YouTube Moment: Michael Jordan - I Believe I Can Fly

One of my very intuitive sisters sent this to me. Somehow she knows my passion for Michael Jordan's basketball talent AND this R. Kelly song. Hmmm, maybe she knows me a little better than I thought...

Patron Saint of Sweepstakes, Pray for Me

OK, I doubt there is such a saint, but if there were I would be a' praying right now. See, over at 5 Minutes for Mom they are GIVING away a shiny new Dyson SLIM. Now even if I could afford ~$400 for a vacuum cleaner, the other Dyson models are much to large for the designated vacuum cleaner spot in our home. But the Slim, oh, the Slim would fit mighty nicely.

So please, St. Sweepstakes, if you're out there, have a heart and make this happen. One time your buddy St. Anthony helped my mom find her car keys when they were lost, but that was around 30 years ago. Don't you think we're due for a little Saint help??

And the rest of you, head on over and enter the contest yourself. It's easy and you don't have to blog to win. And if you win the Slim maybe I can arrange visitation.

WFMW: Tide is worth $7.99

As you've seen in previous posts, my sons are recovering from a bout with a stomach bug (hubs and I were spared!). We had so many, uh, episodes, that for a few days it seemed our washer never stopped!

I usually buy the darn-near cheapest laundry detergent and it has served our family well. But before all this started (obviously in a fit of unbelieveable weakness) I bought Tide with Febreze for $7.99. Yes, I know, it is a crime to spend that much on detergent, but dang it, Febreze smells so good I couldn't resist. Well, kiddos, this time my momentary lapse of reason paid off.

You see, Son 2 had a bit of a relapse the other day. Without warning, lasagna and garlic bread (and yogurt, I think) were revisited all over the front of my brand-new Adidas t-shirt. A SOLID WHITE t-shirt. I figured, the shirt's ruined, what's the use in pre-treating? So I threw it in the washer with all the other assaulted clothes and figured it would make a very expensive dust-rag.

Would you believe the shirt came completely clean? Not a trace of anything anywhere. It could have come straight off the hanger at JC Penney. Unbelieveable. Hubs pretended to be impressed but I was so thrilled I sent Tide my testimonial. I'm fantasizing that a case of it will appear on my doorstep...

Splurging on Tide with Febreze...Works for me!

For more really cool Works for Me Wednesday tips, check out Shannon.

All better now

A lot has happened since my last post: Son 1 did end up getting sick, even more violently than Son 2 but I will spare you the details on that. He hasn't had any accidents in a day, so just maybe getting sick was somehow affecting his psyche.

I got nauseous for about 12 hours but thankfully it didn't materialize into a stomach bug like the boys'. I did lose two pounds from not eating; who can complain about that?!

The carseat that Son 1 christened when he began his stomach bug is still very dismantled, hindering our ability to go anywhere but outdoors. The weather has been nice so that's not been a problem. (...the weathermen in town predicted rain every day this spring break week, but they were WRO-ONG!)

Hubs and I have an evening out planned for Saturday night; here's praying that everyone's well or that I can talk their favorite aunt into wearing goggles for the night.

Smooth sailing, then iceberg, iceberg, and another iceberg...

So I didn't really update the progress of Son 1 and his efforts to shed diapers forever. He let them go bigtime, for like three weeks now. I never thought "Mommy I have to pee-pee" would sound like sweet music to my ears, but it did. And no accidents, even at night, and even at Mother's Day Out.

But that's where the sweet music comes to a screeching halt. For some reason he's had several accidents in the last few days, for no apparent reason. No major changes in our lives have occurred: we've not moved to a new house, brought home a newborn (!!), or gone on vacation. We do have a sick Son 2, throwing up here and there and everywhere. Could that type of event mess up Son 1's progress? He seemed so rock-solid with it. And really when Son 2 is sick, it's not like he's throwing up on Son 1, which would traumatize him (but not his mother, mind you).

If anyone has any insight to this please, please post a comment so I can understand what's happening. Spiderman, Diego, Thomas the Tank Engine, and Hanes can't take much more...

Macy's Thanksgiving

Thank you Macy's! Thank you for pricing your Ralph Lauren boys' shirts so high* that even Britney Spears wouldn't buy them, assuming she remembers how to shop after all that Coke. So since you priced them so high and no one bought them, you had to mark them down 75% so normal people could afford them. We po' folks shorely do 'preciate ya!

* $65.00 EACH. Polo horse not included.

Son 1: "MAMMA, I'M GOING TO READ [SON 2] A BOOK..."

"...but it's up to you to open them up, interpret the words, and turn the pages..."

Spring is here! And it's cheap!

That's right folks, the first pedicure of the season. So toes are ready for viewing! What better way to send you people who hate feet running from your computers screaming than to post a pic of mine?

