A trip to ? on a rocketship

Tonight at bedtime Mickey asked me to tell him a story. So I start out like I usually do:

Once upon a time there were two little boys named...

Mickey and Alex.

Okay, Mickey and Alex. And Mickey and Alex were going on an adventure.

No, a trip.

Mickey and Alex were going on a trip. To the beach.

No, I don't like the beach.

Why don't you like the beach?

Because there's fish that swim in the beach water.

Yes, but they don't swim by the people. They like to swim by themselves.

Oh.

So Mickey and Alex are going on a trip. Where do you think they would like to go?

Well, they can't go without a grown-up.

What grown-up will they take with them?

Mommy and Daddy.

Okay. So Mickey and Alex are going on a trip and they're taking their mommy and daddy with them. Where are they going?

On a rocketship.

What will they do on the rocketship?

They won't have any toys. But they'll have a play area for us.

What will mommy and daddy do on the rocketship?

Well, work.

Where will we sleep on the rocketship?

Well, we'll stay at the place where they make rocketships.

What will we eat while we're at the rocketship?

Well, we'll drive to get something and then come back to the rocketship.

How long will we stay at the place where they make rockets?

Four nights. Then we'll come home.


...and they say making up bedtime stories is hard.

The Fall Ya'll Giveaway is Over!

The winner of my giveway is Melissa Neece! Congratulations, Melissa. Don't spend it all in one...oh, sorry. Enjoy!

Personal: Happy Birthday, Radar!

Today is my little sister's 40th birthday. Except she will not start acting or looking 40 until she's at least 50. She's always been like that...on her 20th birthday she looked 10. I don't think that's really funny, but you get the idea.

Happy Birthday, girl, and have fun today not hearing "lordy, lordy..."

Take THAT, Halloween candy!

That's the treatment I gave Halloween candy this week. I ate none of it. Not so much as one M&M. No Whoppers, Skittles, Reese's, Twizzlers (who you think are diet-worthy because they are fat-free, but beware the chocolate friends they hang out with), Tootsie rolls, or Hershey's mini's. I figuratively crushed them all. That battle is won! The war, however, continues...

The boys, on the other hand, have been having a blast...candy every day is a major deal for them. And I must say it's been quite the motivating tool around here. Is that a bad thing?

All aboard for the guilt trip!

It's only hours away, the final Halloween party of 2007. Thank goodness. I have not handled the onslaught of candy in this house very well, so now it's time to pull out the big guns...the ones with guilt written all over them.

At the end of this week, as in Friday around the boys' naptime, I'm going to post whether or not I won the war on Halloween candy. By that time, I think I will have given the boys a healthy candy dose and found a loving home for the rest of it, outside my house.

So let's be clear: a win in this battle means not having even one piece. I know that one piece of candy does not a diet ruin, but that one piece tends to bring a lot of friends with it.

And I'm going to be honest about the results, too. I have too many real-life buddies reading this who I will have to face with my results.

(Okay, should I really post this? Do I really want to set myself up? Oh, well, publish or perish, they say...so GO!)

It's big, ya'll. It's the Fall Ya'll Giveaway carnival, hosted by the carnival queen herself, Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

My giveaway is FREE SHIPPING at http://www.kangaroodle.com/. I recently ordered this beauty, which I love and upon seeing it Pete has proclaimed "uh, I'll stick to the Eddie Bauer diaper bag, thanks."

Anyway, with my order I received a free shipping code which I'm happy to make your prize if you leave me a comment and I randomly draw your name.

Kangaroodle has lots of baby and kids' items that are great for gift-giving and the prices range from very affordable to oh-my-gosh-I-don't-care-how-much-that-is-I-want-it-anyway.

The free shipping code is good until November 30.

Thanks for your entry and be sure to check out Fall Ya'll for more chances to win stuff.

P.S. You don't have to be a blogger to win!

Biggest Loser Update: Week 5 of 8

(Whose idea was it to post weekly updates on my weight loss?)

Don't worry, I will not leave you hanging. I'm going to see this eight weeks of brutality through to the end...for better or, more likely, worse.

And now for the Results Show you've all tuned in for, this Week 5 of 8 of my gym's Biggest Loser competition.

A half-pound loss.

And I took off my shorts at the scale to accomplish that.

This is all the proof I needed that me and Halloween candy cannot happily coexist in my household. Either Alex is getting a crash course in chewing up Starburst or some of it is going to Pete's office on Thursday.


Oh, and to update you on Chad the Trainer's off-the-cuff remark that sounded to me like nails on a chalkboard?

I did approach him about it and yes, he did back pedal but not at warp speed like I thought. His reasoning behind his "well I don't know about that" comment was that he wants me to get there and just see how that goal weight feels to my body (bliss, I'm thinking, but okay). He said sometimes people lose weight only to lose energy, too. So their bodies are telling them that maybe it's too low and they should gain a few pounds back.

He was very apologetic and encouraging and told me I'd been doing well to date and keep up the working hard, etc.

I feel better having spoken to him about it; after all, he needs to know that someone could take that to heart. And lose sleep and then blog about it...

I know there's candy somewhere in there...

At our friends' home Saturday night.

Ahhhh, cupcake season for the Home Team

Today I was frosting cupcakes for tonight's Fall Festival at church, when, wonder of wonders, I had to stop to clean up Alex in his high chair. While I was concentrating on him, my frosting bag and all its contents toppled out of the tall glass where I left it. So I grabbed it up with my fingers as best I could (and no, I didn't use it for the cupcakes!), thus ending up with a half-can of frosting all over one hand.

But Mickey to the rescue, without even cracking a smile:

"Well, Mom, can I lick your fingers?"

No naked pumpkin allowed in this house!

I recently got my Nov/Dec issue of my diet magazine, the one that has a weightloss program as its foundation. The one you've probably been on at least once in your life. But that's not the, uh, point.

There's an article in this issue about planning for the "big day." Like Thanksgiving or Christmas, and how to keep on program during a time when it's so tempting to overeat.

So there's tips for the day before the big day, the big day itself, and the day after. The part on the day after suggests you have some leftovers, in moderation, of course:

2 oz. roast turkey breast. Yum.
2 Tbsp. canned cranberry sauce. I'm not cran-crazy but okay.
1 c. steamed green beans with 1 Tbsp. toasted almonds. Getting better.

And then the bottom falls out of this little menu:

1 c. warm canned pumpkin.

Excuse me? You want me to eat pumpkin without cinnamon and cloves and nutmeg and evaporated milk, all snuggled up in a flaky pastry?

I didn't realize such a thing was possible. Are there people out there who rountinely eat un-doctored canned pumpkin? By the cupful?

Now maybe I'm missing out on something here, but this just doesn't seem right. There's a reason every Libby's can in the world has a recipe for pumpkin pie on the back of it. It is not meant to be consumed any other way!

I suppose not every tip in these mags is the best one they could come up with. But please...something tells me some college intern took a dare and snuck this one in.

