Q&A part 1

A couple of days ago I threw out a post while I was sick soliciting questions. I'm going to answer the ones I got in the next few days in between other stuff. Sometimes you just need a nudge for a writing idea you know?

First up is my pal Tooj who wants to know:
"what is my ONE favorite thing to do individually with each child and with the husband"

My most favoritest thing EVER to do with Pierce is to take him to the movies. I have always loved kids movies and used to try and steal a cousin to go with me once I outgrew them. I'm so glad he loves to go and it is 99.9% of the time just him and I. Most recently we saw G-Force which made me want to dig my eyes out but most of the time I love the movies just as much as Pierce does. Hoping to make it soon to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs!

Mallory....she is my snuggle bug. She insists on ME putting her to bed every night and that entails a story and some serious in her bed snuggle time each night. We lay face to face and sing songs together before I wiggle my way out of there. I know she wont always want me to do this so I will take it when I can.

My favorite thing to do with Joe.....honestly....raise our kids! We don't get a lot of time together to just do date nights and I do miss that but I love that he is SO involved with raising our kids. I know a lot of dad's are like that these days but I did not grow up with my father and seeing Joe with our kids just melts my heart. When we DO get away....it is usually a dinner out and that is about it. we are fairly boring people.

The Kids Said WHAT? WILL be back this week, although I only have one good one so far this week and it was not even my kid who said it!

I ♥ Faces - BLUE

I LOOOOVE the I ♥ Faces photography blog. Each week they do a photo contest with a specific theme and I always want to play but have a hard time with what I want to enter. This weeks theme is "BLUE". Going through my pics I came across this one. Miss Mallory was just in awe standing in the window of our cabin. Her and Pierce sat up here all the time just looking at the water. I thought this would be a good one this week!

Dear So and So

I have been out of the Dear So and So loop for a few weeks but I feel the need to address some issues this week so here you go!!

Dear Bronchitis. Suck It.
Love, My Lungs

Dear Steroids, I'm not sure if I like you or hate you. You ARE helping my cough, and you have killed my appetite which is a bonus on week 1 of weight watchers, however you are irritating the hell out of the back of my throat. I'm kind of glad our relationship is half over.
Cough Cough, Cammie

My Dearest Vampire Diaries,
I heart you so much. You have have filled part of the whole in my heart that has been empty waiting on New Moon to come out. I love your cast, I love evil vampire Damon's hotness and I love that you remind me of Twilight. Please don't get cancelled.
A new fan, Cammie

Dear Kat, No way do I feel like I am cheating on Edward. He is still and always will be my number 1 favorite vampire EVAH. I love him long time. But you know how the saying goes....When The Vampire Cat is Away The human Mouse will play.
Your Friend, Cammie Cullen

For more Dear So and So goodness stop by and link up with Kat. And I will get to those questions on Monday!

I am a open book. For realz

I'm on day 2 of quarantine for the funk which is NOT the flu much to my co-workers relief. I feel pretty nasty so I'm curled up on the couch with my laptop and plenty of catching up to do in my DVR(thank you CW for giving me 90210 and The Vampire Diaries).

Because I'm sick and lazy I decided to let you all give me something to write about. That said please.....inspire me. What do you want to know? You all know by now I'm fairy blunt and to the point so ask away.

Curling back up with a hot vampire this is NOT Edward but is still pretty hot.

Miss me?

I think this is the longest that I have gone without blogging since I started! I have been swamped since I got back from vacation and wound up taking yesterday off of work too to get caught up on laundry and go to the grocery. Today was catch up day at work.

We had an AWESOME time at "Mickey's House". Our resort (Disney Caribbean)was fantastic, the pools were great, the parks were SO FUN and the characters were EVERYWHERE! The only complaint we had all week was it was SO humid I thought I would die. One thing I will never get about kids is those little girls who insist on walking around the park in full out princess costumes. They had to be SO hot.

Our first day we hung around the resort at the pool. We got in at lunch time and just spent the day finding our way around and playing in the pool. Monday started the 5 days of park madness. We headed right to the Magic Kingdom and I just spent the day watching my children look around in awe. Pierce still remembers our last trip 2 years ago but this was all new to Mallory who was not even one on her first trip. I cant say she was a fan of many of the rides....they pretty much all scared the crap out of her except It's a Small World. But she LOVED being there and seeing all of her "friends". Pierce was SO excited to be tall enough to ride some "big" rides and loved going on Big Thunder Mountain. The look on Mallory's face when her idol (the mouse) came around the corner in a parade and she saw him for the first time....I will never forget!