The beauty of these beauties, however, isn't the "Clary Girl Pink" shade of polish. No, no, the beauty is that I got this look for a mere $18. That's right, instead of paying the usual $40 or more at my salon or a "day spa," I tried the new beauty school in town. The very nice woman who worked over my feet was very thorough and their facility had candles and music and everything. I couldn't think of one thing that was missing that I'd have gotten elsewhere. (License, schmicense!)

So check out the beauty school before you say you can't afford to dress up your feet for summer!

WFMW: Reading WFMW posts and keeping sane

Hi. My name is Christine and I'm a WFMW-a-holic. There, I said it. I'm an addict to Shannon's weekly collection of woman wisdom.

The bigger problem, however, is getting them all read before, say, the next week's installment. I was keeping the site up in a separate window to visit when I had a minute online, but then my eye would wander all over the page like a shopper without a list.

Then I discovered that the key to getting through them without missing something is simple: FOCUS.

So now, instead of hopping all over the page, I read and click them in order. Numerical order. It was the skipping around so much that was driving me crazy because I'd re-read them accidentally or miss one at the beginning. So now I go up and down all the aisles and I don't miss any bargains, and life is good. Try it, maybe your WFMW will be just that much sweeter.

So there you go: a tip you can try right NOW.

Welcome to my new home!

Christmas morning is here! Isn't it awesome!? Not really a new home, but newly decorated, and a blog home I hope to visit more often (maybe you will, too, since it's pretty now). I only hope my posts are worthy of the awesome new graphic graciously accomplished by Chilihead and Shannon. They are so kind to rescue me from template boredom.

Now if only they can throw some of their witty and interesting posts my way so I can use them for my own...

Back to normal, glorious normal

The husband returned yesterday from an nine-day business trip. Well, part of the "business" was to have fun on a guys' golf vacation, the rest he actually got paid for. It all added up to nine days and eight nights of single parenthood for me, which is something I would never sign up for in a bazillion years and I cannot understand the celebs or other getting-older women who choose to do it. But I digress...

Yes, it was a long week. Yes, I missed him desperately. And when we got to the airport to pick him up, my heart melted into a big ol' puddle when I saw him coming down the very wide hallway with several other passengers.

But, melted not at the sight of his very cute face, not at the thought of help with bathtime, but at the sight of Son 1's face when he spotted him. I don't think I could have contained those three-year-old legs for an instant from running down the hall toward him. They were like some freakish real-life Road Runner legs. They didn't stop spinning until he was scooped up by my husband and like a kid in a Kodak commercial he wrapped his arms around Daddy's neck and squeezed.

And then out of nowhere came tears in my eyes and I had to get contained, lest husband would think I didn't have everything under complete control while he was gone.

Then husband and Son 1 made it over to me and Son 2, who was sitting in his stroller. His efforts to leap out of his seat nearly turned the stroller over, and the squealing began. I don't think it has stopped yet...

His priorities will change, won't they?

Tonight Son 2 was in all his almost-18-month-old glory as he tried to slide a finger behind my genius obstacle to the TV buttons. He did not succeed, but thankfully Son 1 was hot on his trail to keep him from jacking with it:

Son 1: "Don't touch the buttons! The TV might fall down and...and...we won't have a TV to watch."

...let alone the fact that his brother will be under it.

Stay tuned for a design!!

I'm so excited I can't stand it. It's like Christmas in March for me. My two buddies, one old and one new, have offered to snazz up my blog, as in...drum roll, please: I'm getting an actual design! Not a canned-ham template anymore! I think New Buddy decided she could no longer sit back and see a poor beginning blogger like me suffer with the template any longer, and she has offered to perk it up a little (which will be a lot). She's wrangled the talent of Old Buddy and together they will breath new life into my blog.

So check back over the next few days. I don't know when Christmas morning is but I know the Santa Blogs are gonna be good to me!

WFMW: Easy-Traveling Cupcakes

Bringing cupcakes to a kids' party is a great idea, but if you're super particular about messes like me, you need to read on. Fully-frosted cupcakes are a mess to get in and out of a box and they can get crowded and the frosting mushed up and it's just messy all around. (OK, I know I need therapy about that but whatever...)

I got a large cake-decorating tip and swirled store-bought icing right in the center of a cake-mix cupcake, and topped it with a "Kissables" candy piece. So easy! I have NO experience with cake decorating and yet this was so easy to do. The kids love the big bite of icing and they are so much neater to get in and out of the box.

If you don't want the hassle of buying cake-decorating tips or bags, just use a quart-size Ziploc bag and fill it with frosting. Snip a large piece off a corner and go to town!

For more WFMW tips, go see Shannon.

WFMW: Protect TV Buttons from Toddlers

UPDATED to include a picture:

(Shush! Someone has to post the last tip!)

My tip tonight is something I read in a parenting magazine or maybe it was a blog, the point is it was a tip I actually read and used AND it WORKED.