Random thoughts on the fires in California

I told Pete the other day I was ready for a good weather story to follow during the day, a la Hurricane Anyone or an early-season snowstorm. Anything that gets Jim Cantore and crew beaten to death by wind and precipitation is good daytime TV.

The fires are not so much a weather story and definitely lack the needed precipitation factor, but the Weather Channel is a bit confounded by that so they air updates, too. But the winds! Oh, the winds make it weather related...woo-hoo for the WC!

So without the 'round-the-clock fire coverage from the Weather Channel, I get to feed my news appetite with CNN, MSNBC, and the others. See if you haven't been thinking the same things while watching "California Burning":

1. A no-brainer: the press couldn't wait to give these fires their own title. "California Burning" splashed on the screen, complete with animated flames, was the logical choice.

2. At the speed of light, FEMA rushed to spend thousands to accommodate the evacuees at Qualcomm Stadium and other locations. They would do anything to avoid the criticism that Katrina brought them. In fact, they have probably ended up overspending on resources in order to avoid it.

3. Wolf Blitzer is going to implode if he doesn't find out why the fires burn one house and leave its next-door neighbor untouched. Here's a newsflash, Wolf: tornados do the same thing. Move on to another subject (like how you expect us to keep up with your six TV screens).

4. Reporters are actually asking evacuees what their plans are as far as rebuilding if their house is destroyed. WHAT ELSE ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO DO?

5. When a reporter is broadcasting from an area and they say "...this whole town is evacuated; no one should be up here..." It doesn't really make them look very good to be, uh, standing there.

6. This morning my local radio news boasted that theirs was the only reporter in town who went to California to cover the fires. Hmmm, maybe that's because everyone else realizes that people in northeast Oklahoma don't really care about it that much. And there's 847 national news people out there who are already covering it. But good luck trying to report something to us that we haven't already heard.

Oh, well...my persnickety attitude will not prevent me from continuing to watch the coverage. After all, I'm sure those Californians were glued to their TVs when we had our own fires a couple of years ago.

Alex jumped in a fish pond today

I just thought I'd cut right to the chase. It's really a short story, although slightly horrifying. And funny. Horrifyingly funny.

I took Alex and Mickey to a pumpkin patch today where they had a fish pond. I don't think there were actually fish in it, but it was hard to tell because the water was so dark.

As the boys flitted about inspecting the pumpkins and flowers, I noticed the pond out of the corner of my eye and made a mental note to be especially watchful over the boys when we approached it. Minutes later I was sternly instructing Mickey to keep back from the edge, which he did. As I was making my mental notes and barking at Mickey, Alex stayed two or three steps ahead of me.

And then he bolted.

He ran toward the pond and didn't stop until he splashed (I believe all of South Our Town heard me screaming...). He went in up to his neck and then his cheek hit the water's surface just before I caught him up under his arm. I was quickly in up to my thigh. I was holding my camera in my right hand and raised it above my head to keep it from getting wet. (I'd like to think that if I thought Alex to be in grave danger I would have let go the camera.) So that meant I got to will all my strength to my weaker left arm and hoist him and his wet sweatsuit up out of the pond while trying not to lose my footing on who-knows-what at the bottom of the pond.

We managed to get back on shore without me getting completely submerged and the camera only a little splashed. Alex cried only a little, thank goodness...as for me I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

In case you're wondering if anyone else was there, we were the only customers. The man working there just sort of stared at us and offered to help. But I think he was wondering who these crazy people were who had disturbed his peaceful fall morning.

So what of Alex's soaking wet clothes? I happened to have a large bag of the boys' out-grown pajamas in the car that I was saving for a friend. I dug through it and found a shirt and some pants and we were in business. And that plastic bag came in handy, too.

I feel so irresponsible for not making sure I had hold of Alex's hand. I totally overestimated his two-year-old mind...thinking he would just be a little curious, not a lot. And I totally UNDERestimated how fast his little legs could move.

Oh, and as for Mickey? He watched and dutifully helped where he could. And also had some simple but sage advice: "Mom, we should go to a pumpkin patch where they don't have ponds."

And something for Alex, on our walk to the car:

"Alex, 'member you can't go in the water without a grown-up!"

Yep, Mickey, I suppose that is indeed the best advice.

"No, no, Alex...it's time to go freak mom out, remember?"

...and suddenly our quaint fall outing...

...turned into "I can't believe it's 55 degrees and windy and my son is soaking wet but I'm still taking a picture."

Shiny floor? Or bilge water? Hard to tell...

A little tight, but dry.

No way I was leaving there without my friggin' decorations.

Biggest Loser Update: Week 4 of 8

Okay, it's half-time of the Biggest Loser contest at my gym. For the results of Weeks 3 and 4 cumulative weigh-in today, can I get a drum roll...

-4 pounds!

So that's two pounds for each week, one of which I wanted to forget as far as working out and sticking to the eating plan. Apparently I didn't do as poorly as I thought.

Also, the guantlet has been inadvertantly thrown. Or whatever that phrase is. I've been called out. I've been asked to belly up to the bar. And all without the other person knowing it.

See, I met with Chad the Trainer at the gym today to discuss my program and progress. I got on the scale and woo-hoo, I'd lost ten pounds in the six weeks since I joined the gym. "What do you want your ultimate goal to be?" he asks. "(this number)," I say, which is a healthy weight for my height according to, uh, everyone.

His reply? Are you ready for this?

"Well, I don't know about that..."

Are you kidding me??! What's your job again?

I didn't really say anything to him right then; I think I was a little dumbfounded. But I'm going to. And he's going to backpedal so fast his bike will break, and then he's going to assure me that (my number) is perfectly reasonable and attainable. I know he's going to react that way because deep down I don't think he meant "Christine you've got to be kidding; you'll never make that goal."

But he needs to know that comments like that can send someone like me into a bit of a tailspin. And someone like me could work up a carefully but sternly worded note to him in a matter of minutes (and address and stamp and seal it).

And someone like me can also put it in a drawer and not mail it.

Truth is, I don't know what exactly he meant by his comment, but I'm going to give him a chance to defend it, for sure.

Really, I wouldn't tell him this, but I think his comment has put me on the defensive. It makes me feel even more determined to get to my goal.

And I DO know about THAT.

On being an older mom

The other day as I pulled up to Mother's Day Out to pick up Mickey and Alex, I had my radio turned up full blast to Alan O'Day's "Undercover Angel." Now let me pause a minute here to say: if you do not know this song you are truly missing out on one of the finest one-hit-wonders of all time. For me, it's the best illustration of how I can remember every word and "ooo" and "ahhh" to a 30-year-old song, but I can't remember the name of someone I met yesterday.

Anyway, I'm watching some of the other moms going in as I'm singing at the top of my lungs (and trying not to move my lips so they don't know just how loud I'm projecting...I do have some pride). I figure most of them were babies while I was busy committing Alan's words to my memory forever. For a minute I thought...wow, I'm freaking old. At 41 I'm the mom of two toddlers, and most of my "colleagues" are 10 to 15 years younger than me. And some of my long-time friends have kids who almost aren't kids anymore. They're thinking about homework and who their kids are hanging out with and ACTs and curfews and driving tests.

