Lima Beans

Sweet Pea is all excited about hosting Thanksgiving this year as a newlywed and who am I to rain on the parade of the newly married love birds? My only contribution is to bring the lima beans. Only Sparky knows how to make them so he will have to work when we get to Phoenix in the morning.

We plan to attend a movie in the evening and then drive to Sedona on Friday. We shop and visit a lovely cathedral built right into the red rocks. We then attend a festival of lights at night in VERY COLD weather - I have to remember to pack a coat, scarf, and gloves. We will eat at our favorite restaurant there - Red Planet. On Saturday we are kidnapping - I mean bringing Sweet Pea back to Tucson for the U of A vs. Az State (SCUM DEVILS) game. We have attended many U of Az games but never the big rivalry. We are really looking forward to this one!

Sunday we release Sweet Pea back into the wild that is the big city of Phoenix and I will clean house and shop for a turkey because really, who are we kidding? Do you honestly think I would not cook a turkey so we can have leftovers all week?

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you were a hamster, where would you hide??!

So Little Lottie is on this school trip to California and the very last thing she says to us as she leaves on Friday night is, "You will take care of my baby, right?"

And we are all.... NO WAY! HAHAHAHA! Cause we joke like that! We are a funny family! And of course we give the "rat" water and food and talk to him ocassionally.

Last night we are falling asleep and I hear this paper rattling in our bedroom. I wake Sparky up the third time I hear it - I figured a burglar was going through my stash of Paula Deen magazines beside my bed and Sparky must be the man and get up and chase the burglar away.

After checking the ENTIRE house for the burglar, we realize I must have been dreaming. Yeah, that's it. It was a dream. As we drift back to sleep we hear it again but at this point, we are too tired to get up and investigate. If it is a burglar, it's just as well because even though I buy the Paula Deen magazines, I never make the recipes in them so I say - burglar, have at 'em!

Today Sparky and I are shopping, talking, laughing. We start thinking about the funny sound last night. I say it reminded me of a mouse, rustling through papers. Sparky says, we should check the hamster cage when we get home. Dang if he wasn't right! That freakin' hamster is the Spiderman of Hamsters and scaled a GLASS ACQUARIUM!!!! Don't ask me how! I have no idea!

So instead of resting tonight, we are frantically searching for the hamster. I even Goggled: LOST HAMSTER. Basically, they say to just put out food and water and maybe he will come home.

He better freakin' get home before Little Lottie or we have some 'splainin' to do. And it's going to be LATE - well after midnight till she gets in. And she HAS to go to school tomorrow because they've already informed the students it will be unexcused. Maybe I should just tell her in the morning?!

Merry Christmas

Every year in November, I take a day off of work to get "delicate female matters" taken care of by the imaging center and my Dr. It's my Christmas present to myself. Today was that day. I was poked and prodded so much I feel like the Dr. should have given me some money as payment when I left. Good lord. Not to mention that he wants to see me 40 pounds lighter next Nov. WHAT?! But... but... Crap. I am officially old. Big sigh...

Here is something light hearted :


1. Hot Chocolate or apple cider? Hot Chocolate

2. Turkey or Ham? Turkey (actually, I would rather just have the stuffing.

3. Do you get a Fake or Real Christmas tree? Fake...we live in Az. Having a real tree would be like putting a giant match stick in the living room. Can't wait to move back east and have a REAL TREE again!!!

4. Decorations on the outside of your house? Yes... they change according to my mood when I put them up. If it's ungodly hot ( LIKE IT IS EVERY FREAKIN YEAR) then there aren't as many lights.

5. Snowball fights or sledding? Is there a REASON I live in Arizona?!?! This is just making me depressed!!!!

6. Do you like hanging around the fireplace because it's warm? Banging head on the keyboard. I WISH we had a fireplace but I can barely stand to light the oven in December because it's SO FREAKIN HOT!!!

7. Do you enjoy going downtown shopping? Not downtown but I love shopping! Sparky calls me a Crate and Barrel Whore. (In a nice way)

8. Favorite Christmas song? Oh Come, Immanuel, lots of others, can't remember them right now because I AM DEHYDRATED BECAUSE IT'S SO FREAKING HOT HERE!!!

9. How do you feel about Christmas movies? Christmas is NOT Christmas without the annual viewing of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation!!!

10.When is it OK to start listening to Christmas music? Thanksgiving Day!

11. Stockings before or after presents? You get ONE stocking stuffer on Christmas Eve. Christmas Morning, stockings are opened and then the presents. Stockings are a VERY big deal in our house! (Sparky, don't even go there! Love you!)

12. Carolers, do you or do you not watch and listen to them? We don's see Carolers here. (CAUSE IT'S TOO (SAY IT WITH ME!!!) FREAKIN HOT!!!!

13. Go to someone else's house or they come to you? Hmm.... it's at my house but last year we had to go to Sweet Pea and Mr. Sweet Pea's house cause he had to work. We were there on Christmas Eve and then back home on Christmas Day. It was tough, to say the least. The first Christmas without Sweet Pea. (Excuse me while I get a tissue)

14. Do you read the Christmas Story? We read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. I have a very extensive collection of that poem (book).

