I don’t watch a lot of television, and don’t have any shows that I watch religiously, or regularly. Recently, I found a show, though, that’s starting to hook me. I was mindlessly flipping through the stations one night and paused on what looked like a reality-television/news short. I couldn’t really discern, though after a few minutes swayed to the side of “reality” show. There was a clean cut man, surrounded by assistants, a Hispanic maid, who loved his animals, and was… trying to sell a house. I watched up to the commercial, and through to the next commercial, and then all the way to the end. Momma’s getting into this show.
A few days later I caught it again, this time getting the title: Flipping Out. The show airs on Bravo, Tuesdays, but somehow I caught it only on a separate news channel (which was why I was confused as to what exactly it was at first). It’s basically about a guy who flips muliti-million dollar homes, while overseeing a small staff and getting botox somewhere along the way. His name is Jeff. You can find out about those lips here. The show is reality, but it a little more benign than other reality shows. You don’t feel like you’ve been assaulted after watching it and the people, despite the name of the show, don’t wig out to the point of needing the cops called, like some other shows (I Love New York).
. . .
Today the boys went sledding while the girls stayed home and watched a movie. We don’t have enough snowpants and boots to outfit the whole family, apparently, either. Frank and I have shared a pair for a couple years. Franny, being the smallest, wears all hand-me-downs, Carlito got a new pair this year. But Sophia and I have none. I also have no jacket. It ripped two years ago. Last year I limped through using my leather jacket when I really needed one, and a sweatshirt when I felt I could do without.
I’m going to hop online and see if I can find a jacket that will do. I also am going to do some shopping for football jerseys (two of the boys have jerseys down on their list for this year). I have basically none of my shopping done and am doing the minimal possible (due to financial and personal reasons). Frank and I don’t usually exchange gifts, but sometimes take some money out from the early Christmas checks my grandparents send and buy something for each other. Frank’s all about not giving gifts (he says it isn’t what the season is about and if it were up to him the kids might not get anything at all, doesn’t like all the consumerism of Christmas time).
Onto the meme swiped from Amy:
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. Every now and then we have a gift bag given to us by someone else that I might re-use if it’s not too beaten up, but I don’t buy them myself. It wouldn’t feel right lifting gifts out of bags and not tearing wrapping paper off of them. My conscience is eased a bit on the waste issue because we recycle all of the paper we use.
2. Real tree or artificial? Real. Well, both. I have a very inexpensive artificial tree in the dining room that’s decorated with all my gingerbread-themed ornaments, but our main tree in the living room is (and will always be, as long as we’re physically able to haul one home and stand it up) a real tree. I once heard someone say, “You wouldn’t give your wife artificial roses, why would you buy an artificial tree?” I totally get that perspective.
3. When do you put up the tree? Thanksgiving weekend.
4. When do you take the tree down? Usually by New Years Day, sometimes sooner if it starts to drop needles.
5. Do you like eggnog? Shyuh. With brandy, please.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I loved my Cabbage Patch Kids, one year I think I got 1 of those and 2 homemade ones. Wasn’t as fond of the homemade ones, but I was still happy to get friends for my Cabbage Patch Kids.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No. We did have one but don’t know where it went.
8. Hardest person to buy for? Probably my dad.
9. Easiest person to buy for? Frank’s pretty easy, if we’re buying for each other.
11. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Snail mail.
Favorite Christmas movie? National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually not until after the first week of December. Sometimes I’ll see something on sale, or something just perfect months ahead and will buy it, hide it. Occasionally I forget I bought the darn thing, too. That’s what I get for trying to shop early, I guess.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Most likely, yes.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I can’t narrow it down to one specific thing. I like the sweets, the appetizers… it’s all good.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? We’ve got both. The clear ones flicker and the colored ones are steady.
7. Favorite Christmas song? I like all kinds, but enjoy more of the old hymns and traditional songs.
18. Travel for Christmas or stay at home? Home.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Sho’ can.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? It is a star, from ShopKo I think.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Depends. Frank sometimes works on Christmas Day, so we kind of go with the flow. Sometimes we open gifts from others on Christmas Eve and from each other on Christmas Day. Just depends.
Eggnog and brandy. Yum-yum delicious. Although, 11pm, writing an entry with eggnog on the brain…
Today.
Work. Staff meeting, bulletin compiling, printing and folding.
Dinner out with Frank and Sophia. Indian food.
Come home, check email.
Go to doctor, quick visit. All OK.
Back home for a short while.
Take daughter to work, head out to mall.