But you know, I'm okay with that. I really am. The important thing is not my age, but how I feel. And I feel great (Biggest Loser contest notwithstanding). Sure, my boys will probably get teased about their geriatric mom, but I will teach them to say "hey, at least she would fit right in in Hollywood..."

Okay, well, maybe they will need to learn a right cross, too.

Okay, gremlins, bring it on

Whew. I feel so much better this morning. Yesterday I mentally blocked out the laundry, dirty dishes, dinner preparation, and two or three other things I needed to do. I did this so I could concentrate on one thing: backing up my photos onto CDs.

I have heard at least three horror stories in the last month about people whose computers crashed and took precious photos with them. I couldn't stand that thought one day longer...

As a friend of mine once said: in the name of cute children everywhere, back up your stuff. Today.

Biggest Loser Update: Week 3 of 8

I didn't want to post this week's results. And lucky for me, the gym is closed today so I could not weigh in. Oh, sure, I could step on my own scale and see the damage, but when every ounce counts it's important to stick with the same equipment every week.

Ahem. Where do I begin? I was sailing through last week just fine, then the curve balls began flying:

Curve ball #1: Impromptu midweek card game at our friends' home. We put the boys down to sleep and played until 1:30 a. m. Ordered pizza at 12:30.

Curve ball#2: Alex gets his first ear infection of the season. Not such a curve ball in itself, but the pain caused him to wake, for good, at 6 a.m. three mornings in a row. And wake up two or three times during the night (luckily, pat, pat, pat and he goes back to sleep). Hang on, I'm getting to the point: lack of sleep makes me too tired to care about watching what I eat or exercising.

Curve ball #3: Gym is closed today so I had to go to another place to workout. Without going into detail, it is not as conducive to a good treadmill session as my regular gym. I was on the treadmill for a lackadaisical 30 minutes instead of my usual 45.

Curve ball #4: I am a good cook. Well, not really a good cook but I have recently happened upon a couple of so-good-you-forget-any-kind-of-eating-plan recipes that I just had to make. (Check out www.cookscountry.com.) I don't know why I make these dishes; I tell myself I can handle the pressure and then I just cave. So now it's back to my bland cooking again (sorry, Pete).

Okay, that's the ugly report. I know the curve balls aren't going to stop...I just have to get better at catching them.

Testing, 1-2-3. Can I have your attention please?

(...oh, the creativity in that title. Can you stand it?!)

Some friends and I got together last evening to work on our scrapbooks. And eat. And talk. And eat some more. And talk. I think I got two pages done. But that's beside the point.

The conversation turned to blogging do's and don'ts. None of these girls actually author a blog, but oh, my friend, do they read them (now I don't know why they don't blog; I think they would all be interesting reads). Anyway, we talked about the issue of blogging personal things about your friends and relationships and knowing your posts could be read by the subjects.

This, people, I do not friggin' understand. Can you say "light the fuse and stand back"? I don't understand why someone would post ANYTHING they would not say at a podium in a convention center filled with all the people they've ever known.

To me, that's what blogging is. It's putting your thoughts on the INTERNET people. You know: that thing that has taken over the world? That thing that is accessible by everyone? Even kids? And your friends? And your mother?

It's up to you, ultimately. If you want to be the kind of person who airs personal things, things that could potentially hurt someone's feelings or cause them embarrassment, then that's your business.

But as for me and my blog, we'll have respect. I consider the podium scenario before each time I click "publish post." And I see my mom sitting in the front row.

And then sometimes I hit "delete."

Biggest Loser Update: Week 2 of 8

Remember all that whining I did about losing only two pounds during the first week of the Biggest Loser contest?

I take it all back.

This week's loss is half a pound.

I keep telling myself at least it's not a gain. A loss is a loss is a loss. But when I think about how far I am from my ultimate goal, a half-pound is like contributing one penny to my Christmas Club account.

But okay, I'm going to keep going. Here's hoping for a post next week with a lot of !!! in it.

For Chilihead, who has the blog for all ages

Chili, just thought you'd like to know that your blog has a wider audience than you thought. (That name you hear at the end of this very skillfully shot video should go in one ear and out the other...)

The answer, my friend, is on this site

Need help deciding? Go here and answer some key questions and you'll wonder no more!

Thanks to sister JS for the link.

When you assume something, you know what happens

This morning at the gym I attended an official Biggest Loser workout. They've got several times during the week where we're coached through different stations, including ab work, jumping rope, stability ball nonsense, squats with weights, and biking. And between interval circuits we get to do a couple of laps around the gym floor (which I have not done since I had a high school basketball coach on the sidelines talking through a whistle in his mouth: "beep, three more laps ladies...")

So I showed up like a good BL and prepared to sweat with the rest of the BLs, only there weren't any rest-of-the-BLs. I was the only one there. Great.

"Sarah" showed me to the room where our interval training was to take place. A room with mirrors on every wall. Every single wall. Did I mention Sarah's last name? It's Buffbody. Sarah Buffbody was wearing a very revealing but all-business workoutfit. As she demonstrated each interval I noticed how good she looked and how skillfully she performed each task with a smile and a steady voice.

So we set to work and she was very sweet and encouraging, but I could not keep from seeing my struggling reflection in the mirror at every turn. Ugh. So I tried to concentrate on myself instead of SB working quietly behind me and annihilating each station like a pro.

After the workout, she and I chatted a bit about the Biggest Loser contest, and I confessed to her that I had indeed lost a lot of weight at one time in my life.

"Really," she says, in that we-have-something-in-common voice. "I used to weigh 203 pounds."

So with one sentence, she put me in my place and she didn't even know it. She had worked extremely hard to get her body in that kind of shape, and was probably standing where I was standing at one time in her life. And not once had I considered the fact that her build was due to hard work and determination and persistence. I took it for granted that since she was so young, being in shape must surely be easy for her.

I know that good health is a journey and not a destination, and even when the contest is over in November, I will still have a long way to go before anyone dubs me Christine Buffbody. But for sure, the only way to get there is the route Sarah took. No other roads lead to where I'm going.

Who knew Evil came in a bag?

Life lesson #34256: Do not buy these if you are trying to win a Biggest Loser contest. Just don't.

Pictures just because...

Just because running is his favorite sport (indoors or outdoors).



Just because he really was going in for a kiss. No really, he was.

Just because I married a thoughtful man.

Just because some football players are still little. And some coaches are still dads.

Just because we should all reach for the...wait, that's just corny.

WFMW: Spaghetti help needed

Today's Work for Me Wednesday has a special twist: it's Backwards Day. We post questions, and the answers flood our comments...right?!

My biggest problem of late is this: my homemade spaghetti sauce does not adhere to the spaghetti.