15. What do you do after presents? Make breakfast! With bacon! ( We usually eat bacon only on special occassions)

16. What is your favorite holiday smell? Bayberry Candles or cinnamon candles.

17. Ice skating or walking around the mall? Ice skating? Are you kidding me?!?! IT'S TOO FREA...

18. Favorite Christmas memory? AS a child - that would be the year I got my Suzie Homemaker Grill. As an adult, we were newly married and it started snowing on Christmas Eve. We looked out the window. It was sparkling in the street lights. No one had been outside yet to put any footprints in the beautiful blanket of snow. It was sooooo quiet. Suddenly we heard a distant "HO! HO! HO!" And Sparky and I just looked at each other. It was magic. WE totally believe in Santa Claus because of that magical moment.

19. Favorite Part about winter? It only gets up to 80 degrees instead of one hundred freakin' fifteen.

20. Favorite Christmas decor? Fresh branches of evergreens.

21. Lights...colored or clear? Clear. As a child, I loved the old fashioned blubs thought.

22. What is the best Christmas gift you ever received? As a child, my Suzie Homemaker Grill (can we say food obsession?) and as an adult - my favorite present is when I can truly surprise my family members with THE perfect gift!!!

23. What is your favorite Christmas tradition in your family? Gosh, we have soooo many!!!! Girls? Sparky? What are your favorites? Then I will list mine!

Your Turn!

An Open Letter to the Other Unfortunate Mothers

Dear Other Mothers,

Please don't be mad at me because I have THE greatest daughters in the world! I can't help it that Sweet Pea came down from Phoenix to visit me (us) for the weekend. And Little Lottie was downright exhausted, having slept on a bus for 2 nights - just coming back from her school trip to Disneyland - and still she wanted to come along with us for the day! I can't apologize for the fact that we ate at Burger King and wrote Haikus on the rolls of paper they provide for the kids to color on. Is it MY fault that they wanted to go to the craft show and shopping at Ross? Did I do something right to make them want to eat junk food and play games all night long with the family??! Should I be sorry for you that we spent the morning talking, laughing, and goofing off with the family, even though they are 17 & 23 and most girls that age are either too cool for their families or too busy making their own families?

Maybe God decided to make up for the strange childhood I had. I thought it was enough to have the VERY BEST husband in the world but I guess I did something really, really good when I was young to get doubly blessed.

Sincerely,
Me

Obsession

I have this obsession with the Eiffel Tower. Could be from my favorite childhood book, Madeline:

In an old house in Paris
That was covered with vines
Lived twelve little girls
In two straight lines
The smallest one
was Madeline.

Anyway, I go to this website daily: http://www.paris-live.com/

I capture the images and put them in folders on my desktop. Look at the latest ones that I uploaded onto flicker. (Go to the top, left of the blog)
Au Revoir!

What We (Sparky) Did This Weekend

Denial.River.Egypt.

NewsTrack - Top News
Wash. woman didn't know she was pregnant
MAPLE VALLEY, Wash., Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A Maple Valley, Wash., woman did not discover that she was pregnant until a doctor told her the sharp pain she was feeling was a labor contraction.

Amanda Brisendine delivered her child by Caesarean section at Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue, a procedure that resulted in the unexpected addition of Alexander Joseph Britt to the family, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Thursday.

Brisendine and long-time boyfriend Jason Britt already had a 14-month daughter but she said the experience was different enough this time around that she hadn't even realized she was pregnant.

"I had no weird cravings and no morning sickness," Brisendine told the newspaper. "He was hiding."

The new mother said her menstrual cycles had continued through the pregnancy but the last few months were painful. Dr. Jim Haines, chief of obstetrics at Overlake, did not treat Brisendine, but theorized that the mother had mistaken bleeding during pregnancy for menstruation, the Post-Intelligencer said.


*********And I didn't know Lay's Potato Chips can make you fat.

*********And I didn't know that coffee can keep you up at night.

*********And I didn't know that you cannot mix reds with the whites when you do laundry. (Well, actually, I really didn't know that)

How old do I look to a 4th grader?!?!

Me: Today we are learning about Voice. (Blah, blah, blah...)

Me: What is it you say nowadays when something is cool?

Students: (Various hands and answers: Cool! Awesome! Sweeet!)

Me: Excellent! Well, when I was younger, do you know what we used to say?

Student: Groovy?

Parapro in room: *snicker*

Me: (twirling my mood ring and slinging my love beads over my shoulder) Ummmm, noooo, I am not quite THAT old.

Me: (on the inside remembering the balding, old man who was checking me out at the Quizno's last night)

Me: We used to say, "That is hip!"

Students: laughing so hard they are rolling out of their chairs.

Me: Groovy is what they used to say on the Brady Bunch!

Students: Dead silence/blank stares.

Me: Good gravy - I guess I AM that old.