DT’s birthday coming up, bought him a hoodie from Zumiez. He’s love a snowboard, but we haven’t enough money.
Also bought a belt for Franny.
Sweatshirt for Lootie (for Christmas).
T-shirt with the Hulk on it for Sal (bought on the sly along with the sweatshirt from Steve & Barry’s). Got DT some desperately needed jeans.
Went to Barnes & Noble, got a coffee and window shopped.
Went to Verizon and replaced Frank’s dying cellphone with an upgrade (thank goodness we were due for one or the phone price would have been outrageous).
Came home, Frank went out with a few friends, I went to pick up Sophia from work.
Did a little shopping while I was there, just me and Soph. Nice. Things have been so rocky with us, her — it was nice to just walk and enjoy some time together.
Got deodorant, dental floss, a new purse (after slinging a half dozen or so options over my shoulder, annoying my daughter to near tears — she just wanted to get home and eat pizza).
Came home, heated up some pizza, transferred my things to my new purse.
Ate pizza, had some eggnog and getting ready for bed. Have to get up at the obscene hour of 6am to get the twins to a soccer game.
Ciao.
Some good friends of ours grew up in a town between Milwaukee and Chicago. They drive back “home” to visit once a month, staying with my girlfriend’s parents. Often, they stop at a well-known Italian grocery there, picking up delicious cheeses, meats and wine and bringing them back for us to enjoy with them. We’ve always said that we wanted to go there someday to eat at some of the infamous restaurants they’ve raved about. This fall, Dants had soccer there one weekend, which just happened to be the weekend our friends were taking a trip there. So we got a hotel for the night and made the most of the opportunity.
The hotel was nothing great, but the view was outstanding. Sitting right on the harbor of Lake Michigan (upgraded for free!!), the view from the window made up for the old-people smell that permeated the entire building.
Frank, being the wonderful husband that he is, took our boys plus our friend’s kids down to the pool, while they (our friends) took me across the street to a little bar. After that, they showed us the town, took us to her parent’s house, the Italian grocer… stopped to see the meteorite that landed outside of town decades ago, and then back to the hotel. Even though it was one night, it was soooooo nice to get away. We really needed that. Pictures say it best. Click any for a larger view on Picasa.
I like ya, Nance. It sucks you don’t have comments, but somehow I’ll survive. Comments, shmomments. Speaking of, I’ve tried responding on two Blogger blogs today, but the comments didn’t go through so forget it, I gave up.
. . .
I’m feeling lazy, so I’ll do a meme of sorts.
THREE
1.) How many links to do you have on your blogroll/link page? Do you visit all of the sites on your blogroll?
Too many. Not going to count them, either. No, I don’t visit them all. Not anymore. I just don’t have time or desire. But I keep them there for a rainy day.
2.) Does anyone you know in real life have a blog? Who?
Besides me? No. Well maybe. I’ve met Becky. She hasn’t updated in a while.
3.) What three sites do you visit every day?
Definitely Gmail (for personal and work)
my site (but sometimes skip a day or two)
. . .
I think I may turn down both job offers that I have right now. They are both in semi-regret. Money, I need more of. Time-hogs, I don’t. It is a balance. I will keep my ear to the ground, though, and will continue to try to be more thrifty. Frugal. Frank, on overtime, makes 4x my hourly salary. The smartest bet is for him to work overtime when possible.
. . .
Who says cats don’t have personality? As much as Fred is void of oodles of brain cells, he’s a sweet cat. Who loves boxes. And dog cages.
If you ever suffer from constipation, Dulcolax will do ya. Well. It will do most of ya, I should say. I don’t like having to resort to it too often, though. Please be warned: do not take Dulcolax before heading off to work. There is a chance you (and your co-workers) will be displeased.
Yesterday, in a bind (pun intended), I contemplated running to Whole Foods to pick me up a box of the Smooth Move Tea, thinking that would be a natural alternative
Within a few hours I felt something stir in my abdomen. Gas, surely. Another hour and the cramping began. An hour later I was in the bathroom. Relieved. Yes, yes, how DO you spell “relief” — I say D-U-L-C-O-L-A-X. Relieved and foolishly thinking that would be the end of it all. Within 15 minutes I was back in the bathroom. Again. Surely now, I was done.
After tucking the kids in, I settled into bed and started reading my book
“You know, Finn has a half-pipe in his backyard.” He said. He likes to read before bed, like I do. But when he’s done reading, he enjoys a little conversation before he shuts his eyes. This is usually always when I’ve got my nose buried in my book. “He has one, and it’s really cool, but he had it covered up so I didn’t get–”
What was that?