I use a darn good recipe from Paula Deen so you would think it would perform perfectly, but it seems like it doesn't matter whether I use a recipe or not. The spaghetti sort of rejects the sauce and I end up with sauce and spaghetti in the same room but not talking.

Any ideas? FYI, I do not rinse the pasta because I've heard the starch on it helps sauces stick to it. But that seems to be a lie. Help!

For more backwardness, check out Rocks in My Dryer. And while you're at it, check out her Bloggy Giveaways like you should be doing daily.

P.S. Honestly, I know this is the most trivial problem I could possibly have in my life. And for that I thank God today.

Biggest Loser Update: Week 1 of 8

Minus two pounds.

That's the good news.

The bad news?

Minus TWO pounds.

I know, I know. The slower it comes off the better. But it is PAINSTAKING. I have been on program for about three weeks solid: getting up and working out before Pete and the boys get up, using my MDO time to work out, going to the gym on Saturdays, and even fitting in a neighborhood walk here and there. I've watched what I've eaten and stayed reasonable at most meals, even on special occasions.

All that for two pounds. Criminy.

And, okay, if I don't win the Biggest Loser contest at my gym, I suppose I will still be a winner with whatever weight loss happens.

But dammit I want that $100 gift card.

A comment on commenting on comments

Since I'm using the cheapest (as in free) blogging interface available, I have to play the hand I'm dealt as far as features go. One feature Blogger lacks is the ability for the blogger to reply to comments. Furthermore, it doesn't allow the commenter to include an email address, even one visible only to me.

So if I want to reply to or comment on your comment, I will leave a comment on that same post. Whatever...you know what I mean. If you say something and you think I might want to say something back, check the comments again later. There. Now if you can't understand that, give me a call; I'm in the book.

Finally, some good news for these boys

No, not mine. Brit's. Seems the courts have ruled in Sean Preston and Jayden's favor and they're going to live with Kevin Federline. I think Britney's probably relieved to give up the responsibility. Based on the rags I read, and of course they are all based on facts and checked and double-checked, right? Anyway, based on the press, SP and Jayden are in the way of her ruining her life. Surely K-Fed's home will be more stable than the one they are leaving.

So what do you think? Should the boys stay with their mom, who is unstable but probably loves them, with supervision? Or go live with their dad, who has a pretty checkered past but seems to not be a drug user?

Not your grandmother's quilts

Ya'll have to check out this site. I'm not a quilt-y kind of person, either making them or sleeping under them. But I stumbled upon this site today and I believe I could easily change my tune. If I could afford said tune-changing. These quilts are so beautiful, they look more like art than bedding.

http://www.dsquilts.com/home.html

Enjoy...it's nice to dream anyway.

The boring post: every blog needs one

If someone called me today who I hadn't spoken to in a week and said "hey, what'cha doin?" I'd have to say NOTHING. This week has been totally uneventful, a good thing I suppose. We did take Alex to the doctor for his 2-year check-up. He couldn't be more normal. I asked the doctor if he could do something about that high-pitched, siren-like sound that Alex is so fond of lately but he just looked at me funny. The little guy is in the 97th percentile for height and 75th for weight (are you snoozing yet?)

Beyond that, we visited the McDonald's "R" Gym yesterday after MDO. Crowded and crazy as usual. We did have an "awww" moment when a little boy took Alex's ball from him. Mickey swooped in and told the other little boy "hey, he was playing with that." Then he took the ball from him and gave it back to Alex (all the while holding on to his own, of course). My hero!

Oh, and I'll leave you with this Overheard from Mickey: the other night he was half asleep when I went to check on him. He rolls over and says "...mamma I need a hig and a kuss..." Of course, honey.

Biggest Loser Update #1

I posted earlier about my entry in the Biggest Loser contest at my gym. Yesterday was our first weigh-in, only they did a test including blood pressure, heart rate, weight, height, a couple of measurements and the dreaded body fat percentage. With those things as factors, my "fitness score" is 54 on a scale of 1-100.

The winner of the contest will have the highest increase in fitness score over a period of eight weeks. Eight, grueling, no-donuts-after-Mother's Day Out weeks.

The good news? I have been sticking to my workout and eating plan for nearly two weeks. Almost 14 days. Part of me wants to get up from the table and say "okay, I paid my dues and it was hard. Where's my goal weight please?" But I know it's gonna take a lot longer than that. Drat.

Visit me next Tuesday for another update.

Time out

I've taken a bit of a time out for the past few days; honestly I just haven't felt much like writing anything. We had a death in our family a few days ago (out of privacy to those directly related I will hold the details). It's so hard to imagine anything else being important, so I chose to not post anything at all.

I will resume regular stuff tomorrow night. And tonight I'm praying their family will draw on God's strength as they cope with their loss.

The road to "loser"ville

So getting Alex out of bed as I was writing that post earlier eventually led to a trip to Super Wal-Mart for...the horror...both "Wal-Mart" items AND groceries. Let me just say, I only have two kids and one cart is barely enough when you need room for gallon jugs of milk, diapers, a roast, and a three-year-old who likes to stack groceries.

Okay, here goes. I'm committing myself to blogland about my latest endeavor to lose weight. I'm sure this time is different than all the other times and I'm going to stick to my plan. (A little de ja vu anyone?)

I posted a while back about joining a gym, which I've been using regularly for two weeks and I love it. I had been trying to get active by walking in my neighborhood a few times a week, but working out in a gym environment is more motivating. So far it's been great. I go on MDO days and before Pete and the boys wake up on the other three days. Theoretically.

So this gym is getting ready to start a "Biggest Loser" contest next week. I'm in it. I'm in it and I want to win it. It's only eight weeks long, not enough to lose all the weight I want to lose, and the prize is only $100. But I'm trying to tap my not-really-very-competitive side and use this as a starting point for my ultimate goal.

The first weigh-in is next week. I don't know if they weigh weekly or not. If they do, I'll post my loss (and it WILL be a loss). Now don't be silly: you're not going to see how much I weigh out here. Even Pete doesn't know that (and even if I posted out here he still wouldn't know). Anyway, progress is more important than numbers. So that I will post every week. I believe this contest even has challenges like the real Biggest Loser.

So here I go...the next "Biggest Loser." But if they make me wear spandex I'm out.

The post that wasn't...

I'm working on a post that I...

Wow, I swear, Alex just at this second woke up. Back later.

WFMW: the "locking" diaper

If your baby can't resist the urge to pull the tabs on his diaper (and allow it to fall to the floor and then run around the house laughing) simply turn the diaper around and put it on so the tabs are in the BACK.

For the past six months Alex has confounded us with taking his diaper off at very inopportune times, especially after we put him down at night. And so many times I'd like to let him roam the house in just a T-shirt and diaper, but inevitably I hear the rip and rip of the diaper tabs and then the chase is on. I hadn't yet resorted to duct tape...

Then the other day I was talking about my dilemma with a mom-friend and she said she used to turn their daughter's diapers around and it worked great for her. It has worked beautifully for us, too.