Tuesday we headed to Epcot for about half a day. I love Epcot but other than the kick ass Nemo ride the kids were not all that impressed. Pierce went on the Soarin ride with Joe's parents, I am not a fan of simulated type rides. Wed we had breakfast at the Chef Mickey character breakfast where both kids pretty much grinned non stop and then we went to the Animal Kingdom where Pierce became scarred for life. He talked a big game getting on Expedition Everest which is an AWESOME coaster but it scared the crap out of him and he was all done with the "big" rides after that. It was SO hot that day that we called it a day and spent time at the pool and then to Downtown Disney to have dinner at T-Rex

Thursday was more pool time and went through the countries at Epcot so the kids could get their passports stamped. Friday was MGM which has really improved a lot since the last time I was there. There is a new Toy Story ride there that is SO fun and was the only long line we had all week (70 minutes). Joe and I even pawned the kids off on Joe's parents for 30 minutes so we could go ride the Aerosmith coaster (indoor, dark, lots of loops). Our last full day we went back to Downtown Disney for some shopping and then just played in the pool

No way could I recap the entire week. We had a blast, I love doing Disney through the eyes of my children. The kids are so into all of the characters and have full autograph books. I can't wait to go do it all over again in about 3 years. Here are a few pics that I have here at work

-PS...Im so sorry for being a bad bloggy friend. I skimmed through my reader 2 times while I was away but did not do any commenting. Im just now getting caught up!

Disney Bound

See you in a week!!

9/11 Where were you when?

I remember that day like it was yesterday. I probably always will. 9/11 is one of those events in history like the assassination of JFK that will always be with us. Those of us who are old enough to remember will always be able to tell our kids, and our grand kids what we were doing when our world changed forever.

I was at work. Same place I work today but a different building. I was 25 years old, not married, not a mother yet. I was still dating Joe and we would get engaged about 3 weeks later. I was sitting at my desk and I received an email from a friend of mine that worked in another office that just said "a plane hit one of the world trade center towers" I remember thinking and emailing him back, "whoa, that sucks" having NO idea the depth of what was going on. I remember thinking it was a small plane in the wrong place because jets just did not fly that close to the city. I did not even bother to look it up on CNN.com. Why would I? Nothing really bad ever happens in the US right?

It was not until he emailed me again telling me about the 2nd plane that it really registered that something big was happening. By now the news was filtering through my office and people were turning radio's on to listen to the news. By now we knew that our nation was under attack.

I called Joe right away. He is in the Air National Guard and works full time at a base here in town. I remember asking him what was happening and him telling me that he did not know. Eventually he was locked down at the base, no one was allowed to leave until further notice which ended up being about 9 or 10 that night.

The day went on, 2 more planes crashed and the entire world was scared. That night I was glued to the TV watching with tears the towers fall again and again on the news. I tried to sleep that night and kept waking up and turning the TV on all through the night.

I did not personally know anyone who was hurt or lost their life that day. My roommate's best friend was SUPPOSED to be working downtown that day but she had called in sick. It's little details like that that I wont ever be able to forget.

I was able to visit Ground 0 this year and even though the memorials have been taken down and the area replaced by construction fences to rebuild I still felt the sadness to be standing there where so many people died. When Joe and I were in DC this year we got to see the 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon and see where the building was rebuilt.

We all have different political views in this country. That fact that we can HAVE those opinions is one more reason why we are proud to be Americans. Regardless of your political beliefs 9/11 brought us all together and I hope that no one ever forgets that day and what it did to our country.

Where were you?

The Kids Said WHAT??

This is going to have to be quick today because I'm home with a sick little girl who has been coughing her face off all night long. Nothing too bad....I'm guessing it is just the asthma cough...but with us leaving in a few days (see sidebar counter...YEAH!!!) I figure we better get it checked out. She is demanding on a good day so I'm sure today is bound to be a treat. I'm going to bust this out while she is otherwise occupied playing on the computer in the other room

Since my little miss does not feel well I will start with her. She started dance classes yesterday which damn near put me over the edge cuteness wise. I kept calling my mom telling her what they were doing and she was swooning with me. There is not much cuter than a bunch of 3 year olds in tutus and ballet slippers. The other day in preparation for class she spins around with her hands above her head and said....
"Look Mommy, I'm a BARINA" Yes baby, you are a beautiful Barina!

