hard to read. I used Publisher and found a cute font that looked like I cut the letters out of a magazine. Add a cute pumpkin graphic, and you're set! The "take out" box I found at my local AC Moore. I loved the fall colors, and they were 2 for $1. The little doorknob "BOO" signs I got at Wal-Mart in a little BOO!ing kit. It also came with a little black bag that said "Boo!" on it. I layered the tiny Halloween cupcakes with a piece of wax paper, and I filled in the cracks with miniature chocolates. After that was packed up, it went into the little black "Boo" bag and I dropped in some Reese's peanut butter cups. Perfect color coordination. Talk about chocolate overload!

There's still time to give BOO!ing a try. The hardest part was dropping off the bags. I went to two moms' houses that I had never been to before. Add in the dark, a slip on wet grass when I almost lost my $$$ glasses, and one of the husbands almost catching me, and it was a freaky night! Tons of fun. If you do this in your neighborhood, be sure to ask people to put the little signs on their door or window so no one gets BOO!ed twice.

Always a Bridesmaid...

Here is a little-known fact about me. I do not like going to weddings. I don't mind watching wedding shows on TV, I enjoy seeing people's pictures, and I love wedding dresses, but I always dread receiving those 4 pound envelopes in the mail with the RSVP cards inside. It just seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through to throw a big party for 200 people that will forget all about it the instant they go home and start perusing their TiVos to see last Thursday's episode of The Office. Do the guests care that your dress has 967 pearls on it that were hand-sewn by French nuns? No. They want to drink as much as possible at the open bar and then head home to watch Dwight throw a baby stroller from the top of a pile of tires. Really, how can you compete with Steve Carrell and Rainn Wilson?

Did I have a wedding? Yes. Did I wish for a big extravagant party complete with a band and sit down dinner? Yes. Did I get it? No. My mom gently (read, not so gently) explained to me that she was not going to spend 40 grand on a big fluffy party. I was not thrilled to hear her explanation at the time, but now I find myself wishing that we had used the money she did end up spending on our wedding for something more practical. Like a new water heater. Or a deck.

So you can imagine my reaction when not only did my brother-in-law's fiancee, K, ask me to be a bridesmaid, but asked me to be a bridesmaid at their wedding all the way up in Pennsylvania...or was it China? Who knows? Might as well be China. All I know is that it is going to require a two to three hour drive up with two cranky girls in the back seat. Joy.

Yes, I realize I am being a wee bit self-centered here. But it's my blog. I can be self-centered if I want. I would never begrudge anyone her big day, but I guess I am just over the whole big white wedding phase of life. Most of my friends are married with kids, which is a whole different ball game. Parents of the bride can complain about money all they want, but they've had 20+ years to save up for their daughter to have an ice sculpture of the Parthenon. (For the record, K is not having an ice scuplture...that is just the first extravagant thing I could think of) It's the groomsmen and bridesmaids who really suffer.

Well, you say, why didn't you just say that you don't want to be a bridesmaid? That excuse might have worked for my brother's wedding last summer, but it would never withstand my mother-in-law. She loves weddings and planning weddings and showers. She is just so darn nice that I hate to upset her. Really. I'm not just saying that. I honestly didn't want to stir up anything, so I agreed to be one of K's bridesmaids.

So not only am I having to pack the family up to head to Pennsylvania for this wedding, did I mention that I also have to lug up Halloween costumes since the rehearsal is on Halloween night? I'm not big into Halloween, but I was looking forward to taking Natalie and Michaela Byrd trick or treating for the first time. Now I guess Dorothy and Glinda will have to make do watching a bunch of old people stand around. This, of course, will be after we drop all our junk off at the $200 hotel room and drive another half an hour to the ceremony site. Gee whiz. And don't forget the winter coats- because the wedding party (and I am guessing my children) will be sitting in a covered porch during the reception in Pennsylvania November weather. But, don't worry...I think they are using canvas to cover the walls. Yay.

Maybe today this is just about blowing off a little steam. I just hate to spend so much money on gas, hotels, clothes, and gifts so close to Christmas. Wedding plans are very personal. But sometimes it's nice to think of other "persons" when you are making your wedding plans. Next time, I will learn to just say "no" to the whole bridesmaid thing. Speak now, or forever hold your peace, right?

Then I Had a Taste, Now I'm a Believer!

I had a sample of a most wonderous new (for me) Starbuck's beverage last night: Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. Ambrosia, Manna, Nectar of the gods...call it what you like, it was amazing! My friend M mentioned how great it was, but I was pretty skeptical. I even gagged a little bit when the barrista described it to me, but I decided to give it a try. Wow! If you haven't tasted it, it's worth the $15 or however much Starbuck's is charging these days for drinks. I am a new convert, and I will follow M's beverage advice to the ends of the earth. Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate is a new addition to my beverage lexicon. Thanks, M!

TV Junkie

Anyone else have a kid that goes through phases of TV obsession? I usually let Natalie watch some Noggin (Little Bear, Blue's Clues, etc.) after her naps in the afternoon b/c she is so darn difficult to deal with that time of the day. I'm seriously afraid of her...girlfriend is scaaaary from 3:30 to around 6:00 pm!

She is really really cranky most of the time after naptime. It's sort of like approaching a sleeping velociraptor. So much so that I started using her sister as a human shield. I discovered that if I let Michaela stand next to the bed and "talk" to Natalie as she wakes up, I get a much better reaction. Usually a smile and an invitation for the baby to snuggle with her for a minute or two. But that's all. Then she turns back into Mr. Hyde.

So anyways, it seems like all she wants to do now is watch TV after her naps, and for some time afterwards. And bless my heart, I've been letting her do it this week. I know it's a phase b/c she's had weeks like this before, but I was just wondering if anyone else's kids do this. I do set a timer and when the timer "dings," she knows we have to turn off the TV and do something else. But I still get a lot of whining. Sometimes she looks like a little zombie sitting there as the Dora theme song plays over and over. I hate that da*& song.

What do you guys do to redirect your kids' attention from the TV? Everybody has days where they let their kiddos watch TV to get out of their hair a bit. Just wondering if your kids border on obsession? Thank God for preschool, MOPS, and Bible study, because I feel like this week she would have logged some serious TV time! Right now, she's playing baby dolls in the other room, and hasn't asked for TV yet...but the day is young, and she'll be spending the morning with Tim, whose idea of quality time is laying on the couch and dozing off while Natalie watches Little Bill and Michaela chews on her sock. Guess we'll see!

When I Grow Up...

So I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up! I've obviously been thrust into the wonderful, terrifying, hilarious, beautiful role of "Mommy;" but at 28, I don't feel like I know what my passion is. So I have decided to take a cue from our contractor's 16 year old son and decide what I don't like. Perhaps this will narrow things down for me a bit....

1) I do not want to be a professional home interior painter. I am really bad at it. Really. Before yesterday, I had never painted a ceiling before. My neck is thanking me today. According to my husband, I am also a very sloppy painter. After a morning of paint splatters in my eyes (I may need a seeing eye dog-this should almost certainly guarantee me a handicapped parking space if not having a sense of smell won't do it!), streaks on all my clothes, and crusted paint ground into every exposed spot of skin, I came to the conclusion that painting is just not my thing.

On to the next discovery of what I know I'm not good at....