Diaper reversal Works for Me! For more tips that will change your life, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

In my quest to never pay for a birthday cake

I love birthday cakes. I love to look at them and I love to eat them. I love to have my cakes and eat them, too.

I DON'T, however, like to pay for a bakery to make them. So until my boys start asking for a sculpted volcano cake or a Lightning McQueen car made completely of chocolate, this frugal mom is making their cakes. I figure twice a year I can push my creativity to its very limits and still come up with something that won't draw snickers and tastes decent. Here's this year's attempt at Alex's cake for his Blue's Clues party:

The pawprint is blue sugar, sprinkled onto a template I drew on a piece of paper. The M&Ms around the side are his new tradition (see last year's cake). The cake is chocolate; I used the very simple recipe on the Hershey's Cocoa can. The frosting is another simple recipe I already had. The beauty of the whole thing? I had all the ingredients already in my kitchen except the sugar and M&Ms, which cost about $6 together. Compare that to the $26 that was quoted to me for an official Blue's Clues cake and I think I successfully beat the system.

(Unfortunately, the system still won in the birthday gifts department...)

To Alex on his Second Birthday

Happy 2nd Birthday, Alex! Today we will celebrate with all your favorite people, except Joe from Blue's Clues. You will have to settle for watching him and Blue several times a day and listening to your mommy sing "Mail Time" over and over because she can't get it out of her head.

Hmm, what to say to you on your 2nd birthday. How about you go get potty-trained, okay? Talking in words instead of squeals or cries would be nice. And learn to buckle yourself into your carseat like your brother. You could get a lot better about sitting still at meals so you can get out of that highchair and sit at the table with the rest of us. And that crib of yours? Say your goodbyes... Oh, and the BITING. WHEN will you outgrow that?!

Wait, sorry, son. I'm doing it again. I'm wishing you to grow up even faster than you already are. With growing out of those things, you'll also start growing out of your baby face and into a little boy's. You'll grow out of a language of babbling that is truly like music to me and your dad. You'll grow out of that cute way you rattle off the names of your family in a way only we can understand. You'll also probably grow out of that long wispy blond hair and into a more grown up style. And you'll find a more boyish way to run across the yard instead of your "baby charge."

So I take it all back, hon. You grow up at your own pace. And keep reminding me by the look in your blue eyes how much I need to remember even the little things that don't seem as important as your birthday. Just keep doing what you're doing, sweet boy. Happy Birthday.

Middle Name Meme

(For a great definition of "meme" go here.)

Melanie tagged me today and what Melanie wants, Melanie gets.

You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

Players - You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don't have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

At the end of your post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.

D -- DREAMING about my next vacation on the beach. With or without kids. If kids are with us, we'd have a full-time nanny with us, too. Heck, we'd have THE nanny, as long as I'm dreaming.

I -- IDENTIFYING the areas of my health that need attention. It didn't take me a lot of time to do this. Maybe someday I'll blog that journey...

A -- ALLOWING myself to make mistakes from time to time. I usually judge myself too harshly. But maybe that's a little harsh.

N -- I try to NEVER lose sight of what's important. One of my best friends likes to say "...but in the big scope of life, does it really matter?" Helps me not shudder when Mickey is running around an indoor play area with no socks on.

E -- ENJOYING my boys. Especially the little moments, like Alex snuggling me when he wakes up. And Mickey squealing on an incredibly big swing at a friend's house today. I want to remember those moments forever.

Now I'm tagging one person for each letter of my middle name.

Brittany at Back for Round II

(hmmm, now here's where it gets interesting. I really don't have a lot of bloggin' friends. I'm a wallflower in blogland, and I suppose here is where it's most obvious. My "tagging one person for each letter" requirement is now shortened to "tagging one person." Thank you. Now go feel sorry for me... Brittany, when you're finished with the meme maybe you can tag EIGHT people to make up for me being the social outcast.)

"I'd like to thank all the little people..."

Alex fell down in the kitchen tonight. He somehow stumbled and I have no idea what he hit, but it was enough to put quite a mark on his eyebrow...not a gash but a lot more than a scratch. A "scrash."

Alex is a strong almost-two-year-old. And when he's mad, the strength doubles. And when he's mad and hurt, the strength triples. Factor in I was by myself at the time and I have very inquisitive Mickey at my side, and I think I deserve the Mom of the Day award for getting a Band-Aid placed right over the wound. Complete with Neosporin. I raised up from him victorious, like a rodeo-er after hog-tying a steer in 12 seconds...

Here are the before-and-after's:

Not bad 'eh? He was very curious about it at first, then I showed it to him in the mirror and that was pretty much it. He didn't try to get it off at all.

So, I'm waiting for my award. (tap, tap, tap) What? Excuse me? There aren't any awards for being a mom? Wow.

Rembrandts in the making

As promised, pics of the boys' foray into fingerpainting. Somehow the deck where the art lesson took place remained clean!

Planning ahead: Happy Fourth of July!

I got my L.L. Bean catalog in the mail today.

IT HAS A CHRISTMAS TREE ON IT.

It's only September 11 and the arrival of this catalog makes me feel inadequate since I haven't even thought about Christmas. Or Thanksgiving. Or Halloween (sorry Mel).

But I suppose I'll be drawn out of summer and into fall anyway, kicking and screaming the whole way. I did send the boys to Mother's Day Out this morning in pants and long-sleeved shirts. But I protested by wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

The good news? It is finally cool enough today for fingerpainting on the deck after MDO. Not fingerpainting the deck, but fingerpainting while sitting at a table on the deck. And...probably...fingerpainting the deck. Check tomorrow for pics...

A hard lesson I didn't have to learn

Saturday we visited some friends to watch football. It was raining hard when we arrived and we shuffled the kids inside to avoid getting wet, without even glancing at their backyard swimming pool (actually we were too busy trying to get a look at the playground-quality outdoor gym they'd just built).

These friends have twins: a boy and girl who are Mickey's age (almost 4). As soon as we hit the door the expected chaos ensued and the toys came out, with Alex trying to keep up as best he could. The four adults settled down to watch the game and yell at the TV.

Pretty soon, I said to Pete "where's Alex?"

"I don't know..."

I calmly got up and went to kitchen area near the back door where we'd entered the house, and panic rushed over me.

The door was unlocked.

Almost instantly I laid my eyes on Alex, who was wandering about in an adjacent room. He hadn't yet been attracted back to the door, the door he could have easily opened and stepped out, putting him about ten feet from the edge of the pool.

The possibilities didn't register with me at that moment. I noticed an open child-lock on the door and engaged it, and bolted the door, too.

The rest of the day was uneventful. The kids played and football continued.

Then the magnitude of what could have happened started building up, and I nearly got upset just sitting there watching football. I thought about all the times I'd heard about pool accidents with toddlers, and thought to myself what a negligent parent that child must have had. Surely they must have been white trash or drunk or abusive. And here Pete and I sat...none of those things, having made the same mistake with our own children that one of those parents might have made. Only we were lucky. We were proceeding along with our day as planned, instead of asking ourselves how we could have been so stupid.