This morning at around 3:45 (the title of my blog is so fitting is it not?)she is coughing so hard it is making her miserable. I told her we needed to go to the Dr later so he can get rid of her cough before we go to Mickey's house. She tells me...."I'm not going to cough in Mickey's face when I hug him mommy" *tear*

On to big brother who has only given me one good one this week and once again it is school related. The other day we had a convo that went like this...
Pierce-"Mommy...every day Mrs Marks writes the word MANNERS on the chalkboard and if we are not listening she erases one letter each time. If we don't have any letters left at the end of the day then we don't get any free time."
Mommy-"Oh yeah? That is a good idea. What do you get to do at free time?"
Pierce- (thinking) "I don't know Mommy....we have not gotten any yet"

God bless Mrs Marks and teachers everywhere.

I'm going to try and pop in one more time before we leave on Sunday!! Link up!!

Awesome or Shagalicious?

Joe and I would love to move. We love our house but we have outgrown it and there are a few demands things that I would really like to have in a house. I would love a bigger yard, one that is kid friendly. Ours is wooded, not much grass can grow and pretty hilly. I would also love a 4th bedroom and a fireplace. But what I really want is a soaking tub. It does not have to be a jacuzzi or anything, just a nice big garden tub that I can chill in with a glass of wine and a good book. And no kids.

I like to go to realtor.com and search out new homes in our area. Our house is not even for sale but it is still fun to dream right. Imagine my total delight when I found a home that defeats the purpose of moving although smaller then our current house has the coolest thing EVER!!

Feast your eyes upon the coolness!!! A soaking tub IN THE BEDROOM!!!! Of course I did make a few slight changes in my mind. It would need a flat screen TV (as indicated) that could play Twilight and a(horribly drawn)wine rack built in so that I would not even have to get out to fill up my glass. Dream come true yes?

So I sent my fabulous find to Joe who proceeds to tell me that it was shagalicious and in no way cool. I tried to point out the pros....if I had a bathtub IN our bedroom he would most likely find me naked more than he does now. Add to that my flat screen playing Twilight and then you have me naked AND ready for action. Add the wine rack....naked and drunk....2 sure ways to get some action. Win Win yes?

I really don't understand his hesitation. Yes he talked some trash about moldy carpet....but DUH...the amount of distance from point a (bath) to point b (bed) would be so minimal that there would be no time for water to GET on the floor. We can buy a bathmat for pete's sake.

Sadly I don't think I will win this one. As cool as a bathtub in my bedroom would be it is a smaller house then what we have now and that just wont work for us. Don't think I wont mention renovations when we DO find our dream home.

The Kids Said WHAT?? Edition: 6

I have been paying attention to some of the cute mispronunciations that come out of my kids' mouths lately. Funny thing is that most of them come out of Pierce. He gives me words like "bemember" and "hangurber" and he likes to get his "hangurbers" from Micheal Donalds (McD's)....who is also the guy who had a farm (Micheal Dondald had a farm EIEIO). What sort of jacked up words come out of your kids' (or nieces, or nephews, or other random kids) mouths?

Anyways.....a few things that Pierce said this week that made me giggle....

A few weeks back he mentioned to me how all the girls in his class think he is handsome. Yeah, no image problems with that one. Apparently the girls in his class have all gone bat shit crazy on him because the other day he told me...."Mommy....all the girls in my class want to MARRY me and they like to chase me around outside and tell me they want to MARRY me" Sigh. While I do love me any excuse to have an open bar I'm SO not ready to marry Pierce off. I'm a little "Lifetime Movie-ish" in my desire to keep my babies home with me forever. Just call me Meredith Baxter Birney. But I digress

We have also entered the lovely world of homework. In kindergarten. Last night Pierce had to take a piece of string and go around the house and find 3 things longer, shorter and the same length as his string. Longer....his sister....a chair....his daddy....shorter....the dog....a box of books.....and...."Hey mommy...look your WINE GLASS is shorter than my string." Screw me sideways. Yep, I had left an empty wine glass on the end table the night before and smart kid that he is he noticed that his string was longer than my glass. Needless to say we did not write that on his paper.

Little Miss Mallory. I swear she gets more like me every day. I have yet to decide if that is good or bad. We were snuggling in bed the other morning and Joe was trying to get her up and moving so he could take her to daycare. After the 2nd time of being asked she grabbed me arm that was around her neck, took my hand and put it up to her ear and said....."I don't want to hear daddy"

Playing along? Link up!!!

Wordless Wednesday