To keep little fingers, the just-over-a-year-old kind, from punching the buttons on your TV, go to Walgreen's and buy a plexi-glass picture frame. One of the smaller ones will do. You know the kind I'm talking about: it's frameless and it props up by itself on a tabletop. OK, so you get one of those and...

...turn it on its back so the large part of it is face down flat. Slide this part under your TV as your husband is lifting it a millimeter or so high but acting like he is Hercules with The World on his back. Have Herc set it down so that the only thing showing is the short part of the frame, which is beautifully positioned in front of the buttons on your TV.

Yuck, I am thinking this WFMW is going to require a picture, which I don't have. And which would take me too long to accomplish at this late hour and I still need to waste some more time online and get this tip on Shannon's site before Thursday.

So visualize, people, and try it if your little ones like to turn off American Idol in the middle of Simon's latest barb or Ryan Seacrest's "out."

For more, and better and probably more useful tips, go to Shannon's and knock yourself out.

And Birthday Season Continues

You might think that title means there are several birthdays we are celebrating. Nope. Just one. Three times: at a restaurant on Saturday since that was his actual birthday, yesterday here at home with family, and tomorrow with his Mother's Day Out classmates. Ahhh, I love my son but he's starting to sing "Happy Birthday" in his sleep.

Yesterday, however, was the big shindig with the cake and candles. Lots of fun for him and since he's already gone through this twice, his third birthday was smooth sailing. It was nice, I have to say, to sit back and watch him open his presents instead of coaxing him, uh, more like screaming in his ear, to tear a sheet. Of course, his ever-doting Aunt R. was right there to do it for him lest he be in the least big perplexed about how to get through the paper to the bounty beneath.

So now the real, selfish reason for the post: the cake! Made by me! Without a plan or even a vision, I set about to make his cake and I think it was not too bad an effort:



(I know, I know, I have now divulged Son 1's real name. Just forget you read that and move on about your blogs...)



All in all, a great time for the birthday boy and his little bro, who really thought all the presents were for him. Hmmm, that could have something to do with the fact that BOTH sides' grandparents showed up with a gift for him, too.

Must be something one learns at Grandparents' School...

Son 1 the Birthday Boy!

Today is Son 1's third birthday. This little man has brought more joy to our lives than we could ever imagine, and daily he amazes me in some way.

We are having a small family party tomorrow and today we're taking him bowling for the first time. We don't really know what to expect: he could throw two balls and say he wants to go home. Or he'll throw Son 2 down the lane and say "let's do it again!"

Happy, happy birthday, Son 1, with many smothering mommy and daddy hugs.

Flying Without a Net

Son 1 is going to be THREE YEARS OLD tomorrow. (I will save my sappy birthday post for the actual day.) I have been wondering, hoping, listening with utter envy to my other mom friends who have 2-year-olds who have been trained for months, and waiting for my son to "get it" and lose the diapers. Today may have been the turning point.

We left the house with UNDERWEAR on, not a diaper. (Okay, you know what I mean when I say "we," it's the "we" that means "he." You know...right? Okay, I just needed to clarify that.)

Yep, we actually got in the car, backed out of the driveway, and went places. Public places. Now, I have backup supplies my diaper bag has not seen since the newborn days: extra clothes, plastic bags, extra diapers in case I, uh, he needs to revert, and of course a fresh pair of underwear. None of these things were needed today! I must have driven the poor kid cah-razy with my "do you need to pee-pee" every 15 minutes. He actually did in the potty at our playgroup place and when we got home all was dry. Ahhhhh, what a victory for me, uh, him!!

I figure I will be cleaning up a few accidents along the way for sure. But I think we are one step closer to a one-kid-in-a-diaper family. Woo-hoo!!

UPDATE: Well, we didn't quite make it the whole day without a little accident. But Mommy has new strategies up her sleeve so not to worry!

Dead. Winter.

It is winter. I understand that. But puh-leeze, Lord, can you throw in an unseasonably warm day for me and the boys? We in the south are known for such anomolies and we appreciate them.

Until He says yes to my request, there's this to keep us going, 'cause even the beach in winter is still the beach.

Hope it's warm today wherever you readers are. But if it is I don't want to hear about it...

WFMW: Kleenex Trash

If you have little kids, you have little kids with colds. And if you have more than one with a cold, the Kleenex trash can get a little overwhelming, not mention all those trips to the kitchen trash can (which I have to get to by undoing the child-proof lock...a real pain when you have to do it 57 times a day).

My WFMW tip is to use the old Kleenex box for used Kleenexes. I keep it on the counter with the new Kleenexes, CLEARLY labeled "trash" on each side of the box. When the new box of Kleenexes gets used up, it becomes the trash box and the old trash gets thrown away.

For more great Works for Me tips, visit Shannon.