(big sigh). I don't like to get dramatic for drama's sake. It's not my nature. But since I had kids I think about things a whole different way. I cherish every minute I have with these boys, in spite of my sometimes stressful days. If anything, this non-incident on Saturday proved to me that even though I try to do everything right for them, sometimes I fail. And that's a scary thing to think about...

Dear Other-Mart,

Today I ventured out of my comfort zone and went to the other-mart in town. You know, the one that years ago was a huge competitor of Wal-Mart, but now they seemingly eek by with a few locations here and there.

Anyway, in case anyone with any pull at all at Other-Mart may happen upon my blog at any time, here are a few tips for your store if you want to continue eeking in the world of discount stores:

-- CLEAN UP. The diaper section of my local Other-Mart looked like two rabid raccoons had gone to town on the packages. Open, torn, jumbled up...a huge mess. I finally located one apparently intact package and ran for my life.

-- CLEAN UP. Next I was in search of laminating sheets. After scavenging through a big bin of such items, amid Crayons, Post-Its, and Scotch tape, I finally found what I needed. I didn't bother trying to find the price since it was nowhere near its original home on a peg.

-- Can you widen your aisles in the Health and Beauty section just a smidge? My two-year-old's little wingspan was nearly enough to mow over every shampoo and conditioner bottle we passed. I might have spent more time browsing (and buying!) if I wasn't worried about the path of destruction I would leave behind.

-- As soon as I entered the store, one of your "associates" asked me if she could help me find something. "No thanks, I'm just getting started..." I told her. "Okay," she said, and handed me a slip of paper with some number written on it. "Please hand this to the cashier when you check out..." EXCUSE ME? Now Other-Mart wants me to help them evaluate their employees? Evaluate them yourselves please. Not my job. (And while I'm on the subject...I'm getting a little tired of stepping up to a credit card machine and being asked a question like "was your cashier nice to you today?" If my cashier gives me a receipt and bags up my stuff, that's nice enough for me. And those receipts that say "...go to ww w. whatever for a survey about your experience here today and you might win a coupon good for $5 off your next purchase of $1000." It's like they want some big long account of what happened when you bought a friggin' gallon of milk.)

Okay, that's about it for ragging on Other-Mart. But I think I will stick with my overpriced Target and out-of-the-way Wal-Mart for my next trip. ThanK you very much...

Overheard: His job for life.

On the way to Mother's Day Out this morning, the conversation turned to some friends of ours who have a new baby:

Mickey: Mom, I want to get a baby.
Me: Well, when you grow up maybe you'll become a daddy.
Mickey: No, I can't be a daddy because I'll still be taking care of Alex.

Wherefore art thou, substance?

Scraping the bottom of the barrel again in blogland, people. I just haven't devoted a lot of time to writing lately...one would think that means I have nothing to say. Then I think back to my senior English class in high school and oh-my-gosh that teacher of mine had us writing papers every day. So since I'm a tad bit older now, that should mean I have even more to write about, hmmmm?

That said, busy yourselves reading the blogs of people who aren't trying to work a puzzle with their two-year-old and write at the same time...

http://www.antiquemommy.com/ She'll have you laughing and crying.
http://boomama.net/ Quality stuff here...and cool design! What's it like to have that, Boomama?
http://brittanynyc.blogspot.com/ My niece who just graduated college and moved to New York City. Talk about ambition!

And when you're done with that, have a look at one of America's beautiful places, as it performed for us tonight:

(Panama City Beach, FL)

The mother of giveaway sites

Ya'll got to check out my buddy's site: Bloggy Giveaways. Shannon's the Pied Piper of mommy bloggers and surfers and Big Companies know this. They are showering her with stuff to give away for F-R-E-E. I believe she has a new giveaway every weekday!

A lot of items are kid/family oriented, but just recently she had some tickets to a concert out there. Bottomline: you need to check it daily to see what goody she has available. She chooses her winners by random drawing.

Good luck and let me know if you win something!

It's the Little Things

Good stuff in a big way is great: getting a new car, moving to a new home, getting a new kitchen... But sometimes the little things are special, too (and great blog filler).

This week two Little Things brightened my life: graham crackers and a trash can.

Have you seen these little gems? They're just plain ol' graham crackers by Honey Maid. What makes them a really wonderful Little Thing is that they are exactly square and packaged like saltine crackers: in a long stack. Now I can seal them up with a twist-tie! No more fumbling with a half-consumed rectangular package with torn up cellophane, trying to stuff it back into the box. I looked on the Nabisco web site and saw "limited edition" in the description. I should go buy a case. (Another bonus: they cost the same as the cello-mess ones.)

The second Little Thing is our new trash can. It's a city-supplied outdoor behemoth with wheels and, brace yourself, an ATTACHED LID. Our neighborhood is changing to once-weekly trash pick-up and our city has supplied us these large cans in place of our own. It is brand-spankin' new. It's so cool I thought about putting Mickey and Alex in it for a ride before I contaminated it with our trash. I love it because it takes up less space in our garage and I can lift the lid with one finger...and did I tell you it is brand-spankin' new? Oh, and it has a thingy on the front that will be lifted by the truck. No grubby trashman hands will be touching it. Little did they realize how much this can would appeal to we germophobes in the city.

So there ya go. What Little Things have graced your life this week?

P.S. Lest you are thinking "wow, doesn't she have anything better to do..." take note of the fact that I did not take time to photograph these Little Things. I do have time to be lazy, thankyouverymuch.

The facts of fall

And so it begins...

Today Pete got the email below from his buddy, a die-hard college football fan. The friend's comment about the article, which was not written by him, was something like "this sums it all up for me..."

And Pete wholeheartedly agreed.

For all you soon-to-be football widows out there, it's time to face the inevitable. This week our husbands suddenly become glassy-eyed TV remote hogs who yell and whoop during televised games, thinking the players will somehow here their pleas and play better. Pete has had his poor-man's picture-in-picture set up for a week (that's two TV's downstairs: one solely for football, the other still for Barney. I think I will be in a corner somewhere rocking back and forth...).

Anyway, on to the very well-written synopsis of what this week must be like for my husband and millions of other American men:

I love this week.

The last few days leading up to the first game of a college football season are the closest I've found as an adult to those exciting, anxious days of my youth right before Christmas.

Now, as then, hope springs eternal. Optimism is the norm.

Would I get the ThunderCats action figures? I asked Santa and he seemed pretty positive. Will my beloved Buckeyes erase the sting of the final game of last season? I read the papers and everybody says they're using the doubts as motivation. It looks good.

Then again, it always looks good this week, doesn't it? Just as those unopened packages underneath the tree on December 22nd always contained the requested gift.