My goodness, it was ME. A gurgling, churning whoosh of–? I set my book down and excused myself from the conversation, making a charge to the bathroom. A few seconds after I closed myself inside I heard my husband’s muffled voice ask if I was OK. I confirmed that all was OK… probably, and that this was the opposite of my earlier problem. And I sat. In the bathroom. For a good quarter hour. Having already read the back of the lotion bottle enough times to memorize it, I stared at my nails. Thought about my day… pondered on how grateful I was that the two orange pills I took had been taken at a time that, once they worked through my body, I had an available bathroom and it was in my own home. Thankful that I was not still at the grocery store. Or out shoveling snow… Continued to be thankful that I had not waited until morning to take them, ending up exploding in the middle of a work day.
Which is why I write a kind caution to you, my friend, on those little orange pills. I know. I know. How kind and thoughtful of me. Take one for the team, I have.
By the time I returned to the conversation with my son, he was nearly asleep. I apologized for speeding out like that; he thought nothing of it.
. . .
The boys have wrestling tonight. Thank goodness we can go THERE and have them beat the tar out of each other instead of it being in our house each night. The obsession with wrestling has been contagious, spreading from Lootie to the twins to DT in the matter of a year. Last year it was just Loo wrestling. The twins showed interest, but we didn’t sign them up. Lootie had a good year, winning the majority of his matches. After the season was over, he became obsessed (because with Lootie it is all or nothing) with John Cena and WWE. He even went to see them when they came to Milwaukee.
Aaaaah Mondays. Not the easiest day, being the beginning of the week and all, and for those who work Monday through Friday, a slap back into reality.
Read the rest of this entry »
Sunday. Frank’s off, and our plan was to go to church, which we did. Last Sunday Loo (middle child) lost his video game privileges last week for his antics during church, so he has been looking forward to redeeming himself through better behavior this time. He succeeded in earning back his game-playing privileges. But you know what was really cool? Honey, when we came home, everyone piled out of the van and ran inside the house. Frank and I decided to work on chipping away at ice that was forming from the the melted snow (and the piles of water-logged snow — rain + snow = heavy work). Without being asked, Lootie stayed outside to chip ice, shovel and scatter salt down. He shuffled up and down the sidewalk throwing salt like he was feeding pidgeons. Chipped away at the layer of frozen ice like a dedicated little worker. After about 45 minutes he came in and played his game for a bit, but now he’s heading back outside.
Ciao.
First day of December, first day of Holidalies blogging. For the past week or so, each morning when I awake I glance outside to see if there is snow on the ground. Not because it is in the forecast — just because it feels like it should be snowing. Today, was the day. The kids, up before Frank and I, were the ones to tip us off. The awestruck screech, “Snoooooooow!!!” jolted us. So much for Sleeping In Saturday. You’d think after a lifetime of Wisconsin winters, snow would not be a big deal. But every year, it surely is. Not just for the kids, but for adults as well… including me.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Ours went well, not without a hitch but hey — I never expected things to go smoothly. Earlier this week I couldn’t find sweet potatoes. Finally found some yesterday (at Wal-mart). I put them in the oven to bake, telling the two oldest that when the buzzer goes off to turn the oven off, and went to a friend’s house. Naturally, they forgot (D said, “Oh turn the oven off? I thought you meant turn the buzzer off.”) and my potatoes turned into hollow shells reminiscent of a sweet potato. I placed them cool outside overnight hoping that some of them could be salvaged. Today Franny and I were able to scrape out only a few cups worth of potatoes, so Frank had to make a trip back to Wal-mart (naturally open on Thanksgiving, of coarse).
Power blew out in the kitchen. Mini crisis/heart attack for that ordeal.
But it all worked out. Food was cooked, company came, we ate and were merry. I was hoping to play some board games, but everyone is just tuckered out.
Snagged this from Robyn:
I was on time, everything on schedule. Kids out for the bus (early actually), my eggs in the pan, coffee brewing. The twins were already at the bus stop and the Squirrel Trapping Son had just walked out the door. As I waved to him through the window, he mouthed something to me. I couldn’t hear, I mouthed back. He shrugged, motioning for me to open the window, but it is cold and I didn’t want to let the cold air in. My eggs snapped and sizzled in the kitchen, bringing a little panic to the situation because momma don’t like crispy eggs. Since he was early out the door, I motioned for him to come back in and tell me his oh-so-important news. Then I went to the kitchen to check on the eggs. And waffles. I’ll admit. I subbed my (regular) toast today for waffles, which is probably the evil in it all.
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