This week, the season is still perfect. This week, The Big Dream is possible. This week, none of those packages contain underwear and socks. Of course, for all but two teams, that dream eventually dies. For some it was unrealistic from the get go. They never really had a shot except for this week. They were fooling themselves. (Did I really think Santa was going to bring me the cute girl from Facts of Life that one year?)

For other teams, legitimate visions of BCS glory bubbling forth between now and Friday are erased before the leaves have fallen from the trees. Others will stumble in the midst of the yet-to-be determined "Showdown Saturday." A select few will be allowed to hold onto August's anticipation until fall's final games are played.

Yet still it will end. By a flat effort against an inferior opponent. A lucky bounce. A trick play. A missed call.

But not today.

Today we all sit on the right knee of the mall College Football Santa, reading off our wish list for 2007. And I'll be damned if he doesn't listen. And give "that smile" that makes you believe it's all going to come your way. Which is good enough. Because right now, this week, it doesn't get any better.

Okay, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I always say. Have fun, Pete and all your friends, and the guy who wrote this article. May the season bring your teams lots of W's, no injuries to the first-string quarterback, and, heck, maybe even a visit from Lisa Welchel.

WFMW: $10 Keepsake

Use free online photo editors to make simple changes to pictures. Use your craft store's 40% off coupon to buy an inexpensive frame and voila! Instant, custom keepsake for under $10.

Today's Works for Me Wednesday tip is simple! I photographed the boys one hot summer day in just their matching jean shorts:

Then I cropped the photo, uploaded it to Kodak Gallery, and applied the black-and-white and "soft-glow" effects. Took about 30 seconds. Cost: About $2.50 for a 5x7; includes shipping. Then off to Michael's I flew with coupon in hand, where I chose a frame with a rustic feel for around $7 with discount. Here's the result:

The artistic quality may be a bit lacking, but it is a true illustration of Alex and Mickey right now. Mickey's the protective big brother who attempts to hold Alex's hand, but must settle for his wrist since Alex is so reluctant most of the time. Someday, I suppose, Alex will realize the security of big brother's hand...

Inexpensive, meaningful keepsakes Work for Me!

For more great tips, visit the home of WFMW here.

"Way to go, Mickey!"

I wish I had a poignant story to tell about our first day of Mother's Day Out today, and have you laughing and crying and awwwww-ing. Truth is, I got nothin'. Totally uneventful.

The boys did fine on their first day back (we took the summer off). Alex's class takes a nap, which was my biggest worry. He's one of the youngest in the class and still likes his crib at home very much. I wasn't sure how he'd do if he were faced with a napmat and a blanket and a roomful of other very experienced napmat-sleepers. His teacher said he was the last to fall asleep (big surprise) but there were no tears and he did sleep an hour.

Mickey didn't have much to say about his new teacher or room. ("Yes, I ate my lunch. Tatum had orange juice.") He seemed happy to see me go and happy to see me pick him up. In my book, a successful first day for him. I expect the stories to flow freely once he gets a little more acclimated to his new teachers.

I did have to peek inside Mickey's room from last year: Ms. M. She was hunched over one of her students, showing concern as she always had to my son, and had to smile to myself a bit. She was getting a whole new group of "recruits," some of whom she'd have the honor of helping to potty train. I thought of Mayo in Officer and a Gentleman, as he was riding off on his motorcycle to get Debra Winger (and scoop her up in possibly the best movie ending in the world) and seeing Lou Gossett badger the latest crop of wanna-be's:

"...there's only two things that come out of Midtown, Bobby. Babies and little boys. Well, which one are you!?"

(But she wasn't barking at this child at all...I'm sure she was using some perfect phrase to make that child feel at ease.)

So I continued past her room and out of the building to begin my five hours of free time. In case you're interested, I spent it lunching with Pete, shopping, and joining a gym. Three things I've needed to do for a long time...

Even scarier than the jam-packed wave pool...

Oh, my. Is this what they mean by "fell through the cracks" in school?

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1772684

Personal: To my mom on her 75th birthday

Happy Birthday to my mom, who is 75 today. She's an amazing woman, I guess a lot of people think that about their moms. But mine really is the definition. And she's not shy about her age...she's proud of it. If she weren't 75, she'd have fewer family members and fewer memories. And she cherishes all of them.

We celebrated over the weekend with a family reunion of sorts. Lots of fun and visiting and oh, my...the places my boys can find to wander in a hotel are endless. But we got home safely with both exhausted boys.

So mom, live it up today. Or take a nap like me...

Taking another break...

Taking a bit of a break from bloggin' over the next few days. See you on Monday! (or maybe it'll be Tuesday. Hoping for Wednesday.)

Shut. UP. I had a "favorite find"?

I posted earlier about my tip for consigning kids' items in the Just Between Friends sale. The franchise owners where I take my stuff (in Tulsa) have put up a blog and asked shoppers to send a note and pics about their favorite finds at the sale.

Yep. Guess whose diaper bag was in the first submission!

Just so you know what an honor this woman has unknowingly bestowed upon me, there are thousands and thousands of items sold at this sale. I submitted 98 of them. The chances that my diaper bag would turn up on this blog are almost as slim as winning the lottery (which is currently up to $300 mil. Methinks I need to run an errand to Quik Trip tomorrow).

Anyway, I will make about $4 on that "favorite find." Which may not seem like a lot, except when you consider it was given to me by a friend. Who I hope does not read my blog.

Things I fear

Updated: Budget Travel's blog gets updated a bazillion times a day, so the video I wanted you to see is somewhere not on the blog. I devoted an adequate amount of time searching for it (15 seconds) and came up empty-handed. Sorry.

To describe the scene, which isn't nearly as much fun as seeing the video, it was a jam-packed wave pool at a water park in Japan. So many people were in the pool as its artificial waves began that you could not even see the water. Looked almost like those horrible tsunami videos. Only these people weren't screaming for their lives and clinging to debris.


Going off a bridge in my car.

An airplane crash.

Suffocation of any kind.

And this. Scroll down to the video of the wave pool.

Thanks, Budget Travel. I most assuredly will not sleep tonight.

Got my Babeebrite!

The other day I posted about winning a Babeebrite light through a drawing on www.5minutesformom.com. I got this little dude in the mail the other day and I've already used it several times to put Alex's diaper back together after he falls asleep. It's great! To him, I think it's like one of those gigantic search lights, but I found I could aim it in the appropriate place pretty easily so it didn't disturb him too much.

So thanks, once again, to 5MFM for my loot!

Note: someone suggested putting Alex's diaper on backward at night to keep him from getting hold of the tabs. We tried it. Let's just say I'm up for any other suggestions if you've got 'em...

WFMW: Just Between Friends consignment

UPDATED: I should note here that when you consign with JBF, you get 65-70% of your selling price. I've checked a couple of kids' consignment stores in my city and they pay less than that.

Today's tip: check out the Just Between Friends event in your city to consign kids' clothes, toys, equipment, etc.

I've recently started selling my boys' outgrown clothes and baby equipment at my local Just Between Friends sale. It is so nice to let someone else do the selling! I don't have to store all their outgrown items for a garage sale I'll never have, and I make a little money. Donating to a worthy cause is nice, but so is the check I get from JBF.

Warning: the requirements for selling and tagging are intimidating at first. Your first sale will seem like a lot of work. However, I got the hang of it quickly, and learned the following along the way:

-- Read all the instructions for selling and tagging before you get started. I didn't my first time, and ended up doing a lot of rework on the tags. These guys are picky about their tagging requirements.

-- Designate a spot in your kids' closets for JBF items. Tag as you go. Use the new online method for barcoding your tags if it's available in your area. Then you can "watch" your items online. You'll be able to see what items sold and at what price.

-- Be discriminating about what you put in the sale. JBF is trying to maintain they have higher quality items than a garage sale and they'll reject things they don't think are up to par.

-- Pricing: I'm still learning how to price things effectively. The upcoming JBF sale in my area will be my first with barcoding so I'll be able to see what sells at full price (items are discounted as the sale ages).

-- Designate something specific to do with your profits. Putting it into the general household fund isn't nearly as fun as telling a very frugal hubby: look what we got with our JBF dollars!

Selling at Just Between Friends works for me! For more great tips, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

"Hot" just doesn't do it justice

In my little city in Oklahoma, right this minute, at 2:48 Central Time, it is hotter than Death Valley. You know, the place in California the weather guys always reference when it comes to hot temperatures. Like International Falls, Minnesota in winter: no one ever goes there and no one you know lives there, but by golly everyone's interested in how cold it is there.

Now, you might have already gone to weather.com and checked the temps in Death Valley. If not, I'll save you the frowning face. Read on for an explanation:

Temp in My City, Oklahoma: 105
"Heat Index": 107

Temp in Death Valley, Californai: 109
"Heat Index": 103

So technically it feels hotter out on my front porch than in Death Valley. For some reason think I should write this on my calendar.

Oh, and the current temp in International Falls? 74. And the weather guys up there have never heard of "heat index."

PGA Recap (and no "Tiger" puns!)

Pete and I were lucky enough to attend the PGA Championship held this weekend in Tulsa. If you have been living under a rock for the past week or so, it was the final Major of the season and a big deal for Tiger Woods. He did not disappoint (also news to you rock-dwellers).

We got to go on Wednesday and Saturday, the former being autographs-and-pictures day. The latter, well, if you got caught even WISHING you had your camera, you'd have been whisked away in shackles.

Below are some shots I got before my camera started to melt. I took tons more, but suffice it to say most of them look like pictures of kelly green carpet.

The tent area for corporate types who are too wimpy to endure the 100+ temperatures. Not really tents, more like gigantic cocoons. Air conditioned. And since mostly men frequented these tents, it was about 55 degrees inside. Ahhhhhh...

Number 12 green, supposedly Southern Hills' signature hole.

Number 18 fairway. Has to be the most photographed hole on the course. Breathtaking.

Padraig Harrington during the practice session, teeing off at Number 8. See the guy hunched over on the far right? See Padraig's ball at the tip of the guy's foot? See Padraig's head still in the "down" position? I know zilch about a golf swing, but I think that's a good thing.

Padraig posing just for my shot. Or glancing up and I got lucky. Really. Really. Lucky.

If you really want to meet your neighbors...

...request a power outage from your local power company.

Our lights went out at 7:45 p.m. this evening. By 8:00, we knew the names of six neighbors I've never laid eyes upon before in my life. The minute the cool came to a stop in our neighborhood, the floodgates opened and out poured the people into the streets...recluses and all. You could, ahem, recognize the folks that don't seem to get out much.

So what else to do but to take a walk around our comfort zone and see if anyone knew why the power went off in the first place. Everyone had a theory, but most of them pointed to some mysterious downed lines behind a house a few streets over from ours. ("Will those LIONS get us?" Mickey wanted to know. "They should take them back to the zoo...") Anyway, we had many estimates of a lights-on time thrown at us, from a few minutes to a few hours (!!!).

Luckily, by the time we finished our walk and called several friends to see if we could descend upon their (efficiently cooling) homes, the power was back on and all was right with the world once again.

And all the neighbors retreated back to the safety of their homes until the next outage when they're forced to socialize once again. Nice to meet ya!

I won a Babee!

Ahhhh, suddenly the cold damp of my Inbox is all warm and fuzzy again...I am a WINNER. Soon I will be the proud owner of the Babeebrite hands-free mobile light source, made especially with moms in mind. The drawing is complements of Five Minutes for Mom...which is worth a lot more surf-time than five minutes. These ladies rock.


Yes, I know I do not have a newborn requiring middle-of-the-night diaper changes, but I do have Alex: king of the late-night I'm-going-to-attempt-to-remove-my-diaper-even-while-wearing-pajama-pants. Somehow he manages to get in there and dismantle the whole thing, so every night after he falls asleep I sneak in, turn over his thirty-some-odd pounds, and put everything back together.

So thanks 5MFM. I will wear my Babeebrite with pride.

(And if you haven't checked out 5MFM...get over there now!)

"Leave. Me. Alone."

Knock, knock. Who's there? Nobody...

Folks, the well has run dry once again. I didn't realize when I started this blog that I'd have to come up with stuff every day. I know, I know...there are no rules in bloggityville. I don't have to post daily if I don't want to. But the thing is, you might visit daily...you knock on my door and if I don't answer then you're gonna walk away and never come back. The horror!

I've got some irons in the fire, though, and they are keeping me hopping. I'll blog about them at a future date when the dust has settled in a few weeks.

I've also begun the countdown to when Alex and Mickey start Mother's Day Out. Then I'll have some quality time to blog. Or sleep. Or do my nails. Or nothing. I love my boys more than I ever imagined...and I love them having organized play time with other kids. Twice a week for five hours.

So don't stop knockin'; I may answer with some real content someday.

'Cause you just never know...

Over at Ashwin’s blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting! The deadline is August 20.

Overheard: My 3-year-old jokester

We were packing up at the indoor playground and Mickey was getting his shoes on. One of his instant friends there approached him:

Little Boy: Are you leaving?

Mickey: No! I'm Mickey!

"Hey, brother...let's shake things up a little..."

Alex and Mickey had the napping thing down. Same time, every day. It's one reason I took on this blog: I knew I'd at least have some naptime to write, and not have to stay up late catching up.

Somehow, though, the two of them have conspired against me lately. Alex (the little one) has decided he likes his naps earlier in the day, and Mickey has decided he is going to try everything in the book to avoid one altogether.

So that's one of several reasons I've been a little scarce here lately. Bear with me as I try to resist the mutiny...

Thank you, five readers!

Now I know there are at least five people out there reading my blog...and my mom, who kindly wrote me an email to tell me so.

So, to the five of you: thank you for visiting. When I become rich and famous for blogging I will remember that it was you who were charter Home Team supporters...

Now you can sleep tonight.